September Acquisitions

In Sepember our local library had their annual book sale. I popped in during my lunch break the first day of the sale, a Saturday, and picked up three books:



Whispered Lies, by Sherrilyn Kenyn and Dianna Love; Time and Again, by Jack Finney; and Sex and the City, by Candace Bushnell.

I went back on Sunday for bag day - they provide paper grocery sacks and you stuff as many books into a sack as you can for $5.00 - and went home with three bags and 105 books. Score!

After reading yet one more intriquing review of Dark Soul by Aleksandr Voinov, I broke down and ordered "the complete collection" from Amazon. I've read so many reviews, and at first I thought, not for me, but the more reviews I read the more interested I was.






A weekend trip to a Salvation Army thrift store yielded three shirts and five books:



Death of a Hangman, by Joseph A. West (which looking at the cover I thought was by Ralph Compton but turns about to be part of a series Compton started that was later written by West...or smething like that); Confessions of an English Maid and Other Delights, by Anonymous; The Heritage, by Frances Parkinson Keyes

 

Season of Joy, by Virginia Carmichael; and The Barefoot Princess, by Christina Dodd

And from the sale shelf at Half Price Books:



Heart of Steel, by Meljean Brook; and Dead Man's Walk, by Larry McMurtry.

Another trip to the Salvation Army thrift store one day yielded a small pile of books:



An Underground Education: The Unauthorized and Outrageous Supplement to Everything You Thought You Knew About Art, Sex, Business, Crime, Science, Medicine, And Other Fields of Human Knowledge, by Richard Zacks - this just grabbed my attention, I started to put it back on the shelf, but couldn't resist it;
Dispatches From the Edge: A Memoir of War, Disasters, and Survival, by Anderson Cooper; and Dogs Gone Wild: After Hurricane Katrina, by Theresa D. Thompson

                                             

A Beautiful Mind, by Sylvia Nasar - this is a book I probably never would have picked up if I hadn't already seen the movie version.

Knockout, by Catherine Coulter - the 13th book in her FBI series. I've yet to read any of this series, but my mom liked them and gave me a few, so I've started picking them up when I come across them.



And three books by Janette Oke: Julia's Last Hope; Roses for Mama; and A Woman Named Damaris. Books 2, 3, and 4 of her Women of the West series. Of course, I do not have Book 1.

And an Amazon shopping spree:


 

How To Remodel A Man, by W. Bruce Cameron; The Heartbreaker, by Vicki Lewis Thompson; The Marriage Lesson, by Victoria Alexander

  

Old Enough to Know Better, by Vicki Lewis Thompson; Warrior, by Zoe Archer; Loverboy, by Victoria Redel

From two Book Mooch members:



Soul Whisperer, by Jenna Kernan; and Master of the Highlands, by Veronica Wolff

And through BookCrossing:



First Drop of Crimson, by Jeaniene Frost, which I've read and  reviewed, and Death's Excellent Vacation, which I've read and reviewed.

Behaving Like Adults

ANNA MAXTED

When I picked up this book to read, I wasn't really sure what it was about and I didn't bother reading the jacket copy. I knew it would be chick lit, you can tell that by the cover. And I enjoy the genre. In fact, I've been so immersed in paranormal the last couple of years I've come to crave contemporary stories, be they chick lit or straight out romance.

The way I see it, there are two varieties of chick lit. You have the fluffy stories with the silly young heroine who goes through life making a series of funny mistakes which often lead to hijinks and misunderstandings. Usually she grows a little as a person, though sometimes over the course of a series she never seems to really learn anything (yes, I'm talking about you, Rebecca Bloomwood).

Then you have the stories that still include a lot of humor but have a little more depth to them, a heavier subject matter, and a heroine who faces real and serious adversity (not to belittle addiction to shopping since that can certainly cause real and serious problems for people, so don't glare at me Becky). The heroines in these stories definitely grow as a person, and often do some soul searching along the way.

Behaving Like Adults falls into the second category. Holly is 29, fun and breezy, and loves love. She owns and operates a dating agency, where her life's work is to make perfect matches for other people. She and her long time fiancee, Nick, bought a house together but never actually set a wedding date, and after breaking up, are still living together (though sleeping in separate rooms) in that same house three months later.

When Holly dips her own toes into the dating world, she goes out with Stuart, who has applied to the dating agency and seems on paper to be too good to be true. And sure enough, he's a caddish jerk and the date is a bust. But when Holly needs a date for an agency event, she gives Stuart a second chance. And that second date turns into a nightmare that leaves Holly questioning the validity of love, the goodness of the human race, and doubting her abilities and instincts for matchmaking. I'm not going into detail about that date, but if you read further you are likely to figure it out, so be warned that this could be a SPOILER ALERT.

There is a great supporting cast in Holly's sisters and friends. As Holly sank deeper and deeper into her own thoughts and began pulling away from socializing, work and her friends, there were times where I sort of wanted to shake her and say “Talk to them! Tell someone about what that jerk did to you!” But she has a hard time believing that she didn’t bring her problems onto her self and putting the blame on Stuart rather than just on herself.

The narrative is in the first person from Holly's point of view, but the author does a good job of conveying the supporting character's personalities, so you feel as if you get to know them pretty well and know what they are thinking and feeling also.

There was just one tiny niggling detail that bothered me. Twice there is reference to calling 911. But do they use 911 in England? I thought the emergency services number there was 999 or something like that. Did the publisher's change it to 911 for us ignorant American readers? If so, I'm insulted.

Towards the end of the book, I cried. Literally. That doesn't happen very often when reading a book. I am definitely be adding Anna Maxted to my list of authors whose back lists I need to hunt down and read.

(I bought this book new. Because the cover jumped out at me.)

Photo Op

LYNN A. COLEMAN

I was very interested and intrigued when I started this book and realized that Dena, the heroine, is closer to my age than your usual romance heroine. In fact, she's older than me , being 52 I believe. Then the hero, Wayne is introduced, and he's like 38 I think (sorry, I don't remember exactly and don't want to go look).

There were lots of obstacles for the couple to overcome, in their minds anyway - neither had been in a relationship in about twenty years and neither was sure if they were ready to be in one; they lived in different cities, though Dena's son is the pastor at Wayne's church, so she has some ties to his community; they have very different careers, and Dena makes a lot more money than Wayne. It took them a long time to work through all these issues. Personally, for me, the fact that he is so much younger would have been the biggest issue, and I don't know if I could get past that kind of age gap. But for them, it was barely mentioned in passing and never seemed to really matter.

There was a background mystery going on about poachers, and when the culprit was caught it came out of left field, but part of the resolution to that whole storyline was very rushed and not completely explained away.

But overall, a pleasant read for some escape from real life.

Oh, and Wayne winked way too often. I don't trust a man who's constantly winking. I don't even like the sound of the word. Wink. Wink wink. A winker is a wanker.

(I purchased this book at a library book sale.)

Death's Excellent Vacation

Edited by CHARLAINE HARRIS and TONI L.P. KELNER 

This was definitely a hit or miss collection. I had been wanting to read this book for quite some time, because of Charlaine Harris and Katie MacAlister. That was long before I'd ever read anything by Jeanine Frost. Her story, "One for the Money", and the Sookie Stackhouse story, "Two Blondes", were by far the best two in the collection. I enjoyed MacAlister’s story “The Perils of Effrijim”, but not as much as her novels about Aisling Grey, Guardian, which Jim appears in.

The only other author in the book I was familiar with was Christopher Golden, and that was just for his Buffy/Angel books. His entry, "Thin Walls", was ok. “The Innsmouth Nook”, by A. Lee Martinez, was just weird and ended abruptly. I enjoyed the banter between the characters in “Meanwhile, Far Across the Caspian Sea…”, by Daniel Stashower, but the ending felt unfinished.

I was excited that L.A. Banks had contributed a story, “Seeing is Believing”. She’s an author who I’d never read before, but had heard/seen a lot about and so I was eager to be introduced to her work. But I didn't care for her story at all. I couldn't connect with the characters and I did not like the way they talked. When Justin tells Jessica he’s leaving by saying “So, I’ma go, okay?”, I just can’t take him seriously. I almost closed the book right there. But since the story only had eight pages left I forged ahead, only to give up in disgust one page later. Jessica says to Justin, “You’ve lost so much…even your dog.” But four pages earlier, she had said “You have a dog?” He replied, “Kinda.” Nothing else is said about the dog, so how does she know he lost one? Okay, I realize that Jessica has some kind of second sight, but she kept wondering why she couldn’t "read" Justin, so she wouldn’t have picked up the knowledge that way. I scanned backwards thinking I missed something, but could not find any mention of anything happening to his dog. And yes, I know, there had been some talk about werewolves. But it still didn’t make sense. And it just now occurred to me that maybe she "read" Justin’s grandmother and that’s how she knew about a lost dog, but you’d still think that something in the narrative would have indicated that. Of course, since I was having trouble staying interested in the story, I still could have missed something.

(I received this book through BookCrossing.)

First Drop of Crimson (Night Huntress World, Book 1)

JEANIENE FROST

We've met Spade and Denise several times before in the Night Huntress Books, as Spade is Bones' best friend, and Denise is Cat's, but we didn't know them very well. So it was interesting to learn some background on Spade, the vampire who has known Bones and Ian since before they were turned, when they were all mortals. Spade doesn't care for humans much beyond snacking on. He doesn't date them, and isn't really friends with any of them. Denise is a human who knows about Cat's world, and isn't overly fond of vampires. Her husband was killed at the end of one of the Night Huntress books in a huge battle that Cat and Bones were involved in, and she's removed herself as far as possible from their world, even cutting herself off from Cat.

Unfortunately, vampires and ghouls aren't the only supernatural creatures out there, and Denise has found herself marked by a demon, who has killed some of her family and is threatening to kill all of them unless she tracks down an ancestor who swindled him in the past.

Determined to do anything to protect her family, but equally determined not to involve Cat and Bones in her problems, she contacts Spade for help.

As much I liked learning more about Spade, and about his own past doomed love, he just doesn't appeal to me the way Bones does. Maybe if I'd met Spade first...I don't know. I'm just crazy about Bones, and Spade just doesn't quite live up to him. And I liked Denise, but she was a much paler, docile heroine than Cat. Of course being fully human and not half vampire like Cat, she wasn't the ass kicker Cat is, though she did find her own strengths along the way.

I definitely wanted Spade and Denise to have a happy ever after, and I never really had any doubt that it wouldn't end that way. Overall I enjoyed spending time with Denise and Spade, but I prefer the company of  Bones and Cat.

(I received this book through BookCrossing.)

August Acquisitions

Lots of new books came in August! More than I needed, meh.

From Book Mooch members, several Brenda Minton books - I recently read one of her Cowboy books and went hunting for more:



Jenna's Cowboy Hero and The Cowboy's Family

 

The Cowboy's Courtship and The Cowboy Next Door

From Harlequin Reader Service:



A Song for Kate, by Lynnette Kent; Countess in Cowboy Boots, by Jodi O'Donnell; Windfall, by Bonnie Gardner. Don't you just love the covers for the Heartwarming series?



The Doctor's Defender, by Terri Reed; Danger on the Mountain, by Lynette Eason; Survive the Night, by Vicki Hinze



Critical Condition, by Sandra Orchard

From a BookCrossing member who sadly passed away recently:

    

Bad Cat: 244 Not-So-Pretty Kitties And Cats Gone Bad, by Jim Edgar (my daughter has taken off with this one so who knows when I'll get to read it); Track of the Cat, by Nevada Barr; The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid, by Bill Bryson

And purchased from Amazon:

     

The Third Angel, by Alice Hoffman; The Line of Beauty, by Alan Hollinghurst


 

Shop 'til Yule Drop, by Alesia Holliday, Naomi Neale and Stephanie Rowe; Must Love Kilts, by Allie Mackay

Dogs and Goddesses

JENNIFER CRUSIE, ANNE STUART AND LANI DIANE RICH

When I first picked this book up to read I thought it was going to be three separate stories, one by each of the three authors. I'm a huge fan of Jennifer Crusie and was really looking forward to her story, though I was completely unfamiliar with Stuart and Rich. As it turns out, it's one complete novel, not three separate stories.

The first fifteen or so pages took an eternity for me to get through. So much so, that I set the book aside and didn't pick it back up for several months. But once I got past that point I became much more interested in the story.

I love the idea of being able to talk to and understand your dog, and some of the exhanges between the three women and their respective pets were very amusing. But overall the book just didn't really appeal to me. I don't know if it's the subject - about gods and goddesses; the characters - the women were all wonderful heroines, but only one of the three men really got to me. Two of them just seemed kind of blah. Even Sam, the one who was a god.

Overall, it was an enjoyable amusing read but nothing special. I'll still read anything and everything Crusie writes, but am not inclined to seek out more by Stuart or Rich, at least not on the basis of this book.

(My mother passed this book to me.)

Girl Alone

LUCY WALKER

Synopsis: Mardie was a stranger to the lonely Outback, but she was determined to live in the general store that was her inheritance. However, she fell in love with her very first customer - a handsome taciturn geologist - and was immediately involved in his life. His problems were now hers - and that included two mineral-exploration spies and one troublesome woman...

I adore Lucy Walker. I love her romances as much as I love brownies or chocolate chip cookies. I have a bunch of them in my TBR pile, and I ration them out, cuz I know when I finish the last one I'll be very sad.

Girl Alone, however, did not quite live up to what I've become accustomed to. It was a little - dare I say it? - boring. Mardie is a great heroine, like all of Walker's heroines. I can't really say much about Jard, the hero, as I really did not get to know him, at all.

Mardie is quite taken with Jard from the moment she sees him, even though she only gets a fleeting glimpse of him. Unlike all the other customers in the area, he doesn't eagerly come in to meet the new owner of the store but just goes about his business. His hat shades his face so she doesn't even really know what he looks like.

For most of the book, Mardie and Jard are in different locations and rarely interact with each other. At one point, when they run into each other while taking animals to see the vet, they do finally have a conversation, and Jard invites her for a ride in his plane. But then they crash, and Jard is unconscious until help arrives and he's taken off with the medics while she goes home.

The immediate aftermath of the crash is the best scene in the book. Their night together in the cold outback later causes a mild scandal, and I was a bit surprised by Mardie's daring action, simply because Walker's books are always so tame and quaint.  As with all her books, there is no sex, nothing more than some chaste kisses. But one character does say "bitch" one time, which was another shocker for a Walker book.

I just wish the beginning and ending of the book had been as good as that plane crash chapter.

(I was given this book by my mother.)

Theodora Twist

MELISSA SENATE

I read an ARC of The Love Goddess' Cooking School in 2010, and I liked it so much that I put Melissa Senate on my list of authors to ready everything by. Since then I've picked up four more of her books, but this is the first one I've gotten around to reading. Theodora Twist is a YA novel, and I've kind of drifted away from YA over the last two or three years, so I wasn't sure how well I'd like it, but it was quite enjoyable.

Theodora is a 16 year old actress who's Hollywood star is quickly rising, almost as fast as her wild reputation. She's wrapping up a press junket for her new movie, and fielding questions from reporters eager to know more about her relationship with the Bellini brothers, twin singers who she is dating. Yes, she's dating both of them. At the same time. In private of course. To the reporters she keeps insisting “We're just good friends”. Until she gets fed up with the questions and causes a sensation which infuriates her agent.

Emily Fine is a 16 year old high school student, living an ordinary life in an ordinary town with her mother, stepfather and baby sister. She happens to live in the house Theodora grew up in, and for a few weeks in junior high she and Theodora were good friends, until Theodora dumped her with no explanation.

Now Theodora is coming back to her home town to live with Emily and her family for a month. She's to attend high school with Emily and do everything she does, like a normal teenager. It's for a reality show designed to show America that at heart, Theodora IS just like every other teenage girl in America.

The book is written in first person POV, with the chapters alternating between Theodora and Emily. I was a little jarred at first, with Theodora talking about her sex life which began at 12 or 13. But other than their life styles, the girls' voices aren't much different, and a couple of times I had to pause to remember which one was narrating at that moment.

As with any teen novel, there is a small clique of mean girls, here known as the Samanthas, though only two of the four are actually named Samantha. I can't remember much to distinguish the one Samantha from the other, but whenever a Samantha was talking to Emily or Theodora, I pictured Dalia (played wonderfully by Carly Chaikin) from the TV show Suburgatory.

I can't say how well the average teenage girl would like this book as neither of my girls would've been interested in it - one of them only liked serious books with a strong female antagonist facing hardship and/or adversity, and the other didn't read much of anything other than the first few Pretty Little Liars books. But overall I found it to be a very enjoyable and amusing read.

(I received this book through Book Mooch.)

Destined for an Early Grave (Night Huntress, Book 4)

JEANIENE FROST

This one is my least favorite entry in the series so far, though I still liked it. The whole Dreamsnatcher (or whatever he was called) storyline just didn't really click for me and I didn't really get completely engrossed until at least half way through the book. When I was first starting the book and checked into Get Glue, another member who had just finished it made a comment about wanting to kill Bones for most of the book. But I had more empathy for him than for Cat, I thought she was a little unreasonable at times.

I still love the series though, and can't wait to continue it.

(I received this book through BookCrossing).