Lost Lake by Sarah Addison Allen

Back in January 2014, I had a glimpse of a prequel short-story, Waking Kate, that Ms Allen had put up for fan of hers. It was enjoyable to get a feel of her upcoming Lost Lake and I was so excited that I grabbed this book days after its launch.

Lost Lake tells us the story after Kate's husband had passed away and how she decided to visit Lost Lake, a place where she held her childhood memories, to get away from her mother-in-law. In this place, she met up with her Aunt Eby and a boy, Wes,  who she almost lost her first kiss to. The sparks between them flew almost immediately after reuniting with each other. When Kate realised that Aunt Eby was going to give up Lost Lake to Wes's uncle as she could no longer upkeep this place and was hoping to return to Paris to relief her memory of her dead husband, Kate decided that she wanted to save this place. For herself and for her daughter, Devin. However, her mother-in-law had better ideas of how she wanted to make us of Kate for own her political benefits so things are definitely not going as smoothly as Kate hoped.

With her aggressive mother-in-law, a man she loved but with a dark secret and her daughter who kept talking about a mysterious alligator, how was she going to save Lost Lake and bring it back to how it was to be when she had first visited.

Overall, I enjoyed the book and it was a pretty good read but I was very disappointed in it. Unlike other books by Ms Allen, the magical feel is just not in this book. Ghost and Alligator does't impress me nor spoke out to me. I had a hard time trying to blend the alligator into the story. What's worse was just days after finishing this book, I almost couldn't remember the characters in it.

For a book that was listed under the magical realism genre, this book definitely did not contains any magic in it. As I knew that Ms Allen is in remission of her cancer and this is her first release since her illness, I am hoping that this is just a book to get her back into writing. Although I have to say that this is my least favourite of her book (Oh yes, I have read every single book of hers and I loved almost everyone of them), I am still looking forward to her future work.

A Knight in Shining Armor by Jude Deveraux (Montgomery Series)

Well it has been a long time since I posted a review! I have been so busy with life that I haven't been reading much in the last 2 months but I am finally picking my books up again!

This time, I choose a book that I know I will devoured in a short time and I did! A Knight in Shining Armor is an all time classic historical romance book that my friends had been recommending and I just didn't managed to pick it up. Few months ago, I made used of a Kobo discount and finally bought the book for myself.

A Knight in Shining Armor tells the story of a woman, Dougless Montgomery, in modern England (1980s) who was ditched by her boyfriend (who happens to be a jerk!) in a church in Ashburton. Just when she was crying her heart out over the grave of Sir Nicholas Stafford, the Earl appeared out of nowhere before her. She had wished for a Knight in Shining Armor and indeed her wish came true. However, things were not as simple as it sounded. The Earl had came from 1564, Elizabethan England, to the modern world to find out what could prove his innocence. He was trailed for treason which he did not committed and he was to be executed in 3 days time when he fell dead on his desk while writing a letter to his mother for help. The couple travelled to places where history recorded nothing about Nicholas except for his womanising traits.

Of course, the two of them will fell in love (this is a romance novel...) and just when we thought Nicholas decided not to return to 1564, he did. And the next thing we know, Dougless travelled back to 1560! Now, this is what I loved about this book. Most of the time travel books that I have read only tell how one character travel to one time. However in this book, both our main characters time travelled.

The exquisite details of the Elizabethan people's clothing, food and lifestyle were well written and researched. I thoroughly enjoyed reading them.

This books tells about the wonderful romance that crossed between times. I loved how the book was split into two parts where we get a modern tale weaved together with a historical tale. I loved how the author gave us a happy ending despite me crying my heart out when I thought it was going to be a sad one. I am pleased to see characters coming together in different periods and how one could changed easily just because history has changed. Although at times, I find some of the stuffs almost impossible to believe, I just had to remind myself that this is a fiction book and reading it is for my pleasure and not straining my brain to spot out the unrealistic portion.

This is going to be a book that I would want to read again and again and I highly recommend it for people who enjoyed Historical Romance and Time Traveling books.

Silk Is For Seduction by Loretta Chase (The Dressmakers #1)

This is my first book by Loretta Chase even though I have heard so much about her books from historical romance lovers. I had always wanted to pick up this book but it seems I never made time for it until now.

A lovely book with steamy scenes between the protagonists. I loved how this book revolves around dresses. I love dresses! Reading about the details of dresses in historical period excites me. Of course the unusual 'courtship' between Marcelline and the Duke of Clevedon made the book even better.

Marcelline is a strong lady who kept her passion for her work throughout the whole book and I loved how she felt when Clevedon protected her from mishaps that happened along the way.

All the characters in this book are likeable and none of them were bitchy to make me hate them. Surprisingly, I like Lady Clara even though she wasn't featured enough in this book. I hope that we could get to read a side story about her. She was so understanding and stood up for what is right. She would definitely grew up to be a wonderful lady. And it is so true that just the right clothing could make a woman felt more confident and changes them forever.

With the small and tiny bits about Sophy and Longmore, I am looking forward to reading the next book in this series, Scandal Wears Satin.

Last Day of Love: A Teardrop Story by Lauren Kate (Teardrop #0.5)

When I first saw this book, the impression that I've got was that I am in for a teary romantic short story. The cover is beautiful and it attracted me immediately.

After I have read the book, I actually felt cheated. There wasn't any tears nor was it a beautiful love story. There were too many characters to start with and since I have not read the first book in this series, I have completely no idea who they were. The book then tell us about how a guy named Ander had to give up a girl called Eureka. Again, no background about them that I know of.

This is definitely not a book that one should read if you have no idea what the main story is about. Reading the prequel, it is assumed that one already have the understanding of the main story.

I honestly did not enjoy this book but it wasn't bad either. At the very least, it made me curious about the real story between Ander and Eureka.

The Divorced Not Dead Workshop by CeCe Osgood

The book title is the first thing that caught my attention. The Divorced Not Dead Workshop. I was excited to read this book.

In this book, we got to know Dorsey who founded the Divorced Not Dead Workshop with the help of her girl friends, Pilar and Mimi. Of course things didn't go well for the start and there were hiccups throughout the workshop but Dorsey always managed to think of something to resolve it and got everyone together. The workshop is definitely not the only thing that will be happening in this book. The sparks and romance between Dorsey and Finn, the nephew of her step-father's bride-to-be, makes up a majority part of the book.

The book started out slow and I was really not into the writing style. I felt that the story was kind of rushed and it moves from one scene to another before I had a grasp of what it was all about.

Things got better when the workshop finally got started. The story flows much better and I loved reading about the problem of each of the participants of the workshop. Finn is definitely another great addition at this point of the book, although his mother is a pain in the ass. I loved reading the interactions before him and Dorsey but I felt that there are way too many misunderstandings between them that I started to lose interest in it towards the end of the book. And of course like what Ralph said in the book "we were divorced not dead, and it was time to move on with life."

The premises of the story is interesting and I was intrigued by the workshop carried out in the book. It is a light and easy read for me as there wasn't too many heavy content which would bore me to death. However, the flow of the story wasn't really smooth and I had problem trying to know who Melissa is and that wasn't explained until halfway through the book, although her names came up various times.

Overall, I would recommend this book to chick-lit lovers who wants to take their mind off heavy books.

This book is retailing on Amazon at US$3.99. Prices accurate as at 18 Jan 2014. 

Note: I have received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review.