Sappho’s Sisters by Berengaria Brown
Purchase: Kindle | Nook
Genre: Lesbian Historical Erotica

My Thoughts:
This story wasn’t what I was hoping for when I purchased it. Thankfully, it was cheap, so I’m not too heartbroken over it. Live and learn, I always say. Well, I lived through this short story and here’s what I learned: Sappho’s Sisters’s is pretty boring fare. Two-dimensional characters, a too-simple angst-free plot, and a mechanical writing style really didn’t do anything for me except disappoint. I had trouble suspending disbelief that a young and sheltered regency miss would know so much about oral sex, fisting, etc. There was also a touch of OK Homo to it that didn’t sit well with me. I know it’s supposed to be an erotic fantasy, but too many things kept pulling me out of the story. In the end, I just didn’t find it very enjoyable or erotic.

Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

Title: A Husband for Margaret
Series:Nebraska Series #2
Author: Ruth Ann Nordin
Publisher: Self-Published
File Size: 151 KB
Print Length: 248 pages
Availability: Smashwords | Print
Genre: Historical Romance

Blurb:
When Margaret Williams posted an ad for a husband, she expected Paul Connealy to arrive, but instead, his older brother, Joseph, came…and he brought four children with him.

FYI:
A Husband for Margaret is a free read from Smashwords and is the second in the author’s Nebraska series. It isn’t necessary to read the first book to understand this one.

My Thoughts:
This was a light, sweet enough read, but I think I would have enjoyed something a bit more substantial and angst-ridden given the characters and their situations. After his brother’s untimely death, a widower with four children offers to marry his brother’s fiancée, a woman his brother met through an ad in the newspaper. This, to me, opens the door to all sorts of possibilities. The story could deal with the hero’s loss of his brother and that of his first wife, of his marrying a total stranger and having to learn to live with and love another woman. It could deal with the heroine and her choice to marry a man she’s never met (something that she accepts all too readily, in my opinion), her struggle to get to know her new husband, etc. All sorts of possibilities are there in that situation – but the author chose instead to focus a little too simply on the two marrying, a comically jealous woman, and a group of busy-body woman who don’t see the heroine as a woman mature enough to care for four rowdy boys. It deals with appearances more than anything, I think. How the townsfolk see the heroine, how she deals with the boys and the jealous woman, the silly plan she concocts to get rid of said woman. The romance between hero and heroine doesn’t develop so much as appears. It wasn’t the focus of the story when it should have been. The husband is barely in the story, and he has little, if any, character development. He seems more a prop than anything. The four boys have more dialogue and interaction with the heroine than he does. In all, I found it too convenient, contrived, and a little too inaccurate when it comes to historical details (1800′s Nebraska with parks, park benches, and kindergarten?). You may enjoy it if you’re looking for a light diversion, but it really wasn’t to my taste.

Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

Title: The Lovely Bones
Author: Alice Sebold
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
File Size: 433 KB
Print Length: 352 pages
Availability: Kindle | Print
Genre: Literary Fiction

Blurb:
When we first meet 14-year-old Susie Salmon, she is already in heaven. This was before milk carton photos and public service announcements, she tells us; back in 1973, when Susie mysteriously disappeared, people still believed these things didn’t happen. In the sweet, untroubled voice of a precocious teenage girl, Susie relates the awful events of her death and her own adjustment to the strange new place she finds herself. It looks a lot like her school playground, with the good kind of swing sets. With love, longing, and a growing understanding, Susie watches her family as they cope with their grief, her father embarks on a search for the killer, her sister undertakes a feat of amazing daring, her little brother builds a fort in her honor and begin the difficult process of healing. In the hands of a brilliant novelist, this story of seemingly unbearable tragedy is transformed into a suspenseful and touching story about family, memory, love, heaven, and living.

My Thoughts:
I had high hopes for this one, but I just couldn’t finish it. The pacing was so inconsistent, that I found myself bored and skimming whole pages. What started with impact fizzled too quickly and my attention wandered, ultimately leaving me with a strong sense of detachment – I couldn’t feel anything for the characters or their situation anymore, not even for Susie, the victim of a horrible rape and murder. In the end, I wasn’t willing to keep plodding through it, so I put it down about halfway through. This definitely wasn’t the read for me.

ETA:
Since writing the above review, I have read other reviewers, on Amazon and on Goodreads, who did finish the book and provided spoilers for the ending. I am relieved that I didn’t make it that far because that type of ending would have left me feeling angry and disgusted. I am so glad I didn’t stick around long enough for all that.

Rating: 1 out of 5 stars

I am in the process of making changes to the blog, some small, some not so small. Over the next few days, the blog will be going through some content editing and layout changes. I apologize for any problems you might experience while these changes are being made. Thank you for your patience.

Here are a few of the things I will be working on:

• Cleaning up the Nav Menu
• Uncluttering the Sidebar
• Updating the Ratings Key
• Updating the About Me & Review Policy page
• Adding an alphabetical archive page for all Book Reviews

Only Words (Max & Skylar #1) by Acer Adamson
Purchase: Smashwords | Kindle Edition
Genre: Gay Contemporary Romance (Short Story)
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

My Thoughts:
Usually short romances like this one feel rushed and rather sparse to me, but this one is the exception. Yes, it’s short – only about 20 pages or so, but don’t let that turn you off. I found this tiny, little story to be quite a fun and enjoyable read. As one reviewer has said, it has a very “day in the life” feel to it, which I liked. I got dropped right into the middle of the story and just wanted more! I’m looking forward to reading the second story in the series.

Aidan and Ethan (Seeking Redemption #1) by Cameron Dane
Purchase: Liquid Silver Publishing | Kindle Edition
Genre: Gay Contemporary Romance
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

My Thoughts:
This was a great read with a measure of angst and drama thrown in. The firefighters were definitely a plus! The writing was good, though I think it faltered a bit during a few of the sex scenes. The plot stalled a little in the middle, but the emotional payoff more than made up for it for me. And did I mention the firefighters? Yummm….firefighters….

I recently flashed the firmware on my Sony PRS 650 Touch using Boroda’s “Russification” firmware. If anyone else is interested in doing the same, here is a not-as-short-as-I-thought-it-would-be guide for you.

The Russian firmware replaces the Dutch language options on the Reader with Russian. It will also allow you to change some of the button functions, take screenshots, and have an always-visible clock next to the battery indicator. The most useful thing it does, however, is allow you to change the font used for DRM and non-DRM ePUBs that don’t already have fonts embedded in them. (I have read on Mobile reads that adding a Body tag to your CSS will sometimes override the embedded fonts in some ePUBS, but I haven’t tried it myself yet to confirm it.)

Notes/Warnings:
Flashing the firmware on your Sony can be risky. It is possible to “brick” your reader if something goes wrong. DO THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK. Ensure that your Reader’s USB is securely connected to your computer and that your Reader is fully charged. It’s been suggested that temporarily disabling your virus protection and firewall may also help, though I cannot confirm this myself. This works on the newer model Sony Readers – the 350 Pocket Touch, the 650 Touch, and the 950 Daily Edition.

Flashing the Firmware:
1. Download the appropriate firmware from the Russian site here (Google Translate link).

I used the latest version available at the time of this posting (Version 1.05j). The firmware creator has provided the downloads for the original firmware for each of the Readers, so don’t forget to download that as well, just in case something goes wrong, or you decide the “russified” firmware isn’t for you.

2. Unzip the “russified” firmware onto your Desktop. You must have a Windows machine for this to work. For Mac/Ubuntu users – I do not know if this will work with Windows running in a Virtual Box. I just borrowed a Windows laptop for a few minutes.

3. Connect your Reader to your computer and wait until Windows recognises it. If the Sony Reader software opens, close it.

4. Open the folder where you unzipped the firmware and double-click the file called “flash_reader.bat”. Be sure you are running it as the Administrator. A window will pop up. Type “Y” to confirm that you want to flash the Reader. When prompted, press any key to continue. Your Reader will reboot twice. You can now remove the Reader from your computer. If all went well, you should be able to change a few new settings on the About page in the Settings section. Tap each new “button” on-screen to scroll through your options for each setting.

Click = Bigger

Changing Fonts:
When you connect your Reader again, you’ll notice a new folder called “epub” on your device. It contains a few CSS files – userStyle.css, userStyle.dflt.css, and userStyle.droid.css – and a subfolder called “FONT”. userStyle.dflt.css is a backup of the Reader’s font style. userStyle.css is what the Reader will use to choose the default font from (the Russian firmware has this already set to Droid Serif). userStyle.droid.css is a backup copy of the Droid Serif font style.

If you want to change the font to something else, say Cambria, then all you need to do is a little editing and some copy/paste. Create a new subfolder in the FONT folder. Name it “cambria”. Put your font files in there. Then open userStyle.droid.css and copy/paste the contents into a new blank text document (you can use any text editor for this). Edit the font names and folder paths so that they point to your new font. Save the document as “userStyle.cambria.css” so you have a backup of it. Copy the contents of this new file, open userStyle.css, paste it into that file and save again.

Disconnect your Reader and enjoy your new font!

References:
Boroda’s Firmware
Troubleshooting and further info on how to customise the firmware.
Flashing the Firmware
Troubleshooting, font styles, and CSS help (MobileReads).