Love wins again

Just a quick little post here, not book related but real-life romance related.

Today I was honored and delighted to attend a baby shower for a friend and colleague at work. I've known him for five years now, and he is one of those people who just makes you smile. His love for the subject he teaches just shines through and students can't help but be inspired to learn. He's from China and is so passionate about intercultural exchange and promoting understanding. I just love him. :-) Anyways, until recently he has been pretty quiet and understated about his private life, but in the past year, I've been happy to see him become more open and comfortable with us all. He married his longterm partner last year, and in about a month, they will be welcoming twin babies into their lives. It's been a long process of planning, saving money, getting legal advice, finding a surrogate, etc. but soon they will be the biological fathers of two little babies, one boy and one girl. To say they are excited is putting it mildly.

Celebrating with them today made me happy. Happy that they can be themselves openly, recognize their relationship with the title of marriage, be supported by their community, and start their own family. These are things that most of us take for granted but these basic rights are denied to many in our country. Love is bigger than all of us, and I think we should rejoice in it where we find it. Congrats to my friend and his husband, and I can't wait to meet the babies!

Out of Africa

Hello friends! I am back from my trip as of monday evening and although I'm swamped with overdue work and homework, I wanted to throw up some pictures. Here's a few from my very very busy and incredibly awesome trip.


Famous mud mosque of Djenne (UNESCO world heritage site)


The morning view from my mat on the roof where I slept the first night we trekked in Dogon Country.


Dogon village where we spent another night on the roof (if you look to the right just above center, you can see the campement with the mats on part of the roof).


Chief of the village where we visited a Peace Corps volunteer for a day.


Yes, termite mounds can really get that big (and even bigger!)


Sunset on the Bani River in the port city of Mopti.


Regular traffic scene in the bustling capital city of Bamako, my home for two years. The locals have taken to calling it Obamako. *g*


My adorable goddaughter and my future sister-in-law. :-)

library take

I really like the whole 'put it on hold using the internet and get an email when it's ready' thing at my library. In this case, the book I snagged was Lisa Kleypas' Seduce Me at Sunrise. Sure it's a hard-cover, large-print edition, but so what? I didn't have to pay for it. heh. I am looking forward to this one. Gypsy heros...yum! I hope it is as good as my expectations. At the very least, the cover is delish. lol.



While there, I quickly scanned the shelves for a few more books to take home and ended up with The Temptation a medieval by Claudia Dain and Confessions at Midnight by Jacquie D'Allessandro. I am trying to remember if I've ever read any Claudia Dain. I don't think so. I do like a well-written medieval, so again...hopeful but cautious. I already sped through the D'Allessandro book this morning. It was cute and hot and a very easy read. A widow who is not only NOT a virgin but who loved her late husband and misses teh sex. How refreshing. *g* I'd recommend it for a low-angst comfort read.


And finally, a pictorial response to my pahtnah's recent James Bond post. hey, lb, here's lookin' at you kid.

Happy People Dancing on Planet Earth

A friend of mine passed this video along to me. Apparently this guy has made something of a name for himself going around the world and filming himself doing a goofy happy dance in each corner of the globe. And in this outting, he's joined by people from all over the world. It put a smile on my face, and I thought you all might enjoy it too.


Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.

Yes we can. Yes I can.

o hai. Yes, it is true. I have once again fallen down on my blogging duties. But I'm here to tell you why and to let you know that my negligence may continue until about, say, November 5.


I don't need to tell anyone that we in the U.S. are engaged in a landmark Presidential election. I have been following the news, feeling alternatively very hopeful, very angry, and very worried. Since last week, I decided that sitting on the sidelines and wringing my hands wasn't enough. If there's to be a change, it has to come from the bottom up. We're the ones that have to get engaged. Get our hands dirty. Come out of our comfort zones and talk to our friends and neighbors and complete strangers. So I've been volunteering my time at the local Obama campaign office here in my small VA town. After work, on weekends, any block of time that I'm not at work or school. And while I know that I won't single-handedly change the course of the election, I know that I'm doing a small part to help. I might just be doing data entry, talking to people as they come in the door, organizing groups to knock on doors or answering the phone. But when you take a few people and put them together, they can make a difference. Let me tell you how uplifting it has been to work alongside people in my city that I would have never met. The little white-haired grandmothers who grew up under segregation and never would have dreamed to see this day. The blue collar worker who just came from a long shift of work. The white collar worker who comes in to volunteer hours after a 2+ hour commute back from D.C. High school students coming in to man the phone banks or tally data. Black, white, young, old, rich, poor, right and left...they're all there. We're all in this together for each other and for our community.

So while I promise not to turn this blog into a political zone (frankly, I'm not all that eloquent and prefer to squee over books anyways), I probably won't be posting a whole lot for the next 40 days. I've got work to do! :-)

forget reading

Well, I may not have time for reading or blogging in the mad race for the MBA summer term finish line. BUT I have found time to listen to an audiobook as I drift off to sleep in the evening. La Nora. This is her best, imho. Those Quinn boys are just fab. I'm partial to Phillip myself. Mainly because his book was my first NR read. But Cam and Ethan and Seth are all keepers too. What is so cool about these books is that while the romance between each brother and his woman is good and romantic and stuff, what's really great is the interaction between the guys. Miz Nora gets it right and it feels so natural and real. I luvs it.

So yeah. No books being read (except for that monster marketing tome on the sidebar). But at least there is some audiobook goodness to see me through.

The other end of this tunnel includes a quick trip to the other side of the country (yay San Fran!) and dinner, drinks and other hijinks with some of my blogging friends. I try to keep this in mind as I slog through the homework. It's like a carrot to keep me motivated.

Roadtrip!

DBF and I are off to drive up to New York state. This weekend we are visiting a couple that we were friends with back in Africa. She's ex-peace corps like me, he's Malian like DBF. And they have three adorable kids, one of whom we've never met. So hooray for roadtrips!

See you all next week. Behave yourselves! Don't do anything that I wouldn't do. heh.

MLM - Mini review

Good morning MLM lovers! It's that day of the week again. While I do not have anything lengthy prepared, I thought I would put up a very short review of a Jet Mykles story. To go along with galpal lisabea's interview with Jet today.

The story Key to Me is an entry in an anthology called The Ties that Bind published by MLR press (that stands for ManLoveRomance...love it!) Noah has been in and out of relationships always looking for that special someone whom he can truly fall in love with but never quite finding his match. Lately, he has been receiving gifts from a secret admirer, and the fact that each gift indicates this admirer really knows him and his most intimate desires is both driving him crazy and seducing the hell out of him. Longtime friend and roommate Mitch continues to tease him about finding his mystery man. His work friends are also involved and eagerly await the details of the latest gift. Noah wonders who it could possibly be.

Then one day Noah receives a note along with his latest gift telling him when and where to meet his secret admirer. Hotness ensues. Mr. Mystery manages to keep his identity shrouded by having Noah wear a blindfold. Did I mention that hotness ensues? Lots of great sexy sex with a slight touch of light BDSM play. Noah becomes more and more emotionally fixated on his mystery lover because he seems to know instinctively what Noah wants, what Noah needs. Hell, who wouldn't be seduced by that? It's romantic fantasy at its best.

Um, so I won't give away the big ol' spoiler, but I'm guessing you can figure it out. The finale is very emotionally satisfying, and I finished the story with a big smile and an "awww, that is so romantic" kind of sigh. Definitely giving this little story a thumbs up. And the rest of the anthology looks good too (I've read about half of the other entries so far). If you're looking for a tasty manlove collection, you can't go wrong with this one.

As I mentioned earlier, miz lisabea is interviewing author Jet Mykles over at her blog today. So go forth and enjoy! Happy MLM!

Man Love Monday - video quickie

heh.

Well, I had hoped to have a review of Master of Obsidian all ready to go for MLM. I got started on it, but life in the way of MBA finals week and other committments seems to have gotten in the way. And I really want to give the book enough thought and time to write a substantive review. Soooo.

Is it really any surprise that I default to another clip of my new boyfriend Captain Jack smooching it up with yet another one of the Torchwood guys? That Cap'n Jack...he sure knows how to kiss.



thanks to katiebabs for finding this one!

And now everyone must head on over to sarai's blog where she has written an excellent review of Josh Lanyon's book Fatal Shadows. It's her first time to participate in MLM, so go over and give her some luuuuurve!!! :)

It's of primary importance...

...to participate in one's democracy. Or at least what's left of it.

So today I get to go vote in a presidential primary. woot! And since this is a blog where I get to say what I want but in which I don't intend to get all serious, I'll just say that my candidate is the hottest one on the ticket. *g*


(and yes, I have done my homework and am voting for him for substantial policy reasons, but I tend to save my wonk-y discussions for other places)

Sabrina Jeffries on North and South

Head on over to my good buddy KristieJ's blog for an exclusive with Sabrina Jeffries. Hint: she's seen and loved North and South and our dearest boy RICHard! *g*

More Richard-ey goodness

Oh la la, I have fallen behind in blogging. What's there to report?

Well, I started MBA classes again for the spring semester. Which means that I'll be back to agonizing about how I "should" be doing homework whilst I'm surfing blogland or reading romance novels.

I watched the first part of Bleak House which looks to be excellent (thanks again, GailK!). I think I'm going to save it for the weekend when I can sit down and watch a ton of it in one go.

I finished my re-read of Devil's Bride after really going at a leisurely pace. It seemed longer than I remember. I still like Honoria because she's a pretty tough cookie and she really never does "submit" to Devil and his high-handedness. Devil I really like because he doesn't see Honoria as inferior or flighty or somehow "less" because she's a woman. Yeah, he's an alpha male, yadda yadda, but I don't think he's an arse. He's protective of his family and those he loves and interestingly enough, he never does actually verbalize his feelings to Honoria in this book (I think he says the big L word later on in one of the other Cynster books). This actually seems in character though and almost refreshing. Oh yeah, and can I just say? Richard Armitage as Devil? Definitely workin' for me. I'm thinking the longer hair ala Guy of Gisbourne but with the sexy white cravat ala John Thornton. ooh baby! Which leads to the next point...

At the moment, I'm enjoying more of dear Richard in his HILARIOUS and adorable guest role in the British sitcom The Vicar of Dibley. He plays the love interest of the woman vicar who is (let's be honest) rather well-endowed and full-figured. How cool is it to see THE hottest guy in town falling crazy in love with a woman who doesn't fit the stereotypical heroine profile? And did I mention that the whole episode is freakin' funny? And that Richard is hotter than hot? Ok, so I did.

Heads up, all you RA fans...if you haven't put the Vicar of Dibley: A Holy Wholly Happy Ending on your netflix queue, you're missing out!

A little teaser...



And you should really check out this clip and skip ahead to 8:00 for Richard as a sexy accountant bargaining over kisses "with tongues"! *g*

Man Love Monday spillover...

Just because it amuses me, here's a Guy of Gisborne/Robin Hood slash-y fan video. Enjoy...

on the road again, and again, and again

Happy new years indeed. Last night my brother, my boyfriend, and I went to a small party hosted by a few of my friends. It was lovely, good food, good company, dancing, etc. but we had to cut it short because my brother was supposed to catch a flight at 8 o'clock the next morning. It takes about an hour to drive from my door to the airport and security lines being what they are nowadays, we got up at 5am and left the house by 5:30 in order to be there with plenty of time to spare. Mind you, I was the one who woke up early, made a hot breakfast for everyone, woke them up, herded them out the door in time, etc. We get there fine and drop him off, heading back for home just as the sun peaks up from behind the mountains. After getting home, we crash into bed, bleary-eyed from lack of sleep and look forward to a nice leisurly morning sleeping. Forty-five minutes later, my cell phone rings. I miss the call. I look at the number. No one I know. It rings again. Against my better judgement, I answered this time on the off-chance that my brother's flight was cancelled due to bad weather at his destination. Well, it was my brother but the flight wasn't cancelled. It was just supposed to leave at 8 o'clock at night. ARG! Why in heaven's name did he not double-check, triple-check and brand this information on his mind? So being the pushover I am, I fell victim to his whining about having to spend 12 whole hours in the airport and I drove back to pick him up. And I still have to drive him back tonite. And then drive home. I calculate that I will have spent about 6 hours of my last vacation day sitting in my car. If there was a way to insert a very angry looking emoticon, you would find one here.

The Saga of the Forsytes

This will be a short post because I'm tired and need sleep. My brother, boyfriend and I spent the entire day watching the whole Forsyte Saga set of DVDs. I think there are like 10 episodes. It really did take all day. lol.

I would try to explain the plot but it would go something like, there's this family, and one of the guys runs away with his daughter's nanny and then his cousin marries this woman who never loves him and then the first guy's daughter's fiance falls in love with the cousin's wife and then they try to run away together but that doesn't work out and then she leaves her husband and eventually marries the FIRST guy and would you believe that her son and her ex-husband's daughter end up falling for each other? And it actually gets even longer, more twisted around and complicated. But oh what fun! The sets are lovely, the costumes gorgeous. And what could be better than watching beautiful British-speaking people emoting on camera? I ask you.

this and that

With all of the Christmas busy-ness and what with the parents, younger brother and cousin visiting, I haven't had much time to blog. However, I have been reading in the evenings when I finally get home and curled up in my bed.

Thanks to the awesomeness of lisabea, I have been immersed in the gay space Regency world of My Fair Captain. VERY entertaining and touching story, and I would highly recommend it. More on my reactions to this book will follow to be sure. It was very interesting to read this in the midst of my listening to the Gabaldon "Lord John" audiobook every evening. In the latter, Lord John is living in a repressive society where sodomy is punishable by courtmartial and death. This complex and honorable man has to balance the demands on his profession (soldier), his family and his natural desire to love and be loved all the while guarding every word and every action. It was so fascinating to compare this with the openly gay but still formal and patriarchical society in My Fair Captain. I'm not explaining this very well, but anyways, it got me to thinking about culture and identity and our assumptions about what is normal and expected. All kinds of interesting stuff.

I'm also just finishing Beyond Paradise by Elizabeth Doyle. It's an entertaining pirate romp recommended to me by my blogging buddy Kristie(J). I'll probably write up a short capsule review later but for now let me just say that you have to admire an author who writes a story set not only in Martinique with an all-French cast but also has a deaf sailor (who is not even the captain) in the role as hero.

In other news, I successfully got my family to watch North and South! My mother, younger brother and I watched half last night and half this afternoon. They totally enjoyed it and were very impressed with the story, the quality of the acting and the entire production. Then my dad was looking for a DVD to use as a "test" for his new laptop and I handed it to him. A few hours later he came downstairs looking for disc 2. woot! So yeah, am I good or what?

Calorie free candy

Happy Holidays and pass the fat-free eye candy bucket around! Check out my guest post over at The Good, The Bad, and the Unread today and see my picks (and pics) for 12 Men I'd Choose to Star in a Romance Novel. If you can't guess who makes the number 1 spot, you haven't been paying attention. ;-)

late lightning

Well well, another week has gone by and it looks like I am way behind on blogging. My parents arrived on Monday night and will be here until right before New Years. I have been rather busy shuttling them around town to go shopping and whatnot. So far, so good. I realize that I owe some more "lightning" reviews from last weekend's housesitting gig. The more I try to write these short things, the more I realize that I'm kind of verbose and not very good at condensing ideas into readable short bites. So forgive me if these are more thundering than lightning.

I started with Julia London’s The Perils of Pursuing a Prince. In this novel our intrepid heroine Greer Fairchild has ventured into the wilds of Wales to track down a long-lost relation who may be the key to her inheritance. Although she had begun the journey as the companion to an elderly woman, they had been joined by a very accommodating young man who ingratiates himself to the point that he convinces Greer to keep traveling with him even after her elderly companion passes away. So from the beginning I am thinking, ok, this girl is not the sharpest stick in the shed. Then we meet the putative prince of the title. He is something of a hermit on his land in Wales. Mr. Owen (the aforementioned young man) has a grudge with Rhodrick Glendower, Earl of Radnor and “Prince of Powys, based on a long history between the two. Ms. Fairchild ends up caught in the middle, but I kept wishing that she would be just a little more astute about the obviously nefarious Mr. Owen. Once he fled the coop and left her in the somewhat gothic tender care of the Prince, things did get more interesting. I vacillated between being entertained by the battle of the wills between Rhodrick and Greer, boredom that it was taking them so long to do something about their obvious attraction and frustration at Greer for her apparent insistence on being a stubborn eejit. I did like Rhodrick as a character. He was prickly and rude and adorably self-conscious about his less-than-handsome looks. Greer on the other hand is something of a whiny needy chit who can't see past the nose on her face. I was never quite sure what an intelligent man like Rhodrick saw in her. Oh well. There are worse ways to spend a few hours, and I do like Wales as a setting. C+

Dark Seduction by Brenda Joyce
I almost did not finish this book. As it was it gave me constant fits of laughter and snorts of “omg, I can’t believe I just read that!” Let’s just start with the accents. DROVE ME BATTY! And I like a Scottish accent if it’s done well. By the end of this book, I was walking around the house saying things like “I be hungry. Where be food?” What are they, pirates? I be tired of this talk. Then to make matters worse, the author has the audacity to name the heroine of a time-traveling story set in Scotland, Claire. Hello? Has no one heard of the book Outlander? Beyond that, the story just didn’t work for me on most levels. Our hero brings Claire back to his time and immediately upon arrival, does not even wait for her to recover from the aftereffects of the time-travel, but just hoists her up and mounts her. Woot! Hot sexxoring and we’re only into chapter 2! Hmph. I like hot stuff as much as the next girl, but this just struck me as unbelievable and not even real heroic. Oh, you wanted to know about the plot? Hmm, ok, let me try to sum it up. Our hero is a newly turned Master of Time. Which means, among other things that he has the ability to time travel, that his mother was a goddess (no really, a GODDESS!), and that he can do the nasty without ever tiring. Apparently, these masters of time have some masterful bits, if you know what I mean. What else? Oh yeah, there be evil. EEEEVIL. As in the fruits of the devilll…. *rolleyes* Um, anyways, there is some more stuff about the devil incarnate and a battle for the soul of our hero in which he has to try NOT to have sex with the heroine. Anyways, as you can tell, this book just didn’t cut it for me. Nice cover tho, I will give you that. D+

I’ve heard of Marjorie M. Liu for quite some time, but Shadow Touch is the first book of hers that I’ve read. It won’t be the last. This was well-written, imaginative and suspenseful. I assume that there is a lot more to the story of the Dirk and Steele detective agency, but I found that I could follow this story as a stand-alone pretty well. Artur Loginov has a gift. He can sense the emotions and thoughts of people from the objects they've touched. While that may sound kind of nifty, it can also be a terrible curse as it's not like he has a choice as to what kinds of thoughts and emotions he picks up. He's learned to protect his skin and his emotions with protective layers. Elena Baxter has the gift of healing. She's never gone to med school but volunteers at a hospital where she quietly heals the sick. One day, both of these extraordinary individuals are kidnapped and imprisoned in a hellish experimental facility that reminded me of something out of the X-men. Through circumstance, they meet and establish an amazing psychic and emotional connection, due to the combination of their unique extrasensory abilities. Even though they spend a good deal of the middle of the book physically apart, the link established between their minds permits them to communicate and continue to develop a growing relationship. One thing that I really appreciated about this story was how both of them had to rely upon the other. I never felt that either one was clearly dominant or superior to the other. Their gifts complimented each other and they felt like a true team. My only complaint, such as it is, would be that I like my romances to be a little spicier and there was a distinct lack of love scenes between the h/h. Of course, given the fact that they're locked up in a facility for half of the book and then on the lam for the other half, that's not a total surprise, but still. I'm shallow that way. *g* However, that's just a minor complaint. Overall, I was really impressed with Ms. Liu's skill as a writer and world-building abilities. I'm definitely going to look for more books in this series. B+

Holiday Inn Bed by Jacquie D'Alessandro

This is a quickie post about a quickie book. In my little shopping spree at harlequin the other night, one of the e-books I downloaded was an anthology. So that meant that a short book became even shorter because it was divided into three short stories. Perfect for a half-hour read.

I read the first entry by Jacquie D'Allesandro. Previously on this blog, I praised Ms. D'Allesandro for her authentic characters and normal-sounding dialogue. I gotta say, this little story was no different. In fact, one thing I really liked about it was that our h/h are already together at the beginning of the story.

Eric and Jessica are living their HEA. Indeed the story picks up about where most romance novels end. They're engaged and now begin the grueling work of planning a wedding and referreeing between the families of the bride and groom. Eric's sister is a professional wedding planner, so she's taken charge of the event. Jessica's mom never got the big frou-frou wedding she wanted for herself so she's determined to force one off on her daughter. Eric and Jessica's relationship is starting to fray under the strain of trying to please everyone and being torn between family loyalty and a simple desire to just get over the 'wedding' part and on to the 'married' part.

They decide to get away for a romantic weekend to rekindle the romance and get the hell away from the pesky family. We get some spicy scenes and one of the things I loved is that these two already know each other and have that sense of long-time intimacy where they're really seeking to give and receive pleasure. Unfortunately, real life intrudes as the wedding-planner sister and Bridezilla mother drive up to the lodge and insist that they make these so-called 'critical' wedding decisions RIGHT NOW! Eric and Jess have to learn how to be firm with their relatives, stick TOGETHER as a couple and finally to follow their own hearts.

I have to say, this was a very satisfying little read. It ran like a little microcosm of life that I could definitely relate to. So often we don't get to see how the everyday little stresses that make up the HEA can have on a living breathing relationship. I felt happy and empowered at the end.

Oh and there were some really nice love scenes between our h/h, did I mention that? *g*

A-

More "lightning" reviews

On my way home for the long holiday weekend, I thought I would drop by the library and get a fresh new haul to last me for the four luxurious no-work days ahead. I picked up six books and got started on them that very night. By the next evening, I had finished four and was working on the fifth. Needless to say, my book haul did not last the weekend. *gulp* Ok, what can I say? I read too damn fast. Anyways, here’s what my Thanksgiving weekend reading consisted of in the order I read them.

Why Not Tonight? - Jacquie D’Alessandro (HQ Blaze)

I’ve never read anything by this author before, although I have seen her name pop up from time to time on review lists. I’ve been making an effort to grab a few series books each time I go to the library because they’re short and bite-sized. Kind of like an appetizer. Anyways, this was a nice little book about two normal, relatively well-adjusted people getting back together after ten years apart. The real plot of the book happened within a twenty four hour period during a blackout. Since the h/h had already known each other previously and had developed a relationship in their past (albeit their young college-aged selves), this 24 hour thing didn’t feel like too much of a stretch. The love scenes were passionate and inventive even though there were quite a few packed into that one night. What I really liked about the book was that the characters talked and thought like normal people. One of the things that keeps me away from contemps is that at least in historicals I can suspend my disbelief if people act odd or in a way that I might not. Hey, maybe that’s the way people did it back in [insert date]. But when I read contemps in which the putative hero or heroine act like they’re characters in a cheesy novel and not actual people I might meet and know…it pulls me out of the story quicker than any “wallpaper historical”. All that to say, this particular book didn’t suffer from that at all. The only minor thing that pulled me out of the story was whenever the hero’s complete name would be referenced. As a huge U2 fan, the name “Adam Clayton” is synonymous with the chilled out bassist of that band and every time I read it, I pictured him and giggled. But that’s just me. Lol.
B+


Kiss of the Highlander – Karen Marie Moning

I’ve read one other Moning book, and it was the sequel to this one. I remember finding it over-the-top and laugh-out-loud funny because I just couldn’t take it seriously. An ancient Druid time-travelling and strutting around the twentieth century bellowing “och” and “doona” and “lass” just wasn’t happening for me. In retrospect, I would have done better to read this book first as much of what happened in the next book is set up by the events in Kiss. In this outing, Drustan MacKeltar is awakened after a five-hundred year enchanted sleep by geeky former scientist Gwen Cassidy. Of course, he finds himself instantly attracted to her. Of course, she is a virrrrgin (although this is unbeknownst to him). They spend a few days traipsing around the modern day Highlands as he tries to convince Gwen that he’s from the 1000s and she tries to figure out why this good-looking hottie is missing a few screws. At the ruins of his family castle, he uses his Druid magic to return them both to his time but miscalculates and lands Gwen in a past in which his past self has no knowledge of her or the future they just shared. Hijinks ensue…I feel like I’ve read this before, wasn’t it called A Knight in Shining Armor? Oh yeah, but in that one we had to settle for some watered down reincarnated version of the hero. Not in this book! I have to admit; Moning skates a very fine line between a rollicking good yarn and a howlingly funny parody of a romance novel. I wasn’t always sure which side of the line the story fell upon, but overall I was much more entertained by this book than by the sequel. (Disclaimer: my favorite books in the universe are Gabaldon’s Outlander series, so obviously I’m not opposed to time-travel and tartans in principle.)
B


By Arrangement – Madeline Hunter

I initially read this book (it was my first novel by Hunter) last Christmas while house-sitting in the same location where I’m at now. I had such fond memories of being cozily curled up with these amazing medieval stories and being completely “swept away” to another time and place. As I stared at the library shelves and thought about a long weekend, I couldn’t resist picking this one back up to see if it would work as well the second time around. *sigh* Oh yeah. It definitely did. I love this book. Ms. Hunter does such a fantastic job of weaving the historical details into the story that you never feel hit over the head with her obvious knowledge or completely alienated by the strange world in which you find yourself. David de Abyndon is a unique and memorable hero. He’s not a knight, a lord or a duke but a cloth merchant. Although beneath the nobility in terms of his social class, he holds himself with a poise and calm self-assurance that I found meltingly sexy. Still waters run deep indeed.
Christiana Fitzwarren is the ward of the king. Although at eighteen she’s older than most courtly brides, she is both naïve and self-centered. Convinced that she is in love with a chivalrous young knight (obvious to David and to the reader immediately as a total bounder), she tries to get out of the betrothal to David which the king has arranged for her. David’s quiet determination to carry out their engagement as planned and refusal to let Christiana deceive herself into romanticizing her knight force her to face reality and to grow up. Although something of a spoiled young girl in the beginning of the book, Christiana matures and shows an inner strength and intelligence over the course of the story. For his part, David finds himself and his orderly world increasingly disrupted by his deepening feelings for his wife. Watching these two people come to know each other and learn to love despite the differences in their social class, ages and worldviews is what makes this book such a pleasure. After putting it down, I wanted to reread it immediately, and to me that is the sign of a true keeper. I have since read most of Ms. Hunter’s catalogue, but I have to say that none have quite measured up to this book and that her move to historical Regencies was a huge loss for those of us who love medievals.
A+


Night Watch – Suzanne Brockmann (HQ Silhouette)

I think this is my first Brockmann. I say “think” because I may have read something by her eons ago (for some reason the name sounds familiar) but I can’t remember enough to say definitively that I have. I know she has quite a following, but I didn’t know which book would be the first in what seems to be a series. And frankly, I’m not a rom-suspense kind of gal, nor do I swoon over the thought of SEALs. That said, I figured a nice short HQ might be just the ticket for a little escapism and something outside my usual historical genre. And that’s exactly what it was. I liked that our hero is short and not the huge hulking specimen of Fabio man-meat that one might expect of a SEAL starring in a romance novel. He’s suffering from unrequited love and a hopeless crush on a fellow SEAL’s wife. And our heroine seems pretty normal (see above rant on contemps) which is always nice. She has a nineteen year-old adopted son who is in college on a baseball scholarship. Two relatively normal adults indulging in a consensual sexual relationship. How refreshing. Indeed, the side-plot involving a crazy stalker intruded on the story and I could have totally done without it.
B-


Not Quite Married – Betina Krahn

According to the inside cover, this is a re-release of an earlier work by the author. I remember reading quite a few Krahn books back in college but haven’t really picked up anything by her since then. When I flipped through this one, it looked like it was set at least partially in the colonial United States which seems rare in these days of Regency drawing rooms. Little did I know that most of the book does take place in merry old England with only an interlude in Boston. It would take too long to try to summarize the plot, but in brief, our heroine is an independent free-thinking young girl (shock!) whose father decides that he’s given her too much liberty and now she must settle down to wife and motherhood. Seeking to get out of the marriage he has arranged for her (to a loathsome Frenchman! What is it about the French that fates them to always play the bad guys anyways?) she sneaks away and pays another guy to marry her and then take a hike. The “other guy” is actually a nobleman’s son on the run from his father trying to marry HIM off when all he really wants to do is build boats. So yeah, they marry and go their separate ways. She still is forced to marry the eeevil Frenchy because Daddy can’t find legal proof of her other wedding. The evil French dude locks her up and threatens torture but ends up dying in a house fire (how convenient) and our heroine emerges from the experience as an older, wiser widow. “I shall never marry again!” Oh silly girl, you KNOW that when you say such things in a romance novel, you’re just setting yourself up. Tsk tsk. When she travels to America to manage some of the family business, guess who is the captain of the ship? Yep! They indulge in some of the happier aspects allowed them as a “married” couple but she refuses to acknowledge him as her husband. But he really loves her. And so on. I’m making it sound more tedious than it actually was. In fact, until about the last 1/5 the book was pretty good. But then, we had to have evil French redux in which the father of the dead man kidnaps our heroine and forces her (again!) to marry the cousin of the first evil Frenchman. *groan* Thankfully, THIS time around, the hero manages to show up in the nick of time with (finally!) documented proof that he has already married the heroine. Hah! So much for being brief about the plot, huh? So how was the book? Overall, pretty decent writing and good use of historical details. My main complaints are with the coincidences that are far too convenient and with the overly evil bad guys. Oh and the love scenes were too tame for my tastes.
C+


In the Prince’s Bed – Sabrina Jeffries

It’s probably a bad thing when you can’t remember much about the book you read two days ago. Well, what I do recall about this one was that the hero is the illegitimate son of Prinny and the heroine thinks she is in love with a gay poet who doesn’t know he’s gay. Alec (the hero) needs to marry a rich heiress. Our heroine (see, I’ve already forgotten her name!) is poor for now but will inherit a crap-load of money when she gets married. Supposedly this inheritance is a secret, but Alec knows about it. Thus his initial interest in her as a marriage candidate. Of course when he lays eyes (and lips) upon her, it is true love. But what will happen when she finds out that her ardent pursuer started his pursuit because of her money and not her lovely charms? That’s pretty much the plot of the book. I actually felt sorry for the heroine’s poet friend because he was in the closet even to himself, although it was a nice touch that the author gave him a love interest and the courage to move away to another country and pursue the relationship. Yay for happy endings! I think this is the first of a series about illegitimate sons of Prinny. Seems to me I skimmed another of them but didn’t find it interesting enough to actually READ. While Jeffries is a decent writer, I just never emotionally connected with either character.
C+


The Smoke Thief – Shana Abe

Thank goodness for paperbackswap.com! I had received this book a few months ago and was saving it (in its mailing wrapper no less) for a rainy day. As it happens, I finished all my library books way before the end of the weekend and this book stepped into the gap to keep me from boredom. Abe’s quasi mystical world of drakons was really quite enchanting. I loved the world she built and the details of the Turn from human into smoke into dragon. Christoff is a manipulative bastard, true. But then again, Rue is arguably just as manipulative and mistrustful. So they’re probably well-matched. I’m still working out how I feel about this book, actually. High marks for world-building, slightly lower ones for likable characters or the lack thereof. Check back with me once I’ve read the sequel.
B+


Stay tuned for tomorrow's special edition of "North and South" week celebration! See Kristie(J)'s blog for details.