Unguarded by Ronan O Gara

These types of books are really only directed at true fans and there’s no point in picking this up if all you’re interested in is the gossip from inside the Irish or Munster squads because he doesn’t give much away in that department. Now as much as I would have loved some more gossip I still really enjoyed this book. It basically tells O Gara’s story of his last few years playing professional rugby and also touch on him moving to France to coach Racing Metro.

I am a huge Ronan O Gara fan to the point where I actually named my son Ronan. Embarrassing? Maybe. Do I care? No. I think he is one of Ireland’s finest sportsman and not only was he incredibly talented and skilled but he always came across as humble and grateful for all his opportunities. He was offered huge money to play in the NFL in the US but turned it down because he couldn’t bear to leave his beloved Munster. That’s true loyalty and you don’t see a whole lot of that anymore.

It was disappointing to every Irish rugby fan when O Gara was dropped in quite a horrible fashion from the national team, replaced by Paddy Jackson, someone much younger and inexperienced and just generally not that good and definitely not as good as O Gara. He deserved better. He deserved to be clapped off the pitch and saluted by his loyal fans at the end of his last game and he talks about his feelings towards this in the book. At least he got it with Munster and I think that meant more to him anyway.

I loved hearing about his time (so far) in Racing Metro as it’s so different to the Irish set up. They seem to have amazing facilities over there and it was just interesting to hear his experience as a coach instead of a player. It was definitely a very brave thing to do, moving to another country, a new job, new schools for the kids, etc but he did it and is still doing it so fair play to him, I say.

I did love to hear that his ultimate job would be to coach Munster some day and I have to say I cannot wait

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• Ronan O’Gara : The Greatest Ever. (becausewelovesport.wordpress.com)
• Irish Rugby Review 2013 (irishnewsreview.net)

 

Madly and The Jackal by M Leighton (Madly #3)

I think this was a little bit of a find to be honest. It seems to be a fairly unknown series but it is definitely worth reading. I always thought the whole mermaid world was a genre worth exploring and this sure makes a good attempt at that. Madly is slightly irritating at times and I didn’t overly enjoy the whole Jackson turning bad storyline either but other than that it was a pretty good book overall.

One thing surprised me and that was the sex. Lots and lots of graphic sex in this book. Now I love a good sex scene, don’t get me wrong, but I just wasn’t expecting it. The first two books in this series were very much young adult orientated with only the occasional very tame kiss or sexy daydreams involved so it just came out of nowhere. Suppose I really shouldn’t give out as I don’t get surprised by sex that often in books anymore!

The storyline was good with more Lore needing capturing, this time it was the Jackal and Hyde, a play on the old Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde story. The story didn’t really center too much around the Lore story this time it was more about Madly and Jackson’s love affair which was a little annoying as I loved the whole Lore storyline in the previous book. I am still looking forward to the next instalment and can’t wait to see how Madly and Jackson’s love progresses in the future.

 

Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion (Warm Bodies #1)

I’ve been meaning to read this since the movie came out during the summer. I just thought from the trailer it sounded like such an original zombie story. You don’t see many written from the point of view of the zombie. Much less a zombie falling in love. And it worked.Yay.

We meet R hanging out with a hive of other zombies at the airport where he begins to explain zombie life and what they get up on a daily basis. It was actually really interesting as usually zombies are portrayed as completely mindless, killing machines. We never see them doing anything organised or ‘normal’ so it was kinda weirdly refreshing! R starts off as a fairly average zombie but as the book goes on and he meets Julie he starts changing and he starts to feel things that had previously died when his heart stopped beating. When he starts to change other zombies follow suit and an uprising begins. But a good one involving zombies for a change!

One of the best things about this book was the humor. It was a kind of tongue-in-cheek dark kind of humor and I loved it. This was quite possibly one of my favourite books of 2013. Hmm a zombie novel, who would have thought it?!

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• Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion (nightlyreading.wordpress.com)
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Lover At Last by JR Ward (Black Dagger Brotherhood #11)

I was waiting and waiting for this moment to come and man, was it worth the wait! Finally Blay and Qhuinn got their moment in the sun. I had stated before that I thought possibly Ward was shying away from writing this story and you know not for any homophobic reasons but I don’t blame her. I would struggle hugely with even attempting to write a gay love story because even though it is essentially no different to a ‘regular’ love story there is also huge differences. I would worry constantly that I wasn’t being fair to the gay community, is this really how people would feel when faced with the possibility of their sexual orientation not being how they expected it to be? Ward, however, did not worry about anything like this. And she was so right. She just wrote the love story like she did every other book so far. She wasn’t afraid of holding back in the love scenes and ultimately I think she was incredibly brave.

I always loved the whole Blay and Qhuinn storyline and was always rooting for them to get it together but when the last book ended with Layla going through her needing and Qhuinn servicing her needs I thought we had seen the end of that possibility but no need to fear my friends. It is, quite simply, one of my favourite BDB books of all time and that’s a real compliment because I pretty much adore each and every one of them. It’s never boring and you just fall instantly in love with nearly every character in this book, even the subplot ones.

We meet a few new characters in this book and see more of characters that we have only had glimpses of previously. Xcor makes another appearance and the plot thickens between him and Layla. What will become of them I do not know but my gut tells me eventually he will become a good guy. I really hope so. Trez and iAm become more important characters and we see the beginning of a possible love story between Trez and Selena. Also Assail who we knew very little of makes a big appearance in this book and I feel that we will see a good deal more of him in future instalments.

All in all one of my favourite reads of 2013! Thank God for the Black Dagger Brotherhood!!

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