Renée Reads Romance

HappyLight & Happy New Year!

2010-12-31T23:56:00.000-08:00

I've wanted one of these Full Spectrum Lights for several years and finally put it on my Christmas list this year. And my son got it for me. This lamp uses Natural Spectrum light to help with the symptoms of "Winter Blues" and SAD (seasonal effected disorder). For years I've had a hard time dealing with the dark, gloomy winters we have here in the Seattle area. I have no energy and my mood is borderline depression. I blogged about getting one of these types of lights years ago but never got around to buying one. I thought they were a bit pricey and I wasn't too sure they would work. But this one was only about $50 at Costco so I thought it was worth a try. Also this one is small (only 12" high) and fits almost anywhere.

The package says that it emulates sunshine and will improve your mood and energy and help with your productivity and concentration. You're supposed to sit in front of the light (between 6" - 24" away from your face) for 30 - 60 minutes in the morning with your eyes open. They suggest reading or knitting or something or put it next to your computer while you work. I put mine on the small table next to my comfy chair where I read.

I've have used is now for the past two days and I think I can feel a difference already. I actually felt like doing stuff today. I put away all the Christmas decorations. Amazing! That usually doesn't get done until the last couple weeks of January. A promising start. We'll see how it goes in the next few weeks since they say you may not feel the effects for a month or so.

Recent reads:

Love in the Afternoon by Lisa Kleypas

This is the 5th book in the Hathaway series which tells Beatrix's story and is my favorite book in the bunch. I loved Beatrix from the very first book with her quirky animal menagerie which includes a hedgehog and a ferret and other creatures who need her special care. She has a way with wounded animals and a tender heart. Beatrix is the "baby" of the family and is now 23 y.o. All of her siblings are married and settled and she's feeling like she will never find anyone since she realizes how odd she is in comparison to most young ladies. Beatrix starts a correspondence with Captain Christopher Phelan who is fighting in the Crimean War. However, Captain Phelan thinks he is corresponding with his love interest, Prudence, Beatrix's friend. The letters are funny, charming, and touching at times. When Christopher returns home from the war, he is suffering very badly from guilt and what we would call PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder). When he finds out that he has been exchanging letters with Beatrix rather Prudence, he feels betrayed and angry. I loved Kleypas' writing in LITA and thought it was one of her best efforts since Devil in Winter. Beatrix and Christopher were wonderfully drawn and made a perfect match. LITA is not a DIK but it comes close.
My Grade: B+

My Best of 2010

2010-12-20T21:00:00.000-08:00

I have a few 2010 books that I still want to read so this is just a preliminary list. Only two were A reads, the rest were B+. I have only reviewed one of these books.

There are four more 2010 books in my TBR and a whole bunch more on my wishlist. I'd better get cracking and get some more read before the annual poll at AAR. I love to submit my yearly favorites for this poll.

I think my favorite of the year is Libertine's Kiss by Judith James. An unusual book with a great hero and heroine set in an unusual time period (Restoration Period) - also very HOT. James also wrote Broken Wing which is one of KristieJ's favorites.

Author	Title	Grade
Balogh, Mary	A Matter of Class	B+
Bourne, Joanna	The Forbidden Rose	A
Carr, Robyn	Forbidden Falls	B+
Dahl, Victoria	Lead Me On	B+
Dreyer, Eileen	Barely a Lady	B+
Higgins, Kristan	The Next Best Thing	B+
James, Judith	Libertine's Kiss	A
Robb, J. D.	Fantasy in Death	B+
Ross, JoAnn	The Homecoming	B+
Singh, Nalini	Bonds of Justice	B+
Total		10

AAR's Top 100 Romances Results

2010-12-18T21:45:00.000-08:00

I'm meant to post this a couple weeks ago.

I was amazed to discover that I have read 92 out of AAR's Top 100. Of the 8 I have not read, 4 were written by Julie Garwood. Here's the complete list:

The Last Hellion by Loretta Chase
Honor's Splendor by Julie Garwood
The Secret by Julie Garwood
Ransom by Julie Garwood
Saving Grace by Julie Garwood
And Then He Kissed Her by Laura Lee Guhrke
The Rake by Mary Jo Putney
When He Was Wicked by Julia Quinn

I have been meaning to try Garwood because CindyS is a huge fan and I know most of these are probably on her list. So maybe I'll dig up one or two of these and give them a shot.

In comparing AAR's Top 100 with my Top 100, I found that only 30 of my favorites appeared on AAR's list. I guess my tastes are a bit different. Many of the book's on AAR's list were pretty good reads for me but were not what I would consider keeper. For example I remember liking Lord of Scoundrels, but it didn't exactly "wow" me. Maybe I need to re-read that one. I'm a bit surprised and disappointed that there were no books Anne Stuart or Carla Kelly.

Num	Title	Author	AAR Ranking
2	Pride and Prejudice	Jane Austen	#4
3	Flowers from the Storm	Laura Kinsale	#6
8	After the Night	Linda Howard	#55
9	To Have and To Hold	Patricia Gaffney	#60
10	All Through the Night	Connie Brockway	#90
11	Naked in Death	J. D. Robb	#24
19	Morning Glory	LaVyrle Spencer	#59
20	Sea Swept	Nora Roberts	#74
22	The Spymaster's Lady	Bourne, Joanna	#20
23	Dream Man	Linda Howard	#47
27	Not Quite a Husband	Sherry Thomas	#18
28	Dreaming of You	Lisa Kleypas	#2
29	Thunder and Roses	Mary Jo Putney	#88
30	It Had to Be You	Susan Elizabeth Phillips	#15
40	Sugar Daddy	Lisa Kleypas	#52
43	The Duke of Shadows	Duran, Meredith	#94
45	Cry No More	Linda Howard	#80
51	Match Me If You Can	Susan Elizabeth Phillips	#42
52	Passion	Lisa Valdez	#65
54	The Madness of Ian Mackenzie	Jennifer Ashley	#10
55	Paradise	Judith McNaught	#13
56	The Serpent Prince	Elizabeth Hoyt	#44
65	Devil in Winter	Lisa Kleypas	#3
66	Heaven, Texas	Susan Elizabeth Phillips	#22
70	Perfect	Judith McNaught	#45
73	My Dearest Enemy	Connie Brockway	#86
74	Welcome To Temptation	Jennifer Crusie	#36
87	Slave to Sensation	Nalini Singh	#51
94	See Jane Score	Jane Gibson	#50
95	Slightly Dangerous	Mary Balogh	#7
Total	30		30

This was a fun activity for a book-aholic like me. Next time this poll comes up I'll do some re-reading and spend more time creating my list because I just kinda slapped this together at the last minute. I know my top 10 or 20 favorites is correct but the rest .... not so much.

Dude, that's not roll it.

2010-12-07T12:27:00.000-08:00

This is hilarious - especially if you know cats.

Top 100 Romances

2010-11-18T19:54:00.000-08:00

I promised to post my Top 100 Romances that I submitted to AAR a few days ago. I procrastinated until the last minute. No surprise there. I used the list I made in 2007 and just updated and rearranged it a bit. Before doing this next time I should re-read some of them and take a little more time putting them in order.

I had a hard time figuring out how to put them in any kind of order. In general, my favorites are grouped at the top and everything else I just kinda stuck them in.

Num	Title	Author
1	A Rose at Midnight	Anne Stuart
2	Pride and Prejudice	Jane Austen
3	Flowers from the Storm	Laura Kinsale
4	The Notorious Rake	Mary Balogh
5	Red Adam's Lady	Grace Ingram
6	Fallen From Grace	Laura Leone
7	Night in Eden	Candice Proctor
8	After the Night	Linda Howard
9	To Have and To Hold	Patricia Gaffney
10	All Through the Night	Connie Brockway
11	Naked in Death	J. D. Robb
12	Black Ice	Anne Stuart
13	Duncan's Bride	Linda Howard
14	Mrs. Drew Plays Her Hand	Carla Kelly
15	Truly Madly Yours	Rachel Gibson
16	Reforming Lord Ragsdale	Carla Kelly
17	Sunshine and Shadows	Tom and Sharon Curtis
18	Last Summer	Theresa Weir
19	Morning Glory	LaVyrle Spencer
20	Sea Swept	Nora Roberts
21	With This Ring	Carla Kelly
22	The Spymaster's Lady	Bourne, Joanna
23	Dream Man	Linda Howard
24	Heart of Deception	Taylor Chase
25	Breathless	Guhrke, Laura Lee
26	Heart of Fire	Linda Howard
27	Not Quite a Husband	Sherry Thomas
28	Dreaming of You	Lisa Kleypas
29	Thunder and Roses	Mary Jo Putney
30	It Had to Be You	Susan Elizabeth Phillips
31	The Surgeon's Lady	Carla Kelly
32	The Wives of Bowie Stone	Maggie Osborne
33	One Summer	Karen Robards
34	The Emerald Necklace	Diana Brown
35	Dance	Judy Cuevas
36	Lady Gallant	Suzanne Robinson
37	Nightfall	Anne Stuart
38	Joe's Wife	Cheryl St. John
39	Faro's Daughter	Georgette Heyer
40	Sugar Daddy	Lisa Kleypas
41	Wolf in Waiting	Rebecca Flanders
42	A Fine Work of Art	Shelby Reed
43	The Duke of Shadows	Duran, Meredith
44	Ride the Fire	Pamela Clare
45	Cry No More	Linda Howard
46	Out of Control	Suzanne Brockmann
47	The Phoenix Code	Catherine Asaro
48	The Windflower	Tom and Sharon Curtis
49	MacKenzie's Pleasure	Linda Howard
50	The Lady's Tutor	Robin Schone
51	Match Me If You Can	Susan Elizabeth Phillips
52	Passion	Lisa Valdez
53	One Good Turn	Carla Kelly
54	The Madness of Ian Mackenzie	Jennifer Ashley
55	Paradise	Judith McNaught
56	The Serpent Prince	Elizabeth Hoyt
57	The Libertine's Kiss	Judith James
58	Lady of Quality	Georgette Heyer
59	Anyone But You	Jennifer Crusie
60	A Debt of Honor	Diana Brown
61	Prairie Wife	Cheryl St. John
62	To Love a Dark Lord	Anne Stuart
63	The Monk Downstairs	Tim Farrington
64	Virgin River	Carr, Robyn
65	Devil in Winter	Lisa Kleypas
66	Heaven, Texas	Susan Elizabeth Phillips
67	Simple Jess	Pamela Morsi
68	Devilish	Jo Beverley
69	Skypirate	Justine Davis
70	Perfect	Judith McNaught
71	Bliss	Judy Cuevas
72	Winter Garden	Adele Ashworth
73	My Dearest Enemy	Connie Brockway
74	Welcome To Temptation	Jennifer Crusie
75	Sleeping Beauty	Judith Ivory
76	Libby's London Merchant	Carla Kelly
77	All the Queen's Men	Linda Howard
78	A Family for Gillian	Catherine Blair
79	Born in Fire	Nora Roberts
80	Caressed by Ice	Nalini Singh
81	A Much Younger Man	Dianne Highbridge
82	Slow Heat in Heaven	Sandra Brown
83	In the Midnight Rain	Ruth Wind
84	Menage	Emma Holly
85	Family Blessings	LaVyrle Spencer
86	Games of Command	Linnea Sinclair
87	Slave to Sensation	Nalini Singh
88	The Reluctant Heroine	Dawn Lindsey
89	The Nightingale's Song	Kathleen Eschenberg
90	All Night Long	Michelle Jerott
91	Kinsman's Oath	Susan Krinard
92	Upon a Wicked Time	Karen Ranney
93	Render Unto Caesar	Gillian Bradshaw
94	See Jane Score	Jane Gibson
95	Slightly Dangerous	Mary Balogh
96	Silk and Secrets	Mary Jo Putney
97	The Lone Rider	Lauren Bach
98	Texas! Chase	Sandra Brown
99	The Trouble With Joe	Emilie Richards
100	Heart Throb	Suzanne Brockmann
Total	100

In case anybody still reads my blog....

2010-11-16T00:33:00.000-08:00

Yes, I'm still alive. And reading... but I'm pretty behind on all the latest books. I just have not felt like blogging for a long time. I do visit other blogs though. I read about KristieJ's horrendous accident and have been truly amazed at her recovery and all the changes she is making in her health for the better. What an amazing person. I also try to keep up with a few others too with google reader but I get so behind I mark everything as read.

Thanks to the few who have stopped by and left comments. I have read them but can't stir up any energy to reply. For a while there I was tempted to delete my blog and just slink away. But I changed my mind, so here I be.

I have read 133 books so far this year which beats my reading for 2009 and 2007. I don't think I can come up with a coherent book review yet, but I may give it a shot later.

On the personal front, my dear daughter recently announced that she is pregnant! Whoa... that means I'm going to be a grandmother. Yikes! Ok, if anyone calls me granny their ass is grass. But I am looking forward to it, but it doesn't seem real yet.

I am still working on my Intermediate Programmer certificate but I'm only taking one programming class this quarter (C++ language). And I'm still looking for work.

One last thing... I submitted my Top 100 romances poll to AAR. Hope everyone else did too. I'll post it tomorrow so you can look it over.

REVIEW: Smooth Talking Stranger by Lisa Kleypas

2010-07-09T20:07:00.000-07:00

COPYRIGHT: 2009
PAGES: 352
SETTING: Contemporary
TYPE: Straight Romance
SENSUALITY: Hot
REASON FOR READING: Loved the previous two books, Sugar Daddy and Blue-Eyed Devil, and hey, it's Lisa Kleypas, what other reason do you need?

SUMMARY:

Ella Varner has it all--a successful career as an advice columnist, a handsome boyfriend, and a circle of friends in Austin. When anyone has a problem, Ella knows the answers.

But one night she receives a call that changes everything. And as Ella's world is turned upside-down, she meets a man who is the opposite of everything she ever wanted . . . a man who will offer her the most irresistible challenge she has ever known . . .

THOUGHTS/OPINIONS:
I'm a huge fan of Lisa Kleypas and am thoroughly enjoying this series. At first I was reluctant to try these contemporaries because I have enjoyed so many of her historicals but I shouldn't have worried. Her writing seems to get better and better as the years roll by.

Kleypas' heroes are to die for and Jack Travis is no exception. I think I'm in love! Wow, seriously. Have you ever wanted to jump into the pages of a book and BE the heroine? Ella Varner is an OK heroine but I'm not too fond of heroines who are basically doormats. She lets her mother, sister, and boyfriend walk all over her but she had a difficult childhood and some people may find her behavior understandable but I was just a wee bit irritated with her. And don't get me started on the sister. But Ella does surprisingly confront Jack (who she believes is the father of the baby) which redeemed her a tad bit in my mind. I'm glad this book was written first person POV so I knew what Ella was going through and I did have a certain amount of sympathy for her. I just wanted to smack the self-centered sister upside the head.

This should have been an A read but I disliked the sister so much and was disappointed that she never got what she deserved so I settled on a slightly lower grade. This is a very worthwhile read, just for Jack Travis alone.

GRADE: B+

New Anne Stuart Trilogy

2010-07-02T15:03:00.000-07:00

Some of you may know I'm a huge Anne Stuart fan (Cindy - I'm talking to you - where are you girl?). Anyway, I was cruising on over to Ms. Stuart's website and discovered she has a new trilogy coming out with the first book set to release August 1. Woohoo!

Yeah, I know, most of you already know this, but with school and all I have missed the newest developments in the romance book world.

Another cool thing is that a FREE e-book prequel titled The Wicked House of Rohan is available for download from eHarlequin starting July 1 (yesterday). Another woohoo!

The books all have lovely covers with the first book titled Ruthless. Here they are:

I can hardly wait!

Spring Reading

2010-06-21T22:12:00.000-07:00

School's out! Well, spring quarter is done anyway. I learned a whole bunch about SQL and C# object oriented programming and had a blast. I especially loved the C# programming. Now I'm looking for a job. Wish me luck. I have a couple more classes left to earn my Application Developer certificate but I'm going to try to take them online or in the evening.

So you may be wondering if I had time to read... Of course! I ended up reading almost exclusively from my TBR. It's quite a mixture of genres. All romances except one - The Art of Racing in the Rain. If you are a dog lover, I highly recommend it.

04/05/10	Because You're Mine	Kleypas, Lisa	C	TBR
04/09/10	The Legacy	Bennett, T. J.	A
04/14/10	Brazen	Johnson, Susan	B	TBR
04/18/10	Midnight Angel	Kleypas, Lisa	C	TBR
04/20/10	To Trust a Stranger	Robards, Karen	C
04/23/10	Tempting Kate	Simmons, Deborah	B+	TBR
04/28/10	The Devil Earl	Simmons, Deborah	B-	TBR
05/06/10	Star Bright	Anderson, Catherine	B-	TBR
05/09/10	Branded by Fire	Singh, Nalini	B+	TBR
05/11/10	Miss Billings Treads the Boards	Kelly, Carla	B	TBR
05/13/10	Miss Whittier Makes a List	Kelly, Carla	A	TBR
05/18/10	Butterfly Tattoo	Knight, Deidre	B+
05/21/10	Savor the Moment	Roberts, Nora	B	TBR
05/23/10	The Art of Racing in the Rain	Stein, Garth	B+	TBR
05/26/10	Miss Grimsley's Oxford Career	Kelly, Carla	B	TBR
05/27/10	Fortune Hunter	Simmons, Deborah	DNF	TBR
05/30/10	The Last Rogue	Simmons, Deborah	C	TBR
06/03/10	The Courtesan	Justiss, Julia	B	TBR
06/04/10	Isabella	Chase, Loretta	C+	TBR
06/05/10	The English Witch	Chase, Loretta	B	TBR
06/07/10	The Rainbow Promise	Gregory, Lisa	B	TBR
06/10/10	Lord of the Night	Wiggs, Susan	B	TBR
06/15/10	A Scandalous Proposal	Justiss, Julia	C	TBR
06/16/10	My Lady's Pleasure	Justiss, Julia	C	TBR
06/16/10	Seduce Me at Sunrise	Kleypas, Lisa	B

REVIEW: The Next Best Thing by Kristan Higgins

2010-04-09T23:00:00.000-07:00

COPYRIGHT: 2010
PAGES: 393
SETTING: Contemporary
TYPE: Straight Romance
SENSUALITY: Warm
REASON FOR READING: I enjoyed my first book by Higgins - Just One of the Guys

SUMMARY:

Lucy Lang isn't looking for fireworks.
She's looking for a nice, decent man. Someone who'll mow the lawn, flip chicken on the barbecue, teach their future children to play soccer. But most important: someone who won't inspire the slightest stirring in her heart…or anywhere else. A young widow, Lucy can't risk that kind of loss again. But sharing her life with a cat named Fat Mikey and the Black Widows at the family bakery isn't enough either. So it's goodbye to Ethan, her hot but entirely inappropriate "friend with privileges" and hello to a man she can marry.
Too bad Ethan Mirabelli isn't going anywhere. As far as he's concerned, what she needs might be right under her nose. But can he convince her that the next best thing can really be forever?

THOUGHTS/OPINIONS:
Lucy had only been married 8 months when she lost her husband in a tragic car accident. This happened over 5 years ago and she still has not gotten over it, to put it mildly. In fact, in my opinion the girl could use some serious grief counseling. But as the story begins her sister has just had a baby and that starts her thinking and she has convinced herself she is ready to move on - she wants to meet someone and start her own family. Ethan is her dead husband's brother and has been a rock of support for her for the last 5 years. And with whom she enjoys "friends with benefits". This news was a bit of a shocker to me even though I had read it in the blurb. It's had to imagine women (and men) who actually think this is a good idea.

The story is told in a first person narrative and has the usual disadvantage of never knowing what Ethan is thinking or feeling. Lucy is one messed up person who seems to spend too much time playing the video of her wedding and crying. Normally I would be totally irritated with this type of heroine but I found myself very sympathetic towards her. Lucy works in the family-owned bakery with her mother and two aunts (called the Black Widows) who were also widowed at a fairly young age. These women seem to be content in their widowhood and cannot understand why Lucy wants to marry again. Why take the risk since all the men in the family die young. This is why I was so sympathetic of Lucy - working with these three was not a healthy situation. But there was lots of humor and some touching moments in this book which really balanced out the sadness. I cried along with Lucy and laughed too. But sometimes I wanted to shake her in her treatment of Ethan who was a wonderful guy.

The characterizations of the widows and Lucy's sister were well drawn. The sister is deathly afraid her husband will die young too like her mother, sister and aunt's husbands and has become quite neurotic. Just when I was starting to lose patience with Lucy she makes an amazing discovery about Ethan and my heart just melts. I loved the ending. I couldn't make up my mind on the grade for the longest time. But it's still so memorable after a couple months that I had to rate it pretty high.

GRADE: A-

Blogger Template Design

2010-04-02T23:09:00.001-07:00

Blogger has a new feature available to let you design your own template and it's pretty cool. You access it through Blogger in Draft. Just go to this link and to get all the details and some hints. There is even a quick little video that shows you how it works (although it goes by rather quickly). Blogger in Draft is used by Blogger to release beta features that may be buggy but lets users try out new features they are working on. Eventually they incorporate the features into the regular Blogger but all Blogger users have access to Blogger in Draft.

Anyway, I created this cute jelly bean template pretty quickly. The advantage of this template designer is that you don't have to copy all of your gadgets to a text file and then incorporate them into a new template whenever you feel like changing to a new template. Go check it out.

REVIEW: The Fire King by Marjorie M. Liu

2010-04-01T21:00:00.000-07:00

COPYRIGHT: 2009
PAGES: 309
SETTING: Contemporary China and Mongolia
TYPE: Paranormal Romance
SENSUALITY: Warm
SERIES: Dirk & Steele (book 9)

SUMMARY:

Long ago, shape-shifters were plentiful, soaring through the sky as crows, racing across African veldts as cheetahs, raging furious as dragons atop the Himalayas. Like gods, they reigned supreme. But even gods have laws, and those laws, when broken, destroy.

Zoufalstvi. Epatoivo. Asa. Three words in three very different languages, and yet Soria understands. Like all members of Dirk & Steele, she has a gift, and hers is communication: That was why she was chosen to address the stranger. Strong as a lion, quick as a serpent, Karr is his name, and in his day he was king. But he is a son of strife, a creature of tragedy. As fire consumed all he loved, so an icy sleep has been his atonement. Now, against his will, he has awoken. Zoufalstvi. Epatoivo. Asa. In English, the word is despair. But Soria knows the words for love.

THOUGHTS/OPINIONS:
I don't read a lot of paranormals but Marjorie Liu's Dirk & Steele series is one I have been faithfully reading since the first book, Tiger Eye, and I have enjoyed almost every one. They have all been solid action-packed stories with some great characters. But my main complaint for every one of these books is that there is so much action that at times I had a hard time figuring out what the heck is going on and had to reread pages. But I have to say that I had no such problem with The Fire King. TFK is still filled with action but I found it very smooth flowing and readable. The book just sucks you into the story and you can hardly wait to turn each page.

The Dirk & Steele agency is a group of shapeshifters and people with special gifts who banded together to fight an evil organization (The Consortium) which is described in previous books in the series. But thankfully, TFK works just fine as a standalone read, so you don't have to read any of the other books in the series to understand the storyline.

Karr is a 3000 year old chimera who was just dug out of a cave somewhere in China. A chimera is a creature whose parents are both different types of shapeshifters. Chimeras had been hunted to extinction because they were greatly feared. Karr is tied up and held prisoner and no one can understand him because his language is now extinct. Soria has a gift for languages, in fact she can understand any language in the world by using some kind of psychic connection. Soria's past involves a horrific major trauma from a betrayal and she is still somewhat fragile. She has separated herself from all her friends and family but D&S needs her help with Karr to translate his extinct language and discover why he survived for 3000 years. Karr and Soria are two incredible well-formed characters and Liu makes you feel their isolation and loneliness. Soria was especially well done. I really felt her sense of betrayal, pain, and fear. Yet I marveled at how tough she was and appreciated her sharp tongue. I think she is probably one of my favorite heroines of the year.

Another plus was the unusual setting of China and Mongolia. Can't say I have ever read any book with this setting. And the characters from the tribe of nomads (including a foreign exchange student) and shapeshifters that have appeared in previous books in the series were all very well developed. The sexual tension was marvelous and this is where Karr really shines with how he falls for Soria and doesn't see her "flaws". There was only one short (but warm) sex scene which had me wishing for more. But Liu never puts many sex scenes in her books unfortunately.

All in all an enjoyable read. TFK kept my interest from first page to last and I think it's the best one in the series.

GRADE: B+

Blogging Mojo Found

2010-03-26T20:16:00.000-07:00

I seem to have lost my blogging mojo lately. I'm on break from school so I thought I would drop by my blog and write something about what's going on in my life.

Last quarter I took a couple of programming courses and one of them was web programming so I learned HTML, CSS and Javascript. Very cool! It will come in handy if I want to make changes to my blog template. Bob has a website for his company and wants me to make some updates and changes. I'm not sure how that will work out but I can do some simple stuff. Anyway I'll have some good skills to add to my resume.

I have read 35 books this year and had 5 DNF. I have also stopped buying new books because I just am sick of looking at the old books in my TBR. There are about 60 and I'm determined to either read them or trade them. And then use go shopping for some new books I want. I thought I would have a hard time with this but I've been too busy to shop for books anyway so it's not too bad. I'm behind on all the latest books and have done little blogging.

I've been on a Susan Elizabeth Phillips binge lately. I discovered that my library has most of her books on CD so I have been checking them out from the library and listening to them in the car while I go to and from school. Most of them are read by Anna Fields who is a wonderful reader. Six of the eight I read have been re-reads. The lowest grade went to her latest, What I Did For Love, which did not impress me. I didn't like either the hero or heroine much. Here is a snapshot of the results from my reading log:

01/01/10	Dream a Little Dream	Phillips, Susan Elizabeth	B+	reread
01/07/10	Nobody's Baby But Mine	Phillips, Susan Elizabeth	A	reread
01/26/10	Honey Moon	Phillips, Susan Elizabeth	A
02/07/10	Match Me If You Can	Phillips, Susan Elizabeth	A	reread
02/15/10	It Had to Be You	Phillips, Susan Elizabeth	A	reread
02/24/10	What I Did For Love	Phillips, Susan Elizabeth	B-
03/11/10	Kiss an Angel	Phillips, Susan Elizabeth	A	reread
03/25/10	This Heart of Mine	Phillips, Susan Elizabeth	B+	reread

I miss visiting my favorite blogs so I hope to do some blog hopping before I have to start back to school on April 4. Later.

Look what I got in the mail!

2010-02-13T12:21:00.000-08:00

North & South DVD from SwapADVD.com... Woohoo!

I put this title on my wishlist months ago and forgot about it, figuring I'd never get it and would probably just go buy it online somewhere. But I never got around to it. So it just showed up in the mail one day! I had it on auto request so you don't have to confirm it. For those of you on PaperbackSwap, you can use your PBS points for SwapADVD (and SwapACD). Way cool.

Anyway, who wants to come over and watch it with me? Oh, drat, y'all live so far away. Too bad, so sad :)

Resolutions

2010-01-08T23:23:00.000-08:00

I don't make resolutions normally but if I do, I make them small and totally do-able. So my resolution was to step on the scale. That's it. I hate stepping on the scale but on Monday I took the plunge and what a fright I got! That number was way too large. So I immediately started on the Weight Watchers program online. Which wasn't easy considering I still have candy and cookies left over from the holidays hanging around the house. So about day 2 of the plan I get this massive sugar withdrawal headache. I have no exact goals as to how much weight I want to lose. I just need to get my eating under control. No sugar! Smaller portions. Few carbs. More vegetables and fruit. I've done well so far but I'm not stepping on the scale yet. Headache is gone and I'm on my way.

Another sort of resolution is to be a better blogger. What that will entail, I have yet to work out but it will be something not too grand. Maybe just show up here once a week. Writing reviews has gotten to be a struggle because I put a lot into them. I hesitate to do any challenges because I suck at it. I only posted 4 times for Keishon's TBR Challenge, but it could have been worse. I also want to do Nath's Re-read Challenge. I think what I may have to do is write mini-reviews rather than the epic's I tend to write. With school and all it's just too hard to do much review writing but not impossible. School started Monday and I already had 1 assignment and 1 quiz. Got perfect scores - you see how obsessive I am about school. Anyway, there's no reason I can't squeeze in a review some time.

Recap - 2009 Reading Log

2010-01-03T21:30:00.000-08:00

KristieJ inspired me to post a recap of my 2009 reading. It turns out I read 125 books this year, the least amount since I started keeping a reading log in 2002. This sort of surprised me since I have been unemployed this year, but looks like I spent more time job searching and attending school than reading. Go figure.

Here's how it breaks down by date published:

2009: 37
2008: 25
2007: 8
2006: 5
All the rest: 75 (ranging from 1982 - 2005)

58 out of 125 were from my TBR pile. The rest were newly bought and immediately read (I don't count these toward my TBR) or were library books. I don't buy hardback so I must get them from the library.

I don't have patience with books I hate so I mark them as DNF. One surprise: I really disliked Beth Kery's Wicked Burn which lots of bloggers loved. I love erotic romance but this one did nothing for me. Not sure I'll try her again.

My favorite 2009 books were all historical romances:
The Madness of Ian MacKenzie by Jennifer Ashley
Not Quite a Husband by Sherry Thomas
To Beguile a Beast by Elizabeth Hoyt

I start back to school tomorrow for Winter Quarter and it's going to be hard to keep up with my blog and reading. I'll try to keep you posted.

iPod Touch 8GB

2010-01-02T23:03:00.000-08:00

Yup, got one for Christmas. I asked for the much simpler iPod Nano, but Bob got me the more expensive iPod Touch. It's very pretty and shiny and I have been spending hours figuring out how to use it. You can download and read Kindle ebooks with it but I haven't tried it yet. I'm not really an ebook reader. It's not as easy to use as I thought it would be. I really wanted it to download music.

I hope everyone had a great holiday season.

Happy New Year too!

December Reads

2009-12-26T21:41:00.000-08:00

Here's my December 2009 reads.

Quite a few of these were in my TBR a long time. The Anne Stuart was a disappointment with a horribly cruel hero and a heroine with amnesia. But it was written in 1995 so I'll forgive her. I like her new stuff way better.

Date	Title	Author	Grade
12/3/2009	Wicked	Susan Johnson	B
12/6/2009	To Catch a Bride	Anne Gracie	B+
12/9/2009	Winter's Edge	Anne Stuart	D-
12/10/2009	Tempt Me At Twilight	Lisa Kleypas	B
12/12/2009	Captive of Sin	Anna Campbell	B-
12/16/2009	Demon Forged	Meljean Brook	B+
12/18/2009	Promises in Death	J. D. Robb	B
12/19/2009	Beyond a Shadow	Alison Kent	C
12/22/2009	Forbidden Magic	Jo Beverley	B-
12/25/2009	Burn	Linda Howard	B
12/27/2009	Stolen Heat	Elizabeth Naughton	B-
12/29/2009	Home For Christmas	Patricia Potter	B+

TBR Challenge: REVIEW: A Gentle Rain by Deborah Smith

2009-11-17T22:52:00.000-08:00

COPYRIGHT: 2007
PAGES: 360
SETTING/TYPE: Contemporary Romance
SENSUALITY: Subtle
REASON FOR READING: I got lucky and won this book from LibraryThing's Early Reviewer program. Since I'm a huge fan of DS, I was thrilled.

SUMMARY: from Deborah Smith's webite

A Connecticut heiress. A Florida cowboy.

Her secret. His heart.

And the very special family she's come home to find.

THOUGHTS/OPINIONS:

A Gentle Rain is another heartwarming engaging story that I have come to expect from Deborah Smith.

Kara Whittenbrook is the daughter of two wealthy award-winning environmentalist parents who have recently died when their plane crashes in the Amazon jungle leaving her an heiress. While sorting through her parent's papers she is shocked to discover her adoption papers. So she confronts her uncle to find out how and why her parents adopted a child. He explains that her adopted parents wanted to tell her but they died before they felt she was secure in herself enough to handle the news. He also told her that her biological parents are mentally disabled and live on a ranch in Northern Florida.

Kara decides she wants to meet them but she is unsure of her welcome so she sets out for Florida as "Karen Johnson", an artist and harp player. The ranch is run by Ben Thocco and her biological parents, Mac and Lily, work for him. Mac was born with fetal alcohol syndrome and Lily was severely shaken as a baby. They have never mentioned having a child and Ben does not know about Kara. Ben's brother, Joey, has Downs Syndrome and a very bad heart and his prognosis is not good. Ben is a wonderfully kind man who has a lot on his shoulders . He is struggling to hold onto the ranch, take care of Joey, and employ other mentally handicapped adults besides Mac and Lily as ranch hands.

Circumstances bring Kara into life on the ranch and Mac and Lily are very drawn to her. She quickly finds herself a part of life on the ranch, cooking and cleaning and getting to know her birth parents . She and Ben are very attracted to each other but Ben feels there is more to Kara than she is revealing. Kara is unsure whether she should reveal herself to her parents but she eventually falls in love with them ... and Ben too. She can't resist secretly fixing some of the financial problems Ben faces with her vast fortune.

This heartwarming story is filled with gentle humor and sweet, endearing characters. The writing alternates between Kara's and Ben's point of view and works wonderfully well. The love between Ben and Kara develops slowly and you will fall in love with them and the special characters just as I did. Deborah Smith is an amazing author and it's too bad more people don't know about her. This is a very special book and I highly recommend.

GRADE: B+

New template (again)

2009-11-12T22:52:00.000-08:00

Okay, here we go again. I couldn't fix the old template (which I loved) after checking with the site where I got it. Seems like there were lots of other people having the same problem (background image link broken).

So I spent an hour (it gets faster the more often I do this) and voila... here it is. Well, it's still fall, isnt' it? I found a winter template with snow but that was pushing it and it was depressing me. I hate winter and I'm not that fond of snow. In a month I'll probably change over to a Christmas theme (maybe). Sorry for the continually updating template. It gets confusing to all you bloggers to see something different everytime you visit. I will be tweaking it some since I think some of my blogger links may be broken and maybe add some new ones.

Blog messed up

2009-11-11T22:07:00.000-08:00

Something seems to have gone wrong with my blog background. If I can't fix it I'll have to go find me a new template. *sigh* Dang it!

I hate when that happens. Well, I better go over to the source and see if I can fix it. Or else I'll have to find a new template.

Just finished reading...

2009-11-06T19:35:00.001-08:00

I'm caught up with homework for now so I thought I would pop in and post about a book I just finished and loved. If you like contemporary romances with snappy dialogue, three dimensional characters, and steamy love scenes, this is the book for you.

TITLE: Can't Stand the Heat
AUTHOR: Louisa Edwards
SENSUALITY: Hot
THOUGHTS/OPINIONS:
If you have never heard of Louisa Edwards before that's because Can't Stand the Heat is her debut book. And what a debut! I was quite impressed. I love stories where some conflict pits the hero and heroine against each other. I recently read and loved Julie James' Practice Makes Perfect which features this type of story. So when I heard the buzz about this book I had to give it a try since it also features a restaurant critic and a chef. Miranda Wake is a sharp-tongued restaurant critic who would love to write a book about restaurant culture but can't find an interested publisher. Adam Temple is a chef working hard to open his new restaurant - Market - which specializes in organic dishes with the freshest ingredients straight from local growers.

At Market's opening party Miranda gets a bit tipsy and shoots off her mouth. Adam loses his temper and issues a dare, kinda like "Oh yeah, you think this is easy - you wouldn't last a month in my kitchen." Adam's publicist thinks this is a great idea and will make lots of publicity for the restaurant and bring in the customers. Only problem is Miranda can't cook but she sells the idea to a publisher and receives a book advance. This is when the fun begins. The dialogue is crisp and snappy with lots of realistic restaurant jargon, the food descriptions are mouth watering and the pacing is fast and furious. The book is filled with wonderfully realistic characters and features a secondary M/M romance that was well done. I loved Adam much more than Miranda whose motivations sometimes puzzled me even though the story alternates between Adam and Miranda's point of view. The real strength of this book is the how the relationship grows. The sensuality between Adam and Miranda was hot and spicy and blended together with the cooking and food preparation making some very yummy scenes.

This is the first book in Edwards' "Recipe for Love" series and I can't wait to get my hands on the next book.

GRADE: B+

Not blogging

2009-10-14T00:01:00.000-07:00

Sorry to be absent again. School is taking up most of my spare time. I'm taking three classes:

Programming in C#
Database Theory
Networking Basics

And I'm getting at or near 100% in all my assignments and tests. The Networking class is VERY technical with more than you ever want to know about cables, routes, switches, etc, etc. But the tests (multiple choice and T/F) are very easy.

I have done very little reading outside of class. I'm currently listening to a book on CD in the car. It's a suspense thriller called The Eight by Katherine Neville. I don't think it has lived up to the hype so far but it is rather fascinating.

I'll try and post when I get the chance.

Still alive

2009-09-27T22:57:00.000-07:00

And kicking. Just thought I better post. I started fall quarter at Belleve College and I'm taking 3 classes. Two of them are online classes and one is a partially online. So as you can guess I am on the computer almost constantly but ironically enough I have little time left in the day to post on my blog. And little time left to read something besides a text book.

Reading now:

But I'm squeezing a few minutes out of each day to read this scrumptious book: Beyond the Rain by Jess Granger

Most of the reviews I have seen say it is "action-packed". Wow, what an understatement! I try to read an hour before bed but once I pick this up I don't stop reading till my eyes start to droop a couple hours later. I love both the H/H and the sci-fi setting. It's hard to find a good sci-fi romance these days but this one fills the bill nicely.

REVIEW: September Moon by Candice Proctor

2009-09-10T22:16:00.000-07:00

COPYRIGHT: 1999
PAGES: 337
SETTING: Historical - Australia 1860's
TYPE: Straight Romance
SENSUALITY: Hot
REASON FOR READING: Because I loved her other books written about Australia; Night in Eden and Whispers of Heaven - both are keepers!

THOUGHTS/OPINIONS:
Amanda Davenport is an Englishwoman working as a secretary in Australia. When her employers die unexpectedly she is left stranded until the next ship leaves for England which is many months away. She is alone, nearly penniless and desperate to find work. She applies for a job as governess to the Patrick O'Reilly family who live on a sheep station in the wild Australia outback. When she arrives at her new home and sees the harsh living conditions she realizes that she has probably made a horrible mistake. The land is in the midst of a terrible drought, the children are hellions and determined to make her life miserable, and Patrick O'Reilly is rough and uncouth. But Amanda must make the best of it until her agreed upon employment ends and she can return to her beloved England.

Slowly Amanda comes to care for the children. They were abandoned by their mother and are angry and deeply hurt, but eventually Amanda wins them over and they come to rely on her. Patrick is intelligent, a caring father, and works hard to make his station a success. He is also still bitter towards his English wife who abandoned him and his children because she hated the outback.

Patrick is a fantastic hero and he comes to see that Amanda is not such a prim English governess. She has a passionate side and he is very attracted to her. The sexual tension between them just sizzles and their growing attraction leads to some wonderful love scenes. Amanda finally realizes that this is where she belongs even though the living conditions get worse as the drought continues. It takes a while for the children and especially Patrick to trust her not to abandon them, but Amanda is one amazingly tough woman.

Proctor is an outstanding author and her vivid descriptions of the Australian outback were wonderfully drawn and compelling. She also paints a fascinating picture of life on a sheep station in the 1860s. And the characterizations are so strong that I just fell in love with Patrick and Amanda, and the three children, Hannah, Liam and Missy. In fact I had a hard time putting it down. After finishing the book I flipped back to the first page and read it again! I just could not get this setting and characters out of my mind. And that doesn't happen often for me. Another keeper!

GRADE: A

My Favorite Westerns

2009-08-31T22:14:00.000-07:00

I wanted to post a list of my favorite westerns for KristieJ's "Great Western Drive" (and Sybil & Wendy too). Okay, I know I'm two weeks late, so sue me.

I love Western Romances because the men and women were so tough, gritty, hard-working and persistent. But they were flawed and sometimes damaged people. I also love all the different characters besides cowboys, ranchers and farmers. There are doctors, gamblers, cavalry and mounties, outlaws, bounty hunters, gunslingers, just to name a few. And the women were the most amazing. They cooked, cleaned, gave birth, raised their children and helped their husbands or ran the ranch themselves, all at the same time. They endured fires, floods, indian raids, starvation, the loss of children and husbands but they were tough and they kept going. Several of my favorite westerns involve women who are desperate to save their farm/ranch and so marry some very shady characters.

The following are my favorites in no particular order. Some of them you may have already heard of and some of them may be hard to find but try PBS if you can't find them on Amazon, or at your local UBS. Most of these are keepers for me.

One Lonely Night by Susan Kay Law
The beginning of this book reminded me very much of Linda Howard's White Out. One night during a raging blizzard a stranger shows up on the doorstep of a lonely spinster and collapses at her feet.

The Wives of Bowie Stone by Maggie Osborne
My review
Heroine marries a condemned man to save him from hanging and help her run the farm.

Joe's Wife by Cheryl St. John
My review
A young widow is afraid she will lose her ranch so she proposes marriage to a war veteran to help her run it. An emotional love story and a real tearjerker.

Prairie Wife by Cheryl St. John
Review
A marriage in trouble story about a couple who have lost a child. Another emotional tearjerker that was very well done.

His Secondhand Wife by Cheryl St. John
My review
A very strong heroine finds out she is pregnant after her husband is killed in a brawl. His half-brother is terribly scarred from injuries suffered when he tangled with some barbed wire at a young age and offers her a home with him. Another wonderful emotional story.

Rainbow Season by Lisa Gregory (aka Candace Camp)
An excellent redemption story with a tortured hero to die for.

A Reason to Live by Maureen McKade
My review
A road romance about a nurse and an ex-gunslinger as they travel from Virginia to Texas in post-Civil War era. Very powerful story.

High Plains Bride by Jenna Kernan
Heroine's twelve year old daughter is kidnapped by the Sioux. She also discovers that her husband let her believe he was dead for years. So she demands his help in rescuing their daughter.

The Horse Soldier by Merline Lovelace
Review (TRR)
Review (AAR)
A woman searching for her husband travels to Fort Laramie Wyoming instead finds the man she secretly married years before ... and who she thought was dead.

The Outlaw by Nicole Jordan
My review.
Romeo and Juliet type story. H/H fall in love even though their families are enemies. They become separated when hero is accused of murder and he runs away. Now he is back and has cleared up the charges against him.

1st book in Rocky Mountain trilogy.

The Heart Breaker by Nicole Jordan
My review.
Marriage of convenience story. A Colorado rancher needs a wife and mother for his infant daughter.

2nd book in the Rocky Mountain "trilogy".

Nicole Jordan keeps promising the 3rd book (Wolf's story) for years but she never completed it. Here is what I found on her website:

I would love to be able to write Book 3, Wolf's story – and in fact I have it all plotted out. But my publisher wants me to wait until the market for Western romances is stronger. So regrettably, it will be a while longer for Wolf.

*sigh* Same old story. You think maybe the "Great Western Drive" may have helped and maybe we'll get Wolf's story? Don't hold your breath.

Recent Reads

2009-08-28T23:28:00.000-07:00

Where does the time go? Well, I'm done with summer quarter. Took 3 classes for a total of 12 credits and got straight A's :)

Yeah, I'm a totally obsessive student and always have been and I saw it all too clearly this summer. In one class (Excel spreadsheet class) I had a perfect score plus 60 extra credit points which is ridiculous really. Why do I do this to myself? My stressed out tummy has come back again so I need to de-stress and relax until fall quarter starts on September 21. I have been busy reading and have really been knocking down my TBR.

This Duchess of Mine by Eloisa James (2009)
Sensuality: Warm
Grade: B
This is the fifth book in the Desperate Duchesses series and I haven't read any of the previous books which goes to show I have overcome my OCD about reading books in a series in order. I haven't read many books by James (only 2) but I really must go find some of her backlist because I enjoyed this book. This is a troubled marriage plot which is one of my favorites. As the story begins Jemma and Elijah are reunited after a 9 year separation after she catches him in the act with his mistress. Now he wants an heir and Jemma has reluctantly returned from Paris to do her "duty". The beginning of the book felt like I had jumped into the middle of the story so I have a feeling I should have read the previous books (which was confirmed in some of the reviews I read), but I did enjoy the story anyway. There is lots of sexual tension and the plot involves chess (Jemma & Elijah are both chess masters) and some issues with Elijah's heart condition which was all expertly handled in both pacing and dialogue. A thoroughly enjoyable book. A secondary character, the Duke of Villiers, has an interesting storyline involving his illegitimate children and I look forward to his book, A Duke of Her Own, which was recently released. I'm also intrigued enough to checkout the previous books in this series.

One Reckless Summer by Toni Blake
Sensuality: Hot
Grade: B+
Good girl meets bad boy. Been there, done that. In fact the title and book reminded me a little bit of Robard's One Summer, one of my favorite books of all time. ORS is not quite as good as OS, but it's a great summer read. Jenny comes back to her home town to get her life back together after divorcing her cheating husband. She moves into the family vacation cabin on the lake and discovers that Mick, her tormentor from her teenage years, is also back living across the lake. I didn't like Jenny very much at first but Mick is totally yummy. Jenny is too much of a perfect good girl but when she meets Mick after rowing across the lake to do some stargazing, she does something reckless and they have a very steamy sexual encounter. Mick had a very rough childhood with two worthless parents. He is helping his brother who has escaped from prison and is now dying from cancer. Jenny is very attracted to Mick and is torn about keeping the presence of Mick's brother a secret from her father, the chief of police. The chemistry between them and their sizzling sexy affair really was the highlight of the book and made this an excellent book to take to the beach (which I did).

Stolen Fury by Elisabeth Naughton
Sensuality: Warm
Grade: B
This riproaring romantic suspense was another good summer read. It's filled with lots of action adventure in the tradition of Indiana Jones without detracting from the romance. Lisa is an archeologist hot on the trail of three bas-reliefs of the Greek Furies, Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone. After finding Alecto she meets Rafe, who seduces her, drugs her and steals Alecto from her hotel safe and she is now furious. With the help of her detective brother, she tracks him down in Key West, Florida, and she reluctantly joins forces with Rafe to get Tisiphone before other treasure hunters. I normally detest a thief hero, but there are some complex circumstances behind Rafe's motives. The book was fast paced and I loved the intrigue and all the twists and turns. The sexual tension was built slowly and I enjoyed the snappy dialogue between the H/H. When they finally get together the pages sizzled nicely. Lisa is a smart, tough heroine with a secret past. Rafe is so charming I couldn't stay mad at him for stealing Alecto (and neither could Lisa). This was my first book by Naughton and I can hardly wait to get my hands on the next book, Stolen Heat.

We're having a heat wave!

2009-07-29T18:25:00.000-07:00

Sorry I haven't blogged much lately. I am taking 3 classes and the homework is keeping me busy. I have done very little reading too which really sucks.

Go check out the weather maps for Seattle. Today is the hottest day EVER recorded in Seattle! 103 degrees! And it was 104 degrees at my house! Needless to say we don't have weather like this. In fact, I can't remember the last time we had 90 degrees before this year. And we don't have air conditioning. Very few home owners in this area do since you would only need it a few days out of the year.

The only silver lining is that we have a basement and the temp down there is 75 degrees which is very tolerable since I moved the spare bed down there a few months ago so at least we can sleep. Add a fan and it's downright perfect. It's not supposed to cool down for a few days so I figure I'll be melted into a puddle by then. My pots of annuals are drying up and it's a struggle to keep them watered.

Anyway, hope everyone is keeping cool. I'll get back to reading soon.

This is why ebooks won't replace "real" books

2009-07-17T19:33:00.001-07:00

I was cruising some of my favorite sites when I came across this article about Amazon and I was horrified.

Seems like Amazon "took back" one of the ebooks it sold for the Kindle without the buyers consent. Kinda like stealing a book after it's already paid for by the customer.

Here the article from AmericaBlog (a liberal news site) Amazon kindle takes back 1984 (irony alert).

I have to agree with David Pogue from the NYT: "This is ugly for all kinds of reasons." And one of the reasons I think the whole ebook phenomenon is a mess and I will never switch to electronic. I download them from the library occasionally but that's it. I'm not handing control of my library over to the publishers and the book sellers. Give me a book I can hold and curl up in bed with or pass along to a friend or sell at a UBS. Maybe sometime in the distant future these problems will be solved but until then I'm keeping my paperbacks.

Back in town

2009-07-14T16:15:00.000-07:00

I'm back from the road trip to North Dakota. We had a great time at the reunion. The cousin & wife (from hell) didn't make it so I was glad about that (although I'm sorry Bob didn't get to see his cousin... he's a nice guy but nobody missed the wife - she's a total nightmare). We followed Bob's dad home to Minot and spent a couple days with him. He had moved into a new retirement/assisted living home and he still had a bunch of boxes to unpack and nothing on the walls. So Bob and I got everything unpacked or stored away (not enough room) and put up lots of pictures and made it look nice and homey. It looked great. We also went with him to order the headstone. We gave our input on the design and I think it will look wonderful. This took a couple of days because Dad has a hard time making decisions. But he was glad we were there to help and I was very sad to say goodbye. I felt bad leaving him.

I received good news from the Washington State Employment Security department when I got back. I was approved by them to begin my training program through Bellevue College and I DON'T have to keep looking for work, and I still collect unemployment (about $530 a week). Plus the state is paying for the training (I just have to pay for books). Such a deal. I just wish I knew about this program 6 months ago, but ... oh, well. I started Summer Quarter with 2 online classes and took my computer along to ND to work on them. Classes are easy but there is a lot of homework. It's fun really.

I did some reading on the road but not as much as usual. Only three books :) Two of them were good, the third was so-so:

1) Dangerous Lies by Anna Louise Lucia - a romantic suspense in an unusual setting - North Africa (Morocco and Algeria). Action packed but I found some of the writing sort of awkward and had to reread passages occasionally. Grade B-

2) Shadow Dance by Anne Stuart - an historical that was recommended by CindyS (I think) and I loved it. Features two couples and was hot and sensual with some great subtle humor. Grade B+

3) The Major's Mistake by Andrea Pickens - a regency romance that starts out with a big misunderstanding and separation. I have no idea how it got into my TBR. It had a good storyline but NO sex scenes and you know how I hate that. Grade C+

I'm trying to keep ahead with these classes so I can take off this weekend with my old high school girl friends. We're having a little mini-reunion and I'm really looking forward to seeing them and reliving old times. We have a busy summer ahead of us with a camping trip planned and birthday party for my dad who turns 75. So I'm not gettting much reading done.

Family reunion

2009-07-02T09:00:00.000-07:00

Going to Bismarck, North Dakota for a family reunion over the 4th of July week. Road trip! Yeah, Bob would rather drive than fly. This will be his mother's side of the family and a few of them are not my favorite people so I'm not looking forward to the experience. A really odd bunch. One of the cousins is a great guy but he has this wife from HELL. She talks incessantly and she is constantly putting down her husband. I don't know how he stays married to her. I told Bob if he takes off golfing with his cousin and leaves me stuck with her for 5 or 6 hours, he is dead meat, and I will make him suffer :)

It's a 3 day reunion and I'll give him ONE day and then I'm outta there.

Anyway, we should be gone no more than a week, and I have already packed my books. OK, I know my priorities. So I'll post when I get back.

REVIEW: Practice Makes Perfect by Julie James

2009-06-25T21:00:00.000-07:00

COPYRIGHT: 2009
PAGES: 291
SETTING: Contemporary
TYPE: Straight Romance
SENSUALITY: Warm
REASON FOR READING: KristieJ gave this one a 4.5 out of 5 and Jane at DA gave it a B

SUMMARY:

When it comes to the laws of attraction, there are no rules The battle between the sexes is about to make these two lawyers hot under the collar. Opposites collide when two lawyers try to make partner at the same firm. Payton Kendall is a feminist to the bone. Cocky J.D. Jameson was born privileged. But when they’re asked to join forces on a major case, they gain a newfound awareness of each other’s personal assets. The partnership spot will be offered to only one of them, though. The competition heats up. Sparks fly. Let the games begin.

THOUGHTS / OPINION:
When I first heard about this book about two lawyers I was not at all tempted to give it a try. Books about lawyers tend to bore me and all the technical legal talk is a real yawn. But Jane's and KristieJ's reviews convinced me that I should at least give it a try. Within the first couple of pages I got right into it but somewhere around page 40 I was ready to strangle the "hero" who infuriated me. What a male chauvinist PIG, sexist cocky bastard! Yeah, I know, that's kinda harsh but it's true and I was steaming at that point and ready to throw the book up against the nearest wall. But I hung on and I'm glad I did because it was a great ride and I enjoyed the book.

J. D. Jameson & Payton Kendall are two hot shot lawyers who have worked for the same prestigious law firm for the past 8 years and both are up for a partnership. But unfortunately the firm has decided that only one will make it and the other will have to leave the firm. So the competition heats up between J.D. and Payton and neither one is afraid to play dirty.

J.D. and Payton have been rivals since day one. They have treated each other with cool reserve but underneath they detest each other and are constantly trying to outdo the other. Payton hates J.D.'s privileged rich boy attitude, his expensive clothes and his fancy car. She feels she has to work twice as hard to get any respect from her boss. J.D. hates Payton's feminist attitude and feels he will be discriminated against because the firm sent out email to the employees stating their intention to grow the female partnership and Payton is the only female up for partner (*rolling eyes* oh, those poooooor white rich males who for centuries held all the cards in jobs and promotions and now feel threatened when a female might just get a job they want ... boo. hoo.). Kinda hard to like J.D. at this point. But J.D really grew on me and slowly I came to realize that I really liked him which surprised me.

You know the old romance cliche about love and hate being closely connected? So true in this case. The intense competition between JD and Payton ratchets up a notch and so does their attraction. They like to play pranks on each other and some of them were pretty funny and there were some laugh out loud moments. PMP is a romantic comedy, very light and fun. However, there were some underlying themes pertaining to class, gender, and workplace discrimination that the author chose to ignore that I found a bit unsettling and rather irritating. I found a review by Jessica over at Racy Romance Reviews that perfectly described my problems with these issues and how they were portrayed in the book.

In the end I chose to ignore those issues since I liked both the H/H and loved their relationship and how realistically the author portrayed the legal profession yet made it fascinating to read. As a feminist I couldn't resist cheering for Payton to make partner all through the book but the ending surprised me and I rather liked it. I haven't read Ms. James' debut novel, Just the Sexiest Man Alive, but it's sitting on my nightstand now and I look forward to reading it soon.

GRADE: B+

REVIEW: Vision in White by Nora Roberts

2009-06-20T23:07:00.000-07:00

COPYRIGHT: 2009
PAGES: 325
TYPE/SETTING: Contemporary - Connecticut
SERIES: 1st book in Bride Quartet
SENSUALITY: Warm
REASON FOR READING: It's a new non-paranormal series from Nora - had to have it.

SUMMARY:

Childhood friends Mackensie, Parker, Laurel and Emmeline have formed a very successful wedding planning business together but, despite helping thousands of happy couples to organize the biggest day of their lives, all four women are unlucky in love. Photographer Mackensie Elliott has suffered a tough childhood and has a bad relationship with her mother, which makes her wary of commitment. But when she meets Carter Macguire, she can't stop herself falling for him, although his ex girlfriend is prepared to play dirty to keep him. Mackensie soon realizes she has to put her past demons to rest in order to find lasting love...

THOUGHTS / OPINION:

My daughter got married last July and the whole wedding planning experience is still fresh in my mind. So when I found out that the newest straight contemporary series (with NO paranormal elements) from Nora Roberts was about a group of friends who own a wedding planning business I just had to have it. Imagine my surprise when I hit Target on a mission to find it shortly after it was released to find that it was a trade sized paperback! I have to admit I was a bit dismayed because the price was more that I was expecting but I was blown away by it. The pages are rough cut with gold tipped edges on the cover making it look like an old wedding memory scrap book. And it has these lovely little flaps (front and back) that can be used as bookmarks. And to top it off the cover image is stunning as you can see. "Totally worth the price," I thought as I grabbed it up and headed for the cashier (the 20% discount softened the blow of course). And what was inside the pages was a treat too so I'm a happy camper.

Mackensie "Mac" Elliot and her best friends since childhood, Parker, Emma, and Laurel own and operate a wedding planning company in Connecticut called Vows. La Nora absolutely excels at developing relationships between brothers/sisters/friends and I think she has written probably about a dozen series with these types of relationships (Chesapeake Bay is my favorite series of hers) and ViW is well done in the friends relationship department. In fact I think the best part of the book was Mackensie's relationships with her three friends. The romance almost took a back seat to that... I say almost because the romance was very good.

Carter is a sweet and yummy kinda bookish, nerdy guy who absolutely floors Mackensie. Mac is a tall, willowy redhead and rather flamboyant. This was definitely an opposites attract story. Carter has had a crush on Mac since high school but Mac barely remembers him. Their first meeting since high school was charmingly funny (he runs into a wall and almost knocks himself out when he accidentally finds her in her studio with just a bra and slacks). Mac is the photographer at Vows and a real pro at what she does. But Mac has lots of personal issues due to a selfish spoiled mother who thinks the world revolves around her and a non-existent father. Parker, Emma and Laurel are her "family" and she has learned to deal with her mother but not in a good way. She gives into her constant incessant demands. But with the help of her friends and Carter she eventually grows a spine and stands up to her. Carter is sweet and funny and I loved being inside his head. His insecure self-talk when he tries to get up the courage to ask her on a date was very cute. Carter is a teacher who wears tweed suits but is a hunk underneath it all and was perfect for Mac but it took her awhile to figure that out.

Mac and Carter's relationship builds in a realistic way and it was an engaging story although not very steamy. If you, like me, have been missing Nora's straight romance series without all that woo-woo paranormal stuff she has been doing lately, you will probably enjoy this book as I did. And I look forward to the whole quartet with stories for Parker, Emma, and Laurel.

GRADE: B+

TBR Challenge: She' Got It Bad by Sarah Mayberry

2009-06-17T22:48:00.001-07:00

COPYRIGHT: 2009
PAGES: 213
SETTING: Contemporary
TYPE: Series Romance (Harlequin Blaze)
SENSUALITY: Hot
REASON FOR READING: I read some good things about this book from various bloggers and AAR gave it an A-

SUMMARY:

Twelve years ago Zoe Ford let Liam Masters break her heart. But now? There's not a chance. Zoe is as tough and wild as they come. So when Liam shows up at her tattoo parlor, she's more than ready to take him on again. That's not going to be a hardship, since he's hotter than he ever was.

This time she's staying in charge. And she's not going to consider their score settled until he's hot, bothered and begging for more! Then she'll move on as callously as he left her. Unless all that deliciously bad sex is just too good to give up….

THOUGHTS / OPINION:
This month' TBR Challenge is tortured hero and I think this book fits the bill pretty well, actually both H/H were tortured. Most of the time I don't find much 'blaze' in the Harlequin Blaze line but SGIB is definitely blazing and the characters and plot were great.

Liam Masters had a troubled childhood with an abusive father. After his mother died when he was 17, he was taken in by the Ford family and loved by them. He became very close to the Fords two children, Tom and Zoe. Tom was his best friend and Zoe, two year younger, fell head over heels in love with him as 15 yo girls do. She pursues him and offers herself to him. But Liam feels that would be a betrayal to the family he loves and took him in when he needed a home. And he doesn't think he's good enough for Zoe. So he rejects Zoe's advances and leaves town the next day which devastates her. She is incredibly hurt and goes out and does something stupid.

It is now 12 years later and Zoe is a tattoo artist and sings in a thrash band at night. Liam has got his act together now and is the owner of a custom bike shop (kinda like Orange County Choppers) and he is very successful. Right here I am completely enthralled with these two characters with their very unusual occupations. Loved them. Zoe appears to have a hard "bad girl" shell but on the inside she is still pretty vulnerable and sweet. Liam comes across a nude painting at an art gallery and is appalled to recognize Zoe as the face in the painting. He tracks down Zoe and discovers her working in a tattoo parlor and the sparks start to fly. Liam is shocked to find how she has changed from such a sweet girl into an angry bad girl with her heavy drinking, tattoos, and unapologetically sexual act during her nightly band performances. And of course he is determined to "save" her. He offers her a job in his bike shop as an artist.

Liam and Zoe are two wounded people. Liam was beaten by his abusive father and forced to watch his mother's abuse as well. He's afraid he will become his father and feels he'll never be good enough for any woman. Zoe feels worthless because she allowed herself to be used sexually by a sleazebag in high school and (spoiler: he got her pregnant which turned ectopic and the complications left her sterile) now she feels no man could possibly want her.

This book was hard to put down and very well written. It was pretty predictable sometimes in the way that Harlequins can be but I enjoyed it very much anyway. I loved the storyline with Zoe's artistic contributions in the bike shop. But Liam's stubborn attitude with his low self esteem made me want to slap him at one point. However, I love stories about the healing power of love and greatly enjoyed how Liam and Zoe work out their problems together. This is a short fast sexy read that I think most will enjoy.

GRADE: B+

Birthdays

2009-06-17T16:01:00.000-07:00

I feel so old today. *sigh* Yeah, it's my birthday! I went to lunch with some girlfriends and that always makes me happy. Bob will probably take me to dinner.

Sometimes I feel like I would rather ignore the whole thing but my friends and family are so sweet. I like getting funny cards and flowers so I guess it's all good.

Anyway, go look at Google.com and you will see that today (June 17) is Igor Stravinsky's birthday. I had no idea who he was so I did some googling. Ahhh, a famous Russian composer, pianist and conductor. Also it's Barry Manilow's birthday. Hah! hilarious.

Do any of you share your birthday with someone famous? Here's a link that will help.

I need to go buy some books to get over the pain of being year older. Any good books you want to recommend?

New toys

2009-06-14T22:29:00.000-07:00

Haven't heard back about the job I interviewed for but I'm assuming I didn't get it. I'm signed up for Summer quarter at Bellevue College for the training program I wanted but I had to apply for CAT to get approval since I am currently receiving unemployment compensation. They will make the decision soon (I hope) whether I can take the classes and continue to receive my current UC. If they don't approve then I have to cancel my registration.

Meanwhile I went shopping... no, not books although I have a $50 gift certificate to Barnes & Noble burning a hole in my pocket. No, what I really needed was some new toys. My PDA (an HP ipaq 2215) died taking with it all of my contacts (not backed up) and appointments and my ebooks. I do have the backups for the ebooks on my desktop so that's OK. But I really miss my contacts. So I ordered a new one, an HP ipaq 111, and it just came yesterday. This one has a wireless driver so I can connect to the internet and read email and stuff (which my old one didn't have). I think it has GPS (but I haven't played around with that yet). It's thinner too and lightweight, easy to carry in my purse.

Last month Bob and I bought new cell phones. If I had known my PDA was about to die, I probably would have bought a fancier model, a SmartPhone or a Blackberry or something that would do the same stuff but I love this PDA.

Last but not least, I bought a new laptop computer at Costco last Thursday... an HP G60. It had a great price and it's a 16" screen. It has Windows Vista which I have never used before so it taking some adjusting. Oh, and it has a webcam. How do you use that thing? I'm pretty geeky but I'm too lazy to figure it out yet. But I LOVE having my own laptop. Bob and I were sharing his and it was a constant battle.

Reading Now: Silver Falls by Anne Stuart... and it has a pretty creepy beginning. I really have this urge to peek at the ending for some reason but I trying hard to resist. I'm only on page 16.

May Reads

2009-06-04T22:13:00.000-07:00

I had a great reading month.... 16 books.... with 3 books in the A range.

Job Interview

2009-06-03T10:35:00.000-07:00

I have a job interview today and I'm so nervous I can hardly sit still and I have massive stomach butterflies. To tell the truth I don't really want the job. I have enjoyed my time off and it wouldn't make me feel bad to stay home a few more months. Am I lazy or what?

I got into this training program but I have to keep looking for work until I get state approval. If I get the job then I'm out of the program. So it's a dilemma but I will do my best in the interview - the job sounds exactly like what I was doing in my previous job. But I don't do well in interviews.

Wish me luck!

UPDATE: It went pretty well, but I know there are of ton of other candidates so the chances are low that I got it. But that's OK. I'll survive and the training program will be good.

REVIEW: Never Romance a Rake by Liz Carlyle

2009-05-28T21:00:00.000-07:00

COPYRIGHT: 2008
PAGES: 436
SETTING: Historical - Regency era
TYPE: Straight Romance
SERIES: 3rd book in the Neville family series
SENSUALITY: Warm

SUMMARY:

If he wins this hand...
Shunning the glittering elite of high society Kieran, Baron Rothewell, prefers the dangerous pursuits of London's demimonde. Hardened by a tormented past, he cares little for anyone or anything. So how can he resist the wager proposed by the dissolute Comte de Valigny? A hand of cards for the possession of the comte's exquisite daughter.

Will he win her heart?
Abandoned by her highborn father -- until he decides to use her -- Mademoiselle Camille Marchand puts no trust in an aristocrat's honor, especially that of the notorious baron. She too is gambling -- for her life -- and Rothwell is just one more card to be used. But whatever dark desires run through his veins call to her own, and the heart plays its own game -- winner take all!

THOUGHTS / OPINION:

I am a obsessive compulsive series reader. At least I used to be. I cannot pickup a book to read unless I am sure I have read the previous books in the series. But now I find myself falling behind in my reading of some of my favorite authors - Liz Carlyle being one of them. So when I find a recommendation for a book in a series I just jump in, grab it and start reading. I'm so glad I did because NRAR turned out to be an excellent read and I didn't feel like I was missing anything by started #3 in the series without having read #1 & #2.

Kiernan is a dark, tormented, self-destructive man and for good reason given his childhood abuse. He spends most of his time drinking to excess, smoking, and frequenting bawdy houses and gambling dens. His health is deteriorating badly and he fears his death is imminent and does nothing to alter his behavior. One thing I dislike about books about rakes is that they turn out to be "fake rakes". Well, Kiernan is a real rake deserving of the title.

Kiernan meets Camille Marchand one evening in a corrupt gambling hell when her depraved father, Comte de Valigny, wagers the right to marry her (and her large dowry) in a card game. Kiernan is shocked and thinks to put a stop to it but then realizes that Camille is not fighting it. But he cannot allow the lecherous slime at the table to have her so he makes sure he wins. Afterward he takes her aside tells her she doesn't have to marry him. But Camille insists upon the marriage AND a child in exchange for her dowry. She can only collect her grandfather's inheritance after she marries and produces a child. Camille is the illegitimate daughter of the Comte's and had a difficult and insecure childhood. Her father is now trying to use her to get at her huge inheritance.

Both Kiernan and Camille are deep multifaceted characters and their relationship development was a delight from their first meeting to eventually falling in love. The love scenes are steamy and Kiernan's redemption from rake to loving husband was wonderful. All the characters were well done especially Kemble. I believe he has appeared in several previous books by Carlyle.

Given these two superb characters and their relationship and Carlyle's usual excellent prose, I was completely enthralled. Kiernan's health issues and Camille's family issues (which I won't spoil) are resolved very satisfyingly. NRAR is another keeper from Carlyle.

GRADE: A-

TBR Challenge: REVIEW: Breathless by Laura Lee Guhrke

2009-05-20T22:35:00.000-07:00

COPYRIGHT: 1999
PAGES: 389
SETTING: Historical - Turn of the Century
TYPE: Straight Romance
SENSUALITY: Warm

SUMMARY:

Award-winning author Laura Lee Guhrke steps back to a time of Southern propriety--and passion--in this thrilling page-turner laced with heated sensuality. A lawyer is reunited with an unforgettable lady from his past--and together, they step into a web of small-town scandal and desire.

Lily Morgan may be Shivaree, Georgia's most talked-about lady. Everyone in town knows about the bitter break-up of her marriage five years before, when Daniel Walker, her husband's tough, uncompromising lawyer, tore her reputation to shreds and left her with nothing but a wish to get even. But now something about Daniel makes her blood boil and her pulse quicken...not with righteous fury, but with passion.

Daniel has returned to Shivaree to once again match wits with Lily Morgan. The thought of a rematch with Lily delights him. for he has never forgotten her hot temper--or her lovely looks. But when a shocking murder shakes the town, Daniel joins Lily to find a killer, and their unexpected partnership sparks something between them that they never expected--desire. Now Daniel, the strong-willed lawyer for whom winning is everything, realizes he must win the one reward he can't live without: Lily's forgiveness--and her love.

THOUGHTS / OPINION:

Wow, I loved this book. Breathless takes place at the turn of the century... a time period I'm not that fond of... and I still loved it. I picked this book up because Wendy said it was her favorite book of all time and she owns 2 copies of it. Could her reason for loving it be because the heroine is a librarian? Well, that could be part of it, but I'm sure it's because the writing is superb, the characters are wonderfully drawn, and the story is filled with humor and is utterly charming.

This is a enemies-to-lovers story. Daniel is a lawyer, the lowest of the low as far as Lily, the town's librarian, is concerned. During her divorce trial where he represented her husband, he falsely accused her of adultery thereby ruining her reputation in the small Georgia town where she lives. But Lily has backbone and refuses to be cowed by the gossips in town.

Now Daniel is back and Lily is horrified. Lily has been trying to get rid of the local "social club" which is nothing but a brothel which she holds responsible for her straying husband's despicable behavior. Daniel has political ambitions and his main supporter has brought him back in town to overturn the injunction against the "social club". The plot gets a bit more intense with a murder of one of the "girls" at the social club, but it is very well done and the pages just flew by. Daniel and Lily fight a growing attraction and eventually Daniel realizes that he was wrong about Lily during her divorce trial. All the characters were engaging and well written and the dialogue is witty and had some very funny moments. I especially LOVED the scene where Lily refuses to issue Daniel a library card. A hoot!

When I first read this I was a bit annoyed with how the hero refused to see the truth about the heroine until late in the story. So I gave it a B+ but after thinking and thinking about it, I realized it didn't matter and made their coming together that much better. This one is a KEEPER.

This book reminds me a little of the movie The Long, Hot Summer with Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward (loved that movie). Read this book with that movie in mind and you'll see what I mean.

Keishon's TBR Challenge theme for this month is friends to lovers, but enemies to lovers is even better reading in this case.

GRADE: A

REVIEW: Power Play by Deirdre Martin

2009-05-18T22:00:00.000-07:00

COPYRIGHT: 2008
PAGES: 290
SETTING: Contemporary
TYPE: Straight Romance
SERIES: 7th (full length) book in the Blades hockey series
SENSUALITY: Warm

SUMMARY:

Just in time for hockey season

Hockey player Eric Mitchell is a man in demand. First he was traded to save the New York Blades, and now the publicity department has loaned him out to help boost daytime diva Monica Geary's career. What no one knows is that one of People magazine's hottest bachelors is also a closet soap opera fan. He's had his eyes on Monica for years—and can't wait to get his arms around her.

THOUGHTS / OPINION:

I have read only 3 books in this series about hockey players and Body Check, the first in the series, is still my favorite and a keeper. But Power Play was a decent read and I enjoyed it. Hero, Eric Mitchell, is the twin brother of the hero in Chasing Stanley, book 6 of the series, who are both NHL hockey players. Monica Geary's is a daytime soap star. My impression of sports stars and actresses is that they are very egotistical people so that's what I was expecting of Eric and Monica. And I was right ... at first ... they both are very self-centered. But deep down they are both very nice, caring people and they turned out to be likable characters.

Monica is worried about her future stardom on her show, The Wild and the Free, due to a new younger actress just brought onto the show. Eric's team, the NY Blades, just traded away a popular favorite to get Eric. The Blades are not having a good season so many are looking at Eric with resentment. Monica's publicist concocts this plot which involves pretending to be a couple which would boost Monica's career and make Eric more popular with his team mates who are avid TW&TF soap fans. Both of them don't think too much of the other at first but eventually they develop a strong attraction.

I thought this "fake date" plot was rather unbelievable at first but these two characters really made it work. Eric and Monica turned out to be a well balanced couple with each person's strength complementing the other's weakness. The relationship was very fun to watch with some snappy dialogue which kept me turning the pages. I loved the parts where The Blades were falling over themselves about meeting Monica and having her attend their games. I have read that lots of sports teams follow the soaps so I thought this was rather funny and endearing. If you like sports romances (which I do - I love the SEP's Chicago Stars series as well) then you are sure to enjoy PP as much as me.

GRADE: B

Here we go

2009-05-14T21:30:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm back again. Miss Unreliable. Still job hunting and finally facing the fact that I have been slightly depressed about it. I recently made the decision to go back to school and wonder of wonders I started getting some energy back. Part of the problem with my job hunt is that I really was not looking forward to finding another Software Test Engineer job. I love parts of the job, and the other parts I hate. I attended a seminar at the state unemployment office and it really opened my eyes. There are some worker retraining programs available to upgrade your skills that are paid for by the state and one program really caught my interest. If I get into it, I'll let you know. If not, there are some other programs that were interesting as well. Also, I found out that I'm getting a $70 a week raise in my unemployment compensation... part of the federal stimulus package. Woohoo! Go Obama!

The one thing that has not changed is that I continue to read quite a bit (hey, if I can't get the energy to do anything around the house I might as well read). And I made a list of the B+, A- and A books and have started writing some reviews. Let's hope I get a bunch done before procrastination rears its ugly head again.

REVIEW: Private Arrangements by Sherry Thomas

2009-05-12T10:00:00.000-07:00

SETTING/TYPE: Victorian Historical Romance
COPYRIGHT: 2008
SENSUALITY: Hot
SUMMARY:

Love has designs of its own.…

To all of London society, Lord and Lady Tremaine had the ideal arrangement: a marriage based on civility, courteousness, and freedom—by all accounts, a perfect marriage. The reason? For the last ten years, husband and wife have resided on separate continents.

But once upon a time, things were quite different for the Tremaines….When Gigi Rowland first laid eyes on Camden Saybrook, the attraction was immediate and overwhelming. But what began in a spark of passion ended in betrayal the morning after their wedding—and now Gigi wants to be free to marry again. When Camden returns from America with an outrageous demand in exchange for her freedom, Gigi’s decision will have consequences she never imagined, as secrets are exposed, desire is rekindled—and one of London’s most admired couples must either fall in love all over again…or let each other go forever.

THOUGHTS/OPINION:

I have several book themes I look for when picking romances and "troubled marriage" is one of my favorites. In fact, I have a tag for these types of plots in my LibraryThing account. So after reading all the buzz about Sherry Thomas' debut book, Private Arrangements, I had to try it and I'm glad I did because I found it very impressive.

Gigi, Lady Tremaine, has been separated from her husband, Camden, for 10 years. Gigi loves her husband but she is tired of waiting for him and has decided to get on with her life and remarry someone else for some small chance at happiness. Camden doesn't want her but doesn't want anyone else to have her either. Especially dim-witted Freddie, her intended fiance. So Camden demands that they live together for one year so he can get an heir off her in exchange for the divorce she wants. And Gigi agrees.

The story goes back and forth between the past and the present and slowly reveals why these two imperfect and somewhat unlikeable characters are so bitter and cruel to each other. When they first meet both characters are immature and Gigi has no self confidence in her beauty or personal attributes needed to attract a man aside from her considerable fortune. Camden is on the verge of proposing to another girl and Gigi is very determined to have him so she plots and schemes to bring Camden to propose. On the eve of their wedding Camden discovers her deception and is very angry (and I suspect, very hurt). He decides to proceed with the wedding and consummates the marriage, then very cruelly humiliates and rejects her. Of course, in this way he can throw her out and still have access to all her lovely money. Let's just say I was not too fond of Camden at this point. Especially after Gigi grovels and begs for him to take her back. Gigi is at fault for her deception but I found her much more sympathetic and I actually liked her quite a bit.

The weaving of the past with the present was smoothly done and the use of language by Thomas was superb making this book hard to put down. When Camden and Gigi first marry they are very young and so I gave their initial poor behavior some slack, but it is now ten years later and Camden is still bitter and angry and seems to still want to punish Gigi for making him fall in love with her. Gigi has grown up and acts much more honorably towards Camden and I found her a much more sympathetic character.

There is a lovely romantic sub-plot involving Gigi's mother, Mrs. Rowland, and a reclusive duke who lives next door. Mrs. Rowland tries to bag the duke for her daughter but ends up falling in love with him herself. A very amusing and well done sidebar to the main plot.

Overall this was a somewhat deep historical with three dimensional characters and a very satisfying and romantic ending. Everything I enjoy in a romance. I enjoyed this book so much Thomas is an auto-buy for me now. I have read Delicious and have Not Quite a Husband on my wishlist.

GRADE: A-

Under construction

2009-05-10T21:01:00.000-07:00

I found a new template I like and I have been tweaking my blog. So excuse the mess. Also made a new animated widget for my Library Thing. I used to have my Smart Bitch title icon on my blog and lost it. But I just found the .jpg file on my other computer so I can post it again. Also I need to add some new bloggers.

April Reads

2009-05-09T12:00:00.000-07:00

REVIEW: Broken Wing by Judith James

2009-05-07T14:00:00.000-07:00

COPYRIGHT: 2008
SETTING / TYPE: Regency Historical Romance
SENSUALITY: Hot
REASON FOR READING: KristieJ.... In her review from last October she gave it a 6 out of 5! When she speaks so highly of a book, I sit up and pay attention because KristieJ is one of my reading gurus (along with CindyS). We don't always agree but I would say most of the time we do.

SUMMARY:

Abandoned as a child and raised in a brothel, Gabriel St. Croix has never known tenderness, friendship, or affection. Although fluent in sex, he knows nothing of love. Lost and alone inside a nightmare world, all he’s ever wanted was companionship and a place to belong. Hiding physical and emotional scars behind an icy façade, his only relationship is with a young boy he has spent the last five years protecting from the brutal reality of their environment. But all that is about to change. The boy’s family has found him, and they are coming to take him home.

Sarah Munroe blames herself for her brother’s disappearance. When he’s located, safe and unharmed despite where he has been living, Sarah vows to help the man who rescued and protected him in any way she can. With loving patience she helps Gabriel face his demons and teaches him to trust in friendship and love. But when the past catches up with him, Gabriel must face it on his own.

Becoming a mercenary pirate and a professional gambler, Gabriel travels to London, France, and the Barbary Coast in a desperate attempt to find Sarah again and all he knows of love. On the way, however, he will discover the most dangerous journey, and the greatest gamble of all, is within the darkest reaches of his own heart

THOUGHTS / OPINION:
Wow, a very remarkable book from an author I had never heard of before. I'm not going to rehash the plot because there are oodles of reviews written out on the blogs and review sites, thanks to our dear KristieJ and her Questors. Check out her sidebar for a list of people under the label "Questors" who have reviewed this book. While not everyone loved it as much as KristieJ, I think the majority gave it a very positive review. Both AAR and TRR gave it an A.

I have read many of the reviews and I have to agree with some of the less than positive criticisms - it was not a perfect book - none of that bothered me. I found myself completely enthralled with the story and couldn't put it down. My reason for loving it so much can be credited to the H/H who are two wonderful extraordinary well-written characters.

Gabriel appears hard and cynical but inside he is a damaged child and very fragile. Gabriel could be a study in how an abused child becomes an adult with his overwhelming feelings of worthlessness and self destruction. He cuts himself which was disturbing and I think realistic for someone with his abused background. And Sarah through her soothing sweetness and gentleness can be credited with helping him heal.

Sarah is an unusual character as well and a perfect match for Gabriel. Her mother was part Gypsy so although she is born noble is not accepted into society. She was married off at an early age to an older man and she leaves him after a week (you go girl!). Fortunately for her he dies. She wear trousers and raises horses and does what she pleases. But she is sweet and kind and sees the goodness in Gabriel when no one else does.

The friendship that develops between them goes slowly... no popping into bed at the first signs of attraction ... which was appropriate given Gabriel's history as a prostitute. They truly become friends and care about each and and get to know each other. And they fall in love. Just as Gabriel begins to get some feeling of self worth back he sets off on an adventure to prove to himself that he is worth loving. And this is where the book takes a turn and has an epic feel. This part of the book is all about Gabriel.

There is a long separation when Gabriel has some adventures traveling around the world as a pirate and a gambler. Eventually his feelings of worthlessness come creeping back and when he makes his way back to England he doesn't get in touch with Sarah who thinks he is dead. Now this is where some reviewers wanted to smack him upside the head and I agree with them. Get in line! But keep reading folks, cuz the scene where Sarah discovers he is alive and shows up on his doorstep was a highly emotional tearjerker (man, I need to go back and read that again). But I forgave him just as Sarah does and ... sigh, what a great ending. I can see why KristieJ loved this book so much. Some people hated the long separation but I actually enjoyed it. It just made their reunion and reconciliation that much sweeter.

I recently read Kinsales' The Shadow and The Star and was struck by the similarities of the hero Samuel to Gabriel, both were sexually abused as children. While James is not quite in the same league as Kinsale as a writer, she makes a pretty good run at it, and for a first book BW is amazing. I see from KristieJ that James' next book is out soon. I definitely need to get that one.
If you are the the only person left on the planet who hasn't read Broken Wing, go out and find a copy. A great emotional read mixed with some adventure and a satisfying ending.

GRADE: A-

March Reads

2009-04-02T12:37:00.000-07:00

I just learned a really neat trick on how to create a table in blogger. So I'm showing off. Here is a table of my March reads.

The next trick I want to learn is how to create a column on the left with images of the book covers. Not sure if that is possible. Never could get that to work in Excel.

Update: I figured out how to add images but it was a lot of work resizing them.

Now I suppose I should write a review or two or a dozen. I have 3 half finished. One of them is for Kristie on a very favorite book of hers.

All of the the B+ books were great but Breathless by Laura Lee Guhrke was outstanding and almost an A if not for a couple niggles that bothered me but still a great read.

100 books

2009-04-02T11:07:00.000-07:00

Here I am. Trying to get back to normal and catching up with blogs. I have been reading quite a bit out of my TBR and decided to check my spreadsheet to see how many books are left there. Imagine my surprise when it came to 100!!!! I have made progress it seems. The last time I had checked it came to about 200. I think that was two years ago.

Here is my secret... you must read more from your TBR than you buy! Doh!

Since I'm unemployed I have been reading more from the library. When I see a book I want, I first check my library catalog. I have found that our library keeps a great selection of romances. Out of the 28 books I have read so far this year, 14 were out of my TBR with a couple bought new and the rest were library books.

P.S. I have been out of the blogging world lately and am desperately trying to catch up. I thought I saw a comment post by Maili over at DA. Was I imagining that this is our same Maili from mcvane.com? Someone (Kristie?) set me straight. She's been gone a long time (but not forgotten).

Family emergency

2009-03-16T22:07:00.001-07:00

Sorry, I haven't been around lately but Bob and I have been trying to deal with his mother's serious health issues. Bob's Mom and Dad live in North Dakota and Mom has had pneumonia and congestive heart failure (she's 89 years old, btw). She was in the hospital for about a week and then sent to a rehabilitation facility and then sent home. Home is an assisted living facility in Minot and they give pretty good care.

Well, she took a turn for the worse and was back in the hospital because she was having an extremely difficult time breathing and her kidneys were failing. His father and sister called us, both in tears, and we got an email from his aunt basically telling us that she was not expected to live. Well, Bob and I caught a flight out there fully expecting to attend a funeral. But somehow over the course of that week she got better. She started breathing better and could go to the bathroom on her own and sit up in a chair for most of the day. But she still was not eating much. The nurses were calling her "miracle girl".

After about 6 days in the hospital the doctors thought she should go into a nursing facility (which I was in favor of) but the assisted living facility assured Dad that Mom could be cared for there. Dad wanted her home and Mom hated the idea of a nursing home. So home she went. We stayed two more days and just got home yesterday (Sunday).

But ... bad news... today she is back in the hospital with failing kidneys. His sister called again in tears, and Dad is not doing too well either. He caught a bad cold and can hardly talk plus his gout is acting up and he can hardly walk. I'm feeling exhausted and depressed about the whole thing but that is nothing compared to how Bob is feeling. It is so hard to have sick parents and be 1200 miles away. It cost us about $2000 in airfare even with their "special" medical emergency fare. We will see if she makes it through the night. Dad is 86 and getting terribly forgetful and his hearing is just about gone. Right now I just feel like having a good cry. I love both my in-laws very much and this is just so hard.

Update: I got the call at 1:30 am (today, March 17th) from Bob's sister... Mom passed away. Her heart stopped and they tried to revive her (which surprised me cuz I thought they had a 'do not resuscitate' order). Bob called our son and daughter first thing this morning. I just talked to my daughter and tried to be strong but I ended up breaking down in tears and made her cry too (she was at work). I adored my mom-in-law and feel just as bad as when my own mom died 10 years ago. She was a wonderful mother, mother-in-law, and grandmother and will be greatly missed.

TBR Challenge: REVIEW: The Shadow and the Star by Laura Kinsale

2009-02-19T10:09:00.000-08:00

COPYRIGHT: 1991
PAGES: 449
SETTING: Historical - Victorian (set in Hawaii & London)
TYPE: Straight Romance

SENSUALITY: Hot

REASON FOR READING: Well, because it's Kinsale and because it's a DIK at AAR (and appears in the Top 100 Romances consistently) and because this book has been mentioned numerous times on various blogs and message boards and it's considered a classic by many romance readers.

SUMMARY:

From nationally acclaimed bestselling author Laura Kinsale comes a boldly original, breathlessly unforgettable tale of honour, adventure and undying love.

The Shadow is wealthy, powerful and majestically handsome, he is a man of dark secrets - a master of the ancient martial arts of an exotic distant land. Scarred by a childhood of shocking degradation, he has sworn to love chastely ... but burns with the fires of unfulfilled passion.
The Star is lovely, innocent and nearly destitute, and drawn to him by a fevered yearning she could never deny - following her enigmatic 'shadow warrior' into a dangerous world of desire and righteous retribution.

THOUGHTS / OPINION:
I bought my copy of TS&TS many years ago but I just could not motivate myself to read it until recently. That is probably due to the fact that it is 449 pages long with very small print and my limit seems to be less than 400 page these days. So I knew I needed to devote a chunk of time to reading it so I procrastinated. Plus the cheesy cover put me off.

But as they say... don't judge a book by it's cover. TS&TS turned out to be a real treat and a keeper. There is so much to love about this book I don't know where to start. I love that some of it is set in Hawaii. I love the tortured dark hero and wonderful heroine. I love stories about the redeeming power of love. And I love Kinsale's writing and how she can evoke such a range of emotions.

Samual Gerard was rescued from a sexually abusive childhood by the wealthy Ashland family and brought to Hawaii and where he is shown love and accepted as a member of the family. But he still feels unworthy and overwhelmingly ashamed of his past. Their Japanese butler, Dojun, who is a master in martial arts takes him under his wing and trains him in the techniques and philosophy of martial arts which helps him heal from the trauma from his childhood. But as Samual grows into adulthood he becomes horrified with his increasing sexual awareness of women jumbling these natural feelings with the degradation of his past abuse. As a result he regards his sexual side as something to guard against. Samuel uses the rigid control of the ancient arts to quiet his inner turmoil and maintain a celibate lifestyle.

Leda Etoile is a prim and proper English woman who works as dressmaker's assistant in a London shop. When Samuel and his foster mother and sister visit the shop, he is confused by his strong physical attraction to Leda. When Leda is unfairly dismissed from her position she repeatedly fails to find employment as a typist. After a series of encounters Samuel eventually hires her as his private secretary to help him in his secret campaign to close child prostitution houses. Leda is an intelligent character, a bit naive but very sweet and oh-so-proper. I loved how she calls Samuel "Dear Sir".

The unfolding of their relationship is intensely emotional but in some ways very subtle. Kinsale is a master at this. And their first love scene is amazingly erotic even though both H/H are virgins. They are forced to marry and both of them seem afraid to show each other their true emotions even though their physical relationship is so passionate. Leda is confused by Samuel's seeming distance after losing control during their lovemaking. The story has many twists and turns which I don't wish to spoil. Let me just say there is not one wasted word. I wouldn't shorten it a bit.

As you can tell TS&TS is not a "quick" read, but it's complex fascinating characters, compelling story and intensely emotional love scenes are like savoring a piece of my favorite chocolate truffle.. rich and satisfying, leaving you with the feeling of heaven on earth. Kinsale is not for everyone but after reading Flowers from the Storm, I had to try this one and I'm so glad I did.

GRADE: A

Psst.. I like this new cover from the re-issue much better:

TBR Challenge: REVIEW: Winter Woman by Jenna Kernan

2009-01-20T14:27:00.000-08:00

COPYRIGHT: 2003
PAGES: 296
SETTING: Historical - American West
TYPE: Series Romance
SERIES: None
SENSUALITY: Warm

REASON FOR READING: I really enjoyed High Plains Bride so when I heard good things about WW, I had to buy it. But it's been languishing in my TBR since February 2004. WW is Kernan's debut book.

SUMMARY:

Her prayer was simple: "Dear God, let me die!"

But Cordelia Channing — preacher's wife, preacher's widow — lived and was born anew as Winter Woman, a woman of power who'd survived the deadliest season in the mountains alone.

She knew she could never do it again. Though perhaps there was no need, for Providence had sent her Thomas Nash, an enigmatic Mountain Man who stirred the deep places of her questing soul.

Nash had come west to lose himself, to rail at the fates that seemed ready to destroy his life at every turn. But somehow those same fates now saw fit to put Delia in his care…. And though he was fighting it at every turn, Delia was transforming his life in ways he'd thought forever lost…!

THOUGHTS / OPINION:
Yay! I remembered to post a review for Keishon's TBR Challenge. Last year I think I only got 3 done. Here's hoping I do better this year. Anyway...

I'm a big fan of Harlequin Historicals and this is another good one. Cordelia Channing is probably one of the strongest heroines I've ever come across. She and her preacher husband were heading west to minister to the "savages" when they became separated from their wagon train somewhere in the Rocky Mountains. Her husband was killed after leaving her alone to hunt for food. And somehow she survives the winter alone in the mountains. When a group of Flathead Indians find her half-starved in the spring they take her to the only white man they know, Thomas Nash, a trapper and give her to him. Nash has no choice but to take her but he's not happy about it. Cordelia wants to return back east but Nash can't take her until fall after he has finished collecting beaver pelts which he sells to earn his living.

What follows next is quite a rip-roaring adventure. Delia and Nash don't like each other much at first but they come to depend on each other for survival. Delia becomes indispensable to Nash even learning how to set the traps and skins the animals. Wow, what a woman! After Nash is attacked by a grizzly bear, Delia nurses him back to health as well as doing the cooking, hunting, and trapping. The descriptions of scenery with rapids, waterfalls, and dangerous Blackfoot Indians were fascinating and beautifully written. I also loved the details of their survival in the wilderness although sometimes it was a bit gruesome but that just made it more realistic.

These two are both lost souls. Nash is still hurting from a tragedy five years ago but his heart evenutally thaws toward Delia and they form a strong emotional attachment. He doesn't want her to leave his side ever. Delia finally realizes she is in love with him but she does not want to live in the mountains. And who can blame her after what she has been through. After they make love Delia feels very guilty and feels she has sinned and turns away from Nash and of course he is very hurt, feeling that she is rejecting him because he's not good enough for her. I dislike misunderstandings like this. But they work things out eventually and the ending was wonderful.

If you like a well-paced adventure about the early American west (set in 1835), be sure to find a copy of Winter Woman. Two very strong characters and a story that will keep you turning the pages.

GRADE: B

Sick kitty

2009-01-13T16:33:00.000-08:00

My kitty, Bailey, is sick. :(

She has been acting very strangely the last three days. Not eating or drinking. Throwing up small amounts of liquid. Hiding behind the couch. She always sleeps on our bed but the last three nights she has been missing - doesn't seem to want to climb up the stairs.

I took her to the vet today and she says she thinks it could be her kidneys failing! So she took some blood tests and tried to get a urine sample but her bladder was empty (bad news) and gave her an injection of fluids and some anti-nausea medicine. And gave me some pills to give her for the nausea. I get the test results tomorrow. She is 11 years old and considered an older cat and the vet says this sometimes happens. I figure if it's kidney failure that there is not much they can do, but I hope it's something else that they can maybe fix or give her a pill for. But I'm preparing myself for the worst.

UPDATE: Bailey is going to be fine. The blood test results were good. Kidneys are fine. She went 5 days without eating. I finally coaxed her to eat a half of a Greenie snack on Thursday and Friday. But then on Saturday she ate a tiny bit of tuna. And everyday she eats more and more. Today it's been about 10 days and she is almost eating normally. The vet thinks it was some kind of virus or bacteria. Kinda like a kitty version of the flu. She's sleeping (and purring) on our bed again at night. Only problem now is to wean her off the tuna and back onto her regular cat food. She doesn't want to touch to cat food. Spoiled kitty.

Road Trip

2008-12-25T21:42:00.000-08:00

Yes, we're heading south tomorrow. Straight shot through Washington, Oregon and California. I think we'll go through Palm Springs on our way to Arizona to visit my dad in Yuma. Then tour Arizona a little, head out through Sedona and points north. Just Bob and me. He has a week of vacation he needs to use up and since I am unemployed right now, this seems like the perfect time. We are both sick of the cold, and snow. Another 2 inches today (Christmas Day).

I'm all packed and ready to go. Of course, lots of books are packed too since I love to read in the car. I can hardly wait to get some sun and stock up on my Vitamin D. Funny thing is during my annual checkup this year they checked my Vitamin D level (along with cholesterol and a bunch of other stuff). My vitamin D is WAY low. Around 20 when it's supposed to be 30 - 150. So this is a sign I must need a vacation in the sun, don't you think?

Here's the books I'm bringing along:

Hostage to Pleasure by Nalini Singh
Just One of the Guys by Kristan Higgins
Flat-out Sexy by Erin McCarthy
Midnight Run by Lisa Marie Rice
A Bucket of Ashes by P. B. Ryan (an historical mystery - last in the Nell Sweeney series)
Seize the Fire by Laura Kinsale (this one has been in my TBR forever)

Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday. We had a wonderful time at my sister's. But it was a close call. Almost had to cancel. She lost power around 10 am due to all the heavy snow that was falling but fortunately it came back on. Backup plan was to have it at MY house. Yikes. We also got a couple more inches of snow today and our lights were flickering. But it turned to rain thank goodness and the roads were slick as snot with rain on top of ice/packed snow. I hope it's all melted by the time we get back.

Snow!

2008-12-23T21:20:00.000-08:00

For those of you who don't know, I live in the Seattle area. Now we typically have very little snow. Some years, none at all. And I can't remember having a white Christmas in all the years I have lived here. Until this year....

Last Thursday we had about 10" of snow at my house. And instead of melting right away, like usual, the temperatures dropped and it has been cold ever since. We had another big snow storm on Saturday night and Sunday with winds 40 - 50 mph and about 6 more inches. Monday got up to about 33 degrees so some of the roads melted, but mostly the roads are covered with packed snow and ice. It's just a real mess driving since we have very few snow plows in this area. But I love my Chevy Trailblazer with 4-wheel drive. I can get around anywhere and driving is no problem.

The snow is supposed to stick around through Christmas Day so we get a white Christmas this year. They canceled church last Sunday (first time ever in the 25 years I have been going there) and may cancel Christmas Eve service. The church parking lot sits in a kind of "bowl" so getting in and out is a nightmare with about a foot of snow uncleared.

Here are some picture of my house with some looking out the back door at the deck:

Notice the water faucet with the hose attached (next to the watering can at the bottom of the picture). Bob forgot to put the faucet covers on this fall. Good thing that faucet is next to the dryer vent so it stays warm. Another good thing - he's married to me and I noticed and harassed his ass about it. Sheesh!

Here's the pergola Bob built on the back patio:

It's pretty but I know I'm going to get sick of it soon.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

UPDATE: If you click on the top picture of my house and notice a strange object slumped near the left side of the garage (kinda looks like an old blanket suspended on a rope), well, that's the "Grinch". It's one of those blowup characters that are so popular now. The neighbor gave it to Bob last year. Very appropriate. I had to guilt him into putting up a couple strands of lights.

Best of 2008 List

2008-12-17T23:33:00.000-08:00

So far. I still have a few more 2008 books to read that are sitting on my nightstand. (I "stole" this idea from DearAuthor).

The Spymaster's Lady by Joanna Bourne, Grade A
Mine to Possess by Nalini Singh, Grade A-
Blue-Eyed Devil by Lisa Kleypas, Grade A-
Private Arrangements by Sherry Thomas, Grade A-
Moonstruck by Susan Grant, Grade A-
Delicious by Sherry Thomas, Grade A-
Unlawful Contact by Pamela Clare, Grade B+
The Last Twilight by Marjorie M. Lui, Grade B+
Sex, Straight Up by Kathleen O'Reilly, Grade B+
Tempted by Megan Hart, Grade B+
Tall Tales and Wedding Veils by Jane Graves, Grade B+
Fire and Ice by Anne Stuart, Grade B+
Exposing Casey by Deanna Lee, Grade B+
Love the One You're With by Emily Giffin
Cutting Loose by Tara Janzen, Grade B+
Your Scandalous Ways by Loretta Chase, Grade B+
Demon Night by Meljean Brook, Grade B+

Whew. That's quite a lot of books. I still have a few 2008 books to read before AAR's annual poll that may end up on this list. Most notibly:

Hostage to Pleasure by Nalini Singh (love every book I have read by this author)
Broken Wing by Judith James (Kristie loved this book so this one has possibilities since she and I think alike so many times)

Reading Now: Guess what!? Broken Wing! I just cracked the first two pages. I better get back to reading :)

Recent good reads

2008-12-05T22:15:00.000-08:00

I was looking through my book spreadsheet and discovered I have read an amazing number of books so far this year ... 135 (with 30 published in 2008). But I have only reviewed 20 books (8 published in 2008) this year. Pretty pathetic. Another interesting fact ... I have read 81 books from my TBR this year, some of which have been living in my closet for years. A couple of years ago my TBR had over 250 books. Now it's down to 107.

No chance of getting full length reviews done for all of my reads this year but here are some quickies of three 2008 books that are worth checking out:

TITLE/AUTHOR: Your Scandalous Ways by Loretta Chase
SENSUALITY: HOT!

THOUGHTS/OPINIONS: Chase has demonstrated her genius yet again. Set in 1820's Venice, YSW is a wonderful book full of charm and wit. Francesa Bonnard is an unapologetic courtesan. In fact, she calls herself a "great whore". After she is publicly humiliated and divorced by her husband, she flees to the Continent and becomes a notorious and much sought after woman. James Cordier is a spy for the English government and is anxious to retire and return to England. But his last assignment is to steal a packet of letters from Francesca that are potentially damaging to her ex-husband's political career. Francesca and James are wonderfully intelligent characters, the dialog is witty and the setting was so unusual and realistically portrayed. The humor is wonderfully written as well. This is a very funny book. Here is the first paragraph:

"Penises. Everywhere."

Ha! That caught my interest immediately and the story never let me go. And the sex scenes are nice and steamy. But there is a lot of depth to this story too.

GRADE: A

TITLE/AUTHOR: Death Angel by Linda Howard
SENSUALITY: HOT!

THOUGHTS/OPINIONS: I'm having a hard time figuring out how to describe this book. It has an odd paranormal element to it that kinda freaked me out but overall I think I liked this book.

Drea Rousseau is a mistress to Rafael Salinas, a very dangerous crime lord and malicious killer who hires assassins to do his dirty work. After one such hit job, the assassin asks for a few hours with Salina's mistress as part of his payment so Salinas just gives Drea to him, and they spend some hours in some scorchingly hot sex. Whew! The assassin is a cold blooded killer and the "hero" of the book and we eventually find out his name is Simon Goodnight. Hmmm, so both the "hero" and "heroine" are both thoroughly unlikeable characters. Drea has been playing stupid in front Salinas for a long time but now she is desperate to get out of her situation. She outsmarts him and pulls some sneaky moves and gets away with a mountain of money. But Salinas sends "The Assassin" after her.

I don't want to spoil the story for you so I'll just say that Drea ends up turning her life around and totally redeems herself. Simon eventually realizes he loves her and protects her from Salinas. I really came to like Drea. Now Simon is a total mystery and we never find out who he really is and what makes him tick. The ending was rather abrupt but I liked it anyway. I don't think this book will appeal to everyone but Linda Howard is a must read for me. And the sex scenes alone are worth the price of the book (paperback only - due out in April 2009 - otherwise get it from the library). But then I'm slutty that way.

GRADE: B-

TITLE/AUTHOR: Tribute by Nora Roberts
SENSUALITY: Warm

THOUGHTS/OPINIONS: Roberts is a very consistent author and her skill is evident in this book and I really enjoyed it quite a bit. A lot of her recent books have had paranormal elements with ghosts and whatever but this one had none of that and I was so glad. I think she should stick to straight contemporary because ghosts just don't do it for me.

Cilla McGowan is a former child star with a lot of baggage. She returns to her famous grandmother's old neglected house in Virginia and decides to renovate it. Cilla is a pro at remodeling houses and I was fascinated by all the details of turning a run down disaster into a beautiful home. Roberts definitely did her homework in that area but if house renovation is not your thing, you should probably skip this book because while the story was good, it wasn't all that gripping. Ford Sawyer lives across the street and writes graphic novels. The story hinges around a mystery involving the death of Cilla's grandmother many years ago and was pretty tame but was so well written I enjoyed it anyway. Cilla is a very strong, smart woman and very likeable. Ford is what I would call a beta hero but yummy in his own way. A pretty good read all around.

GRADE: B

Sorry for the shortness of these "reviews". I have a few more 2008 book to review so those should be coming up shortly.

Reading now: Under the Wire by Cindy Gerard. This is a romantic suspense with a younger man plot line (one of my favorite). Very good so far.

New favorite song

2008-11-22T22:35:00.000-08:00

Yeah, I know I promised a post about books (and I working on it - seriously) but this song keeps running through my head thanks to my aerobics class. I may have mentioned this before but anyway I'm a crazy Jazzercise fanatic. I love it. I go three or four days a week. I love the dance the best but it's a terrific all around aerobic exercise program that incorporates stretching and strength training with the dance. When I was a little girl I was a little ballerina (a chubby ballerina). Then in high school (a bit more slimmed down) I really loved gymnastics and modern dance in PE class. Anyway, Jazzercise got me back into dancing since I could never get Bob to dance EVER after we got married. And I get great exercise.

The Jazzercise routine set to That's Not My Name by The Ting Tings is my current favorite and I can't get the tune out of my head.

Here I am at Jazzercise class. Can you spot me?

I'm in the back row near the middle. Chin length blond hair wearing a white shirt.

I still alive

2008-11-19T23:10:00.001-08:00

Yes, I haven't dropped off the planet. Just a serious case of writer's block. I would log into a new post and then stare at that blank page until I cried. Another problem... I had a serious obsession with the recent elections, both state and federal. I have many favorite political blogs I would check daily plus the online news sites. And though I'm not a big TV watcher, I tuned into CNN and MSNBC daily. Wow, I got sick of those political ads. So glad the election is over. As a result I did very little checking on my favorite reader blogs (bad Renee).

But October was a beautiful month weatherwise in the Seattle area. I was out in the yard almost daily pulling weeds, raking leaves, trimming perennials, and planting 200 bulbs. I can hardly wait till spring to see all those tulips and daffodils.

I also made some time to do some volunteer work at my church so I'm not a complete slouch. And I just finished painting Angie's old room. Next project... replace the electrical outlets and switches. I bought fabric to recover my dining room chairs and just decided I hated the fabric I picked out. *sigh* Back to the fabric store.

Remember how I had my living room, dining room and entry way redecorated last June (before Angie's wedding)? Well, the designer posted before and after pictures on her website. Here is the link in case you want to take a look. Unfortunately, there was no picture of the dining room which I liked the best.

I'm still unemployed but my elbow is starting to feel better so I'm not in a big hurry to find work. Bob hasn't pushed me out the door yet but I think the time is coming.

Next time I promise to post about some books.

Recent Book Order

2008-10-12T22:31:00.001-07:00

Thanks to everyone for your kind comments about my "laid off" news. And for reminding me that other people have it worse than me. I'm pretty lucky. Bob and I paid off our mortgage in 2003 which is probably the smartest thing we ever did. Bob is part owner of a business but he has no retirement so my salary was basically our retirement money. Our biggest worry is the value of our retirement money due to the stock market crash. *sigh* My stomach can't handle any more worry so I choose not to think about it now.

I have been updating my resume, filing for unemployment (I get $541/week... not bad, really), and working on recovering my dining room chairs, and cleaning out some closets.

Plus I bought some new track lighting for the living room. It's just too dark in there and I thought it would brighten it up. Bob put it up yesterday with some help from me. Whew! Man, I can't tell you how many times I heard the f-bomb and other assorted cuss words. The living room has a 12-foot ceiling and he had to crawl up in the attic with all the insulation and pull wiring through the wall while I pushed the wire from down below. I came close to being knocked out when a metal rod fell from the ceiling! Bob came downstairs yelling "Are you OK, I could have killed you!" Nice, honey. Missed me by a whole 2 feet.

Anyway, I have been doing lots of reading too. And I spent my gift certificate money that I won from Cindy. Here's what I bought:

Warrior: The Time Hunters by Angela Knight

Hostage to Pleasure by Nalini Singh

Delicious by Sherry Thomas

Yum! I already finished this one and loved it. Setting is a Victorian Historical with heroine who is a chef and hero who is a MP. Made me hungry and put me in the mood to do some cooking. I may have to write a review of this one.

Reading now: The Marriage Bed by Stephanie Mittman.
This is an oldie (1996) that I just found at a UBS. Can't remember how it got on my list. Somebody raved about it on their blog (maybe Kristie or Cindy? - can't remember). I've only read a couple pages and I can tell it will probably be a tear jerker - which I love. We'll see.