Wednesday, November 29

I'd heard 3 things about Stephenie Meyer's Twilight... 1. It's a YA novel, 2. It's a vampire story and 3. It's really good. I'm only about 1/3 through it and am amazed at how fluid the story feels.

I like books written in the first person because when they're done right you become the character, you feel what they feel, you follow their thoughts as if they're yours. You live their lives. This book reads this way. I'm Bella. And that's good writing.

Tempting The Devil by Patricia Potter

Tempting The Devil was the first Patricia Potter romantic suspense I've read, she's been writing them for a while now and for some reason I didn't follow her from historicals to RS. I think she switched when I was in my 2 year reading slump a few years ago. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but I didn't expect to be disappointed with a major premise of the story.

Three police officers are killed execution style while on patrol in rural Georgia, Robin Stuart is a reporter covering the story. She has a source in the Sheriff's Office who insists on anonymity tell her he thinks a Mob organization called HYDRA is involved and that someone in the Sheriff's Department is in on it. She writes her story and enter Ben Taylor, FBI agent, he wants her source. She and her paper are prepared for this, talk about this, plan for this.

The major flaw in the story--no one involved in the article outing HYDRA and the Sheriffs office expect the "Mob" to go after the reporter for the source. Well, gee whiz, they've killed 3 cops do you think they'll hesitate to kill a reporter or her family??

Conversation between the reporter and her editor:
"Now the bad guys have threatened my sisters if I give it to anyone but them. They want the name. I don't think they'll stop at anything to get it."

"I'm sorry, Robin. I didn't see this coming."

"Neither did I."
Conversations between Robin and her source:
"...You started this by giving me information you knew--a lot better than I--was very dangerous."

"I never thought they'd come after you."
You know what? I may not be a brain surgeon, just a lowly reader, but I saw this coming. How could the reporter, source and editor not make this connection? I didn't think the reporter shouldn't write the article, just be prepared for all the consequences, not just a pissed off FBI. The source was insistant that his family would be a target, why wouldn't the reporters family be a target too? This really bugged me, maybe I'm nit picking.

I think I'll reread her old westerns and avoid her romantic suspense. Oh well, live and learn.

Tuesday, November 28

And the chaos begins...

Well, it's the holiday season, I guess that means everyone's stress level will be ratcheting up. This week is rather chaotic, but things should settle down for a couple of weeks before getting pre-Christmas crazy.

Bingo today, family obligation tomorrow, school fundraiser Thursday--at Barnes & Noble, half a day of school Friday and our first round of holiday entertaining is Saturday. Throw in basketball practice and cleaning the house and I've got a full week.

We've got 4 birthdays between now and Christmas and one of my SIL's is pregnant and her due date is the 15th.

The house is decorated, and the Christmas cards are written, but waiting for a picture of Junior. Baking and candy making will start next week and the shopping is just about finished. I'm hoping to have everything finished and wrapped by the 15th--is it do-able??

I'm still working my way through the Patricia Potter romantic suspense--I'll try to find time to post about it tomorrow.

Have a great day and happy reading!!

Saturday, November 25

A Ramble

This year Thanksgiving was at my parent's house. My mom is an excellent cook and dinner was amazing. Days worth of preparation and it's finished in less than 1/2 an hour. My poor husband was horrified, there was no pies for dessert. "How can you have Thanksgiving without a #&*#%*% pie?" The man's mother makes 4 or 5 different pies for Thanksgiving and Christmas, my family aren't pie people--he finds that totally bizarre.

Mom sent each of us home with enough leftovers for at least one meal. Guess what we had for dinner?? Nope, pizza, garlic knots and fried ravioli, the Friday Night Special at our local pizza delivery place. What can I say, we were all in the mood for pizza.

My husband and son are good for my ego, on the way home on Thanksgiving both said I was a better cook, which I know isn't really true, but made me feel good.

Junior's been sick since Tuesday. Came home with a runny nose, and we kept him home on Wednesday. Wednesday was a Mommy day. "Mommy keep me company... Mommy can I have more soup... Mommy can I have juice... Mommy can I have a candy bar?" That one got a no--LOL. He was actually much better by Thursday and now only has a little bit of a lingering cough.

My husband is off until Monday. We spent Black Friday completely avoided shopping with the exception of a local farm market. They have a great little Christmas section and I saw a large Christmas stocking that is actually a Christmas Card Holder, I'm going to try and make it.

I finished Francis Ray's Dreaming of You before we left for my parents yesterday. It was my first book by Ms. Ray and it was pretty good. Unfortunately it was the 3rd in the Grayson series. I'm going to look for the rest of the series. I liked the characters and storyline, friends falling in love. That's not exactly right, it's more of an unrequited love/friends falling in love story and I like the premise, Mom of 5 children is trying to get them married off. I liked the interaction between the h/h, but dialogue between the men in the story was a little iffy, not horrible, but didn't completely ring true--I'm such a nit picker about this.

I'm reading Patricia Potter's newest Romantic Suspense. I think she's been writing RS for a while, but this is my first. I used to read her old westerns, but haven't read anything of hers in years, I wonder why, she's a good writer. Oh well, too many books too little time.

Have a great day and happy reading.

Thursday, November 23

Happy Thanksgiving


Hope all my friends here in the States have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

xoxo, Tara

Wednesday, November 22

What type of reader are you?

What Kind of Reader Are You?
Your Result: Dedicated Reader

You are always trying to find the time to get back to your book. You are convinced that the world would be a much better place if only everyone read more.

Obsessive-Compulsive Bookworm
Book Snob
Literate Good Citizen
Non-Reader
Fad Reader
What Kind of Reader Are You?
Create Your Own Quiz


Like I needed a quiz to tell me this--LOL?

Angels Fall

I finished Nora Roberts' Angels Fall yesterday afternoon. Once again an enjoyable book from NR.

From the publisher, lifted from B&N:
Reece Gilmore has come a long way to see the stunning view below her. As the sole survivor of a brutal crime back East, she has been on the run, desperately fighting the nightmares and panic attacks that haunt her. Reece settles in Angel's Fist, Wyoming-temporarily, at least-and takes a job at a local diner. And now she's hiked this mountain all by herself. It was glorious, she thought, as she peered through her binoculars at the Snake River churning below.

Then Reece saw the man and woman on the opposite bank. Arguing. Fighting. And suddenly, the man was on top of the woman, his hands around her throat . . .

Enjoying a moment of solitude a bit farther down the trail is a gruff loner named Brody. But by the time Reece reaches him and brings him to the scene, the pair has vanished. When authorities comb the area where she saw the attack, they find nothing. No signs of struggle. No freshly turned earth. Not even a tire track.
Reece is a contradiction, she's had a severe trauma in her life that left neurotic and obsessive, probably justified, and yet she is also strong or at least getting stronger and at times more confident as the book goes on. Brody becomes her rock, believes in her when many others around them think she's simply that poor crazy woman from back east.

Have you ever reached the point in a suspense when you realize who the villain is and you say "NO!!"? I was about 2/3 through the book when the villain's identity started to dawn on me, and my brain started whispering "no, no, no, the villain can't be..." but of course it was. I still enjoyed the book and I have no ideas which secondary character would have made a better bad guy--LOL.

PS--Ames was nice enough to send me the code for boxing in blockquotes, but I'm still too HTML challenged to make them work--oh well, I'll keep at it.

Tuesday, November 21

Life's oddities... and a couple other thoughts

Yesterday was one of those odd days that left little questions about the inane oddities of life.

Why is it ...

  • the woman who cut me off in town had a "Respect Mother Earth..." bumper sticker and was driving a huge SUV while flicking ashes and a cigarette butt out her window?
  • when the supermarket is doing give aways with their "spend a gazillion dollars and get a free turkey or ham" deal they never have the size they're "giving away" the turkeys or ham are 5 lbs bigger and you have to pay the difference?
  • the book I wanted from the library isn't available when I'm there, but is available 3 hours later?*
  • I can't find shirts to fit my son, 4/5 is way too small and 6/7 is way to big?
  • that Amazon takes over a week to tell me the Disney Princess Belle I ordered for my niece was out of stock?
  • after 24 years the village still questions why we've never had a water meter?
  • a 5 year old needs privacy when taking off clothes, but has no problem running around the house completely naked?

*I shouldn't complain about the book, Twilight by Stephanie Meyer, I knew that they were holding it for someone else and they called to tell me the other person cancelled, it was nice they called so quickly.

One of the books I picked up at the library was Nora Roberts' Angel Falls, I've read about half the book and OMG, the heroine is one of the most neurotic characters I've ever seen in a romance, yet it completely works (Jane, I haven't reached the canoe scene yet, of course that wont really matter as I'm clueless about canoe etiquette).

So last week when my Mom and sister took me out for "Girls Day Out" it turns out they've been living under the misconception I've been languishing in SAHM martyrdom because I wear old patched jeans. I had to point out that my old patched jeans are 1. my favorites, 2. incredibly comfortable, 3. have pockets for keys and money and 4. clean. I've promised to wear nicer pants/skirts in public. We had a nice lunch and Mom gave me my birthday present a month early.

Got to go, Junior's in the shower and we're going to be late for school.

Have a good one and happy reading.

PS--I've a column up on RTB, read about the conversion of a non-romance believer.

Monday, November 20

Linda Howard Again... And an HTML question


I've been on a Linda Howard kick again. Read three over the weekend. Son of the Morning, Open Season and Midnight Rainbow.

Midnight Rainbow was book three of my "Can You Guess The Book" post. Published originally in 1986, it was my first Linda Howard. I think it's safe to say I've gone on to read everything she's written. I'm now looking for my copy of Diamond Bay, you can't really read MR and not DB--LOL.

My husband spent a good part of yesterday afternoon flipping between football games and a program about The Templars, so I've decide to bug him into reading Son of the Morning.

Open Season is my go to book right now, you know the book you pick up because you don't know what to read but need to read something. I love the condom/drugstore scene, it makes me laugh everytime I read it.

I'm trying to figure out how to put a border around a blockquote or part of a blog post, does anyone know how to do this? Ames does this and I love the look. Ames or anyone else out there--HELP.

Have a good one and happy reading.

Friday, November 17

Can you guess the book...

Everybody's doing it...

1. Grab the nearest book.

2. Open to page 123.

3. Find the fifth sentence.

4. Post the text of the next four sentences on your blog along with these instructions.

5. Don't you dare dig around for that "cool" or "intellectual" book on your shelves. (I know you were thinking about it.) Just pick up whatever is closest.

I have 3 books sitting on my desk, so I decided to post from all three.

Book one:
He didn't know her that well at all. In fact, she was desperately, impractically romantic.

She leaned back in her chair, stretching her long bare legs out in front of her. "So let's sum this up," she said in her best lawyerly voice. In truth she'd spent very little time in court, and it had never been up to her to provide the summation ,but she could wing it with the best of them. "I can't leave the house because the doors and windows are electrified, but I can use the pool... What's to keep me from taking off once I'm outside?"
Can you guess my book?

Book two:
He was motivated by an urge for adventure and the hopes of impressing an unattainable lady.

It was not his place to disillusion Miss Welbourne, however. Nor would she thank him for it.

"I'm sure he was very brave," she said.
Can you guess my book?

Book three:
A shiver ran over her; he rubbed his free hand up her bare arm, feeling the coolness of her skin. Of its own accord his hand continued upward, stroking her satiny jaw, smoothing her dark tangle of hair away from her face. She was in a melancholy mood, this funny little cat, staring at the rain as if it would never stop, her eyes shadowed and her full passionate mouth sad.

Cupping her chin in his hand, he tilted her face up so he could study her quiet expression.
Can you guess my book?

Thursday, November 16

Leave a comment... ***EDITED***

Yesterday while shopping with my sister and Mom, my mom announced she spoke with my brother and heard all about "The Sleep Over". Oops, I guess I hadn't mentioned it to Mom. Now, I hadn't talked to or emailed him, apparently he or my SIL read the blog, I'm leaning toward the SIL.

I also know my husband is checking in every few days. ***EDITED*** At 1:00 Friday morning he pointed out that I should be more careful about what I post... "What if...", so this ended up edited at 4:00 Friday morning--Oh The Guilt--LOL.

You know guys, you could delurk and leave a comment once in a while.

When the Neo Counter shows a visitor from somewhere unusual, say India or Saudi Arabia I wish they'd leave a comment. I'd love to know whether or not they like the blog or how they found me.

And for those who seem to find me because they're google searching for porn, sorry you'll have to look elsewhere. You folks don't need to leave a comment.

Yesterday's odd google search was "my friends hot mom Mrs. Carrington". So, I wonder just how hot Mrs. Carrington is.

Have a great day and happy reading.

PS--My Neo Counter isn't working now, something about the server, I wonder if it's theirs or mine, oh well.

Wednesday, November 15

The Name Thing...

I've just finished Madeline Hunter's The Rules of Seduction, like I said in my post last night, it's very character driven.

The hero's name is Lord Hayden Rothwell. Ms. Hunter gave a wonderful description of him on page...

Dark hair, unruly as if the brushes had been forgotten this morning, framed a handsome face composed of strong, chiseled planes. Signs of fatigue dulled his deeply set, midnight-blue eyes. Strained forebearance tightened his square jaw and firmly set mouth...

So, why is it I spent a good part of the book visualizing Craig T. Nelson from the old TV sitcom Coach. I kept waiting for Jerry VanDyke to come running in screaming "HAYDEN, HAYDEN!!"

And then somehow the blue jean wearing "Coach" morphed into
Mr. Incredible when the voice started to interfer. I guess the midnight-blue eye color might match, but that's about it--LOL.

I hate doing this. Hayden's a rather distinctive name, I don't know anyone with it. If the name had been William or Bill, Ben or David, I'd probably not have visualized anything.

I should be relieved I didn't visualize Hugh Grant and Lilith (Frasier's prissy ex-wife) while reading Meljean's Demon Angel.

Does this happen because I'm not fully engaged in the story? Hmmm, I'll have to think about it.

Saturday, November 11

The Sleep Over

Well, it's 5:30 in the morning and I'm up. Not because I can't sleep, but because the two little boys in the other room are up for the day. They've been up since 4:30. Yes, I said 4:30. At 5:00 my husband announced to me, it's going to be awhile before we do this again--understatement of his life.

We don't coddle our son, if he falls he gets up and the only time we get a reaction is when he notices he's bleeding, if he doesn't notice he just keeps going. Apparently the friends parents either coddle or he's a whiner and a bit of a tattletale...
  • I've got a headache.
  • "Junior" pushed me.
  • I want to play with that.
  • I want to play outside.
  • I want to play with trains.
  • "Junior" pushed me. You're playing tag in the house, I'm sure you pushed him too.
  • My leg hurts.
  • My leg hurts.
  • My leg hurts... There's no bruise it looks fine.
  • It's deep inside.
  • I can't sleep. That was as 1:30 this morning.
  • Crying... hit head on floor during pillow fight at 5:20 this morning.

And, now they're having a "fart" discussion. 9:00 can't come fast enough.

I think there's a reason we only have one child--LOL.

Have a great day.

Friday, November 10

This and That

Finished Betina Krahn's The Book of True Desires, this morning, thoroughly enjoyed it. Great time period--1898, great setting--Cuba and Mexico, smart hero and heroine, interesting secondary characters, very good adventure--kind of an Indiana Jones type thing, but the heroine is the archeologist.

I picked up the December issue of RT the other day. I'm having a hard time picking out books.

Definites:

  • Pleasure For Pleasure by Eloisa James
  • Autumn in Scotland by Karen Raney
  • Drop Dead Gorgeous by Linda Howard
  • Size 14 is Not Fat Either by Meg Cabot
  • Jacob by Jacquelyn Frank

Maybes:

  • The Great Betrayal by Millenia Black
  • Bogeyman by Gayle Wilson
  • Hero Worship by Dawn Calvert
  • Two Lives in Waltz Time by Viven Dean
  • The Master of Shilden by Lucinda Carrington

My son is having a play date/sleep over today. His friend arrived at 10:30 and is staying over. They've had lunch and a snack, played outside twice, watched some Noggin and have been playing with trains in his room, and it's now 12:30. All of that in 2 hours, it's going to be a long day--LOL. Apparently Junior doesn't have enough trains, his friend brought a bag full too. I'm pleased to say they play nicely together, their teacher says they compliment each other which she appreciates because they don't instigate too much trouble that way. Tomorrow morning they have basketball at 9:00.

Thursday, November 9

No Rest For The Wicked by Kresley Cole

Kresley Cole's No Rest for the Wicked was not what I expected.

The Blurb courtesy of B&N:

A soldier weary of life . . .

Centuries ago, Sebastian Wroth was turned into a vampire -- a nightmare in his mind -- against his will. Burdened with hatred and alone for ages, he sees little reason to live. Until an exquisite, fey creature comes to kill him, inadvertently saving him instead.

A Valkyrie assassin dispatched to destroy him . . .

When Kaderin the Cold Hearted lost her two beloved sisters to a vampire attack long ago, a benevolent force deadened her sorrow -- accidentally extinguishing all of her emotions. Yet whenever she encounters Sebastian, her feelings -- particularly lust -- emerge multiplied. For the first time, she's unable to complete a kill.

Become competitors in a legendary hunt.

The prize of the month-long contest is powerful enough to change history, and Kaderin will do anything to win it for her sisters. Wanting only to win her, forever, Sebastian competes as well, taking every opportunity -- as they travel to ancient tombs and through catacombs, seeking relics around the world -- to use her new feelings to seduce her. But when forced to choose between the vampire she's falling for and reuniting her family, how can Kaderin live without either?
I'm being a little bit lazy and linking to some of "The Reviews" I've come across:

Cindy loved it

Nath didn't.

Meljean loved it.

Bam liked it.

My thoughts... I liked it, but it had some hurdles to overcome. After the first in the series, A Hunger like No Other, I expected a fun read with little hints of horror, this one lacked the scarier moments that I liked so much about AHLNO.

I'm starting with "What I didn't like":

  1. Sebastian starts out the tortured, self-pitying vampire hero, this almost stopped me from getting any further into the book.
  2. The fated mates concept that seems to permiate so many paranormals.
  3. The too cool dialogue was at times grating--"Don't go all dental on me." left me rolling my eyes.

What I did like--Cole overcomes my initial "Oh, no" reaction with a fun and overall entertaining story.


Wednesday, November 8

Baggage

I pulled this quote from Lydia Joyce's comment on Dear Author's "Should Authors Shut Up and Write" post:

Was I unrealistic because I didn’t not pound in the realities of Alcy’s situation, assuming that readers would take my book as I had written it, without hauling in the baggage of their past experiences in the genre?

"...Without hauling in the baggage of their past experiences in the genre..."

Is this possible? Is it possible to come to each and every book with an open mind, a completely clean slate?

I'm not so sure it's even remotely possible. We read with the hopes that every book is a keeper. Along the way we discover what works for us and what doesn't. I don't like amnesia books, but if a favorite author writes one, I'm willing to give it a try, but at the same time my past experiences and dislike isn't going to be easy to overcome.

What about when a character does something, well, out of character? Or a book goes in a direction we don't like? Are we going to embrace every book by the author or are we going to be leery of future books?

Isn't "baggage" on some level part of the reading experience??

Monday, November 6

Reading, reading, reading...

Mini confession time, I misplaced my glasses, this is the main reason reading has been non-existent. They showed up Thursday--Kristie's theory works, instead of obsessing about it, eventually everything lost will be found.

Cold as Ice by Anne Stuart was the first book I'd finished in close to 2 weeks. And once again Anne Stuart comes through with a good book. Peter Jensen is a closer for "The Committee," deep cover operatives that fight to stop terrorism and bad guys all over the world. He's working for Harry Van Dorn, an over the top villain planning 7 terrorist attacks on the same day in order to cause financial chaos all over the world, somehow he is going to benefit from this (it's a little vague as to why, but I guess that didn't really matter). Genevieve Spenser works for Harry's law firm and stops to have Harry sign some documents before leaving on 6 weeks of vacation. Well, of course she is plunked down right in the middle of the stop Harry at all cost operation. And, she's not smart enough to get out while the getting was good, not that she's TSTL but she thinks Harry's the wonderful guy the media projects. Genevieve is at times annoying, but this really feels like Peter's book so I was able to get past most of her stupid moments. The book isn't perfect, but it's an exciting adventure definitely worth reading.

I was actually 100 pages into this one when I picked up Cold as Ice. And once I found my glasses Dance of the Gods turned out to be the 3rd book I finished in 2 days. This book was work for me. I liked Morrigan's Cross and thought it was a good set-up for the series. This book wont stand alone, I didn't expect it to, which is fine, it's part of a series that needs to be read in order. I had three issues 1. there's additional world building going on, the first book sets up the vampire world, this one sets up Geall where the ultimate war between vampires and humans takes place. 2. I never warmed up to the h/h, Blair and Larkin, not a good thing for a romance--LOL. It's not a bad book and once the Circle of Six makes it to Geall the book gets better. And the odd thing is by the time I finished the 3rd book in this series I loved all the characters. 3. There are a few little info-dumps, enough that I started to notice them.

The 4th book I finished was Nora Roberts Valley of Silence. I loved this book, for me it was a complete page turner. Moira is a wonderful Warrior Queen and Cian is perfect as the Noble Vampire. I cried through this entire book. They've had 2 books to fall in love, they declare themselves early in this and know that ultimately their love can't exist in their worlds. All the characters come to detailed life, including the vampire family of Lilith, Lora, Davey and their protector Lucius. It's filled with scary and fantasy moments. Some may find the ending somewhat contrived, but it's a romance. Moira and Cian have to find a HEA and this one works for me. This may become my favorite NR and since I've read just about everything she's written that's pretty darned good.

Did you notice I skipped the second book I finished? It was a god awful Historical Erotic Romance that I read in a NyQuil induced haze. Two hundred and five pages of boring--I refuse to comment on it until I go back and reread parts to see if it's actually better than I thought and try to figure out why it was considered erotic because I wasn't all that impressed, it was a waste of good money.


Have a good one and happy reading.

Sunday, November 5

Reading with a vengence...

Well, the reading bug has finally taken a big bite. I've finished 4 books since Friday. We're on our way to 7:30 Mass, so I don't have much time. More to come later.

Have a great day and happy reading.

Friday, November 3


Cold as Ice is in my hot little hands...

I'm about half way through it. I'll blog about it later.

Have a great day and happy reading--my reading will definitely be happy :D

Wednesday, November 1

A few pictures...

I'm posting some pictures, because 1. I haven't posted cute kid pictures in a while and 2. I've got a cold that's leaving me too fuzzy headed to think. The Halloween pictures are at the end of the post.






I'm not sure I posted this picture from our summer vacation. It's one of my favorites, doesn't it scream "Come to the Jersey Shore"?








Apple picking, someone wasn't thrilled with posing in the scarecrow, don'tcha love the frown. The foot in the background is his 9 year old cousin, who I found out was a real bully that day. Do you think he told me this when it happened? Of course not, it comes out a month later when I can't do anything about it.







Gotta try the apples...










You can't tell 5 years olds to "just stay on the line", they take you literally. Play went on right around them but they never left the line.




Getting ready for Trick or Treat. My little vampire was very excited about Trick or Treating with his best friend, I barely had enough time to snap a couple of pictures before we were off to their house. The live up on the next street so we walked.

As you can see both of them were vampires. The best friend got to wear scary make-up, I was afraid to use anything on that beautiful face, he has very sensitive skin. The lounging scarecrow was actually a person in costume. Scared the heck out of the people in front of us.

Have a great day and happy reading, Tara