Thursday, June 18, 2009

ROMANCE: The Scot, the Witch and the Wardrobe


Title: The Scot, the Witch and the Wardrobe
Author: Annette Blair
Genre: Paranormal Romance
# of Pages: 269

Summary: After her Nana passes away, Victoria Cartwright inherits a key that will lead to her destiny. Or so it claims. But Victoria is just not ready to accept that she may just be a witch, even when all the signs are telling her so. Such as the key actually opening the mysterious wardrobe that no one else could open, or the fact that she makes rhyming wishes that come true. One such wish bringing her Rory MacKenzie, though he does have ulterior motives other than being her "knight on a white charger." He's looking to reclaim the unicorn, which he believes is rightfully his as one of his ancestors carved it. He believes it's the key to ending his family's curse and bring honor back to his family name, and he'll do anything he can to get it back. Now she's got a unicorn (thanks to that mysterious wardrobe) and a new employee/boarder whose bones she wants to jump. And oh yeah, her and Rory have been dreaming about each other, even before they met. Plus she has 3 psychic half-sisters who she's never met, but suddenly show up. All these, and she's still trying to convince herself she doesn't have magic...see how far that gets her... ;)

Review: The story dives right in, with Victoria opening to wardrobe to find the unicorn. Rory sees the unicorn on the "telly," when Victoria gets it appraised. He believes the unicorn is the key to ending his family's curse and bringing back respectability to his family's name. He travels across the Atlantic, and voila, they meet. Backstory is told along the way, to help fill in the blanks. There's misunderstanding and laughs along the way. Plenty of sexual innuendo. This is the first book I've read by Annette Blair. I would've loved to start with the first book of the trilogy, but oh well. I liked the plotline, but the main characters...not so much. Especially Victoria. I can't really stand her. She just seems so hostile towards Rory. Well, at least half of the time she is, and the other half she wants to jump him. Plus, she seems really insecure and way too wishy-washy with her belief in magic. One minute she'll be like "I don't have magic! Horrible thing to say!" and the next she'll be like, "Oh cool!" or "Retro," as she likes to say, and then back to the first. All in all, she seems like quite the flaky character. It's really tiring, and just made me want to scream, "MAKE UP YOUR MIND ALREADY!" The sex scenes were all right, though maybe a little too graphic as this seemed more like a cute read than one of those steamy ones. Also, I feel the author made it a bit unrealistic, emphasizing that Victoria could have many multiple orgasms way too many times. I think she even wrote that Victoria was the queen of mulitple orgasms. She also mentioned that Rory was the king of staying power. Yeah, it was quite unrealistic in my opinion. One thing I did like were her half-sisters, and hope to read their stories. It was a cute read, but probably not something I'd reread.

Rating: ★★

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Wishlist

Since I love to read, I have a really long wishlist when it comes to books...lol.

Classics
- Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
- Clarissa: Or the History of a Young Lady by Samuel Richardson
- Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
- Portrait of a Lady by Henry James
- Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
- Animal Farm by George Orwell
- any Jane Austen (besides Emma)

Mysteries
- any Knitting Mysteries books
- any Needlecraft Mystery books by Monica Ferris
- any Coffeehouse Mystery books
- any Bewitching Mysteries books
- any Ophelia and Abby Mysteries books
- A Veiled Deception by Annette Blair
- What’s a Ghoul to Do? by Victoria Laurie
- any other book from the Ghost Hunter Mysteries series
- any mysteries by Laura Childs
- anything by Agatha Christie (except Death on the Nile, And Then There Were None, and Murder on the Orient Express)
- Nancy Drew books
- any other good mysteries

Romance
- The Courtship Dance by Candace Camp
- Seducing Mr. Darcy by Gwyn Cready
- Night’s Rose by Annaliese Evans
- Tongue in Chic by Christina Dodd
- Thigh High by Christina Dodd
- Danger in a Red Dress by Christina Dodd

Supernatural/Paranormal/Fantasy
- any Blue Bloods books by Melissa de La Cruz
- any Sookie Stackhouse books
- any other vampire/romance books
- Accidental Witch Trilogy books by Annette Blair
- The Triplet Witch Trilogy books by Annette Blair
- The Summoning by Kelley Armstrong
- any paranormal romance books or general paranormal fiction
- any The Sisters Grimm books
- Addicted by Charlotte Featherstone
- The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde
- The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
- Coraline by Neil Gaiman
- The Time Traveler's Wife

Thursday, June 11, 2009

999 Challenge List

Classics
1. Anna Karenina
2. Wuthering Heights
3. Jane Eyre
4. Clarissa
5. Tess of the D'Urbervilles
6. A Tale of Two Cities
7. Animal Farm
8. The Portrait of a Lady
9. Little Women

Jane Austen Related
1. Emma
2. Sense and Sensibility
3. Northanger Abbey
4. Persuasion
5. Mansfield Park
6. Becoming Jane Austen
7. Jane and His Lordship's Legacy
8. Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict
9. The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen

Biography
1. Georgiana: Duchess of Devonshire
2. Madame Chiang
3. Anastasia: The Lost Princess
4. A Beautiful Mind
5. John Adams
6. Portrait Of A Killer: Jack The Ripper - Case Closed
7.
8.
9.

^ recommend me some biographies?



A Little Update

Wow, I haven't written in over a month. I hope to remedy that soon. Today is the last day of the school year for me, as my last final of the quarter is later at 4 PM. Hopefully I'll have lots more time to read over the summer, though I am going to be taking 2 summer classes as well as working. So we'll see...

But I've got to still read those two books I got as ER books from LT and write that review for Hanging by a Thread. I haven't read anything recreational since then, though I've tried...school and stuff just seemed to eat up all my time. Though last last weekend, I did take a break and stop by Borders to pick up a book, because I had a 40% of coupon. It was tough deciding what to get, but I finally decided to get Trouble in High Heels by Christina Dodd, which is the first book in The Fortune Hunter series. (Don't be surprised if I end up with the whole series! That's one of my quirks, I guess...once I start a series, I try to add all the books to my collection. :)) It's suspense and romance in one. lol. I actually finished reading it within the week, so a review for that is upcoming too. Probably after a reread, since I kind of skipped around in my first read through (but I did read every page! Just not in order...haha.) I have this bad habit of reading the ending first...which spoils the ending, of course. But I have this mindset that I want to see if the ending is worth reading the rest of the book for. It's bad, I know! And I'm trying to stop...but bad habits are hard to break. :P

Anyway, so that's what's to come...

I'm also posting my 999 challenge list, so it's easier for me to keep track for myself.
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