Gnome On The Range by Jennifer Zane

Title: Gnome On the Range

Author: Jennifer Zane

Sub-Genre(s): Romantic comedy, Suspense, Mystery

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: None given

ISBN #: B006QQRH3A

Format: eBook from Author

Reviewer: Captured Spirit

Rating: 4 Cups

Blurb:*

Once you get the zing you can’t go back.

Jane West has everything a woman could want. A job in a small Montana town’s only adult store, two busy young boys and one dead husband. Everything except a little excitement--a little zing. But that changes one summer morning at a garage sale when her kids buy some garden gnomes. 

Now someone wants those gnomes and will let nothing get in their way. Including Jane. This new excitement for Jane spells trouble for a relationship with new neighbor--and hot fireman--Ty Strickland. Can Jane and Ty handle a relationship meddling mother-in-law, crazy kids, and stay alive while trying to solve the mystery of the garden gnomes?

Review:
Nothing happens in Montana.  Nothing at all.  And nothing exciting ever really happens to Jane West, who happens to live in Montana, until her two sons buy a pair of garden gnomes at a garage sale.  Then she becomes involved in exploding houses, stolen horse sperm, runaway demolition derby cars, and all types of craziness.  All this, and a handsome neighbor fireman coming into her life.
Gnome on the Range was written in first person, and is in some ways like reading a single mother’s diary.  One minute the main character of Jane is thinking about the handsome fireman who has just moved in nearby, and the next she’s dealing with her four year old son getting his arm stuck in a pipe in their backyard.  The author writes with a very original style sharing Jane’s “motherly” thoughts along with her lustful and curious thoughts.  I laughed out loud during one scene near the end of the book where she’s about to have sex on the kitchen table and looks up at the ceiling to notice a spaghetti stain still there from when one of her sons was 2 years old.
The book had a bit of a slow start for me, with mostly what seemed to be single mother stories, but did pick up and kept me reading.  I do recommend this book as a great read, and especially recommend mothers read it!  They will identify with some of the main character’s problems trying to juggle two young children and also avoid being killed by some maniac before she can finally have sex with the handsome fireman!  Definitely a great book!


Available at:
Amazon (Kindle Edition)



--

*Blurb Courtesy of Amazon

**Disclaimer: This book has been provided to Coffee Beans & Love Scenes Reviews free of charge by the author. No money has been exchanged for the review of this eBook. This review reflects the opinion of the individual reviewer and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the other C&R reviewers or this blog’s administrator/editor.

Mind-Blown by Michele Hart

Title: Mind-Blown

Author: Michele Hart

Sub-Genre(s): Mystery, Futuristic, Sci-Fi

Publisher: Bookstrand Publishing

Publication Date: August 31, 2010

ISBN #: 978-1606017746

Format: eBook from Author

Reviewer: Captured Spirit

Rating: 5 Cups

Blurb:*

Jon Paige discovers his employer is developing mind-control techniques. He quickly learns how to hijack the system and breaks down his beautiful assistant's persistent walls. Will Holly forgive him, if she ever learns of it? 

Holly Maddox is determined not to dip her pen in the company ink, a policy that's served her well...until Jon comes along. He steals her mind when he's in the room, weakens her fortitude with every flash of his flirty eyes and secretive smile. How will she keep herself from falling in love with her boss when he melts her impulse control? 

When Jon and Holly decide to sabotage the mind-control experiments, they learn they're up against a far greater power than they'd bargained for. Doing the right thing risks lives. Will the truth of their beginnings wreck their sizzling affair?

Review:
Mind-Blown is one of those rare books that will stand out as one of the best books I think I've ever read, and I don't mean this lightly.  Have you ever seen a movie and then read the book?  And the book is so much better than the movie?  This book is better than the movie, and a movie hasn't even been made from it yet!  
Mind-Blown is about a woman named Holly who was looking for a job in a bad economy.  She ends up hired as a medical billing coder for a company called TDG.  She ends up an executive assistant to the man who had hired her for the position, Jon.  Typical story to start with.  There is a secret medical "sleep testing" facility side to the building they work in and a special medical clinic is set up for the employees.  After Jon is instructed to fire employees who refused a "flu shot" that turned out not to be a flu shot, things really begin to look fishy.  To find out more about what is going on, Holly volunteers for one of the "tests" being performed at the clinic.  The story goes into mind control, micro-chipping of people, and drug testing done on people without their knowledge.  Toss in possible CIA ties, secret records, and you have one hell of a story!  
This page turner grabbed my interest early and kept me reading.  The characters are well fleshed out, and the author tells a very adventurous, and almost too real story of something that could actually happen.  There is a bit of romance in the book, and even the hook of the character Jon possibly using some of the mind control on Holly to gain her interest.  I cannot recommend this book highly enough! I enjoyed every word of it!  Don't pass this one up!


Available at:
Amazon (Kindle Edition)
Barnes & Noble (Nook book)


--

*Blurb Courtesy of Amazon

**Disclaimer: This book has been provided to Coffee Beans & Love Scenes Reviews free of charge by the author. No money has been exchanged for the review of this eBook. This review reflects the opinion of the individual reviewer and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the other C&R reviewers or this blog’s administrator/editor.

Love Through Time by Lucy Felthouse

Title:      

Title: Love Through Time

Author: Lucy Felthouse

Sub-Genre(s): Erotic, Contemporary

Publisher: Noble Romance Publishing

Publication Date: November 3, 2011

ISBN #: B0063KZ9ZC

Format: eBook from Author

Reviewer: Captured Spirit

Rating: 3.5 Cups

Blurb:*

Westbury Manor is a stately home with a fascinating past, and when book conservator Emily Stone starts uncovering it, she's startled by what she finds . . . .

Emily arrives at Westbury Manor with a job to do. She's to clean and conserve all of the books in their impressive library, preserving them for future generations. Not long into her stay at the house, she bumps into the night guard, George. She'd expected an old, balding guy with a comb over, so the hunky chap she actually meets is a very pleasant surprise. The introductions complete, George leaves Emily in peace to get on with her job. But when a falling photograph sets off a chain reaction of ghostly events, Emily and George are thrown together in order to find out who—or what—is causing them. Their investigation uncovers a tragic past, a lost love, and a stunning secret.

Review:
Love Through Time is a story about a character named Emily who is contracted to clean books in the library of an English manor. While cleaning the books, Emily comes across the ghost of one of the former residents of the manor.
The author alludes to the manor having a rich history, but never really goes into most of it.  I do understand this is a short story, and the premise is very good, but everything seemed to wrap up a bit too quickly for my taste.  And the ending seemed just a bit tacked on to me.  A good story that I think could have been much better had the author taken a bit more time and added more detail.


Available at:
Amazon (Kindle Edition)
Barnes & Noble (Nook book)


--

*Blurb Courtesy of Amazon

**Disclaimer: This book has been provided to Coffee Beans & Love Scenes Reviews free of charge by the author. No money has been exchanged for the review of this eBook. This review reflects the opinion of the individual reviewer and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the other C&R reviewers or this blog’s administrator/editor.

Indecent Proposition by Celeste Anwar

Title: Indecent Proposition

Author: Celeste Anwar

Sub-Genre(s): Erotic, Contemporary, Paranormal

Publisher: New Concepts Publishing

Publication Date: October 31, 2010

ISBN #: B005E0EGL0

Format: eBook from Author

Reviewer: Captured Spirit

Rating: 4 Cups

Blurb:*

As dull as it was Alana’s life was peaceful, and she liked it that way. At least it was peaceful until the delivery of the little packet that contained a nude picture of her, taken years ago by the one man she could never forget—the man whose life she’d ruined.

Review:
I have to say I really enjoyed Indecent Proposition. The story doesn’t have the typical gorgeous, irresistible heroine. And the hero, or anti-hero if you will, is a man who has just gotten out of prison. And I will also say the blurb for the book is what at first drew me in to read it.

Alana receives a mysterious package containing an old Polaroid from when she was much younger. A Polaroid picture of her naked, in fact. She is afraid whoever sent the picture will use more of them to blackmail her. At first, she thinks this will be for money, but then she finds out who is truly behind everything. Enter Rafe, a man she fell in love with in high school. A man who made her feel special. A man her father had sent to prison for statutory rape against her.
Rafe offers to exchange pictures at different times for Alana’s complete submission to him. She agrees as long as there is “no penetration”. Through out the meetings they have, the author does a great job of showing Alana’s lack of self esteem and how guilty she feels for not standing up for Rafe when her father had sent him to prison. As their meetings go on, we find out the love between them had never really faded. But can they get together again with all the bad blood that had happened in the past?

A very good original story that kept me interested right up until the end. I ended up rooting for Rafe through their meetings and was happy when I finally got to the end and found out how everything ended. This was a well written, original story, and I high recommend it for any and all erotic readers!


Available at:
Amazon (Kindle Edition)
Barnes & Noble (Nook book)


--

*Blurb Courtesy of Amazon

**Disclaimer: This book has been provided to Coffee Beans & Love Scenes Reviews free of charge by the author. No money has been exchanged for the review of this eBook. This review reflects the opinion of the individual reviewer and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the other C&R reviewers or this blog’s administrator/editor.