I won something!

I read a lot of author blogs. Some of them, I read for craft information, some I just read for fun. One of those is Michelle Davidson Argyle. I've read two of her books, 'True Colors' and 'Monarch' (and I'll be reviewing 'Monarch' eventually). She's also got a newsletter, and I've been a subscriber for several months. Last month, she was giving away two books to her subscribers, and I won! Woot!


The book I received was an autographed copy of "The Secret Year" by Jennifer R. Hubbard.

I devoured this book. I read it in a single sitting. It's not the sort of book that I would necessarily have picked up on my own - it's YA, written in first person, and features a male MC, Colt. As soon as I started reading, though, I was drawn in.


From the back cover:
Julia and Colt were together for a year, but nobody knew of their secret love. Then Julia dies, and Colt's life spirals out of control. He is haunted by her memory, and things only intensify when her journal falls into his hands. Can Colt bring himself to read Julia's diary? Or will he live without answers to his burning questions about a romance that changed him forever?


From Goodreads:
Take Romeo and Juliet. Add The Outsiders. Mix thoroughly. Colt and Julia were secretly together for an entire year and no one, not even Julia's boyfriend knew. They had nothing in common, with Julia in her country club world on Black Mountain and Colt from down on the flats, but it never mattered. Until Julia dies in a car accident, and Colt learns the price of secrecy. He can't mourn Julia openly, and he's tormented that he might have played a part in her death. When Julia's journal ends up in his hands, Colt relives their year together at the same time that he's desperately trying to forget her. But how do you get over someone who was never yours in the first place?


The Goodreads summary is a better version of what the book is actually about. I'm impressed by Hubbard's skills - even though I have virtually nothing in common with Colt, I felt like I could understand what was going on inside his mind. Sure, it helped that the book was written in first person, but there was an empathy that developed. At the same time, Colt and the other characters drove me crazy. I swear, my friends and I weren't that dumb in high school, but when I look at some of the teenagers I know now, I can believe that they would do the same sort of stupid things that the kids in this book do.


The ending wasn't a happy one in a traditional sense, but it was a good one - a realistic one, though it made me wish that I could go talk to this kid and tell him he was being an idiot. Of course, given the choices that I've made in my life, I'm probably not one to talk. Then again, maybe I would be the right one to give advice.


Anyway. The point is, I really enjoyed this book. If you're a YA fan, or you enjoy books that lean towards the realistic rather than idealistic, you should consider picking this one up.

Failing Miserably

Yeah.  The whole getting-back-into-blogging thing?  Not so much.

But I have figured out why!  And no, it's not because of NaNoWriMo.

It's because I've got too much going on in my head.  There's a lot going on in there, actually, and it's all immensely personal, and I really need to work through it.  Problem is, I usually work through my issues by writing.  I'm afraid that, if I try to blog too much, I'll end up spilling my emotional guts here, and I'm not sure that I'm ready to do that.  I'm also not sure if anyone out there is really interested in it.

So until I either work this stuff out, or decide that I'm ready to spill it all to the whole internet, it's hard for me to blog.

What I'm going to try to do is plan for controlled release - I'll probably share little bits and pieces of my issues, and I'll probably also include several bits of short fiction.

Also, with some of the work-related pressure I've had lately, I've turned into a bit of a bitch, so I may have some scathing things to say about some of the books I've read... But I'll try not to be too evil.  I'll keep my comments generalized - I've been reading a lot of self-published crap lately, and I've made some notes.  But I've also read some good self-pubbed stuff, and I promise I'll tell you about that, too.

Um... yeah, this was a big, rambling post, but the gist of it is, I'm going to be blogging again, but I'm not holding myself to a schedule until I get into a better mental place.  Wish me luck!

More Reading!

Yes, I've been reading like crazy lately!  It's kind of awesome, actually.  So after I finished Making Waves by Tawna Fenske, I read the teaser at the end of the ebook.  It was for Romeo, Romeo by Robin Kaye, and the preview intrigued me, so I bought it.  Have I mentioned that this whole ebook thing is a BAD IDEA?  I mean, it's great for the writers out there, but it's not so great for me, because it's SOOOO easy to buy a book on impulse.  At least before ebooks, I had to drag my butt five minutes down the road to B&N, then browse through them all, thinking about which one I want.  I'm much more likely to take my time choosing something.  With the iBookstore, and Nook, and Kindle apps on my phone, I'm getting far too many options at my fingertips, especially in the middle of the night!

Anyway.

I bought Romeo, Romeo on a whim, after reading the teaser.  And I enjoyed it.  It was a light read, and I found myself zipping through it.  The problem was the central conflict - I honestly can't think of any woman I know who would put up with a guy hiding his identity from her, especially if she knew that he was doing it.  Rosalie's family kind of drove me crazy, but I think that was the point.  Also, I tend to smack people upside the head when they call me by an unauthorized nickname, so it irritated me that Nick called Rosalie 'Lee' even though no one else did.  Ever.  All those little things aside, I did enjoy reading it.  And it kept me intrigued - I had a hard time putting it down.  And I can think of three other people that I will recommend this book to.  So if you like a light, quick-reading romance, pick up Romeo, Romeo by Robin Kaye.

I'm also in the middle of The Fiction Class by Susan Breen.  I'm reading this one over lunch breaks at work, but it's not capturing me quite as much as Romeo, Romeo did.  It's interesting, but I'm having a hard time connecting to the voice.  I think it's because of the layout of the story.  The chapters switch between Arabella's fiction class, and her visits with her mother.  After each chapter with the class, you get to see the assignment that Arabella gives them, which has actually caught my interest more than any other part of the book.  It's not bad.  It's well-written.  It's just not working for me.

We'll see how the next set of books stacks up...

A Weekend Full of Books

I did a TON of reading this weekend, mostly because I was flying.  For as long as I can remember, I've read on the plane.  Even when there's an in-flight movie, I'll still read while listening to it.

This weekend, I polished off three books.  First up was Stuck in the Middle by Virginia Smith.  It was a free download on my Nook app, published by Revell in 2008.  It was not a bad book, but it wasn't really my thing. I felt like I was being given a message on a silver platter, with a big flashing sign pointing at it.  I don't mind books that have a message or a lesson, but I prefer to have the lesson be more subtly woven into the story.  I also wasn't too keen on the way the relationships between the sisters were portrayed.  They felt very cliched, and then too easily overcome.  The writing was still a good quality, though I wish the story had continued a little further along.  However, compared to most of the other free books I've read, it was great!

The next one I finished was Jane by April Lindner.  It was published by Poppy in October 2010.  I picked this one up as a 'real' book from the airport in Toronto when I found out my flight was delayed by two hours.  I had listened to Jane Eyre as an audiobook last year, after several failed attempts to read it.  Even though Jane was set in a modern time an place, it captured some of the same feelings as the book it was based on.  There was definitely a constant sense of melancholy, and the voice made Jane sound much older than her 19 years.  I believe that this was intentional, and it worked with the history that Jane had, but I'm not sure if I liked it.  Does that make sense?  It was well-written, it was a clever re-interpretation of a classic, but I feel as ambivalent towards Jane as I did towards Jane Eyre.  I think that the character, no matter which setting she is in, just doesn't resonate with me.  However, if you were a fan of Jane Eyre, I can see how you would really enjoy Jane.

The last one was Making Waves, by Tawna Fenske.  It was published by Sourcebooks in August 2011.  I first heard about this book by reading Tawna's blog.  I've followed her for about a year now, and I've always enjoyed her posts.  Her sense of humor works well with mine, and I think that's part of the reason that I could barely put the book down.  I finished it within a day of starting it, and I'm mostly just disappointed that I ran out of words.  Juli's quirks are adorable, and they're the sort of weird little habits that I've seen in other people (and myself).  The near-misses in the bedroom are intense, and Tawna does a great job of building the tension between Juli and Alex, without overdoing it or making it too cheesy.  I like my romance with a good dose of humor, because, really, romance never goes as smoothly as most stories would have you believe.  If you like a good HEA, and hot-but-not-too-hot-to-lend-to-my-mother love scenes, and a good laugh, this is a great choice.  Of the three books this weekend, Making Waves is the one I'll recommend to most of my friends.  In fact, even though I purchased it in e-book format, I'll be swinging past B&N this week to pick up a physical copy so I can start lending it to my friends.

Booooo! And also, first-person POV

I was on a streak!  I read two awesome books in a row, polishing each of them off in a single day.  I was on a roll!  I was ready to keep on going!

I picked up book number three, and just before the halfway point, the MC did something so stupid and out-of-character that I had to put the book down and walk away.  Argh!  I'm actually pissed off at the book right now, and it's been kicked under the bed.  The stupid thing wasn't the only bit that irritated me, though it was what made me stop reading.  I noticed that this book was really dated.  The references, which would have been pretty current when it was published in 2007, just seem, well, dumb.  And in ten more years, they just won't make any sense at all.  Note to self: don't reference too much pop culture, or your book will get really old, really fast.

All three of the latest books (the two awesome and the one under the bed) had one thing in common - they were all written from the first person POV.  Up until I read The Duff by Kody Keplinger, I had not read much that was written in first, and what I had read was chick-lit style (which I really enjoy, but it's not serious stuff (usually)).  These days, there's more and more popping up, and I'm starting to find myself more open to reading it.  I'm still not sure about things written in first-person present tense, but I'm working on it.

After reading these books, I started thinking about HEA, and the full re-write I'm going to start very soon, and I think that a first-person POV might actually be just what the book needs to feel right.  It focuses entirely on Princess Jane (formerly Princess Martha Louise), and I really didn't get into much of anyone else's head in the first draft.  I think I'll try the first couple of chapters and see how it's feeling.  This might be what I need to feel better about the story.  Wish me luck!

And I thought I didn't like mysteries!

It turns out that I just don't like crappy mysteries!

I started reading Lisa and Laura Roecker's The Liar Society at lunch yesterday.  I've been following their blog for months, and I enjoy it, so I made sure to bring a lunch that wouldn't be hard to eat while holding a book in my free hand.  That was an excellent plan.  I ended up coming back late from lunch because I didn't want to stop reading.  And I took the book with me on my 15-minute break.  And since it was raining when I left work, I sat in the car for a half-hour and read when I got home before I went inside.  And then I curled up on the couch and read until my ride showed up to take me to dinner - with three chapters left!  As soon as it was not-really-rude, I wrapped up dinner and hurried to my bedroom to finish the book.  So I read the entire thing in a day.  And I'm sooooo glad I did!

As I've said, I've followed Lisa and Laura online for a while, and I've found them really funny and entertaining.  While I'm not a mom and I can't related to any of their kid stories, it hasn't mattered, because they still connect with me.  I can say the same thing about The Liar Society - I'm not a teenager anymore, but the book connected.  I loved the character of Kate.  She was messed up and human, but lovable nonetheless.  Her flaws were reasonable, and she made perfect sense as a girl whose best friend died a year ago.  But even though she's got this whole 'damaged' thing going on, by the end, I got the sense that she would grow up to be okay.  Not perfect, because who is?  But okay, which is more than a lot of people can ask for.

I wasn't sure what to make of a lot of the male characters in the book, but honestly, that's exactly how I felt about the guys I knew back in high school, so it worked for me ;)

Also?  LOVED the Latin throughout!  I took some Latin, and I have a degree in Classics, so it totally thrills me every time I see it used in 'real life.'  The other thing that it reminded me of was The Jewel That Was Ours by Colin Dexter.  The subject matter was totally different (adult vs. YA), but it was the only other mystery that I've really enjoyed, and it [coincidentally?] also had lots of Latin and Classical references throughout.

Which brings me back to the title of this post:  I have read so many mystery novels in the past year, and disliked all of them, that I was afraid I wouldn't like The Liar Society based on that.  I was soooooo wrong!  If you like funny, strong, normal(ish) female characters, you should go out and get this book.  I've already got a list of people that are getting copies for birthdays/Christmas/Easter/Tuesdays!

National Crafting Month

Unless you've been living under a rock, you've probably heard by now about the earthquake in Japan.  I hate how useless disasters like that make me feel.  Maureen Johnson, though, isn't being useless.  Check out her blog, and think about donating. ShelterBox seems, to me, to be a brilliant idea!  If you're like me, trying to figure out some way to help from halfway across the globe, this could be your answer.

Now, on to my own stuff...

Did you know that this month is National Craft Month?  That's what the big sign at JoAnn's told me yesterday, and I'm pretty psyched about it.  If you haven't gathered from my other posts, I'm a big crafter.  BIG.  So it stands to reason that I should have BIG plans for this month.

So far, I've finished Otter's sweater, made her a card to go with it, a birthday card for Tanya, two back-up birthday cards, SIX bridal shower cards, three general cards, worked on Mum's cross-stitched Christmas stocking (for next year!), finished a dishcloth, and finished three more squares for my picnic blanket.  And we're not even halfway through the month.

My goal in this National Craft Month is to finish up at least one of my other outstanding projects.  I'm thinking the picnic blanket will get targeted, if only because I want to go on a picnic before it gets too hot out.  Of course, the Hufflepuff scarf is another good candidate.  Once one of those is finished, I'll move on to the next round of baby gifts (do people ever stop breeding??).

And, of course, I'll still be reading and writing.

Speaking of reading, I'm still working my way through Son of a Witch by Gregory Maguire.  Today, when I sat down to open the book at lunch (because that's still when I do most of my reading), I realized that I'm almost done.  It still doesn't feel like I've actually made any progress, if that makes sense.  There was a lot of the story that was presented as dreams/memories, and I think that's why I feel like I'm still waiting for the story to get going.  It's not dragging - I just feel like I'm waiting to get to the conflict, but the number of pages left makes me feel like I should expect the resolution soon.  Once I'm finished, I'll be able to give you a better impression.  I hope.

And speaking of writing, I sat down to continue editing "Happily Ever After" and realized that I need to just start over.  But that's not a bad thing!  The first draft let me get everything out.  Now, I can start working on the story using the characters as I knew them by the end.  Wish me luck!

YA has changed since my day...

"Back in my day..."

Isn't that something my grandpa used to say?  Yeesh.  I swear, I'm not really that old!  But to be honest, things have definitely changed since I was reading "Young Adult" books.

At work, we have this locker upstairs.  It's full of the most random collection of books.  I have no idea why it's there.  I have no idea whose books they were.  But every once in a while, when I forget my book at lunch, and there's nothing else to read in the kitchen, I'll grab one of them.

Lately, I've run into a lot of books by Caroline B. Cooney. I remember reading The Face on the Milk Carton when I was in junior high, and I got to thinking about the other books I read back then. I read some of the Sweet Valley High series, but I wasn't a big fan.  However, I was a HUGE fan of Lurlene McDaniel - Six Months to Live, I Want to Live, Sixteen and Dying... I owned the entire Dawn Rochelle series, and most of the One Last Wish series, and I read them over and over and over again.  And that just might have been the extent of my "Young Adult" reading.  Honestly, back in the early 90's, there wasn't nearly as much to choose from.  The YA section of my local library was made up of four shelves (not four shelving units, just four shelves) buried at the back of the regular fiction section.  I read through that in one summer.  It didn't take long for me to switch over to 'adult' books - I ended up a sci-fi/fantasy fan.

These days, though, there's sooooo much out there!  And so much of it is aimed at girls!  Now don't get me wrong, boys should have something to read, too, but I would have loved most of this stuff when I was the age of the target audience.  Fourteen-year-old-me would have adored Twilight, even though I can't stand it now.

The content is much different, too.  True, the whole paranormal thing has taken off like wildfire, but even with contemporary YA, things are different.  The most obvious thing I can point out is sex.  When I read Young Adult books, there was no mention of sex.  At all.  Kissing was a HUGE deal.  Now, in books like Kody Keplinger's The Duff, it's not unusual for teenagers to have sex.  In fact, it's accepted as normal. The Twilight series has sex.  It's as if today's authors actually connect with their audience and don't try to paint them as their parents see them... which is not to say that's what authors did fifteen years ago.  I just don't ever remember really relating to any of the characters in the books I read.  Of course, that could be because I didn't have cancer and wasn't dying...

Fun fact:  for years after reading Lurlene McDaniel's books, every time I had a bruise that I couldn't explain, I became absolutely convinced that I had leukemia and I would die a beautiful and tragic death.  Now, however, I realize that I've become such a klutz that, unless bumping into something dramatically impedes my forward momentum, I don't even feel it.  I just accept the bruises and wear long pants.

Where do I go?

I've been busy today!  I added the "Links" section to my blog, so you can see the places I visit when I'm surfing the web.  The thing is, while I have close to a hundred blogs that I check out on a regular basis, I rarely comment on any of them.  It's not that I don't like what I see - on the contrary!  I love what I see, and I keep going back for more.

Unfortunately, it seems like most bloggers post either during the day (while I'm at work), or at night (while I'm asleep).  There's nothing inherently wrong with these times (she says as she types tonight's blog at 11pm).  Because I work in a medical office, we've got a fairly tight internet policy.  While I can get away with reading one or two blogs for fun while I catch up on the latest medical news, I can't read all of the ones I want, and I certainly can't wander off and comment on them.  When I do get a chance to make comments (usually after work), a lot of what I wanted to say has already been said, and I hate to comment with something like, "Yeah, I agree with Mr. X!"

What does all of this mean?  Well, it means that the awesome people that I admire probably have no idea who I am.

Except for Lisa and Laura Roecker. They know who I am now.  *squee!*

Do you know who they are?  You should go check them out!  Now!  Go!  I'll wait here until you get back.

Welcome back!  Did you have fun over with LiLa?  I'll bet you recognize the book below (since you clearly followed my directions and went to visit their blog!).

I went out and bought this book just after it came out (on March 1st).  Turns out, I wasn't the only one. Another friend of mine, who is friends with Lisa and Laura on facebook, posted a photo of herself buying the book at our local bookstore, and I commented on the photo, saying that I had bought it, too.

Next thing I know, I wake up the next morning with a friend request!  How cool is that??

Really, though, I think it's more than a little awesome that someone (well, two someones) that I have been admiring for months thought it would be a good idea to contact me.  And it certainly doesn't hurt that they're uber-talented.

I'm planning to start (and finish) The Liar Society this weekend.  I would have started it the same day I bought it, except I had three other books in progress, and that's my upper limit for multiple-reads.

Oh, right, there was one more thing!  The new list of links is a work-in-progress, mostly because I follow so many blogs that I can't stare at the screen long enough to put them all up at once.  Because it's so long, I don't think that many people will just go to that tab and start looking at all of them, all at once.  So what I'm going to do is, every week or so, post a blog about these other blogs, and why I follow them.  That way, you can a) get an idea of what they're about and b) get a bit of an idea about what I like to read.

Until next time, blogglings, have a nice weekend!  And don't forget to visit Lisa and Laura Write!

A few more things crossed off my lists

I've finally finished listening to the Librivox recordings of Victor Hugo's Les Miserables. That took... a while.  Five volumes, each with 40-70 recordings.  Yowza.  As I listened to it, I remembered why it took me an entire summer to read the book while I was in high school.  It wasn't that I'm a slow reader.  Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your perspective), Hugo tends to be more of a historian than a story-teller, which results in a book that isn't particularly interesting to me for large chunks.  There were, like, nineteen chapters on the battle of Waterloo.  And three on the history and anatomy of the sewer systems of Paris.  All I really needed to know was that Jean Valjean was in the sewers.  It didn't make any difference to the story that he was in the section that was built under... um... someone's reign.  See how much it mattered to me?

But the heart of the story was good, and when he got on a roll with story instead of history, I was captivated.  There were times that I would sit in my car for ten, fifteen, twenty minutes after I got home, just to hear the rest of the section.  I think, though, that it will be another fifteen years before I reread it again.

I also finally finished the Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind.  Wow.  I've been working on this series since I picked up the first book almost fifteen years ago.  I reread the series every time a new one came out, up until the last three.  At that point, I knew that the series would be wrapping up, so I waited until it was finished to read the whole thing once more.  I started again over the summer, and this weekend, I finished the last book.

I'm feeling a bit, well, ambiguous about it.  The ending fit the rest of the books.  It worked out well, and it tied together whole chunks from the beginning that I was wondering about.  There were some bits that didn't make sense, and all of the characters have a tendency to deliver monologues rather than actually having discussions with one another, but aside from that, I enjoyed the series.  It wasn't nearly as over-written as I found the Wheel of Time series to be - I stopped reading at book 7, and I've had no desire to pick it back up.  At the same time, it's sad, because I've waited so long to find out what happens, and now that I know, well... hmm.

Can you tell I've been making up for lost reading time?  I also finished Confessions of a Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella.  It was in the cupboard at work, so I picked it up and read it during my lunch breaks.  It was okay.  It wasn't as if it were poorly written.  It was actually the story that I didn't like.  She wrote it well, don't get me wrong!  Rebecca (the MC) just made me uncomfortable.  I think it was the situation that she had managed to get into that didn't sit well with me.  Please, don't skip this book just because I didn't enjoy it - as I said, it was very well written, and the characters were nicely developed, and it is clearly a book that many others have enjoyed.

I've started reading Son of a Witch by Gregory Maguire.  I read Wicked years ago, and loved it.  Of course, I also loved Confessions of an Ugly Step-Sister and Mirror, Mirror, so I'm expecting to enjoy this one.  I'm only about 50 pages in, but I'm liking it.  I'll give you a final verdict when I'm done. :)

I was going to start listening to another audiobook, but I found the most random-ass mix cd in my car, and I can't stop listening to it.  I'm pretty sure that Otter made it for me - it's labeled "Princess/Disney Mix," and I was expecting a few songs from The Little Mermaid or Beauty and the Beast.  Instead, it's got the standard princess songs, mixed with the soundtrack from Baz Luhrmann's Romeo and Juliet, Shrek, Peter Pan and some other craziness, all in one.  There are 148 tracks!!  So I'll be listening to it for a while before I switch back to a book.

And that's what I've been up to!  (Well, partly.  But you have to wait until Friday to hear about the secret I'm keeping.)

Random free stuff!

Apologies for missing my post yesterday - it was a crazy day, and I ended up being out super-late. However, today's post might make up for it!

Yesterday, one of the ladies at work gave me a bottle of wine as a thank-you for helping her with an uber-project (started on Jan 3, finished on Wednesday!). It was really sweet of her, and totally unexpected. Then another one of the ladies came in and dropped off a book for me. It was a book of knitting patterns, and it was a 'just because' thing - she saw it and thought of me.

That totally rocked! I love random free stuff!

And I'll be that a lot of you like random free stuff, too! So today, I'm gonna pay it forward and give away random free stuff. If you comment on today's post before midnight next Saturday (February 5th), you'll be entered in a draw for a $20 Barnes & Noble gift card!

How's it going to work?  Next weekend, after midnight on Saturday, I'll use a random number generator to pick from the comments on this post.  I'll announce the winner here, and then I'll email you to figure out the details of how to get your prize to you.  Sound good?  I hope so!

Happy commenting!

I was wrong.

You may remember that last Sunday I was complaining about a book that I just couldn't get into: With Her Boots On by Lisa Dow.

I was wrong.

I'm not sure if I just had to get over the whole first-person-present-tense thing, or if it just took a couple of chapters for the writing to even out, but once I picked this book up again, I couldn't put it down.  I polished it off in two sittings - my lunch break, and after work that same day.

I didn't like the main character, Mel, at first.  She was whiny and irritating.  But as I got further into the book, I realized that she wasn't actually whiny or irritating.  She was frustrated and stuck, and that made her seem irritating to anyone who didn't see what was going on with her.

I loved that the book was set (partly, at least) in Toronto.  I've never lived in Toronto, but I have visited there, and I've got friends who live there.  I've been to the Firkin, where Mel and her friends gather for drinks after work.  I've met the 'artsy' types like Ursula (and also REAL artistic people - they're not all weird and new-age-y).  I've dealt with a man like Mel's boyfriend.  I've had a friend like Kit.  I know how much of a difference a dog can make in your life.  I am far too much like Mel for my own good (which may also be part of why I didn't like her at first!).

This book was a really good read.  I just had to get over my hang-ups.  If you're into books about real women dealing with the crazy stuff that happens in real life (especially the stuff that sounds like it HAS to be made up!), give this book a try.

With Her Boots On

From the back cover:
     Mel Melrose is getting ready to be a bridesmaid in her brother's wedding and the bridesmaids' dresses that the bride has promised "won't be over-the-top" have actually raised the bar for over-the-top. These dresses are poofier than poof even before the full crinoline enhancement, in a colour that can only be described as construction cone orange.
     Unfortunately, atrocious wedding attire and drunken bridal showers aren't her only stressors.  Mel's career is turned upside down with the addition of a personal translator, a run-in with a sea mammal, and a television commercial producer with an affinity for very large dogs. Any attempt to find solace at home in the arms of her boyfriend is foiled by his sudden infatuation with all things modern dance - especially his teacher, Undulating Ursula.
     Control freak Mel is on the edge even before her neighbours' sudden fascination with lawn adornments rears its gnome-like head. Something has to give... and quickly.
     Will Mel manage to clamber off the edge with her four-inch boot heels intact, or will she discover that maybe, just maybe, Prada boots aren't the answer to all of life's hurdles?

My take:
I started reading With Her Boots On by Lisa Dow in the airport on the way home from a memorial service.  I don't really like the take-off and landing parts of flying, so I really like to have something to read while that's going on.  With an e-reader, though, it's problematic - you're not supposed to have electronic devices on during those times.  I usually end up buying a book at the airport, even though I know that I'm going to need an actual book for the flight.  (I know that it would be cheaper to just bring one of the books from my TBR pile, but that would make too much sense!)

In any case, this was an airport selection.  I picked it up because of the back copy.  I like chick-lit, even if it's not popular anymore.  I like stories about dealing with other people's weddings (I'm in my 30's and unmarried - I can relate!).  I'm a bit of a control freak myself.  I love shoes.  It seemed like a good fit for me.

I wish, however, that I had opened up the book before I got it.  It's written in first-person present tense, and I find that VERY hard to get into.  I know lots of people who like that format, but for me, it's always been a challenge.  I made it to page 72 (of 463) on the plane, reading only during take-off and landing.  When I got home, I set it aside, and I haven't opened it again.  I'm going to blame that partly on NaNo - I read much less during November than I do during the rest of the year, and I'm less inclined to finish a book that I couldn't get into.

I picked the book up again today, and I like the premise.  I sort of like the characters (although I get the feeling that I'm not supposed to really like the MC to start with).  I want to keep trying to read it.  So the plan is, now that November is almost done, I'll take this book to work, and I'll read it during my lunch hours.  Hopefully, in a few weeks, I'll have a proper review, not just a short commentary about why I only made it to page 72!

The Devil Wears Plaid

This week's review is The Devil Wears Plaid, by Teresa Medeiros.

I picked this book up in an airport bookstore, desperate for something to read.  The selections were, for the most part, completely unappealing to me, but the cover of this book popped out.  Looking at the cover, you can tell that it's going to be a romance, but it was much better than many of the romance novels I've read (and believe me, I've read plenty!)

From the back cover:

Emmaline Marlow is about to wed the extremely powerful laird of the Hepburn clan to save her father from debtor's prison when ruffian Jamie Sinclair bursts into the abbey on a magnificent black horse and abducts her in one strong swoop.  Though he is Hepburn's sworn enemy, Emma's mysterious captor is everything her bridegroom is not - handsome, virile, dangerous... and a perilous temptation for her yearning heart.

Jamie expects Emma to be some milksop English miss, not a fiery, defiant beauty whose irresistible charms will tempt him at every turn.  But he cannot allow either of them to forget he is her enemy and she is his pawn in the deadly Highland feud between the clans.  So why does he still want her so badly for himself?  Stealing his enemy's bride was simple, but can he claim her innocence without losing his heart?

My take:

Despite reading the words "laird" and "Highland" on the back of the book, I didn't realize that this would be a historical romance set in Scotland, and I was surprised at the dialects used throughout the book.  The first few chapters were a bit rough, but once I got into it, I stopped noticing the odd spellings (for the most part).

I read the whole book in less than four hours - it was light reading, but it wasn't ridiculous.  The story was solid, and while there were a few odd twists that I hadn't anticipated, it was not hard to follow.  Medeiros wove a tale that kept me interested.  More importantly, she created characters that kept me interested.  There was a lot of travelling and camping, and if Jamie and Emma hadn't been such well-developed characters, I would have become bored very quickly.

The 'fiery redhead' stereotype made me shake my head a bit, but again, Emma was not just a stereotype.  She had a story, and a reason for doing the things that she did - her choices were not always the sort of choices I would make in her situation, but they were choices that made sense given what was revealed of Emma's character.

Overall, I really enjoyed this story.  If you're a fan of historical romance, I would definitely recommend this book - it's a quick, fun read.  If you've never read a historical romance before, this would be a good one to start with.  It's not a full-out bodice-ripper, and aside from one or two scenes, you don't have to be worried about what someone would think if they started reading over your shoulder.

I've already shared it with my mom. :)

Brilliant idea. Brilliant!

Yeah, deciding to make Sunday my 'book review' day the weekend before wedding-cake-baking-weekend and two weekends before NaNoWriMo was a brilliant plan.  I am a genius.  A total genius.

I have not read anything this week.  I've barely even re-read stuff that I've written.  I certainly haven't picked up a book... I kind of want to read, but I find that when I start reading in the middle of relatively intense writing, two things happen.  First, I start to try to imitate the style of any author that I'm reading.  Second, I decide that I am a total hack and can't write anything at all.  I know that I'm not a hack, but the first draft is always a great, big, steaming pile of crap.  Stinky, smelly crap.  Editing always helps, but still... when I'm in the middle of a first draft, I don't like reading other people's work.

I've got a couple of things on my TBR pile, though.  I started Confessor, the last book in Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth series.  I really want to finish it, but I don't want to pick it up and feel bad about myself... *sigh*  Also on the pile, Hush Money by Susan Bischoff.  I've been meaning to read it for an awfully long time, and I do need to write a review of it for both Goodreads and Smashwords.  Once I'm done my draft, though, I'll get back to my regularly planned reading.

In the meantime, I've been spending my non-writing time with crafting - it lets me be creative and relax in different ways than writing, plus, it lets me feel productive.  If you're interested in seeing what I've been doing, go check out my craft blog: Confessions of a Yarn Whore.

Phantom

I've just finished Phantom by Terry Goodkind, the tenth book in the Sword of Truth series.  If you've been reading my blog, you may remember that I was not thrilled with the last book, Chainfire.  This one made up for that.

I wasn't thrilled with the way it ended - it felt as if there was an awful lot left unfinished, but it's the second-last book in the series, so I guess it was intentional, so that the last book could wrap up all the loose ends.  I'm glad that I didn't read this one as soon as it came out, because I would have been really pissed off at having to wait for the next one in the series!

One thing that I noticed in this book is that Goodkind's characters tend to deliver monologues.  I'm pretty sure that he did that in previous installments in the series, too, but I really noticed it here.  Richard will give two or three page speeches about how he figured things out.  I understand that he needs to explain to his friends what's been going on, but the readers have already read all of these things, and it's, well, a bit redundant.  I found myself skimming over most of those, and that's sad.  I like to read a book, not skim it.

But overall, I enjoyed it.  This book actually moved the plot forward, unlike the last book that left me feeling that I had been running around in circles.  And I'm about to start the next one, because after more than ten years, I want to see how this ends!

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Want to know about my crafting?  Go visit Confessions of a Yarn Whore, updated today!

311 Pelican Court, fin.

I finished it.  It took weeks, literally, for me to work my way through Debbie Macomber's 311 Pelican Court.  I did not enjoy it.

I was talking to someone about it, and in the middle of our conversation, I realized what it felt like: it felt like I was reading a soap opera.  It was as if I had channel-surfed into the middle of it.  There were eighty-bajillion story lines being told in the same book (okay, it was more like 8, but it felt like a lot more).  It felt as though the characters had been previously established, but at the same time, the author was telling me the same thing over and over, in case I hadn't read the previous chapters.

Obviously, someone likes this style, because Macomber's got a pile of books out there.  Unfortunately, I don't like this style.  I was in a used bookstore this weekend, and I opened up two or three other books by her, and they all had the same feeling for me.  I don't think I'll be reading any more books by this author.

So now that I've managed to finish this book (finally!), what should I read next?  Suggestions are definitely welcome!  If I don't get any, though, I'll probably start in on the last two installments of Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth series.

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Want to see my crafting adventures?  Visit Confessions of a Yarn Whore

311 Pelican Court

It's been a slow week for reading - usually, I do most of my reading during my lunch hour at work, but I took a few days off this past week, and worked through a couple of lunch hours so I could leave early.

I did, however, try to read more of 311 Pelican Court by Debbie Macomber.  I'm about 2/3 finished, and it's a hard read.  It's not that the language is beyond me or anything like that - it's just hard to make myself read it.  In the first two chapters, there were five couples introduced.  I had expected that one of them would become the main focus (perhaps the one mentioned in the back cover blurb?), but at page 259, there's no clear leader.

I feel very scattered with this book.  I want it to focus on one plotline.  Just one.  There is just so much going on here!  I feel like she could do a really great job if she would stop jumping around.  As it is, there's no continuity, and the writing feels choppy to me.

However, I will still finish it.  Eventually.  I don't know, though, that I'll ever pick up another Debbie Macomber book.

Review: Tempest by Jamie DeBree

I know, I don't usually review the books I've read here, but most of the books I've read were traditionally published, and people have already read tons of reviews on them.  Today, I'm reviewing Tempest, by Jamie DeBree.  I've been following Jamie's blog for several months.  The paperback version Tempest is available for pre-order on her website now, and the e-book will be available from Amazon, Smashwords and Scribd on August 16.  And now, onto the review!

I read the whole book in one sitting on a Saturday afternoon.  I knew, based on Jamie's Indelibly Inked web serial that this would not be a book appropriate to read during a lunch hour at work!  Sex scenes can be tricky, but I think that Jamie struck a good balance. The tension between Charlie and Jake is evident from the beginning of the story.  Initially, I was concerned that Jamie might be building up to something she couldn't maintain, but each of their intimate encounters had the same intensity.  The language and descriptions used were enough to get her point across, but definitely not the over-the-top cliches that are seen far too often in romance novels.

Adrienne, who appeared rather vapid and useless in the first chapter, went on to prove her worth.  I appreciated the fact that she was portrayed consistently younger than the rest of the group, with her reactions more like what I would expect from a teenager, rather than an adult.

There were a few times that I had to go back and re-read a scene, particularly the ones that featured the full hiking group.  However, Jamie managed to give every character a unique name, making it much easier to follow the large cast.

Personally, I didn't like the encounters with wild animals, but that was because they were written so well that they freaked me out a bit - I am definitely not a nature-lover.  Congratulations to Jamie for making me cringe!

Unfortunately, there seemed to be a few lines missing from the version that I read.  I downloaded the .rtf version from Smashwords, because I don't have an actual e-reader, and that might have been the problem.  Luckily, they were at the end of paragraphs, and did not slow down the pace too much.

Aside from the small formatting issue, I enjoyed reading Tempest.  If you like your intrigue with a side of romance (or your romance with a side of intrigue!), this is a good choice for you!

Why it's hard to write right now

I was sitting in front of the computer today, trying to figure out how to finish 'Partners,' when I realized what my current block is.

When you write romance novels, or chick lit, or a lot of the other stuff that I write, it's pretty much mandatory that your story ends with a 'happily ever after.' In fact, most romance imprints actually have that requirement in their guidelines. It doesn't necessarily have to be heroine ending up with the gorgeous Prince Charming, but it has to be a happy ending of some sort.

Unfortunately, I had my happy ending pulled out from under me a couple weeks ago. When I'm sitting here, wondering where it went, it's hard to find a happily-ever-after for someone else. I was so sure that I knew how my story would end, yet it turned out to be completely the opposite of what I was expecting. I'm having a hard time moving forward with my WIPs because of that. There's a lot of doubt in my mind now - does the ending that I think I'm going to have really work out? Is it remotely realistic? Why hasn't he dumped her whiny ass by now?

So I don't think I can work on the things I've been working on in the past few months. But that's okay! It is, really. I have proven to myself that I can set things aside, and then come back to them and finish them later. That's what I'm going to do for now. I'm going to put all of the romantic crap off to the side. In the meantime, I'm going to work on a science-based piece. There doesn't have to be a happy ending here - one of the MC's is a murder and rapist, and not at all likable. In fact, I'm pretty sure that he's going to die a miserable death. No happily-ever-after for him! Once I'm done that, maybe I'll be ready to work on happy endings again.

In unrelated news, I discovered GoodReads today! It is wonderful! I spent most of the evening inputting the books that are in my bookshelves (although I'm quite certain that there are other books around here that have been missed). I appear to have 255 books (fiction only - non-fiction are currently in boxes in the closet), and of those, 124 are on my 'to-read' list. Seriously? I have that many unread books??? But then I thought about it a bit... I bought a lot of books at a Friends of the Library book sale last year, and haven't gotten around to them yet. And there are four series that I've been collecting, but haven't started yet because they looked like the type that I would want to read all at once - I hate it when I have to wait a year for the next book to come out! On the bright side, that means that I don't have to buy anything at all for summer reading!

And speaking of summer reading, I've finished Soul of Fire and moved on to Faith of the Fallen. If you look at the widget to the right, you'll see that I've got three books on the go: Faith of the Fallen is the primary, Murder List is from the kitchen at work (for the days when I forget Faith at home), and Anne of Green Gables is actually an audiobook (for the ride to and from work, and to and from D&D games).

Have I mentioned that I love GoodReads?