Category: This one’s a Keeper

Review: A Gentleman Never Tells by Jerrica Knight-Catania

Posted March 23, 2015 by Marsha in This one's a Keeper / 0 Comments

A Gentleman Never TellsTitle:  A Gentleman Never Tells
Series:  The Wetherby Brides (Book 1)
Author:  Jerrica Knight-Catania
Genre:  Historical Romance, Regency Romance
Published:  January 11, 2012 (original 2009)
Publisher:  Smashwords
My Rating:  3 stars
Source:  Amazon Free, owned
Synopsis:

Benjamin Wetherby, Earl of Glastonbury and heir to the Marquisate of Eastleigh, has just received an urgent letter from home. His father is dying and he must return to England at once. Benjamin is a man bound by honor and duty, to both his country and his family. So, despite his reservations, he leaves his life in New York City behind so he may find a wife and assume his role as the Marquess of Eastleigh.

Miss Phoebe Blake is finally out of mourning for her father, and just in time. She and her mother could be days away from being carted off to debtors prison, so Phoebe returns to society with the intent and determination to secure a rich husband.
Sparks fly when Benjamin and Phoebe meet, and it appears they have both found just what they are looking for. But will a dark secret keep them from finding their happily ever after?

This was last week’s Monday Free Pick Feature.  Read on for my thoughts.  No true spoilers, promise.

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Review: Poppy’s Dilemma by Nancy Carson

Posted March 21, 2015 by Marsha in This one's a Keeper / 0 Comments

Poppy's DilemmaTitle:  Poppy’s Dilemma
Series:
Author:  Nancy Carson
Genre:  Historical Romance
Published:  March 30, 2015
Publisher:  HarperCollins, Maze
My Rating:  3 stars
Source:  NetGalley
Synopsis:

From the newest name in saga writing comes a tale of one girl’s brave escape from a world of poverty in her search for true love.

Poppy Silk is the daughter of a railroad worker in the Midlands. The world around her is violent, immoral and poverty stricken. But despite being penniless and unschooled, Poppy is determined to escape the squalor, and a future cleaning up after a husband she doesn’t love.

Robert Crawford, a handsome engineer she encounters one day, is like no one she’s ever met. As he teaches her to read, feelings blossom. But life is not kind to Poppy. Robert is promised to another and Poppy can’t afford the luxury of hope. At a heartbreaking cross-roads, she must decide…is true love worth risking everything for?

Read on for my thoughts on Poppy’s Dilemma.  No true spoilers, promise. Read More

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Review: The Vampire Jerome by Ann B. Morris

Posted March 21, 2015 by Marsha in This one's a Keeper / 0 Comments

The Vampire JeromeTitle:  The Vampire Jerome
Series:  The Whitcombe Legacy (Book 2)
Author:  Ann B. Morris
Genre:  Paranormal
Published:  Original September, 2010  Reissue:  March 31, 2016
Publisher:  BelleBooks
My Rating:  3 stars
Source:  NetGalley
Synopsis:

She could save him or destroy him.

The Whitcombe Legacy: Three brothers, all vampires. For more than a century they’ve waited to fulfill a prophecy that could restore their humanity.

Jerome Whitcombe has embraced his life as a vampire and has no desire to become human again. But his destiny is about to catch up with him . . . in the form of a beautiful woman.

During Hurricane Katrina, Dottie Crawford was kidnapped by the evil vampire, Zurik, and contracted a rare form of sleeping sickness. In the hurricane’s aftermath, treatment is impossible. So Julian sends her to his brother and tasks Jerome with Dottie’s medical care and safety. But from the moment he sees her, Jerome knows that recovery from her illness is the least of Dottie’s concerns. He’s drawn to her in the most basic vampiric way—he craves her blood, her energy, her soul.

Before long Jerome is caught in a struggle between the darkness he has come to embrace and his return to humankind. And in the balance hangs the life of the woman he loves . .

Read on for my thoughts on The Vampire Jerome.  No true spoilers, promise.

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Review: The Vampire Julian by Ann B. Morris

Posted March 21, 2015 by Marsha in This one's a Keeper / 0 Comments

The Vampire JulianTitle:  The Vampire Julian
Series:  The Whitcombe Legacy (Book 1)
Author:  Ann B. Morris
Genre:  Paranormal
Published:  Original June 2008  Reissue: March 31, 2015
Publisher:  BelleBooks
My Rating: 3 (barely) stars
Source:  NetGalley
Synopsis:

His legacy demands her sacrifice.

The Whitcombe Legacy: Three brothers, all vampires. For more than a century they’ve waited to fulfill a prophecy that could restore their humanity.

Julian Whitcombe’s mission is to destroy vampires who prey on the citizens of New Orleans. According to prophecy, a woman with the power to restore Julian’s humanity will enter his life when the need for his transformation is greatest. As a mortal, Julian will continue his fight against the evil ones in both daylight and darkness, fulfilling his destiny. So, when Hurricane Katrina hits with a vengeance, Julian’s not surprised to find Simone LeClerc on his doorstep. He immediately knows she’s the woman destined to make him human again. All he has to do is make her fall in love with him—and make her willing to offer her life in exchange for his.

Simone LeClerc is frantically searching for her missing stepsister. Out of money and with no place to live, Simone finds help at Mike’s After Dark, a bar in the French Quarter. There, Simone meets Julian and finds herself falling hopelessly in love with him.

Still, as they search for her sister—and fight off evil vampires from hell—Simone can’t help wondering if it’s really love she’s feeling for Julian or if he’s woven a spell around her that will mean her certain death.

Read on for my thoughts on The Vampire Julian.  No true spoilers, promise.

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Review: The Courtesan Duchess by Joanna Shupe

Posted March 21, 2015 by Marsha in This one's a Keeper / 0 Comments

The Courtesan Duchess

Title:  The Courtesan Duchess
Series:  Wicked Deceptions (Book 1)
Author:  Joanna Shupe
Genre:  Historical Romance
Published:  March 31, 2015
Publisher:  Kensington Publishing Corp.
My Rating:  4 stars
Source:  NetGalley

 

Cover Blurb:

How to seduce an estranged husband—and banish debt!—in four wickedly improper, shockingly pleasurable steps…

1. Learn the most intimate secrets of London’s leading courtesan.
2. Pretend to be a courtesan yourself, using the name Juliet Leighton.
3. Travel to Venice and locate said husband.
4. Seduce husband, conceive an heir, and voilà, your future is secure!

For Julia, the Duchess of Colton, such a ruse promises to be foolproof. After all, her husband has not bothered to lay eyes on her in eight years, since their hasty wedding day when she was only sixteen. But what begins as a tempestuous flirtation escalates into full-blown passion—and the feeling is mutual. Could the man the Courtesan Duchess married actually turn out to be the love of her life?

Read on for my thoughts on The Courtesan Duchess.  No true spoilers, promise.

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Clean Sweep ARC May 2015

Posted March 21, 2015 by Marsha in This one's a Keeper / 2 Comments

Clean sweep may  2015I’ve been pretty good about keeping my ratio decent at NetGalley.  After a massive “newbie” mistake, I’ve been more realistic in my requesting of e-ARCs.  But it seems I am not one to back away from a Challenge.

Once again, Kimberly from Caffeinated Book Reviewer has the Clean Sweep ARC Challenge for May 2015 going on.  And I will take part in yet another Challenge.  I’m honestly not addicted – really – it’s just such a fun way to get something we need to do done, and to interact with other book lovers and book bloggers.

As always, you can get to the Sign-Up page through the graphic link or the written link above.  So go, check out the rules and join in on something fun.  Come on, you know you want to.  And if I can do one more Challenge, you can too.  🙂

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Signing Up For Bloggiesta Spring 2015

Posted March 20, 2015 by Marsha in This one's a Keeper / 14 Comments

Bloggiesta-mar 23-29This will be my first time joining in on Bloggiesta.  It sounds like so much fun, and the bonus of helpful information about improving my blog(s) is just icing on the cake.

I’ve spent some time going over all the information available at the main Bloggiesta website.  And I think I have a pretty good idea of what is ahead of me this coming week.  I’ve even penciled in some specific time to work on it daily.  Yeah, you could say I’m excited about this.  🙂

My Personal Blog To-Do List

There are many things that I feel need done on my book blogging blogs (yes, I have three).  So this is really a chance to take the time to do these things on all three blogs.  And should it take me longer than the week of Bloggiesta *shrug* oh, well, it takes until it’s done.  But the first blog to be tackled is this one where the posts will be.

  1.   Get social media icons up and linked up
  2.   Clean up the sidebar
  3.   Work on the Pinterest site for KB
  4.   Work on the Facebook page for the combination book blogs
  5.   Put together the TweetDeck and organize/follows
  6.   USE Twitter more – become comfortable with it
  7.   Revise my already written scheduled reviews – have at least 2 weeks done in advance
  8.   Get caught up on librarything, BookLikes, First to Read (GoodReads is up-to-date yay)
  9.   Learn some basic html coding – just enough to do some basics
  10.   Put together a blogging planner

So that’s my list, my commitment for the coming week.  Now to get ready to work.

If anyone else would like to join in as well, just follow the link by clicking on the graphic or go here to the Sign Up Page.

 

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Review: The Bride Ship by Regina Scott

Posted March 20, 2015 by Marsha in This one's a Keeper / 0 Comments

The Bride Ship

Title:  The Bride Ship
Series:  Frontier Bachelors (Book 1)
Author:  Regina Scott
Genre:  Historical Romance
Published:  November 24, 2014
Publisher:  Love Inspired
My Rating:  3 stars
Source:  personal collection, owned

Cover Blurb:

What was his brother’s widow–his first love–doing on a ship full of prospective brides headed out West? Clay Howard had been tasked with escorting the Boston belle home, but he didn’t anticipate Allegra being so strong-willed–or that he’d wind up traveling with her just to keep her from leaving without him!

Allegra Banks Howard isn’t going to let Clay interfere with her plans for a new life with her daughter on the frontier. True, Allegra needs his wilderness savvy, but if Clay thinks he can rekindle what they once shared, he had better think again. Because risking her heart for a second chance at being his bride isn’t something she’ll undertake lightly…

Read on for my thoughts on The Bride Ship.  No true spoilers, promise.

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Bloggiesta Spring of 2015

Posted March 20, 2015 by Marsha in This one's a Keeper / 0 Comments

Bloggiesta-Button-2 longSometimes when wandering around new-to-me blogs on a weekly meme I find really interesting and helpful things.  That was the case this morning. Now, I definitely should not be starting up yet another Challenge (embarrassed laugh), I have so many to do this year as it is.  But this event caught my eye because it involves something I’m attempting to do here at Keeper Bookshelf (and my other blogs) — get the website in better shape and blog better.  It’s a total win-win, so how could I possibly resist?

This event is bi-annual with mini-events two more times, so in effect there are 4 times a year you could join in on this ongoing event.  Each event is short, it doesn’t run year long, some for a weekend, others (like this one) run for a week.

Aside from finding amazing new bloggers to interact with, read their blogs — there is so much to learn.  I admit, that is the main reason I’m going to jump into this one – to learn from some very generous bloggers.  Trust me on this one – if you take just 5 minutes to wander around the BLOGGIESTA website you will find a wealth of helpful information through links to past Challenge participant’s posts.  So much that I could spend a week there and still go back for more.

Now I’m off to read the rules better – get my “To Do List” in order and write my joining post.  But I wanted to put this out there to those bloggers that do wander around here – this might be something that you want to look into for yourself.  We often speak of how to improve our blogs — this seems like a fun way to join in with a lot of other bloggers to do just that.

Click on the Bloggiesta graphic or on the Bloggiesta links scattered throughout this post to find out first hand what this is all about.

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Feature & Follow #9

Posted March 20, 2015 by Marsha in This one's a Keeper / 22 Comments

FeatureFollowParaAlisonGain new followers and make new friends with the Book Blogger Feature & Follow! If this is your first time here, welcome! You are about to make some new friends and gain new followers — but you have to know — the point of this hop is to follow other bloggers also. I follow you, you follow me.

The Feature & Follow is hosted by TWO hosts, Parajunkee of Parajunkee’s View and  Alison of Alison Can Read. Each host will have their own Feature Blog and this way it’ll allow us to show off more new blogs!  The rules are simple…Follow the Hosts and the Featured Blogs of the week – then do the blog hop, Follow those blogs that you don’t already and remember, if someone Follows you be sure to return the favor and Follow them right back.

This week’s Feature Blogs are:  Captain Swan Bookishh ~ and Teen Book Hoots   Be sure to check out their blogs and give them a Follow (if you aren’t already).  :)

Because this blog does not have the ability to put up GFC I would appreciate a follow through Bloglovin’.  Thanks so much.

FetureFollowbloglovinBloglovin button

This week’s question:

Have you ever been inspired by a book character to do something? Who was the character and what was it? – Suggested by  Eternity Through Pages

I can’t say “inspired to do something” but definitely been an influence on parts of my life.  There is a trilogy by Nora Roberts called Three Sisters Island  the novels are Dance Upon The Air (Nell),  Heaven and Earth  (Ripley) and Face The Fire  (Mia).  The three women in this series each touched me and taught me something.  Nell – how to stand up to my fears and live past them – Ripley – how to not be afraid to be angry or mad, and how to control the words that spill out when I am angry – and Mia – (Mia who has more shoes in her closet then she will ever wear) – how to stand tall no matter what the situation, with dignity and grace, and also how to let go of the past in order to embrace the future.  It might sound like a lot from some fictional characters – but I can definitely trace new and important reactions and decision back to this particular series.

Okay, now let’s get Blog Hopping!

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The Search for the Perfect Blog Theme

Posted March 19, 2015 by Marsha in This one's a Keeper / 2 Comments

heartI wish I could find that “just right for me and what I want” blog/website theme.

I think I have the perfect one up – and then I discover days later that it isn’t doing what I thought it would when I used it.

It’s frustrating, ya know?  Somewhere, out there, there has to be a good, attractive, easy to use, does what I need website theme.  There has to be *sob*.

Anyone have any good suggestions I would LOVE to hear them.  My frustration level is about to go through the roof – and I should be concentrating on reviews not this theme search.

🙁

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