August Reads Round Up

This is the first month since I've been back into reading that I've actually kept track of what I've read. Wow, I do like to read!

Here's what I read in August:

1. Highlander Untamed - Monica McCarty
2. The Undoing of a Lady - Nicola Cornick
3. Highlander Unchained - Monica McCarty
4. Mr. Cavendish, I Presume - Julia Quinn
5. 4 Dukes and a Devil - Anthology
6. Son of the Morning - Linda Howard
7. Seducing Mr. Darcy - Gwen Cready**
8. Dance Upon the Air - Nora Roberts
9. When Strangers Marry - Lisa Kleypas
10. Heaven and Earth - Nora Roberts
11. Bad Moon Rising - Sherrilyn Kenyon
12. To Sir Phillip With Love - Julia Quinn
13. Beloved Highlander - Sara Bennett
14. A Dance Through Time - Lynn Kurland
15. Dreamfever - Karen Marie Moning**
16. The Borderlord's Bride - Bertrice Small
17. The Immortal Hunter - Lynsay Sands
18. Nice Girls Don't Have Fangs - Molly Harper (reread)**
19. Nice Girls Don't Date Dead Men - Molly Harper**
20. The Queen's Bastard - C.E. Murphy - DNF
21. The Magic Series reread (Magic Bites, Magic Burns, Magic Bleeds)**
22. Pleasure Unbound - Larissa Ione
23. Face the Fire - Nora Roberts (currently reading)


**These are on my favorites list.

Review and Request: The Queen's Bastard by C.E. Murphy

Alright, alright, I give up already! I really, really tried to finish this book. It's not that it was a bad book. It was interesting. There was political intrigue, murder, witchcraft, and sex.

How could I not like this book? I don't know. I read 338 out of 432 pages. It's just that I felt like I was waiting for something to happen that never did. The heroine is Belinda, from birth she's been secreted away in a castle, her parents were dead and her "uncle" would come visit sometimes. No, not that kind of uncle. Actually, he does have a secret but he's not Chester the Molester. Belinda realizes she has some kind of weird ability to hide herself, and once she realizes it, her uncle somehow makes it go away. She ends up as an assassin, craving her uncle's acceptance? favor? I don't know. Her motivation was unclear. If it was me and I had been in that castle, alone all that time I would have left at the first opportunity. I guess that was my first problem, I didn't understand why she did the things she did.

Then, there was also the fact that I can't keep up with all the characters and places. I thought there were two queens until halfway through the book when I realized there were three queens! I still don't know who held which country. I know Belinda worked for the Red Queen, but I can't remember which country is hers or what it is they're trying to do - kill the other queens or just take their lands? And it seemed like everyone had more than one name!

The prince, Javier, seemed like a pretty okay guy to me. He was the son of one of the Queens. I think he may have either been illegitimate or she faked her pregnancy and was not really the Queen's son. Again, not sure. I liked that he was able to help her discover her hidden talents. His friends were another story. I liked Marius, who seemed like a true friend, although I felt sorry for him, but Eliza and Sacha were unlikeable. I couldn't tell if Sacha was a friend of Javier's or was secretly working against him politically.

I'm not saying this was a bad book, as I said earlier, it's full of all kinds of interesting stuff - I just couldn't keep it all together. I've had a lot going on in my personal and professional life, so it could just be that it was not a good time for me to be reading a book that required this level of concentration.

*SPOILERS AND REQUEST*
Despite all my complaints, I'd like to know what happened to Belinda and Javier, I just can't force myself to keep reading... If anyone has read this book, I got as far as Javier asking Belinda/Beatrice to marry him and Robert and the Red Queen finding out she was engaged. I'd like to find out if they did eventually marry, or if she betrayed him. Did she find out who his parents really are? My secret worry is that they were actually related - ewww!!! And what about her father? And who in the hell is Dmitri?

Cover Alert - Silver Borne by Patricia Briggs

Sci-Fi Guy has posted the new Mercy Thompson cover. It's gorgeous!!! I love this series and her covers are fantastic! Silver Borne comes out March 30, 2010 - I can't wait!!

Show Me Yours Saturday

I heart Book Gossip has started a new meme: Show Me Yours Saturday.
Here's how it works:

Each weekend try to post a Show Me Yours. It can include a favorite food to something about you. Show me the deets and I will show you mine. Key word is show: So show us some snazzy pictures not just words.
I think most of you know by now I live in New Orleans. Since today also happens to be the 4th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, I decided to post a few quick pics of the city I love:




This is my view of the city every morning on my drive in to work. This was a hard picture to get! I drive a stick shift and took this picture in bridge traffic on my way to work - let me tell you that took a bit of coordination! I work in one of the high-rises (I won't tell which one!)









Here's a St. Charles Avenue streetcar. It is the oldest continuously operating streetcar system in the world. The first Mardi Gras parade is held on the St. Charles Avenue streetcar every year on 12th night (January 6).












This is not a very clear picture, I couldn't get close enough to do it justice. It's our first Borders bookstore! The building used to be a funeral home (should be fun at Halloween)... I think that's pretty cool.











This is the ferry that goes from Algiers (where I live) to Canal Street (downtown New Orleans). I have many happy memories of riding this ferry with friends, headed out to the French Quarter. I love that I can just catch the ferry and I'm right there in the heart of the city!  [photo redacted]








This is the Catholic church in my old neighborhood. I was married here and my kids did their baptisms and first communions here. I love this church with it's high ceilings and beautiful stained glass windows. Modern churches give me the creeps.


I know I could have done a lot more touristy pics, but decided to show what I like about the city. Hope you don't mind.... and enjoy the pics!

The Friday 56

I saw this meme over at Sweet Vernal Zephyr and decided to play along:

A weekly meme hosted by Storytime with Tonya and Friends.* Grab the book nearest you. Right now.* Turn to page 56. * Find the fifth sentence.* Post that sentence along with these instructions on your blog or (if you do not have your own blog) in the comments section of this blog.* Post a link along with your post back to this blog.* Don't dig for your favorite book, the coolest, the most intellectual. Use the CLOSEST.


I am currently reading The Queen's Bastard by C.E. Murphy:

"Bitter thoughts on a midsummer morning did not bring on sudden illness, no matter how useful that illness might be to her. Dismayed nausea at a task interrupted did not leap from her frustration to poison a man's body.
It was not herself she had to convince."

(The last sentence is actually the 5th sentence, but it seemed like kind of a rip-off to just do that tiny sentence all by itself. )I hadn't been to the library in quite some time, and this one "fell off the shelf" and I decided to check it out (heh - I said "check it out". About a library book. Get it? Huh? Huh? ). Currently I'm struggling a bit with it, lots of names and places that I keep getting confused. BUT, it is an intersting story and I'm hoping my perserverence will pay off.

Review - The Undoing of a Lady by Nicola Cornick

This is the 3rd book in the Brides of Fortune trilogy. There's a lot going on so I hope this review makes sense!

Lady Elizabeth Scarlet (Lizzie) has always been a free spirit. Her mother was an alcoholic who left when she was a child, and her father died, leaving her in the custody of her two brothers. One brother, Sir Montague, is the squire of Fortune's Folly. No one in the village likes him, including Elizabeth, due to his greediness - he's enacted several more medival taxes since the Dame's tax from book one to milk his villagers of their money. Her other brother, Tom, is a worthless lout who has already dishonored one of her friends by getting her pregnant and leaving her to face the consequences alone.

Lizzie has strong feelings for Nat Waterhouse, one of her brother's friends that she has been very close to since childhood. Nat is getting married to an heiress because he desperately needs her dowry money. Lizzie knows he will be miserable and she plans to stop him before he makes a huge mistake. She sends for him to meet her the night before his wedding, intending to lock him in until after the wedding. Her plans go awry, however, and they end up having sex! Both parties are distressed once they realize what they've done and Lizzie runs away. Lizzie decides pretending it never happened is the best course of action, Nat wants to talk about it. She avoids him like the plague but keeps running into him in social situations.

Then, her brother Montague is murdered and the next night Tom has a very indecent party in their home, and Nat ends up rescuing Lizzie. The spend the night together and know that physically they are amazing together. Nat tells her she has no one else and must marry him and she agrees, although she is upset Nat doesn't love her like she loves him.

She does not know her brother Tom is blackmailing Nat with information about his sister. This is the only part of the book I had a problem with - Nat is a law enforcement officer of some sort. He should know better. But, he feels he must keep his sister's reputation safe, as well as provide for his mother. AND, he feels responsible for ruining Lizzie and wants to marry her to save her reputation as well as receive her rather large dowry so he can pay for Tom's silence.

Nat and Lizzie marry and it is a disaster from the start - neither one behaves well, and Nat's indifference and Lizzie's drinking and acting out become a problem. They have no communication between them, only great sex, and Lizzie decides that's not enough. She decides she wants Nat to woo her. Then, she overhears a conversation that causes her to run away again, not knowing the true story.

This story was good. The characters from the first two books were part of the story. The only thing I didn't like, as I mentioned before, was the blackmail plot, but it was integral to the storyline. Lizzie's character was pretty consistent as far as her actions and reactions to the various goings-on in the book. I can tell you this book had a lot of things going on at once - murder, sex, blackmail, jealousy, alcoholism, a naked horseback ride through a club. Yes, you read that right, a naked horseback ride through a club. I enjoyed this story, I'm sorry it's the last in the trilogy.

Am I reading too much paranormal romance?

My husband brought a new scented laundry soap home. We've been using it for about three days, and I keep smelling it on our clothes and sheets. Today I thought to myself, "I wonder if this is how vampires and werewolves feel when they are near people who wear perfume?"

WTF?!

Time Travel Tuesday

(I'm sure I've seen that title before, so my apologies to you if I stole it!)

I'm very excited about Diana Gabaldon's Echo in the Bone coming out September 29. I only own her first two books (will eventually get the rest) and I've been reading them randomly now and again, and I keep thinking to myself, if I went back, what would I bring?

I first thought - my Ipod, of course, but it would only last a few hours. But I wonder if I would remember any of the songs I like? Or just snippets? I barely know the words to half the songs on the radio now, let alone when there's no radio to sing along to. Then I imagine a scenario something like this:




I love that scene from Black Knight! If you haven't seen the movie, it's typical Martin Lawrence. He's an amusement park worker who accidentally travels back into Medeval England and the king thinks he's a court jester, or something like that. If you like "low-brow" humor (I do), you'll like it; if not, don't bother...

Back to the question at hand: What would I bring: Definitely a toothbrush and toothpaste, more than one if possible. My next choice would be shampoo/conditioner. Maybe a compact mirror and tweezers (I think they'd come in handy for more than just eyebrows!)? I thought about some kind of shoe insert (are you gellin'?) because I would imagine shoes in the past were not at all comfy. I wonder if a photo album would get me burned at the stake? Or my tattoo, for that matter...it's pretty visible. I would want to bring medicine, of course, but what kind or how much? Or maybe chocolate? Neosporin? So many choices................

Need Help - Can't remember the title of a book!!! Updated

***Many thanks to pattepoilue - you're a genius! The Princes of Ireland: The Dublin Saga by Edward Rutherfurd is it!!! This has been driving me crazy for weeks -thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

I have been trying to remember the name of a rather long book I read a few years back and haven't been able to remember. I tried calling the library to see if they kept the titles you check out but they don't. I've tried putting keywords in google but I'm not having any luck.

Okay, I read this book about 5 years ago, and I don't think it was new even then. It was not a romance. It was a fictional story, but sort of a history of Ireland, from pre-celt to ?maybe early 20th century? (I'm not sure it even got that far). It started out with the pre-celts painting themselves before battle. There were several storylines as time moved forward, but I think they all were somehow related by a human skull used as a drinking cup that was passed from generation to generation. I think there was a forced marriage in the beginning of the book. It touched on when St. Patrick came to the island, there was a bit about a priest who made copies of the bible, I think he may have also had the Book of Kells. There were stories involving women, but they're very vague in my mind... The arrival of the Vikings were covered, and also the beginnings of the history of strife between the Protestants and Catholics.

It was as very thick book, and an interesting read, but it went slowly; it took me longer to finish this book than any other book I have read. For some strange reason I remember the cover being green.

Does this book ring any bells for anyone????

Winners!!!

A HUGE thank-you to everyone who left a comment. I am so thrilled with all the suggestions; lots of new-to-me books and authors to explore! I'll be reading new stuff for weeks!!

I'm not as computer literate as I'd like to be, so to pick the winners I wrote down all the names and put them in a hat. My 8-year-old drew from the Daughters of Fortune hat and my 16-year-old drew from the Eve hat. So, if you're unhappy you didn't win you'll have to take it up with them on the playground after school. :)

Anyway, the winners are:

The Eve trilogy: Llehn!!

The Daughters of Fortune trilogy: Eva S!!!

Congratulations Ladies!!!

Please contact me with your snail mail addy at:

pspinney AT cox DOT net.