Book Binge

I love my Kindle. Undoubtedly it’s one of my most prized possessions. I am most definitely biased when it comes to eReaders. However, the Kindle was not my first eReader. Way back when they first came out, I had a Sony PRS-500. When I had it, I loved it. It was the first eReader I had ever seen. It was sleek looking. I didn’t care about things like screen resolution and page lagging. The Sony Reader software was very user friendly. That’s about all I remember about it. I ended up selling it.

Then my love affair with the Kindle started. Even though I told my Kindle not to worry, the nook looked pretty neat. Like the i-Phone of eReaders. It was touch screen (Sony also has a touch screen) and wireless. I’m pretty sure that’s why they call it the first “touch screen” eReader. I’m generally against touch screen’s in general b/c I am such a fast typist. I gave up using my i-Touch as an internet source shortly after I bought it. I like buttons that I can feel.

Kindle: Does not have touch screen. Buttons on both 1st and 2nd generation Kindle’s are very easy to use. I do have tiny fingers, so it might be different for other people.

nook: I don’t like the touch screen, however I find that when I am typing something in, the nook keyboard is extremely accurate. When shopping on B&N.com, I wasn’t having to keep typing and deleting.

Kindle: When I am reading my Kindle, I can comfortably hold it in one hand. The weight of the Kindle is 10.2 ounces.

nook: When trying to hold the nook, it was uncomfortable holding it in one hand though it was doable. The weight of the nook is 12.1 ounces. 1.9 ounces does not seem like very much weight, but when you’re holding it in one hand it actually is.

Kindle: There isn’t much personalization on the Kindle. In the 1st Generation Kindle, when you turn the device off, it turns off and the screen goes blank. In the 2nd Generation Kindle, when you switch it off it goes to a screensaver. There are no options for changing the screensaver.

nook: You can have a personalized picture (.jpg, .gif, .png or .bmp) as your screensaver. If you don’t want to put a personalized picture, there are different options for your screensaver. You can have “writers”, “cityscapes”, etc. This is a feature I appreciate since I changed the screensaver to cityscape and no longer have to answer the question of “who’s that?”.

Kindle: Supported file types are .azw, .txt, .mobi, .prc. The 2nd Generation Kindle allows you to drag and drop .pdf files but may not retain all functionality (font size won’t change). You can also email yourself .doc, .html, .rtf, .docx wirelessly. Amazon charges a $0.15 fee for wirelessly transferring files. However, they will convert your personal documents to an .azw file FOR FREE. Then you have to drag and drop the converted file. Kindle supports audio books (.aa, .aax) and .mp3 files.

nook: Supported file types for ebooks are .epub, .pdb, .pdf (however a .pdf that is dragged and dropped may not retain all the functionality of an .epub file. Not supported are .doc, .lit, .txt, .awz (Amazon), .lrz/.lrx (Sony) nook also supports .mp3 audio files.

Come back for Round 2 when I review page turning speed/user friendliness/more file format speak on a 1st Generation Kindle, a 2nd Generation Kindle and the nook. Make sure you don't miss your chance to win a nook.

Casee's review of Embrace the Night Eternal (Awakening Heroes, Book 2) by Joss Ware.

Simon Japp will never forget his violent past. But when civilization is all but destroyed, he sees his chance for redemption. Blessed with a strange "gift," he's determined to help the resistance against the Strangers, the mysterious force that stalks them at every turn. He can't afford to get distracted, even by the stunning, soft-spoken woman fighting by his side...

Sage Corrigan has learned to be careful where she places her trust. But she sees something good in Simon, even if he can't see it in himself. Posing as lovers to infiltrate a group key to their fight, they find that their staged affection soon develops into a desire that will leave them fighting for their lives in the night eternal...

This is book two in Joss Ware’s AMAZING Awakening Heroes series. If this series isn’t on your radar, you are missing out. Read my review of Beyond the Night Eternal here. The second book is the story of Simon (one of the men that were in the Sedona cave in 2010) and Sage (Computer tech extraordinaire).

Sage was born after The Change. She is also part of the Resistance, a small group of people that are building a movement against the Strangers—the immortals that caused The Change. Her contribution to the group is setting up a secret computer network at different settlements that are near Envy. The first settlement to get the secret network is the one that Sage is from—Falling Creek.

Falling Creek started when a group of people left Envy soon after The Change. Falling Creek was made up of people that believed that it was their responsibility to start procreating. Repopulating the world to the best of their ability, if you will. Now the original founds of Falling Creek are from a time that polygamy is not practiced (openly) nor condoned. I really enjoyed following the journal of Sage’s grandmother (who was alive before The Change). It shows her obvious struggle to become accustomed to this new living situation. Even harder to adapt to the idea of men having multiple wives. Especially when it’s HER husband that is taking more than one.

Sage’s family isn’t looked upon kindly by people from other settlements. It’s widely believed that Corrigan women are nothing more than sluts that will give it up for anyone. Sage left Falling Creek when she came closer to the date she would be able to contribute (i.e. procreate). Sage loves her home in Envy and never thought she would go back to Falling Creek. The resistance wants Sage to go in (under the guise of finding her way) to install a network hub. She chooses Simon to go with her.

Simon was nothing more than a glorified assassin in 2010. Of all them men in the Sedona cave, he alone is the one that is actually happy it happened. It has given him a fresh start. That doesn’t mean that he’ll unload his past baggage on a woman. Most especially Sage. The only really annoying thing about this book was Simon’s CONSTANT implications that Sage and Theo are meant for each other. Dude, shut your cakehole. We got it the first fifty times. Sage isn’t a woman to take it and she tells him what’s up and that’s that.

This is all going on after they get into Falling Creek. Holy Mother. The couples are told when to have sex and when to refrain from it. It’s announced at the dinner table who’s ovulating and when. Hilarious.

Then a Stranger shows up. Not just any Stranger, but someone that Simon knew from 2010. She is not someone he wants to cross. All he wants is to get Sage out safely. Like that’s going to happen.

Outside of the romance between Simon and Sage, this is what I took from the book: Men are men no matter where (or when) they come from. They like being waited on, they like p0rn and they are just generally lazy. But they’re doing their duty by donating their sperm.

4.25 out of 5.

P.S. The person you should feel really bad for is the one that has to keep all the birth records to be sure there is no inbreeding.

This book is available from Avon. You can buy it here or here in e-format.

The series:

Bookshelves overflowing? Tired of lugging multiple books around with you? Been wanting an e-reader but didn't want to spend the money one on?

Well, now's your chance to win one for free. We have a nook to giveaway and it could be yours.

Here's what you have to do:

1. Go to the Barnes and Noble website (barnesandnoble.com) and find 1 thing you like about the nook, along with a link to the first book you plan to purchase if you win.

2. Search through our archives (thebookbinge.com) for your favorite post/review we've ever written.

3. Come back here and leave a comment - or email us at contests@thebookbinge.com, with "nook contest" in the subject - with both links (one from B&N.com with the first book you plan to purchase and one with your favorite post/review from this site), telling us why you want to win.

4. If you share the contest somewhere public (Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, your blog/website) and leave a link in your comment, we'll toss your name in for a second time. But it has to be somewhere public..ie, if we follow the link we can see it.

That's it! Pretty easy, right? This contest will end Sunday, March 21 at 11:59 p.m. Winner will be announced Monday, March 22.

ETA: This giveaway is only available to U.S. residents.

When the announcement first came out that B&N was releasing nook, I have to admit to being pretty excited. I'd been waiting for another e-reader to come on the market that was comparable to the Kindle, and the nook seemed to be the answer.

My two year wedding anniversary was last week and my husband surprised me with a nook...and a Kindle. He wasn't sure which one I wanted, so he bought both (have I mentioned lately how much I love my husband?). Initially we decided I'd play with both and see which one I wanted to keep. Now I think we may keep them both. He's been wanting one of his own, so this could be the perfect solution.

He gave me the nook in the car on the first day of vacation. We had just left home on a week long road trip to Northern California. We'd had a conversation the week prior to and I was telling him I preferred the nook to the Kindle on paper. So he left the Kindle at home and gave the nook first. I had about a week to play with it before checking out the Kindle. I'd say that gives the nook an unfair advantage, but the truth is I didn't have much time to play with it while we were on vacation.

Look: My initial impression of the nook is that it's very thin. I've been using an eBookwise ereader for years, so the lack of bulk surprised me. Comparing it to the Kindle, I'd say they're about the same size. The nook is just a tad thicker than the Kindle and might be a little heavier, but not so much that I really notice it. I think the screen on the Kindle is smaller than the screen on the nook. Or that could just be an illusion because the case surrounding the Kindle screen is bigger.

Screen: Both devices feature e-ink screens. The eBookwise has an LCD backlit touchscreen, so this is a huge change for me. The color touchscreen on the nook really makes the e-ink standout. I kept expecting the reading screen to light up and getting frustrated when it didn't. I can't say if my problem stemmed from using the backlit eBookwise for so long or if it's the screen itself. More than likely the issue is mine (though it could also be that my other e-devices - cell phone, laptop - are backlit as well). The background of the nook screen seems a tad lighter than that of the Kindle. The gray is a shade lighter, I mean. It doesn't change or effect the reading experience.

Setup: I don't have an iPhone or iTouch, so I'm not used to using a touchscreen. I had some trouble inputting my account information initially on the nook because of this. I kept hitting the wrong letter and having to backspace to try again. it was pretty frustrating. I also had trouble getting it to accept my password. I had the same issue when I tried to register the B&N eReader app on my Blackberry, so I don't know if it was me or a B&N issue.

Registering the Kindle was easy in comparison, but I have to qualify that with two things: 1) I'm not used to the touchscreen keyboard and 2) I was playing with the nook in the car while my husband was driving. 2 is a huge qualification for several reasons, the main being that I get extremely car sick if I try to read in the car. So I wasn't able to give it my full attention. I don't know if it would have been any easier had I been stationary, but I'm going to assume it was.

It's hard using your thumbs to type on the Kindle because it's so wide. I keep wanting to use it like I would the keyboard on my cell phone, then becoming frustrated when I can't. I find myself hunting and pecking because of it.

Downloading: Once I had registered the devices I tried downloading a free sample from each store. I like that the prices are shown while browsing the nook. If I want to see the price of a Kindle book I have to select the title and wait for the page to load. It tales anywhere from 10-25 seconds for the separate pages to load on the Kindle. It was pretty close to the same for the nook. The color touchscreen on the nook makes it a lot easier to see the covers of the books. They're hard to see on the Kindle.

To start I downloaded the free sample of Too Good To Be True by Kristan Higgins. I'd say it took about 30-45 seconds on both devices to complete the transaction and have the book show on my bookshelf.
Reading: The sample shows as 14 pages on the nook. (side note: Something interesting about the nook: When a book loads it shows the actual number of pages. But the page count only turns about every 3 page turn. So essentially it'll say I'm on page 10 for 3 pages. :end side note) The first page is the book cover, then the title page, acknowledgments, dedication, review pages and etc..all the normal pages you have to flip through in a paperback book. I had to flip through 10 pages to get to the actual story.

Page numbers don't show on the Kindle (instead it shows a percentage) - which incidentally I find very annoying - so I can't say how many pages it is, but it does go on quite a bit longer than the sample on the nook. If I want to read the acknowledgments or dedications I have to page back. I like that better than having to page through them to get to the story.

The text is very clear on both screens. I don't see a noticeable difference between them. I'm able to change the font size easily on both devices, though it took me awhile to figure out how to do it on the Kindle. I kept looking in the menu options for it, when there's actually a keyboard button. The nook has the options listed on the touchscreen while the book is open. I like that I can change the font type on the nook, besides just the size.

There is a slight delay between page turns on both devices. I'd say 1-2 seconds. It doesn't seem to be better or worse with either device.

Sideloading: Personal content can be added to both devices via USB cord. It's easy enough, you just plug it in then drop and drag your documents. The nook takes PDF, ePub and Adobe Digital Editions. The Kindle takes Mobipocket, PDF and HTML. I have a ton of PDF files, so I loaded a few to see how they translated.

They transferred to the nook without a problem. The text was normal size and the font easy to read. The spacing seemed to be a bit off on a couple of the files, but otherwise there wasn't an issue. I can still adjust the font type and size, but I can't make notes or highlight text in documents I sideload. That's kind of frustrating.

They didn't transfer as well to the Kindle. The text size is tiny and isn't adjustable. I can't make notes or highlight text on this device either. Files can be emailed to the Kindle (the nook doesn't have that option) for $.15 per document. According to Casee, if you email a file in it automatically converts, but it didn't work when I tried. The PDFs I emailed still loaded the same way - with tiny font. The .doc file I emailed didn't show up at all, though I was charged for it (I'll take that up with Amazon later).

I like the idea of being able to email files, but I don't know if it's worth paying for. It might be worth it to avoid having to convert files, but I'm not convinced yet. I haven't tried converting my PDFs to Mobi files and loading them that way yet. I'm told they load perfectly though.

Connectivity: This isn't going to be entirely fair, because as I stated above I had the nook on vacation with me, but didn't have the Kindle. We stayed in a variety of places and I had some major issues getting the nook to connect. This was a concern for me with both devices when they were first released. The wifi settings don't allow you to connect to password protected wifi (such as hotels and etc) and I didn't have 3G service in many of the places we visited.

Audio: I tried loading music files on both devices without success. I haven't really had a chance to play around with them to find out why it didn't work, however. I'll try to remember to check back once I do.

As for audiobooks, I know Renee has successfully loaded them from Audible, but I haven't tried it yet.

Other stuff: The Kindle froze up for about a minute when I turned the text-to-speech on, changed the settings or turned it off. The nook doesn't have a text-to-speech function, so I couldn't compare.

Apparently the nook used to freeze up all the time, but it only happened to me once when an update was installing.

The cord for the Kindle is quite a bit longer than the nook's.


Conclusion: At this point I'm leaning toward the nook, mostly because of the way PDFs load onto it compared to the Kindle. Plus, I think the touchscreen menu is easier to use. This is based on using my nook for almost two full weeks while only having used the Kindle for a few days.

I plan to do several more posts about both devices in the following weeks to come. Please feel free to leave a comment if you have questions about either device and I'll be happy to answer them if I can.

Casee's review of On the Steamy Side (Recipe For Love Series, Book 2) by Louisa Edwards.

SHE’S NEVER MET A MAN SO MOUTH-WATERING

When Lilah Jane Tunkle fled her dull life in Virginia for the bright lights of New York City, she didn’t expect to wind up a nanny to a gorgeous celebrity chef’s ten-year-old son. Working for the delectable Devon Sparks is a sure-fire recipe for disaster, especially after Lilah gets a tantalizing taste of his perfectly seasoned kisses …

AND HE CAN’T RESIST HER DOWN-HOME SPICE

Devon’s not sure he can handle one more surprise ingredient in his life—he quit his popular TV show, his culinary reputation is on the line, and now the son he barely knows is back for seconds. Lilah’s Southern sass is supposed to keep the boy in line, but soon enough she’s teaching Devon a thing or two about homespun food…and turning up the heat.

I didn’t read the first book in this series. After Holly’s review (of the heroine specifically), I wasn’t too keen on picking it up. I’ve recently been watching Hell’s Kitchen so this book definitely appealed to me. After reading the prologue, I was hooked. Devon seemed to be very good hero material. Bad childhood, finally standing up for his father that he could never please. Things like that.

Lilah and Devon first meet at Chapel, a relatively seedy NYC bar. Devon goes there b/c the people know him and don’t care about his celebrity status. Devon is instantly attracted to Lilah and the air of innocence that seems to surround her. Another thing he realizes is that Lilah has no idea who he is which is a novelty when it comes to women.

Lilah has left her home in Virginia to begin a new life in New York. The last thing she expects is to go home with a stranger. One night stands are way out of the norm for her. After a steamy night of sex, Lilah follows what she believes is one night stand protocol. She leaves. The very last thing she expects to see when she reports to work at Market—the restaurant her friend is a manager at—is her one night stand. To make matters worse, he’s taking over as head chef for two weeks.

Lilah doesn’t quite have what it takes to be a busser. Her first night and she drops two full trays in the dining room. She is mistaken for a waitress and writes the order on her hands. Devon is furious when she comes back in the kitchen. Not only is he having a horrible first night as Executive Chef at Market, but he has also has an incompetent employee. The fact that it’s Lilah just jacks his anger up. When a police officer turns up in Market’s kitchen during the dinner rush toting a child she claims is Devon’s, Lilah immediately takes charge.

This is when I started disliking Devon (more than usual). After his shiteous childhood, the fact that he has NO CONTACT whatsoever with his child was unforgiveable. When you consider the circumstances in which his child is living, it makes it even worse.

Lilah was like a steamroller. A very effective steamroller. She is able to see a longing in Devon that he doesn’t show to the world. There was only one thing that Lilah did that I thought was out of line, but she was so matter-of-fact in admitting her mistake that I couldn’t just stay mad at. Lilah was the perfect contrast to Devon’s snoody “I’m better than you” personality. She was able to bring him down to the level the rest of us plebeians are.

3.75 out of 5.

This book is available from St Martin's Press. You can buy it here or here in e-format.

Holly's review of Night Embrace (Dark Hunters, Book 3) by Sherrilyn Kenyon

Dear Reader,

Life is great for me. I have my chicory coffee, my warm beignets, and my best friend on the cell phone. Once the sun goes down, I am the baddest thing prowling the night: I command the elements, and I know no fear. For centuries, I've protected the innocent and watched over the mankind, making sure they are safe in a world where nothing is ever certain. All I want in return is a hot babe in a red dress, who wants nothing more from me then one night.

Instead, I get a runaway Mardi Gras float that tries to turn me into roadkill and a beautiful woman who saves my life but can't remember where she put my pants. Flamboyant and extravagant, Sunshine Runningwolf should be the perfect woman for me. She wants nothing past tonight, no ties, no long-term commitments.

But every time I look at her, I start yearning for dreams that I buried centuries ago. With her unconventional ways and ability to baffle me, Sunshine is the one person I find myself needing. But for me to love her would mean her death. I am cursed never to know peace or happiness-not so long as my enemy waits in the night to destroy us both.

--Talon of the Morrigantes

This isn't one of my favorites of the series. Though it has some good parts and can be funny, I'm afraid I never really believed in the romance.

Talon is out hunting Daimon's one night when he sees Sunshine about to be attacked. He rushes to the rescue but is hit with a Mardi Gras float and Sunshine ends up rescuing him. She takes him back to her place and puts him to bed, thinking he's the sexiest man she's ever seen. The next morning Talon wakes up and realizes he's trapped in Sunshine's apartment for the day...with nothing better to do they get horizontal. And vertical, And quasi-vertical. (heh)

Despite their passionate night day together, however, they both know nothing can come of it. Sunshine has sworn off relationships and marriage, especially to men like Talon who would want to dominate her life. And Talon..well, he's an immortal vampire hunter who has been cursed by a Greek god so everyone he loves will die. He's not willing to sentence Sunshine to death simply because of his past sins.

But unforeseen forces are at work to keep these two together. When Talon and Sunshine realize she's the reincarnation of his dead wife Nynia, neither can stay away. But that doesn't mean their future is any less doomed.

Early on in the book - during the first few chapters - the characters are fun and interesting. Talon loves sex, coffee and pastries. Sunshine is an absentminded artist who eats only healthy food. They're complete opposites, but they have chemistry in spades. The scene where Sunshine tells Talon how she basically ruined all his clothes is hilarious. Plus, this novel features one of the best scenes ever. Sunshine and her mom are hanging out when Talon wakes up naked. They come into the room and catch sight of his manhood:

"Sunshine, I..." Starla's voice broke off as she entered the room and caught sight of him standing naked in the corner. She eyed him in an odd, detached way, as if he were an interesting piece of furniture.

Talon and modesty were strangers, but the way she stared at him made him damned uncomfortable. In spite of the sunlight, Talon grabbed the pink blanket off the bed and clutched it to his middle.

"You know, Sunshine, you need to find a man like that to marry. Someone so well hung that even after three or four kids, he'd still be wall to wall."

Talon gaped.

Sunshine laughed. "Starla, you're embarrassing him."

I really like Sunshine. She's kind of quirky, but isn't afraid to speak her mind or stand up for herself. It was good to see her stand up and tell Talon to shove it when he got too overbearing. Despite being a flighty artist, she was really grounded.

Talon I didn't like as much. The "soul mates" trope is overused here. Sunshine is the reincarnation of Talon's dead wife, and I never really believed it was Sunshine herself that he loves, but instead the soul of his dead wife. As soon as Talon realizes Sunshine has Nynia's soul he starts thinking of Sunshine either as his dead wife or strictly as a soul. While I understood his love for Nynia and his desire to be with her, Sunshine was her own person and deserved to be loved as such. Throughout the novel, right up to the end, Talon says he cares about Sunshine for who she is, but then treats her like she's his dead wife. He calls her his wife, refers to her as "you" when telling stories about Nynia and even at one point thinks, "[..] a woman whose soul meant more to him than his own life".

Toward the end Kenyon tries to make us readers believe that soul mates are soul mates and it doesn't matter how Talon thinks of Sunshine, or vice verse. They're meant to be together and therefore they will be. The whole attitude about it frustrates me. I can appreciate that they're meant to be together, but if my lover was calling me by his dead wife's name and getting me confused with her, I can tell you that relationship wouldn't last long.

I probably would have stopped reading somewhere around the middle of the book, but I wanted to see how the events advanced the overall story arc of the series. It's been so long since I read these books I couldn't remember all the details.

I liked Ash in this book, though I was left feeling hollow about him at the end. Of course that happens with him in a lot of these books, so it isn't really anything new. I also really liked Zarek in this book. That's something to take note of because I don't care for Zarek as a whole, especially after his book. But his one-liners were pretty great here. I also like the way he connects with Sunshine.

The plot-points are too numerous to go into. Because the series spans so many books and the ARC progresses with each one, it's sometimes hard to keep up. I will say I thought the villains were stupid and cheesy. I can only hope I never really thought they posed a real threat when I first read this series years ago. I'd be disappointed in myself if I had.. They reminded me of Dr. Suess' Thing 1 and Thing 2.

Overall I was less than impressed. The soul mates trope is shown at its worst here and though there were some humorous parts, my enjoyment was far overshadowed by the negative aspects.

2 out of 5

Click here for a list of the series and reading order.

This book is available from St. Martin's Press. You can buy it here or here in e-format.

When I first started reading Sherrilyn Kenyon, I knew she also wrote historicals under the pen name Kinley MacGregor, but I hadn't read them. I think I read the first four or five Dark Hunter books before I picked up a Kinley MacGregor novel. After reading 2 of them I decided they weren't for me. Even though Rowena raved and raved and raved about Sin, I just couldn't bring myself to read anymore of them.

One of the reasons I read the KM books to begin with is because they're mentioned in the Dark Hunter series. A lot. There's a KM book mentioned at least once in each of the earlier Dark Hunter books (I don't know if she does it in the later books because I haven't read them). I remember thinking, when I was young and innocent, how cute that was. Over the last few weeks I've been re-reading the earlier books in the series (I'm currently reading Kiss of the Night) and I'm not finding it as cute or funny this time around. As a matter of fact, it's almost annoying.

I'm not sure why, exactly. Is it because I don't care for the Kinley MacGregor books (her writing "voice" annoys me, which seems odd since it's the same person, but I have a similar issue with Nora Roberts and J.D. Robb)? Or is it just that I'm finding her shameless self promotion a little tacky?

What do you think? Plugging your own novels: cute or tacky?