Teaser Tuesdays #12

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

INSIDE OUT by Lauren Dane

....from page 16

-She was perfect in her imperfection.  All her features, in and of themselves, were not pretty, but combined, they made her singular, the sort of face that drew the eye.

Fashion Monday Madness....

Hello fashionistas!  We're getting the week off to a rip roaring start by spending the day talking celebrities and their clothes.  We've got some fine, and some not so fine, ensembles to talk about.  So pull up a chair and let's dish as we look at....

The Good....

Dita Von Teese looks timeless in this 60's inspired outfit with the oversized sunglasses.  The shoes and purse give a hint of modernity.  Dita looks cool and stylish and would have no problem walking on to a role on Mad Men and fitting right in.  Kudos on the cool factor!

 
Emma Roberts looks fun and flirty and ready for summer in this sparkling mini-dress.  The color looks wonderful with her skin tone and those shoes are to die for.  The hair's a bit too severe, but I can forgive the small error when everything else is right on.

The Bad....

Kim Kardashian is doing the Time Warp in this ill-fighting and 80's leftover that is baggy and and bland.  The shoes too are old-fashioned and add to the wrongness of this outfit.  I actually think I recall Rick Springfield wearing something likes this at the first concert I ever attended back in the early 80's, but he looked way better.

Heidi Klum has also gone with an unfortunately bad jumpsuit.  From the baby poop coloring to the poorly hemmed pant legs Heidi looks anything but model-like.  Add in the Shakespearean collar and perhaps the designers on the next season of Project Runway could make her something better....anything would be better. 

The Ugly....

Singer Kelis looks as if a Crayola box exploded on her or her stylist is ten years old.  This ensemble manages to look both dated and infantile at the same time.  And can someone please explain what those pink things are on her ankles?  They look like Beanie Babies to me.

Bai Ling always comes dressed for attention....too bad that attention is always bad.  The style of this dress is way over-the-top and the flying saucers--or records--on her hips are definitely making a fashion statement.  And that statement is....I need a new stylist.

So there you have it.  This is what the stars wore this last week.  What do you think of these ensembles?  Do you want these outfits in your wardrobe?  Sound off below and let's get the fun started.  Come back next week for another session of Fashion Monday Madness.

The Countdown Begins....

As I've mentioned before, I'm a HUGE Doctor Who fan and one week from today a new season begins.  Woo-Hoo!  So to whet our appetites, here's another extended trailer for what's coming up for season 6...

I'm so very excited for the new season and am happy there will be more River Song since she's an awesome heroine.  Matt Smith is definitely getting comfortable playing the Doctor and I'm quite enjoying him.  He's no David Tennant, but then who is.  His two companions, Amy Pond and Rory are entertaining and their being married adds an interesting dynamic.  So let's get the countdown rolling.

Follow Friday.....

It's that time again.  The end of the week where we get comfy and get to know our fellow bloggers better by answering a question posted by our hostess Parajunkee.  So without further ado.....

This week's question is...

Q. Do you have anyone that you can discuss books with IRL? Tell us about him/her.

-The person I talk with books about mostly is my friend of over twenty years, Kay.  Met her in college and we have very similar tastes in genre and authors.  We're both obsessed with the series of JR Ward's BDB, Kressley Cole's IAD, and Charlaine Harris' Southern Vampire (Sookie) books.  We share the cost of hardbacks and every conversation we have leads to talk about books.

Thanks to everyone for visiting my site!  Anyone who's new to my blog, I'd love for you to become a follower.  I always follow back.  Have a wonderful weekend!

Review for The Pleasure Garden anthology

The Pleasure Garden is an intriguing anthology with three stories from different time periods, but all revolving around the myth of the Winter Queen and her forbidden love for the Green Man which ends in tragedy.  The cuckolded King sees the Green Man turned to stone which leads the Queen to kill herself.  While the two lovers were together the garden bloomed, but upon the loss of their love the garden dies.  To bring the curse to an end, the Green Man must bring three lovers together which will allow him to join his true love.

The first story is Sacred Vows by Amanda McIntyre and involves Gaelic lass Cara falling suddenly in love with Edmund, who's soon to take his religious vows.  Their love is forbidden by law, but he swears to come back by morning and marry her.  Lies perpetuated by his supposed best friend lead Edmund to being forced to take his vows or face treason.  Cara's life too takes an unhappy turn and a marriage proposal she believes to be her saving grace soon turns dangerous and she must put her faith in Edmund one last time to save her family.  Will he abandon her again when she needs him most or will he come through this time and finally become the family he once promised.

This is a very emotional story where the heroine goes through many more hardships than the hero.  Cara gets left behind to pay the price of their transgression.  She deals with it in a mature manner and with a strength in character.  She's the more realistic of the two when it comes to society's hatred and the consequences of that and deals with it as best she can.  Edmund's lived a sheltered life and is very naive to the badness in people and it led him to trusting the wrong people and ruined not only his life, but others too.  I found him to be weak and a tad unlikable for his weakness.  Cara definitely deserved better after everything she went through.  The villain of this story is definitely worthy of the title and I was wholeheartedly rooting for him to get his comeuppance.  The ending was a bit forced and not the most fulfilling in my opinion, but again that's mostly due to my disappointment in Edmund's character.  My rating for this story is a B.

The second story is Perfumed Pleasures by Charlotte Featherstone and involves injured soldier Joscelyn Mallory who returns home from war burned and blind in one eye.  The only thing that got him through the pain of his recovery were images of his one true love Catherine Tate, who happens to be betrothed to his cousin Edward.  Edward is lecherous and cruel and sees Catherine as a possession he bought since he owns all her father's gambling vows.  Joscelyn loves her though and doesn't want her pity so he renews their love in darkness at first.  She's soon forced to choose between her happiness or the protection of her family, when an unlikely savior gives Joscelyn the key to assuring his and Catherine's happiness if she just believes in him.

This was my favorite story of all of them.  It revolves around my favorite storyline of Beauty and the Beast and has a scarred but very sexy hero who I immediately fell in love with after all the hardships he'd been through.  He's a wonderfully well-written character.  Catherine is a likable character put into a seemingly inescapable situation, which was unfortunately all too common for women in that time.  They were bought and sold.  I admired her moments of defiance against Edward, a truly vile villain who knew he was a lesser man than Joscelyn.  Catherine and Joscelyn were a truly romantic couple whose romantic interludes were extremely steamy.  I was rooting for them every step of the way and will re-read this story every chance I get.  My rating for this is an A.

The final story is Rites of Passion by Kristi Astor and focuses on war widow Emmaline Gage as she adjusts to living in the home she believes her husband's family has bequeathed to her.  She believes there are spirits associated with the home's garden and those spirits lead her to feeling amorous whenever she's in the garden.  The night of the May Day bonfire soon brings a new man into her life.  The man is Jack Wainscott and he's come to inform her that his side of the family actually owns the house and she must leave.  But after dropping that bombshell he becomes extremely ill and she's forced into nursing him back to health when the two of them are quarantined out of fear of his illness spreading.  During Jack's recovery, romance blooms between him and Emmaline and while he's thinking of a future for them together, she's scared to give her heart away again.  She doesn't think their love is real since it came about so quickly, nor does she think she's mourned her dead husband long enough.  As their relationship has ups-and-downs so too does the garden.  When her and Jack are together it blossoms, but when he leaves the garden dies out again.  Will Emmaline finally swallow her pride and take a chance on love again?

This was an enjoyable story featuring two people damaged by events during the war which forms a strong bond between the two of them.  Emmaline's feelings regarding her dead husband are understandable and I love Jack for giving her the space she needed to discover what she really wanted.  She's a strong woman and no matter what will always land on her feet.  Jack was playful and sexy and the perfect prescription to bring happiness back to Emmaline's life.  Their sexual encounters were sexy, and in regards to their scenes in the garden, rather unexpected.  I liked how this final story brought in the original myth and gave blatant examples of the lover's affects on the garden.  It was a nice way to wrap things up and did bring a definitive conclusion to the Green Man and his lost love.  My rating for this is a B+.

On a whole this was a very good anthology.  All the stories were well-written with mostly likable characters and I definitely recommend you reading it.  

In its entirety I give The Pleasure Garden a B+.

*I received this from NetGalley for reviewing purposes.

*Book cover photo courtesy of www.goodreads.com.