Crazy for You (Life and Love on the Lam #2) by Juliet Rosetti

Crazy for You by Juliet Rosetti
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

In the tradition of Janet Evanovich and Susan Elizabeth Phillips, Juliet Rosetti ups the ante in her laugh-out-loud funny Escape Diaries series, as Mazie Maguire must use any means necessary to keep her main squeeze out of the slammer.

Once you escape from prison and ride off into the sunset with the gorgeous guy who helped you nail a killer, you live happily ever after, right? Well, not exactly—not if you’re Mazie Maguire, and the flow chart of your life looks like a pinball machine. Mazie has broken up with her guy, Ben Labeck, she can’t pay her rent, her car is infested with mice, and she’s working at a coffee shop where the dress code is teddies, thongs, and toe-cleavage heels. Now Ben is the chief suspect in a murder investigation, and Mazie’s tapping into her fugitive wiles to keep him out of jail. Strictly as friends, she vows. No kissing, no touching, no romance. But how is Mazie supposed to keep her thoughts platonic when her “buddy” is giving her erotic back rubs, and a make-believe-we’re-newlyweds charade puts her in the mood for a wedding night?

Includes a special message from the editor, as well as excerpts from other Loveswept titles.

Mazie and Ben... Gaaah these two are cracking me up!

This book takes place 7 weeks after Mazie's big prison escape and 6 weeks after she and Ben's brake-up. Yeah, they had 5 passionate day and broke up. Now she works as a mystery shopper for a company. But her boss Rhonda (the Cougar) fire her because of her report and Mazie sees her with Ben -kissing- the same day. Yeah!

Anyway, same night Ben finds Rhonda dead and apparently he's the last person who saw her alive too, he becomes the main suspect of the murder. With this, Ben and Mazie once again trying to escape from the police. This time they have a Lieutenant behind their backs!

I loved the secondary characters in this book. Juju, Magenta, Dr. Dreamboat, Lieutenant Vincent Trumbull (okay I hated him a little) and of course Muffin! I like the way they involved with the story. The "real" murderer was easy to spot on but still I like the way the things turned out. Once again there was no unanswered questions at the end. So why I did gave it 3 stars? I really don't know.
Maybe I shouldn't read these books consecutively, I'm not sure about that but I know this book didn't grab me like The Escape Diaries. But I really enjoyed reading both Mrs. Rosetti's books. They're well written and I love the characters she creates. She's a great story teller and I know I will read everything she writes.


I received an e-galley from the publisher.

Shadow Woman by Linda Howard

Shadow Woman by Linda Howard
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Lizette Henry wakes up one morning and makes a terrifying discovery: She doesn’t recognize the face she sees in the mirror. She remembers what she looks like, but her reflection is someone else’s. To add to the shock, two years seem to have disappeared from her life. Someone has gone to great and inexplicable lengths to keep those missing years hidden forever. But the past always finds a way to return.

Strange memories soon begin to surface and, along with them, some unusual skills and talents that Lizette hasn’t a clue about acquiring. Sensing that she’s being monitored, Lizette suddenly knows how to search for bugs in her house and tracking devices in her car. What’s more, she can elude surveillance—like a trained agent.

Enter a mysterious and seductive stranger named Xavier, who claims he wants to help—but who triggers disturbing images of an unspeakable crime of which Lizette may or may not be the perpetrator. With memories returning, she suddenly becomes a target of anonymous assassins. On the run with nowhere to hide, Lizette has no choice but to rely on Xavier, a strong and magnetic man she doesn’t trust, with a powerful attraction she cannot resist. As murky waters become clear, Lizette confronts a conspiracy that is treacherous and far-reaching and a truth that, once revealed, may silence her and Xavier once and for all.

I have a real love-hate relationship with Linda Howard and Shadow Woman definitely different than other LH books I've read.

Shadow Woman is about Lizette Henry, who has a little dull and normal life. When she wakes up one day and doesn't recognize herself in the mirror and she became aware of the missing 2 years of her memory. She had a feeling she was being watched and she discovers she has the capability to defend herself...

Shadow Women has really slow pacing. The slow beginning took away most of my enthusiasm and the romance in the book was way too shallow, I felt no connection with the characters at all. It was an okay read but I can't say I really liked it. I would recommend it for Linda Howard fans but I don't think it was a good romantic suspense.



I received an e-galley from the publisher.

Çıplak Şölen - William S. Burroughs

Çıplak Şölen by William S. Burroughs
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Beat kuşağının kutsal kitabı…

“Başlığı Jack Kerouac önermişti: Çıplak Şölen

Herkesin her çatalın ucunda ne olduğunu gördüğü, donmuş bir an.”

Asla unutamayacağınız bir ziyafet…

1998 yılında keşfedilen bugüne dek yayınlanmamış yeni metinlerin eklenmesiyle zenginleştirilmiş 50. Yıl baskısı…

Okuduğum en enteresan kitaplardan biriydi. Belki de en enteresanıydı, aklıma başka bir kitap gelmiyor çünkü. Kolay kolay insanları yargılamayan, her şeye alınmayan, insanların tercihlerini "normal" ya da "anormal" olarak değerlendirmeyen biri olarak bazı yerler benim için bile fazlaydı. Demem o ki; beat kuşağıyla az çok ilgili değilseniz, eşcinsellik sizin için tabuysa, inançlarınız eleştiriyi kaldırmıyorsa ve hassas bir mideniz varsa (anlatım fazlaca ayrıntılı) bu kitaba yanaşmayın. Komikti ama okurken kahkahalar atmadım. Benim için değişik bir konuyu işliyordu (uyuşturucu kullanımı ve sonucundaki deneyimler) ama konu bana uzak olduğu için çok da merak duymadım. Yazımı iyiydi ama ortada keskin hatları olan bir plot yok, dolayısıyla takibi zordu. Başta da dediğim gibi, belki de okuduğum en enteresan kitaptı ama diğer konularda benim için biraz ortalama bir kaldı.

Ayrıca kitabın çevirmeni Algan Sezgintüredi'ye hakkını teslim etmek lazım. İnsanları çok çabuk kendinden uzaklaştırabilecek bir kitap. Bu tür kitapların Türkçe çevirileri daha da itici oluyor genelde konulara ve dile çok da vakıf olmadığımız için. Ama kitabın sayfalarını çevirmeye devam ediyorsunuz ki, bu tabii ki başta yazarın daha sonra da kendisinin başarısıdır gözümde.

Beneath the Shadows - Sara Foster

Beneath the Shadows by Sara Foster
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

When Grace’s husband, Adam, inherits an isolated North Yorkshire cottage, they leave the bustle of London behind to try a new life. A week later, Adam vanishes without a trace, leaving their baby daughter, Millie, in her stroller on the doorstep. The following year, Grace returns to the tiny village on the untamed heath.  Everyone—the police, her parents, even her best friend and younger sister—is convinced that Adam left her. But Grace, unable to let go of her memories of their love and life together, cannot accept this explanation.  She is desperate for answers, but the slumbering, deeply superstitious hamlet is unwilling to give up its secrets. As Grace hunts through forgotten corners of the cottage searching for clues, and digs deeper into the lives of the locals, strange dreams begin to haunt her. Are the villagers hiding something, or is she becoming increasingly paranoid? Only as snowfall threatens to cut her and Millie off from the rest of the world does Grace make a terrible discovery. She has been looking in the wrong place for answers all along, and she and her daughter will be in terrible danger if she cannot get them away in time.

This story is about Grace, who leaves her city life behind and moves to North Yorkshire with her husband and baby daughter. After a week from their transportation, her husband vanishes without a trace and Grace leaves the North Yorkshire with her daughter... A year later, Grace decides to go back to the cottage once again and while she's trying to figure what she should do with the cottage, she's looking for some answers for the reason why her husband left too. And she's starting to hear some local ghost stories...

Despite the modern outlook, Beneath the Shadows has a gothic atmosphere. I liked the setting of the book (isolated English moors), characters were rich and nicely developed. The story itself was very intriguing. It was tense and eerie. But there are some things that really bother me with this book:

- There was so many unanswered questions.

- I was expecting to see stronger paranormal elements.

- The end was a bit unbelievable for me.

But I found this book to be very well written and almost impossible to put down. It was a good read but could have been much better. I enjoyed this book, and will probably read more by this author.


I received an e-galley from the publisher.