Breaking Point By Pamela Clare

Breaking Point By Pamela Clare

I think is the best I-Team book yet.

First of all it wasn’t as predictable as the other books, the book left a few of the elements of the formula from the other ones out. The whole fear of losing everything as the catalyst for the final plunge shtick especially with respect to sex was not employed here.

Natalie and Zach didn’t have any sort of relationship before they were intimate.

The author also took us out of Denver for a good part of the book which is good because I was getting a little tired of all the ‘Girlfriends’ episodes and wanted to read just about the two main characters.

The Author delivered in a great way with the suspense, Zach’s torture and Natalie’s ingenuity at breaking them out was well done as you could feel the desperation in their attempt to escape the Zetas.

It was a little hollywoody with their ability to take on a bunch of armed, brutal drug cartel members especially after Zach had endured a week’s worth of extreme torture. But they do escape the torture and make their way back to the States from Mexico with the cartel chasing after them. They get there but the danger doesn’t end, with the help of the other I-Team members they manage to sort thing out but not without a few unexpected/unpleasant twists.

As usual Natalie and Zach are rewarded with a walk into the sunset filled with love and hope that they hadn’t dared hope for.

Their love breaks them free from the hopelessness that they both had suffered in the past, Natalie having survived certain horrors during hurricane Katrina and the death of both her parents and her fiancé .

Zach beating his nightmares and survivor’s guilt brought about by the loss of his comrades at war. He finds healing with Natalie as she does with him.

As usual I loved Ms. Clare’s writing and ability to keep the story flowing even if I have a few issues with military hero worship, I managed to overlook (sometime literally) these parts of the book and enjoy the suspense and drama of this romance.

That Thing Between Eli and Gwen By J.J MvAvoy

This is the story of Eli and Guinevere aka Gwen.

Both Eli and Gwen are jilted when their partners decide to ran away together at Eli’s wedding.

They have Logan in common, he is Eli’s brother and Gwen’s fiancé’s (now ex) friend. Logan tries to cheer both of them up because he feels guilty for introducing Sebastian and Hanna to each other.

In one of those cheer up missions at Gwen’s he injures himself and she takes him to the hospital where Eli works.

Eli still hurting from his ex’s betrayal doesn’t want a reminder of that day and Gwen is a strong reminder especially with her being the ex of the man who ruined everything for him.

In a strange coincidence (read highly unlikely except in novels) Eli and Gwen find themselves living in the same building after Gwen moves there.

Eli continues being rude to Gwen but she eventually manages to thaw his heart and they become friends and eventually lovers.

I think Ms. McAvoy writes quite well and has a great way of expressing emotions. The first pages of this book, draw you in and grip you to the point where you just keep turning the pages.

I haven’t read anything else by J.J McAavoy so I don’t know how well she can retain the readers interest but this book fizzled a bit at middle and it just became a story about people doing mundane stuff.

It picked up a bit at the end with an unexpected twist redeeming it and making it worthy of finishing.

I must say that I wasn’t happy with Eli’s character. He was arrogant and egotistical. He refused to learn the names of his juniors and talked down to them all the time. He seemed to think he was the only, most gifted neurosurgeon and spoke about his grandeur all the time. It was not endearing at all.

Gwen though was awesome, I liked that she wasn’t consumed by her success and that she dressed and lived simply but happily for the most part.

The only thing that bothered me about her is her age. This girl was 24 years old but she had been out of college for a while, nowhere were we told that she was fast-tracked in anyway, she had been in a three year relationship with Sebastian and that they met when she was contracted to work for his magazine. She was obviously doing so well with her career by then and had sold pieces worth even 2 million dollars. How is that all possible by 24, how did she establish herself that fast?

Anyway, the book is a definite good read if only for how well it’s written but the story wasn’t bad either.

I am looking foward to J.J McAvoys’s next book it sounds like a great romantic suspense.

In Bed WithThe Devil By Lorraine Heath

 In bed with the devil

I have been away from Historical Romance for a while now but I have this awesome book to welcome me back to this beloved genre.

This is the story of Luke and Katherine. Luke grew up in the streets after being taken in by a kidsman, he learned to pick pockets with a band of similar children known as  Feagan’s children. The children form a close bond and when something terrible happens to the girl among them, Luke kills the perpetrator. Unfortunately he is caught and sent to gaol. His life changes when the father of the man he killed comes to find his son’s killer, he meets Luke who convinces him that he is his long lost grandson that was left behind when his parents were murdered. Luke becomes the Earl of Claybourne but he continuously feels like an imposter in this position.

Katherine has been fascinated with the devil Earl since they held each other’s gazes at a ball a long time ago. She regularly sends him invitations to her engagements but he has never honoured them. When she encounters a problem that she needs taken care of, she goes to see Lucien Langdon hoping to get him to sort it out for her.

Their romance is a slow, sweet build as they discover each other in their nightly rides to and from the gaming hell where Katherine’s part of the bargain takes place.

There are dangers lurking about obviously and they work together to overcome them even as they realise that they may not be able to be together despite their growing feelings for each other.

This book is quite well written and the banter between the two main characters is engaging.

We get to meet the other Feagan’s children whose stories we will read in the subsequent books in the series.

I am looking forward the rest of this series and to Lorraine Heath’s other books.

 

Cardio 2 Hard corps

Oh my God!! this is the second time I am doing this workout, today is day 2 of week two for me and it’s totally kicking my butt, that’s a lot of cardio. I could barely finish the 30 mountain climbers in round one of the workout leave alone the bear crawls.

I did manage to get through the 22 minutes with my ability to keep breathing in doubt but it’s so exhilarating to successfully complete each workout and I am already looking forward to tomorrow which is back to resistance 1 after doing resistance 2 yesterday which I loved by the way.

I am not a fun of resistance one with all the push-ups but what can you do? I am still trying to get up on the pull up bar, hopefully I will have made it to a few reps by the end of two months. For now I am barely getting off the ground and my arms hurt like crazy but them I remember starting insanity and not being able to do even one push-up but now I am at least confident in my ability to do them although I can’t do the 25 that 22 minute corps are asking me to do.

Here is to hope and determination.

NAKED EDGE by Pamela Clare

This is book four of the I-Team series by Pamela Clare.

Now I will say that most of the issues I have with this book are not the author’s fault but they are me issues.

I think I read the I-team series books too close after each one such that I began to see how formulaic the author is, I could anticipate most of the action and it somehow made the story not as great as it could have been.

The characters began to look too much like each other from book to book, especially the heroes, their actions and internal dialogues were too similar although they came from distinctly different backgrounds.

I was also annoyed at how the female I-Team members were made into sudden friends even though in the previous books they were casual acquaintances at best. In this book we saw Kat and Sophie portrayed as such great friends to the point that Sophie’s husband considered Kat family. In the previous books, Kat was sort of detached and kept to herself.

The story itself was well written though, a lot of Native American culture was incorporated in it and it was enlightening and fun to read. I loved the suspense the who done it was not obvious and overall it was a story worth reading. I didn’t feel the chemistry between Kat and Gabe or the sexual tension that I expected from the virgin and the player.

I will continue with the series, hopefully we won’t have too many of the older characters popping up, that’s the other thing I don’t like about series books, when I am done with a character I can take a few mentions but not them being a part of the new story. I am looking forward to the next one, it sounds like fun.

I will take a little break though to break the monotony so off to read an Historical romance.

LOVE, CHLOE By Alessendra Torre

Love, Chloe.

If you haven’t read anything by Alessandra Torre don’t use this book to as a measure of what to expect from her . Although I can see some of Hollywood Dirt in this one it’s a little different compared to her other books like Black Lies for example. Black Lies was really great and a wonderful introduction to Ms. Torres’s work.

Love, Chloe is about a rich girl who loses everything when her parents are caught up in financial crimes. Suddenly she finds herself in a position that she had never though possible and she has to make major life adjustments.

As she navigates through these adjustments she is faced with a few romantic challenges too and finally she has to make a decision concerning leaving her past truly behind and moving on to more fulfilling future.

The story is a fun chick lit, It’s written in first person. To my disappointment it seems this has become the preferred method of writing for most newish authors so I am having to get used to it although I am not loving it yet. This book however like other Ms. Torre books are quite well written and you get to experience Chloe’s transition from super rich, entitled girl to a mature, independent  woman.

According to the Author this book is a compilation of article like series written for the cosmopolitan magazine which she wrote over the course of a year and by her admission that affected the flow of the story.

It is a great read all the same. I especially loved the epilogue although it was short.

 

FIRST STEPS

22 minute hard corps.

Cardio 1 and Core 1.

My first encounter with Tony Horton although I have done other beachbody workouts. I sweated and cursed with Shaun T  in insanity, T-25 and Max 30.

I saw good results with insanity and managed to lose 10Kgs.

The biggest attraction with 22 minute hard corps to me is the 22 minutes. These workouts are short and sweet and as I sit here barely able to move my muscles I am assured of their ability to give me results.

The first workout which I did on the 10th of April, was Cardio 1.

Cardio 1 is as the name says cardio. You will work hard, pant and sweat from the get go.

First workout is the T-Jacks, they are basically jumping jacks but you add the arms moving to front motion, easy and doesn’t need modification.

Second workout is Bear Crawls, these simply involve moving up and down in a crawling position but not on your knees. Here you will work your abs, glutes and thighs.

Third workout is the lateral Shuffle, this is running from side to side in a squat position and touching the toes with opposite hand.

The fourth is the Forward Lunge Twist, these are lunges with a twist of the torso. This works the abs and obviously the thigh muscles.

The fifth is a regular Burpee.

The sixth is the A-skips, these are essentially high knees with a little skip between the jumps.

The seventh is the Lunge Squats, the name says it all here. You do a lunge then a squat then a lunge on the opposite side.

That’s generally all the workouts. There is a countdown with each workout and the number will go down or up after the break when each round ends.

Core 1

This is scheduled with cardio 1 in the workouts.

It’s a short 9 minute workout that works the core.

There is a variety of workouts that will leave the abs burning, I surely feel them a two days later.

 

 

 

HARD EVIDENCE BY PAMELA CLARE

Hard evidence

This is Pamela Clare’s second book in the I-Team series.

I didn’t finish book 1, the story line was predictable and Julia Roberts had already done the whole environmental pollution by a big influential company in Erin Brockovich. The hero was bland and the insta-love was boring. I have realized most first books in a series are boring because the authors try to cram all the information that will set the other books in the series in the it and they forget to build interesting characters.

Hard evidence was nothing like  Extreme Exposure . I loved both the Hero and Heroine in this book.

We are introduced to Tessa Novak through her coffee addiction which leads to the circumstances of her being in a gas station shop at the time the teenage girl runs into the shop and is murdered.

We also meet Julian Darcangelo the same night as Tessa sees him lurking in the dark immediately after the girl is killed and Tessa suspects that he is connected to the murder in some way.

Julian is my kind of book Hero, he is damaged, he has an air of mystery surrounding him, he is tough and he is resistant to love. His circumstances also mean that he is not compatible with a relationship and ‘happily ever after’.

All this means that there will be emotional and sexual tension as both the hero and heroine fight their love and eventually fight for their love. Pamela Clare delivers all this beautifully, keeping the story fast paced and the turns and thrills gripping.

Tessa is following up on the story having been deeply affected by the girl’s death and her need to assuage her guilt. Julian’s attempts to keep Tessa safe puts them in conflict with each other.

The bad guys are relentless in their attempts to get them and they eventually must trust each other in their ultimate fight for survival and their happily ever after

The quality of writing is superb and the flow of the language and the story makes for an awesome read.

This is a romantic suspense book, there is hot sex but it doesn’t fill up the book and the story builds up to it quite nicely.

This book pulled me out of my book slump and I am looking forward to the rest of the series.

THE ROSIE PROJECT

The Rosie Project

Don Tillman, professor of genetics, has never been on a second date. He is a man who can count all his friends on the fingers of one hand, whose lifelong difficulty with social rituals has convinced him that he is simply not wired for romance. So when an acquaintance informs him that he would make a “wonderful” husband, his first reaction is shock. Yet he must concede to the statistical probability that there is someone for everyone, and he embarks upon The Wife Project. In the orderly, evidence-based manner with which he approaches all things, Don sets out to find the perfect partner. She will be punctual and logical—most definitely not a barmaid, a smoker, a drinker, or a late-arriver.

INTRODUCTION

SO WHO AM I?

I have sat and pondered this question for a while before writing this down and I am not sure that I really have an answer that satisfies me.

I know what I do, I am a writer.

I know what my relationships are, I am a mother of two beautiful, strong (one strong willed and one strong at heart ) girls, wife, daughter, sister and friend.

I can describe myself physically but I won’t go there.

But I have a hard time putting into words what I really would best say who I am.

Even now at thirty something, I find myself still on the journey to self discovery and I try to explore as much as I can.

I am often amazed at how short the time I have lived so far is and yet I am just as often awed by how much I have lived through in these years. There are the not so fun stuff like death of loved ones, and the horrors of boarding school from age 10. But there are the awesome experiences like having children, traveling and seeing the world and obviously the blessings of the new technologies and discoveries that we are able to access today.

WHAT’S THE BLOG ABOUT.

I rant and rave a lot about the injustices we see in the world today and those who know me, know that I am passionate in my rants and that I want to see the world that my daughters grow up in change for the better.

I want them to live in a world that is free of misogyny or at least a world in which isn’t the as common as it is today. I want to see this world as we question if a woman is really relegated to second best as a human being?

I believe that men and women have the same amount of worth as human beings and unless by choice no human being should be enslaved by culture or religion and forced into servitude of another human simply by virtue of their genitalia.

So I will blog a lot about women’s rights and our place in the world and most importantly in Kenya.

Second to my rants and raves is my passion of reading. Now I will not lie to you and tell you that I read a lot of memoirs and self-help books (which is the no.1 Kenyan genre). I read fiction, I read crime, romance (loads and loads of it), and the occasional ‘how to guide book’.

So I will blog about the books I read even if I know not many Kenyans read these books. I would love to read books written by Kenyans but I can’t seem to find any at the moment but I will be seeking them and try as much as possible to find truly good writers to blog about.

MY GOAL?

In the end my goal is to inform and be informed by others of similar or differing persuasions on these subjects and to laugh and cry, hopefully more laughter although I am no opposed to happy tears, with those that will take this journey with me.

Come along let’s hold hands and kumbaya together or piss each other off but let’s have all the fun possible while doing it.

And don’t forget to keep faith in humanity it’s what keeps us all feeling worthwhile after all.