Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling

So I decided to take a break from all the sappy romance novels. I re-read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. It has been at least 3 years since I have read it. I realized during reading it that I had seen the movie too many times and not remembered the book well enough. There were many differences between the book and the movie that I hadn't realized. I had begun to think that what happened in the movie was so similar to the book that it was the same thing. That is incorrect. The movie has many differences and the book is truely wonderful. I read it in paperback format, 384 pages long. It took me 2 days to read. I love the innocent feel of this very first book of the series, remembering how mature the books progress as they go along. This book was definitely worth re-reading and I'm glad I did so. It was a breath of fresh air from all my romance novels.lol. 10/5 stars. :)

Dark Prince by Christine Feehan

This is the first book in the dark series by Christine Feehan. Most of the books in this series can be read as stand alone books. Yet, I do NOT recommend that. I read most of them out of order and once I realized there was a order to them, I tried to keep to it and it made understanding the underlying large plot from book to book easier. This book I could not finish unfortunatly due to the fact that I had already read ahead in the series and did not find this couple as compelling to read about even though they are one of the most important couples involved in this series. I will say that Mikhail and Raven are a couragous couple that start the awakening for these wonderful Carpathian men, whom all who read these books seceretly...more maybe not so secretly...long for in real life. lol. There is just something strangly swoonifying about these "good" vampires. lol. This series is a long series of 20 stories. I say stories because a couple of them are short stories and not complete books, though do not skip those short stories thinking them unimportant. Some of those are my favorite of the entire series. I highly recommend reading this series of books and so highly recommend starting at the first book. If Mikhail is not your flavor, I'm sure one of the many other Carpathian men will steal your heart or your sensuality. ;) This book ins 314 pages long in paper back format and most paper backs will also have to Dark Descent story at the end of it. Dark Descent is a must read. :) Visit Christine Feehan's website. She has 2 or 3 other series of books she puts out as well. www.christinefeehan.com

Highland Honor by Hannah Howell

This historical romance between a murderous widow and a scottish knight started at a crawling pace. It wasn't nearly as action packed as I expected for a girl on the run but I suppose the book just wasn't long enough to accomadate such action sequences. It was a wee bit hard to read lol. The dialect that the author used for the Scotsman was hard to follow at first. The two main characters weren't likable enough to win my heart over. But overall it was a good enough read. I hope the other books by Hannah Howell are better written than this one. I have one more by her I had picked out to read from my sister's library. For being only 295 pages long, it took me a long time to read it. I started it 2 days ago... I don't think the characters were well enough developed. :( I would recommend it even though... For some aren't nearly as critical as I am about a nice romance novel.lol. 4/5 stars.

Dryden's Bride by Margo Maguire

Another historical romance. I wasn't too sure about this one since it is a Harlequin romance. I have read those in the past and they have been all sex and little romance. This one was good. I started it today at work and finished it a few moments ago. It is short and sweet at 296 pages long. It was very easy to fall in love with the two main characters and hard to feel any kindness towards any of the other adult characters in this story. Some were good friends though. I felt very compassionate for the two main characters and their trials they had been through in life. Margo Maguire did a good job with making sure she explained things well enough for us to understand thoroughly but not drawing it out to un-needed information. Very good read. 8/10 stars :)

Castles by Julie Garwood

So, I started this book yesterday and finished it this evening. I think it was 400 and something pages long, but I'm not for certain since I just returned the book to my sister moments ago and forgot to look. This tale of Colin and Princess Alesandra was very much a cookie cutter story that Julie Garwood likes to write. It was still a good read though. It had a murder mystery in it, which was a little different than her other novels I read. I found out tonight that there are 2 other books written by Julie Garwood that have the stories of 2 couples we see in this story who know the main characters by relation or business. But since I already seen them in this story together, it made me decline to read those stories. I'll edit this later and post the titles of those so if you might feel the same way, you could read those stories first. Colin made me yell alot. Alesandra made me yell too but only because I couldn't understand how she would speak up and tell her mind to Colin when I thought she should. The little tid bits of "writing like this" in the story showing the mind of the murderer we are searching for, I found quite disturbing but through them I was able to figure out who it was way before the characters did. I give the book 7/5 stars.

Saving Grace by Julie Garwood

Started this book today...and finished it today. :) This one was only 407 pages in paperback edition. It was wonderful. I loved the celtic setting. I found it interesting how the author always puts some kind of physical abuse happening to the main female character by her husband or relative. Makes me wonder if she or a close friend had experienced something like that. There was stuff like that which happened in Prince Charming that she wrote. I love how Julie Garwood is able to go back and forth between different characters thoughts from paragraph to paragraph. Though I did worry that there may be some who may be confused in reading it if they couldn't grasp the change. It's very nice of her to use that to let the reader have more insight of the whole situation from different points of veiw. I really enjoyed the lovely banter between husband and wife in this book, it really showed a humorous tale of affection. I believe it was just as well in Prince Charming...I really love this author, but I'm worried that her stories may start to seem like cookies cut with the same cookie cutter and just decorated with different icing and sprinkles. Yet...it won't keep me from trying each cookie to make sure ;) hehe 9/5 stars =P

Prince Charming by Julie Garwood

So I borrowed this book from my oldest sister. I was a bit skeptical about it being too gushy just based on the name of the book. It is one of my most favorite books now. I read it in less than 12 hours. It is 533 pages long in paperback edition. I stayed up all night without sleeping just to finish this book. The two main characters were wonderful, loved both of them. This is a historical romance btw. This is the first book I've read by Julie Garwood and I will most definitely read others of hers and see if they are as good as this one was. If so, then I expect she will be one of my new favorite authors...though that list is some what long now a days...lol This book has great pace from event to event and a little bit of action/adventure. The romance was wonderful. Not too much sex...I hate the super gushy romances where it's all sex and not really romance. Even though Christine Feehan's books border on too much sex... (Christine Feehan is one of my favorite authors, check out her Dark series and leopard series) If I were to give this book stars...I'd give it 10/5 stars it was so great!

no more Sword of Truth series

So, after only reading half way through the 4th book of the Sword of Truth series, Temple of the Winds, I decided that I would not finish it nor the rest of the series. I decided that I just couldn't go on reading these books. There was too much rape and torture. I seriously think that Terry Goodkind needs some counsoling. It also was too much suspense. I have read both The Belgariad and The Malloreon series by David Eddings and those were quite enjoyable. But The Sword of Truth series, I didn't get much enjoyment from reading. It felt almost like a chore. I felt I needed to finish the series so I could find out what happend to the characters. Then when I felt I could take no more, I remembered that....HEY! It's modern days, I can find anything on the internet. So happens that wikipedia.net has a nice description of each book in the series' plot. SO i CHEATED! If you don't like that....blah! I don't care.. I'm done wasting my time being horrified at the horrible rape and torture scenes Terry Goodkind came up with. So...if you have also read these books only to stop short after being fed up with some of the annoying things in there, then I recommend looking them up on wikipedia.net and reading the plots there to find out what happens to the characters. I would recommend the 1st book of this series only as a good read. I loved Wizard's First Rule. It was the only book I truly enjoyed in this series.