"47 Little Love Boosters For A Happy Marriage"

I am a romantic. I love gooey, lovey-dovey, sappy anything. I was excited to read this book because I was hoping to get some more ideas on cute, lovey things that I could do for my husband. (I have a whole Pinterest board named after him that is chock full of cheesiness). So I picked this book because I thought, “Hey, this should be a fun little light read.” Weeellll, it was light. I got the kindle version of the book and it came with a link to a webpage with the authors 47 “love boosters” listed (why they didn’t just put this directly in the book is beyond me). The link takes you to some chintzy website with a bunch of error codes and I never actually made it to the list of love boosters. Without this list, the rest of the book is pretty much a complete waste of space. You can read the whole thing in less than an hour and the author basically just states some facts that are already pretty universally known. He tries to put it into his own words, but it is really just a different way to say the same thing.

The author mentions another book that he is working on that will have his 5 love rituals explained in detail. THAT book sounds like it might actually be interesting. THIS book felt like it was something the author threw together really quickly to tide him over until his next book comes out. I don’t feel like I gained anything by reading this book and I would not recommend it to anyone else. If you are looking for some real relationship advice, look elsewhere. Pinterest has no shortage of cute things you can do for your significant other. Just saying.

1 out of 5 stars for this book from me.

I received a copy of this book from Reading Deals in exchange for my honest review.

"The Steel Queen"

“The Steel Queen”, by Karen Azinger, is the first book in a seven book series: The Silk and Steel Saga. I always get excited when I pick up the first book in a long series because if I like the story, then it doesn’t end for thousands of pages. However, you take the risk of only moderately liking the story. Then you are forced to decide between sticking with it to the end of those thousands of pages, or calling it quits after the first book and never having answers to the questions that drive every reader crazy; what happens to the characters, who does she end up with, do they end up discovering he is a back-stabbing traitor, how does it end??

I think I got myself into a little bit of a pickle with this series. The story piqued my interest enough that I know I will be bugged to just give up on it, but the writing drove me crazy and I don’t know if I can stand six more books. Here’s why:

This fantasy story really gripped me right from the start. I’ve heard it’s comparable to Game of Thrones, but I wouldn’t know since I’ve never seen that. The characters are three dimensional, and the plot is deep and thick right from the beginning. BUT the point of view switches between a handful of different characters and I found this to be a little too much. There is only a few pages, (really just like 2-3 pages), with limited information before it switches to a different person in a completely different part of the country. You feel like you are just barely getting to know the character, then it switches and you are left reeling. Once you catch on to who each character is and what is happening in their part of the story, then you see the bigger picture and understand how they all play out together. But this realization doesn’t hit for a few chapters, leaving the reader lost and more than a little confused at the beginning.

The story itself is rich and full of details that draw the reader in. However, the writing is repetitive and juvenile in some places.  You will read the phrase “good Castleguard steel” about 55 times. I think that there could have been more done with this book. A little more proofreading and attention to detail would have improved the quality by a mile. Also, one of the main characters, Katherine, is written as if life is so hard and she is so strong for overcoming her trials, but she really hasn’t had any trials. Every time an obstacle comes in her path, it works out perfectly in her favor in just a few paragraphs. This won’t stop me from reading the next book though. I’m hooked on the story and want to see how it ends.

WARNING: there are some sex scenes and analogies that I would not deem appropriate for younger readers, (or people who don’t like to read about rape).

Overall I gave this book 4 out of 5 stars. I am planning on continuing the series and will report back to let you know if it’s worth it or not. If you have already read these books, let me know what you thought!

I was given a free copy of this book from Reading Deals in exchange for an honest review.