Heart of Gold

Heart of Gold tells us the story of Carter Wessex and Nick Farrell. I'm having a hard time writing this because, believe it or not, I didn't actually... like this book all that much.

Gah! I can't believe I said that. But it's true. 

I just didn't feel it. I can't tell you why. Maybe my head just wasn't in the right place. But never mind my little bout of madness. Here's the basic gist of the story.

Nick Farrell is a business tycoon with a reputation for being ruthless. He lives on a mountain that potentially has enormous historical significance. However, no one is entirely sure how significant this mountain is because Nick won't let anyone on the mountain to actually determine whether or not the area was the scene of a great battle. Carter Wessex is an archaeologist and she wants on that mountain. Bad. When Carter approaches Nick, he tells her in no uncertain terms that it's not going to happen. After some glaring, snide comments, and door slamming, Nick realises that Carter is in fact the estranged daughter of one of his business partners. He finds himself wondering how grateful his business partner would be if Nick orchestrates some sort of reconciliation between father and daughter. Nick promptly changes his mind about allowing Carter to dig on his mountain, and the story progresses fairly predictably from there. 

I feel so disloyal saying that I didn't enjoy this book. J.R Ward is one of my all time favourite authors ever, and it almost causes me physical pain to admit that something she's written didn't rock my world. 

Please, somebody go read this book, and come back and tell me that I'm nuts. That it's all in my mind.

FBI/US Attorney Series: About That Night

I really do think that this series could quickly become a favourite of mine. James has a way of writing a story that is fast-paced, with characters that are hard not to adore, and manages to inject some wicked humour, all at the same time. 

I love it!

About That Night is Kyle's book and the third in the series. This poor guy has had a really rough time of it. Now almost universally known as the "Twitter Terrorist", Kyle is finding it difficult to adjust to his life outside prison. He reverts, to an extent, to his old ways of partying and womanising. But that changes when he runs into someone he never expected to see again.

Enter Rylann Pierce, assistant US attorney. She is one tough cookie. She's just moved to Chicago after breaking up with her boyfriend of three years. Rylann is a woman who plans for everything. And I do mean everything. She even has a six month plan for getting over her boyfriend. But running into Kyle Rhodes again was not part of any of her plans.

Kyle and Rylann first met nine years ago and there was some serious attraction from both sides. But before anything more could happen, tragedy struck and these two went their separate ways. So, after a lot of time apart, Rylann and Kyle find themselves face to face... in court, during Kyle's release proceedings. 

After Kyle's release, he is adamant that he wants nothing to do with the US Attorneys Office. They made his life damn difficult and they can all take a flying leap, for all he cares. But then Rylann comes to him in need of a favour. She's handling a case where a prisoner at the jail where Kyle was held was killed by a fellow inmate. Thing is, there is some suspicion that one of the guards orchestrated the attack, and Kyle may have the information Rylann needs. Rylann manages to convince Kyle to help her out, which puts them in closer proximity than they were strictly comfortable with.

I honestly think that I loved every character in this book. It goes without saying that Kyle and Rylann were epic, but the secondary characters definitely held their own. One of my favourites was Rylann's best friend Rae. This chick was hilariously funny. Here's an example of one of the laugh-out-loud conversations between Rylann and Rae:

Once again, Rylann tried to catch the eye of the female bartender working Firelight's main bar. 

"One of the few times I've ever wished for a penis," she said to Rae when the bartender stepped up to take the order of yet another male customer. They'd been waiting to be served for over twenty minutes. She'd even worn the red magic boob dress tonight, but unfortunately it's mojo offered no help in this particular situation.

"You haven't had sex in six months," Rae said. "If I were you, I'd be wishing for penises every night."

I dare you to read that with a straight face. 

FBI/US Attorney Series: A Lot Like Love

 As I was starting this book, I realised that I don't normally do contemporary romance. Not for any particular reason other than the fact that I'm usually drawn to the whole paranormal/urban fantasy scene. And I think I may have been missing out.

A Lot Like Love was an absolute gem. I didn't realise at the time that it's actually the second book in the FBI/US Attorney series, but it can be read as a stand alone. I'm normally a bit of a stickler (okay, I'm lying; I'm a gigantic pain in the ass about it) about reading books in order, but there was zero confusion in this book.

The story is set in Chicago and our two leads pretty much embody the whole "two completely different worlds" idea. Nick McCall works for the FBI and hails from Brooklyn. Jordan Rhodes is a billionaire heiress who owns a wine shop. Going by outward appearances, these two should have nothing in common. But their worlds collide when the FBI asks Jordan to help out with an undercover operation. All the FBI needs is for Jordan to get one of its agents into an ultra exclusive party hosted by restaurant owner, Xander Eckhart. Jordan is initially less than enthusiastic about this proposal, but the feds have made her an offer she can't refuse (I can't believe that I just used that cliche, but it's true). In exchange for her cooperation, the FBI will arrange to have Jordan's twin brother, Kyle, released from prison. Kyle has already served four months of an eighteen month sentence for hacking into, and shutting down, Twitter. 

Nick and Jordan were such a cute couple. I loved how they went from getting on each other's nerves, to sort of liking each other, to being totally into each other. The progression was pretty funny. Jordan is really super sarcastic, which had me snickering quite a bit. Here's one of my favourite quotes from when Nick lets his inner caveman out:

That was his fake girlfriend sitting there. Sitting at the table where they had just shared cheese fries the night before. And if she thought she could throw scorching hot sex-looks to any pansy-ass scarf-boy who wondered into her shop, she had another think coming. 

He had a look of his own to show the douchebag.

It was time to break out the don't-fuck-with-me face.  

I'd like to get to my favourite character, whose book is next in the series: Kyle. I really adored him. His reason for being put in jail was actually quite ridiculous. Kyle's girlfriend broke up with him via Twitter (and not a private message, but a tweet that the whole Twitterverse could see) and then posted a link showing her making out with another guy. I love this description of Kyle's reaction:

Kyle worked in technology; he knew it would only be a matter of time before the video of Daniela and the A-list actor went viral and spread everywhere. So he did what any pissed-off, red-blooded computer geek would do after catching his girlfriend giving an underwater blowjob to another man: he hacked into Twitter and deleted both the video and her earlier tweet from the site. Then, raging at the world that had devolved so much in civility that 140-character breakups had become acceptable, he shut down the entire network in a denial of service attack that lasted two days.

And so the infamous "Twitter Terrorist" was born...

I've just started with Kyle's book and, man, I can tell that I'm not going to be disappointed!

Leaping Hearts

I really liked this story. It was so... nice! Don't pull that face. I happen to like nice things.

Leaping Hearts tells us the story of A.J. Sutherland and Devlin McCloud. A.J. is a talented young equestrian who has just bought herself a horse named Sabbath. Now, this wouldn't have been a problem if this horse didn't have such a bad attitude. Sabbath throws his riders, won't let blacksmiths anywhere near him, and he hates the water. For obvious reasons, this is the last horse anyone with a lick of sense would buy to compete with. But A.J. sees a whole lot of potential in Sabbath and she wants to take him to the Qualifier, a really big deal in the equestrian world, in two months time. 

But A.J hits a speed bump. She lives at home, involved in the racing aspect of the family-run stables. A.J.'s stepbrother runs the financial side of Sutherland Stables and he refuses to let her bring that crazy horse onto the premises. A.J. then decides that if her horse isn't welcome then she isn't staying at home either. Sabbath isn't an impulse buy for A.J.; he's her chance to prove herself. But it's going to be kinda hard to do that with nowhere to live and nowhere to train.

Enter Devlin McCloud. Devlin is a hugely reclusive former equestrian champion. After his nasty fall and his horse having to be put down as a result, he's been avoiding the equestrian scene entirely. He and A.J. had met at the auction where A.J. bought Sabbath so, after leaving home, A.J. turns to Devlin for help. Initially, Devlin is not so keen on the idea. He is totally jonesing for A.J. and given the temperamental nature of the horse, this can prove dangerous if he's going to be training her. But A.J. won't take no for an answer, which is how she ends up sleeping on Devlin's couch at night and him being her trainer during the day. 

This book is written by Jessica Bird who is otherwise known as the magnificent, awe-inspiring J.R Ward. Those of you who are familiar with the WARDen will probably have read her Black Dagger Brotherhood series, or her more recent Fallen Angels series. This book is nothing like either of these series. There is next to no swearing, the sex is the fade to black type, and there is no actual action. But it was still really good! After having read Shadowfever, this book acted like a palate cleanser. It was light, there were no major twists and turns, and the couple knew that they liked each other right from the start. So long as you don't expect any of the stuff typical of J.R Ward's better known works, you won't be disappointed with this book. 

So if you're looking for a light read that won't give you a headache trying to keep up, give Leaping Hearts a try.