New books

I ran around Friday like a chicken with my head chopped off.  It was one of those days that kind of spiralled out of control--not bad, just busy.  Ended up at B&N to get our niece a gift card as part of her birthday present and of course picked up a few books for myself.  I didn't really need more books, I certainly have plenty on my TBR pile, but these beckoned and I answered...

1. With Seduction in Mind by Laura Lee Guhrke:   Rosie has a good review of this book.  It wasn't great, nor was it bad, but for me it was somewhat disappointing.  I've been autobuying Laura Lee Guhrke for years, The Girl-Bachelor series has me rethinking this.
2. MacKenzie's Legacy (MacKenzie's Mountain and MacKenzie's Mission)  by Linda Howard:  As if I haven't already read these  two books over and over and over and over again.  And, I read them again this weekend--still LOVE them :)  I've worn out two original MacKenzie's Mountain and I can't seem to find my copy of Mission.  For me, this is Linda Howard at her very best.  Strong alpha heros and equally strong heroines--it doesn't get better than that.
3. Never Love a Lawman by Jo Goodman:  Honestly, I think I bought this book for the cover :)  I'm about 70 pages into this and I'm not loving her story set-up.  I know the point is to be mysterious, but it's not working for me.  But it is a long book (almost 440 pages) so I'm going to keep at it, maybe it needs a long set-up to go with the large word count.

I was going to comment on some of the things I've seen around while blog hopping (bad romance mothers and the ebook vs print book thing), but I think I need to actually formulate what I want to say before I post something.

Have a great day/night and happy reading.

The Joy of a Boy...

This morning Junior and I had an interesting conversation...

Me:  "While I'm in the shower get dressed... underwear, t-shirt, socks, polo shirt, blue shorts and school sweatshirt." (please notice I list everything he needs to put on, if I don't, he'll forget something)

Junior:  "I'll wear the underwear from yesterday."

Me:  "Put on clean underwear."

Junior:  "I think yesterday's are clean."

Me:  Put on clean underwear"

Junior:  "But they're clean."

Me:  Put on clean underwear anyway."  (I'm starting to get exasperated...)

Junior:  "I'm telling you they're clean."  (He's getting more exasperated.)

Me:  "Put on clean underwear."  (more exasperated..)

Junior:  "Are you hearing me clearly?" (at this point I was stepping into the shower, not only am I hearing him clearly so is the rest of our neighborhood))

Me:  "I hear you perfectly clear.  Put on clean underwear."

Junior:  "Okay."

today's thoughts...

So far so good, Junior likes his teacher, which has me relieved as he asked during the summer if he could go to a different Catholic school for 3rd grade and come back for 4th.  Mrs. R is very strict and Junior has some, hmm shall we say, behavior issues.  He's not really bad, rather mischievous with a sarcastic tone (I can't imagine where he gets that :), his teacher last year wasn't swayed by his cute face, which got him through kindergarten and 1st grade without any real problems--"He's so cute, how can you get mad at him." is a quote from the kindergarten teacher, and his 1st grade teacher would say he was wickedly funny.  I should have realized that wasn't good.  He thinks the Smart Board in his class is way cool, and they were the first to use the playground during recess, apparently this never happened in 2nd grade. All the homework for the last two days has been mine--covering workbooks with contact paper.

The hubby is working late, which is a good thing considering he is in contractor sales and the construction industry stinks right now.

I've not read anything since the weekend. That's not really true. I reread the last 100 pages of Catherine Coulter's Fire Song, one of those books that would be a wall banger if I'd actually reread the entire thing.  The first 100 or so pages aren't bad and the last 100 are good--I love a good grovel and Graelam's realizing he's in love and having to follow Kassia home to Belleterre when she leaves him always entertains me, what can I say I'm rather easily entertained, sad I know :) Junior took one look at the clinch cover from my 1985 edition and announced it was gross.

I need to start chopping veggies for a stir fry.  Have a great day/night and happy reading.

Blog thoughts...

I've been back for a couple of weeks and have a few thoughts...

The Great Western Drive--is a great idea, it brings attention to books that are languishing on keeper shelves everywhere and by talking about them new readers/bloggers can find some great reads.  There needs to be a "break through" book that catches the attention of readers and publishers, maybe then westerns will take the place of paranormals or regencies or at least be equal to them in popularity.

Rosario still writes the best reviews--that says it all.  I've been blog hopping, visiting "new to me" bloggers and Rosario still rocks, and that's not because we have the same reading tastes.

Paranormals--Dear Author's Pioneers of Paranormals post yesterday reminded me that Paranormals have been around for quite a while and weren't invented with the abundance of vampire, werewolf and demon books that we encounter now.  You can find some great books listed over there all of which were written before this century :)

Gothics--there was a post about gothics at RtB the other day.  I love a good gothic and like westerns they need a "break through" book to catch readers attention.

Review Blogs--Holy Cow!!  I can't believe how many new bloggers writing reviews are out there.  I can't keep up, and to be honest I'm rather overwhelmed by them all.  I go to Kristie's to run her side bar and I'm having a hard time differentiating them.  I'm sure everyone has a different style and voice, but I'm not familiar enough with them yet.

A good smack in the head--besides writing great reviews and Wendy is quite good at passing out reality checks, but then she's always been good at that.

What is going on with all the category reviews?--I can not believe how many people are reviewing category romance these days.  Not a bad thing, but I don't remember them getting so much attention in the past.  Is Harlequin/Silhouette sending out more ARCs or did some of the bigger review sites realize they may have been poking fun at books that turned out to be good reads?  Wendy and Sybil... This is not directed at you ladies--you've been reviewing category romance forever :)

That's it for today, happy reading to all.

Back to school...

Junior goes back tomorrow :-)

Several moms are going out for breakfast after we drop them off.    I will not say I'm happy school's starting *wink-wink*.  The hubby tried to make me feel guilty about being happy about this--to say the least it didn't work.

I may post a 1st day picture, but to be honest it's not much different from the 1st day pictures for the last 3 years.  White polo, blue shorts--the only thing different is the backpack, and he has a new Yankee one for this year.

book order list...

Sybil asked what came in the Amazon order:

• The Vampire Quest--Vivi Anna
• Veiled Truth--Vivi Ana
• Dangerous Lover--Lisa Marie Rice
• Dangerous Secrets--Lisa Marie Rice
• Dangerous Passion--Lisa Marie Rice
• Seducing an Angel--Mary Balogh
• The Courtesan's Wager--Claida Dain
• Untamed--Hope Tarr (the cover of this book is absolutely horrendous)

So far I've read the 3 Lisa Marie Rice and Seducing an Angel.  I just realized I've read 4 books in 2 days, guess I'm on a good roll : )

I liked the Lisa Marie Rice's Dangerous... books.    Rice has a fun voice, though I did find her somewhat repetative in how she describes things, and since this is a PG blog, many of the things that were annoying I wont quote here :)   I probably wouldn't have noticed it so much if I hadn't read them right after the other.  But, I must say they were entertaining in a suspend your belief sort of way.  This doesn't bother me.  Linda Howard's Burn required this also, not the wining the lottery part, the hostage taking part had me seriously rolling my eyes.  I still enjoyed the book because I loved the interaction between the hero and heroine.

Mary Balogh's Seducing an Angel was a typical Balogh story.  I should qualify this by saying I was hoping Cassandra was going to be a real bad girl, not the fake one she turned out to be.   For me it was still a good book and it was probably the best of the series.  I'm looking forward to Con's story.

Next up The Courtesan's Wager.

Book order...

I finally received an Amazon order I'd placed almost a month ago  When I went with the super saver free shipping I knew it would take a little longer, but apparently it needed to take the slow boat to China trip before actually making it to New York.

Cub Scouts...

This post comes with a disclaimer...

I firmly believe Cub Souts and Scouting in general are wonderful
 for children and I'm very happy that my son is involved. 
My dislike comes from the organized and sometimes
not so organized chaos that are Den Meetings.

***I don't do chaos well.***

The Best Friend's Dad started a Cub Scout Pack affiliated with our school when the boys were in 1st grade.  So therefore, if the BF is doing it Junior must too.  If the BF's Dad is running things, the BF's Mom is running things too and if the BF's Mom is running something she sucks me in like a vacuum cleaner.

I am officially a member of the Pack Committee (Secretary/Treasurer)--I just finished typing up 4 pages of notes from our last "Official Pack Committee Meeting."  Honestly, I put up a good fight, I truly tried not to get involved, hoped and prayed someone else would step up and say "I'll do it."  But, it wasn't to be.  The Vacuum that is the BF's Mom sucked me right up and wont spit me back out until the boys are Boy Scouts, though I have heard whispers that the church might be willing to sponsor a Boy Scout Troop--then I'm doomed.

So where is my hubby in all of this?  The Vacuum sucks him up for Cub Scout Camping--I REFUSE to sleep in a tent.  I don't princess up about much, but this is one of the few things I will not do.  I'll help plan it, I'll do the food shopping, I'll help pack up the mini-van, but I will not camp.  He gets to set up camp and cook and clean and hike (though they don't make him do too much of this--he has bad knees).  He gets to teach fishing to dozens of kids under the age of 10.  Camp days are planned right down to the last minute, from the minute they get up until the minute they go to bed something is planned.  While he is roughing it I am home enjoying Chinese food and reading marathons :)

When he (the darling husband) reads this he will find out that he will be doing den meetings this fall.  Our Pastor in his infinite wisdom (with a little prodding from his bookkeeper :)) has decided to hold a Church History class on Tuesday nights (Den meeting night)--thank you God!!  For a few blessed weeks I will be free of Cub Scouts.  If only you could see the happy dance.

Just stuff...

Last night we went to a friend's house to shoot rockets.  This is a man and kid thing (I know most men are kids:).  The Moms weren't as into it as the Dads.  There were 3 families with 8 kids combined, all the kids are 8 or under.  And of course the rocket got stuck in a tree after the first launch.  We did have a great barbeque and visit while the kids ran around playing for hours.

The Best Friend is sleeping over tonight. He's already here.  They're playing the Wii and honestly if that child calls my son "Dude" one more time I may have to smack him (not really).  I hate "Dude" especially coming out of an 8 year olds mouth.  We're thinking about taking them to the drive-in to see Shorts. We're not sure it's worth the 1/2 hour drive to only see one movie. The drive-in is running a double features on 2 screens, but they're showing Shorts with The Final Destination, which we wouldn't think of letting 8 year olds watch. The other screen is showing Inglourious Basterds and Halloween II, neither of which are appropriate for kids.

I had to go into work today for 3 hours to do next week's church bulletin and write some checks. I actually enjoy putting together the bulletin. It changes week to week and I play with graphics and fonts to keep things different. That way people may be more inclined to actually read it.

Junior often comes with me to work during the summer. He brought a book with him, started and finished  it (about 80 pages) while we were there. He has been reading Magic Tree House books this summer. Today's was about Clara Barton and the Civil War. Actually getting him to read is like pulling teeth, but once a story grabs him he will read until he's finished the book. Sounds familiar--the reading until he's finished part, not the pulling teeth to get him to do it :) I know he's ready to move on to more complicated books, but I don't want to fight with him about reading.

After work we went to the eye doctor. We both had appointments. I'd misplaced my glass and Kristie's "ignore lost stuff and it'll eventually show" thing didn't work. I've been using cheap magnifiers that I picked up at the grocery store, but I really needed knew ones--the magnifiers give me a headache.

It was Junior's first real eye exam. He has had the read the eye chart thing at school and the pediatrician, but never with an eye doctor. I was very impressed by how serious he took the exam, he paid attention did everything asked of him and he was good for the eye drops and eye scan. The eye doctor didn't feel he needed glasses now, but wants to see him in a couple of months and he's back in school. She feels he's slightly borderline for readers, because one eye is weaker than the other. So, we'll be going back in November.

I guess I've blathered on enough.  Have a great day and happy reading.

Odd thoughts for the day...

Color me surprised, Diana Gabaldon is still torturing Jamie and Claire.  I gave up on the Outlander series after Drums of Autumn.  My sister, the die hard fangirl, finally gave up after The Fiery Cross.  I think she bought A Breath of Snow and Ashes.  The new book An Echo in the Bones is over 800 pages.  Will they ever get to enjoy their old age??

Why can't kids simply enjoy the summer? We were given a list of work for the summer that would keep him on track for the 3rd Grade. We were both tortured by this. He didn't want to do it and I hated fighting with him to get it done. Though I shouldn't complain, his best friend had to take a summer reading class to hopefully bring him up to grade level.

The Yankees won again :D  Baltimore is having an abysmal season, but it's sad that there were more Yankee fans than Oriole ones at the game.  This one's for Wendy :p  Hey Detriot is in first place too.

It's September 3rd and it was 47 degrees when I got up this morning--that's just wrong, it's supposed to be summer time.  We used our air conditioner 3 days this summer, 3 days--the summer that wasn't.

Since I'm trying to catch up with new bloggers, I sometimes run the links on the sidebars of other blogs.  I came across my first Content Warning...

The blog that you are about to view may contain content only suitable for adults. In general, Google does not review nor do we endorse the content of this or any blog. For more information about our content policies, please visit the Blogger Terms of Service.

I don't know why I'm so surprised by this.  Is this new?  Do you put the content warning on yourself or does it show up after someone complains?  I'd never read the "Terms of Service"--yikes.

I came across another blog with a theme song--I want a theme song.  Someone tell me how :D

School starts in 6 days--thank God :)  Junior's not happy--but I am--LOL!!

Demon Bound

After announcing that most of my posts probably wont be about books, my first one will be about a book--which is probably typical of me  :)

Before I misplaced it I had read about half of Meljean Brook's Demon Bound and managed to finish it tonight while watching the Yankees and Top Chef Las Vegas (one of my guilty pleasures).  Most of the people who will be reading this post probably knows I "knew" Meljean before she became a big time published author.  From the first novella--Falling for Anthony--I knew she had a unique and different voice and she comes through again :)

I enjoyed this book.  Meljean always creates great characters, well developed and interesting.  I loved Jake, his strengths and anxieties.  Loved when he met his great-granddaughter.  Alice creeped me out at first, and I have to say I really liked that--LOL

If you're not reading Meljean Brook, you should be :)

Next up--Karin Tabke's Master of Surrender, I started it when I couldn't find Demon Bound.  And, I'm really enjoying it too.   This is my second book of this series, read Master of Craving first and need to order Master of Torment.  I have to say it's wonderful to read some decent, gritty and exciting medievals.  Definitely worth a read.

why things will be different...

When I was considering blogging again, it was with a thought that I would like to go back to where I was before I basically took a year off, but over the last week I realized that's probably not going to happen--going back that is, I hope to keep blogging, but it will be different.

While I was a full time SAHM, I spent a tremendous amount of time reading, visiting message boards and then eventually starting my blog in March 2005.  My world was built around being a mom and my love of  reading romance.  Two years ago I went back to work, my son was in school full time and to be honest we needed the money.  We choose to send him to a Catholic school and tuition isn't cheap.  At first I worked for a company from home, but 4 months into that I was offered the job at our church and to be completely honest, I truly enjoy what I do.

Books and reading had been relegated back to a hobby for me, blogging about books took a back seat to life.  I'd rather spend what little free time I have reading or with my family.  But like I said in my post last week, I miss my on-line friends and I miss talking about books.  While I was writing different posts during the week I realized, I'm likely to write more about life than I am books, and that will probably not hold much interest to most people in romance blogland.

I wont be reviewing books like I did in the past.  I'll discuss them, comment on what I liked or didn't like, bemoan when sequels will be out.  But, for the most part this blog will be about the life of a mom dealing with work, school, cub scouts, soccer, baseball and trying desperately to keep up with her huge TBR pile.

Honestly, I don't have time to obsess about what I'm reading or what's going on in the romance blog world.  I want to be able to have someplace to talk about my day and my books. I will probably bore a lot of people, but I'm writing for me now, so I wont be looking for ARCs or blog hits or give-aways.  It's possible I'll talk as much about Scott Hahn as I do about Linda Howard.

Don't be surprised if the blog's look changes or even the name (though you'll still be able to find me at romancereadingmom.blogspot.com.)

I hope people will continue to visit.  Have a great day and happy reading :)

Book Found..

I found Demon Bound in the laundry basket, though I still haven't actually put the laundry away :)

Junior is sitting with me doing some summer classwork--mulitipication.  And he just realized Mom has a website.  I was told "Cool!  Can it make us rich?"  NOPE.

The More Things Change

Simple truth?  The more things change the more they stay the same :D

1 Missing Book and 1 Finished...

If I remember correctly Kristie has a theory that when something's lost don't look for it, it will eventually show up on it's own.  I can't seem to find my copy of Demon Bound,  which I was completely enjoying, love the spider thingy--even though it grosses me out :)  I believe it's on the bottom of one of my clean laundry baskets and I probably wont find it until I actually put the laundry away or have to go digging for something in particular.

So, I spent the last 24 hours reading  The Courtesan's Secret.  I enjoy the dialogue and Sophia is fantastic--again.  Loved Henry. He's completely on to Sophia and his mother. He doesn't care since he's getting exactly what he wants, Louisa.  But, once again there are too many characters to keep track of.  After visiting Claudia Dain's website, I realized she has a family tree listed for each book.  I don't know, but if you need to create a list of characters for a book, there are probably too many to start with, just saying.

Maybe I'll just put the laundry away and hopefully Demon Bound will be found, or maybe I'll dig through the baskets instead.

Have a great day and happy reading.

Adventures in Hair Coloring

I will qualify all of this by saying my natural hair color is very, very dark brown, with a Black Irish grandmother on one side and an Italian grandfather on the other, I somehow managed to get the darkest brown hair possible. My husband swore I had black hair when we met.

Ten years ago I discovered some grey hair, not enough to color but enough to bug me.  My adventures in hair coloring started then.  At first I used rinses, these were great as you wash them in and they gradually wash out, nice and easy :)  All hair color went on hiatus while I was pregnant and nursing, and to be honest the grey wasn't that bad.  The need for permanent color arrived around the same time as the peeing in the dump truck incident, please see the July 2005 archive for this.
 
Since our budget is tight, I color my hair myself.  Why do I torment myself?  So I can afford books, of course.  My hair stylist understands my book obsession and tells me to avoid anything with a burgandy base, it'll turn my hair too red.  Well, the last color I used wasn't burgandy based and it still turned a redish color, this time I've been told to add ash to the color I'm using to tone down the red.  So last time I went shopping I picked up 2 boxes one dark natural brown and one dark ash brown.

This morning I wake up at 5:00, and the boxes of hair color were calling me from the bathroom.  By 5:20 I've mixed my own color with the hope I don't end up a red head, not that I don't love red hair, it's just not for me.  I'm up and ready to start coloring.

Right before I'm ready to start applying the color my husband bangs on the door--he's got to go. It's 5 stinking 20 in the morning and I can't get 1/2 an hour to myself.

We have one bathroom in our house. And it is incredibly small, everything is white, the walls, the wallpaper background, the tub, shower curtain, toilet, sink--I'm sure you get it :)  The directions in the box say to use the conditioner to protect anywhere you don't want color.  Well, I'd need gallons of it to protect me and the entire bathroom.  By the time I'm ready to sit for the 1/2 hour to let the color set, I have to scrub me and the entire bathroom.  I don't know how it's possible but I managed to even get hair color on my left knee, above the gloves up to my elbows, the side of the claw foot tub, inside the tub (I'm not sure how this happened as I was standing at the sink) and I even got a small dot on the Martha Stewart white canvas shower curtain.

Well, it's done.  I'm back to my very, very dark brown sans the grey.  My next adventure in hair coloring is in 8 weeks, maybe I'll talk my sister into doing it for me:)

Negotiations...

Junior is at the stage where he believes everything is open for negotiations, bed times, play dates, summer classwork, going to McDonalds...

Today's negotiations went like this:

Me:  Read 5 more minutes
Junior:  2 minutes
Me:  I said 5 minutes
Junior:  Come on!  2 minutes
Me:  10 minutes
Junior:  Okay.  5 minutes

He still hasn't grasped that childhood isn't a democracy, it's a benevolant dictatorship.

Laundry, a Book Store Run, Sleeping in, Bingo and Mini-bikes

I desperately need to get some laundry done today--hate it.  I'll get over having to do laundry if I can get a book store run in, I've got quite a list going. 

Junior wants to go to Mass tonight rather than tomorrow morning.  This summer he discover going to bed late and sleeping in the morning is kind of cool.  We've informed him that starting Sept. 1st it's back to school bedtimes, he's not happy.  We start school really late this year--Sept. 9th.  Hate to admit this, but I'm one of those moms who count down the days until they go back--11 days :)  A bunch of school moms are  planning a back to school lunch.

Tomorrow is bingo, I try not to complain about working bingo, even though the old people are still cranky.  It saves each school family about $1,500 in tuition each year.  I've just started working Sunday bingos,  Junior and Dad like it since they have "Boys Day" when I'm not home.  I'm hoping that when I get home from bingo I wont discover a new mini-bike in the front yard.  Junior wants one and has been bugging us for the last week.  My niece has a 90cc dirt bike and he'd like one of those too, but that one I think he'll have to wait on.   She has been teaching him how to ride and he's loving it.  The hubby has a 1000cc Honda that's not on the road right now and I'm somewhat happy since Junior's been bugging to ride with Dad too.

Got to go things to do--no point in procrastinating.

Edited--Well, I wont be coming home to a mini-bike, we got our school tax bill today--all large ticket items are on hold until Sept. 30th and that bill is paid.

Life and Books and Recomendations Welcome

I was thinking about doing a "What's New" post but honestly not that much is new--LOL.  Life is hectic.  What's making it hectic hasn't changed.  I need more organization in my life.  I'm sure my husband, when he reads this, would completely agree :)

Reading has been fun.  Somehow in the last 8 months I've learned not to obsess about what I read.  I may not love everything I'm reading, but I'm not picking everything to pieces or throwing books against the wall.  Of course, I'm rather picky about what I'm reading, with a tendency to stick with authors I know and am doing a ton of rereading.

So, what have I been reading?  New authors first, I've probably read more than these, but these are the ones that kind of stood out good or otherwise:

• Sherry Thomas--liked Not Quite a Husband, and have her other two books on my TBR pile.
• Michelle Marcos--not a huge fan.  Finished Wickedly Ever After, and found the heroine to be a bit TSTL but not enough not to finish the book.  Didn't realize it was the 3rd in a series until after I bought it.  Picked up the first 2 at the UBS before I finished it.  I've started the other two, but you have to be in the right frame of mind to read stupid heroine stories.  I've been reading romance for close to 30 years, so I've read my share of TSTL heroine books and there are worse flaws for a book.
• Karin Tabke--completely enjoyed Master of Craving, once agian reading the 3rd book in a series first, found the 1st book in the series at the UBS, but am haven't found the 2nd book yet.  I'll probably have to break down and order it from Amazon.
• Claudia Dain--The Courtesan's Daughter was an interesting book.  Loved the mother but the daughter really wasn't all that bright, I still enjoyed the book.

I've read a whole host of new books by old favorites...  Linda Howard, Nora Roberts, Mary Balogh, Julia Quinn, Loretta Chase, Elizabeth Hoyt, Lisa Kleypas the list goes on.

Rereading has probably been the bulk of my reading over the last several months.  Lisa Kleypas, Linda Howard, Jane Feather, Susan Elizabeth Philips are my latest reread glom.

Right now I'm reading Meljean's Demon Bound, which I am completely enjoying :)

So, what have I missed over the last few months?   Recommendations are highly welcome.

Have a great day and happy reading.

Starting over again...

For the last couple of weeks I've been blog hopping, and realized:

1. I miss my on-line friends.
2. My blog is a complete mess.
3. Only buying books at the supermarket is a really bad idea :)

So, I'm...

1. Starting to post comments here and there.
2. I've cleaned up the blog's sidebar.
3. And I'm keeping track of books I've had no clue existed.

Will I be able to keep this going?  Maybe?  Probably not.  But I'm going to try.

I had to include a picture of Junior. He made his First Communion in May, and he's still cute!!

Have a great day and happy reading.