The Bachelor Auction (The Bachelors of Arizona #1) by Rachel Van Dyken

Main Guy: Brock Wellington
Main Girl: Jane 

This story was a total Cinderella meets Prince Charming with the exception that the evil step-sisters and step-mother are just two extremely bitchy and annoying sisters.

As you read you will spend half your time shouting “Jane honey, you’re their sister, not their slave. Tell Bitch-1 and Bitch-2 you are totally done with them.” 

A major kill for this story was how weak the female lead was, coupled with a guy so riddled with issues over mommy and daddy that he spends his time teetering between sweetheart and jackass it became blah.

What did save the story was the sweet romantic ending two matchmaking old timers. Brock’s brothers were also somewhat entertaining characters, I will totally be reading their books and hopefully in those books the female leads don’t let their sisters use them like old dishrag.
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Rating 3 out of 5 
Read@Book

Christmas at the Castle by Melissa McClone

Katrina is BFF’s with Prince Gil’s little sister. Prince Gil and his mother are so anti-Katrina because all they think is “she's a bad influence”. 

They don't think she's good enough because they think that she's like some sort of Golddigger. Especially Gil’s mom, towards the end she kind of makes up for it, but in the middle she's a major B. 

So, as a Gil gets to know Katrina he realizes that she's actually a really good person and she always has her BF’s best interest at heart. She's always trying to do what's best for her friend and not for herself or for anyone else. It was super adorable to see how both of these characters come together; they go from kind of friends to “I love you”. This book was like major hearts.


Rating 4 out of 5 
Read@Book

Netgalley ARC

How Do Dinosaurs Stay Friends? by Jane Yolen

Personally I find this book is full of cliches and so repetitive, however, I have to give these books a lot of credit because they really do draw the attention of children and after all if we're trying to get children to read. When picking a book for the children’s reading group, you want to read a book that they really want to look at and you know children love dinosaurs. As such, even though I'm not a huge fan, as long as the children in the reading group love these, I will continue to read them. So, I have to say this one gets a good score.

Rating 4 out of 5 
Read@Book

Batman/The Flash: The Button by Tom King, Joshua Williamson

Okay, for months now we have heard of this mysterious event that will 
crossover Watchmen into the DCU knows as Doomsday Clock and we've all been waiting on baited breath for more hints and what not.

Well "The Button" is the road to Doomsday Clock; collecting BATMAN #21-22 and THE FLASH #21-22, this four issue crossover gives us all this drama and action as Barry and Bruce find themselves in the Flashpoint universe. Now, I'm not going to say more because if you were one of the ones waiting for the release of the collected series you're in for a treat. And, if like me you have a subscription at your local comic book shop and you picked up every issue like your life depended on it, then you already know how awesome this story is (I mean we see Bruce's dad as Batman again) and what answers our boys will find. 

We've covered story, now lets talk art and covers. When these issues released they were released in variant lenticular covers and two of those now grace the covers of the hard cover deluxe edition. 

The Covers:
Despite having all the issues and the variant covers, my collection felt a little lonely without the hard cover set. So which did I choose? I chose the one with Batman and Flash running side by side. Personally I felt that one was way cooler and really encompassed the teamwork between Batman and Flash and they try to solve this mystery.

The Insides:
Like the covers, the art inside does not disappoint. By the end you'll like treadmills and caves.

Basically, if you haven't read, go get yourself a copy and get ready for the release of Doomsday Clock.

Rating 4 out of 5
(had to wait to long for what comes next)

Issues & Hardcover purchased at Collector's Paradise in Pasadena
Digital ARC provided by NETGALLEY