Wow! My first completed reading challenge ever!
This one was a list of genres, with the challenge to read 1 from each genre, and write a review for each one read. I managed to do all 10 books by today, October 13, with a total of 3,566 pages (using the paperback equivalent for audio books) and 9 authors.
I am reading about 1 book-a-day but did have an 11 day vacation in the middle of this that put me a little off my stride. However, I felt like maybe I could have finished it sooner, but got caught on 2 genres: Time Travel and Vampire. I like Time Travel - after all, I'm a major Outlander fan and loved The Time Traveler's Wife, which I actually credit with my new, near-obsessive reading habit. But I didn't have any time travel in my TBR pile, and have already read a lot of the popular titles (Son of the Morning by Linda Howard, Knight in Shining Armor by Jude Deveraux) so I had to sorta scrounge around for a time travel one.
And I've developed this Thang about vampire romance from my unfortunate encounter with Feehan's Dark series on audio book early in my romance reading (which, admittedly, was maybe only 1 year or so ago). See - I hated HATED the narration on them, even though I forced myself to buy and listen to two of them. I actually jerked the earphones out repeatedly, cursing at her pronunciations. I even made a LIST of them. OOOOooo they made me so mad! And I tried to tell myself I liked the stories anyway - but then, over time, couldn't bring myself to even consider paranormal at all for a long time.
This challenge actually forced me to consider another vampire story (Dead Until Dark, which doesn't exactly qualify for romance status, but is sorta close). So I finally wrapped it up, saving vampires for last.
Here is the list, and here is the original post from which you can link to all the individual reviews I wrote for each one.
1. Pirate or Viking - A Lady At Last by Brenda Joyce - READ 9/11, 376 pp ***
2. Vampire - Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris, downloaded audio book READ 10/13 (304 pp in paperback) *****
3. Contemporary - Beguiled by Lori Foster - audio, 9/3, 250 pages? ****
4. Chick Lit - A Little Help from Above by Saralee Rosenberg, loaned to me by a friend - READ 9/2 (334 pp) ***
5. Medieval - The Velvet Promise by Jude Deveraux- READ 9/5 376 pages ****
6. Time Travel - Time Enough For Love by Suzanne Brockmann, READ 10/7, (240 pp in the orig paperback; 179 in this edition) ***
7. Romantic Suspense - downloaded Death Angel by Linda Howard from audible.com - READ 9/1 (352 pp) *****
8. Inspirational - downloaded Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers from audible.com - READ 9/8 (464 pp in book form) *****
9. Historical - Seaswept Abandon by Jo Goodman - READ 9/9 *** 508 pp
10. Paranormal - Remembrance by Jude Deveraux - READ 9/6 (423 pp) ****
What did I learn from this challenge... Well, I ended up liking the Chick Lit one ok, not great, and maybe I'll try Chick Lit again some day - after I finish all the good straight romance novels in the world (in English, anyway). I'm not Inspired to read more Inspirational, although the one I read (listened to) was really good. I continue to love contemporary and historical romance equally - a good story teller can make either of these my favorite at the time. I also like suspense done well, even when it manages to somewhat overshadow the relationship that is really the core of good romance.
Of the paranormals (which I think could generously include time travel, vampires, world-building, anything that doesn't really fit our current physical world as we know it), I'll try to remain open-minded. When the author makes up the "rules" of her world and is consistent and credible, I jump on behind her and follow her anywhere. If she says time travel is a genetic trait, I'm there, as long as her rules are consistently applied. If a past-life regressionist is used and the heroine is sucked back into time, I go there with her. Vampires are really formerly humans with an unfortunate virus? Ok! (although once you've read the first book, you start to learn the Real Truth.)
As far as pirates and vikings - oh yeah, I love Swash Buckling adventures! I've got Marsha Canham books left to read, and she does Swash Buckling so well! Hmmm - next challenge, note to self: stick to TBR pile! I'm building it back up again, with my AAR Top 100 Quest books. I have recently discovered that many of them are going to be hard to find, so there's an additional Quest: Find them, then Read them.
Showing posts with label Read Around the Genre Challenge 2008. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Read Around the Genre Challenge 2008. Show all posts
Monday, October 13, 2008
Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris *****
I listened to this on audio book because I've been hearing so much about it, now that an HBO series is being aired based on the Sookie Stackhouse/Southern Vampire Mysteries. The narrator Johanna Parker is really, really good - and I enjoyed the book, maybe even more because of her great narration!
Sookie Stackhouse is a cocktail waitress in a small town, Bon Temps, in northern Louisiana. She has what she refers to as a disability - she's telepathic - that is, she can read people's thoughts. She's had to create a way to keep those thoughts out of her mind and it rules her ability to socialize. Most people just think she's a little crazy.
When Bill the Vampire walks into the bar, she's pretty much blown away when she realizes she can't read his mind - which makes him the first person she can be relaxed around. Compound that with her natural curiosity - he's the first vampire she's met now that vampires are being accepted in society as just unfortunate souls who've caught a virus that turns them from human to the Undead - and she's completely taken with him. Also, apparently she's immune to vampires' powers as well.
The Rattrays, a local couple, lure Bill outside hinting that they will allow him to drink their blood, then try to drain him since vampire blood is now a drug of choice. Sookie manages to stop them, saving Bill - marking the beginning of their odd vampire/human relationship. Sookie learns a lot of things she's wondered about vampires (can they Do It?) but gets drawn into an underworld where Vampires, Fangbangers and other shady creatures lurk.
Women in Bon Temps are being killed, including a co-worker of Sookie's - and the small town sheriff decides it's either a vampire - possibly Bill - or Sookie's brother Jason. Sookie takes it upon herself to solve the crime so that the 2 most important men in her life will be left alone.
I'm not a big vampire-story fan, and to be honest I got a little confused in her world-building, about the "rules" (as it were) of the vampires, shape-shifters, etc. And Buddy ... uh ... well, either I missed where they specifically said who he was, or maybe they never say, letting you just imagine it. (yeah, I figured it out but it'd be a spoiler to say). That being said, I did enjoy it and may continue listening or reading the series. From early reviews, I may have to get the HBO series True Blood from Netflix when it's released (I just added it to the queue, but no release date has been given).
It's not really romance- I think the genre is Urban Fantasy, or paranormal mystery maybe? Anyway, it was really good, so 5 stars it is.
Sookie Stackhouse is a cocktail waitress in a small town, Bon Temps, in northern Louisiana. She has what she refers to as a disability - she's telepathic - that is, she can read people's thoughts. She's had to create a way to keep those thoughts out of her mind and it rules her ability to socialize. Most people just think she's a little crazy.
When Bill the Vampire walks into the bar, she's pretty much blown away when she realizes she can't read his mind - which makes him the first person she can be relaxed around. Compound that with her natural curiosity - he's the first vampire she's met now that vampires are being accepted in society as just unfortunate souls who've caught a virus that turns them from human to the Undead - and she's completely taken with him. Also, apparently she's immune to vampires' powers as well.
The Rattrays, a local couple, lure Bill outside hinting that they will allow him to drink their blood, then try to drain him since vampire blood is now a drug of choice. Sookie manages to stop them, saving Bill - marking the beginning of their odd vampire/human relationship. Sookie learns a lot of things she's wondered about vampires (can they Do It?) but gets drawn into an underworld where Vampires, Fangbangers and other shady creatures lurk.
Women in Bon Temps are being killed, including a co-worker of Sookie's - and the small town sheriff decides it's either a vampire - possibly Bill - or Sookie's brother Jason. Sookie takes it upon herself to solve the crime so that the 2 most important men in her life will be left alone.
I'm not a big vampire-story fan, and to be honest I got a little confused in her world-building, about the "rules" (as it were) of the vampires, shape-shifters, etc. And Buddy ... uh ... well, either I missed where they specifically said who he was, or maybe they never say, letting you just imagine it. (yeah, I figured it out but it'd be a spoiler to say). That being said, I did enjoy it and may continue listening or reading the series. From early reviews, I may have to get the HBO series True Blood from Netflix when it's released (I just added it to the queue, but no release date has been given).
It's not really romance- I think the genre is Urban Fantasy, or paranormal mystery maybe? Anyway, it was really good, so 5 stars it is.
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Time Enough For Love by Suzanne Brockmann ***
This is the 2nd story in the 2fer with Stand-in Groom. I got this book for this story, a time-travel novella I read for the Read Around the Genre challenge. It's not like I haven't read (and loved!) lots of time-travel before, like Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series (several times, in hard copy and audio), Audrey Nifenegger's The Time Traveler's Wife (another favorite), and a some Jude Deveraux time-travel stories.
The theories authors develop for time travel are truly fascinating and I like thinking and pondering how time travel would actually impact us. Is it the infinite paths theory? Will the person travel with or without clothes? Is it genetic, or will it require a machine, a drug, a lightning strike, an alignment of the planets? Will you remember both the past and the current time? Will your body still be in the current time? Is there only 1 body, so you could never go into a time where you already existed? Could there be multiple instances of the traveler in one timeframe? Outlander and Time Traveler's Wife had it be a genetic trait, but one took the path of a disease or syndrome that took the traveler unawares (TTW), while the other required outside events, like time/place/gems (Outlander). Would the traveler be able to impact the future and change history or would events always happen the same way - the traveler always did go back in time, there was never a past without the traveler in it?
In this story, the hero comes back from 7 years in the future - and he missed his target time by a few years. His past self, 7 years younger, hasn't yet solved the time travel equations, and the woman that just died in his arms in his present hasn't even met him yet. This theory involves a machine, one that is funded and then manipulated by a nefarious organization that plans to use it to overthrow the US government. Chuck (future guy) has to convince Maggie that he's not crazy and that she must find his present self, Charles, and convince Charles not to go forward with his time travel work. But in the meantime, he's just as in love with her as he was in his own time - a time where she had met him, but broken up with him and married someone else. In his own time, he was too wrapped up in his goal - to create the time machine - to open up emotionally to her, and that wasn't enough for a relationship for her.
But this Maggie doesn't know that - and she falls in love with him, as Chuck, his future self. Unfortunately, Chuck was followed into the past by members of the Bad Guys group and they now have about 72 hours to convince Charles to change the future by giving up on developing his time travel machine. And changing the future means Chuck, the one who came to the past to save them, and the one Maggie's in love with, will not exist.
Brockmann does come up with a new twist in time travel she calls Double Memories - the person will remember both how it happened the first time as well as how it's happening now. This includes Chuck being able to remember as a memory things that are happening to Charles as they happen - a method Maggie uses to communicate to Chuck when she's alone with Charles.
The one thing that bothers Charles the most is knowing that Maggie loves Chuck and not him - he can't seem to reconcile that he is Chuck as well. Maggie also struggles with this until she does realize it's Charles, not Chuck, that finally opens up to her and tells her things he has never revealed to anyone else.
The whole double memories thing, however, is confounding - it has to assume only 1 person has access to time travel, because if several people did, then we are talking about multiple memories for everyone on earth. If what Charles did changes everything - time travel no longer exists, there is no bomb in the future, then basically every person alive on earth now has double memories. So if someone else develops time travel in the second timeline, then everyone will have as many memories as there are changes in the future. Theoretically, you could say there was a timeline where time travel did exist and everyone went forward from there for millenia, then a timeline where it didn't exist plus any other timelines from the first timeline since time travel still existed in that one... Mindboggling.
It was a light read, nothing too deep and unfortunately not that moving either. I guess I need more than 175 pages to get emotionally involved myself. 3 stars.
The theories authors develop for time travel are truly fascinating and I like thinking and pondering how time travel would actually impact us. Is it the infinite paths theory? Will the person travel with or without clothes? Is it genetic, or will it require a machine, a drug, a lightning strike, an alignment of the planets? Will you remember both the past and the current time? Will your body still be in the current time? Is there only 1 body, so you could never go into a time where you already existed? Could there be multiple instances of the traveler in one timeframe? Outlander and Time Traveler's Wife had it be a genetic trait, but one took the path of a disease or syndrome that took the traveler unawares (TTW), while the other required outside events, like time/place/gems (Outlander). Would the traveler be able to impact the future and change history or would events always happen the same way - the traveler always did go back in time, there was never a past without the traveler in it?
In this story, the hero comes back from 7 years in the future - and he missed his target time by a few years. His past self, 7 years younger, hasn't yet solved the time travel equations, and the woman that just died in his arms in his present hasn't even met him yet. This theory involves a machine, one that is funded and then manipulated by a nefarious organization that plans to use it to overthrow the US government. Chuck (future guy) has to convince Maggie that he's not crazy and that she must find his present self, Charles, and convince Charles not to go forward with his time travel work. But in the meantime, he's just as in love with her as he was in his own time - a time where she had met him, but broken up with him and married someone else. In his own time, he was too wrapped up in his goal - to create the time machine - to open up emotionally to her, and that wasn't enough for a relationship for her.
But this Maggie doesn't know that - and she falls in love with him, as Chuck, his future self. Unfortunately, Chuck was followed into the past by members of the Bad Guys group and they now have about 72 hours to convince Charles to change the future by giving up on developing his time travel machine. And changing the future means Chuck, the one who came to the past to save them, and the one Maggie's in love with, will not exist.
Brockmann does come up with a new twist in time travel she calls Double Memories - the person will remember both how it happened the first time as well as how it's happening now. This includes Chuck being able to remember as a memory things that are happening to Charles as they happen - a method Maggie uses to communicate to Chuck when she's alone with Charles.
The one thing that bothers Charles the most is knowing that Maggie loves Chuck and not him - he can't seem to reconcile that he is Chuck as well. Maggie also struggles with this until she does realize it's Charles, not Chuck, that finally opens up to her and tells her things he has never revealed to anyone else.
The whole double memories thing, however, is confounding - it has to assume only 1 person has access to time travel, because if several people did, then we are talking about multiple memories for everyone on earth. If what Charles did changes everything - time travel no longer exists, there is no bomb in the future, then basically every person alive on earth now has double memories. So if someone else develops time travel in the second timeline, then everyone will have as many memories as there are changes in the future. Theoretically, you could say there was a timeline where time travel did exist and everyone went forward from there for millenia, then a timeline where it didn't exist plus any other timelines from the first timeline since time travel still existed in that one... Mindboggling.
It was a light read, nothing too deep and unfortunately not that moving either. I guess I need more than 175 pages to get emotionally involved myself. 3 stars.
Thursday, September 11, 2008
A Lady At Last by Brenda Joyce ***
I'm reading these de Warenne books all out of order, and it's making me all out of sorts!! I like to keep all my characters in order and tidy and such, and somehow...
A long while back, I picked up The Promise of the Rose - in the beginning of my Romance novel journey, before I even knew about PBS or AAR or series or anything. I liked it - well, I gave it 5 stars anyway - and had no idea it was #2 in the medieval part of this series, or that there were others.
Then I happened upon a free copy of A Dangerous Love, and read it - and did the research where I discovered I had missed a lot of the series. Since one of the Reaching Challenges I'm involved in required a Pirate romance, I decided to get A Lady At Last - it's about the father and stepmother of the heroine of A Dangerous Love, which I also rated 5 stars.
After I finished Lady today, I pondered my feelings about this story. Then I read the AAR review, which gave it a D. I was on the verge of giving it 4 stars, and hesitated. That reviewer made some good points, and frankly I did find myself gnashing my teeth at both Amanda and Cliff (mostly Amanda, the immature twit) throughout the book. So, 3 stars it is.
Amanda was the daughter of a pirate. OK, he was once an officer and a gentleman, but over the years his business kinda crossed the line, and although he's a good pirate, the governor of whatever Caribbean island they are on (Jamaica?) decides to hang him as an example that he is cleaning up the seas. Amanda's mother is a lady in England, and her father has told her all these years he kidnapped her from her mother's arms. Amanda has been raised with little supervision - she is called La Sauvage by the people in town. She can sail and wield a sword and she can steal and lie and beg. She's a number of conflicting things, actually. Is she independent and can take care of herself, or is she a pitiful waif?
Cliff is the 3rd son of an earl, and he took to the seas at the tender age of 14. Although his family is loving and supportive, he prefers his solitude, his 2 illegitimate children, his home in Jamaica and the beds of any number of women to being tied down to family. And he will never wed, in spite of the de Warenne trait that all of them love Once and Forever. (I think I hinted at this in my review of A Dangerous Love, since it seems he managed to love a couple of times before Amanda - hence his son Alexi and his daughter Ariella.)
Fast forward - Amanda's father hangs - Cliff agrees to take Amanda to her mother in England - they spend 6 weeks at sea with the children, 300 sailors, a nanny and a teacher, all trying to make Amanda A Lady At Last so she can be introduced into polite society and find a husband.
Amanda is an immature twit. She's incredibly naive for someone who's spent so much time with pirates and also begging, lying and stealing to survive. She's reckless and doesn't think more than 2 seconds ahead. I found her fairly needy, unlikeable and annoying most of the time.
Cliff is incredibly attracted to her and manages to leave her only technically a virgin on the voyage. He is determined never to marry, so he can continue debauching and collecting bastard children I guess. They arrive in London where he tries to get Amanda's Mom to take her off his hands; Mom says no. He designates himself Guardian - which his family accepts while snickering loudly and often behind his back. The only two who don't realize Cliff is besotted with Amanda are Cliff and Amanda.
The usual stuff happens: the women make a list of possible suitors for Amanda, Cliff hates them all, they go to some balls, again he's always in a jealous rage... Blah Blah Blah. Amanda was wrong-headed and jumped to conclusions and... well she wasn't exactly the brightest bulb in the chandelier about everything. Eventually Cliff sees the light, and with a few more complications, we finally reach our HEA. Thank Gawd.
Truly, I almost gave this 4 stars just because I often like Brenda Joyce's prose if not the personalities she creates. There were gossipy and mean ladies, trying to ruin Amanda, the mother who could only think of herself and her own reputation, and we got to meet Cliff's family. What a bitch his sister Eleanor was...
OK - 3 stars because I did manage to finish it, and I had some moments of enjoyment reading it. Would I recommend it? Not unless you're a die-hard Joyce fan who must read everything she's written, or you feel compelled to read every single de Warenne tome out there.
A long while back, I picked up The Promise of the Rose - in the beginning of my Romance novel journey, before I even knew about PBS or AAR or series or anything. I liked it - well, I gave it 5 stars anyway - and had no idea it was #2 in the medieval part of this series, or that there were others.
Then I happened upon a free copy of A Dangerous Love, and read it - and did the research where I discovered I had missed a lot of the series. Since one of the Reaching Challenges I'm involved in required a Pirate romance, I decided to get A Lady At Last - it's about the father and stepmother of the heroine of A Dangerous Love, which I also rated 5 stars.
After I finished Lady today, I pondered my feelings about this story. Then I read the AAR review, which gave it a D. I was on the verge of giving it 4 stars, and hesitated. That reviewer made some good points, and frankly I did find myself gnashing my teeth at both Amanda and Cliff (mostly Amanda, the immature twit) throughout the book. So, 3 stars it is.
Amanda was the daughter of a pirate. OK, he was once an officer and a gentleman, but over the years his business kinda crossed the line, and although he's a good pirate, the governor of whatever Caribbean island they are on (Jamaica?) decides to hang him as an example that he is cleaning up the seas. Amanda's mother is a lady in England, and her father has told her all these years he kidnapped her from her mother's arms. Amanda has been raised with little supervision - she is called La Sauvage by the people in town. She can sail and wield a sword and she can steal and lie and beg. She's a number of conflicting things, actually. Is she independent and can take care of herself, or is she a pitiful waif?
Cliff is the 3rd son of an earl, and he took to the seas at the tender age of 14. Although his family is loving and supportive, he prefers his solitude, his 2 illegitimate children, his home in Jamaica and the beds of any number of women to being tied down to family. And he will never wed, in spite of the de Warenne trait that all of them love Once and Forever. (I think I hinted at this in my review of A Dangerous Love, since it seems he managed to love a couple of times before Amanda - hence his son Alexi and his daughter Ariella.)
Fast forward - Amanda's father hangs - Cliff agrees to take Amanda to her mother in England - they spend 6 weeks at sea with the children, 300 sailors, a nanny and a teacher, all trying to make Amanda A Lady At Last so she can be introduced into polite society and find a husband.
Amanda is an immature twit. She's incredibly naive for someone who's spent so much time with pirates and also begging, lying and stealing to survive. She's reckless and doesn't think more than 2 seconds ahead. I found her fairly needy, unlikeable and annoying most of the time.
Cliff is incredibly attracted to her and manages to leave her only technically a virgin on the voyage. He is determined never to marry, so he can continue debauching and collecting bastard children I guess. They arrive in London where he tries to get Amanda's Mom to take her off his hands; Mom says no. He designates himself Guardian - which his family accepts while snickering loudly and often behind his back. The only two who don't realize Cliff is besotted with Amanda are Cliff and Amanda.
The usual stuff happens: the women make a list of possible suitors for Amanda, Cliff hates them all, they go to some balls, again he's always in a jealous rage... Blah Blah Blah. Amanda was wrong-headed and jumped to conclusions and... well she wasn't exactly the brightest bulb in the chandelier about everything. Eventually Cliff sees the light, and with a few more complications, we finally reach our HEA. Thank Gawd.
Truly, I almost gave this 4 stars just because I often like Brenda Joyce's prose if not the personalities she creates. There were gossipy and mean ladies, trying to ruin Amanda, the mother who could only think of herself and her own reputation, and we got to meet Cliff's family. What a bitch his sister Eleanor was...
OK - 3 stars because I did manage to finish it, and I had some moments of enjoyment reading it. Would I recommend it? Not unless you're a die-hard Joyce fan who must read everything she's written, or you feel compelled to read every single de Warenne tome out there.
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Seaswept Abandon by Jo Goodman ***
This is the second in the McClellan trilogy by Jo Goodman, and it takes place during the American Revolution. The McClellan family has 5 adult offspring, 3 of whom have their own books, and have lived in Virginia on a rather large expanse of land for... a long time.
This is daughter Rahab aka Rae's story, and her hero is the mysterious, shadowy Smith of book 1, Crystal Passion. Smith helped save Ashley, Salem McClellan's bride, from her notorious uncle/guardian, the Duke of something-or-other. Ashley is now helping Salem in his war efforts by being a courier, posing as a Loyalist and delivering secret dispatches to the Patriots. In a rather contrived setting, she sends Rae on one of her missions while Rae is recovering from laryngitis. This is key because Rae cannot talk. Ashley is secretly hoping to get Rae out of her funk over losing her beau to her younger sister (ain't that a bitch) by getting her out in the world. By sending her to a bar where British redcoats drink and whore, so she can meet a spy and pass correspondence. Go figure.
Rae goes and doesn't see the gent she is supposed to meet. And - now follow closely - the bartender mistakes her for a new hire barmaid, and she decides to play along, for the adventure. Even though, remember, she cannot talk.
Turns out the gent she's supposed to meet has sent Smith in his place, since Smith knows Ashley. In a "cute" turn of events, apparently Ashley and Salem have been trying to fix up Smith and Rae all along, but they have never met. Is this the way a spy business is really run??
Let's see... a bar patron feels up Rae, she objects (silently), he objects to being objected to and she stabs him. To death. Oooops. Smith, having given up on getting the dispatch from Ashley, steps in to rescue her, takes her up to his room where they climb out the window and run off to a boat. Damn if she doesn't contract Brain Fever on the way to the boat, so she's unconscious for 3 days and wakes up WITH AMNESIA. Yeah. Go figure.
Already my limits of credibility have been stretched and snapped. Boing. That's them snapping.
He thinks she's a barmaid/whore, so he tells her that. She's amnesiac and figures he must know. He, however, remains honorable and doesn't boink her. At least not right away.
Jericho Smith didn't reveal any of his background in the first story, not even his first name, but we learn he was the bastard son of an earl who eventually married his mother and was then killed right away. Should have left him the earldom, but some other cousin stepped in, had young Smith put on a ship to somewhere and declared himself the Earl. Smith managed to survive, make it to America, live among the Indians, and become a stealthy Patriot spy. There. Now we have that setup.
Rae's brothers figure out that it was Smith who abducted/rescued Rae from the bar, and track him down and try to beat him up for violating their sister. Their sister who doesn't even know who they are because of her Brain Fever Amnesia. Remember how they were all secretly hoping Smith and Rae would hit it off? Well, they didn't exactly plan for him to live with her for a week on a boat, thinking she was a whore and boinking her senseless. They take her away, a long time goes by and then Smith and Rae are reunited after she gets her Memory back.
Rae is about the stoopidist heroine Jo Goodman ever wrote. Maybe THE stoopidest - until I finish her backlist, I can't be sure. What a dolt. She isn't exactly feisty or hoydenish - she's just misguided and wrong-headed. And that amnesia thing... Puhleeze. Only Goodman's way with words kept this from dipping into 1 star or even DNF territory. The Duke sends someone to kidnap Ashley or one of her children, and Rae intercepts the kidnapper and stoopidly tells him SHE is Ashley. Not out of heroism, or with great forethought, just cuz it popped out of her stoopid mouth. Since the kidnapper caught her sucking Smith's tonsils out, he went along, saying he was Salem. After all, it wouldn't do Ashley any good to have it known she was sucking the tonsils out of another man, would it?
The kidnapper(s) take Smith and Rae to England - blah blah, long story here - and once there, try to ransom her to the Duke. Rae - ok, did I mention she's stoopid? She has this thing about alcohol. From what I can tell, she never drank any until the night she ran Ashley's little errand, and somehow even though she drank enough to fell a horse, she recovered very quickly then. Now, the kidnappers put drugs in the wine they bring Salem and Rae - and poor thirsty Rae drinks all of it. And is out for the count, leaving Smith with an unconscious girlfriend to deal with while he executes his escape plan. He's a smart fellow - he leaves her, and swims to shore.
She gets taken to the Duke who takes one look at her and says, she ain't the one, and tells the footman to "take care of her". Since the footman has never seen The Sopranos, he actually thinks he's supposed to Take Care of Her - as in, make sure she is well, and dry, and fed. She ends up in the Duke's employ. Meanwhile, Smith has transformed himself into Quality, and coincidentally runs into her on her day off in town. When he tells her his plan of how he will take care of the Duke problem so Ashley and her children will be forever safe, I thought "what a smart fellow he is, it will work!" but Rae thought "I'm smart and don't need no stinkin' man to take care of me" and says she wants to go back to the Duke's house and take care of him herself.
This after he reminds her, RIGHTLY SO, she has never been able to take care of herself, and has always needed her father or brothers or Smith to rescue her from all kinds of stooooopid scrapes.
What a stoopid twit she is.
Smith gets perty dang mad at her, mad enough to force her. Force her to go with him? Nope. Force her aka rape her, then leave her, after some bitter words are spoken. Boy, did he catch her stoopid virus or what? He shoulda knocked her out and taken her home. Instead he rapes her, like that solves anything. Hello, Ms. Goodman, what were you thinking??
Look - there was a HEA after some nail-biting scenes where Smith has to win a game of whist to (1) get his Earldom back and (2) win Rae's freedom from the Duke and (3) dodge a bullet, or 2. And really, Goodman does have a way with words that made even a stoopid twit's story be readable.
But I worried about the McClellan family back in Virginia, because after the kidnapping, we never heard about them again, ever. Did they worry about Rae and Smith? Did they think they drowned? Did they realize they were kidnapped, and try to follow? Did they ever receive Rae's letter to them? Maybe this will be revealed in Book 3, Tempting Torment, where hopefully poor Noah will get a smart heroine.
Dunno. 3 stars.
This is daughter Rahab aka Rae's story, and her hero is the mysterious, shadowy Smith of book 1, Crystal Passion. Smith helped save Ashley, Salem McClellan's bride, from her notorious uncle/guardian, the Duke of something-or-other. Ashley is now helping Salem in his war efforts by being a courier, posing as a Loyalist and delivering secret dispatches to the Patriots. In a rather contrived setting, she sends Rae on one of her missions while Rae is recovering from laryngitis. This is key because Rae cannot talk. Ashley is secretly hoping to get Rae out of her funk over losing her beau to her younger sister (ain't that a bitch) by getting her out in the world. By sending her to a bar where British redcoats drink and whore, so she can meet a spy and pass correspondence. Go figure.
Rae goes and doesn't see the gent she is supposed to meet. And - now follow closely - the bartender mistakes her for a new hire barmaid, and she decides to play along, for the adventure. Even though, remember, she cannot talk.
Turns out the gent she's supposed to meet has sent Smith in his place, since Smith knows Ashley. In a "cute" turn of events, apparently Ashley and Salem have been trying to fix up Smith and Rae all along, but they have never met. Is this the way a spy business is really run??
Let's see... a bar patron feels up Rae, she objects (silently), he objects to being objected to and she stabs him. To death. Oooops. Smith, having given up on getting the dispatch from Ashley, steps in to rescue her, takes her up to his room where they climb out the window and run off to a boat. Damn if she doesn't contract Brain Fever on the way to the boat, so she's unconscious for 3 days and wakes up WITH AMNESIA. Yeah. Go figure.
Already my limits of credibility have been stretched and snapped. Boing. That's them snapping.
He thinks she's a barmaid/whore, so he tells her that. She's amnesiac and figures he must know. He, however, remains honorable and doesn't boink her. At least not right away.
Jericho Smith didn't reveal any of his background in the first story, not even his first name, but we learn he was the bastard son of an earl who eventually married his mother and was then killed right away. Should have left him the earldom, but some other cousin stepped in, had young Smith put on a ship to somewhere and declared himself the Earl. Smith managed to survive, make it to America, live among the Indians, and become a stealthy Patriot spy. There. Now we have that setup.
Rae's brothers figure out that it was Smith who abducted/rescued Rae from the bar, and track him down and try to beat him up for violating their sister. Their sister who doesn't even know who they are because of her Brain Fever Amnesia. Remember how they were all secretly hoping Smith and Rae would hit it off? Well, they didn't exactly plan for him to live with her for a week on a boat, thinking she was a whore and boinking her senseless. They take her away, a long time goes by and then Smith and Rae are reunited after she gets her Memory back.
Rae is about the stoopidist heroine Jo Goodman ever wrote. Maybe THE stoopidest - until I finish her backlist, I can't be sure. What a dolt. She isn't exactly feisty or hoydenish - she's just misguided and wrong-headed. And that amnesia thing... Puhleeze. Only Goodman's way with words kept this from dipping into 1 star or even DNF territory. The Duke sends someone to kidnap Ashley or one of her children, and Rae intercepts the kidnapper and stoopidly tells him SHE is Ashley. Not out of heroism, or with great forethought, just cuz it popped out of her stoopid mouth. Since the kidnapper caught her sucking Smith's tonsils out, he went along, saying he was Salem. After all, it wouldn't do Ashley any good to have it known she was sucking the tonsils out of another man, would it?
The kidnapper(s) take Smith and Rae to England - blah blah, long story here - and once there, try to ransom her to the Duke. Rae - ok, did I mention she's stoopid? She has this thing about alcohol. From what I can tell, she never drank any until the night she ran Ashley's little errand, and somehow even though she drank enough to fell a horse, she recovered very quickly then. Now, the kidnappers put drugs in the wine they bring Salem and Rae - and poor thirsty Rae drinks all of it. And is out for the count, leaving Smith with an unconscious girlfriend to deal with while he executes his escape plan. He's a smart fellow - he leaves her, and swims to shore.
She gets taken to the Duke who takes one look at her and says, she ain't the one, and tells the footman to "take care of her". Since the footman has never seen The Sopranos, he actually thinks he's supposed to Take Care of Her - as in, make sure she is well, and dry, and fed. She ends up in the Duke's employ. Meanwhile, Smith has transformed himself into Quality, and coincidentally runs into her on her day off in town. When he tells her his plan of how he will take care of the Duke problem so Ashley and her children will be forever safe, I thought "what a smart fellow he is, it will work!" but Rae thought "I'm smart and don't need no stinkin' man to take care of me" and says she wants to go back to the Duke's house and take care of him herself.
This after he reminds her, RIGHTLY SO, she has never been able to take care of herself, and has always needed her father or brothers or Smith to rescue her from all kinds of stooooopid scrapes.
What a stoopid twit she is.
Smith gets perty dang mad at her, mad enough to force her. Force her to go with him? Nope. Force her aka rape her, then leave her, after some bitter words are spoken. Boy, did he catch her stoopid virus or what? He shoulda knocked her out and taken her home. Instead he rapes her, like that solves anything. Hello, Ms. Goodman, what were you thinking??
Look - there was a HEA after some nail-biting scenes where Smith has to win a game of whist to (1) get his Earldom back and (2) win Rae's freedom from the Duke and (3) dodge a bullet, or 2. And really, Goodman does have a way with words that made even a stoopid twit's story be readable.
But I worried about the McClellan family back in Virginia, because after the kidnapping, we never heard about them again, ever. Did they worry about Rae and Smith? Did they think they drowned? Did they realize they were kidnapped, and try to follow? Did they ever receive Rae's letter to them? Maybe this will be revealed in Book 3, Tempting Torment, where hopefully poor Noah will get a smart heroine.
Dunno. 3 stars.
Monday, September 8, 2008
Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers *****
Wow - who knew? This is "inspirational" aka Christian romance, and - despite my own personal dearth of faith - I loved this story! Ms. Rivers is an incredible writer.
I listened to the interview with the author at the end of this, and she is indeed a born-again Christian who is devoting her writing and her life to spreading God's Word. This is something that normally I run from, in a big way, as fast as possible.
I was raised Christian - so I do have some background and minimal education in this culture. Not really religious, but we did go to church pretty much every week when I was a child, and we were involved in the church socially. But I haven't darkened the door of any church for anything other than tourism or maybe a wedding in several decades. And I don't plan to start going to church or reading the Bible or anything now - this wasn't a born-again moment for me. In fact, I got this book to read to fulfill one book in a Challenge - so much for Challenges being a way to whittle away the TBR mountain!! I did a little research on inspirational romance, and just jumped into this one.
Redeeming Love is Ms. Rivers' first inspirational Romance. According to the interview, she wrote "steamy historical romance" before this, and then had her calling - and apparently she got the rights back to all those other books and they are no longer in print. Too bad, because her writing is really wonderful! She decided, however, that true love was between God and Man (or Woman) and not between Man and Woman, therefore her switch.
That's not to say there wasn't wonderful romance between a man and a woman, along with some good secondary romances as well. But nothing graphic, and basically the idea was that love of God comes first and other love stems from that. Or something like that, anyway. That's ok because she managed to put a boatload of tension, sexual and otherwise, into her story.
The story is based on the biblical story (surprised?) of Hosea and Gomer. Go figure, Gomer is a woman's name. It's a sort of allegory about God and Israel (the people) - how, no matter how much they strayed from his Word, God forgave them. In both this book and the Hosea/Gomer story, God tells the hero (Michael Hosea in this story) to wed a prostitute and to continue to love and forgive her no matter what.
In Redeeming Love Sarah aka Angel has a much more detailed and incredibly tragic story than what I could learn of Gomer's story via google. Sarah was born in 1832 to a single woman, May, who had an affair with a married man. He apparently set her up for 3 years, but declined to meet his daughter. He finally throws May and Sarah out of their house, at which point they go to May's parents, who also refuse to help. Down on their luck, they move to the docks area, get a shanty and a simpleton protector for several years. During this time, May turned tricks to help support them, as this was the only option left to her. When Sarah turned 8, May died - and the simpleton, not even knowing her name, sells her to a man he thinks is adopting her.
Unfortunately for Sarah, "Duke" isn't exactly adopting her. Instead, he's got a thing for little girls, and Sarah begins her life of prostitution at age 8. He gives her the name Angel because she's so beautiful she looks like one.
Michael Hosea traveled to California with his sister and brother-in-law Paul around 1848. His sister died on the way, and Paul decides to join the Gold Rush after they get land and build cabins. Michael is truly devout, and is waiting for God to reveal the woman meant to be his wife. By this time (1850), Angel has managed to run away from Duke and get to a place in California named Pair O'Dice (I am guessing at the spelling since I listened to the audio book) where she is the featured prostitute at The Palace. It's the nearest town to Michael's and Paul's land, and he sees her when he is in town selling his produce and getting supplies. He hears God tell him she's the one... and when he learns her career and reputation, he realizes he's being tested.
Just like the Hosea/Gomer story, Angel isn't convinced he's the one - and she runs away from him time after time, going back to turning tricks to support herself. While Michael is filled with patience - and well-described and realized love for her - she is filled with self-doubt and self-hatred. How can she ever trust a man, after being prostituted as a child? She learned her hatred of God and men also from watching how her mother's life played out - her dreadful biological father, her unforgiving grandfather, the awful way May died, with a rosary in her hands. As far as she's concerned, there is no God, there is only Hell on Earth for her, and she isn't worthy of anything better.
There were so many heart-wrenching things in Angel's short life - for one, she had 2 abortions while living with Duke, and during the second one, the doctor was ordered to permanently end her child-bearing ability. Even though she tells Michael, and he tells her it's ok and he still loves her, over time he does slip and say and do things that indicate he wants children. Another family moves to the area, and there's a daughter about Angel's age - a kind, lovely, virginal girl who seems to embody all the things Angel - and Paul - think Michael deserves in a wife. It's a constant source of pain and tension for Angel, and for Paul, to see Miriam and Michael together, even though Michael says they are just friends, and that Miriam sees him only as an older brother.
It's a very involved story, and I spent most of it on the virtual edge of my seat, hurting for Angel, hurting for Michael, even occasionally hurting for Paul (although mostly I wanted to strangle him for how much he assumed and messed up). Things that happened to Angel before she moved to California get revealed slowly, and on more than one occasion I gasped in shock. If you're going to read this, it isn't really a spoiler to know there is indeed a HEA (since it's a Romance) but it's so late in the story and so much happens to keep them apart that it was incredibly hard to keep reading without knowing for sure!!
And if you are somewhat squeamish about being preached at in a book of fiction that you intended to read for fun, you'll be glad to know she avoids it until the very end - there are lots of references to Michael's faith, and some references to the faith of the new neighbors (he's apparently an ordained minister, something which I didn't realize until late in the story) - but it's not overly preachy. Ok, at the very end (and I may be tainted by having listened to the interview which was proselytize-y) after Angel's conversion, it did start to get a little more preachy.
The narrator is Kate Forbes - I loved her narration of Linda Howard's Open Season (unfortunately, that was an abridged version) and she was wonderful in this one too. She has a sort of young-Judy-Garland thing going on with her voice, and her character voices are good and consistent. Her narration gets 5 stars from me.
So - ok - 5 stars too for Ms Rivers' incredible gift of story-telling, for her ability to confront child abuse, prostitution and the treatment of women in general and turn it into a wonderful story of the redeeming power of love.
I listened to the interview with the author at the end of this, and she is indeed a born-again Christian who is devoting her writing and her life to spreading God's Word. This is something that normally I run from, in a big way, as fast as possible.
I was raised Christian - so I do have some background and minimal education in this culture. Not really religious, but we did go to church pretty much every week when I was a child, and we were involved in the church socially. But I haven't darkened the door of any church for anything other than tourism or maybe a wedding in several decades. And I don't plan to start going to church or reading the Bible or anything now - this wasn't a born-again moment for me. In fact, I got this book to read to fulfill one book in a Challenge - so much for Challenges being a way to whittle away the TBR mountain!! I did a little research on inspirational romance, and just jumped into this one.
Redeeming Love is Ms. Rivers' first inspirational Romance. According to the interview, she wrote "steamy historical romance" before this, and then had her calling - and apparently she got the rights back to all those other books and they are no longer in print. Too bad, because her writing is really wonderful! She decided, however, that true love was between God and Man (or Woman) and not between Man and Woman, therefore her switch.
That's not to say there wasn't wonderful romance between a man and a woman, along with some good secondary romances as well. But nothing graphic, and basically the idea was that love of God comes first and other love stems from that. Or something like that, anyway. That's ok because she managed to put a boatload of tension, sexual and otherwise, into her story.
The story is based on the biblical story (surprised?) of Hosea and Gomer. Go figure, Gomer is a woman's name. It's a sort of allegory about God and Israel (the people) - how, no matter how much they strayed from his Word, God forgave them. In both this book and the Hosea/Gomer story, God tells the hero (Michael Hosea in this story) to wed a prostitute and to continue to love and forgive her no matter what.
In Redeeming Love Sarah aka Angel has a much more detailed and incredibly tragic story than what I could learn of Gomer's story via google. Sarah was born in 1832 to a single woman, May, who had an affair with a married man. He apparently set her up for 3 years, but declined to meet his daughter. He finally throws May and Sarah out of their house, at which point they go to May's parents, who also refuse to help. Down on their luck, they move to the docks area, get a shanty and a simpleton protector for several years. During this time, May turned tricks to help support them, as this was the only option left to her. When Sarah turned 8, May died - and the simpleton, not even knowing her name, sells her to a man he thinks is adopting her.
Unfortunately for Sarah, "Duke" isn't exactly adopting her. Instead, he's got a thing for little girls, and Sarah begins her life of prostitution at age 8. He gives her the name Angel because she's so beautiful she looks like one.
Michael Hosea traveled to California with his sister and brother-in-law Paul around 1848. His sister died on the way, and Paul decides to join the Gold Rush after they get land and build cabins. Michael is truly devout, and is waiting for God to reveal the woman meant to be his wife. By this time (1850), Angel has managed to run away from Duke and get to a place in California named Pair O'Dice (I am guessing at the spelling since I listened to the audio book) where she is the featured prostitute at The Palace. It's the nearest town to Michael's and Paul's land, and he sees her when he is in town selling his produce and getting supplies. He hears God tell him she's the one... and when he learns her career and reputation, he realizes he's being tested.
Just like the Hosea/Gomer story, Angel isn't convinced he's the one - and she runs away from him time after time, going back to turning tricks to support herself. While Michael is filled with patience - and well-described and realized love for her - she is filled with self-doubt and self-hatred. How can she ever trust a man, after being prostituted as a child? She learned her hatred of God and men also from watching how her mother's life played out - her dreadful biological father, her unforgiving grandfather, the awful way May died, with a rosary in her hands. As far as she's concerned, there is no God, there is only Hell on Earth for her, and she isn't worthy of anything better.
There were so many heart-wrenching things in Angel's short life - for one, she had 2 abortions while living with Duke, and during the second one, the doctor was ordered to permanently end her child-bearing ability. Even though she tells Michael, and he tells her it's ok and he still loves her, over time he does slip and say and do things that indicate he wants children. Another family moves to the area, and there's a daughter about Angel's age - a kind, lovely, virginal girl who seems to embody all the things Angel - and Paul - think Michael deserves in a wife. It's a constant source of pain and tension for Angel, and for Paul, to see Miriam and Michael together, even though Michael says they are just friends, and that Miriam sees him only as an older brother.
It's a very involved story, and I spent most of it on the virtual edge of my seat, hurting for Angel, hurting for Michael, even occasionally hurting for Paul (although mostly I wanted to strangle him for how much he assumed and messed up). Things that happened to Angel before she moved to California get revealed slowly, and on more than one occasion I gasped in shock. If you're going to read this, it isn't really a spoiler to know there is indeed a HEA (since it's a Romance) but it's so late in the story and so much happens to keep them apart that it was incredibly hard to keep reading without knowing for sure!!
And if you are somewhat squeamish about being preached at in a book of fiction that you intended to read for fun, you'll be glad to know she avoids it until the very end - there are lots of references to Michael's faith, and some references to the faith of the new neighbors (he's apparently an ordained minister, something which I didn't realize until late in the story) - but it's not overly preachy. Ok, at the very end (and I may be tainted by having listened to the interview which was proselytize-y) after Angel's conversion, it did start to get a little more preachy.
The narrator is Kate Forbes - I loved her narration of Linda Howard's Open Season (unfortunately, that was an abridged version) and she was wonderful in this one too. She has a sort of young-Judy-Garland thing going on with her voice, and her character voices are good and consistent. Her narration gets 5 stars from me.
So - ok - 5 stars too for Ms Rivers' incredible gift of story-telling, for her ability to confront child abuse, prostitution and the treatment of women in general and turn it into a wonderful story of the redeeming power of love.
Saturday, September 6, 2008
Remembrance by Jude Deveraux ****
Another day, another book. Actually, I'm feeling a little flustered - somehow, I'm a day behind!!
Ok - Remembrance - it's a paranormal, I think - not really time travel, but a past life regression, except...
Romance writer Hayden Lane is obsessed with a hero she's created. She loses a real-life fiancé, time, friends - all while holed up creating this fellow. She isn't even really writing the book - she just accumulates hundreds and hundreds of pages of descriptions of Jamie, her medieval Scottish hero, who then becomes English, and then changes times...
Hayden consults therapists, friends, others trying to get over her obsession. Finally she finds herself in the office of Nora - a woman passing as an astrologist who is really a psychic. Nora is the real deal - and she knows things, reads Hayden's thoughts. Hayden decides that she'll listen to Nora's ideas only for the research value, so she can maybe write a book using the information. Truth is - she's fascinated by Nora's assertion that Hayden has a soul-mate that she has kept through the ages, but that she is destined not to meet again for 3 more lifetimes.
Given some details and ideas, Hayden is off on another tangent - researching about the woman who might have been her in a past life. Next thing she knows, and against Nora's advice, she undergoes hypnosis with a past-life regressionist - and finds herself in her past life's body in 1901. Her persona, Catherine, lets her in - and Hayden overpowers her. Catherine's husband, Adam Tavistock, is getting ready to divorce her and marry Fiona - as it turns out, Catherine's and Adam's marriage was never consummated because he is suffering from ED, but only with her. With other women, he's as virile as any romance novel hero, but the only one he loves is Catherine. Why are Catherine and Adam doomed even though they are in love and are true soul-mates? Why can they not realize their love? Hayden is desperate to find out the truth.
Once again a hypnotist comes into play - and Hayden is suddenly inside an infant as she is being born - in the mid 16th century.
Here is where the story of the soul-mates begins. Callasandra and Talis are born on the same day, at almost the same time, to 2 women. Talis' mother dies in birth after issuing a proclamation about them that joins the babies' fates; Callasandra's mother gives birth to yet another girl, and claims the boy as hers instead. In a tragic turn of events, she decides to have both children die in a fire - but their wet nurse and her husband run away with the children, and raise them together for 16 years as their own. Everyone at the castle believe the children are dead, until one day...
Their story is the key to Hayden's search for her soul-mate. Hayden's 20th century self doesn't emerge in Callie's life, but when the story of Talis and Callie ends, Hayden was witness to the fate and the curse that led to her current situation. When she returns to consciousness, it's to Catherine's body, not her own, and she still needs to solve the problem between Adam and Catherine before she can wake up as Hayden in 1994.
Truthfully, it was a good story but oh sooo frustrating. The continuing miscommunication between Talis and Callie about drove me nutz, which after reading this book was a very, very short trip. If I had to read one more scene where Talis did something to make Callie jealous, or where Talis had to remain true to Alida because of honor - sheeeeesh!!! I wanted to scream!
But I was touched by the end of the stories - for Talis and Callie, for Catherine and Adam - and then for Hayden and her soul-mate. 4 stars.
Ok - Remembrance - it's a paranormal, I think - not really time travel, but a past life regression, except...
Romance writer Hayden Lane is obsessed with a hero she's created. She loses a real-life fiancé, time, friends - all while holed up creating this fellow. She isn't even really writing the book - she just accumulates hundreds and hundreds of pages of descriptions of Jamie, her medieval Scottish hero, who then becomes English, and then changes times...
Hayden consults therapists, friends, others trying to get over her obsession. Finally she finds herself in the office of Nora - a woman passing as an astrologist who is really a psychic. Nora is the real deal - and she knows things, reads Hayden's thoughts. Hayden decides that she'll listen to Nora's ideas only for the research value, so she can maybe write a book using the information. Truth is - she's fascinated by Nora's assertion that Hayden has a soul-mate that she has kept through the ages, but that she is destined not to meet again for 3 more lifetimes.
Given some details and ideas, Hayden is off on another tangent - researching about the woman who might have been her in a past life. Next thing she knows, and against Nora's advice, she undergoes hypnosis with a past-life regressionist - and finds herself in her past life's body in 1901. Her persona, Catherine, lets her in - and Hayden overpowers her. Catherine's husband, Adam Tavistock, is getting ready to divorce her and marry Fiona - as it turns out, Catherine's and Adam's marriage was never consummated because he is suffering from ED, but only with her. With other women, he's as virile as any romance novel hero, but the only one he loves is Catherine. Why are Catherine and Adam doomed even though they are in love and are true soul-mates? Why can they not realize their love? Hayden is desperate to find out the truth.
Once again a hypnotist comes into play - and Hayden is suddenly inside an infant as she is being born - in the mid 16th century.
Here is where the story of the soul-mates begins. Callasandra and Talis are born on the same day, at almost the same time, to 2 women. Talis' mother dies in birth after issuing a proclamation about them that joins the babies' fates; Callasandra's mother gives birth to yet another girl, and claims the boy as hers instead. In a tragic turn of events, she decides to have both children die in a fire - but their wet nurse and her husband run away with the children, and raise them together for 16 years as their own. Everyone at the castle believe the children are dead, until one day...
Their story is the key to Hayden's search for her soul-mate. Hayden's 20th century self doesn't emerge in Callie's life, but when the story of Talis and Callie ends, Hayden was witness to the fate and the curse that led to her current situation. When she returns to consciousness, it's to Catherine's body, not her own, and she still needs to solve the problem between Adam and Catherine before she can wake up as Hayden in 1994.
Truthfully, it was a good story but oh sooo frustrating. The continuing miscommunication between Talis and Callie about drove me nutz, which after reading this book was a very, very short trip. If I had to read one more scene where Talis did something to make Callie jealous, or where Talis had to remain true to Alida because of honor - sheeeeesh!!! I wanted to scream!
But I was touched by the end of the stories - for Talis and Callie, for Catherine and Adam - and then for Hayden and her soul-mate. 4 stars.
Friday, September 5, 2008
The Velvet Promise by Jude Deveraux ****
This is the first in the Velvet Series, about the 4 Montgomery brothers. This story is about Gavin, the eldest, and his marriage to Judith Revedoune.
Here's a shorty-type review. 4 stars - the story was good, but frankly Gavin will never make my "favorite hero" list. Maybe it's because it was published in 1981, maybe it's because Deveraux thinks 16 century men rape and beat women as a matter of course, but I was pretty much disgusted with his behavior towards Judith about 98% of the time. In spite of that, Deveraux tells such a good story that I stuck with it for Judith's sake, and liked the story. I hope his brothers will be more honorable in their own stories - already I like them much better than their brutish and disloyal adulterer/batterer brother. (hmmm, how could I like this book?? This is why I have this blog, to write my thoughts directly after reading so I'll remember why I felt the way I did - now I have another book in my head.)
Here's a shorty-type review. 4 stars - the story was good, but frankly Gavin will never make my "favorite hero" list. Maybe it's because it was published in 1981, maybe it's because Deveraux thinks 16 century men rape and beat women as a matter of course, but I was pretty much disgusted with his behavior towards Judith about 98% of the time. In spite of that, Deveraux tells such a good story that I stuck with it for Judith's sake, and liked the story. I hope his brothers will be more honorable in their own stories - already I like them much better than their brutish and disloyal adulterer/batterer brother. (hmmm, how could I like this book?? This is why I have this blog, to write my thoughts directly after reading so I'll remember why I felt the way I did - now I have another book in my head.)
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Beguiled by Lori Foster ****
I downloaded this on audio - a recent release of the book that occurs before Caught In The Act, which I already had. This is Angel and Dane's story, with Mick from Caught In The Act as a teenager.
Dane Carter comes home to his family and the family business some 3-4 months after the death of his identical twin, Derek, to investigate. He's got it in his head his brother was murdered. Dane's a PI with his own firm - he left the family/business after his overbearing mother bought off his fiancée who was pregnant. The fiancée subsequently miscarried (or, he suspects, got an abortion) and he's been overcome with the guilt and the disgust of the situation. And now the guilt of not being there for his twin brother is a factor.
He's contacted by Angel who thinks he's Derek - she comes to his office because she needs his help. She's now a single mother - the child is Derek's, which comes as a shock to Dane. He plays along to learn what she knows of what happened. Apparently, Angel was a secretary in the records department of the business - Derek came on to her, and in one evening of passion*, impregnates her, steals documents from her in an act of corporate espionage, and later publicly dumps her. He expected her to abort the baby that resulted, and doesn't want to have anything to do with her. To top it all off, she didn't even find sex with him was all that great...
The attraction between Angel and Dane is instant, and Angel thinks over and over that something is different about Derek - he doesn't dress the same, he doesn't react to her the same - but for some weird reason she never knew Dane was Derek's identical twin, so she never suspects the truth. I mean, I got that she and Derek were never actually close, but she did know he had a brother. Well, that's explained because he had left the family under a cloud so they talked about him, but ...? I guess there weren't any family photos. Ok, whatever.
Angel needed Derek's help because she'd been receiving threatening letters and calls. She no longer works for the company - after her public embarrassment at Derek's hands, then the pregnancy, then a debilitating car accident, she can barely work enough to make ends meet. Dane immediately steps in - he buys her things for herself and the baby, and becomes a Sugar Daddy - which of course she hates because she is independent and feisty. The kind of help she needed was protection from the bad guy, but in her confusion over his reaction to her and their chemistry, she sorta neglects to mention all that at the beginning.
Once the relationship gets physical, Angel is confused even more because Dane is no Derek in that department! (makes ya wonder, though, doesn't it?*)
Meanwhile, over at the family business we meet Dane's overbearing mother and his sister Celia, affianced to Raymond. Raymond is being groomed to step in as CEO after Dane gets the company back on its feet. I'll just say that the narrator gives Raymond a smarmy voice which leads one to believe that maybe Celia doesn't have the catch of the season.
So, we gotta find Derek's killer and Angel's stalker - could it possibly be the same person?
The narrator on this book was slightly better than mediocre - her voice is pleasant, she does manage to have different voices for the characters and she was very consistent with them, even if I found both Raymond's and Mother's voices very obnoxious. That was probably deliberate, but came across almost more cartoony than realistic. It made me wonder every time Raymond spoke what was wrong with Celia that she even liked him. And there's a hint that Raymond wasn't fond of women either*... I also wish narrators wouldn't get breathy when reading intimate scenes - just a straight forward reading of what the author wrote has more impact, in my opinion and experience. Narrators should be required to listen to Kate Fleming and learn some tips - however, talent can't be learned!
My first reaction to the book is 3 stars, so I went back to see my rating for Caught In The Act - I gave it 4 stars. I feel about the same towards this one, with one exception - I loved the other narrator's voice for Mick. A Lot. The other narrator was male, and he dropped his voice a touch and gave it a little... depth, or something - I dunno, it was very sexy. The story affected me about the same, maybe it was a little hotter. So I guess I'll go with a notch above mediocre, which is 4 star territory.
* spoiler alert - as I said, it was an audio book, so I can't exactly go back and figure this out, but it's hinted that maybe Derek's problem with Angel was he preferred men to women in bed, and I finished the story not quite knowing if that was just an assertion by smarmy Raymond, or that is the conclusion one might come to considering Derek was apparently a dud in bed with Angel. Maybe if I had the book and could read the info he left for Angel again... Why he wanted her to abort the baby, though, is still a mystery, no matter what his sexuality, considering he was trying to protect her... and.... ok that part is confusing.
Dane Carter comes home to his family and the family business some 3-4 months after the death of his identical twin, Derek, to investigate. He's got it in his head his brother was murdered. Dane's a PI with his own firm - he left the family/business after his overbearing mother bought off his fiancée who was pregnant. The fiancée subsequently miscarried (or, he suspects, got an abortion) and he's been overcome with the guilt and the disgust of the situation. And now the guilt of not being there for his twin brother is a factor.
He's contacted by Angel who thinks he's Derek - she comes to his office because she needs his help. She's now a single mother - the child is Derek's, which comes as a shock to Dane. He plays along to learn what she knows of what happened. Apparently, Angel was a secretary in the records department of the business - Derek came on to her, and in one evening of passion*, impregnates her, steals documents from her in an act of corporate espionage, and later publicly dumps her. He expected her to abort the baby that resulted, and doesn't want to have anything to do with her. To top it all off, she didn't even find sex with him was all that great...
The attraction between Angel and Dane is instant, and Angel thinks over and over that something is different about Derek - he doesn't dress the same, he doesn't react to her the same - but for some weird reason she never knew Dane was Derek's identical twin, so she never suspects the truth. I mean, I got that she and Derek were never actually close, but she did know he had a brother. Well, that's explained because he had left the family under a cloud so they talked about him, but ...? I guess there weren't any family photos. Ok, whatever.
Angel needed Derek's help because she'd been receiving threatening letters and calls. She no longer works for the company - after her public embarrassment at Derek's hands, then the pregnancy, then a debilitating car accident, she can barely work enough to make ends meet. Dane immediately steps in - he buys her things for herself and the baby, and becomes a Sugar Daddy - which of course she hates because she is independent and feisty. The kind of help she needed was protection from the bad guy, but in her confusion over his reaction to her and their chemistry, she sorta neglects to mention all that at the beginning.
Once the relationship gets physical, Angel is confused even more because Dane is no Derek in that department! (makes ya wonder, though, doesn't it?*)
Meanwhile, over at the family business we meet Dane's overbearing mother and his sister Celia, affianced to Raymond. Raymond is being groomed to step in as CEO after Dane gets the company back on its feet. I'll just say that the narrator gives Raymond a smarmy voice which leads one to believe that maybe Celia doesn't have the catch of the season.
So, we gotta find Derek's killer and Angel's stalker - could it possibly be the same person?
The narrator on this book was slightly better than mediocre - her voice is pleasant, she does manage to have different voices for the characters and she was very consistent with them, even if I found both Raymond's and Mother's voices very obnoxious. That was probably deliberate, but came across almost more cartoony than realistic. It made me wonder every time Raymond spoke what was wrong with Celia that she even liked him. And there's a hint that Raymond wasn't fond of women either*... I also wish narrators wouldn't get breathy when reading intimate scenes - just a straight forward reading of what the author wrote has more impact, in my opinion and experience. Narrators should be required to listen to Kate Fleming and learn some tips - however, talent can't be learned!
My first reaction to the book is 3 stars, so I went back to see my rating for Caught In The Act - I gave it 4 stars. I feel about the same towards this one, with one exception - I loved the other narrator's voice for Mick. A Lot. The other narrator was male, and he dropped his voice a touch and gave it a little... depth, or something - I dunno, it was very sexy. The story affected me about the same, maybe it was a little hotter. So I guess I'll go with a notch above mediocre, which is 4 star territory.
* spoiler alert - as I said, it was an audio book, so I can't exactly go back and figure this out, but it's hinted that maybe Derek's problem with Angel was he preferred men to women in bed, and I finished the story not quite knowing if that was just an assertion by smarmy Raymond, or that is the conclusion one might come to considering Derek was apparently a dud in bed with Angel. Maybe if I had the book and could read the info he left for Angel again... Why he wanted her to abort the baby, though, is still a mystery, no matter what his sexuality, considering he was trying to protect her... and.... ok that part is confusing.
A Little Help From Above by Saralee Rosenberg ***
This is a book that was loaned to me by a friend. I let it sit in my TBR pile for months and months because I've been on a Romance novel binge and this is more Chick Lit.
That, of course, brings up the whole Women's Fiction thing - what is Romance? what is Chick Lit? What is strictly Women's Fiction?
Basically, Romance is a relationship story. There are several sub-genres off that, but a relationship (usually male/female - always m/f in my case) is center to the story. They meet, perhaps not the first time, and develop a love relationship during the course of the book, which ends with a strong possibility they will live happily ever after, together. There may be suspense, comedy, murder involved. It can take place any time, historical or contemporary.
In Chick Lit, from what I can gather, the story is centered around the woman's life, which usually does involve a man. She is single, career-oriented, and probably urban, and we learn the conflicts and obstacles in her life. And there's humor and, from what I understand, usually snarkiness in the writing style. It's (usually or always?) contemporary.
Ok - on to our story. This is the debut novel for author Saralee Rosenberg, written in 2003. It contains a thread about DES, a drug given to women for decades to prevent miscarriages that is now known to cause birth defects and cancer in the children and even grandchildren of the woman who took it. I don't know if Ms. Rosenberg or her family was affected, or if she just used it as a story line.
The Protagonist is Shelby - almost 40, single, a successful and driven journalist in Chicago. She is obnoxious. Rude. Mouthy. Snarky to the extreme. I wanted to reach into the book and slap her about 3 times per page. I kept putting the book down and asking myself if it was worth finishing. There isn't anything she does like: her job, her current boyfriend, past boyfriends, family members - no one is safe from her acid tongue.
Her younger sister calls her to tell her their father and stepmother have been in a near-fatal accident and are both at Death's door, and she tries to figure out a way to avoid going to their home, where she grew up, in New York. Apparently she has some issues: her mother died of cancer when she was 10, her father married the mother's sister (her aunt), her sister and the aunt's son grew up calling both parents Mommy and Daddy, and for some reason to be revealed, Shelby hasn't spoken to any family member in 2 years.
It gets even deeper - her mother's death from cancer spooked her to the point of never going to doctors or hospitals again (or rarely), partly because she blames the hospital and the doctor for her mother's death. Her mother was told it was nothing until it was too late for any treatment. And to cap it all off, her very best friend in the entire world was the boy next door, who moved away with his family the week after her mother died, and he was never heard from again - despite her efforts over the past almost-30 years to locate him. Keep in mind, she was 10 years old at the time.
The book takes on a number of issues, all of which Shelby mouths about but shoulders, in a number of twists that push credibility even for fiction. She is determined to remain single and childless, despite the pushiness of her family. However, her sister is a victim of the DES her mother took - and cannot bear children. She and her second husband push and push and push Shelby to consider being a surrogate mother for them - at age 38? For a neurotic sister with a husband who comes on to Shelby at every chance? Everyone around conspires to make Shelby feel guilty about saying no.
She's also convinced she will find her first love (from age 10?), the boy next door, and live happily ever after with him - she knows he is the only one for her. What, is she a vampire or werewolf who can only have one mate? Also unbelievable, as is how she eventually tracks him down.
The reason we are to believe all this is the Help From Above - Shelby's mother is meddling from the beyond to see that her daughters find happiness in life. So I guess the central theme is Mother's Love Overcomes All Obstacles. Including death.
To be perfectly honest, by the time the book ended, I was happy for her. Ms. Rosenberg's writing is good, and often funny - in spite of my dislike of her heroine, I found myself laughing out loud. And she did manage a romantic HEA for the ending as well, as incredible as it was. I still never got over how mean Shelby was to everyone - maybe it's a New York thing, people talking to each other like that, but it grated on my nerves to the point that I am begrudgingly giving it 3 stars. I didn't think someone who lived and acted and spoke like Shelby even deserved a HEA, especially since I was never convinced she redeemed herself or made a true turn-around in her attitude, but I did manage to like it somehow. Such is the power of good writing.
That, of course, brings up the whole Women's Fiction thing - what is Romance? what is Chick Lit? What is strictly Women's Fiction?
Basically, Romance is a relationship story. There are several sub-genres off that, but a relationship (usually male/female - always m/f in my case) is center to the story. They meet, perhaps not the first time, and develop a love relationship during the course of the book, which ends with a strong possibility they will live happily ever after, together. There may be suspense, comedy, murder involved. It can take place any time, historical or contemporary.
In Chick Lit, from what I can gather, the story is centered around the woman's life, which usually does involve a man. She is single, career-oriented, and probably urban, and we learn the conflicts and obstacles in her life. And there's humor and, from what I understand, usually snarkiness in the writing style. It's (usually or always?) contemporary.
Ok - on to our story. This is the debut novel for author Saralee Rosenberg, written in 2003. It contains a thread about DES, a drug given to women for decades to prevent miscarriages that is now known to cause birth defects and cancer in the children and even grandchildren of the woman who took it. I don't know if Ms. Rosenberg or her family was affected, or if she just used it as a story line.
The Protagonist is Shelby - almost 40, single, a successful and driven journalist in Chicago. She is obnoxious. Rude. Mouthy. Snarky to the extreme. I wanted to reach into the book and slap her about 3 times per page. I kept putting the book down and asking myself if it was worth finishing. There isn't anything she does like: her job, her current boyfriend, past boyfriends, family members - no one is safe from her acid tongue.
Her younger sister calls her to tell her their father and stepmother have been in a near-fatal accident and are both at Death's door, and she tries to figure out a way to avoid going to their home, where she grew up, in New York. Apparently she has some issues: her mother died of cancer when she was 10, her father married the mother's sister (her aunt), her sister and the aunt's son grew up calling both parents Mommy and Daddy, and for some reason to be revealed, Shelby hasn't spoken to any family member in 2 years.
It gets even deeper - her mother's death from cancer spooked her to the point of never going to doctors or hospitals again (or rarely), partly because she blames the hospital and the doctor for her mother's death. Her mother was told it was nothing until it was too late for any treatment. And to cap it all off, her very best friend in the entire world was the boy next door, who moved away with his family the week after her mother died, and he was never heard from again - despite her efforts over the past almost-30 years to locate him. Keep in mind, she was 10 years old at the time.
The book takes on a number of issues, all of which Shelby mouths about but shoulders, in a number of twists that push credibility even for fiction. She is determined to remain single and childless, despite the pushiness of her family. However, her sister is a victim of the DES her mother took - and cannot bear children. She and her second husband push and push and push Shelby to consider being a surrogate mother for them - at age 38? For a neurotic sister with a husband who comes on to Shelby at every chance? Everyone around conspires to make Shelby feel guilty about saying no.
She's also convinced she will find her first love (from age 10?), the boy next door, and live happily ever after with him - she knows he is the only one for her. What, is she a vampire or werewolf who can only have one mate? Also unbelievable, as is how she eventually tracks him down.
The reason we are to believe all this is the Help From Above - Shelby's mother is meddling from the beyond to see that her daughters find happiness in life. So I guess the central theme is Mother's Love Overcomes All Obstacles. Including death.
To be perfectly honest, by the time the book ended, I was happy for her. Ms. Rosenberg's writing is good, and often funny - in spite of my dislike of her heroine, I found myself laughing out loud. And she did manage a romantic HEA for the ending as well, as incredible as it was. I still never got over how mean Shelby was to everyone - maybe it's a New York thing, people talking to each other like that, but it grated on my nerves to the point that I am begrudgingly giving it 3 stars. I didn't think someone who lived and acted and spoke like Shelby even deserved a HEA, especially since I was never convinced she redeemed herself or made a true turn-around in her attitude, but I did manage to like it somehow. Such is the power of good writing.
Monday, September 1, 2008
Death Angel by Linda Howard *****
I have this book on audio from audible.com - it's not my first Linda Howard on audio, but my first with Joyce Bean as narrator. I have to say right upfront that for the first several minutes I thought I would have to stop and read it instead. I found her narration stilted and unnatural - she over-enunciated so many words that I wasn't sure I could stand to listen to it for 10 hours.
However, Linda Howard is such an incredible story-teller that before long I was drawn into the story, and the nuances of Ms. Bean's awkward narration disappeared into the background. (shockingly, 3 of the 4 current reviews on audible.com noted how great this narrator was... ???) Well, Joyce Bean wasn't dreadful, like the narrator for the first of the Feehan Dark series, but she's no Anna Fields. Personally, if I was allowed to give professional criticism, I'd say lighten up on those T's and D's, and try to make the flow of the narration less stilted and more like natural speech. But who am I? Just another listener.
The story centers around the major theme of the redeeming power of love. The h/h are both anti-heroes - Drea is the mistress of a drug lord, Rafael, thinking she is using men to get what she needs by playing the bimbo; "the Assassin" is just that - a killer-for-hire. The Assassin demands that Rafael give him Drea in lieu of payment - just for one afternoon. Rafael agrees, and leaves Drea heartbroken and sick, feeling worthless and crushed that she meant so little to him. The Assassin manages to make her even more confused, however, in a 4-hour stint that completely breaks her down because she loses control and actually enjoys - no - craves him. Although by the end she is begging him to take her with him, he tells her "once was enough" - and leaves a completely shattered woman, desperate to change her life.
Drea isn't the bimbo everyone believes her to be, however, and she's always had a plan for taking care of herself as soon as she had gotten what she needed from Rafael. She leaves him the next day, and in the execution of her plan, also manages to steal a large amount of his money - a sort of "up yours" gesture. When he figures out he's been had, he hires the assassin to do his job: kill her.
At this point we learn the assassin's name: Simon. He doesn't accept the job right away - first he sees if he can track her down. He admires her courage and her ability to stay one step ahead of him. He was not sure whether he would have taken the job - or her life - if fate hadn't stepped in and taken it from her in an accident. Once he's convinced she's dead, he takes her ID and calls 911. Although he proves to Rafael she is dead, he hadn't accepted the job and so doesn't accept payment either.
But he can't seem to shake her from his life and decides to locate her grave. He needs closure. Instead, he's shocked to learn that Drea actually survived the accident.
Now going by her nickname Andie, she realizes that she was never the one in power or in control of her life as she had thought, but that she had allowed men to use her. Her near-death experience forces her to face the truth of her way of life. Now she needs to reclaim her life and seek redemption for her past. Although she still has the original $2 million she stole from Rafael, she decides to fly under the radar, with a job that pays cash, living on what she makes, and use the money some way that will bring her redemption.
Then Simon is revealed to her by a flash of lightning during a storm - he's been watching her. As the reader, we know he's been her guardian angel, but to Andie he's still the relentless assassin who has found her and plans to finish the job he started. Although he had never planned to reveal himself, once again divine intervention plays a role, and now the two of them must face both their fears. And Andie must find her redemption and reason for her second chance.
Well - I loved the suspense, the skillful story-telling, the powerful transformation Andie undergoes from feeling worthless to finding her power within, and especially Simon's own redemption, because he had so much further to go than she did. Rafael's ending almost caught me unaware - it seemed to come out of nowhere but then made perfect sense after it happened.
I would rate the narration 3 stars for mediocre. I can't blame Linda Howard for that, though, so Death Angel gets 5 stars from me.
However, Linda Howard is such an incredible story-teller that before long I was drawn into the story, and the nuances of Ms. Bean's awkward narration disappeared into the background. (shockingly, 3 of the 4 current reviews on audible.com noted how great this narrator was... ???) Well, Joyce Bean wasn't dreadful, like the narrator for the first of the Feehan Dark series, but she's no Anna Fields. Personally, if I was allowed to give professional criticism, I'd say lighten up on those T's and D's, and try to make the flow of the narration less stilted and more like natural speech. But who am I? Just another listener.
The story centers around the major theme of the redeeming power of love. The h/h are both anti-heroes - Drea is the mistress of a drug lord, Rafael, thinking she is using men to get what she needs by playing the bimbo; "the Assassin" is just that - a killer-for-hire. The Assassin demands that Rafael give him Drea in lieu of payment - just for one afternoon. Rafael agrees, and leaves Drea heartbroken and sick, feeling worthless and crushed that she meant so little to him. The Assassin manages to make her even more confused, however, in a 4-hour stint that completely breaks her down because she loses control and actually enjoys - no - craves him. Although by the end she is begging him to take her with him, he tells her "once was enough" - and leaves a completely shattered woman, desperate to change her life.
Drea isn't the bimbo everyone believes her to be, however, and she's always had a plan for taking care of herself as soon as she had gotten what she needed from Rafael. She leaves him the next day, and in the execution of her plan, also manages to steal a large amount of his money - a sort of "up yours" gesture. When he figures out he's been had, he hires the assassin to do his job: kill her.
At this point we learn the assassin's name: Simon. He doesn't accept the job right away - first he sees if he can track her down. He admires her courage and her ability to stay one step ahead of him. He was not sure whether he would have taken the job - or her life - if fate hadn't stepped in and taken it from her in an accident. Once he's convinced she's dead, he takes her ID and calls 911. Although he proves to Rafael she is dead, he hadn't accepted the job and so doesn't accept payment either.
But he can't seem to shake her from his life and decides to locate her grave. He needs closure. Instead, he's shocked to learn that Drea actually survived the accident.
Now going by her nickname Andie, she realizes that she was never the one in power or in control of her life as she had thought, but that she had allowed men to use her. Her near-death experience forces her to face the truth of her way of life. Now she needs to reclaim her life and seek redemption for her past. Although she still has the original $2 million she stole from Rafael, she decides to fly under the radar, with a job that pays cash, living on what she makes, and use the money some way that will bring her redemption.
Then Simon is revealed to her by a flash of lightning during a storm - he's been watching her. As the reader, we know he's been her guardian angel, but to Andie he's still the relentless assassin who has found her and plans to finish the job he started. Although he had never planned to reveal himself, once again divine intervention plays a role, and now the two of them must face both their fears. And Andie must find her redemption and reason for her second chance.
Well - I loved the suspense, the skillful story-telling, the powerful transformation Andie undergoes from feeling worthless to finding her power within, and especially Simon's own redemption, because he had so much further to go than she did. Rafael's ending almost caught me unaware - it seemed to come out of nowhere but then made perfect sense after it happened.
I would rate the narration 3 stars for mediocre. I can't blame Linda Howard for that, though, so Death Angel gets 5 stars from me.
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Read Around the Genre Challenge
Cindy at Cindy Reads Romance is always looking for a challenge and now she's challenging us to Read Around The Genre. She's giving us from September 1 to December 15 to read 1 book in each of the following romance sub-genres:
1. Pirate or Viking - A Lady At Last by Brenda Joyce - READ 9/11, 376 pp ***
2. Vampire - Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris, downloaded audio book READ 10/13 (304 pp in paperback) *****
3. Contemporary - Beguiled by Lori Foster - audio, 9/3, 250 pages? ****
4. Chick Lit - A Little Help from Above by Saralee Rosenberg, loaned to me by a friend - READ 9/2 (334 pp) ***
5. Medieval - The Velvet Promise by Jude Deveraux- READ 9/5 376 pages ****
6. Time Travel - Time Enough For Love by Suzanne Brockmann, READ 10/7, (240 pp in the orig paperback; 179 in this edition) ***
7. Romantic Suspense - downloaded Death Angel by Linda Howard from audible.com - READ 9/1 (352 pp) *****
8. Inspirational - downloaded Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers from audible.com - READ 9/8 (464 pp in book form) *****
9. Historical - Seaswept Abandon by Jo Goodman - READ 9/9 *** 508 pp
10. Paranormal - Remembrance by Jude Deveraux - READ 9/6 (423 pp) ****
And she's offering incentives: Trophies up for grab:
-First Person Completed
-Most Pages Read (applies to these 10 books)
-Least amount of Authors read (JD Robb and Nora Roberts count as 2 authors)
-Challenge Winner (a random drawing will be held for all who complete the challenge)
I must say, it is almost more a dare than a challenge! Can I do it? We will see. Surely, at the rate of 1-book-a-day I can fit these in. Plus - HEY I did just realize that the Amanda/Cliff de Warenne/Brenda Joyce book that precedes A Dangerous Love is about a pirate...
(off to figure out how to weasel more credits out of my PBS account...)
UPDATE OCT 13 Happy Columbus Day! I finished this challenge. Whew! It's 3,566 pages, 9 authors.
And she's offering incentives: Trophies up for grab:
-First Person Completed
-Most Pages Read (applies to these 10 books)
-Least amount of Authors read (JD Robb and Nora Roberts count as 2 authors)
-Challenge Winner (a random drawing will be held for all who complete the challenge)
I must say, it is almost more a dare than a challenge! Can I do it? We will see. Surely, at the rate of 1-book-a-day I can fit these in. Plus - HEY I did just realize that the Amanda/Cliff de Warenne/Brenda Joyce book that precedes A Dangerous Love is about a pirate...
(off to figure out how to weasel more credits out of my PBS account...)
UPDATE OCT 13 Happy Columbus Day! I finished this challenge. Whew! It's 3,566 pages, 9 authors.
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