💑REVIEW: "Love's in the Cards" by Becky Lower (Contemporary Romance)

LOVE'S IN THE CARDS by Becky Lower
	Publisher: Wild Rose Press Genre: Romance Publication Date: December 7th 2016
Description from Publisher:
Penny Beedle’s outlook on Christmas, as her favorite holiday, was destroyed by a messy breakup years earlier and a botched wedding last year—both on Christmas Eve. But since she and her sister now own a greeting card store, and the holidays are their crazy selling season, she has to put on a happy face. Del Madison has loved Penny since kindergarten. Commissioned by a big greeting card company for a line of Christmas and Valentine’s cards, he has to emerge from behind his alter ego and unveil himself to the public. He chooses Penny Beedle’s shop for the big reveal. If he plays his cards right, he just might gain Penny as part of his life.
My Rating:	Heat Rating:
My Musings:
This is cute and the premise is fun. I like the development of Penny and Del's relationship, but am not a big fan of all the drama. These people are old enough that high school exes should be behind them (and the blatant stereotypes are off-putting). This was a lot like a Hallmark movie - quaint characters who are incredibly wholesome, light and trite story (I feel like kindergarten through 3rd grade is a bit too young for any "romance" foundation, but I guess that's me), evil & shallow villains, suspension of belief left & right... I couldn't help but feel that this was very old-fashioned as well. The characters and the word choices, the dialogue... It had a bit of a politeness to it that felt like it should have been set in the 40s or 50s. Not really my cup of tea, but it is a quick, short read.
My Source: I received a digital ARC from the publisher to voluntarily review. This in no way influenced my review. My opinion is unbiased and my 100% own.

About the Author: Becky Lower
I have been fascinated by the development of the United States my entire life, so it’s only natural that I write historical and contemporary romances set in America. I use my writing as an excuse to tour the country as much as possible. I now live in an eclectic college town in Ohio with my puppy-mill rescue dog, Mary.

😍REVIEW: "The Dead Boyfriend" by R.L. Stine (YA Horror)

The Dead Boyfriend by R.L. Stine
	Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin Genre: Young Adult, Horror Publication Date: September 27th 2016 Series: Fear Street Relaunch, #5 Standalone: Yes Other Books In Series: #1 Party Games #2 Don't Stay Up Late #3 The Lost Girl #4 Can You Keep a Secret? #6 Give Me a K-I-L-L (Affiliate links)
Description from Publisher:
R.L. Stine's Fear Street series is back, and in The Dead Boyfriend, he tells the frightening tale of teenage love - and how it can go terribly, murderously wrong. Caitlin has never had a real boyfriend before. When she starts seeing Colin, she throws herself into the relationship with fervor. She ignores her friends who warn her that Colin may be a phony and that she is taking the whole thing too seriously. Caitlin is smitten. She doesn't care if she loses her friends. All she wants is Colin. When Caitlin approaches Colin with another girl, she completely loses it. She snaps. Everything goes red. When she comes back to her senses, she realizes that Colin is dead - and she has killed him. But if Colin is dead, how is he staring at her across a crowded party? Terrifying from the first page to the last, The Dead Boyfriend is a heart-racing young adult novel from the master of teen screams himself.
My Rating:
My Musings:
A glance at several reviews on Goodreads shows me that I am far from alone at being very excited at seeing this book up on Netgalley and then getting approved for it. I had quite the collection of Fear Street novels as a teenager and still remember many of the ridiculous yet awesome stories (Cheerleaders, 99 Fear Street, the Fear Street Saga, the Cataluna Chronicles... Makes me nostalgic just to think of them!). As I read this new book, I started to wonder if I was just too old for R.L. Stine. I didn't like any of the characters and I pretty much hated the ridiculous drama that came out of practically nowhere. One of the first notes I made was a part where Caitlyn says something like "Blade, let's do something OUTRAGEOUS" while crashing a college party and her suggestion is to makeout in the middle of the room. Which, naturally, gets everyone's attention and the host kicks them out. Caitlin and Blade think that they are just AWESOME for this. Erm, what? I didn't care for the fact that Deena Fear was uber-goth and so very obvious either. From what I remember of the series, the evil was more subtle, in such a way that it was questioned whether the crazy things that happened had happened at all. This was a quick read, but just didn't wow me. The twists were obvious well ahead of time, the characters unlikable, and the writing bogged down by too many useless details.
My Source: I received a digital ARC from the publisher to voluntarily review. This in no way influenced my review. My opinion is unbiased and my 100% own.

About the Author: R.L. Stine
Robert Lawrence Stine known as R. L. Stine and Jovial Bob Stine, is an American novelist and writer, well known for targeting younger audiences. Stine, who is often called the Stephen King of children's literature, is the author of dozens of popular horror fiction novellas, including the books in the Goosebumps, Rotten School, Mostly Ghostly, The Nightmare Room and Fear Street series. R. L. Stine began his writing career when he was nine years old, and today he has achieved the position of the bestselling children's author in history. In the early 1990s, Stine was catapulted to fame when he wrote the unprecedented, bestselling Goosebumps® series, which sold more than 250 million copies and became a worldwide multimedia phenomenon. His other major series, Fear Street, has over 80 million copies sold. Stine has received numerous awards of recognition, including several Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards and Disney Adventures Kids' Choice Awards, and he has been selected by kids as one of their favorite authors in the NEA's Read Across America program. He lives in New York, NY.

🌟REVIEW: "The Boy Who Cried Ninja" by Alex Latimer (Childrens Fiction, Picture Book)

The Boy Who Cried Ninja by Alex Latimer
	Publisher: Peachtree Publishers Genre: Childrens Fiction, Picture Book Publication Date: April 1st 2011 (Affiliate links)
Description from Publisher:
In this quirky twist on The Boy Who Cried Wolf, a boys excuses turn out to have an unexpected element of truth.
My Rating:
My Musings:
I picked this up at my local library, assuming it was a cute retelling of The Boy Who Cried Wolf and liking the art style. Unfortunately, I wasn't sure how I felt about the story after I read it, and, after trying to put my finger on exactly why I was conflicted, I have realized that I don't care for the story at all. Tim is a boy who has seen some extraordinary things happen, but his parents don't believe him. They assume that he is lying when he says a ninja came and ate all the cake, or an astronaut has the hammer. So they punish him by making him rake leaves and demand that he "think about what [he's] done." I detest that "think about what you've done" type of language towards kids, as I feel that it's very patronizing. I digress. Tim then decides that he should start lying and starts to tell his parents that he's doing these "bad things," despite the fact that he isn't. He then gets punished with yard work and "think about what you've done." So he decides to invite the ninja, astronaut, pirate, etc. over to his house. His parents "say they're sorry" and tell him they will get him 100 ice cream cones. Then, they punish the ninja, etc. with yard work and a "think about what you've done." It ends with everyone having a party and not misbehaving, having ice cream. What exactly is the moral of the story here?! From what I can tell, it's something like how important it is to punish the right people? Or that your parents will punish you no matter what unless you can prove your innocence, in which case they will buy you ice cream... The real life version of this seems like this: - Sibling breaks vase, you get punished because your parents don't believe you. - Sibling scribbles on the wall, you say you did it and get punished. - So you leave something breakable and some markers out for your sibling to get into it, wait until (s)he does, then call your parents in. - Parents say "Oh, sorry. We'll buy you something." (Not "I'm so sorry, we'll believe you next time!") - Parents punish sibling. - Parents buy you and sibling something. It's a shame, because I still really like the illustrations and art style of this! But, alas, it isn't one that I want to read my son. That said, if you're just looking for a silly book and plan on downplaying any type of message or moral to the story, this would be a great book for you.
My Source: I checked this out of my local library.

About Alex Latimer
Alex Latimer lives near the border of a national park so when not writing or drawing, he spends his free time shooing baboons out of his lounge. The Boy Who Cried Ninja is his first book for children. He lives in South Africa.

Review: "Wrong Place, Right Time" by Elle Casey (Contemporary Romance)

Wrong Place, Right Time by Elle Casey
	Publisher: Montlake Romance Genre: Contemporary Romance Publication Date: May 10th 2016 Series: The Bourbon Street Boys (#2) Wrong Number, Right Guy (#1) (affil.) Wrong Question, Right Answer (#3) (affil.) (Affiliate links)
Description from Publisher:
Jenny’s single-parent life revolves around her kids and her job, which means that hours of Animal Planet and strings of computer code are about all she has time for. Not that Jenny’s looking for adventure or romance—she’s the type of woman who believes in playing it safe. When Jenny is called upon to do some consulting for the Bourbon Street Boys—a New Orleans private security firm—she knows she should stay away. They conduct surveillance on known criminals and put themselves in harm’s way pretty much every day, so No is the obvious answer…Problem is, there’s a guy on the team with a body to die for and a dimple that just won’t quit luring Jenny in, tempting her to throw all caution to the wind. Will Jenny take the risk or will she do what she’s always done—play it safe and wait for the right time?
My Rating:	Heat Rating:
My Musings:
I'm torn. On one hand, I like Jenny well enough. She was funny at times, and a bit neurotic. I liked her kids, though we don't see much of her daughters, just Sammy. And, can't lie, the spelling out his lisp was annoying. It would have been enough to mention it, without spelling everything weirdly. Nobody else's accents needed to be spelled phonetically, so why his?? I also liked Dev, fine. Though I admit that I wanted Jenny to go for Lucky for awhile, especially after describing Dev as "her type". Also, 7-ft bald guy with no eyebrows? Yeah, not especially sexy. Was there a reason he shaved his head AND eyebrows? I feel like I must be missing something. But. This felt very, very slow. Nothing romantic happens until over 70%! Sexytimes are 1.5 times, total, and go by pretty quickly. Action is fairy nil, and not especially suspenseful when it does happen. The first 35% felt a bit too much like catch-up to make this standalone, but I would have rathered indication that it wasn't rather than so much about the first book, the characters, etc. It actually made me think even more than I was missing a lot, having not read the first book. I did like Jenny's growth. She finally learns to stand up to people. I didn't like her attitude at all for most of the beginning, feeling like she was just a judgmental b*tch who whined about just about everything. It felt to me like there was a lot that was brought up, and even dwelled on some, and then sort of forgotten about. I wanted to see more suspense, some more interesting espionage stuff (total missed opportunity that something wasn't up with her old company!), and more drama that got resolved. Her ex-husband, Miles, was apparently a crappy person, but that all wraps up... somehow? (Why was his girlfriend relevant at all? Why were the constantly bounced checks brought up 4-5 times?) The online dating thing was stupid and predictable. Chemistry between Dev & Jenny felt severely lacking. There was also a lot that felt like it should have been delved into. We really don't learn much of anything about Dev throughout the entire book, except where he works, that he likes ninja swords, that he has a son with cerebral palsy, his mom is involved in his life somehow, and that he has known some of the Bourbon Street Boys for most of his life. Oh, and that he likes fried catfish from a hole in the wall in a sketchy area of New Orleans. This all sounds like small talk topics, not "I am in love with you because we have such a great connection" stuff. This just sort of fell flat for me... It was long and slow, but feels like half a story.
I received a digital ARC from the publisher for an honest, unbiased review. This in no way influenced my review. My opinion is my 100% own.

About Elle Casey
Elle Casey, a former attorney and teacher, is a NEW YORK TIMES and USA TODAY bestselling American author who lives in France with her husband, three kids, and a number of furry friends. She has written books in several genres and publishes an average of one full-length novel per month.