TJlovestoread. Romance Reviews & More
There are many things we have in common, every day very real things like the fact we are wives, mothers, some of us have a job or several. We are friends who enjoy each other’s company while having coffee or playing cards. But what brought us together here is our passion for books, our weakness for hot alpha males and our love for a good story that we’ll take with us for a long, long time, especially when it makes us cry.
This blog was an inevitable, unavoidable, natural evolution to our book buddy friendship. We are still having hard time figure things out like what happens when we read the same book and have very distinct opinions about it (we’re just posting one review, first one who finishes has dibs). Our schedules are at ends and we do this because we need an outlet for our book infatuation, but it’s also done during our “free” time. So please bare with us and hopefully we’ll have a great blog for you to love to visit.
We’re Ceci, Dali and Ingri (sorry chickie, I needed to make that rhyme), and this is us.
Ceci (a.k.a. Ces BookGeek)
I am a hyperactive wife, mother, lawyer, teacher, daughter, sister and friend. My passion for reading started at an early age; it was fed by an unforgettable literature teacher in junior high and high school, and then it remained somewhat dormant during my new adult years (yeah!book lingo and all). Maybe having to read so much in law school made me lazy; I also got bored of all the “intellectual” books that were pushed down my throat by friends. Anyway, I grew up reading 80’s young adult novels like the Heartbreak Café and Sweet Valley High. Then one day, in my late twenties a book called Twilight was published, and just like that, my curiosity and my love for books was revived! Reading that book was a trigger and it helped me find great treasures and new friends.
My first reads were entirely based on Paranormal Romance, either YA or Adult. Of course, after finding the “adult” books, I now stay away from YA unless it is a recommendation from someone I know or, it’s a book with high ratings. Nowadays I read contemporary romance, new adult books, erotica with a plot and I’m still faithful to PNR.
What I don’t like in a book: Unnecessary drama. Stupid heroes/heroines who make harsh decisions without asking first. Porn on paper. Unbelievable insta-love (this always takes one star away from my ratings. I only believe in insta-love in paranormal or fantasy. Real life not so much, the author has to sell it really good for me to buy). Incessant self-loading and insecurities from a character. Horrible editing. Cliffhangers when the next book is going to take more than six months to come out (if that is the case, I wait for the whole series to be published). A book with no HEA (which never happens in romance so…. Any other genre I don’t mind). First person POV’s have to be real, if I am diving into the head of “regular” person, then such person should think like a real person; people don’t think in metaphors and analogies all the time, if writers want to be overly lyrical they should stay away from first person POV.
Aside from the above, I am very easy to please. I love alpha male heroes, but you can throw a sweet beta male my way and won’t complain. I love books that make you swoon and forget about real life drama and real life relationships (aka real men). Moreover, if you want my heart forever, throw me a book with spy/assassins/conspiracy/action/forbidden romance. I will dive into it right away. Why? Well if you want to know, I am a hard-core fan of La Femme Nikita, for me there is no other couple that equals Michael Samuel and Nikita, even if they never got their real HEA; therefore I’m a sucker for these plots.
oh and did I mention I am a Video Game geek ohh yeaahh!! RPG’s rule
Dali (a.k.a. The Star Wars and Star Trek Geek)
A friend suggested that instead of using my name I should call myself something “mean and scary” like the book bitch. He’s obviously never read my reviews because if he had, he would know I’m fairly easy to please. As long as I get my happy ending and there are no incessant inner whiny monologues from ANY character and we can avoid the wishy-washy heroines and steer clear of dumb decision making, you know the kind where the worst assumptions are made, no one asks what really happened, no one considers intervening to clear up misunderstandings a causing the heroes endless pain, then I’m good.
Ok, so I may be a bit demanding, but I do try to be as honest with the books I read as possible. I love to include quotes to state my case and sometimes just because they’re so swoony they make my insides go all gooey.
I will also take advantage and push eco-friendly advice. Shhh, the gals don’t know about this yet, but I’ll try to sneak those in once in a while.
You can stalk me on Goodreads:
https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/2209138-dali-from-tjlovestoread
REQUESTS
If you want to request reviews, we will gladly accept, we are not very picky. Just abstain to request them if your book has more than two of our don’ts. We promise to be objective and to never, ever be mean or disrespect your work. If we don’t like your book for any reason we will, review and provide feedback for such reasons. If for any reason, it becomes a DNF we will not rate, because I truly believe that you cannot rate something you didn’t finish….
RATING SYSTEM
Same as GoodReads
SOME TERMINOLOGY
DNF = Did Not Finish
HEA = Happily Ever After (endings)
HFN = Happy For Now (endings)
POV = Point Of View
PNR = Paranormal Romance books
TBR = To Be Read
YA = Young Adult (books about 15 to 18 year olds, no explicit or descriptive sex scenes. Although some portray teen sexual activity)
NA = New Adult (Books about 18 to 25 year olds, usually in College. Books about your very firsts screw ups and achievements as an adult)
SOME EROTICA TERMINOLOGY
BDSM = an acronym used to describe a variety of kinky activities. BD stands for bondage & discipline. DS stands for dominance and submission and SM stands for sadism and masochism.
Dom = shortened version of the word Dominant
Domme = dominatrix or female dominant
Dominant = term for the person who takes control in BDSM play
Limits = these can be hard or soft. A hard limit is a sexual act that a player will absolutely not consider and a soft limit is something they may consider but are unsure of.
Masochism = deriving sexual pleasure from receiving pain
M/F = a male/female heterosexual pairing
PWP = Porn without plot
Safeword = very important in D/s play. A word the submissive can use to slow down or stop a scene if it is becoming too much for them. Can also be used by the top.
S/m = sadomasochism
Sub = shortened form of the word submissive
Submissive = the person giving up control to the dominant
Topping from the Bottom = an expression used to describe the practice of a sub attempting to control the dom and the scene.
Intimate Enemies (Covert Affairs, #1)
I won't go for a summary of the book before expressing my opinion, because there are many others and all reviews posted here have a summary of the plot... ok we all know what the book is about.. and to tell you the truth it is a formula I hunger for and crave for in such a desperate way. Aside from paranormal romance and urban fantasy books which are my favorite.. my next big fix, guilty pleasure or whatever you may want to call it are undercover enforcement agents, spies, covert ops, etc. You name it, wether it's a movie, a tv series or a book... I am always on the lookout for these kind of stories.. good, bad, I watch and read them all!!!
I stumbled upon this book becasue I saw a 5 star review from an author I was reading at the time, I read the books' profile here on GR and like a speeding bullet I went and bought it for my kindle app. (and believe me that is not something I do often). I got hooked on it at page 4. I loved the story overall, the romance was hot, the hero sooo sexy! and Latin !!! the heroine... strong and confident, a little too much of a type A personality, but i liked her, mainly because she never went for the oh- I-heard-something-horrible-and-now-I-hate-you-before-asking-the-truth-even-though-it-hurts-like-hell attitude formula I've seen in a lot of the books I read recently.. and the kiss and make up because everyting gets straighten out in the end... NOOOOOO, we have a believable story, with nice plot twists and supporting characters that you don't know what they will turn out to be in the end! or how will they act or react, etc. So overall I loved the story.
Reasons I did not give a 5 star rating:
1.- The book has several typos and grammatical errors, so I see an editing problem there.
2.- ENSENADA, Baja California..... NOOOO WAY IN HELL that what you read described in this book is nearly the reality of the State and the City.. why????? BECAUSE I GREW UP HERE AND I LIVE HERE. so it was very insulting the way the city and my State where depicted in this book. I would have tolerated Juarez or other really dangerous Mexican Cities but Ensenada? WTH Ensenada is a very safe city, it's a very important import-export spot, and it's beautiful! Yes, I won't argue that we have corruption in Mexico and that we have drug cartels, and currupt police offcers and politicians, etc, but not as strong as it was mentioned in the book and certainly not gang activity as portraid in the book. I felt lack of investigation about the place specially when mentioning street names, restaurants etc. I would have liked to hear real places, a real coffe shop, a real bakery... and believe me Ensenada is not that small that everyone knows each other.... it is not a tiny horrible town... there are Starbucks in Ensenada.... you feel me??
I understand we are reading fiction, but sometimes we need to cover it with fact.
Overall I LOVED THE BOOK aside from that fact....and looking forward the next!!
I would recommend this read if you are a sucker for steammy, sexy, law enforcement agents and like a good crime, love and suspense story!!!