Table For Two, by Nora Roberts

Last week I read some Nora Roberts. The book is Table for Two, and it's a 2-in-1 reissue of two mid-80s category books. Both books are connected, and are about two chefs.

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The first story is Summer Dessert:

When love-resistant dessert chef Summer Lyndon develops a taste for her delectable boss Blake Cocharan, her legendary willpower is put to the ultimate test.

This one was a C+, pleasant, but no more than that. The most remarkable thing about it was how hungry it made me, especially for pastries and desserts. After all that talk about how Summer's specialty was teh bombe, I just had to go out and buy myself some dulce de leche-filled bombas. These are rounded pastry shells filled with different types of creams... I suppose, from the description in the book that they might be similar to Summer's bombes.

I wasn't too engaged by the love story here. The best description would be "nice", but nothing too exciting. Just lukewarm, like my reaction to the main characters. I liked them and more or less understood them, but I didn't much care if they got together or not. Summer baffled me at some points, especially by her attitude towards cooking. It sounded all very exhausted, and I didn't feel it was something she really enjoyed much. Too much emphasis on perfection.

I more or less disliked the ending. The situation between Blake's parents just didn't strike me the way the author intended. My reading was was more "Even in this obviously happy marriage, the man cheated on his wife, but they got over it through hard work". Very romantic. That'll make me want to get married, all right.

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Second story was Lessons Learned and it was much, much better. A B+.

Publicist Juliet Trent never mixes business with pleasure, but her newest client, charming ladies' man and chef Carlo Franconi, is determined to whet her appetite for love.

All that pasta, yum! And Carlo's attitude towards cooking was much more to my taste. The guy had fun cooking and enjoyed the process.

And Carlo, oh Carlo! I had my doubts about him during his appearances on Summer Desserts and early in this story: why would I find such a stereotype sexy? Plus, being Italian myself, the simplifications and over-generalizations were a bit insulting. Well, I thought Carlo was hot. I'm crazy about heroes like this, charming and appreciative of women, but not insincere or frivolous. As soon as I started liking him, my doubts returned. why would such a man fall in love with a dry, humuorless stick like Juliet? Bit she started showing some signs of life and of humour, so I finally bought it.

I loved the plot about life in a book tour (Nora would know about it. Maybe not in 1985, but she must have checked this before the reissue). Best scene, hands down: the perverted chimp. This raised the score half a letter at least!

Anyway, this was very satisfying. Seeing the playboy lose his cool and become jealous and possessive (without becoming a jerk!), wow!!

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This Tuesday I got an e-mail from my university with the great news that I've been accepted for the post of professor's assistant I'd applied to. There'll be 2 of us, and we'll be in charge of the exercises class for Microeconomics II.

I don't know if it works like this in other universities, but here, for many subjects, you get both theory and practice classes, and in the latter you solve exercises based on what you are learning in the former. These classes are optional... that is, the students are supposed to try to solve the exercises they are assigned themselves, and in the practice classes we go over the ones they've had difficulties with. If they've had no trouble, they don't need to attend. We'll be working with our future colleagues, who are now in their second year of college.

Now for the bad part: I'll have to be at the university every Saturday morning at 8, and I'm not getting paid, not even the bus fare. Still, it'll look pretty good on my CV, something I'll need when I make my applications to go study abroad.

So far, Mica (the othe girl I mentioned) and I have only been attending the theory classes, to see what they are learning and how, so that we know how to explain things when the time comes. We'll be going over the assigned exercises with the professor beforehand, but still, we wouldn't want to explain things with graphs when they'd learned how to explain them analytically, and vice-versa.

After two classes, I just know what they'll be having trouble with. I have a feeling I'll be visiting with my old friends Slutsky and Hicks and their decomposition of the total effect of a change in prices into income and substitution effects, for at least a couple of classes. Not that it wasn't taught right, the professor's really good, but this is a difficult subject to grasp at first. The maths are pretty simple, but you have to have a good understanding of the subject itself to know what to do.

I think I should be more nervous than I am about this: facing a room full of kids (some of them older than I am!) asking pointed questions about a class I took back in 1998. However, after my stint as a tour guide, I pretty much have 0 stage fear. I've never written about this, have I? It was right after high school. A girl I knew told me about how the people who organized the city tours for the tourists who arrived in cruise ships were looking for people capable of maintaining a running monologue in English for 3 or 4 hours.

There aren't many of us around (most people learn English here, but they usually get only to the level of ability necessary to maybe read a newspaper in English), so they "hired" me. All completely illegal, of course. I'd just show up on the day of the tour (there were about 4 or 5 a month, during our summer), and afterwards they'd pay me cash, no social security or anything. I must say, with the tips, I was making about twice what I'm making now, and I worked a quarter of the hours I'm working now.

The first time was awfully nerveracking, but I winged it and I did ok. After that, it was pure fun. I just loved the people I met, mostly retirees from the US. I sincerely hope to have half their energy when I'm their age.

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To Marry an Heiress, by Lorraine Heath

I've always pretty much despised Western Historicals, but Lorraine Heath is one of the very, very few authors who'll make me take the plunge. Now she's writing England-set books, a fact which I'm sure everyone will mourn (Westerns lose another author, etc, etc, etc.), but sorry, I'm glad. The one I finished yesterday is called To Marry an Heiress (excerpt).

Devon Sheridan, a widowed earl and father with a deteriorating estate, seeks to replenish his empty coffers by marrying Georgina Pierce, the plain, stubborn daughter of wealthy American Nathaniel Pierce. In exchange for unlimited access to Nathaniel's funds, Devon agrees to woo Georgina and provide her with the one thing she desires most children. Georgina quickly sees through the charade but marries him to please her father, who dies shortly after the wedding, having gambled away his fortune.

Very good book, very, very enjoyable. My grade is a B+, and pretty close to an A-. There were quite a few things that made me want to shake both Gina and Devon (especially Devon, more on this later), but the good parts were just so good!

I loved, loved, loved Gina (and yeah, I know I should ease up on the bold font, but my brain is speaking kind of enthusiastically today and I can't help myself). Ok, Gina, in spite of her tendency to be a martyr for her daddy, this was a heroine you can root for. Nice, sensible, not afraid of hard work (and I mean hard, backbreaking, physical work), cheerful, she's quite a strong woman, but, thank God, not feisty.

I always practically groan when I realize the heroine is an "American heiress", because that seems to be code for "same old, same old, but feisty, wild, and usually TSTL". Not here, not at all. Gina really did have a complete different outlook on life than Devon, and this made for a very original conflict.

In Devon, Heath doesn't take the easy way out and make him a 20th century egalitarian who just happens to have a title. He's very much an aristocrat, and he really does believe all those rules we find so silly now (and by extension, so do the usual 20th cent. egalitarian heros mentioned above, who simply ignore them). This was believable, and original. For all that I think that the "gentlemen don't work, that is below them" dictate is bullshit, I simpathized with Devon.

Problem was, there were times when I doubted if Devon's brain was working all right. He simply didn't seem capable of logical reasoning. Ok, I understand that he's deeply scarred by his first wife's rejection of him when he had to start laboring in the fields, but it simply doesn't follow that he'd believe for so long that Gina would do the same. From the very beginning, she made it clear that she thought it was silly that gentlemen didn't work, and that she considers willingness to work up some honest sweat a virtue. And even after Gina had helped him out in the fields, he doesn't let go of this idea. When he makes his very kind offer to give her a child (*snort*) and she refuses, he still thinks it's because she's repulsed by the fact that he's become a field laborer. Enough said, stupid thinking. This is what kept this book from A range.

I loved the way Devon slowly realizes he's falling in love with his wife. Very well done. However, the ending was a bit of a cliché, with Devon's bedside vigil. Still, it was cute and pretty satisfying.

Tiny little niggle: Devon sometimes addressed Gina as "Countess" (for instance, "Countess, I'd like to talk to you after dinner"). Now, all I know about the subject of protocol and such comes from reading other romance novels, so I very definitely don't consider myself an expert. Also, I usually couldn't care less if this kind of detail is correct. Still, this "Countess" business just grated terribly. I asked in the AAR Reader to Reader message board if this was correct, and it was confirmed to me that it wasn't. Someone wondered if he was doing it when he was annoyed with Gina (at the beginning, he was), and another poster mentioned she thought he was doing it as a way to remind her that she'd bought the title. At the time (I wasn't even halfway through the book), I thought this sounded like a good explanation, but he keeps doing it right until the end, so it now seems to me it was just a mistake. Not that it bothered me much! I still loved this book.

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The Wild Side, by Isabel Sharpe

Time to post about a book I read during my vacation: The Wild Side, by Isabel Sharpe, a Harlequin Blaze.

Melissa Rogers, restless good girl, longs to indulge her sexual fantasies before she meets Mr. Right and settles down. But instead she gets a walk on the really wild side, thanks to the uninhibited neighbor who skips town, leaving Melissa to take her place.

Riley Anderson, brilliant private investigator and every woman's fantasy, is assigned to seduce a female suspect. But Melissa Rogers doesn't fit the profile of the woman he's after. This woman makes him long for things he didn't even know he wanted.

Will it be pure eroticism, or forever-after commitment?

You decide.

The Wild Side managed to keep me turning the pages like crazy, really interested in what was going on and wanting to know what was next. That's nothing to sneeze at. Also, I loved the secondary storyline. Slate and Rose were perfect for each other, and it was great to have a female character who had been really promiscuous not be punished for it, and see her find true love.

Unfortunately, for all that I liked the story in a general way, the main protagonists were pretty yuck, especially that stupid Riley. He lost me right at the beginning, with his attitude towards Melissa when he thought she was Rose. Acting so judgemental and disgusted when he was perfectly willing to sleep with her. Reeks of double standards! And Melissa, hmmm. She saw that, even thought about how everything clicked (his attitude, etc.) when she found out he'd been thinking she was Rose, and she had no problem with it! Basically, she's saying it's perfectly acceptable for him to be that way. Blech!

To summarize, a great storyline and secondary love story, a bad main couple. I graded it a B- when I first read it, but thinking back on it, Riley really did bother me, so I grade it a C+. Without Rose and Slate, this goes into D territory.

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The Waiting Game, by Jayne Ann Krentz

Final book I read this weekend (I'm getting soooo lazy, this is Wednesday and I'm still catching up!): yet another JAK (are you getting sick of me writing about her books or what?). This one's an oldie, from 1985 (when I was starting 2nd grade in school), and it was part of a series Harlequin did at the time featuring 50 books, each set in a different US state. This one, The Waiting Game, is set in the state of Washington (well, who are you going to get to write a book set in Seattle and its environs if not JAK?). If all the books in this series give you such a good sense of place as this one, I'll seriously consider tracking them down.

Sara Fraser has decided to ditch her trendy life-style and go in search of the black sheep of her family, her mysterious Uncle Lowell Kincaid. But Uncle Lowell has gone missing, and that means finding Adrian Saville, a recluse Kincaid had once told her to contact if anything should ever happen to him.

As Sara and Adrian work together to close in on the stalker they discover is tracking her uncle and his elusive cache of gold, the tables suddenly turn, and Sara finds herself hunted as well as hunter. Protection flames to passion as danger escalates for Sara, for Adrian and for a renegade agent, code named "Wolf.

Apart from the cool tour guide stuff, this one was pretty average, just a nice B. The heroine was a bit silly, but definitely NOT tstl (too stupid to live). She did get into a dangerous situation, but she did this by obeying Adrian's exact instructions. The only element that I found remarkable and enjoyed was Adrian's worry that Sara was going to reject him when she found out he was the "Wolf". Apart from that, just a nice book.

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As of an hour ago, I've finally managed to replace all the documentation that got stolen from me during my vacation. I'm pretty impressed with how things have improved in the last years. Today I replaced my ID card, a process which I remembered as taking hours of waiting. You had to make huge lines at the crack of dawn to get an appointment and then come back at that time and wait more hours as the card was made.

It was nothing like it this time. I called a special phone number to get an appointment (I'll pay for the price of the card with my phone bill) and got a date for today. I got there at 7:15 and was out by 7:45. Great!

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Trust Me, by Jayne Ann Krentz

This weekend I also read Trust Me, by Jayne Ann Krentz.

Desdemona Wainwright thinks Sam Stark looks much too calm for a man who has just been left at the altar. But she was hired to cater his wedding, not to save it. She marches into Stark's den to demand the much-needed payment for the canceled reception -- and discovers opposites do attract!

Head of a multimillion-dollar company, Sam decides Desdemona would make the perfect no-strings-attached, stand-in wife, little dreaming how she will drive him crazy with desire.

But when someone breaks into Sam's secret computer files, sinister intrigue swirls around this unlikely pair. Now they must discover the real appeal of unstoppable passion and unbreakable faith...

This one was a very solid A+. How could I have forgotten how great Trust Me was? It's definitely in my top 5 JAKs, with Ravished, Mistress, Family Man and Fabulous Beast. Yes, this is very much a comfort read, but this doesn't mean it's mediocre in any way. It's much more than just comfort, everything was excellent, the characters, the supporting cast, the setting, even the suspense subplot, which isn't usually something I enjoy much. Just perfect.

There's not much I can say about this one that I haven't said a 1000 times before about other JAK books, simply because the good things here were what I've loved about this author's other books, only here they are especially well-done and satisfying.

Stark and Desdemona were lovely, and I just adored their relationship. Sam was so socially inept! Those scenes where he simply ignored all social conventions were priceless, and, as Desdemona said once, he was too sexy to be tacky!

Ok, I'll stop now, because all I'll be able to do is gush!

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The Edge of Heaven, by Teresa Hill

There's something screwy here at blogspot. I've a post which won't show up in the archives, so I can't link to it in my Index of Reads. I'm reposting here, just in case the Blogger help desk can't help me and this gets lost:

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Another book read in February was Teresa Hill's The Edge of Heaven. I'd already read and enjoyed one of her category books, written as Sally Tyler Hayes: Her Secret Guardian. Unfortunately, my reaction to this one was completely different.

He waited for this moment for most of his life, but now that he apparently found his older brother Sam in Baxter, Ohio, Rye McRae hesitates, not sure of the reception he will receive. As he watches the house with a hope of finding family love inside, Emma McRae returns home from college. Her boyfriend Mark abused her so Emma fled to the sanctuary of her adopted parents' home. However, Sam and Rachel leave town to help a pregnant relative before Emma can explain her plight.

Rye finally finds the courage to knock, but an answering Emma thinks he is seeking a job with Sam. He fails to tell her his identity claiming only to be a friend of her adopted father. As Mark begins to stalk Emma, Rye intercedes to keep her safe and that leads to Rye getting into trouble with the law. Still Rye will risk jail to keep Emma safe, not just because she is family, but because he loves her with all his heart.

This was a difficult book, basically because of the age difference between the protagonists, which is a major issue here. At 25, I'm not that much older than Emma (telling precisely how old she is would be a spoiler), and I don't think I'd be too averse to having a relationship with a guy Rye's age, so it's not that I didn't like this book just because of the age difference.

Anyway, I did like the first part of the book, but things went swiftly downhill when their relationship came out and the looooong separation started. I usually don't like long separations, but I've been known to tolerate them. Not here. I didn't feel it was necessary for them to grow up, and I disliked the motivations for it. IMO, Rye didn't back off because he really though Emma was too young for him, but because Sam disapproved. So he was, in effect, proving that his relationship with his brother was more important to him than Emma. Very romantic.

My grade for this: C+, and it isn't a D because I liked the first part of the book.

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A Mind To Murder, by PD James

I read River of Eden at the same time as a PD James book, A Mind To Murder. This is book #2 in the Adam Dalgliesh series. The books in the series can be read independently, since each chronicles a different case, and the connecting thread is the detective, Adam Dalgliesh and his colleagues at Scotland Yard.

When the administrative head of the Steen Psychiatric Clinic is found dead with a chisel in her heart, Superintendent Adam Dalgliesh of Scotland Yard is called in to investigate. Dalgliesh must analyze the deep-seated anxieties and thwarted desires of patients and staff alike to determine which of their resolved conflicts resulted in murder.

AMTM was the perfect book to break up a bit the non-stop action of River of Eden. When the action got too stressful for me, the calm, stately pace of AMTM was a welcome respite.

This one's an early PD James, as I've said. It's a 1963 book and it's more a traditional whodunnit than her latest novels. Like these, it does have outstanding character development, but it was a much more streamlined work.

I enjoyed the characters, even if I didn't really like any of them. It's just a pleasure to read characters who feel like real people, each with his or her virtues and defects. And, to tell the truth, Dalgliesh didn't get on my nerves as much as he did in Death in Holy Orders, which was very good!

The mystery was interesting and intrincate, but the resolution felt a bit forced and unbelievable. Still, I enjoyed it: a B-.

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River of Eden, by Glenna McReynolds

I spent a beautiful weekend in Punta del Este, and I did lots of reading. The first book I read, which I'd started last week, was River of Eden (excerpt), by Glenna McReynolds. Great book: B+

Bad-boy scientist Will Travers may have an ivy league mind, but he's got the spirit of the jungle in his heart and the kiss of the Amazon on his body.

With his sun bronzed skin, a week's worth of beard, and a shaman's crystal around his neck, Will Sanchez Travers looked more like a man mothers warned their daughters about than a Harvard-trained ethnobotonist. And if only half the rumors about him were true, Dr. Annie Parrish figured she was in trouble. Still, she needed the rogue scientist to ferry her upriver in search of a prize so extraordinary, it would make her reputation-- if it didn't get her killed first.

When she'd reluctantly agreed to take the legendary Amazon Annie deep into the Brazilian rain forest, Will expected a woman warrior, not a blond ragamuffin renegade whose secrets ran darker than he could have imagined. But once the journey begins, there will be no turning back as they enter territory--of the wilderness and the heart--as dangerous as it is beautiful, desperate to stop a twisted destroyer of worlds before his nightmarish fantasy becomes horribly real. Amid sorcery--the yearning for vengeance, or a power as potent and seductive as the heart of a singular, magical orchid?

This was a magical book, of the kind that isn't easy to write. Most of the mystical stuff here about shamans and spirit anacondas and so on might feel fanciful and ridiculous in other books. Here, it enhanced the rest of the story, lending it a feeling of inevitability that I felt covered some potential plot problems.

Will was a to-die-for hero. He was a very sexy and cute beta, a sweet and easygoing guy who, all the same exuded sex through every pore. Furthermore, he was perfect for Annie. I don't think anyone else could have admired her and understood her the way he did. He didn't seek to dominate her and he admired her guts, just what would have kept any man from really dominating her. Most importantly, he respected the fact that she felt she had to do certain things, things that might very well put them both in peril, and he didn't get angry with her because of it. When he wants to leave her behind in an island, out of danger, and she knocks him out until that becomes impossible? A lesser guy would be furious. He admires her for it.

Annie was a bit harder for me to like, basically because I didn't completely buy her motivations. I think the problem might have been that the author didn't really manage to convey the utter horror of her experience in Yavareté in Corisco's hands. She saysit was terrifying, but I never got a feeling for it, she never managed to make me shiver in identification. This meant that I didn't completely understand her compulsion to come back to Brazil to have her revenge on Corisco. My reaction was "What the hell are you doing here? Stay where you're safe!". And this is where the supernatural element, with all its air of inevitability came into play and helped me buy (at least a bit more) that she simply had to go back.

For all that I loved Will and Annie together, there was something missing in the development of their relationship. This book was such a fast-paced non-stop adventure, that there weren't enough quiet moments where they could talk and get to know each other better. Same with the love scenes: they were steamy (and came after a sexual tension so thick you could cut it with a knife), but they could have been much better with some talking incorporated into them. I'm not asking for JAK-like scenes, where they carry out long, involved conversations while in the middle of intercourse ;-) but I feel some verbal communication would have much improved these scenes. And the conclusion to their relationship felt much too abrupt. Action stops, and we go onto the epilogue, where they are deliriously happy and expecting a child. Sorry, but I wanted a scene where they actually discussed that they loved each other... a kind of emotional pay-off scene, if you will.

The whole plot about Corisco Vargas (yet another corrupt Latin American militaryman. Ever seen one sane, kind Latin member of the military in a romance novel? This is irritating.) and his plans about a Noite do Diabo (Night of the Devil) was where the mystical stuff was too much. The only good part about this subplot was how the author didn't make Corisco one of those almost all-powerful villains, invincible by anyone in the world except the hero and heroine. Nope, through Fat Eddie, we were shown how he actually came across as a nut, a ridiculous guy whose plans were by no means inevitable.

I very much enjoyed River of Eden and will definitely look for the author's backlist

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A Touch of Silk, by Lori Wilde

The last book I read this weekend was a Blaze, Lori Wilde's A Touch of Silk (excerpt).

Manhattan reporter Kay Freemont spends her days writing about sex — and her nights wondering what all the hype is about. So when sexy, single Quinn Scofield places an advertisement in her magazine for a wife, Kay decides it's way past time she found out!

Although Kay knows she's too repressed to live out her most forbidden fantasies, under Quinn's imaginative tutelage she becomes more in tune with her own sensuality. This city girl thinks she has time for only a red-hot fling — unless Quinn has his way, and she accepts his offer of a lifetime of incredible sex!

I was a bit doubtful about the personals thingie, but it turns out this book wasn't about what I thought it would be. I don't know what you think after reading the back cover blurb I quoted above, but I thought the story would be that journalist Kay would be investigating the "modern-day mail-order bride" phenomenon, or whatever she'd call it, and so would answer Quinn's ad as a way to do research. So, she'd go to Alaska (oh, the fact that it's set in Alaska is advertised by a sticker on the front cover. What are the odds that I'd read 2 books set there the same weekend?) and misrepresent herself to him. She'd be thinking she was there to see if he'd do as a husband, she'd be there for research, but wouldn't be able to resist a hot little affair. I had it all figured out, see?

Boy, was I wrong. Kay meets Quinn on a plane, where they lust after one another but that's it. Then they meet again at the magazine she works at, because Quinn is there to see about placing his ad (a full page ad) there. Kay's boss thinks it might be an interesting story, and sends Kay to Alaska to do research (all aboveboard, Quinn thinks it's a great idea and offers to show her around). I must say I liked this much better than what I'd imagined.

I had lots of fun at the beginning when the author described the men Kay had a secret weakness for, versus the guy who was actually her boyfriend. Her ideal guy would be:

... burly outdoorsy men. Strong, physical men, who played contact sports and repaired their own cars. Men who chopped wood and roasted raw meat over fire pits. Men who'd fight to the death to protect their women."

Sorry, but yuck. You can keep those guys, Kay. I want someone like the much-derided Lloyd:

"(a) brainy, pacifist vegetarian, who didn't even own a car, much less know how to work on one"

Now that's a man after my own heart. Problem is, as soon as Wilde described him, I just knew he'd turn out to be a bitchy, whiney, wimp, who'd probably be cheating on her. He was. It's disappointing, really, when the author takes such an obvious easy way out.

Ok, enough going off in tangents. The book itself was likeable enough, but I'm not a big fan of the heroine asking the hero for sexual tutoring angle, so I didn't get to enjoy the very nice sexual tension as much as I would have otherwise. And there was a bit too much emphasis on the goodness of small-town life for my taste. Quinn was the perfect guy, but sadly underwritten, and Kay was basically just a bunch of sexual neuroses. Hmm, it seems I liked this even less than I thought I had!

Still, this one made for easy reading. Just one problem with the style: breaks (that is, white space between one line and the next, I don't know what that's called) signifying changes in point of view. Sorry, breaks for me mean that either there's a change of scene or that time has passed. It's a little disconcerting when they use them like they do here. I think I've seen this in other Blazes, so maybe this is a new Harlequin house style, I don't know. Hate it, it throws me right out of the story.

Anyway, this story was kinda ok but unremarkable. My grade is a C+.

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Tempt Me With Kisses, by Margaret Moore

Two more books and I'll finish with what I read on the weekend. Lucky I didn't do much reading during the week!

First, Tempt Me With Kisses (excerpt), by Margaret Moore. I've had it in my TBR pile for a few months, but it hadn't really called to me (I'm usually a bit leery of medievals). This changed after I read Moore's story in The Brides of Christmas, which was very impressive.

Everyone knows that red-haired women are nothing but trouble, so when enchanting, flame-haired Fiona MacDougal rides into his castle courtyard announcing that she is willing to become his bride, Caradoc of Wales knows to be wary -- even of such a beautiful Scottish lass bearing gifts. He has no desire to take himself a wife, but her kisses are so tempting that the idea of an intimate -- and permanent -- union becomes most appealing indeed.

The thought of marrying this bold, handsome warrior sends shivers of delight down Fiona's spine. She wants nothing more than to tell him the entire truth -- that in his strong embrace she is certain to be safe from the despicable blackguard who would marry her for his own selfish gain. Fiona loves Caradoc dearly, but can she ever win her passionate husband's trust -- or gain his love -- if he discovers the real reason she sought him out?

Well, it certainly looks that I've found a new author whose backlist to glom. Like the short story, this was a very solid B+, and almost went into the A range.

The best about TMWK was how fresh and original it seemed. Every time I thought "Oh, shit, now this is going to happen", nope, the story went in another direction. Not a completely different direction... I mean, I knew that Fiona's Big Secret was going to come out soon the minute they confessed their love to each other, but this happened in a way I hadn't really seen coming.

I also thought the characters were outstanding. Caradoc was definitely my kind of hero... a nice beta, shyish, and lonely. I felt for him, because the poor guy seemed to be so unappreciated by his people. He really did deserve someone like Fiona. This wasn't one of those heros who are always right and always know what to do. No, he was a real person, fallible and unsure about what to do at times. It's good to have a hero that's not larger-than-life sometimes. The only time when he irritated me was when he wouldn't appologize to Fiona because he thought he was bad at expressing his feelings and would make everything worse. Right, look for another excuse!

Fiona was great too. I liked that she actually did have a past, and understood why she would feel she needed to keep it a secret. However, I did feel she kept that secret for too long. Also, I thought she was a bit underwritten, probably because Caradoc was so well-developed.

Oh, and another thing I loved here was how the author actually denounced xenophobia. It's unbelievable how many books I've read where characters are suspicious and resentful about others because they are from a different culture and this isn't considered to be a problem. Not here: the characters who hated the heroine because she wasn't Welsh were presented as stupid and prejudiced, and they were shown the errors of their ways. Loved this!!

There's a book about Caradoc's brother, Connor, which I believe takes place before the action in TMWK. There was just enough info here about this book that I want to read it (in spite of the F review in AAR. It helps that I very often don't agree with this particular reviewer, most recently about Hill's The Edge of Heaven, which was a keeper for her), but I didn't feel the author hit me over the head with it.

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To Tame the Hunter, by Jayne Ann Krentz

I'll finish writing about my weekend reads. Considering this is Thursday, it looks like I've completely ignored my journal this week!

On Saturday I read Jayne Ann Krentz's To Tame The Hunter

.Selena Caldwell manages a artist's shop and York Sutherland runs his own corporation. The two seem to be from opposite ends of the spectrum, but are they more a like than they think? A chance meeting at a party, whereSelena is the girlfriend of York's chief rival. A mutual passion erupts, but is it business or love for York? Will these two dynamic personalities find each other and if so who will be the first to surrender?

I enjoyed this one, but it was not particularly memorable. A B- for me.

This was a pretty typical early 1980s JAK book. As in most of her series books, the story starts in the middle of a situation already established. Selena and York have already met, and he's already started to chase her, trying to get her away from her boyfriend, his business rival. York manages to get her to break up with Richard and begin a relationship with him early in the story, so the conflict is mainly that Selena isn't really sure if York wants her or he wants to use her as a way to punish Richard. Pretty standard early JAK, as I've said, forced seductions and all.

I really liked Selena. She's a competent, gutsy woman, and though I didn't really understand her insistence on getting York to give up his plans for revenge, I admired how she went about doing it.

There were a few things I didn't like much. I just hate it when there's no hero POV in the story. The guy ends up being too much of a mystery for me. The best scene in this book, IMO, was the lone scene where JAK managed to show us how York was feeling, his desperation at thinking he hadn't succeeded in getting Selena to love him and that she was running away from him.

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I stayed up late last night watching the news coverage of the first strikes. Actually, I'd gone to bed early, but my dad woke me up to tell me the war had started, so I watched TV for a whle, even though nothing much was happening. I swear, it looked like the news anchors were actually disappointed there were no explosions and stuff going on. Idiots. My position is firmly against this war, but now that it's started, I just hope it's over as soon as possible and that the US administration is right and this won't destabilize the Middle East and will bring democracy to the region.

I feel almost guilty about writing about such a frivolous subject as romance novels, with all this going on, and I wondered for a while if I should keep writing this blog. I've decided I will.

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I do, I do, I do, by Maggie Osborne

Ok, onto nicer subjects. The first book I read during the weekend was I do, I do, I do, by Maggie Osborne.

A rich, proper spinster aching for a man's touch, Juliette March is an easy target for the seductive Jean Jacques Villette. When he disappears with her inheritance after their wedding, Juliette sets out to find the scoundrel. She never expects to meet Clara Klaus, who ran a boardinghouse until Jean Jacques swept her off her feet, then swept himself out of town.

While following the trail of their no-good husband, Clara and Juliette run into Zoe Wilder, another victim of the debonair Jean Jacques. Now Juliette's ready to put a bullet in his cheating heart. When these three vengeful ladies embark on a misbegotten quest to Alaska, things get downright dangerous--especially for the unsuspecting men they entice along the way. . . .

My grade for this book was a B. There were many things I loved. It was quite funny and romantic, and the setting (Alaska, during the gold rush) was original and fascinating. Osborne obviously did her research, and it shows. The best thing was that it was very well integrated into the narrative. Also, I felt the characters showed real growth, especially Juliette. Except maybe for Clara, they had serious issues to deal with, and the way they got over them was very believable.

However, my problem was that I didn't feel too invested in the 3 love stories. This worked better as fiction than as romance, IMO, in spite of some wonderful love scenes. Also, I simply couldn't believe that they didn't check the legality of their weddings as soon as they realized what had happened. I would think that's the first thing one would do!

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I'm still sick, and my uncle says it's sinusitis. He won't allow me to go back to work until tomorrow. I'm feeling much better today, so I think I'll be able to do a book update, with what I read last weekend. Yesterday my head felt so stuffy that I couldn't concentrate enough to read. I ended up watching the news non-stop... war, war, war... nothing but war. It's so depressing. Whatever your opinion on whether this war is justified, I think everyone must feel it's a shame that it's come to this.

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I'm sick today. Sore throat, a cold (stuffy nose and sinuses, ear ache and all) and... not to gross you out or anything, but a few... hmm... "episodes" of diarrhea. I called my uncle, who's also my doctor (he does what we call here "Medicina General", I think it might be similar to what's called a General Practitioner in English?) and he told me to stay home from work; he'll come by in the afternoon to take a look at me. He thinks it might be a virus. Hopefully, this isn't that new killer pneumonia going around in Asia these days!

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The Edge of Heaven, by Teresa Hill

Another book read in February was Teresa Hill's The Edge of Heaven. I'd already read and enjoyed one of her category books, written as Sally Tyler Hayes: Her Secret Guardian. Unfortunately, my reaction to this one was completely different.

He waited for this moment for most of his life, but now that he apparently found his older brother Sam in Baxter, Ohio, Rye McRae hesitates, not sure of the reception he will receive. As he watches the house with a hope of finding family love inside, Emma McRae returns home from college. Her boyfriend Mark abused her so Emma fled to the sanctuary of her adopted parents' home. However, Sam and Rachel leave town to help a pregnant relative before Emma can explain her plight.

Rye finally finds the courage to knock, but an answering Emma thinks he is seeking a job with Sam. He fails to tell her his identity claiming only to be a friend of her adopted father. As Mark begins to stalk Emma, Rye intercedes to keep her safe and that leads to Rye getting into trouble with the law. Still Rye will risk jail to keep Emma safe, not just because she is family, but because he loves her with all his heart.

This was a difficult book, basically because of the age difference between the protagonists, which is a major issue here. At 25, I'm not that much older than Emma (telling precisely how old she is would be a spoiler), and I don't think I'd be too averse to having a relationship with a guy Rye's age, so it's not that I didn't like this book just because of the age difference.

Anyway, I did like the first part of the book, but things went swiftly downhill when their relationship came out and the looooong separation started. I usually don't like long separations, but I've been known to tolerate them. Not here. I didn't feel it was necessary for them to grow up, and I disliked the motivations for it. IMO, Rye didn't back off because he really though Emma was too young for him, but because Sam disapproved. So he was, in effect, proving that his relationship with his brother was more important to him than Emma. Very romantic.

My grade for this: C+, and it isn't a D because I liked the first part of the book.

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Affair, by Amanda Quick

I reread Amanda Quick's Affair in February.

After the murder of her scurrilous stepfather, Charlotte Arkendale is left with scant means to care for her younger sister. She opens a discreet investigative service to provide other respectable women with information on prospective suitors. When a client is murdered, Charlotte comes to the attention of Baxter St. Ives, who believes Charlotte is a murderess and seeks to gain employment as her man of affairs. Inevitably, logic (and passion!) convince Baxter of her innocence, and he must protect Charlotte from the deadly adversary determined to destroy them.

I liked this much better now than I did when I first read it. Then, I thought this one didn't even begin to compare with the previous Quicks, but I loved it this time. I was wrong, in her AQ books, the author didn't jump the shark in 1996. She still has "it" in this 1997 release, that closeness and intimacy between the protagonists that is missing in more recent work. My grade for Affair is an A.

The plot is nothing too innovative, though it seems about here AQ started concentrating less on tonnish aristocrats and more in untitled gentlemen and women, and finally left ingenues behind, in favor of stronger heroines. This is a direction I like just as well as the previous one. I found Charlotte and Baxter's occupations very interesting. In fact, Charlotte's was genious, reminiscent of Victoria did in Surrender, sending Bow Street runners to investigate potential suitors for her friend.

Baxter was pure AQ, the guy who thinks himself an unexciting bore, but whose true nature is only seen by the heroine. I loved how he was pretty incapable of demonstrating superficial charm. His relationship with his brother was an especially nice touch.

The suspense subplot was a bit fanciful, but its best feature was that it allowed us to see Charlotte and Baxter working together, Baxter being unusually amenable to Charlotte being his true partner here.

All in all, I'm glad I reread this. My recollections of it were completely off-base. Let's see if With This Ring turns out to be a nice surprise too.

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The Brides of Christmas anthology

The last thing I've read is 2 of the 3 stories in an anthology titled The Brides of Christmas. The third story I already read months ago, when I first bought this book, because it's the 4th installment in Deborah Simmons' de Burgh series.

The first story is The Wise Virgin, by Jo Beverley. After reading Beverley's story in the In Praise of Younger Men anthology, I was especially interested in reading this.

It was a daring attempt to rescue Lady Nicolette de Montelan before her father finds out that she's pregnant with an enemy family's child, but it goes awry because Nicolette's cousin Joan has played the Blessed Virgin in the Christmas reenactment. After all, for Nicolette to do it would have been sacrilege!

Now, however, Lady Joan finds herself trapped in a cave on Christmas Eve with the great Edmund de Grave, the Golden Lion, and neither of them are pleased about it. He's annoyed that his plan has been spoiled and worried about his brother, now in enemy hands. She's disappointed that a distant hero has turned out to be the sort to get a lady with child outside of marriage. A mighty battle ensues, but one that ends up breaking ancient hatreds and bringing the true spirit of Christmas and love to everyone around.

This one was good, but very definitely not as good as the one in IPOYM. We had interesting characters and a pretty engaging story, but there was something about it that felt slightly off. Something about Joan and Edmund's interactions just didn't ring true to me, but that's as far as I can pinpoint my problems. Oh, and I felt the story would have been better if we'd had at least a little bit from Edmund's POV. My grade: B-

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The second story was The Vagabond Knight, by Margaret Moore. This is an author I hadn't tried yet, but I have one of her books, Tempt Me With Kisses, in my TBR pile. After this story, I'll probably move it up and read it soon.

A lady's quiet Christmas is disrupted by an impertinent, boisterous knight who seeks shelter from a storm. Lady Katherine DuMonde thinks Sir Rafe Bracton is trouble the moment she sees him, but courtesy and duty command that she be a hospitable hostess. As for Rafe, he thinks the lady will enjoy his company, once she thaws. Rafe, however, has seriously underestimated Lady Katherine. She has long told herself she doesn't need any friendly companionship, or anything else a man might offer, especially one as noisy and overwhelming as the undeniably attractive Rafe. Drawn together by circumstances, the couple are forced to confront both their pasts and their future as they discover the most precious gift of all, love.

This one was a very, very sweet story, but of the good kind of sweet, not saccharine. I probably liked it because I just love heroes like Rafe, guys who hide the fact that their lives are tough and they are unhappy behind a façade of good humour. In some ways, Rafe reminded me of Teagan, from Justiss's My Lady's Pleasure.

I just wish this had been a full-length novel, not a novella. All my problems with it can be traced to length constraints. We wouldn't have had the door shut in our faces during the love scene and it wouldn't have been necessary to have the walking plot device that was Father Coll interfere in the story. It would have been much better if Rafe and Katherine had changed their attitude more naturally, not because of Father Coll's advice. Still, I really liked this story, and my grade for it is B+.

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My grade for the whole anthology, including the Simmons story (which I graded C-), is B

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