My Weekly Reading (11/25/12)

Alright folks, I'm going to catch up and start over fresh for the new year.  Sound like a good plan?  Let's hope so.

Anyway, what did I read in the last month? Paranormal romance -series style, that's what.

First, Moira Rogers' Southern Arcana books...

My Weekly Reading (11/23/12)

Long hours the past couple of weeks and working on my Christmas knitting led to a smaller reading list than usual.  But much of what I did read managed to have heroes with pierced peens and creative angel-on-angel sexy-times.  So there's that.


First up, two books from new-to-me-author Cherrie Lynn:

My Weekly Reading: Spotlight!

I'm going to preface this review by saying that the Johanna Lyndsey's 90's medieval romance, Prisoner Of My Desire, was not an easy book to read and, as such, is not an easy book to write about either.   It's a controversial and unconventional romance novel that deals quite frankly with the subject of rape.  I, personally, found it to be enthralling and engrossing, but I can easily see how others would vehemently disagree.

That being said, here's my take:   

Prisoner Of My Desire - Johanna Lindsey

My Weekly Reading (10-21-12 and 10-28-12)

I was ready to incredulously declare this a smut-free week until I remembered that I read a book by Charlotte Stein, who writes some of the filthiest books I have ever read.   Oh well.  Nuts to that.


The Best...

Remember a few weeks back when I said I was hoarding Karina Bliss' backlist?  Well, I was in just the right mood for some short category romances so I raided the whole stash.

Like Father Like Son - Karina Bliss

I really liked this one. A spunky teacher helps a divorced dad connect with his ten-year-old daughter and then the two fall into a short-term relationship (that turns complicated, naturally) before she's set to return home to New Zealand.  The romance was really enjoyable.  However, this book is part of a multi-author series, and a significant portion of the story is taken over by the overarching familial drama.  While I found that stuff to be rather confusing and hard to keep track of, I also found it interesting enough (and superbly soap-y) to make me consider tracking down the other books in the series.

Weekly Reading (10/14/12)

A very satisfying conclusion to a somewhat frustrating trilogy, hilarious dragon shifters,and more..

The Best:

Tempting The Bride- Sherry Thomas

Only Sherry Thomas could take an amnesia plot and make it amazing. 

This is the third book in the Fitzhugh Trilogy which follows the romantic entanglements of a trio of siblings in Victorian England.  I enjoyed the first one, Beguiling The Beauty, which had an odd revenge/hidden identity plot and I loved the second one, Ravishing The Heiress, even though every page made me want to crawl into a fetal position and just cry my eyes out.

Helena Fitzhugh and David Hillsborough have way too much baggage between them.  She's fixated upon an old love who is now an unhappily married man.  He's been in unrequited love with her for half of his life but has spent so many years purposefully antagonizing her to hide his feelings from scrutiny that he's finding it impossible to break the pattern no matter how badly he wants to. Luckily for them, Helena's poor decisions and a not-really-all-that-selfless white knight move on David's part throw the two together and a carriage accident and case of amnesia gives them the chance to wipe the slate clean just long enough to start building something real.

I did not anticipating loving this book.  Helena came off really brittle and rather selfish in her sibling's books, David came off a bit too smarmy and pervy, and amnesia is such a cheesy plot device.  What hooked me initally is the depth of David's unrequited love.  He's not screwing around, he's a goner for this woman but he's also a hopeless mess.  He had me rooting for him almost right off the bat and never disappointed.

Gosh, Sherry Thomas is a great writer.  She sucks you in and then digs her claws in deep.  I've now read all of her books.  Guess it's time to make second passes now.  (Incidentally, the number of times Sherry Thomas has made me cry while on vacation: 2.  It's time to stop taking her books on vacation, obviously.)

Weekly Reading (Playing Catch-Up: Part 3)

Almost there.  I swear.  Lots of quickie reviews in this bunch.

The Best...

Beyond Shame - Kit Rocha

A kinky erotic dystopian romance with gang violence, bootlegging, cage-fighting, public sex, BDSM, girl-on-girl action, and some serious themes of female empowerment.  This book was definitely what I like to call a "kitchen sink book."  A little bit of everything there.  I can't wait for the next book to come out as I am on the edge of my seat waiting to see how the couple in that one will manage to bridge the seemingly insurmountable gap between them.  Cannot wait.

Note:  This is a new pseudonym and series for Moira Rogers.  I already really liked Moira Rogers work, but this is easily my favorite so far.  I love the new direction.

Weekly Reading (Playing Catch-Up: Part 2)

Well, here is my promised All Kristen Ashley: All The Time edition.

Kristen Ashley is a self-published author who writes massively long romance novels featuring asshole alpha males.  Her novels are such guilty pleasures.  They're affordable (the e-editions, anyways), fast, easy-to-read, and highly addicting.  However, they often can be found to be very lacking in the editing department, have rambling structures, and have male leads who can easily cross the line from "asshole hero" to "full-on asshole."  Nonetheless, I got totally hooked.


The Best:

Motorcycle Man [Dream Man #4] - Kristen Ashley

This book blindsided me.  I was completely unprepared for how hard this book knocked me on my ass.

It starts with heroine Tyra acting out of character by having a lust-fueled encounter with a sexy biker, falling down with a sudden case of insta-love, and then unceremoniously getting the heave-ho.  Only thing is, she maybe kinda forgot to tell the biker that she's his new secretary so Monday morning proves awkward and confrontational.  He has a no-sleeping-with-employees policy and she's pissed and too stubborn to back down.  Tyra's a very independent person who is used to taking the safe path and is not looking to make waves or get involved in a messy situation.  Tack's an aggressive man who thrives on a challenge.  An awesome romance full of passion and fighting and acrobatic sexytimes ensues.

Tack is not just a biker.  He's the leader of a full-on biker gang.  The misogyny rampant in biker culture was probably my biggest issue with the book but it didn't end up overshadowing my enjoyment of the rest of the novel.  I think that's probably because Tyra was good at not letting Tack run roughshod over her and didn't back down when he'd overstepped or crossed a boundary.

Did I previously mention how damn sexy Tack is?  He's a scary biker gang leader and a dominant, controlling, aggressive man.  He is also, in his own completely unconventional way, one incredibly sexy and romantic bastard.  A couple of choice Tack quotes:

 "We’re seein’ where this goes because we both want that. And we want that because what we got is hot and parts of it are sweet and parts of it are wild and parts of it are frustrating as all fuckin’ hell but all of it is alive."

 “No, baby, I’m not scaring you. You’re just scared. You give me a little more, you’ll see I’ll protect it. More, I’ll protect that too. More, I got that too. When you give it all to me, if it works with us in a way that lasts, you’ll never be scared. You’ll feel safe enough to have your eyes open, your arms up and you’ll enjoy the fuck outta the ride. I’ll see to that, Red, and that’s a promise.”

The day after I finished this book, I felt so bereft that I went back and reread all of my favorite bits (which pretty much means every single glorious knock-down drag-out fight between Tyra and Tack).  Of the four Kristen Ashley books I've read, this is easily still my favorite one.

My Weekly Reading (Playing Catch-Up: Part 1)

I am so far behind.  Here's me playing catch-up for a while:

The Best:

Captives Of The Night - Loretta Chase

This is a Loretta Chase that's been sitting on my ereader for ages and, since it's an older novel of hers, I expected it to be a bit rusty.  Yeah, no.  I really loved this one.  It's bent a little more to mystery than romance in tone and plot.  Mysteries aren't my favorite genre but I loved this one because it's atypical  in that the villain of the story, really, is the murder victim and the two leads aren't trying to bring his killer to justice so much as they were just trying to get some closure on a sticky situation.

The murder mystery may have been the main plot but I thought the romance was really strong as well.  The heroine, Leila, is not your average romance heroine.  She can be tempermental and closed off and when she flies into a rage, she's a force to be recconed with.  Luckilly, her hero's a reformed villain and he has no problem keeping up with her incredibly perceptive mind, cutting insights, and blinding rages. In fact, he finds her downright captivating.  I loved them together. Another great one by Loretta Chase.

My Weekly Reading Recap (9/16/12)

Due to a case of THE STUPID COLD THAT WILL NOT DIE AFTER 7 DAMN DAYS there will be no reading wrap-up this week.  I'll bundle the two very awesome books I read this week in with next week's wrap-up.  See ya then.

Weekly Reading Recap (9/9/12)

Whoops, I forgot another book last time.  Luckily, I tackled a large book this week so the quantity is less than usual.  Fun smut, far more man-on-man action than normal, and 80's craziness ensues...

The Best...

Feeling Hot - Elle Kennedy

So, remember when I got excited last week when I read an erotic short where two straight dudes didn't freak out about touching each other in a threesome situation?  Boy did this take that to another level.  An awesome level.

Perviness aside, this was a really great romance.  The two main characters are a Navy Seal just home from a long deployment and the sister of his C.O. who is dealing with a creepy stalker ex-boyfriend situation.  The two are great together.  They have great chemistry, get along well, and really compliment and support each other.  I didn't think the erotic bits were the least bit superfluous, but without them, this still would have been a very solid contemporary romance.  I thoroughly enjoyed it.

My Weekly Reading Recap: 9/2/12

An all e-book edition!  Woo.

Also, I didn't get the 8/26 recap done before leaving for a Labor Day weekend vacation extravaganza so this is a double-spectacular-bonus-edition.  Woo.

I'm done wooing now.  I promise.  Anyways...

The Best...

The Pirate Next Door - Jennifer Ashley

I usually don't care much for pirates.  Pirate-speak makes me want to stab someone.  Also, I find that "pirate" is often used as shorthand for "overbearing asshole who does whatever he wants."

None of that here.  What is here, though, is a sexy next door neighbor who has a really hard time buttoning his shirt up all of the way (hee), an exceptionally sensible and smart heroine, and lots of crafty pirate intrigue.  There's also some very fun shipboard sexytimes and lots and lots of unabashed pirate nudity.  Ah, pirate nudity.  I thoroughly enjoyed this book and plan to read lots more by Jennifer Ashley.

My Weekly Reading: 8/19/2012

Lot of novellas and shorts this week and a great book I somehow forgot to mention last week.


The Best...

One Night Rodeo (Blacktop Cowboys #4) - Lorelei James

Whoops, I forgot this one last week.  I love Lorelei James like mad, and this latest release is one of her best yet.  Kyle and Celia have been antagonizing one another since childhood and have been dancing around each other romantically for the last couple of books in this series.  In the wake of one fateful drunken Vegas wedding and a major familial upheaval, the two decide to temporarily join forces while both are secretly wondering if they can manage to turn their accidental marriage into a real happily ever after.  An incredibly endearing and sexy romance ensues.  I just know this one's going to end up really high on my list of "favorite Lorelei James books ever."

My Weekly Reading: 8/12/12

Ok, lets start things out with an admission.  I'm fudging this week's reading wrap-up.  I haven't blogged in forever, and when I went to start this entry two memorable books missed my one-week cut-off.  So I'm cheating.  I may eventually go back and cover "Great Shit I Read While Not Blogging" but in case I don't, I'm fudging a little.  It's my blog, I reserve the right to do whatever the hell I want when I want to.

Anyways...


The Best...

All Fall Down - Megan Hart

Pheww.  This was a really riveting  novel about two women dealing with the complete upheaval of their lives.  One is dealing with the sudden appearance of her husband's surprise 19 yr-old daughter and her three kids, all of whom have spent the entirety of their lives in a cult.  The other, the surprise daughter, is dealing with a jarring assimilate into the regular world (or "blemished" world as she thinks of it) after having spent her entire life under intense cult indoctrination.  I was utterly sucked into this book but I have to say that I'm really glad that I'm one of those people who is utterly incapable of not peeking at the end of books because I would have chewed my nails off with worry if I hadn't known what direction things were generally going in.

Springsteen Gems

So, I'm tooling around on YouTube and somehow come across...

Jon Stewart praising Bruce Springsteen at the 2009 Kennedy Center Awards?  Awesome.



The Sting performance at the end is fine but I had just watched Springsteen sing it himself so it unfortunately paled in comparison.


Eddie Vedder doing this though?



Made me tear up just like Bruce.

All of the songs in this post are from Springsteen's 9-11 album "The Rising," which I tend to forget about because it makes me cry. I should add it back onto my ipod. They are very beautiful songs.

Man Titty Fun Time!

So, I bought a 90's Johanna Lindsey romance novel at the charity book shop the other day.  The cover looks like this:

And then I flipped to see the splash page and...

Holy crap!  It's a genuine vintage Fabio cover!  I don't think I've ever actually read and/or owned one of those before.  Look at the man titty!!  And what the hell?  Is that a panther?  Why is there a panther?


Just glorious.  I really hope this book can live up to that artwork.

Weekly Reading Wrap-Up

Reading slump!!

I finished one solitary book last week.  For some reason, I decided I was being lazy by reading a bunch of quick romance novels.  So I decided to pick up a thick mass market fantasy novel off of my unread shelves and force myself to finish it.  This was a bad idea on a number of levels.  So, I spent the week mostly slogging through a book I couldn't muster much interest in even though I think I would have enjoyed it if I had read it at another time.  I haven't finished it yet, but I honestly have no desire to do so.  I think I'm going to consider it "read" at this point and throw it into the basement book storage for a while.  I'll finish it one day.

So, the one book I did finish?  A short romance novel, naturally.  Luckily, it was a great one.

"Once A Ferarra Wife..." by Sarah Morgan.

A Sarah Morgan book can fall anywhere on the spectrum between love and hate for me. This one was firmly on the "love" side. It's a great angsty reconciliation romance about a separated married couple who are both desperately in love with each other but also desperately afraid of screwing it all up again and getting hurt. This one's full of anguish and pain but in a glorious way.

The main characters have been separated for two years in the wake of a painful miscarriage.  The heroine has incredibly deep-seated trust issues and her husband let her down when she was at her most vulnerable.  The husband acknowledges that his behavior wasn't ideal but he's pretty pissed off at his wife for abandoning a solid marriage because of one single misstep on his part.  It takes a lot of back and forth to reach middle ground.

I really loved this book.  As soon as I finished it, I desperately wanted to read it again.


Next Up: Lusty steampunk werewolf wild-west vampire hunters... and a rather delightful regency romance.  Those two things have nothing in common.

Movie Trailer of Awesome

I feel like movie trailers have gotten completely uninspiring lately (it doesn't help that the actual movies have done the same thing).

So, imagine my complete delight when I stumbled upon the following while cruising around on the Xbox last night:



Love!

And here's a more normal trailer with a better hint at the actual plot:



Looks seriously promising come August.

Weekly Reading Wrap-Up:

This week's selections were pretty good.  And I spread the love around source-wise.  One was from the library, one from my e-reader, and one off the unread shelves.

First up...

Lucy March's "A Little Night Magic" is a supernatural chick lit novel.  Yeah, I know some people hate the term "chick lit" but I like it so I'm going to use it. 

This was a light book with some dark edges and lots of smart and funny quips.  I liked that the romance had already started before the book did.  The two characters already had a strong friendship established and I thought that base line was set up and then built off of really nicely. 

Overall, I enjoyed the book but I thought it could have been tighter.  Something just felt a little off and too loose with the plotting and storytelling and I'm not exactly sure what.  It was a fun read, and I'll definitely read the next book when it comes out next year, but I'm not sorry I borrowed this one from the library.

"Devil's Bride" by Stephanie Laurens was another $0.99 e-book deal that I had heard good things about.  I'm a sucker for a simple classic-style historical romance and that's exactly what this turned out to be.  I thoroughly enjoyed it.

The plot is basically: Duke meets classy governess.  He pretty much immediately decides that since she's attractive, smart, comes from a noble family, can definitely keep her cool in a sensitive situation, and doesn't appear to be at all intimidated by him... he's totally going to marry her.  As soon as he can convince her to say yes (this takes a lot of work on his part).  There's a very obvious whodunit murder mystery in the works too but the book is mostly wooing and post-wooing bliss.  I found it highly enjoyable.

Also, the classic euphemism-happy historical romance sexy times made me laugh (in a delightfully good way).  A lot.  My favorite bit was when they're making out at one point and the heroine thinks about how she wants him to "fill the molten void within her" and then a few paragraphs later the hero promises to "make that molten heat inside of you explode."  As soon as he said it, my first thought was "How the hell do you know which crazy euphemism she's using inside her head?"  Heh.  Too funny.

  
Julie James' "A Lot Like Love" was so very good.  Julie James kicks ass.  Her books are so slick and fun and they feature smart and sexy professionals who are good at their jobs. 

This one involved an heiress/wine entrepreneur and a rough and tumble FBI agent working an undercover operation together.  Male love interest, Nick, could be a little jerky at times, but his constant deployment of his patented "don't-fuck-with-me-face" never ceased to make me chuckle.  Oh, and he was super adorable on the phone with his mother.  That was a definite plus.

The heroine, Jordan, was also great and I especially loved the loving yet sarcastic interactions she had with her family.  I am super excited that her "Twitter Terrorist" twin brother is the lead in James' next book.  I'm really looking forward to it.

Photoshop Fail

A "Lane Bryant" flyer arrived in my physical mailbox the other day so I nonchalantly flipped through it.

And the following made me yell "Holy photoshop!  That's not how boobs work."

Excessive airbrushing in bra ads is nothing new.  Every bra manufacturer wants you to think their bra will make your boobs look spectacularly globular but that photo?  That's some crazy right there.

Of course, I decided to do a highly scientific study to see how you would accomplish such spectacular boob definition with a plunge bra and a set of D-cups.  The answer?  A magical combination of extreme squishing and poor posture.

I think my work's been done here.

Weekly Reading Wrap-Up:

In an absolutely shocking turn of events, the romance reads were outnumbered this week!  Shocking!(And this post was 4ish days late... not at all shocking)

First up, I picked a book off of my unread shelves and dug into young adult dystopia with Isobelle Carmody's "Obernewtyn."  I'll give the book credit for doing a few interesting things but, for a book as small as it is, it moved superbly slow and was surprisingly dense.  Didn't wow me.  Not even with psychic powers, which I have a weakness for.  It's apparently the first in a series of seven.  I doubt I'll venture any further.

Back to romance!  I love sale books.  I bought the ebook version of Laura Lee Guhrke's "And Then He Kissed Her" last week for $0.99  because that's a price point I like, I read a single blog comment that said it was great, and the premise sounded awesome.  None of those things guarantees an awesome read, but an awesome read is what I got.

The book's set in Victorian England and the main character is a publisher's secretary/aspiring author.  When she finds out her total rake of a boss has never read more than snippets of the manuscripts she's been submitting to him over the years, she decides it's the last straw for her rather safe and stagnant life.  My favorite thing about Emma is that she doesn't make big decisions all willy nilly without thinking about the consequences first.  She makes tough decisions, follows through, and lives with the repercussions.  Emma's awesome.

Her love interest is pretty great himself.  Here are some of his best quotes:

"Why women put all those feathers on their hats nowadays is incomprehensible to me.  You look like you have an ostrich's backside on top of your head."

"Women of virtue are a pain in the ass."

"Tell me, at this point is it acceptable for the woman to dither in this fashion?  Isn't she supposed to just end the poor fellow's suspense and say yes so he knows he hasn't made a thorough idiot of himself?"
"No," she choked. "he deserves to suffer until she's convinced of the depth and sincerity of his affections."

After the awesome that was my previous read, I decided I needed to switch genres or anything I read would be a disappointment.  Perfect time for an Eve Dallas break!

I intended to just read one.  It'd been a while since I'd read one and the murder and mayhem can get a bit much sometimes.  Yeah, I hit a nice streak.  I read "Origin" and "Memory" back to back, took a quick break, and then devoured "Born."  There are babies in 'Born In Death!"  I could not help myself.  All three were really good reads and I can't help but be relieved that none featured psycho rapist/murderers whose only motivation is hatred of women (those are my least favorite cases and Roberts was hitting them often for a while there).

For the last read this week, though not chronologically since I read it on the aforementioned "In Death" break, I successfully got another book off of the unread shelves.  I found myself thinking "I have got to get some of these damn harlequins off the damn shelves" so I picked up "The Disgraced Playboy" fully expecting it to stink since the last few Harlequin's I've read bombed.

Consider me pleasantly surprised. It was quick and it was angsty and overwrought as all get out.  The heroine was strong as steel and I totally cheered when she was finally able to just not give a flying fuck about other people's judgements of her life.  Fun read.


Done for this week!  Expect far less books in the next wrap-up.

A Brief Interlude With Eve & Roarke

Weekly reading wrap-up coming up as soon as I finish the book I'm currently reading.

In the meantime, as it's one of Nora Roberts' "In Death" books (and thus awesome) here's a fun exchange between Homicide Detective Eve Dallas and her husband regarding her best friend's baby shower the following day:

     "Okay, okay." She rolled her eyes. "I can handle it. But it stinks, if you ask me, really stinks, that you get to go out somewhere drinking beer while I'm stuck at Baby Central.  Just because you have a penis."
     "We'll think fondly of you over beer, me and my penis."
     She ate a little more, then smiled slowly. "You've still got to be in the birthing room when she pushes it out."
     "Shut up, Eve."
     "Your penis won't save you then, pal."
     He picked up a breadstick, broke it in half to offer her a share. "And are you playing games tomorrow? Will there be prizes?"
     She winced at his perfect delivery of the perfect stinger.  "Okay, I'll shut up.  Want to talk about murder?"
     "Please."

Cat Nuns For All

Just had to share.

So the family and I have been watching a lot of Doctor Who lately. They're watching it for the first time and I'm having a grand old time re-watching episodes I haven't seen in years. Everybody's enjoying themselves.

Anyway, we're watching the Season 3 episode "Gridlock" and the following image pops on screen:



I immediately yelled "CAT NUN!! YAY!!!" and everyone in my family looked at me like I had suddenly grown two heads.

What can I say? Apparently, I'm very enthusiastic about cat nuns.

Weekly Reading Wrap-Up:

I said I would probably do it. And I totally did. I reread Susan Elizabeth Phillips' 'Nobody's Baby But Mine."



My take? It's still an old favorite of mine but it's not one that's easy to recommend to others. It starts out rough with some remarkably unsexy sex, a heroine who goes completely off her rocker, and a vengeful and irate hero (his reaction is more than justified). But then it gets awesome. I love the interplay between Jane and Cal. As I previously mentioned, the "cereal killer" scene and the one where Jane locks Cal out of the house are classic. Just classic. And boy do I love that reconciliation scene in the hardware store.

It's a rough go at first, but I still love it. I'm even coming around on the new cover. That cherub one's still inexcusable, though. I'm not budging there.




Next up, I read two books about... ah yes, smutty smutty cowboys. What's not to love about smutty smutty cowboys?



I enjoyed the first two entries in Vivan Arend's "Six Pack Ranch" books. They have sexy cowboys and awesome loving family dynamics. The first one, "Rocky Mountain Heat", has a spunky heroine who decides it's time to quit waiting for the object of her affection to realize she's crazy about him and to push the issue. It was fun but the heroine was a little too perfect at absolutely everything in the world for my taste. It would have been nice if she'd had some flaws.




The second one, "Rocky Mountain Haven", was my favorite of the two. Middle brother Daniel pursues the nice widow with three young boys who just moved into a rental on their ranch. The widow's still recovering from the car accident that killed her abusive husband but is ready to move on with her life and hop back onto the sex wagon. Daniel is more than willing to assist with this endeavor. A really sweet and tender romance ensues. Not too much conflict, but overall a nice satisfying read.

Verdict? I enjoyed both books and am looking forward to the next one, especially since the brother in that one got dealt a shitty hand girlfriend-wise in the first two books and is more than due for a happy ending.

Note: These books are technically contemporary erotic romance rather than regular contemporary romance because of the smut level. I thought the sexytimes were pretty mild for "erotic romance" but I may be desensitized after spending so much time with Lorelei James and her Rough Riders (those men sure do love their rope, threesomes, and lube).



To wrap up the past week or so, and to cool down from the smut a bit... I caught up with Jill Shalvis' "Lucky Harbor" Series.

The Lucky Harbor Series starts out with three half-sisters who grew up separately from each other and who come to Lucky Harbor, a small town outside of Seattle, to deal with the dilapidated inn their free-spirited mother left them when she recently died. Jill Shalvis books are like comfort food for me. They don't usually wow me, but I nearly always leave me smiling. The Lucky Harbor books are no exception.



"The Sweetest Thing" is the second book in the series and it revolves around the relationship between a prickly southern belle and the man from her past she's unsuccessfully been trying to dodge for the past six months. And then the daughter they gave up for adoption 17 years ago throws herself into the mix. I liked this one better than the first in the series. I have a weakness for prickly (i.e. bitchy) heroines so Tara worked well for me, her rather annoying "I want him to not let me walk away" issues not withstanding. The birth daughter storyline was a tad cheesy, but I could live with it.





And then I read my new favorite in the series, "Head Over Heels." My first thought when I finished it was "Who knew asthma sex could be so hot?" Yeah. There's that to recommend it. There's also the super sexy stoic sheriff hero. He's gruff and a man of few words. Doesn't need them, though.



Alright, that's it for this week! Next week's reading wrap-up promises at least one non-romance read (I know, shocking!) and a historical romance I am just finishing up now but am loving so much that it just may get it's own post.

Cover Art Gripe

I follow romance author Susan Elizabeth Phillips on facebook because she's a hoot. Her avatar recently changed to the cover art for a new edition of her book Nobody's Baby But Mine.

I am very fond of "Nobody's Baby." It's got a strange and off-putting initial premise: Socially inept yet brilliant astrophysicist Jane decides she'd like to be a mother and she wants to make sure her child has a normal IQ so that he or she can have a normal life unlike the one Jane herself had. She then proceeds to pretend to be a prostitute to seduce a famous quarterback she assumes is a dumb meathead for the express purpose of getting pregnant with his neanderthal sperm. She succeeds. He finds out and understandably loses his shit. Romance eventually ensues.

See? Whack-a-doodle.

That premise shouldn't work. It does. Phillips is a master at that. She's also a master at dialogue and whip smart banter. The fight scenes in this book kill me with how funny they are. "You're a goddamn cereal killer." gets me every time. And the groveling? Oh, the grovelling. This book has one of the best "proves his love" scenes in any novel I've ever read. So good.


Uh? I got off track there and started to gush and ramble, didn't I? Yup. Sure did.

Anyway, back to my original point (yes, there was one). Cover art!

I'm a bitch about cover art. There, I said it. I get very attached to the cover art I'm used to, especially with beloved books, and tend to universally hate change.




I don't like this cover at all. I know why it exists. It's a sweet and pretty cover designed to attract new readers. It's much softer and gentler than the previous covers this book has had.

But, for me, that's not "The Professor" on that cover. Jane, the brilliant absent-minded professor who scrawls equations on her kid's diaper when she's not paying attention, would never wear that sundress. That annoys me. I have said my piece.




This is the cover I own and think of as "the right one." That's Jane dressed like a somewhat old fashioned high-class call girl. That ribbon's a significant object in the story. I like it. It resonates with me.


Ugh, and then there's this one apparently...




Cherubs!?! Just ugh. That is all that needs to be said about that.


Cover rant (sorta?) done. I'm going to have to reread this damn book soon aren't I? Yeah, most definitely.

Doing What I Damn Well Want To Do

I want to write, frequently. Then I second guess myself and don't do it all.

I thought that starting fresh with a new blog might help the situation but, honestly, I love this little neglected blog. I love all of the red. I love my silly tag categories. I love all of the posts about reality television.

The blog makes me smile.

So it stays.

And I am damn well going to write when I want to.