A Round About Review

We are officially 3 weeks into Junior's summer vacation. And, I am officially ready for him to go back to school, unfortunately we still have 8 more weeks to go. He has camp at the end of the month--that can't come fast enough. Now I love my child, but like his father he knows exactly how to push that one button that will trigger an automatic response, rarely a good response. Not that he's being "bad" because he's really a very good little boy, but at 5 he thinks I have been put on this earth to be at his little beck and call. And when I don't respond fast enough it's announced I run on "Tara Time". This is something he's managed to pick up from the DH. It is true, I do run on "Tara Time", but I really don't need to be reminded of this by a 5 year old.

And yet the little stink pot knows when he's pushed too far. While on vacation he was whining while we were visiting Mystic Seaport... "It's hot, I don't want to be here, can we go..." We had brought him there to see the ships, which he wanted to see, took him on a little ride around the little bay and still he was whining. When I'd reached my limit I in turn announced "I've had it, put on a happy face or else." This was while I was dragging him into the ladies bathroom after he informed me he would go into the men's room by himself. I am rather relieved that he hasn't actually tested the "or else" threat as I'm not really sure what "or else" means. He put on a happy face and actually did enjoy himself.

The other day we took a quick run into B&N and while in there he pushed every button imaginable. "I'll wait in games." "Can I get a DVD." "I'm going to the kid section." The store was packed and I insisted he "knock it off", but being a child he kept pushing until I announced "I'd had enough." Apparently the child can judge my mood, because he could obviously tell I wasn't all that mad, he dropped prostrate on the floor and started begging my forgiveness, right smack in the middle of the one and only "Romance Aisle". I, of course, started to laugh and told him to get up. "Not until you forgive me." "Listen Barrymore, get up." He did a reenactment for his father that night--it was quite good.

So, while in B&N I pick up a couple of books, one of which was Holly Lisle's Night Echoes. Which was released back in April and somehow I'd missed completely. I heard absolutely no buzz about it and realized maybe I'm one of the only people in our little part of the romance reading world who reads her romantic suspense (I've never read her Fantasy books as 1. I'm not really into Fantasy all that much and 2. I'm not likely to get into Fantasy if I start with books as long as she writes, though I've been tempted :)

From Publisher's Weekly (Apr. 2007):

Romantic suspense twines neatly with the paranormal—and without a single vamp or were-creature—in Lisle's latest, a chilling haunted house mystery that pits a sensible couple against the supernatural...

Tara fixes the back blurb:

When artist Emma Beck returns to the small South Carolina where she was born to discover the truth about her roots and long dead birth mother, everything she thought she knew about her birth begins to fall apart--especially after she moves into the old wreck of a Pre-Civil War farmhouse she plans to restore. Emma is drawn to the house, which seems strangely familiar, as does Mike Ruhl, the contractor she hires to help her fix it up. She begins to feel frightened when she recognizes Mike as a recurring face in her paintings--including one in a Confederate uniform. And when Emma starts to hears soft whisperings late at night, and they discover lost letters and a hidden journal in the attic, they realize they are caught in a web of ghostly tragedy.

I like Holly Lisle's story telling and particularly like that it's a ghost story not a vampire or werewolf to be found. Emma is drawn to a house she's been recreating it in artwork since she was 5. There's a "realization" that comes about 3/4 of the way through the book that annoyed me because it should have come much sooner, like in the first 1/4. Vague, but I didn't feel like going into a big spoiler alert. But Holly's ability to raise the anxiety level makes the book worth reading even if I didn't love the plotting.