Reading and Reading and Reading

If you've read Carolyn's recent reviews then you know there's been some damned good books on our Kindle. And damn the woman, it's hard to say no when she's raving about titles.

RISE by Karina Bliss is really all that. I wasn't crazy about the first book and if this was a continuation then I wasn't crazy interested. But Carolyn told me to try and I did and wow, that's a damned good story.

One of the best things was that they were all adults. Acted like adults, fucked up like adults and again, acted like adults.

Radiance by Grace Draven. Holy everything that's good and sweet and wonderful. Here's a book that starts great and stays at that same level throughout. The characters understood what was happening to them and therefore didn't blame the other, they got to know each other (one human, one not) and went from friendship to love in a natural progression that was sweet.

Hated the end though and only because it was a cliffhanger.

Just Kids by Patti Smith. I'm an old Patti Smith fan and this is a book about her early life in New York with her lover/muse/best friend Robert Mapplethorpe. If you don't know Mapplethorpe, he was a highly talented, controversial photographer. I had some of his prints years back.

The book describes New York at a time when artists were searching for new expression, when there were patrons for art and well, a real bohemian kind of life. The personal story is a heartbreak: Smith and Mapplethorpe being best friends, lovers, friends again and ultimately each other's heartbreak.

Until the Sun Falls From the Sky and At Peace by Kristen Ashley. These are books 2 and 3 in the Bur series (I think). Until the Sun is a story with a widow and her security guard neighbor. He has a bad history, a mobster keeps killing the men in her life and of course, there's lots of sex and the woman is feisty.

In this one basically the hero tells the mother of 2 how to raise her children and she doesn't slam his head into the sidewalk but rather accepts that he's right and she's wrong. By the way, I would have shot him. (That's a KA thing in every book: the hero tells the heroine how to act and she always knows that he knows best.)(Barf)

At Peace just sucked. Start to finish, bad book.

Got a new Laura Florand, a new Sarah Addison Allen and a few more... might come out later once I get them read.

**Edited to add**

I WISH by Elizabeth Langston. It was a daily deal (I think) at DA and sounded good. Well, I just finished it in one sitting. Oh my, such a good book.

It's YA. A 17 year old girl whose life has fallen apart and she's barely keeping her family together. She gets a genie and her choices for wishes are unlike what anyone would expect.

It's an intriguing story and one that doesn't go where expected. So good. I'd highly recommend it.

Now I'm going to read Trouble in Texas. Hot cowboy on the cover. I am so all over that.