Dragonfly in Amber

Dragonfly in Amber by Diana Gabaldon


My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Pub. Date: August 2001
Series: Outlander Book 2

Synopsis: For twenty years Claire Randall has kept her secrets. But now she is returning with her grown daughter to Scotland’s majestic mist-shrouded hills. Here Claire plans to reveal a truth as stunning as the events that gave it birth: about the mystery of an ancient circle of standing stones ... about a love that transcends the boundaries of time ... and about James Fraser, a Scottish warrior whose gallantry once drew a young Claire from the security of her century to the dangers of his....
Now a legacy of blood and desire will test her beautiful copper-haired daughter, Brianna, as Claire’s spellbinding journey of self-discovery continues in the intrigue-ridden Paris court of Charles Stuart ... in a race to thwart a doomed Highlands uprising ... and in a desperate fight to save both the child and the man she loves....

Recommended Reading:
Voyager (Outlander Book 3) by Diana Gabaldon
Outlander (Outlander Book 1) by Diana Gabaldon
Drums of Autumn (Outlander Book 4) by Diana Gabaldon
The Fiery Cross (Outlander Book 5) by Diana Gabaldon

Shopaholic and Sister (Audiobook)

Shopaholic and Sister by Sophie Kinsella

My review
rating: 3 of 5 stars

Pub. Date: November 2007

Series: Shopaholic Book 4

Synopsis: Like the Chinese urns and twenty silk dressing gowns Becky found in Hong Kong…the five kilim rugs from Turkey…the splendid hand-carved dining table (and ten chairs) from Sri Lanka…the, um, huge wooden giraffes from Malawi (that her husband Luke expressly forbade her to buy)…

Only now Becky and Luke have returned home to London and Luke is furious. Two truckloads of those souvenirs have cluttered up their usually immaculate loft, and the bills for them are outrageous. Becky’s even maxed out on her second secret credit card, and she doesn’t have a new job yet!

Luke insists she go on a budget. And worse: her beloved best friend Suze has found a new best friend while Becky was away. Becky’s feeling rather blue—when her parents deliver some incredible news. She has a long-lost sister! Becky is thrilled! She’s convinced her sister will be a true soulmate. They’ll go shopping together, drink cappuccinos together, have manicures together, and watch their favorite videos together.

Until she meets Jessica for the first time and gets the shock of her life. Surely Becky Bloomwood’s sister can’t…hate shopping?

Recommended Reading:
Shopaholic and Baby (Shopaholic Series #5) by Sophie Kinsella
Shoe Addicts Anonymous by Beth Harbison

Good in Bed (Audiobook)

Good In Bed by Jennifer Weiner


My review
rating: 3 of 5 stars

Pub. Date: August 2005

Synopsis: Pop culture reporter Cannie Shapiro writes about other people in the Philadelphia Examiner. One day she opens a women's magazine and finds her ex-boyfriend has chronicled their ex-sex life together. She had not known Bruce thought her a "larger woman," or that he felt loving her had been an act of courage. Life wasn't always easy.

Recommended Reading:
Certain Girls by Jennifer Weiner
Little Earthquakes by Jennifer Weiner
Goodnight Nobody by Jennifer Weiner

A Rogue in a Kilt

A Rogue In A Kilt by Sandy Blair


My review
rating: 4 of 5 stars

Pub. Date: December 2004

Synopsis: Angus "the Blood" MacDougall neither wants nor needs a wife, but because of his boastful claims that he could marry any fair lady he chose, Angus must now find a wife. If Angus locates a willing lady to wed within three months, his friend and liege Duncan MacDougall will reward him with the ownership of his own estate, but time is fast running out, especially since Angus' reputation has put off more than one woman. While traveling in search of the next candidate, Angus encounters Birdalane, a spae, or wise healer, deep in the forest. After mistakenly thinking he has injured her, Angus feels compelled to take Birdi with him, but dragging Birdi along on his journey puts a definite crimp in his wife hunt!

Recommended Reading:
A Highlander for Christmas by Sandy Blair
A Thief in a Kilt by Sandy Blair
A Man in a Kilt by Sandy Blair
How to Marry A Duke by Sandy Blair

If You Dare

If You Dare by Kresley Cole


My review
rating: 4 of 5 stars

Pub. Date: May 2005

Series: MacCarrick Brothers Book 1

Synopsis: Can he exact revenge?
High in the Pyrenees, a band of mercenaries led by Courtland MacCarrick wages war for General Reynaldo Pascal. When Court turns on the evil general, Pascal orders him killed but Court narrowly escapes and exacts revenge by kidnapping Pascal's exquisite Castilian fiancée.

Can she deny her passions?
Lady Annalía Tristán Llorente despises her towering, barbaric captor almost as much as she does Pascal. Her inexplicable attraction to the Highlander only fuels her fury. But nothing will stop her from returning to Pascal — for if she doesn't wed him, she signs her brother's death warrant, as well as her own.

Can there be love between them?
From the moment Court discovers that Anna's prim façade masks a fiery, brave lass, his heart's ensnared, and he dares to defy the curse that has shadowed his life — to walk with death or walk alone. But Pascal vows that he'll hunt the two, never stopping until he's destroyed them both.

Recommended Reading:
If You Desire (MacCarrick Brothers Series #2)Kresley Cole
If You Deceive (MacCarrick Brothers Series #3)Kresley Cole
A Hunger like No Other (Immortals after Dark Series #1)Kresley Cole

The Smoke Jumper

The Smoke Jumper by Nicholas Evans


My review
rating: 3 of 5 stars

Pub. Date: July 2002

Synopsis: The fire that was to change so many lives so utterly started with a single shaft of lightning. It struck a mountain ridge on a still and moonless night and nestled like a pupa of death in the desiccated heart of an ancient pine. There were witnesses no doubt to this sudden splintering of air and wood, but none that was human. The woman, camped nearby with her group of troubled teenagers, slept on and heard nothing.

She has brought them here by court order on a youth program to help them find themselves. But one among them will be lost forever. For soon the cocoon of fire will hatch to engulf the entire mountain and exact its deadly toll. And into this inferno will come ... The Smoke Jumper.
His name is Connor Ford and he falls like an angel of mercy from the sky, braving the flames to save the woman he loves but knows he cannot have. For Julia Bishop is the partner of his closest friend, Ed Tully, an ambitious young musician. Julia loves them both but the tragedy on Snake Mountain forces her to choose between them and burns a brand on all their hearts.

With his blond, blue-eyed looks and laconic cowboy charm, Connor is the only child of a Montana rancher and a rodeo queen. Until that fateful day, he has been happy to spend his winters nurturing a career as a photographer and his summer vacations with Ed, "smoke jumping" — being dropped by parachute to fight remote forest fires.

In the wake of the fire, he embarks on a journey to the dark heart of human suffering, traveling the world's worst wars and disasters to take photographs that find him fame but never happiness. Reckless of a life he no longer wants, again and again he dares death to take him, until another fateful day on another continent, he must walk through fire once more....

Recommended Reading:
The Divide by Nicholas Evans
Vanishing Acts by Jodi Picoult

A Man in a Kilt

A Man In A Kilt by Sandy Blair


My review
rating: 4 of 5 stars

Pub. Date: September 2004

Synopsis: For the first time, Beth Pudding has a home of her own, even if it is a haunted castle. Blackstone Castle's ghost is reported to be Duncan Angus MacDougall, who has spent the last 600 years trapped between life and death after being cursed by his third wife's gypsy-witch mother. Just when Beth is getting used to having her own personal ghost, a boating accident sends her back in time to the real Duncan, who mistakes her for his fourth wife. Trapped in the past sans her trusty makeup case, Beth is desperate to figure out how to return to the present until she realizes that her love for Duncan might be the key to breaking the curse.

Recommended Reading:
A Highlander for Christmas by Sandy Blair
A Thief in a Kilt by Sandy Blair
How to Marry A Duke by Sandy Blair
A Rogue in a Kilt by Sandy Blair