The School for Heiresses - Anthology

This is an anthology about 4 heiresses that were all at Mrs Harris School for some time.

In Sabrina Jeffries Ten Reasons to Stay I think the main characters fell in lust rather than in love. The hero is very vocal about not wanting to marry and changes his mind not because of the heroine but because of her evil uncle. Then the 10 reasons he gives her are supposed to be romantic but the whole sex scene backgroung just didn't work for me. When she makes the usual sacrifice and leaves him for his own good he discovers he loves her. Well it didn't convince me. A C.

Liz Carlyle wrote After Midnight. I liked this story much more than the previous one. The main characters are immedately attracted to one another but they don't make a move till fate, or a malevolous hand, throws them together. I thought that made for a more interesting and subtle approach. I'm glad this is the beginning of a series because I want to know more, especially what Rothewell and Xanthia are hiding. Of course, that's why she left so much unsaid. Come to think of it this story is one big cliffhanger. A B.

Julia London't The Merchant's Gift was a nice story but I think I would have enjoyed it more if it had ended when the hero and heroine reunite in London. They both come from trade and the plot revolves around the heroine's father wanting her to marry within the nobility. I didn't like how she jungled two suitors at the same time, in the end I enjoyed it but I think It could have worked better without that added conflict. A B-.

Renee Bernard's Mischief's Holiday was also a good one. I particularly liked the heroine and it seems to me the story is much more about her than the hero. It's always nice to read about heroines who are a bit less than perfect and keep getting themselves in trouble and have the humour to laugh about it, this just didn't work in the scenes where everyone else laughed at her which wasn't really nice or needed. A B-.

Crafty Presents

I did receive some crafty presents and since I've been too busy to do something myself I decided to show them here.




My new pants embroidered by Mom (I really must take a better picture)




A tea towel




Another tea towel

Which Austen heroine are you?

Take the Quiz here!

:: M A R I A N N E ::

You are Marianne Dashwood of Sense & Sensibility! You are impulsive, romantic, impatient, and perhaps a little to vocal in your honesty. You enjoy romantic poetry and novels, and play the pianoforte beautifully. To boot, your singing voice is captivating. You feel deeply, and love passionately.

Thank you!

Thank you all of you who emailed me and left comments with happy birthday messages! I had a really nice day, despite the doctor appointment, and enjoyed myself very much.

Can't resist sharing with you one of the presents I got. I had looked at my Mom's old sewing and embroidery books many times and mentioned I would like to have some myself. My brother and sister in law surprised me with a copy of "Enciclopédia da Agulha". As the name says a type of Encyclopedia of Embroidery and Sewing. It's really interesting and I've already spent some time looking at it, on the other hand I couldn't help laughing out loud because the fashion presented in the sewing department is exactly the same as the ones in the first edition...
I may learn the "how to" but I wont be doing it exactly as presented that's for sure!

And today it's party time again because it's L's birthday!

Happy Birthday to me!!

Yep, it's my birthday today! I took the day off work so I can just be lazy and do just the things I like to do. I already got two presents, a book and the shoes I told L. I liked last weekend. Wasn't he nice in presenting me with them?

I think I'll just stay home in the morning and organise the office, read a bit... things like that. In the afternoon I'm going to Lisbon with Mom, we plan on some shopping and on a down side I have to go and see a doctor because I've been having some pain in one foot. Not a nice thing to do on your birthday but it was the only day available.

In the evening it's dinner with the family and birthday cake for dessert! I loooove birthday cake :-)

Killer Smile – Lisa Scottoline

This book starts much like a thriller, menacing phone call, things lurking in the shadows. But then it transforms it self into an historical investigation and a mystery.

Mary DiNunzio is hired to do a pro bono case and investigate the death of an Italian man in an internment camp in America during World War II and seek reparations. The man she is investigating reminds her of her late husband and she can’t help trying to find everything she can about that old case. Soon she discovers that Amadeo’s death may not have been suicide and at the same time she starts being stalked by unknown persons which she feels are related to the case.

I really liked to learn about US history during the XX century. Scottoline’s grandparents were both considered enemies and interned in such camps so she seems to know what she is talking about.

Then I really enjoyed the mystery and how Mary kept adding up the clues to be more close to Amadeo’s real story, there is no real suspense but the case was interesting enough to keep me reading. I think the ghost was a bit unnecessary, at least for me it would have worked better without that paranormal reference. The climax is the court scene at the end of the book where both Mary and the reader are surprised by one witness’s testimony.

The humorous note in this book is in the bunch of blind dates Mary’s friends set up for her and her observations about those dates. I couldn’t help compare the background to the Stephanie Plum books, after all all the main characters are Italians here to. They seemed more real to me and less like a caricature.

I’m sure I’ll be picking up another Scottoline book soon. After I finished this one I realised it’s part of a series about the all-female law firm in which Mary DiNunzio works, now I’m looking forward to read the others in this series. A B+

Dinner and Fados at B.V.M.

Yesterday we went to a charity event, a dinner with a Fado show to raise funds for the fire fighters of our home town (B. V. M.). Besides believing in helping worthy causes my brother is one of them so we had planned to attend ever since the news was released.

It went really well with a great atmosphere and I really liked the singers, none of them was a professional, just people with talent helping a worthy cause.

Fado is considered the portuguese traditional music genre. I'm sure everyone enjoyed the show very much and I wish them every success.

Soaps

I'm afraid I have nothing new and crafty to talk about. I'm still looking for some new project.

Then it came to mind I had never posted about decoupage in soaps. I had a "soap period" a while back in which I decoupaged napkin paper onto soaps. Some I gave away but others are still with me.















I had more to show but most of the photos don't look right, the paper reflects the light and you can't even see what it is. I'm thinking maybe I should join a photography workshop or something...

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd - Agatha Christie

I read all (or almost…) of Agatha Christie’s mysteries in my teens and it’s been years since I picked up one of these Poirot mysteries. I was really glad when it was decided to do a group reading of this one at the CozyMystery group. I’m a bit late as this should have been in the beginning of the month and I just finished it yesterday but oh well…

I enjoyed it very much. It’s had been so long since I first read it that I had totally forgotten who the murder was. I started to have some suspicions by the middle of the book, more because of what kept coming to mind from the previous read than from any clues Poirot mentioned.

First of all I like the small time atmosphere. It’s so much fun when there are big mysteries in close knit community where everyone knows everyone else and because of that anyone has a theory about who the guilty part might be. I think I missed having Hastings around, Dr Sheppard somehow was not the same thing (and the end would prove me right…) but I really liked Caroline Sheppard’s character. It seems common knowledge that she was what inspired the Miss Marple character and I thought she was a lot of fun always knowing everything, even when she didn’t leave the house.

I thought the plot twist in the end was really original. I love those reunions Poirot sets with all the suspects while he takes the leading role and explains who did what. I believe this is the only book in which he doesn’t reveal the guilty person during that meeting (correct me if I’m wrong please).

This read also made me want to pick all my old Christie’s and reread them again. I think they are truly comfort reads. If I didn’t have such a big TBR pile I would read them all again. An A-.

I read a Portuguese edition which has 2 books, this one and The Secret of Chimneys. Maybe I wont resist that one for long. And the cover shown here is not the one I read since I couldn't find it online and I thought David Suchet looks really good as Poirot on TV so I chose this one with him.

21st of March - The arrival of Spring

I was so thrilled yesterday with the idea of having finished the needle case (that Mom loved by the way) that I totally forgot the beginning of spring. I think Spring is my favourite season, the days get bigger, the landscapes turn green, flowers bloom. Lovely!

I wanted to find an appropriate picture to illustrate this post but sadly I couldn't find any that I liked among mine. I had to resort to this picture from the WWW that really appealed to me but it has already made me decide I have to take the camera with me more often when I leave the house.




Speaking of pictures I couldn't resist posting the picture of this cute polar bear that is striking a huge debate in Germany. Although I am aware of the dangers of not letting nature follow it's due course I can't help being happy that they saved him whenever I look at this picture.

Knitting Needle's Case

So after some struggle I finally finished it. Well, not really because I'm always finding new things to perfect in what I do. But it's as finished as it could be after a whole evening of sewing and gluing! Yes, I cheated! The red ribbons are glued. I just didn't want to take the risk of having the sewing looking bad again...

Here it is:

The inside...



The outside...



Half closed so we can see both sides...


And closed...

I just hope my mother likes it, not sure when I'll be making another one eh eh! No, just kidding, I really have to devote myself to sewing more often so it doesnt always feel like a difficult process. Practice makes perfect right? At least that's what I'm hoping :-)

Tangled Lies - Anne Stuart

Another Anne Stuart series book with a really original plot. This one is a Harlequin Intrigue. Rachel Chandler flies to Kauai to meet with her brother Emmett who's been missing for 15 years. When she finally finds him it seems he is not as happy to see her and she is about seeing him and soon she starts to feel very attracted to him.

This could have been a very weird book, after all the heroine starts to have what seems to be incestuous feelings, however we are told almost from the start that Emmett is not her real brother and is only pretending to be due to a hidden agenda. That was a good thing!

"Emmett" is also very attracted to Rachel and eventually he tells her the truth. But how many authors would choose a hero who pretends to be at first a long lost brother? Not many but Stuart is known for her unlikely heroes. I thought this was one cold hero though, really focused on his hidden agenda.

I really liked the atmosphere in this book and Rachel was a interesting character. "Emmett" is a bit harder to like, I think revenge after 15 years is a bit unbelievable especially because the beginning of it was just an accident. I was enjoying the book very much but that final scene where Rachel tries to convince him not to go to the airport and what he tells her really annoyed me. I can deal with heroes being idiots in the beginning of the story, or when they think it's for the heroine's good or even when they are not well adjusted to society but this wasn't the case.

The solution of who is Emmett was well thought of and it surprised me. So I'm giving this one a B-. The cover of the book I read is not the one pictured here but it seems these older editions are hard to find online.

Sewing Sunday - not!

I had planned to spend yesterday's afternoon sewing. And I did try to do that but things weren't coming along as they should.

Sewing should be a soothing, stress free hobby but sometimes it's like the sewing machine is trying to punish me and things don't go as I wish. Maybe the fact that I decide what to do as I go along has something to do with it. Maybe I should plan, cut the fabric and put the pieces together before I actually start with machine sewing...

Oh well, I didn't finish the project I was working on but I'm tackling it again today.

We had the TV on while I was working and there was another Prison Break episode. They finally broke free from prison. But now I'm thinking if there is a season 2 will they be arrested again or is it just them on the run?
Caught another series on TV one of these days with the same actor. I think it's called John Doe but I didn't quite understand what all the action was about.

I ended up the day with a book in my hands, now that is guaranteed to relax me!

Kiss and Tell - Cherry Adair

This was my first book by this author, it has been in my TBR pile for quite a while and to be honest I don’t remember why I got it. I had a hard time determining what kind of story it was. It could be a romantic suspense but the truth is that it lacked on the suspense part so I’ll just call it a contemporary romance.

She was looking for adventure.

Marnie Wright has seen more than her fair share of testosterone. Growing up with four overly protective brothers was one thing. Now a mountain man named Jake Dolan has invaded a peaceful day of soul-searching at her grandmother's secluded cabin. Sure, she was trespassing on his private property, but did he have to pull a gun on her? There's more to this longhaired soldier of fortune who calls himself the Tin Man, but she's not sure she wants to stick around to find out what. Then he stashes her in his secret lair-an underground techno-fantasy complete with security monitors and an arsenal-and Marnie realizes the guy is military, top secret military. He's also got the most beautiful mouth she's ever seen.

He could get her killed.

My first problem was that I don’t really like military / secret agents / navy seals / special operations books. I know they are all the rage but I really don’t get the appeal. I much prefer profilers and psycological thrillers... And then the heroine was my second problem, she sounded too naïve, always blurting out what was on her mind and salivating after the hero as soon as she set eyes on him. It just seemed too soon.

I did like the hero! He helps her when her cabin is smashed to bit by a falling tree. Although he has a lot of work to do he is always correct to her even if she talks his head off and starts coming on to him. There are 2 situations in which Marnie saves Jack’s life but really she doesn’t seem the type of being able to survive alone in a emergency.

I also liked her brothers, I thought they had potential even if the protective brothers always menacing little sisters beau’s scene is a bit dated. I have Hide and Seek in my TBR pile and I think it’s about a non military brother so maybe I’ll like that one better. This one, I’m afraid, was a C.

Desk Acessories

I'm always involved in more than one project and sometimes my desk looks like a storm went by. Yesterday I decided that I had to start organising it or I'm never going to find anything that I need when I need it.


First went the smaller things. I already had a pen and pencil cup with 2 dogs I had decorated but I decided I needed a bigger one. I painted a vase, added some ribbon and a few chickens and here's the result...

Now I'll have to start organising and storing the piles of books and magazines I have acumulated... just maybe not today... One can only do so much clean up in one day!

Dancing with Clara – Mary Balogh

I hardly ever reread books, not because I don’t feel like it but because the TBR pile is more of a TBR mountain by now and I made it a resolution to read mostly those books.
However I couldn’t resist picking up Dancing With Clara when the opportunity arised. I enjoyed it as much, if not more, than when I first read it. Why? Maybe because this the ultimate story of a rogue being redeemed by loving a good woman.

Freddie Sullivan has left for Bath in shame after having attempted to compromise his cousin – a rich heiress – so he could pay off his debts. In Bath he woos Clara Danford, a young and very rich lady who is crippled and uses a wheel chair for that same reason.

Freddie and Clara marry and while he tries to act like a man in love, she is fully aware of why he married her, she agreed for her own reasons – she was lonely and he was beautiful. They spend a week honeymooning in their country estate and things proceed rather well till Clara tells Freddie he doesn’t need to pretend he is in love with her. With is pride hurt he removes himself to London.

This could be just another story about a wastrel who marries money and continues on a life of dissipation but it’s not. And it’s not because Balogh describes very well rounded and complex characters. Freddie has a lot of faults, he gambles and visits brothels while away from his wife but he doesn’t forget her or what might make her happy. That is why he searches for the doctor to see if she can walk again, and why he takes her to the theatre. But he is still hurt and unable to forgive himself of what he did in the previous book (see Courting Julia). And the more he cares for Clara the more unworthy he feels. This is an angst ridden story with some really dark moments and in the end we are not presented with a typical happy end. Freddie will continue to try to be a better person and Clara’s forgiveness is what keeps him in the right path.

I realise this review is mostly about Freddie but I think him and his growth during the book are really what this story is about. Despite his faults he tried to bring joy to a crippled and lonely woman and fell in love with her in the process. Maybe it isn’t such an easy story to like but I certainly found it much more interesting than just being presented with lighter characters and easier solutions. This seemed somehow much more real.

An A+! And can someone please tell Mrs Balogh’s publisher these books should be reprinted!!

Thinking of Easter...

...and presents for the children...

A Perfect Evil – Alex Kava

I had never heard of Alex Kava but recently I was talking about thrillers with a friend and she was kind enough to offer to lend me this one.

I really enjoyed it in the sense that it was a page turner, fast paced and with an interesting story. It has a female profiler as the main character and I just love to read about profilers and psychological analysis and that sort of thing. I think we ended up not having much in the way of explaining how profilers work but it was interesting nonetheless.

Maggie O’Dell is a FBI profiler called to a small town to help the sheriff’s department investigating the murder of a young boy. Nick Morrelli is the town sheriff, a confident ex athlete but with no real experience in fighting crime. And suddenly it seems that it’s not just that murder but a serial killer maybe on the loose as another boy is kidnapped.

One thing upset me a bit, part of the story is told from the killer’s point of view and there are much more descriptions of the evil things done to him than of the ones he did. It’s a lot easier when you know nothing of the bad guy except for his crimes but I think this made for a much interesting, if graphic and uncomfortable reading. Maybe the author’s goal was to make us have ambivalent feelings toward him. There was a strong suspense element almost till the end and the big surprise is not only who the killer is but also something that is a big spoiler so I can't post here … maybe thinking of a sequel…

There’s a bit of a romantic subplot but it never really develops into a relationship so I wouldn’t call it a romantic suspense. Maybe she is saving that for a sequel too.

All in all a really intense read and so I would give it a B+.

Flickr Badge

Success at last... Just look under the blogroll!
The template is not perfect though, I still have to learn more html.

This is one of the fun things of maintaining a blog. Not sure if everyone is like me but I'm always trying to find more not only about my interests to post here but about how these things work so I can add more interesting tools...

Pleasure for Pleasure - Eloisa James

Ever since this book came out I've been entertaining the idea of reading it, however with so many books on the TBR pile I never picked it up till this weekend. I was really curious about this book since we've been watching Josie grow for the last 3 books and Mayne has been around for even longer.

I should now warn you that this review has a lot of spoilers, if that could ruin the book for you please don't read further.

I'm not sure if this was a case of my expectations being too high but I had some problems with the story.

Josie Essex has just made her come out in society but she is far from being a success. Nicknamed the Scottish Sausage she is avoided by every eligible gentleman and can't even find dancing patners at the balls.

Mayne is an old rake who has had lots of affairs and in the past has been linked to 2 Essex sisters (I didn't like that). He decides to help Josie be more seductive and become a society success. During this time he is engaged to somebody else who he says he is completely in love with (another thing that bothered me).

My big problem was with how Mayne treated Josie. I wont go into the age difference thing because I think it could have worked despite that but with Mayne treating Josie as a younger sister for most of the book it was a bit unbelievable when he suddenly decided he was in love with her. That and the fact that he keeps affirming his love for his fiancee till the day she breaks up with him and on the same day he proposes to Josie, I know he does it believing to be saving her from a ruinous situation but it seemed weird to me just the same.

The positive note was Griselda's love story. I think she needed and deserved to find someone to love and that she did. At first I was a bit surprised that her lover is none other than the young man who nicknamed Josie with that awful name but in the end James's really made that story work. I just wished for an apology from him to Josie that didn't happen. Oh and I discovered fairly soon who was writing Hellgate's memoirs...

I'll grade this one a B- just for Darlington and Griselda because with just Mayne and Josie it would be a C story. It's well written and I really enjoyed revisiting the characters but I couldn't avoid disliking Mayne and Josie's scenes.

Oh and by the way I think this cover is totally wrong, the woman on the cover would never be called the The Scottish Sausage!

Wood Pencil Case

I posted earlier how one of my works in progress was a pencil case for a little girl's bithday. Well I finished it this weekend and I sure hope she likes it.


I really enjoyed making it! Or better said, decorating it, I like the bright colors, the candy, it makes me think of happy things. The light wasn't the best when I photographed so the pictures look a bit darker than they really are.

Now I'm off to wrap it in pretty paper and ribbon.

Four to Score - Janet Evanovich

So I read another Stephanie Plum this week too. And I loughed out loud yet again!

This time Stephanie is looking for Maxine Nowicki. She went missing with her boyfriends car and he made a complaint and had her arrested. When she fails her court hearing Stephanie enters the scene and is hired by the boyfriend to find Maxine and some papers she took. At the same time Maxine starts to leaves a trail of clues for the boyfriend, Eddie, to find and some of her friends and family start being attacked.

In this book Plum adds another character to her group - Sally, a female impersonator is the only one capable of decyphering the clues in form of puzzles Maxine is leaving for Eddie. And finds a new nemesis - Joyce Barnhardt, another female bounty hunter that Vinnie assigns to Maxine's case after seeing no results from Stephanie.
We get to know more about Morelli as Stephanie's house is burned down by an arsonist and she has to move in with him. Besides he has to protect her because she is being threatened by someone telling her to "leave my boyfriend alone", only she doesn't know who the boyfriend is.

This was another hilarious book with lots of very funny scenes. Besides the usual Lula dialogues Sally's description and vocabulary are just too funny. I couldn't stop laughing every time Lula made Joyce have "dizzy spells" and I hope Joyce will show up in future books just so Lula can deal with her.

I think this one is A range because as I'm sitting here writing this I'm laughing out loud just thinking about it.

Disneyland Resort Paris

No crafty or bookish posts today. I spent yesterday at a workshop about Disneyland Resort Paris and ended up with no time for my hobbies.

Now I'm not exactly the kind of visitor that these parks attract. Although I liked Disney movies and comics when I was younger I wasn't an addict and I never, or at least very seldom, watch them now. So I went because I thought it would be helpful to have more knowledge to share with the clients.

I haven't changed my opinion but I have to admit that it was more fun than I thought to watch the movies about the park, the parades, the Disney characters and all the attractions they have there. If ever the opportunity arises I guess I wouldn't mind spending a weekend with Mickey and Minnie.

Heat Lightning – Anne Stuart

Read another Stuart category and I have one more in the TBR pile. I guess it’s Anne Stuart’s week around here again.

This is another one of her stories with a bad boy, possible killer, hero and a naïve, innocent heroine who blossoms as she falls in love. Caleb Spencer comes to Turner’s Landing looking for revenge and Jassy Turner can’t help be attracted to the man who seems bent on ruining her brother’s life. As we discover what lays behind Caleb’s attitude Jassy faces the reality of an alcoholic mother and a manipulative brother. Set in the old south in the middle of swamps and with a certain gothic atmosphere I think it needed to be a full length to fully develop the atmosphere. We have a glimpse of an oppressive small town that is run behind the scenes by the most prominent member of the community but it’s not enough to create suspense.

Although I did enjoy the story I think it lacked some of the tension that makes these smaller stories stand out. By now I’ve read a small part of Stuart’s huge back list and I think what makes these small stories so attractive is the relationship between the main characters and how they deal with their feelings and situations that seem to lead them to no good. From that point of view I think I prefer titles like Blue Sage, Crazy Like a Fox or Winter’s Edge. Having said that I still think it’s a good story and so it’s a B-.

The cover photo is not the one from the book I’ve read which was the 1992 edition but I was unable to find it online so I posted this one instead.

Another WIP - a wooden pencil case

I seem to be starting more projects than finishing them lately. This one is a wooden pencil case I'm making for a little girl's birthday next month.

I still haven't finished the bookcover and I'm already playing with ideas for a knitting needles case for my Mom not to mention all the other things I'm constantly thinking of trying... Maybe it's the fact that I still haven't the office/library/crafts room organized as I would like. Hope to take care of that soon :-)

Playing around with Flickr

www.flickr.com

I'm still exploring the site, this is a test to see how the badge looks like... I would rather have the flash badge but that doesn't seem to be working here. Have to go and explore more I guess. I'll also have to learn a bit html, what blogger keeps complaining it that one of the tags is not closed. It looks closed to me but what do I know! Not much!

A Dark and Stormy Night - Anne Stuart

This weekend I read another one of Anne Stuarts old categories and I really enjoyed it.

A dark and Stormy Night has a sort of a gothic feel. The hero O'Neal lives alone with his housekeeper and her son in a big house by the cliffs, dark and brooding he hides secrets about his family and has no friends.

Katie Flynn, the heroine, is lost in a storm and almost dies in an accident after she sees a ghost. She is rescued by O'Neal and brought to his house to rest and wait for the weather to clear again.

She is mighty intrigued by O'Neal who seems to not want anything to do with her and a bit afraid of the housekeepers son. Soon more ghosts make an appearence asking Katie to save O'Neal and the housekeeper and her son show their true colors. But there's still a secret behind O'Neal's behaviour and his guilty conscience about what happened to his family.

As I said I greatly enjoyed it. I'm not that much into the paranormals that seem to be fashionable these days but I really liked the paranormal elements Stuart inserted here. The copyright is from 1997 so it's almost like she predicted the current trend of ghosts and shapeshifters. Besides she is one of the few authors (actually maybe the only one as I can't seem to remember any other) that I read in these category format and actually manage to write a fully developded story in so few pages.

I'm going to grade it an A- because it was a really nice read and I know I'll want to read it again in the future.

Cericaia with Ameixas d' Elvas

When we went to Alentejo 2 weeks ago we bought a jar with Ameixas d’Elvas. With it came a recipe for Cericaia, a typical cake of the region that you are supposed to eat with the mentioned Ameixas (plums).


Yesterday I decided to try the recipe! It doesn’t look exactly as it should but you know my culinary talents are not my best feature. And truth be told it tasted exactly as it should so I guess it was okay.

Here's the recipe in case you want to try it too:
12 eggs
1 lt milk
150 g flour
500 g sugar
salt
1 cinnamon stick
1 lemon rind
powdered cinnamon

Beat the milk, flour, sugar, cinnamon stick, lemon zest and the salt into a cream by putting it over a low flame and stirring always. Let it cool and add the egg yolks. When it's completely cold add the egg whites previously beaten till they are stiff. Mix everything with a spoon and then place in spoonfuls in an earthenware plate. Cover with powdered cinnamon and take to the oven for about 40 minuts. It should form cracks as it bakes.
Serve with the plums.



Note: this was the recipe that came with the plums but I made only half the ingredients because it makes for a very big dessert.

Buttons

I just had to get a few more...












and more...

Three to Get Deadly - Janet Evanovich

I really enjoy reading Stephanie Plum's adventures. This is the third one I read as I'm making a point of reading them in order.

The truth is that at first I thought I wouldn't enjoy them as much as I do. After all their reality has little to do with mine - bounty hunters, italian families that seem to have come out of a Godfather movie, a definitely weird community where everyone pokes their noses in everyone else's business (well maybe that's not so weird)... but the truth is that I laugh out loud with Stephanie's outburts and the interesting (for lack of a better word) relationship she has with her friends and possible love interests.

In this book Plum goes after Uncle Mo, a well known member of the community who has failed to appear for a court hearing and now is nowhere to be found. The problem is that no one wants to help Stephanie find him and soon the bodies start piling up. And it seems Uncle Mo might not be just an innocent candy store owner.

The mystery was okay but I'm really into these books because of the hilarious dialogues and characters like Plum, Lula, Grandma Mazur, Morelli, Ranger, etc etc
I have nº 4 on top of the tbr pile (it's a BC bookring) and I'm looking forward to it. A B.

My WIP - a Bookcover

As announced I'm trying to make a bookcover so I can carry the books in bag without damaging them. There's so many beautiful ones around that I didn't come up with a new design, I just let my self by inspired by these, these and these. It's not ready yet because I still have to find a way to close it, not sure if I'll use velcro or something else... It will probably be laying around till I feel inspired enough to finish it and take new photos because the ones I have now are, as usual, not that good. I think I can blame part of that on the light, I usually photograph first thing in the morning and now I'm thinking the light is not enough. Oh well!





As you can see I love those flower buttons! I can't get enough of them it seems!