Blayne CooperBesprekingen

I love Blayne Cooper's work and this one didn't disappoint me.

*3.5 years later, doing a re-read. I do love the author's humor!

I've read this story before but it was the online, Xena-uber fan fiction version. I was young in my lesfic reading career and pretty easily impressed. I liked this story pretty well back then. I read it a second time a few years ago and liked it less. I still liked the humor and some of the situations the characters found themselves in and the relationships between the main and the most prominent secondary characters were fun and felt genuine.

It was only a few months ago, I think, when the newest edition was released for sale on Amazon and I was happy when I was able to grab a copy on a free day. I felt much less lucky as I got into the book and discovered it is absolutely riddled with typos, missing words, and other problems that should have been cleaned up before releasing it to the lesfic consumers. Setting aside all the standard old fan fic issues of head hopping, identifying characters by their eye or hair color or profession, not taking the time to run spell check or hire a proofreader before charging money for the book put me in a bad place while reading. If I had paid for it, I'd be really pissed and likely would have returned it for a refund.

I already know that most of my friends would still rate this a 4 or 5 star book simply because they'd read it before when fan fic was still going strong in the Xenaverse, and I wouldn't rate the free online version with only two stars. But this is supposed to be a professionally produced product that readers are paying for. Judging the book in that way, two stars, in my opinion, is fair.

Quite possibly the author's best work yet. I enjoyed it a lot.

I just love this story. Even though it has POV issues and ebook formatting issues, it's still one of my fave romances.

It's been 3 years so I'm doing a re-read. Need some happy and humor. Blayne Cooper is always good for that.

I really could not settle with this book. It immediately turned on my editing mode. It is a shame it didn't turn on the author's. The expression was just dire with word repetitions and misused words such as teaming instead of teeming as one example. I also found the parts written for 1690/1 to not fit the time frame at all, it really knocked me out of the story as I could not believe the characters were in that time. The main reason for this was expression and clear lack of research. Dialogue included:
"Fair enough"
"Pretty ridiculous, huh?"
"Too bad"
"Just wonderful"
"It's not that bad"
These really did not fit with a 17th century pattern. Then there were things such as the use of the term 'red cent' which didn't exist until the 19th century, or 'grumpy' which is late 18th century. If an author is going to write in an historical time period, they have to get it right or the writing completely loses believability.
Even the modern stuff needed a fact check, Doogie Houser instead of Howser, or having a Scot say 'bird brain' which is American slang, shite for brains, bawbag or even eejit would have been more appropriate.
Style was bad, if something happened 'wildly' one more time I was going to wildly throw my ereader across the room. At one point bath water was tepid, but then cool in the next sentence. I also felt far too much time was spent on physical relationships between characters rather than the actual story. I wanted to know what was going to happen from a paranormal perspective not plough through another half dozen pages every few pages of someone kissing or being touched or aroused, especially if it is interspersed with ohs and ahs and mmmms and aaaarghs in the dialogue. It completely took away from the supposed creepiness of the plot. A bit of love doesn't hurt, but I felt this was more of a sex story with the idea of a haunting thrown in. I would not recommend.

Definitely a blast from the past, but after 15 years of avoiding anything T Novan, I thought, 'why the hell not, I've got a few hours to kill?' I knew it was going to be formulaic, I knew it was going to be an uber-Xena fic, I knew it was going to be full of cliché. I wasn't wrong. A lot of things happened, but there was a decided lack of conflict, even the bits that did throw up the opportunity for proper conflict ended in a candy coated love fest that made me wish for a dentist. I was also confused by the constant head hopping and internal thoughts. Fine for a fan fic site, I've been guilty of it myself, but not fine for a published work. Having said that, this piece did raise a few laughs and a few smiles, but I feel the Madam President should have been a little more President and little less Mary Sue.

This is the sequel to the book, Madam President by the same two authors. While I definitely think that the first book ends very well, I definitely liked all that this novel added to that story.

The continuing adventures of the first female President go much like the adventures in the first book, although there seemed to be much less physical violence in this book.

A lot of it was Lauren sorta realizing all the parts of going from girlfriend of the President and Presidential biographer to being a first lady. She also is sorta being overwhelmed by the fact that she's becoming a Mom too.

It's a book for changes, for all involved.

In addition to the personal parts of the story, there were some interesting Presidential parts too.

Then there was the ending.

I didn't particularly like the fact that they skipped the years at the end. It totally threw me for a loop.

On the other hand, at the very, very end I liked what they did. I thought that was a good part of the ending.

It was another good book that was really, really enjoyable to read.

This is the start of the Lauren and Dev story.

Dev is elected as the first female President of the United States. She wants her first four years to be chronicled and she wants her favorite author, Lauren Strayer, to write that book.

Lauren isn't sure. Especially when Dev asks her to move into the White House so she'll be able to keep up with Dev and her family (three kids).

But she does move in and start writing the book and so starts the ride that is the first female presidency.

Of course, this isn't just a political type fiction book, it's also a romance and so even as Lauren and Dev do their respective jobs they become closer and closer as well as going through some super hard times.

I know some of the critiques that get thrown at the book, that the drama was sorta forced onto the characters and that sort of thing.

But, honestly, it was a book that I think had soul. I flew through it because the narrative kept me engaged, and I thought that each and every one of the characters were unique and I wanted to know so much more about them.

This was originally a story I had read in my youth, and I think it only got better in book form.

Hysterical parody of Survivor. Read this years ago, and I still remember that the protagonist called her knife Tiffany and was worried she was jealous of her new love. Too funny!

Good sequel. Likable characters.

One of my favorite authors. Loved the premise for this story. Good plot with the right balance of drama, comedy, comedy, and comedy.

Three women go on a company-sponsored adventure that turns into their worst nightmare. Stranded in one of the most inhospitable places in the world, they have to fight tooth and nail to survive and make it back in one piece. Despite the women's desperate circumstances, the book is not without many touches of humor here and there, making the book a very enjoyable read.

The first chapters felt a bit strange as the author kept making Rachael think 'straight' thoughts--lusting over men and such :sick: :faint: . The excitement doesn't begin until the trip gets underway...and it mostly doesn't let up till the end.


The entire book is told from Rachel's POV, but it doesnt detract from your enjoyment because the author gives her a really fun, honest, and often self-deprecating voice. I love the way the author injects humor in even the direst of situations. Here's a typical example of her imagery, describing the women's love of soccer as: "the single minded determination of a hungry infant in a topless bar". Here's another one: "A gift of bouquet from my sister congratulating me on losing 185 lbs during my divorce"--this is only funny if you read the explanation that follows it (sorry i will not reveal here :) ).


The thing i love most about the book is that the author does not make her heroines run away after the worst of misunderstandings and betrayal. On the contrary, they confront each other (and almost tear each other to pieces :D ) till the issue is settled. Bravo!

Despite what the cover might imply, this is not erotica. The 'undercover' in the title refers to the fact that all three stories in the book are about police or detectives working undercover. If you like this genre, then don't miss this book. The second story (by blayne cooper) is my favorite of the three, mainly because it is very angsty (my fave cup of tea) with betrayals left and right. The first story is by Susan Meagher and its told from two women's POV. The third story is by KG MacGregor and I had read it online sometime ago.

Light-hearted and very enjoyable romance between an openly lesbian President and her very straight biographer. Witty and often hilarious dialogue and situations dominate the book. Oh there is the occasional bombing, shooting and the hint of scandal but those are just minor distractions in what is mainly a funny, heartwarming, slow-burn romance. More kids, dogs and domesticity than world crises, congressional wranglings or even biography-writing, this book is a perfect example of a lesfic genre romance.

4.5 stars

Dull.

It was a good book. The romance was a more of a back-burner thing, because well, the main character was the president after all. The problem I had was that book just had too many unnecessary words and scenes.

My favorite lesbian novel