It's been a while since I posted a Quotes-post...*goes to check when the last Quote-post was* To be precise tomorrow it'll be a year since the last Quote-Post...hmmm coincidence much?

I've decided to revive the Quote-post Feature as once in a while there are books that are just so quotable that I it's very, very hard to stick to the 2 or 3 I usually use in my reviews, and I'm not even talking about the times I sneak in an extra few on top of the 2 or 3...

I'm kicking it off with quotes from a book I had the honor of reviewing for Fiction Vixen Book Reviews...When I saw it on the list for reviews I first hesitated to put my name up for it, but then I saw it was romantic suspense and everyone knows by now, my weakness is romantic suspense so I put my name in, waited for the book to arrive and left in on the shelves until on the evening of August 10th, when I suddenly was brutally reminded of the fact that Fiction Vixen was expecting my review of SHADOWS AT MIDNIGHT on August 15th and I hadn't even cracked the spine yet. So I got my behind in gear and opened to the first page that same evening and totally unexpected was blown away by this book.



Fiction Vixen has my review up so you can read HERE why I gave it 5 stars...

A LOST SOUL
Claire Day’s promising career as a Defense Intelligence Agency analyst comes to a shattering end in the bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Laka, West Africa. For more than a year, Claire has been rebuilding her life and her confidence when she suddenly remembers the man who tried to protect her, and who might hold the key to the mysteries haunting her nightmares

A LOST LOVE
Former Marine Gunnery Sergeant Daniel Weston believed Claire was dead. But the woman he grieve for has just come back into his life seeking to reconnect with her past, unaware of the feelings he has for her. Determined not to fail Claire again, Dan vows to help her heal.

A LOST TRUTH
Together, they begin to unlock Claire’s lost memories only to uncover a conspiracy that puts them –and any future they might have together– in deadly danger…

And as I didn't want to deprive you all of the wonderful quotes I found while reading this book, it has the honor of being the first Quote Post on the Blog again since a year. I hope you all enjoy the quotes as much as I did the book!

Dan's thoughts when he sees what's going on outside the embassy. It was a serious scene but the QT on crack remark made me smile:
Shit.
It was a Quentin-Tarantino-on-crack-scene.
Hundreds of screaming soldiers, firing their weapons crazily in all directions, pouring into the city

Several "smell" quotes from Dan's POV, the sense of smell was used a lot in this book:
*He could smell individual bits of her and they all smelled wonderful. Freshly shampooed hair, some lemony lotion on her hands and something fresh and springlike that he imagined was the smell of her skin. Jesus, he’d like to smell all that up close. Just put his nose next to her neck and inhale, even though he doubted she’d like him pulling a dog imitation on her.

Dan looked away for a moment, trying to get back into his own head. He definitely needed to go out and get laid, asap, if holding a woman's hand briefly while looking in her eyes nearly overwhelmed him.

He forced himself to smile into her eyes instead of closing his, leaning down to her and sniffing her like a dog.

Claire about to sleep with Dan for the first time and citing the reasons why she wanted to:
He wanted her and she wanted him right back, but for all the wrong reasons. Because he was so hot he melted the icy chill that surrounded her. Because he had strong hands that wouldn't let her fall. Because he was completely, gloriously sane and she was...she was slightly loony on her best day. Because he was a Marine and was guaranteed to make her feel safe when she woke up at three in the morning, alone and terrified with the echo of danger and voices clamoring in her head.
Those were not good reasons to take a man to your bed.

Clair has a "smell" quote too, she's dressed in Dan's T-shirt after a shower:
She sniffed at the material but all she could smell was detergent. She'd been hoping for the smell of Dan. His smell would be embedded in the deepest recesses of her brain to the end of time.
Oh, God. A mixture of soap and musk and man. Intoxicating. Enthralling (...) The smell of him , musk and male, the taste of him, salt and spicy, the feel of him, hot and amazingly hard all over, the sound of him, breath heaving in and out of his lungs(...)

Dan's fear for Claire's life described while he hugs her after an ordeal they go through:
Dan hung on for dear life, sweating and shaking, completely undone. Later when he could think straight, it would astonish him.
He was known for his cool under fire (...)
But now he was shaken to the core, the adrenaline of the escape coursing through his system like poison and the only antidote was Claire, safe in his arms.

Claire asking Jesse to buy her and Dan supplies while they go into hiding:
"(...) And buy me a parka." She narrowed her eyes on him. "Can you buy women's underwear?"
His eyes rounded and he took a step back as if she'd asked him to French-kiss a rattlesnake. "No ma'am."
Claire sighed. Pity. Though God knew what he'd choose. She was fanatic about nice underwear, but sending Jesse into a La Perla store would probably give him a heart attack.

Another Dan quote that made me smile:
He forced himself to take his clothes off normally, not in a frenzy like last time. Sweater off, placed on the chair he'd been sitting in. He didn't fold it. There were limits to what a man could do but at least he didn't rip it off and toss it over his shoulder. His shirt seemed to have a million buttons, all tiny. He was never going to buy a shirt ever again, not with Claire around. Maybe he'd just wear one of those Arab thoubs, go commando underneath, pull it up and off and there you were.

Claire ogling Dan:
Naked he was an extraordinary sight. Broad, heavy shoulders, tapering down to a narrow waist, smooth buttock, hard hairy thighs with the muscles very visible as he walked.
If I can admire his ass, I'm feeling better, she thought.
Walking back, he was even more admirable.
(...)
"Thanks I feel much bettter"
"I know." He leaned over to kiss her forehead. "You were checking my butt out. Then my package."
That earned him an elbow in the ribs, which he took like a man.

Dan and Claire, hot and heavy and emotional:
"Can I use my hands now?" He asked quietly.
She nodded, unable to speak. The feelings in her were so intense she felt as is she could hardly contain them. (...)
"Dan, I--"
"Sh." He put a finger over her mouth. "I know."
Kissing her deeply, he turned them over and entered her, a long, slow, tender penetration.
He lifted his head and looked down at her, wiping the tear that had escaped with a rough finger. "You're mine now," he whispered.

Another example of Dan's protective feelings:
* He’d made love for hours to Claire, as if joining his body to hers could create a magical aura of protection, as if the more time he spent inside her, the safer she’d be. If he could have, he’d have tucked her right into his own body and kept her there.

Sweet, disarming Dan:
Dan sighed and she turned around, her face lighting up when she saw him.
Oh man.
He rubbed his chest. When she smiled at him like that his heart just gave this enormous thwack inside his chest, even after (...CAN'T QUOTE THIS PART AS IT IS SPOILERISH) . He should maybe see a cardiologist.

(The ones with the * made the official review)

So a quick update post on how the spur of the moment Read-a-Thon went.

To be honest I'm a little bit disappointed in myself. I spent less time reading than I had planned. Sometimes this was due to unexpected stuff, like hubby feeling under the weather and me having to spend 2 hours doing grocery shopping by myself or sleeping through the alarm this morning and losing about 4 extra hours to read but mostly I have only myself to blame because I couldn't stay away from Twitter, was distracted by the Hungrian Grand Prix (Formula 1 racing) on television and simply not concentrating on the reading enough. Still I didn't do bad because where I normally read about 5-8 books in a month this weekend I read 5 books so I have to be satisfied with the little victory of that. And I also read some requested reads and ARCs which gives me some breathing space this coming month as I have a few more to tackle before the beginning of September, next to the daunting Mt. TBR of the books I own and buy...

Still I only finished 2 full length books, the other 3 books were novellas of ranging between 80 and 120 pages. I know these are books too but still I have trouble classifying them in the same category as full-length books of around 300 pages.

Here's the list of books I read, they'll all be reviewed in due course (sometime this month depending on which request/ARC it is and on some other reviews I have to write and some that are already lined up).

01. Full Disclosure by Cari Quinn
02. A Little Bit Wild by Victoria Dahl
03. A Hollywood Affair by Sally Royer-Derr
04. Ex Appeal by Cari Quinn
05. Whirlpool by Vivian Arend
started Naked Dragon by Annette Blair

I was blown away by the Cari Quinn's Full Disclosure and Ex Appeal. They were an unexpected treat during this read-a-thon weekend and I hope to read much more of her contemporary work in the future

The historical by Victoria Dahl was my first taste of her historical work and all I can say is that I prefer her contemporary work but I did enjoy A Little Bit Wild

A Hollywood Affair was a very tough read for me. The book was well-written and fast-paced but the subject of it was something that was so not to my liking that I had a lot of trouble reading this book. I'll explain more in detail in my upcoming review of it.

I closed the read-a-thon with a great read, Whirlpool is the second book in the Forces of Natures series by Vivian Arend and though I had trouble with the pace of Tidal Wave (it's predecessor), I flew through Whirlpool and enjoyed every page of it. Once again, well done Viv!

That's it for now, I am going to finish the review I left hanging when I started the read-a-thon on Friday.

And speaking of reviews FYI as of tomorrow my reviews will be having a slightly different lay-out as I am fusing the lay-out of my QnD-reviews and my full reviews together a bit in preparation of closing down my QnD Romance Reviews blog in the near future. Because it's not really working like I had envisioned so I've decided to do the QnD reviews here on Pearl's World of Romance, so all my reviews will be kept in the same place. I hope you all will like the new format and the future move of the QnD reviews to PWOR.

Taking a break in my Lorelei James extravaganza to introduce my latest endeavor in Blogland. A while back I blogged about my lack of time and necessary changes that I was making to balance my off- and online life and to bring the joy of reading back. Since then I've made quite some progress and things have really quieted down in my head...actually they did right after I wrote the posts. Writing stuff down (whether on paper or on a screen) always works for me in terms of getting them straightened out and off my chest.

This is not to say that things all went smoothly and easily. There has been some frustration and some slipping back into the obsessive, controling, wanting-to-have-a-grip-on-everything behavior that was causing the mess in my head and the lack of fun in my reading. The latest fall-back lead up to a huge fight with hubby over reading, twitter and blogging. But we talked it out and came to a compromise, to which I am really trying to hold myself: During the week I can read, twitter and blog all I want but in the weekends I make exclusive time for him and our social life. Sounds good to me! Past weekend was the first weekend after the compromise and though the time spent wasn't completely away from computer and books but for a first time going cold turkey wasn't going to work anyway...and...I was working on the reason for this post (as always I am digressing majorly again): My new blog!

As stated in the posts of last year (see the links above)  I was having a hard time divinding my time between reading and reviewing because I have this urge to review ALL the books I read. And making full reviews of all these books will cut down a lot of reading time. So I had this idea in my head that I'd do mini-reviews of them, just quick, to-the-point, non-elaborate reviews to give others a feel of my thoughts on the books that I didn't have the time for to give a full review. And also the books that just don't have enough "body" to fill a full review. There are books about which there's just not that much to say and making a full review of them would always cost me blood, sweat and tears, trying to wring out a decent and lengthy review. Trying to do this anyway would kind of surpass the goal of more reading less "other stuff".

So there it was: the idea of mini-reviews....and now what? I knew what I wanted but just didn't know what structure to give them and how to set them up and start writing them. Below are some of the steps I took and thoughts I had on how to go about with the mini-reviews:

• I started by googling "mini-reviews" to see what was already out there in Blogland/on Internet, to avoid doing something already done and/or to find some ideas.
• Should I incorporate the mini-reviews on my existing blog (this one) or do something separate altogether?
• What information should be given in the mini-reviews?
• Which of the books I'd already read would qualify for a mini-review
• I decided I wanted a separate blog for the mini-reviews
• Now that I decided on separate blog, what about the header, button, etc. What colors, what template? The name for the blog? Oh, the decisions...
• After long thought and many, many, discarded names, the name for my new blog came to me in an epiphany...probably during TV-watching because that's when I get the best ideas and thoughts
• Named the blog: Quick 'n Dirty Romance Reviews, short: QnD-reviews (Quick and Dirty because the reviews were going to be just that and of course it always about the Romance)
• Had hubby (who is very creative but our thoughts on what we like are soooo different) create a header and button for me and lo and behold...We got it right (and both liked what he made) in one go!
• Still dabbling with the structure and content of the mini-reviews
• Created several testposts and showed them to hubby who gave me tips and ideas
• Finally satisfied with how it all looked and worked and posted the first (teaser)QnD-review: Heather Long's REMEMBERING ASHBY, which was the first book I had lined up for a mini-review while still reading it.

So without any further ado I present to you:




Click on either the link or the image and explore my new blog. There are QnD-reviews and of course a giveaway! What would a Grand Opening be without presents ;)

As stated in my post about the lack of time I have been in a very busy phase in my life the past few months and still am. I am juggling married life, social life, work life and my passion for reading/reviewing and TV. And to be honest I'm not doing a very good job of it in my own eyes. The post mentioned above, some hefty and emotional discussions over the past weeks with hubby and finally a good talk with fellow booklover and friend Leontine, have made me stop, think and assess what I am doing and why I am trying to do it all and have it all.

Over the passed months the fun of reading has been slipping away in small doses. Reading slumps were coming more frequently than the usual once a year little slump I used to have. And I have also experienced some serious reviewing slumps (am in one again as we speak). There are reading challenges I've put myself up to. There is the ever-growing TBR pile which has become Mount TBR in my eyes, an insurmountable mountain of which I will never reach the top because I just keep buying and buying books I will need at least 5 lifetimes to read. Combine this my reviewing for ROOB, which I absolutely love to do (do not get me wrong on that!) reading is becoming kind of a chore. And the way I do things, I am a real ALL or NOTHING kinda person, the fun of it was beginning to disappear. And I want reading to be fun and not a chore or an obligation hanging over my head like Damocles' sword. In order to bring the fun back, steps need to be taken. I must say that this self reflection has been brutal and confrontational. I don't like to deal with confrontations, not even when I am the one confronting myself and avoid them as much as I can, but sometimes it must be done and decisions and changes must be made. The decisions I have made are not as final as to stop with my blog or to stop with my reading and reviewing because I have too much fun doing these things and they are very helpful in keeping my sanity when "real life" beats the crap out of me. Nonetheless, some pretty drastic changes are coming in the foreseeable future.

The first change has been in the making for a while now. As some might know (if you follow my presence on Twitter) I am in the process of doing a make-over of my blog. This was not inspired by the self-reflection by the way, it is a recurring phase I go through periodically (been blogging since 2004, book blogging since 2007). Sometimes this phase is after 6 months, sometimes after a year, sometimes after 2 years but there comes a point when I am fed up with the colors, header and lay-out of my blog and I go for a change. Well, I hit that bump again a few months ago. Wanting change, something else, a fresh wind, something new and unique. Since then own domains, websites from scratch, WordPress, Blogger pre-made templates and even considering hiring someone to make a custom template are all options that came up but failed to mold to my wants and needs. A lot of frustration ensued that literally made my head hurt and when I was about to give up, I found a pre-made Blogger template that, with a little online help, fits my needs perfectly. When the newly formatted blog is up, props will be duely given to the one who made this template.
At the moment I am doing the conversion to the new template, which is a time-consuming process and I am afraid to say when the made-over blog will be launched, but rest assured that it IS coming, and hopefully within a few weeks, but it would be safer to think in months...


Linked to the first change (blog make-over) is a change in my reading and reviewing. A question in the interview I did for Heather Long's Blog made me stop and think and set the spark for this change. The question was:

When you read, do you find yourself mentally writing a review or does that process begin after you've finished the story?

When I was answering this question it dawned on me (I am sometimes a bit dense, I know) that when reading I AM mentally writing the review or at least part of it. I read books with reviewing them in mind, making notes, marking quotes. Even when not reading the book I am busy thinking of what I can use in my review, hearing things on TV, movies, radio and from people and thinking: Oh I could use that in a review. It's becoming almost obsessive (who am I kidding?...it already is obsessive!) and I am not liking that. This has prompted me to review my own reading and reviewing habits and I decided it has to change!

Don't worry! I am not going to stop reviewing books, I am just going to do it differently and I'm going to allow myself to not review EVERY book I read. The books I do review aren't all going to get the extensive reviews I am used to making. I have decided I want to read for fun and relaxation and enjoy reading, instead of analyzing a book to pieces because I must review it. This is going to be hard, because I am a creature of habit, as most human beings are, and breaking some of my habits have proven to be very, very hard. Of course my opinion of the books I read will still be voiced only in a less extensive and for me less pressing manner. I will be doing mini-review round-ups of books read in a certain period of time, so there will be short impressions/reviews of multiple books in one review-blogpost. Occasionally longer and more extensive reviews will appear, naturally for the ARCs and requests read for ROOB and the occasional ARCs and requests for my own blog. I also know there will always be books that drive my fingers to the keyboard and they start typing away effortlessly, which will lead automatically to writing "full" reviews and I will welcome those moments. But no more forcing myself to write extensive reviews. Maybe that way I can bring the joy of reading back for myself!

Linked to this second change is the rating system I use on this blog. I started out using the star rating system from ROOB, after a while I somewhat modified the descriptions and added flames for the heat level in books but I never was comfortable with either the stars or the flames. I have been debating for a while what to do with the rating. First I thought to completely get rid of any rating but that isn't it either for me. I still want to rate a book so comparison can be made between books without having to read an entire review. So I decided I wanted a different rating system since the stars aren't working for me that well anymore. I contemplated the popular A-F/DNF rating I see a lot around blogland, contemplated 1-10 rating I also frequently encounter but ultimately I have decided to use the 0-100 rating because it gives me more and plenty of  room for nuance between different book ratings than stars, A-F and 1-10 do. Following the change in rating I have also decided to drop the heat level rating (flames) I use now. Same as with the stars they are not working for me the way I intended them to. And thirdly I am not giving descriptions for the ratings given. With a range from 0 to 100 I assume the numbers will speak for themselves as to show how much I liked or didn't like a book.

The fourth change, and this is one is going to be the hardest, has to do with my book-buying addiction. I buy too many books, really. I kid you not. For every book I read I buy at least 3 or 4 new ones. I have a TBR pile which I have started calling Mount TBR of over 800 books!! Take into account that I read on average about 4-8 books a month....well you can do the math...This has to stop. I have to stop. I was well on my way to lessen the amount of books bought by not starting with new authors but since Twitter that resolution has been thoroughly flushed down the drain. Tweeting with other booklovers and authors is THE way to discover new books that just beg me to buy and read them. But I am going to have to be strong and wield some major will power on this. I have to stop buying new books because someone else has bought and read them and is raving about it. But more importantly I need to stop glomming! When I buy one book by a certain author I have this compelling need to buy their entire backlist, if possible and all new releases by that author, the moment they hit the stores, even without having read a single word by that author! And believe me I have tried not to do this but have failed profoundly and miserably. But I am determined now. As I said, this has to stop. I will need a few more lifetimes to read all the books I already have and that is hoping I'll live to get very, very old!!

In order to tamp down the book-buying frenzy the first thing I decided, is to cut down the genres (to a certain extent) I buy. I have always said that I am a waste basket when it comes to reading. You can put almost anything in front of me and I'll read it. This is still true but over the almost 3 years I've been reading English romance fiction I have developed certain and clear preferences. When I read solely in Dutch I already had a preference for chicklit, contemporary, thrillers and historical. When I switched reading in English, paranormal romance, romantic suspense and erotic romance were added to the mix and you can imagine how much money I spend, keeping up with all the books I want to read in all these genres, not to mention new voices (authors) coming out of the woodworks practically every month to add to the pile.

Since I have started reading in English I have read 300+ books and from those I have discovered what I like a lot and what I like a bit less and it comes down to liking contemporay romance (including erotic), (romantic) suspense/thrillers/mysteries the best. So I have decided to focus on these genres with both my reading and buying. However, this doesn't mean that paranormal, historical or (urban) fantasy romance will not be bought/read any longer. Are you kidding me? I have series on the shelves in those genres that must be either read or finished and couldn't even think not to do that! But still focus will be on contemporary and suspense.

The second thing I am going to try in making Mt. TBR a bit smaller is I am going to review my bookshelves with an extremely critical eye again (yes I have done this before) and purge all the series I have this "meh" feeling about after I bought them AND series that I know aren't going to be read in this lifetime because there are always other books that are screaming louder to be read and these books just stay on the shelves, unread, taking up space. And I have discovered that once an author has been purged from the shelves, the compulsion to buy said author's new releases also disappears. So for me it is the only way to reduce the buying.

If I could donate these books to charity, for example Maya Rodale's SHARE THE LOVE initiative, I would,  but sending books in bulk to the US is something I truly cannot afford at the moment. So I will try and sell the books second-hand as much as I can, and probably do some giveaways on the blog. That way I can make sure the books go to a place where they won't just sit idly on the shelves but will be read and treasured in a better way than I have been able to do. And I will raise a bit of money for the "Get Pearl to an RT or RWA Convention Someday"-fund. This way I hope to get Mt. TBR to a reasonable size and to control my book-buying frenzies. That's not to say I won't try out new authors when the gut-feeling makes itself known, but it won't be in the amounts it has been and is at the moment.

And with all these changes I hope my enjoyment in reading and blogging and consequently life in general will return and I will be able to remain the happy reader, reviewer and person I have always been. So stay tuned for the new and improved look and layout, the mini-reviews, the new rating system, the giveaways of the purged books and the lessening of Mt. TBR. All coming soon to this blog.

Happy Reading!!

What I would like most right now is time to read and review AND watch my favorite TV shows without compromising the "day job", quality time with hubby and fullfil the many social obligations (like birthdays, visiting friends and family, have sleep-over weekends with the nieces, nephews and god children, etc). This is wishful thinking and could only happen if the day had twice as many hours as it has now. Lately my standard phrase is: Too many books, too little time!! And we're not even talking about keeping this blog up to date, Tweeting and making my bloghop rounds on the blogs I follow.

Still I find myself seeking ways to do all of the above and more. On my (almost) daily rounds of the blogs I follow I sometimes see people reading 2 or more (have seen up to 5) books at a time and every time I stumble on this I turn green with jealousy. I just can't do that. I sometimes try to read 2 books at a time, deceiving myself by thinking it will make the TBR pile diminish quicker but it's just smoke and mirrors because reading 2 books at a time doesn't equal reading 2 books in the same time I would read 1 book. And even if it would, it'd just postpone the lack-of-time problem because I can't review two books at the same time. Have to write the reviews one by one, the one after the other.

Crap! I forgot to take a picture of the book with the markers still in it! Ah well, you'll have to do with a "naked" picture of the book then. *smile*



July, especially mid -> end of July was a period of great books for me! After Seduce the Darkness by Gena Showalter which is now Quotes recold holder, came Victoria Dahl's Start Me Up and though the record still stands.

After the Quote-posts of Whisper No Lies and Atlantis Unleashed it's time for another Quote-post!!



This time the honor goes to Seduce the Darkness by Gena Showalter. I'm a sucker for Gena's books and these quotes show why. I love her writing style and her characterization. Her books make me laugh, swallow lumps away and chew my nails, all in the space of 300-400 pages!

At the moment Gena Showalter's SEDUCE THE DARKNESS holds the Quote-record, with 17 quotes. It'll be tough for other books to top this! But hey I thought that with the other Quote-posts too so who knows...

Hope you enjoy these quotes as much as I did! But be warned...the quotes may contain spoilers so read at own risk!


A youthful Devyn lusting over a maid, which got him in a lot of trouble:
When her lush, pink lips had curled in greeting, his heart had nearly beaten its way out of his chest. He'd wanted to rush to her, put his hands all over her body, lick her and kiss her and thrust into her the way a prince was only supposed to thrust into his wife.

Bride's thoughts when she first encounters Devyn
Clearly, he was an otherworlder, though which race, she didn't know. Whichever one, she had to wonder if they were all like him: perfection wrapped in dazzling and sprinkled with every woman's fantasy.

Devyn and Bride:
"I smell like a woman, hmm?
"Yes."
"Well, you smell like sex." He leaned down as if he intended to share a secret with her, moonlight caressing him as though it couldn't help itself. Maybe it couldn't. "The dirtiest kind of sex, at that. Which happens to be my favorite.

Dallas and Devyn's loving banter:
"You're scary, you know that?" Dallas said with quiet affection.
"I know. It's hardly far to others that I am a triple threat. Pretty and talented."
"That's only two, moron."
"I'd thought it would be rude to mention my c#ck."

Mia, Devyn and Dallas:
"So, you've actually met one? Other than this Bride person?" Mia asked him (...). "A f#cking bloodsucker?"
He shrugged, downed the last bit of the Scotch. "If by met you mean bedded, then yes."
Dallas rolled his eyes. "Is there a race you haven't bedded?"

Devyn when he and Bride are negotiating kisses in exchange for questions answered:
"Don't worry. I'll be keeping score inside my head, and I'm very good at math. Example: Devyn plus Bride minus clothes plus a hard, flat surface multiplied by roaming hands equals greatest pleasure ever. When shall we begin?"

How Devyn and Bride discuss things:
"Do you want to see (name of a person I won't mention due to spoiling) or not?"
She bit her tongue, probably drawing blood. To keep from biting him? "You know I do. And if you've hurt her, I swear to God I'll cut off your balls and feed them to you."
"Kinky."

Another bout of Dallas and Devyn banter (Devyn has just "disabled" a landlord who was bugging Bride):
Dallas had his arms crossed over his chest.
"What?" Devyn said, all innocence. "He annoyed me."
"So nearly killing him was necessary?"
"Completely."
A roll of his friends baby blues. "Are you sure you're not in loooove with Bride? 'Cause, dude, you're like a knight in crotchless armor right now."

Devyn's seductive moves:
He shrugged. "You don't have to worry about giving in to my wicked advances. Not yet. Right now, you're going to strip and shower, and then we're going to talk."
She raised her chin. "Like hell."
You will. I'll force you if necessary. And Bride," he said, his voice dipping huskily. "I hope it's necessary."

Push-and-pull mating dance by Devyn and Bride (Bride is under the shower and Devyn wants in):
"Invite me in."
"Beg."
"Invite me in, Bride."
"I told you. I will when you beg."
"I don't have to beg for a woman."
She grinned sweetly. "Then you'll never have this one."

The moment my heart broke for Devyn:
Her uncertainty reminded him of the boy he'd once been. The boy who had put on his best clothes and snuck into his mother's wing of the palace to give her a birthday present. The boy who had knocked on his mother's door, hoping, praying for a smile, even a hug, when he gave her the picture he'd drawn for her. The boy who'd had to throw the gift away, because his mother had looked at it, thanked him, and placed it back in his hands before shutting the door in his face.

Devyn to Bride:
"You confuse, fascinate, irritate, and delight me." he said, "and I swear to God the only thing I was thinking about while tasting and touching you was you."

Devyn watches Bride take a real shower (with water, not the futuristic enzyme showers):
Never had Devyn see a more beautiful sight. She was an angel, a siren, a goddess, all wrapped in Temptation's skin. Her joy was palpable, and he had given this to her, he thought, his pride intensifying.

Devyn's thoughts:
He needed to feel her, to know she was here and that she wasn't leaving him. Yet. He needed her goodness to mute his darkness.

Bride and Devyn:
"Nothing you do to me is shameful, swear to God. Well, besides letting me suffer from withdrawals. You gave me a taste of you, then took it away."
He gave a hoarse chuckle. "Well, the first taste is always free. You have to pay for the rest."
"Name your price."
"You. Just you."

Devyn's feelings for Bride:
You're...you. You make me hot, you make me laugh, and you make me angry. You look at me with those emerald eyes, and all I want to see is happiness inside them. You confuse me, you arouse me, you make me want to be better.

The moment it clicks in place for Devyn:
Variety was no longer what drove him. Bride was. (...) She had shown him what his life was missing. Then, with her smile and her touch, she'd patched him up and made him whole.

Since I joined Twitter I have discovered many great people in the online bookcommunity: readers, authors, reviewers, editors, publishers. They are all helpful, friendly and amazing sources of information. For me it's the best way to keep up with many developments in the romance reading world and the quickest way to stay up-to-date. Another added perk to Twitter is the easy and very direct access to contests held by authors, reviewer and readers. Since joining I've won quite a few books (both ebooks and print) either via Twitter or via blogs/websites.

I would kindly like to introduce a new feature on my blog.


The list of what I've won so far is as follows:

A little background may be useful for new comers who aren't familiar with my reading and reviewing habits. While reading I am always taking notes for the reviews I write for my blog and for ROOB. Many times while reading I come up with the greatest paragraphs for my reviews and then when it was time to sit down and write the actual review, my mind would go completely blank and I wouldn't remember them...So I decided to write everyting down that pops up in my head while reading. The same goes for quotes. I would read something worth quoting and by reviewing time I wouldn't remember where I had read it exactly. Since I started reviewing books in February 2007 I have filled 4 notebooks with reviewing notes.

With quotes, I used to write down page numbers and some keywords in the notebook and when writing the review I would look up the quotes in the book again and decide whether to use them or not. But ever since I discovered the colored sticky markers I have changed my ways and it's a lot easier now: I find something that moves me, makes me laugh, sends me into awe-mood or is just typical for a character in the book and WHAM! a sticky note is slammed on the page.

Normally I find about 3-5 possible quotes in a book and the choice which to use is pretty simple. But since last week I have started with what I am now calling "my Quote-posts" when I had more Whisper No Lies Quotes than I could include in my official review and the choice was terribly difficult as to which ones to cut and which ones to keep. I thought that with 12 quotes I had set a pretty decent record. Well, I thought wrong! Because while reading Atlantis Unleashed I noticed that more and more markers were appearing and the result was the 18(!!!) markers below.

When writing the actual review some of those 18 didn't make the cut but still a new record has been established with the following 14 quotes that made this post. Read them at own risk if you haven't read the book yet because although I try to keep my reviews as spoiler-free as possible, with quotes I cannot always guarantee that. After all, what isn't a spoiler for one person could very well be one for the next.

Enjoy!!

Justice when he's with Anubisa:
The burning red of her eyes deepened until they glowed, and then she freaking sniffed him, inhaling his scent like a beast, and his skin tried to crawl off his body.

Keely about Ven:
The one Liam had called Lord Vengeance laughed, and his laughter changed him from forbidding warrior to pure, potent male.

*Justice and Keely when they first see each other:
"You are her. You are Keely."
"Yes," she replied, voice barely a whisper. "I am Keely."
He smiled a slow, dangerous smile, and the whiteness of his teeth was almost shocking in the darkness of his face.
"We are Justice," he said. "And you are ours."

*Justice when he thinks he will be trapped in the Void forever:
And then in an act of courage beyond any he'd known in all of his centuries, he raised his head to take one last look at Keely. He drank in the sight of her (...) "Remember me, my lady, that is all I ask of you for this or any lifetime. Remember me, although you never knew me, for I feel that I have known you for all eternity and hungered for you for even longer, still."

When she spoke, the liquid cadence of her voice caught at something deep in his soul. In both his souls.

Keely and Justice in the cavern:
"Rest? Rest?" She heard her voice rise into a near shout, but couldn't seem to help it. "Are you kidding me? You've just (...spoilers...), you kidnapped me, your talking about yourself in the plural again, and about claiming and baser impulses, and you want me to take a nap?"
(...) "If I ever get out of this, I’m buying a switchblade," she snapped. "Or maybe a Taser. Or a gun. There is no napping. There is no resting. There is only you, getting me out of here."
========
(...) the primal male warriors she'd sometimes seen in her visions, when she'd touched certain artifacts from ancient civilizations, simply didn't exist in modern times. They certainly didn't show up in the academic offices at Ohio State. But she wasn't in Ohio anymore. The hard, muscled male proof of it was climbing out of the water, stark naked and dripping wet, not a dozen feet away from her. Keely had never thought of water as an aphrodisiac before, but the drops that clung lovingly to Justice's body might qualify. They caressed him in all the places she suddenly found herself wanting to touch. With her tongue.
========
No way she would respond to him. Nothing in her background of fiercely independent personality would make her the type to be turned on by some naked, alpha-male throwback to the days when men were men and women were possessions.
(...) "Cut it out," she snapped. "Stop staring at me like I'm the spoils of your own personal war, and get dressed (...)"

Keely trying to rationalize her attraction to Justice:
Nobody knew better than she did that sanity was a spectrum of relativity. Anyway, it had been so long since she'd been naked with a man that maybe she needed to lower her standards. Crazy? No problem, so long as he had great hair.
========
He wasn't Prince Charming; he was Prince Tall, Dark, and Deadly. Justice was no perfect plastic prince, but a very real man with a very damaged psyche.

Keely tries to convince Justice to let her join him in a dangerous situation:
"If there's any chance that it can help you --both of you-- I'll take that risk," she said softly. "I don't really understand it, but you've become pretty important to me in a very short period of time. There aren't many people who are important to me, Justice. Please don't ask me to be a coward when a little bit of my courage might mean an awful lot to you."

Alaric about Quinn:
It was the force of her personality, a fervor and charisma that shone out at him with all the strength and glory and brightness of her soul. Her soul called to his so powerfully that she was a beacon in the darkness of his existence.

Keely finds it hard to resist Justice:
Keely gave herself a mental slap and nodded briskly. "Right. Shade. Ahead. Great."
(...)"Is there any reason you seem to have lost the use of verbs? The low, husky tone of his voice sizzled across her nerve endings, and suddenly the jungle was a whole lot hotter than before. "I have a strict 'no verbs in jungles' policy, of course. If we stay here much longer, adjectives will go by the wayside next," she said, flashing an innocent smile. The kind of smile that said "nobody here wants to rip your shirt off and lick your bare chest. " She hoped.

Justice and his Nereid soul:
Keely's smile, though tremulous, held a wealth of trust that humbled him. "Tell him...no. Let me tell him--tell you both. I want you. All of you. You don't need to be rough or overpower me. Just make love to me. Please.
The Nereid's angry, driving need faltered, turning into confusion. How can she want me? Even you, who are the other half of my soul, do not want me.

Better to be surprised than to have to live with the anguish of shattered expectations.

*Alejandro's bartering skills:
Alejandro stood up, leveling his shotgun at the vamp's head. "I propose a barter," he said calmly.
The vamp barked out a chilling burst of laughter. "What barter could you--"
The shotgun bucked and roared and exploded the vamp's head into acid chunks of skull and meat. Justice shot a look at Alejandro, who shrugged as the vampire's headless body fell to the ground, dissolving in a flood of slime. "My shotgun shell for his head. Seemed fair to me."

(The ones with the * made the official review)

As I was reading Whisper No Lies I soon noticed that the colored markers of quotes I would love to use in my review were almost starting to take over. Every few pages I would either laugh-out-loud, be touched or just melt at something said, thought or done by either Crystal or Johnny.

As I was writing my review I was already starting to panic because I didn't know which three I was going to pick for my review. As may or may not be known at ROOB there is a sort of rule that the reviewers don't include more than 3 quotes in the reviews.

As you can see: I had marked a lot more than three:



Because I didn't want to leave the ones I didn't chose for the official review out, I decided to dedicate a whole blog post to the quotes from WHISPER NO LIES (Cindy Gerard). It's one of the longest reviews I've ever written and the book in which I marked the most quotes ever. Even more than in my Lora Leigh and Lorelei James reads...And really, that says a lot!!!

*Crystal's newly adopted motto was: Men. Can't live with 'em. Can't tie 'em to a train track and wait for Amtrak to do the deed.

Crystal and Wong Li after the proposition:
Did you understand that my answer is no?"
"Mr. Yao understands your response but respectfully rejects your answer."
She blinked. "He said that?" She hadn't heard a word.
"Mr. Yao is quite taken with you. He expresses regret that you are reluctant to allow him the opportunity to get to know you better but must insist on your cooperation."
"No, seriously. Is he like texting you or something because I never saw his lips move."

Crystal when Johnny comes to bail her out when she's arrested:
Jesus, would you look at him. Hair too long and too blond. Eyes too sexy and too blue. Body too buff, ego in danger of lift-off. Standing there in his tight faded jeans, painted-on T-shirt, and snakeskin boots, he looked like God's guilty gift. Trouble was, he knew it.

Johnny after watching Crystal sleeping in only a towel:
"Down, boy," he muttered as his hair-trigger dick rose to the occasion.
He rolled his tongue back into his mouth, sucked in a bracing breath, and headed straight for the shower where he seriously considered a little hand-to-dick combat to arrest the situation.
"What? Are you friggin' thirteen?" Disgusted with himself, he stepped into the shower.

Johnny and Crystal arguing about Crystal going along on a rescue mission with him and the others:
"When pigs fly."
"Yeah, well, seems to me they already did the day I dropped you on your ass."
(...)
When he didn't deny it, Doc broke into a grin. "A girl? An itty-bitty girl got the drop on you, macho boy? Hell, maybe you'd better sit out this op, Reed, 'cause you're obviously slippin'."

Johnny and Crystal in the shower:
He groped for and found the showerhead. Then he pressed her against the shower wall and hung on for the rest of the ride as she took him down the path to perdition. Yeah. He was destroyed. Utterly. Irrevocable. Blissfully. Tinkerbell had taken him down. And there wasn't a damn thing he could do or wanted to do about it.

Crystal realizes she's fallen for Johnny:
(...)because when she played --not that she played very often-- she played it the same way they did. That's how it started with Reed, after all. Fun and games.
Now...well, the door to Heartbreak Hotel yawned wide open again.
She watched him move about the room, gathering his things, all buff and beautiful and capable and thought, So help me God, if he lets me down, I'm going to slit my wrists --right after I cut off his dangly parts.

Tension between Johnny and Crystal on a high during chase scene in Jakarta:
"Step it up."
Step it up? She'd been stepping it up, down, inside out, and sideways all the fricking day long. And she had had it with his drill sergeant edicts.
She put on the skids. Glared at him when he spun around to see what was holding her up.
"You know. I'm about this far from the end of my rope." She pinched her thumb and forefinger together and shoved it under his nose. "So don't be ordering me to step it up." (...)
"Why don't you shriek a little bit harder? I don't think the nice policeman over by the exit with the automatic rifle heard the waspish American shrew throw her fit (...)."

Crystal about Johnny:
There was more, so much more to the man than hot looks and flirty smiles. Last night...well, last night she'd been falling apart. He'd put her back together with tenderness and compassion and a strength of character that she suspected surpassed that of any man she'd ever known

Johnny and Crystal blowing off some steam after they leave Jakarta:
She giggled: "You're not taking me seriously."
He reached for her hand, guided it to his lap. "It doesn't get more serious than this, darlin'."
She laughed again, because he made her want to laugh. He made her want to do so many things. But most of all, he just made her want.

*Johnny gets the jitters when things start to turn serious:
He needed to think. He needed to think really, really hard. And he needed to do it without the distraction of a certain green-eyed pixie who glanced up at him and smiled a smile that made him melt and want to swallow her whole and get out the old vampire cross at the same time to ward her away.

*Johnny and Crystal go on a date:
The cowboy cleaned up good.
Johnny Reed wearing faded jeans, bed-head hair and a scruffy beard was enough to give a woman heart palpitations. But Johnny Reed in a suit and tie, blond hair perfectly styled, and clean-shaven was cause for a full-blown heart attack.

Those marked with an * are the quotes that made it into the official review.

10 = PERFECT Read:

This book probably made me write a gushy review when I don't normally do gushy


9 = AWESOME Read:

This book lacked just that little something to make it a perfect read


8 = GREAT Read:
This book may have had a few minor flaws but was still a great book

7 = GOOD Read:

This book was enjoyable yet did not evoke a strong positive emotional reaction or blow me away

6 = OKAY Read:
This book was flawed but not so much I didn't enjoy reading it. However there were elements that just didn't work for me

4-5 = MEDIOCRE Read:

This book had too many flaws for me to really enjoy but might be someone else's cup of tea


2-3 = AWFUL Read:

This book made me struggle to finish it and I would hesitate to recommend it to anyone


1 = E-FOR-EFFORT Read:

If I did DNFs, this book would be ranked in that category

Due to a new fulltime job,which is taking away a lot of reading and reviewing time, I am not actively accepting review request for the time being.

However, there can be exceptions if the request is made early on and the time allowed to read and review the book is at least 8 weeks.

Please read HERE how to request a review at Pearl's World of Romance

Pearl's World of Romance accepts review copies for romance novels or fiction with a strong romantic element.
All requests can be send to me by email directly at mbarten72(at)upcmail(dot)com or via my contactform.
Both print books and e-books are accepted. In e-books the preferred formats are: .epub or PDF