#CBR6 Book 107: "Rock Courtship" by Nalini Singh

Page count: 166 pages
Rating: 4 stars

DISCLAIMER! I got this ARC from NetGalley in return for a fair and unbiased review.

David Rivera, known as the Gentleman of Rock for his nice manners and penchant for wearing bespoke suits, is the drummer in famous rock band Schoolboy Choir. He's in love with Thea Arsana, the band's publicist, and has told her about his feelings, but she has a firm policy not to mix business with pleasure. That's even before you factor in the fact that her last boyfriend was a complete bastard, who she walked in on, having sex with a younger woman, so she has natural trust issues with guys. So David pines in silence for Thea for months, until her younger sister, Molly, suggests that he send her a memo. Yup. Not an e-mail. Not a tweet. A memo. He takes her advice.

The memo arrives just as Thea is going off on vacation, and David's carefully worded arguments start to make Thea waver. She does some thinking, then refutes his every persuasive bullet point with one of her own. She's charmed, though, and they continue sending memos back and forth. David knows about Thea's relationship history, they were friends before he fell for her, but even then, he never liked her ex. He knows he needs to work hard to persuade Thea that he will never cheat on her and is willing to do anything to make her happy. They continue to communicate via memos, text messages and on the phone. Thea is worried that entering into a relationship with him will ruin their friendship, and if they were to end badly, it would affect her career and his band. With his patient courtship, David wins her over.

This romance is pretty much exactly the opposite of Rock Addiction, where the couple go from insta-lust to insta-love in less than a month. David and Thea have known each other for a long time. They were friends, and Thea is naturally wary about jeopardising what they do have by taking it to the next level. Their courtship is slow and gradual and David is very sweet and romantic. When they finally decide to start a romantic relationship, it feels earned.

As I said in my review for Rock Addiction, I really like the supporting characters in these books and while the last book didn't exactly thrill me, this novella has ensured that I'll continue checking out Nalini Singh's contemporary romances. I'm assuming the other members of the band have to find their own HEAs at some point.

Crossposted on Cannonball Read. 

#CBR6 Book 106: "Rock Addiction" by Nalini Singh

Page count: 356 pages
Rating: 2.5 stars

DISCLAIMER! This ARC was given to me through NetGalley in return for a fair and unbiased review.

WARNING. This will be a fairly spoilery review, because I'm sick with a cold and can't be bothered to find a non-spoilery way of describing the plot. 

Molly Harper is a shy and timid librarian present at a glamorous celebrity party because her older half-sister is a hot shot publicist. Present at the party are the members of Schoolboy Choir, one of the hottest rock bands in the world right now. Zachary Fox, the lead singer, has apparently fallen madly for Molly, having seen her from across the room and when she leaves, he follows, propositioning her in the lift. Molly, despite having a number of psychological issues from her teenage years and who's still a virgin, decides to take Fox home for a steamy one night stand.

Fox pretty much immediately decides that Molly is the woman for him and he is ready to settle down now. As Molly has a number of trust issues and is worried about commitment, he decides not to tell her that it took him about 48 hours to decide she was his soul mate. It takes about two weeks of passionate smexy times before Molly realises that the rock god who has women throwing themselves at him all the time is the right guy for her. They move to LA together. They keep having awesome sex. Molly tells Fox about her creepy cheating scumbag of a dad and her alcoholic mother and he helps her deal with her trust issues. There's some complications involving the paparazzi and constantly being in the spotlight. They work past it.

There is no real conflict in this book. Seemingly mousy, but in reality really pretty, librarian meets rock frontman at a party and they more or less find insta-love. In less than a month of hooking up, they are living together. Molly moves from NEW ZEALAND to Los Angeles, quitting her job, abandoning all her friends, for this guy she's known for a few weeks. She's super wary of media attention because of a scandal caused by her father when she was fifteen, yet she happily moves in with a man who the tabloids constantly follow. They keep having great sex. All the minor obstacles thrown in the couple's way are dealt with easily, with no real ramifications.

It's not that Molly and Fox aren't a cute couple. I just wish there had been some buildup to their relationship. Since Molly's sister is Schoolboy Choir's publicist, there could have been some legitimate backstory, where they'd met a few times before - but no. They observe each other across the room at a crowded party, then go home together and that's pretty much it. Soul mates. I don't like it, and kept hoping that the book was going to go somewhere more interesting. But it didn't.

So why have you given it a full 3 stars if there was so much that annoyed you, Malin? Because the supporting cast of characters was great. I loved the female friendships in this book, between Molly and her sister and Molly and her best friend. They felt really believable. I'm also expecting that at some point Nalini Singh will release a book or a novella chronicling the probably extremely hot romance between Molly's BFF and her corporate boss, which is hinted at throughout the book. The friendships between the guys in the band is also really well done. It's not like I didn't like Fox and Molly as characters, I just wanted a plausible explanation for why they they became a couple that didn't amount to: they had great sex when he deflowered her and they keep having great sex. I like a good build up. This book had none.

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.

#CBR6 Book 105: "Etiquette & Espionage" by Gail Carriger

Page count: 320 pages
Rating: 4 stars

Sophronia Temminnick is not all a proper young lady should be. She'd much rather be climbing trees, spying on conversations in the dumb-waiter and dismantle machinery than converse politely over tea. So her mother sends her off to boarding school, more specifically Mademoiselle Geraldine's Finishing Academy for Young Ladies of Quality. Sophronia makes new friends on her way there. Miss Dimity Plumleigh-Teignmott and her brother Pillover are both being sent away to school (Pillover is to go to a boy's academy, naturally) and discover that Sophronia has no idea what kind of school she's enrolling in.

The youngsters are attacked by sky pirates on their way to school and Sophronia's quick thinking to get them out of the dangerous situation makes her a possible new enemy. It turns out that the school is in fact a training academy in the covert arts and espionage and the young ladies must learn how to fight, sneak and even possibly assassinate, in addition to learning comportment and proper manners. Sophronia and her new friends (among them a Scottish noblewoman raised by werewolves and a cross-dressing urchin with a passion for inventions) do their best to foil Sophronia's nemesis, trying to recover a stolen prototype before it gets sold to enemies of the state.

I mostly very much enjoyed Gail Carriger's Parasol Protectorate series and there is no denying that the woman has a very colourful and creative imagination. Her alternate Victorian England with vampires, werewolves, Steampunk and the like is a delight and while some of her quirks may get a bit exasperating, her books tend to be entertaining, if not always the heaviest in substance.

Etiquette & Espionage is the first book in her new series for Young Adult reader, and it's actually set quite some time before the Parasol Protectorate books. Readers of both series will be pleased to see younger versions of Lady Kingair and Genevieve Lefoux and I have no doubt that as the series continues, there will be more familiar faces.

Carriger is fond of a headstrong heroine (as well as truly outrageous names). I actually think Sophronia is a more likable heroine than Alexia (who could be a bit of a pill), but it's clear to see that Carriger's pattern of pragmatic and impetuous protagonist paired with a ditzy, somewhat silly best friend is re-used in this series. The third book in the Finishing School series is out at the beginning of November, and if I don't get round to catching up this year, I'm sure I will revisit Sophronia and her little friends sometime in the new year.

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.

#Readathon October 2014: Finishing up

1) Which hour was the most daunting for you?
Hour 14, where I had to keep battling not to fall asleep. Hours 3-7, when I hardly got any reading done because of family dinner.

2) Could you list a few high-interest books that you think could keep a Reader engaged next year?
Jackaby by William Ritter
Locke & Key: Head Games by Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez

3) Do you have any suggestions for how to improve Read-a-thon for next year?
No, I think it all went excellently.

4) What do you think went really well in this year's Read-a-thon?
From an arrangement point of view, I really like that there is now a Goodreads group. I didn't spend too much time in it WHILE I was reading, but am really looking forward to browsing it now that I'm done actually reading. For myself, I'm glad I got as much reading done as I did.

5) How many books did you read?
Five

6) What were the names of the books you read?
Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake
X Marks the Scot by Victoria Roberts
Jackaby by William Ritter
Codename: Knockout. The Devil You Say by Robert Rodi, Louis Small Jr., Mark Farmer and Amanda Conner
Locke & Key: Head Games by Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez

7) Which book did you enjoy most?
Jackaby by William Ritter

8) Which book did you enjoy least?
X Marks the Scot by Victoria Roberts. Let's just say I'm not going looking for more books by this author.

9) Do you have any advice for next year's Cheerleaders?
Keep up the good work. I want to thank all the lovely people who cheered me on through my blog or Twitter. It makes it so much more fun.

10) How likely are you to participate in the Read-a-thon again? What role would you be likely to take next time?
Try to stop me from participating again. I will make very sure that I can take part in both the April and the October Read-a-thon in 2015. In 2015, my nephew's birthday will be on the Sunday, by which point I'll be done reading, so that will make it much easier.

Total amount of time spent reading: Exactly 10 hours (I love that spreadsheet). Hoping for more next year.
Total pages read: 1320 (Graphic novels for the win)

#Readathon October 2014: Mid-event survey

1) What are you reading right now?
X Marks the Scot by Victoria Roberts. Thankfully, I'm nearly done.
2) How many books have you read so far?
Nearly two
3) What book are you most looking forward to for the second half of Read-a-thon?
Anything that isn't X Marks the Scot, frankly.
4) Have you had many interruptions? How did you deal with those?
Had to spend much of hours 3-7 at my brother's having family dinner. Dealt with it by starting my reading earlier in the day, to make up for some of the hours I'd be missing, as well as reading every time I went to the bathroom and in the car on the way there. I'm pretty sure my parents thought I was being pretty rude, but I don't care.
5) What surprises you most about the Read-a-thon, so far?
How perky I'm feeling, even though it's 1 am here.

#Readathon October 2014: Hour the eleventh

It's just turned midnight here in Oslo and I've been trying to read as much as possible. Today is my nephew's first birthday, and I know it's the firstest of all first world problems to complain that my Read-a-thon is hampered by the fact that I had to go have dinner at my brother and sister-in-laws and spend some time with my family. But there was just so much time spent talking about polite nothings or watching small children romping around when I could have been reading! And in the car on the way back it was so dark that I wasn't able to get any reading done at all. I know, I am insufferable. I don't deserve nice things - like a whole weekend when I can just indulge in reading.

Even so (and because I may have done an estimation of how many hours would be spent at my brother's and started the Read-a-thon a bit earlier as a result), I have got a fair amount of reading done.

Thanks to my audio book of The Kid: What Happened After My Boyfriend and I Decided to Get Pregnant by Dan Savage, I was able to get some reading in while having to rush to the shops. I've also finished Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake and am 70% through X Marks the Scot by Victoria Roberts, a truly preposterous historical romance that I need to finish to complete my Alphabet soup challenge. It's not great, you guys. There's sworn enemies forced to marry, and witchcraft accusations and an archery contest and the hero being implicated in the Gunpowder Plot (yes, that one). So much crazy sauce, not a lot of greatness.

Food consumed so far: Some ham, cheese and scallion muffins, Fårikål (courtesy of my brother, it was delicious), some birthday cake, a can of Coke, some chocolate, some jelly candy and some crisps. That thing I wrote in the opening meme about sticking with healthy snacks because of my diet has been completely blown out of the water. I cracked, and I cracked spectacularly. May as well enjoy myself.

Pages read: 589 (Yes, I may have acquired an e-book of the audio book I'm reading to work out the exact number of pages I listened to)
Challenges completed: Recommend Me a Book
Currently reading: X Marks the Scot by Victoria Roberts
Books completed: 1 (Anna Dressed in Blood - Kendare Blake)

#Readathon October 2014: Opening meme

1) What fine part of the world are you reading from today?
Oslo, Norway. Where the weather is cold, grey and rainy, so it feels extra satisfying to curl up and indulge with books.

2) Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to?
I haven't actually entirely decided what I'm reading yet, despite my love of making lists and planning things.

3) Which snack are you most looking forward to?
Because they've served me well in previous Read-a-thons, I've made my favourite ham, scallion and cheese muffins. Otherwise I'm going to have to be careful with the snacks. Am trying to lose weight.

4) Tell us a little bit about yourself!
I'm 35, I'm a teacher. I probably actually have way too much work I should be doing to take a whole 24 hours to spend reading, but I don't care. I love Read-a-thon and need some quality reading time to recharge my batteries.

5) If you participated in the last read-a-thon, what's one thing you'll do different today?
I'm going to allow myself some breaks, and may actually go to bed a bit earlier, and get up early, instead of reading for as long as I possibly can and then, as a result, sleeping through the final hours of the read-a-thon.