Dark Lover - J. R. Ward

J. R. Ward was the author of the month at HRC recently. I wasn't too tempted to try it, I had heard it was a mix of vampires and erotica which are 2 things that don't really appeal to me. However many of my friends (you know who you are :-)) with whom I share many reading tastes nagged me till I gave in and yesterday I finally decided to pick it up.

At first I was a bit confused by all those terms she mentions at the beginning.I had to go back several times to see what was what. Then there were too many characters and I had some problems identifying who was what (I wont mention all those Hs in the names but I think that was part of my problem).

I didn't have any problems with the story line except for the fact that I think this has been done before, a brotherhood of men, the need to feed and preferably from your mate, converting a human to another form of life... I think those have all been done before... I wont say if better or worse because it probably depends on your tastes. I find here many similarities with Feehan's Carpathians - these males are less arrogant yes but also have a nasty potty mouth the Carpathians didn't have. I don't read Feehan's vampires anymore exactly because of what made me not really enjoy this read - I've read this all before. And although it was a nice enough story I really couldn't care less about Wrath and Beth. The character that really won my sympathy was Marissa and I'm glad there's a happy end in the works for her.

So according to my new book rating system and me trying to be analytical in my opinion I would say this is a solid C for me - didn't love it and didn't hate it.

I wrote this right after I finished the book so it's possible that after a few days I might feel tempet to edit this review. It has happened before...

Now the big question, to pick pick the others in the series or to not pick the others in the series? One knows what to expect but one always has the expectation to find that little something that will make the difference...

Christmas Tree

The biggest Christmas Tree in Europe is located in downtown Lisbon. I plan to go and see it one of these days. It's 75 m. high and it has more than 2,5 million lamps. Impressive isn't it?

If you're too far away to come and see the Christmas lights here's a site that shows images





If you click on the web cam it will show images of the square where the tree is located. To check last year's tree go here

What Kind of Reader Are You?

What Kind of Reader Are You? Your Result: Dedicated Reader You are always trying to find the time to get back to your book. You are convinced that the world would be a much better place if only everyone read more.
Literate Good Citizen
Obsessive-Compulsive Bookworm
Book Snob
Fad Reader
Non-Reader
What Kind of Reader Are You? Create Your Own Quiz

Book Rating Systems

I've always had a few problems with rating books. As you can see from my first review I didn't rate the book with a grade. If I had to do it, it would be an A-.

When I first started to rate books I just separated them between good books and bad books (meaning the ones I enjoyed and the ones I didn't). Ever since I joined the discussion groups at Yahoo I tried to be more specific. Most people I know rate from A to F so that is what I decided to do. It didn't work well because I seldom had the courage to rate lower than C.

At the same time most of the books I read were not even close to being keepers. I decided to be more demanding in my appreciation, a B seemed to be a book other people kept and I was trading all of mine and sometimes I even traded As.

I was blog hoping one of these days and found a description of grades that I liked here:

A-LOVED this book. It will never leave my library. If I borrowed it, I'll buy it as soon as possible. Will reread often or go back to read my favorite parts.

B- I liked the book. It may or may not stay in my library. Probably won't get reread much.

C-Indifference. I didn't like it, I didn't hate it. Will be taken to the UBS

D-Didn't care for it. Didn't keep my interest. Story was dull. Will be taken back the UBS

F- Hated it. For sure going back to the UBS and will wish I hadn't wasted my time on it.

It's not different from what I suppose everyone else is using but I thought it was such an nice description that I made a vow of trying to fit my reads in that model. This is going to make me lower my grades somewhat but I'm sure it will be more accurate regarding my feelings for a book.

So I guess it's time for a major reread of my keepers and see if some of them fall off the shelf (or get kicked out). Most of them date from when I first started reading romance and my tastes are a bit different now.

Just wish I had a UBS near so I could trade all of those books that don't make the upper half of this rating system. And unfortunately they are many.

My new friend T. told me about some in Lisbon that I plan to visit in the near future. In the meanwhile I'll continue to trade books through my Trade Page or Bookmooch, can't have all those Cs laying around and occupying space that is meant for the As ;-)

Christmas Decorations

Ever since L. and I moved in together I tried to start some family traditions.

One of them has to do with Christmas decorations... On our first Christmas together I proposed to him that we make our own ornaments and every year we would add some to our collection.

This year I decided to make a Christmas wreath. It's still very much a work in progress because I'm not totally happy with it but at the moment I'm stuck and uninspired to do better...

Last year I sewed some stockings and was much happier with the results. I'll post the pics on of these days!

If anyone has some interesting traditions regarding the Holiday Season I would love to hear about them :-)

Voyager - Diana Gabaldon

I must say I really enjoyed this book. However I thought it was more interesting till they leave Scotland. Once they start off to the Caribbean it looses a bit of it's appeal to me and it took me longer to read that part than the first one.

The book starts with Jamie and Claire 2 centuries apart.
Claire discovers Jamie has survived Culloden and decides, with the blessing of their daughter, to go back in time.
Jamie has had a complicated life since surviving the battle, that includes time spent in prison, an illegitimate son and a loveless marriage with Laoghaire.
After professing their love for each other they have to deal with some of these issues and due to Jamie's current smuggling activities are forced to embark towards the West indies trying to find Young Ian (Jamie's nephew). The story worked really well for me till this point, then it slows a bit during their time at sea and near the end it picks up it's pace in preparation for the next book.

I think Gabaldon't strongest point besides research is how well developed her characters are, and I think I prefer the parts where she focus more on the characters themselves than in their adventures.

Does this make sense? It's my first online review so you'll have to bear with me…

In short – a very good book and if you haven't started this series yet you should because the first one is EXCELLENT!

My blog

Finally, I have a blog! It took me a long time to take this step because I was afraid it would be time consuming or I wouldn't have anything to post about or even if I posted it wouldn't be interesting or ... well you get the picture!

After being challenged several times by my friend Rosario I decided to do it!
Ro, here's my blog!!!

Why now? I guess that the more I read other people's blogs the more I feel it's a great way to share things / thoughts/ ideas /opinions or whatever with other people. It sounded like fun so here I am!!!!!