I read two good books this weekend. One was gold. And one was honey (buns).
1.) In the Flesh by Julia Barrett
This is the follow-up to Incorporeal. There were some wonderful things about this short story. I adored the romantic premise of an immortal making the ultimate sacrifice to come back to earth so he could experience love. Wolf is an amazing hero....super sexy and protective. Syd is a scrappy heroine, juggling a medical position and all of the grueling responsibilities of running her own ranch. There was lots of intense sexual chemistry going on. And the whole image of a golden man falling to earth, and spilling molten gold in his path, was fabulous. And symbolic. I just had two issues with this story. Although I enjoyed all the ranching details, I did think they interrupted the flow of the story just a bit. And second of all, I loved the final manifestation of "Lucas" at the end too much. It was the perfect ending to the story, but....I wanted the story to keep going at this point. Lucas and Syd together were pure gold. I was sort of bummed when the story was over.
Barrett has packed true romance into this one. Here is my favorite quote from the story...
"I did not wish to spend eternity never knowing what it is to love a woman, body and soul....I would rather die a thousand deaths as a mortal than live forever alone."
Swoon-tastic, baby!
Grade: B+
2.) Honeybun in a Loin Cloth by Sam Cheever
I bought this book for two reasons. One, after seeing a blog post at Babbling About Books, I was intrigued by the ridiculous title and cover. And two, after checking out the Goodreads page for the author Sam Cheever, I noticed she had a dachshund in her arms! Win! Kooky book, doxie lover....I just couldn't resist.
Never, in a million years, did I expect a book with the title Honeybun in a Loin Cloth to be a regular old romantic suspense novel. I've read some wacky books in my day. Books about orca shape-shifters. Bigfoot. Hairy beary guys who like honey. The last book I read with a loin cloth had a time warp, dinosaurs, and bands of marauding cavemen (Island Heat). It's never good to mislead your readers. (See post I wrote about putting hot scruffy lumberjack guys on the bookcover when the hero is really a weenie executive).
I realized fairly quickly that the kookiest thing about this book was the fact that the hero's last name is Honeybun. This is a good, solid suspense novel, with lots of twists and turns in the plot to keep you guessing about the mystery. The Honeybun family has some quirky characters, but otherwise this book has the standard fare....sexy times between hero and heroine, complex mystery, suspense, some humorous bits, too. It was too long for my liking....I like my books fairly fast-paced. But Cheever is a good writer, and the Honeybun guys are sexy, smart and loyal. The thing that really threw me off was that title. I have no idea why the author/publisher chose this title, but it's definitely not a good match for this book. So, in conclusion, I was disappointed that the book wasn't wacky. But I was pleasantly surprised that it was a well-written and sexy suspense.
Grade: B
Hankering for some honey buns,
Penelope
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