It snowed.
Not in time to save me from going to work of course. But it did snow. And now it's freezing cold in my little basement room. I curled up with my new book and read it straight through in one sitting. 
I think I should save my proper review for a later time, once I've had a chance to reflect. But my initial impressions are that Campbell has a very good way with words and her characters are multi-faceted. I loved Matthew. Just loved him. How often do you get to read about a sexy, intelligent virgin hero? Yeah, about that often. 'Nuff said. I liked the love scenes...particularly the first one. There was an earthiness and 'real'-ness to it in which everything does not go magically right and the heroine lies there underneath the crushing weight of the hero and just wishes he'd get off and let her breathe. Again, not your typical "first time" scene. The tone of the story is very dark, almost gothic. The villains are Evil with a capital E. Overall though, I was pretty pleased with the book until the big climax. After all kinds of death and destruction and separation, our hero and heroine are finally back together and she pulls the old martyr "I'm only doing what's best for you by leaving you" routine that MAKES ME INSANE!!! Have I mentioned how much I abhor this device? Ok, yeah. That makes me want to throw the book very hard against the nearest wall. Had it not been for this, I probably would have given the book something like an A-, but at the moment I'm feeling more like a straight B. But like I said...I'll wait until I cool off to review it properly. lol. When I get angry at a character, it colors my view of the entire book which is probably unfair.
*deep calming breath*
So in other news, I have found a fun internet radio station that streams good old-fashioned Christmas classics for my listening pleasure. Ahhh, Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Vince Guaraldi Trio...take me away!
And thanks to a timely post at Dear Author, I bought five e-Harlequins at the bargain price of $11 as they were running a half-off sale today. As I've mentioned before, I'm trying to add shorter series books to my reading diet to mix things up a little and this seemed like too good of an opportunity to pass up. My haul:
- Strokes of Midnight - Hope Tarr
- A Blazing Little Christmas - Jacquie D'Allesandro, Joanne Rock, Kathleen O'Reilly
- The Roman's Virgin Mistress - Michelle Styles
- What She Really Wants for Christmas - Debbi Rawlins
- Beyond Breathless - Kathleen O'Reilly
And now for a random funny picture from Africa to make me smile. I think I've taken that bus before!
