Lazy girl

I've been a lazy blogger this past week. Very busy at work and busy at home with no time for anything... blogging or reading. I did managed to finish one category and two books-on-tape in the last couple weeks.

Shameless by Glenna McReynolds
Published in 1992, this old Loveswept by McReynolds (who now publishes under the name Tara Janzen) was a very short read with only 179 pages and I was able to finish it in one evening. First of all I thought the cover was very deceiving. I thought he looked like some kind of airline pilot (click to see a bigger image). But actually he was a ranch hand/cowboy turned Navy SEAL. That's a Navy uniform the hero, Colt, is wearing.

Colt Haines leaves Rock Creek, Wyoming, after taking Sarah Brooks' innocence and breaking all his promises to her. He heads to California where he joins the Navy and eventually becomes a SEAL. Ten years later he returns to Rock Creek to attend his mother's funeral. He hopes to avoid Sarah, but of course that's impossible. Sarah does not understand why he left town breaking her heart.

I really love the sensuality of McReynolds' writing and although Shameless was one of her earlier works, she was quite good at it even in this work published in 1992. But the other thing that struck me was that there was very little dialog. Maybe that goes along with the fact that Colt was keeping secrets and the less talking the better. But really it was extremely irritating. I thought his 'secret' was rather obvious considering he was carrying the scar across his face and neck. They have steamy sex and still he keeps his secrets and intends to leave town. At this point I was talking into the book (good thing Bob had already gone to bed). "Tell her already!"

Anyway, it was a toss up whether I would give this one a B- or C+. But the hot sex tipped the scales in the favorable direction.

My grade: B-


Memory in Death by J. D. Robb
By my count this book was the 22nd full length novel in the series and not one of my favorites. Eve's foster mother, Trudy, turns up and attempts to blackmail her and Roarke so that she won't reveal Eve's shady past. Eve is stunned but Roarke won't take her crap and dismisses her with threats. When Eve and Roarke visit Trudy in her hotel to make clear that they won't fall for her line of BS they, of course, find she has been murdered. I thought the murder mystery was ho-hum and not engaging at all. The most fascinating part of the story was how more of Eve's past is revealed. And I enjoyed Roarke and Eve's continuing developing relationship.

My grade: B-



All I Ever Needed by Jo Goodman
This book was my first by Goodman and I was rather please with how well she writes. AIEN is one of the Compass Club series which all take place simultaneously so can be read in any order (I think that's what I heard). But I thought she was rather 'wordy'. The four books in the series feature four heros whose nicknames are North, South, East, and West. This is East's story.

The rumors are flying that Lady Sopia Colley and the Marquess of Eastlyn are engaged. When he arrives to straighten out the mess, he proposes to Sophie but she turns him down flat. There is a bit of a contrived mystery that was mildly interesting but the best part was seeing East and Sophie interact. The sensual descriptions reminded me a little of Judith Ivory and the dialogue was superb with some nice steamy love scenes. But I found myself bored with the mystery again and felt the whole thing could have been shortened up a bit. But still an enjoyable read.

My grade: B-

Hmmm, look at that... I gave all three books the same grade.

Reading now: I'm on page 71 of Lover Eternal by J. R. Ward and really loving it. I had my doubts before I finally cracked open the cover since I have heard good and bad about it. But I think this one is going to work for me. (OK, I peeked ahead just a little.. shut up). I think I'll go read now.