Desperately Wanting Wednesday: Where did it go?

Desperatly Wanting Wednesday, hosted by Parajunkee's View 
So. For the last two-three months, I have been searching for my copy of Heart Search by Robin D Owens. I know that I purchased it when it was released, but I just cannot find it.   When I started to ransack my brain, I got a sinking feeling that I forgot it somewere.  And not anywere close.  The best case scenario is that I forgot it in Gothenburg ( since then I might get it back). The worst case scenario is that I forgot it in Turkey.  Anyway. Last week I succumbed, and purchased an e-book copy.  
Noble Laev T’Hawthorne must rebuild his life after marrying a woman he believed was his HeartMate, only to fall victim to her greed.

Abandoned at fifteen, Camellia Darjeeling values her independence above all-even as her father and uncle emotionally scourge her and extort money. For Camellia, trusting men, even her HeartMate, is too risky.

When Laev and Camellia meet, they refuse to acknowledge that they are true HeartMates. But their destiny cannot be avoided…

Friday bargains: Nice discounts and coupons

All romance offers a 30 % rebate on all Kensington titles. Which is nice, but Books on Boards have a better deal.  They offer 25 % off on eligible e-books released during 2012, and  40% on backlist.  On top off that they offer 8% rewards.

Kobo have some nice coupons.  Unfortunately, I have used most of them.  

Welcome20 (20% off)
Kobodollaroff ($1 off)
JUNE20OFF (20% off)
save20offer (20% off)
survey25 (25% off)
c1auto25 (25% off)
thankyou2012 (35% off)
c1auto30 (30% off)
c2auto25 (25% off)
c2auto30 (30% off)
c2auto35 (35% off)
c3auto35 (35% off)
c4auto35 (35% off)
c4auto40 (40% off)
c4auto45 (45% off)
anniversary20 (20% off)
1x2590us (25% off)
1x2530us (25% off)
2x25180us (25% off)

Regg40ca361 for 40% off.
Fre50us361 for 50% off.¨¨
(These two might be expired)

On my to check out list: Books in Swedish


 The Circle by Sara B Strandberg and Mats Elfgren:
One night, when a strange red moon fills the sky, six school girls find themselves in an abandoned theme park, drawn there by a mysterious force. A student has just been found dead. Everyone suspects suicide. Everyone – except them.In that derelict fairground an ancient prophecy is revealed. They are The Chosen Ones, a group of witches, bound together by a power, one which could destroy them all. But they soon learn that despite their differences they need each other in order to master the forces that have been awakened within them. High school is now a matter of life and death. Because the killing has only just begun.

  THE ANDALUCIAN FRIEND is the first book in a trilogy following Sophie, an ordinary Swedish woman, a nurse and single mother, who gets dragged into an incendiary conflict between two powerful crime syndicates and a group of corrupt police officers. ( Blurb from press release, which was found via Eurocrime)

Two cars collide head to head on a country road with little traffic. The collision is violent. Ten year old Cecilia is catapulted through the windscreen and killed. Five years later, criminal detective Walter Grohn gets a perplexing case on his desk – one dead taxi driver and his killer who has no idea why he committed the crime. The first murder is followed by others, all equally as brutal and inexplicable. Together with his talented assistant, Jonna de Brugge, he untangles threads that lead back to the very core of the Swedish justice/judicial system

I have lot more books on my to Check out list, but these are the ones I know are sold to multiple countries.

Review:Twisted by Laura Griffin

The Particulars: Romantic Suspense, Pocket, available in print and as e-book.
The Source: Purchased at Kobo
The Grade: C
The Blurb:
ALLISON DOYLE’S NEW CASE WILL MAKE HER CAREER . . . IF SHE LIVES TO SOLVE IT.
Motive, opportunity, and no alibi—rookie detective Allison Doyle knows it’s as close to a slam dunk as most investigations get. But even though her small-town Texas police department has identified a prime suspect in a young woman’s vicious murder, she can’t rest easy. And when legendary FBI profiler Mark Wolfe shows up with a startling new theory, all her doubts are amplified. If Wolfe is correct, the real killer is an elusive psychopath who has left a trail of bodies behind him. And he’s just days away from his next kill. . . .
Allison was supposed to be Wolfe’s way into the case, nothing more. But she’s ambitious, stubborn, and far too tempting. With the help of her contacts at the Delphi Center crime lab, Wolfe is within striking distance of the monster he’s pursued for ten years. Except the closer Allison and Wolfe get, the more reason there is to fear. Because with a predator this brutal, every thread of evidence can make a difference between hunting a madman—and becoming hunted yourself.
The Review:
Laura Griffin has been on my to check out list for awhile, so when Kobo had its coupon bonaza, I purchased it.
I have mixed feelings about this book. In many ways, this book felt very realistic. I liked the hostility between the San Marco PD and Mark Wolfe, but I also liked that they came to a grudging truce, and cooperated. I also liked that Mark juggled a number of cases, which felt more realistic that the luxury to focus on one case.
When it came to the characters, I liked Allison’s indepence, and her determination. How she was determined to find the killer. I also liked Mark. He had spent 10 years as a profiler, and it had scarred him. Which made sense.

Unfortunately, this book has it’s weak spots. It is possible that some of them stems from the fact that it is book five in the series.
The biggest issue for me was the fact that I had trouble connecting with the characters. But it doesn’t end there. I never felt that they truly cooperated. Sometimes it felt like FBI and San Marcos PD were running parallel investigations, and consulting with each other regularly.
And then there were the Delphi Center. I can understand why someone decides to donate a hefty sum of money to a crime scene lab, but what baffled me was the lack of fees. It might be that it was mentioned in a earlier book, though.

Last Day: Bared to you by Sylvia Day

If you  planned to get Bared to you by Sylvia Day, you might want to hurry up. Sylvia Day has just announced that she sold the rights for the series to Berkley.   So tomorrow and onwards it will be a Berkley book, with a higher price ( I assume) and an uglier cover. 

The Self published e-book

Our journey began in fire…

The Berkley edition

Gideon Cross came into my life like lightning in the darkness–beautiful and brilliant, jagged and white-hot. I was drawn to him as I’d never been to anything or anyone in my life. I craved his touch like a drug, even knowing it would weaken me. I was flawed and damaged, and he opened those cracks in me so easily…
Gideon knew. He had demons of his own. And we would become the mirrors that reflected each other’s most private wounds… and desires.
The bonds of his love transformed me, even as I prayed that the torment of our pasts didn’t tear us apart…

Oh, and the e-book is only 3.74 over at Books On Boards right now.

Review: Sing Me Home by Jerri Corgiat

The Particulars: Contemporary Romance, Istoria Books, available as e-book.
The Source: Amazon freebie.
The Grade: B+
The Blurb:
Country music star Jonathan Van Castle is intent on two things–reviving his career and regaining custody of his two children. At a stop in picturesque Cordelia, Missouri, he meets Lily (Lilac O’Malley Ryan), a young widow trying desperately to hold onto her livelihood and rebuild her own life after the tragic loss of her husband. Singularly unimpressed with the famous Mr. Van Castle, Lily instead falls for his two children. They, and not their sought-after dad, steal her heart, and she lets herself be convinced to join him in a marriage of convenience as he fights his custody battle. The widow and the singer eventually discover their liaison means more to them both than they’d originally planned.
The review:
This is the first book by Jerri Corgat that I have read, but it isn’t the last one. This book made me feel, mainly since I cared about the characters. I cursed Jon when he made a mistake, I wanted to hug Lil at the pain she felt, I wanted to strangle Belinda.
The core in this book is the romance between Lil and Jon. Normally, I am not fond of conventional marriages troupe, but this book managed to pull it off. Mainly since the relationship felt realistic. From their first meeting, to their wedding. I also liked that it showed how they had to adjust to their married life. Lil to being married to a celebrity, and Jon to being a father.
I also liked that it showed the problems with having a long distance relationship, and the tear it means on the home life.
But what made to book work for me, were how Lil always put the children first. She gave them a secure base, and she went to bat for them.
What I didn’t like was that the last quarter of the book was mostly told from Lil’s perspective. I wish that Jon’s perspective had been shown. Mainly since I have a feeling that he struggled a lot during that time.

How to Navigate Amazon’s KDP Select

I have mixed feelings about this program, but I do love the free books.  But sometimes I feel like I am drowning.  To stop that feeling I use Ereaderiq.  (There are other similar services)
1. Go to Amazon’s webpage and search for the e-book you want.
2.   Go to EreaderIQ and click on the Kindle Price drops tab
3. Enter your e-mail, and the ASIN or URL from step number one.  ( Note: to get the book for free, you must enter the CURRENT price in the price drop field)
4.  Wait. 

Oh, and I think this works for paper books as well as e-books. 

Review: Mine to Possess by Nalini Singh

The Particulars: Paranormal Romance, Berkley, available in print and as e-book.
The Source: Purchased at Kobo
The Grade: B
The blurb:

Clay Bennett is a powerful DarkRiver sentinel, but he grew up in the slums with his human mother, never knowing his changeling father. As a young boy without the bonds of Pack, he tried to stifle his animal nature. He failed…and committed the most extreme act of violence, killing a man and losing his best friend, Talin, in the bloody aftermath. Everything good in him died the day he was told that she, too, was dead.
Talin McKade barely survived a childhood drenched in bloodshed and terror. Now a new nightmare is stalking her life–the street children she works to protect are disappearing and turning up dead. Determined to keep them safe, she unlocks the darkest secret in her heart and returns to ask the help of the strongest man she knows…
Clay lost Talin once. He will not let her go again, his hunger to possess her, a clawing need born of the leopard within. As they race to save the innocent, Clay and Talin must face the violent truths of their past…or lose everything that ever mattered.

The Review:
This book hooked me from the start. I couldn’t stop reading it. I had to find out what happend.
It crackled with tension from the start. I loved the fact that both Clay and Talin had scars from their childhood. I could almost touch Talin’s hesitation over how Clay would react to seeing her again.
A lot of the tension in this book came from their past, and the struggle to move past it. But, that is not all that is going on.Amidst all this, they are running against the clock to find Talin’s missing charges.
I could almost touch Talin’s worry. Worry over her health, worry over if they would find the children.
I loved how Nalini Singh revealed yet another layer of the world in this book, revealing just how debated the Silence had been when it was introduced 100 years earlier.
So, What I didn’t like. I didn’t like the POV’s from Ashaya and Jon. Yes, I know that they were necessary, and that they set up for the next book, but I was so focused on Talin’s and Clay’s story that it just annoyed me.