romance

Review of “Wild Country”

~ Meagan Watts
Wild Country (The World of the Others, #2; The Others, #7)

Wild Country by Anne Bishop

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Wish I could give 4.9 stars, but I rounded up. This story is ultimately about two diverse groups facing a third in conflict. I have to say I hoped they’d do a bit better in the end than they did. That’s vague, I know, but I’m trying to avoid spoilers. I’ll just say this didn’t have quite the optimism at the end that I’m used to in this world, even with all the craptastic stunts the humans pull. Sigh. But it was still amazingly awesome and wonderful. Just the tiniest fraction disappointing at the very end, which tends to linger in the mind. I’ll still keep and reread it. It’s still one of my all time favorite series. Absolutely worth your time, without even the tiniest fraction of doubt.



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Review of Polaris Rising by Jessie Mihalik

~ Meagan Watts

Polaris RisingPolaris Rising by Jessie Mihalik
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Loved it! So excited for more from this debut author!

I got this book (galley) free from one of the signings at RWA2018 National Conference because the line was short and it was sci-fi romance, notoriously difficult to find. I had never heard of the author or the book before that. But hey, free, right?

When I got back to my room and read the back cover copy (bits of Jupiter Rising and Riddick with lots of new/original stuff), I was excited about it, and it was the first book I read of the 26 I brought home from the conference. Well done! Love the core story, love the tropes, love the worldbuilding, love the character development. There were a couple of “mistakes” because, hey, galley, and a couple of tiny nits I found about info sharing, but they didn’t detract from the story at all.

When I say I loved it, I mean that. I will keep it. I will read it again. I will look for it in its finished form. I will look for more from this author. So glad to have found this book!

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Review of Iron and Magic by Ilona Andrews

~ Meagan Watts

Iron and Magic (The Iron Covenant, #1)Iron and Magic by Ilona Andrews
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

OK, so even though I love Ilona and Gordon’s writing, I was not going to read this because I honestly couldn’t see how they could make Hugh sympathetic enough to be a hero rather than a ruthless villain. And I’m not just saying ruthless for effect. This man seriously has no ruth.

But I bought the book, and just like all their other books, I read it in every spare moment, to the exclusion of all other voluntary activities, until the end, because it was just that good. What makes this book amazing, besides the story, the characters (Elara rocks, Landon sucks, Rafael gets in some hits, the bad guys are scaaarrrryyyyy), the action, the setting, the magic, the twists and turns and timing, the pacing, the…everything…the best part is that they honestly achieved what I never expected them to. They made Hugh into a hero.

Don’t worry, Hugh is still a villain, depending on where you’re standing, but he…without giving too much away…he done good. And if you have not read anything else in this series, you can still get most of the impact of the character arcs in this book. Read it. The next one is going to be good too.

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2018 RWA Conference Countdown

~ Meagan Watts

Photo of sunglasses
Wikimedia Commons photo of sunglasses

Oh man! I’m so excited. Someone once said “I hope you get to unplug this summer,” and that’s what I feel I’m going to be doing at the RWA national conference I’m leaving for in (gasp) 15 days.

I’ll be unplugging from my daily life (even though, hey, I’ll still be there, and it’ll still be daily). The odd thing is that I’ll also be plugging IN to all the knowledge and excitement other authors will be sharing, I’ll be getting together with writing friends I haven’t seen for ages, I’ll be plugging my brain in so it can soak up all the yummy authorial goodness on offer.

I ordered new business cards to reflect the fact that I have a new website, then I made a couple of little updates to the website. I’ve made a few strategic wardrobe purchases, scanned the workshop listings to see what I might be interested in, and made sure my Cheeky Tarts (writing friends) dinner is on my schedule.

Fifteen days to go!

Review of Escape to You

~ Meagan Watts

Escape to You (Montana Heat, #1)Escape to You by Jennifer Ryan
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Not having ever read Jennifer Ryan before, and not reading a lot of western romances, I didn’t have high expectations; I was pleasantly surprised! I will be seeking out the other stories in the series, and I expect to read this one again before I let it go.

Creative plotting, good-to-excellent character development, and this story does not commit one of my pet peeves, which is to wait until the last possible moment before you know if the characters are going to manage to stay together. I kept thinking that the heroine was going to run away to save the hero from danger, which I would have hated, but she listened to reason…hooray!

Being a romance, you have an idea going in what the ending will be, so it’s the journey that counts…the journey was fun, enjoyable, made sense (in a story-logic way) and had plenty of escapism, plus, the bad guys get what’s coming to them!

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