Emma Volume One by Kaoru Mori

I can't believe that while I live in one of the most multi-cultural cities in the world that I have not given manga a chance before today. It's a shame really I've spent the last 21 years living under a rock it seems. I mean how can I have lived in a predominantly asian community almost my whole life and not have piced one up before today? Alas, life is filled with such regrets.

Anyway, about the book itself. It wasn't great but it wasn't bad either. I found it to be a cute little story. I liked Emma, but felt she should say more. Her employer intrigues me. I like her a lot but I am not a fan of Hakim, or Mr. Jones Sr. William is still meh for me.

I like how the story was set in England and how the author/illustrator paid close attention to make it seem real. A prime example is the use of Mudie's Lending Library.

In the next installment I hope that Emma comes out of her shell a little more and I hope that Hakim goes away along with Mr. Jones Sr. William can stay but that's only because I'm not sure whether I like him or not. Maybe the next book will help me decide whether I do or not.

I found this to be a cute 3 star read and I'm glad I started my manga reading career by reading this.

A Fatal Thaw by Dana Stabenow

I am so glad that I gave the Kate Shugak another chance. I liked the first book in the series but I liked this installment a lot more.

Kate is still coming to terms with the events that took place in the last book. However new horrors await her as a murderer goes on a killing spree, murdering innocent people in cold blood. Kate with the help of her ever faithful compainion the husky/wolf mix Mutt manages to apprehend the suspect.

It isn't until later when her off/on lover Jack Morgan comes to visit her in her cabin that she learns the truth. One of the victims wasn't killed by the murderer. That killer is still free.

So we follow Kate along the way as she solves another murder. I must say this book in the series had a stronger plot than the first. I found Kate to be more likeable unlike the previous novel wear she was cold all the way through.

I enjoyed how the author had her interacting with people more and I love how she added humour to this novel. In the first book things felt forced but now I'm really getting into the flow.

I'm glad Kate is such a strong, independant, intelligent lead. All to often in "cozy mysteries" the female lead turns out to be a ditz. It is a played out theme that I'm becoming increasingly more irritated with.

So in short, for a 200 page mystery this one is ranked pretty high. The only fault I have with it is that it was still a little rushed but what can you do when it comes to a book of this length.

I do recommend these books to people who like "cozy mysteries" and my final rating is 4 stars. Come on people give them a go!

Angel's Blood by Nalini Singh

So after years of seeing Nalini Singh's books at bookstores, libraries and friend's shelves here on Goodreads I finally broke down and gave her a try. Boy am I ever glad I did.

We are introduced to Elena, a spunky white haired Guild Hunter (Vampire Hunter) who has been hired to do a job for the Archangel Rafael who rules over New York City and help him catch an Archangel who is in the midst of a bloodlust. She also manages to help relieve him of his clothing :)

First off, I loved Elena's Character. She was such a strong female lead even though Raphael was using his Archangel mind tricks to make her do his bidding. She is definately a heroine that is worth the time it takes to write her on a page. I especially liked that Elena stayed the main focus of the novel instead of switching too much to Raphael's POV

Raphael on the other hand was too much of a jack ass IMHO. He was too much of an alpha male for me and I'm really hoping that he mellows out some in the next book.

I was so glad how Singh kept us guessing through the book and I love how she didn't make their sexual relationship the main focus of the book. It was so refreshing to not have sex on every page. I am not by any means a prude. I love me some sexy writing believe me. Yet, at some point when it comes to the genres of Paranormal Romance and Urban Fantasy Romance there are authors who substitute sex to make up for poor writing. I am so glad this wasn't the case in this novel. I do admit that those are the feelings I went into reading this book and I definately think this is a series that should be read by all Paranormal/Urban Fantasy lovers.

The Magic of You by Johanna Lindsey

First off let me say that I am VERY, VERY, upset with myself for not giving this author a chance YEARS ago! That being said this book was a wonderful introduction to her writing.

Though this book is the 4th in the Malory series I didn't find myself lost. Though I am curious about the other characters and their romances in the books preceding this one.

I found Amy's character to be quiet refreshing. I loved her sense of humour and I love how she fought for the man she wanted. It was so nice to have a heroine who had a brain, sense of humour, and a temper despite her age. Unlike many heroines that are 18 in romances she wasn't silly and I think I saw a bit of myself in her.

I did find Warren's character to be lacking. He was sort of one dimensional to me though it was nice to see that though he's of the alpha male mentality he didn't come across more superior to Amy. I found him irritating and annoying, but perhaps it was because he was to arrogant and jaded. I found myself wanting him to appear in front of me just for the sake of kicking him repeatedly for being an ass. This is why I only gave it 4 stars.

This was a sweet romance and one that I would recommend to my mother in law without feeling worried about the naughty bits being too much for her and embarrassing me in the process because I recommended it to her. I recommend it to all historical romance lovers.

Resurrection

SoI have this problem. It goes by many names, but I think that procrastinator is the best one to describe me. I also have a problem with starting blogs but never posting my reviews. Why might you ask? Because I am terrible when it comes to punctuation and as a person who had to sit through an entire semester of taking an editing course where I would get marked down for my writing if I didn't include commas, colons, and semi-colons in the appropriate places. Instead of rising to the occasio I actually fear people seeing my writing due to my errors. I suppose my professor succeeded at doing her job.
But I will start posting them, though mine will not be as detailed as others. This is because I'm not a fan of lengthy, artsy, reviews. Though if I know you completely disregard that because if I follow your reviews it's because you're the rare gems that actually don't bore me to death with your reviews. Keep up the excellent writing...and stay tuned for my reviews.