Satisfaction Guaranteed by Lucy Monroe

I'd been eagerly awaiting Lucy Monroe's latest, the first in a new series, for some time. I loved her Ready, Willing, and Able series. So I was expecting good things from Satisfaction Guaranteed. However, I was sorely disappointed in Satisfaction Guaranteed.

I rarely get frustrated with romance novels. There are some things you just accept about the genre and generally I overlook the cliched elements that often pop-up. It's entertainment. I'm not looking for or expecting a literary masterpiece. However, I found myself literally rolling my eyes while reading Satisfaction Guaranteed.

Beth's internal monologues, while she and Ethan were supposed to be in the throws of passion, were tedious, distracting and terribly cliched. As far as hero's go, I felt Ethan was quite lacking. I didn't feel like either character had any real depth. Rarely, do I have to struggle so much through a book. I was so bummed to, as I 'd so been looking forward to this. Hopefully, the next in the series will be better.....

Grade: C

Sugar Daddy

So, Sugar Daddy has been out for awhile now and I’ve just now gotten to it. Several people at work raved about it and having similar reading tastes I reserved it from the library and it finally came in. I’d never read anything by Kleypas and wasn’t sure what to expect. But I loved, loved, loved this book.

Sugar Daddy, unlike many other romance novels which often times dives headlong into the romance, begins when the heroine, Liberty Jones, is just a teen. Kleypas spends a significant amount of time building Liberty’s past, both with Hardy and as an individual. We then follow Liberty in her struggles to make something of herself, in-spite of innumerable obstacles.

Sugar Daddy, starts with Liberty’s love for Hardy. So, natrually I was waiting for his return. Then, just when you know she’sfinally getting over him, BAM! He’s back, just like I knew he would.

One aspect I really liked about Sugar Daddy was the time Kleypas took to develop character relationships. There’s nothing that rings false and insincere like a romance novel that feels rushed or forced. I’ve read my fair share of such romances, where character development takes a backseat in an attempt to get to the ”good parts.” But Sugar Daddy is a good combo of character development, “good parts” and a downright good old fashioned love story.

Grade: A+

What Have You Read?

I've seen this floating around some other blogs, thought I'd take a stab at it!

Look at the list of books below:

Bold the ones you’ve read. Italicize the ones you want to read. Leave blank the ones that you aren’t interested in. If you are reading this (and haven't participated yet), tag, you’re it!

1. The DaVinci Code (Dan Brown)
2. Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
3. To Kill a Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
4. Gone With The Wind (Margaret Mitchell)
5. The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (Tolkien)
6. The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (Tolkien)
7. The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers (Tolkien)
8. Anne of Green Gables (L.M. Montgomery)
9. Outlander (Diana Gabaldon)
10. A Fine Balance (Rohinton Mistry)
11. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Rowling)
12. Angels and Demons (Dan Brown)
13. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Rowling)
14. A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving)
15. Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden)
16. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Rowling)
17. Fall on Your Knees (Ann-Marie MacDonald)
18 The Stand (Stephen King)
19. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Rowling)
20. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)
21. The Hobbit (Tolkien)
22. The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger)
23. Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)
24. The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold)
25. Life of Pi (Yann Martel)
26. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)
27. Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte)
28. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (C. S. Lewis)
29. East of Eden (John Steinbeck)
30. Tuesdays with Morrie (Mitch Albom)
31. Dune (Frank Herbert)
32. The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks)
33. Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand)
34. 1984 (Orwell)
35. The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley)
36. The Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett)
37. The Power of One (Bryce Courtenay)
38. I Know This Much is True (Wally Lamb)
39. The Red Tent (Anita Diamant)
40. The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)
41. The Clan of the Cave Bear (Jean M. Auel)
42. The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)
43. Confessions of a Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella)
44.The Five People You Meet In Heaven (Mitch Albom)
45. The Bible
46. Anna Karenina (Tolstoy)
47. The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas)
48. Angela’s Ashes (Frank McCourt)
49. The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck)
50. She’s Come Undone (Wally Lamb)
51. The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver)
52. A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens)
53. Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card)
54. Great Expectations (Dickens)
55. The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald)
56. The Stone Angel (Margaret Laurence)
57. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Rowling)
58.The Thorn Birds (Colleen McCullough)
59. The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood)
60. The Time Traveller’s Wife (Audrew Niffenegger)
61. Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)
62. The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand)
63. War and Peace (Tolstoy)
64. Interview With The Vampire (Anne Rice)
65. Fifth Business (Robertson Davis)
66. One Hundred Years Of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
67. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (Ann Brashares)
68. Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)
69. Les Miserables (Hugo)
70. The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupery)
71. Bridget Jones’ Diary (Fielding)
72. Love in the Time of Cholera (Marquez)
73. Shogun (James Clavell)
74. The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje)
75. The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett)
76. The Summer Tree (Guy Gavriel Kay)
77. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith)
78. The World According to Garp (John Irving)
79. The Diviners (Margaret Laurence)
80. Charlotte's Web (E.B. White)
81. Not Wanted On The Voyage (Timothy Findley)
82. Of Mice And Men (Steinbeck)
83. Rebecca (Daphne DuMaurier)
84. Wizard’s First Rule (Terry Goodkind)
85. Emma (Jane Austen)
86. Watership Down(Richard Adams)
87. Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)
88. The Stone Diaries (Carol Shields)
89. Blindness (Jose Saramago)
90. Kane and Abel (Jeffrey Archer)
91. In The Skin Of A Lion (Ondaatje)
92. Lord of the Flies (Golding)
93. The Good Earth (Pearl S. Buck)
94. The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd)
95. The Bourne Identity (Robert Ludlum)9
6.The Outsiders (S.E. Hinton)
97. White Oleander (Janet Fitch)
98. A Woman of Substance (Barbara Taylor Bradford)
99. The Celestine Prophecy (James Redfield)
100. Ulysses (James Joyce)

25/100.....mmm not so good. I've got to get reading....there are not enough hours in a day!!!!!