Merry Christmas! Welcome to EARTH DRAGON REVIEWS! Here you will find reviews for books I have read and reviewed. These books are Advanced Reader Copies and all reviews are my own opinion. Feel free to contact me if you have a questions or want me to read one of your books. Please post to my blog and/or subscribe. I love hearing from you! Maranatha! Come Lord Jesus come! May God bless and keep you this year!
This is a very poignant story about one woman's pain and a man's determination to not be taken advantage of because of his money. They find common ground and break through the pain. Love is not easy, but it frees a lot of things inside these characters. The story breaks down near the climax, but the climax makes up for the downturn. It is a good read, but the reading can be emotional.
This story is inspired by Hosea. In the Bible, Hosea's story is heartbreaking and inspires us to unknown depths of love. Just like Hosea, Andrew is called to take a prostitute on as a wife. It won't be easy, but love never is easy. Andrew never thought he would fall in love with Leah. When Leah sacrifices herself thinking to save Andrew's family, he realizes how much Leah means to him. This story is intense and exciting. There are parts that made me cringe and pray that things will get better. This made me question, do I listen to God's voice?
Love is blind. Not actually, it is more that love makes you see the beauty of the soul, rather than the outer appearance. This is what happens with the marquess when he discovers the soul of Josephine Balfour. They have a lot to overcome, but love will show the way if only you allow it to. This story takes in Beauty and the Beast from the opposite view. Can a man overlook the outer scars of a woman and see to her soul? This story is an excellent read.
Love at first sight is the theme for this whimsical farce. The sarcastic wit that the two main characters exhibit is engaging. The plot is a little weak, but the Earl and Marianna kept me engaged in the story. The only drawback in the story is Marianna obsessive worry about Eleanor.
Three wonderful stories about strong women and how they conquered their problems with love. Each has a wonderful plot and story line, The characters are written in depth, even the villains. The first two stories I hadn't read before, but I did read and review "The Art of Coloring His Heart" in January of this year. Each story is enjoyable, but it seems in two of the stories, the main characters a severe character flaw which made me shake my head. In "Bound by the Ties of Sacred Love", Clemmie creates havoc for her family and herself by not speaking about her love for Joey. In "The Art of Coloring His Heart" Violet is way too sarcastic and makes James keep reliving his mistakes, even after he apologizes for his mistakes. Still all the stories are entertaining and are worth reading.
This story had the potential to be a great story, but as the story reached its climax, it lost its way. There are too many things going on and it clouds the story line. Otherwise the characters are delightful and the mystery was obvious. The double tintype gave it away.
This is a good story about a woman stranded at Fort Laramie and married off to the most available man. Betsy is a spitfire until her husband confronts her, then she gets all meek and mild. It's a severe contradiction of character for our dear Betsy, but makes all of her decisions unpredictable. Her husband is full of threats and promises, but I'm still not sure what his job is at the Fort. The characters have depth and definition and each has a purpose of their own. The story has an exciting climax and a well written plot. The problem with the story is that the characters sometimes act like they don't know what they are doing, which is sometimes contradictory. It is then surprising that it doesn't take away from the story line.
There are just too many errors in this story, The title says he's a Viscount, but she refers to him as an earl several times. There is a big difference between the two. Agnes is lovable but the Viscount is a very iffy character. He prefers working rather than socializing, but reclusive does not reflect in his behavior at the house party. I do not know how Agnes could fall in love with him when he was so hot and cold. Physical attraction, I can understand. Love comes for those that you trust with your entire being. This story has too many holes.
I liked this story about taking charge of your life, forgiving hurts and loving with your heart. Trials and tribulations occur even when you are starting your life over. All things that happen in this story move the plot with each choice that Elena makes. Each time, she chooses love. It takes a strong woman to stand by her decisions and face the forces against her. Thomas tries to stay the course, and only does it because of Elena's strong decisions. I love that this author writes a strong female heroine, but sometimes she does an injustice to her heroes. Personally, they are not the strong male presence that this kind of woman needs.
The writing is good as all the mysteries I've read by Freya Atwood. I just don't like Laura Jones. She is not someone I could like or even respect. The only likeable character is Frank whom she uses and abuses, yet he keeps taking it. Maybe, he'll smarten up, but I doubt it. The author rarely takes advice from reviewers. It has a great plot and excellent climax. Unfortunately, sometimes I'm wishing for the bad guy to win so I don't have to listen to Laura's horrible relationships, because she is a horrible person.
This is a story about family and community. It's about two broken families coming together to stop the pain and hatred that their feud has caused for over the last century. After one hundred years, the truth comes out and fate has decided to combine the family into one clan. It is eight different stories that combine for an epic story, and one final clash to determine the clan's fate. Each story introduces us to a couple that joins the clan. It takes in their story and their struggles as they overcome the hate and derision that has been bred into their lives by their family. It takes a lot of determination and finding love to overcome the hurt and pain.
This story has lots of action, adventure and love. Nellie Adams struggles to be the woman God created her to be and the one that her father raised. Peter Cosgrove has a hard time accepting Nellie, because she does not fit the mold of a proper woman. She is adventurous, self-sufficient and can swing an ax as well as any man. It isn't until Nellie saves Peter's son, James, that he finally realizes what a wonderful woman he has married. Personally, before the flood, I was getting tired of Peter's attitude. He thought all women wanted to be submissive and live confined to a house. Suppressing Nellie's personality would only break her spirit, that she would eventually either leave or fight back. Nellie fights back, leaving Peter stumped, until he realizes what he has in Nellie.
This story would have been much better without the extremely long climax and epilogue. Reduce this story by 10,000 or more words and I would have rated it 5 stars. Everything took too long to sort out in the end. Of course with these two, they have no clue to being in love, the state of the ranch, just life in general. Then they tear the ranch apart to find a box filled with happiness. While an evil man makes evil plans with an evil woman to grab the Fisher property. These two are so naive that they believe you can find happiness in a box.
This is typical for all the Bearpaw Ridge stories, but it's a lot of fun and good for an afternoon read. I always enjoy these because it doesn't take a lot of brain cells to read, but just sit back and enjoy the story. The characters are fun and the villain never measures up to our hero in any way. These bears are more gentleman than the actual humans in Ophelia's world.
I really wanted to rate this one higher, but it never reaches beyond being just okay. The main characters are engaging, but all the other characters are stereotypical and very hard to engage with. The masquerade is well and typical, but for someone with a conscience the lies were too much. Also, she kills her career in the very first chapter of this story, and for someone not recognizing her voice in the small circles of the ton is just ridiculous. The relationship and the chemistry between the two of them is wasted on the plot and story-line. My question for this story is why waste your time on someone whose heart is clearly engaged elsewhere and participate in a farce of a contest? Clearly the author thinks all men's egos would have been pricked to participate in the contest and the Viscount clearly falls into this category. Which leads to the question why would a woman fall in love with the Viscount knowing his true character and his willingness to deceive? It never reaches beyond being okay.
The characters are engaging and the dialog keeps you interested. However, the story is more of a farce, than a possible reality. I class this story as a fairy tale. Personally, the only Remington that I was introduced to in this story that I liked was the Duke. Every other male in this story is either a toad or is totally disgusting, especially Markus. He deserves to be neutered, along with the Earl of Leedon. This is your typical Cinderella story.
This story is intriguing and suggests that sometimes the police look no farther than their nose. Unfortunately for Amar, all his lies are turning against him and have him trapped. Even though Indira uses unauthorized technology to find the killer, she has to use old-fashioned detective work to prove her case, if she doesn't end up dead first. Unfortunately, this story has an unsatisfactory ending for me. Why do authors leave endings like this? I don't like having to keep looking over my shoulder, it's why I don't read horror books.
This is an excellent story of innocent love and mischievous twins. Unfortunately, the villain of this piece is actually Jame's best friend. Sometimes, jealousy is the ingredient for hurt and pain, which Donald inflicts on not only James, but destroys the reputation of his twin brother, Allan. Romance is sweet between James and Elena, but in the end does Elena really love James? Trust is an important ingredient when you are in love with someone. Forgiveness is a sign of love, with unforgiveness in our hearts, we cannot truly love. Which James and Elena experience during the climax of this story.