Icons anyone?

I had no idea but it seems there are lots and lots of people out there doing Icons of their favorite movies or actors. Jane Austen Today is doing a contest of the best Becoming Jane Icons and Alex sent in 2 of hers. They are really beautiful. If you're interested you can find them here, Alex's are nº 9 and nº 10!

Spring's Fury - Denise Domning

As you can see I couldn't resist this one either...

Nicola of Ashby, unusually tall and strong for a woman, was allowed by her father to train with a sword. Not that John of Ashby ever intended to make his daughter into a woman-warrior. For him it was a way to coddle a beloved child. For Nicola it was the means by which she intends to take and hold her home as its lord. But all her training and skill doesn't help her when her father falls beneath the blade of Gilliam FitzHenry. Instead, she watches her father die, then is forced into marriage with his killer. Nicola will do anything, even murder, to free herself and her home from Gilliam's control.
Even taller than Nicola, Gilliam FitzHenry finds in Ashby's heiress a woman who could be his equal--that is, if she doesn't kill him first. Amid treachery and tragedy, rival knights and the pain of past wounds, Gilliam sets out to win Nicola's respect, then her heart.

The main characters are Gilliam, Rannulf and Temric's brother, and Nicola the girl whose father he killed at the end of Winter's Heat. It seems obvious by now that Domning likes to put her characters in a difficult position to start with. As a curiosity Domning mentions on her website she based Nicola on the true historical character Nicolaa de la Hay, who in the XIII century was sheriff of the city of Lincoln.

As its normal Nicola hates Gilliam. Gilliam neither likes nor dislikes Nicola but he wants to rule the keep that belonged to her family - Ashby - and so he has to marry her. Nicola wants to put a stop to those plans and fakes a betrothal with a neighbour She feels that Gilliam not only killed her father and ruined her home but now wants to possess her. Desperate to avoid that she fights him and runs away. Gilliam eventually captures her, after she has fought and killed a few outlaws and takes her to Ashby.

Without her knowledge Gilliam has been rebuilding Ashby's village and, despite the fact that he destroyed them in the first place, he has now convinced the villagers he is the right man to rule. And it's those villagers who convince/force Nicola to accept the marriage. And Gilliam, on learning of her fears, tells he wants her and needs her due to her skills as a castellan, he wants them to work together for the good of Ashby and if she is not ready he will wait to consummate the marriage. Although Nicola biggest wish was to never marry and be herself Ashby's ruler she feels that she can accept this agreement has it will allow her to rule the keep as she always did and she won’t have to be intimate with Gilliam.

I think one of the things I enjoyed the most about this book was that for a big part of it Gilliam and Nicola developed a relationship between them, they learned about each other, started to trust each other and only after that did they fall in love. When Nicola once again shows her grief over the way her father was killed Gilliam doesn't defend his actions (which he could have) but tells her he wishes he could have done it differently. Nicola’s biggest wish was to be in charge of her own castle but in those times it was difficult for a woman to be allowed that and Gilliam conquered her by dealing with her on equal terms, fighting for the same goal of restoring Ashby.

There is a subplot involving the neighbour that Nicola chose for the fake betrothal who wants to ruin them and conquer Ashby and what he does to harm them, and another about a boy that Geoffrey, another brother, brings Gilliam to foster but this book was basically about the characters getting to know each other and falling in love.

Once again a true feel of the period!

Grade: B+

Summer's Storm - Denise Domning

After enjoying Winter's Heat so much I couldn't resist starting the next one in the series, Summer's Storm.

In a world where folk are either common or noble, Temric FitzHenry, bastard of Graistan, is neither and both. When he finally meets his equal, Philippa of Lindhurst, also a bastard raised to noble expectations, it's too late; Philippa is already married. Then, Temric discovers the abuse she endures at her husband's hands and his heart demands he make her his own. Philippa cherishes each day with her kidnapper, loving this kind and caring man who promises she will never again know pain. But, she also knows her husband will find her and, when he does, they'll both die. To make Temric hers, Philippa must find the courage to defy death and escape a heritage that makes their love the deepest of sins.

As the previous book this one grabbed me right from the start. It could have been a total failure as it deals with adultery and incest in the medieval sense (a woman can not marry the brother of her sister's husband) and it was easy to take a modern look at it.

When Temric meets Philippa he has already spent quite of few months thinking about her. Because she is bastard born, like him, he feels an immediate connection with her and instantly falls in love. Their relationship is forbidden because she is married, albeit to an abusive husband that beats her, and because Philippa's half sister Rowena is married to Temric's half brother Rannulf.

This is especially painful for Temric who feels his chance at happiness is nonexistent, while Philippa is still getting to know him and doesn’t feel it as strongly. She just wants to be free of her husband, since she can’t have Temric, end her days in a nunnery. But when she is abused and almost killed by her husband Temric decides that it's better to lie and live in sin than let her die and they both escape to his mother's house in Normandy.

There were several things to enjoy in this one. Once again the medieval feel, the preoccupations of that period and how that is dealt with. For instance the priest tells Philippa that he doesn't believe her feelings for Temric are offensive to God. This could have been too modern and anachronistic but he goes on to explain that he believes it because he has seen many times how couples use that excuse all the time to petition the Pope for an annulment, when they married knowing it was so. That made sense to me, it happened countless times. Then I liked that she changed the setting of this one to a merchant reality, Temric's mother was married to a merchant and it’s in that reality that they live as man in wife. Domning doesn't give that much information but it was interesting to have a glimpse of a different reality.


They do live happily for a while but the truth eventually comes out. Temric has finally accepted that he is a knight and longs for the life in a keep as he has always lived with his brother. And Rannulf wants to give him his own keep which leads them to have to face their lies before they finally reach happiness.

It’s interesting also how, in contrast to other books, the ending is now about the h/h coming together but about finding a way for them to be accepted socially when they so clearly live in sin. I think the solution also has a ring of truth there. Something different would be impossible to believe in.

Grade: B+

I read the 1995 edition but the book was re-edited in 2001 and Domning mentions on her website that she corrected some errors.

Thank you!

It's on top of the TBR pile!

Winter's Heat - Denise Domning

I love medieval stories, both historical fiction and historical romance. I had heard of Denise Domning as being in the same genre has Denee Cody and Anita Mills and since I received a few copies of her books last week I couldn't resist starting one immediately.

Sent to a convent at seven and trained to be an abbess, Rowena of Benfield is forced from her nunnery to marry cold Rannulf FitzHenry, lord of Graistan. Left alone by Rannulf at Graistan Keep, Rowena shares the castle with Rannulf's deceased wife's pretty sister and his handsome younger brother, along with all their dark secrets. Rannulf FitzHenry has been a woman's fool once, an experience he's determined never to repeat. He wouldn't have married Rowena if not for her extensive properties, lands that meld well with his own. Now in his determination to protect his heart he blinds himself to the tide of treachery rising around him, not realizing that his only hope for survival lies in daring to trust, to cherish and to love unconditionally.

Rowena is promised to a convent life but her father decides to make her his heir and give her to a powerful knight who will protect her lands and riches. Rannulf and Rowena wed and although he is attracted to her he fights that as he doesn't want to love her. Rowena is only just getting to know her husband and his coldness hurts her and makes her distrust him. She is however knowledgeable in what a keep's lady duties are and when her husband leaves her alone to go and fight for king Richard she decides to improve and rule his hall to the best of her abilities.

I think Domning gives a true feel of the 12th century and people's behaviour then. The books has some flaws, or better said some characteristics of having been written during the 90s (an awful cover for instance) like a heroine that is a bit too feisty at time and some misunderstandings but I found that she created believable characters and never let them fall into TSTL or violent behaviour territory. Instead they tried to understand and reason with each other to find peace and contentment. This is more obvious in Rowena as women were more limited in their actions and depended on their husbands. Rannulf, is obvious from the beginning, is hiding a past hurt. I was glad Domning doesn't make him mistake his wife for the one who hurt him in the past. However it is his inability to be free of the past that causes problems between them and makes him blind to the villain and its actions. It's only after they have shared each other's lives and he feels not only an emotional connection to her but that she has always defended his interests and his happiness that he decides to trust her with the story of his past and that they are ready to face the future together.

I also like the set of secondary characters that helped bring to life a medieval keep with it's reality of everyday living. I was happy to know that Rannulf's brothers have their own books and I have them here so I'll read them next.

Grade: A-

Note to self: find the author's other books asap!

New Additions to the TBR pile

Quite a few new arrivals this week:

Tasha Alexander - And Only to Deceive
Anthology - Christmas Wedding Belles
A.S. Byatt - Possession
Patricia Cornwell - At Risk
Denise Domning - Summer's Storm
Denise Domning - Winter's Heat
Denise Domning - Spring's Fury
Paul Doherty - The Poison Maiden
Roberta Gellis - Fires of Winter
Raj Kamal Jha - The Blue Bedspread
Iain Pears -An Instance of The Fingerpost
Lynn Viehl - Evermore
Jacqueline Winspear - Maisie Dobbs

Maisie Dobbs I already read as a bookring and wanted my own copy. Gellis is a favourite author as are Viehl and Cornwell. All the others are new to me and I couldn't resist starting one of the Domning's immediately. I'm in a medieval mood!

Soup

We're ready to get back on track with the diet so yesterday I decided to make a soup for dinner. It had to be a satisfying one so I decided to throw together some things I had in the fridge. Some meat, bacon, cabbage, one onion, small potatoes, beans and some little bits of pasta. It was really yummy!

Never Lie to a Lady - Liz Carlyle

I usually enjoy Carlyle's books and after reading the short story in the School for Heiresses anthology I thought this might be an interesting series.

The notorious Marquis of Nash is a creature of the night; his wealth and his title provide but a tenuous entrée into polite society. With his Eastern European manners and dark elegance, Nash tempts women even as he tempts the scandalmongers. Rumors abound of the men he has bankrupted and the hearts he has broken. But when Nash leaves his lair for a rare foray into the ton, and enjoys a moment of heated passion with a mysterious lady in the dark, he develops an obsession which will lead him into the hellish world of smugglers, spies, and political intrigue as the Continent edges nearer to war.
Xanthia Neville has arrived in London to expand her family’s most lucrative business holding—Neville Shipping. With her brother Rothewell all too happy to waste his life in debauchery, Xanthia opens up shop in London’s grimy Docklands, and sets about expanding the family fortune, all the while flaunting the ton’s silly strictures about how a lady ought to behave. But London, she soon learns, is not Barbados. And when the British Government approaches Rothewell to ask the family’s help in exposing a dangerous arms dealer, Xanthia must enter society after all, only to find her loyalties torn. Someone in London is fueling the conflict on the Balkan Peninsula by smuggling illicit weapons into the Aegean—and there is only one likely suspect. The Marquis of Nash has the resources, the contacts and, quite possibly, the deeply divided loyalties. But can Xanthia’s subterfuge prove him a traitor to the Crown before her heart is broken?

Now that I've finished I am unsure how to rate it. First of all, the book sounded very modern to me. I think I could believe in an independent, working and experienced heroine but Xanthia seemed too comfortable in bending all the rules, it was like she had a separate set of rules that allowed her to go everywhere and do everything.

Then there’s her relationship with Nash. I really liked Nash by the way and his dialogues with his valet! He was supposedly a rake but the day after they kiss at a party he visits her brother to ask permission to court her. And first the brother, Rothewell, and then Xanthia set him straight about her not being interested in marriage. That struck me as odd! That he, the rake, is immediately proposing after one heated encounter. Then the Neville's are involved in an investigation about rifles' smuggling and Xanthia has the perfect excuse to go near Nash and find out what he knows about it. I had very bad feelings about this, it's easy to see that Nash, who has had a difficult past and has a difficult family to deal with, is falling in love with her and she not only doesn't tell him the truth but doesn't seem to have any strong feelings towards him. It's more a sexual romance with Xanthia being in turns overtly bold or not very experienced. Weird! Then suddenly the whole mystery plot is discovered, Nash forgives Xanthia for having been spying on him and it's the end.

I think it lacked chemistry between the h/h and plot wise it wasn't really interesting. Not to mention that she keeps hinting at some mysterious bad thing that happened to them in Barbados and instead of making me curious I'm starting to feel that there's nothing concrete there. And what's the mystery with Aunt Olivia? Because I really liked her!

Grade: C

Six Unimportant Things About Me

Marg has tagged me for a new meme:

The rules are:

1. Link back to the person who tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Share six unimportant things about yourself.
4. Tag six random people at the end of your blog entry.
5. Let the tagged people know by leaving a comment on their blogs.


** I'm addicted to Bookmooch and Bookdepository as main book suppliers.

** I hate doing household chores like cleaning or ironing but I love to organise my office and library.

** I love to hand sew.

** I don't like to drive but I do it everyday.

** I like to travel but I'm really lazy about organising things. I usually start early and only end up booking everything on the eve of the travel.

** I frequentely have insomnia when I'm worried or annoyed with something and I get up in the middle of the night to read and write emails.

...and now I'm tagging my usual victims: A. and A. and also Fantasma, Leya, Joanna and everyone else who wants to do it...

Just One Look - Harlan Coben

I have to confess I had never really heard of Harlan Coben before A.'s offer to lend me the book. I was a bit curious as I'm always looking for new authors of thrillers and suspense and this weekend I finally picked it up. Well, I was totally glued to the story, I only stopped to eat and sleep...

An ordinary snapshot causes a suburban mother’s world to unravel in an instant. When Grace Lawson picks up a newly developed set of family photographs, there is a picture that doesn’t belong -- a photo from at least twenty years ago. In the photo are five people, four Grace can’t recognize and one that looks strikingly like her husband, Jack.
When Jack sees the photo, he denies he’s the man in it. But later that night, while Grace lies in bed waiting, he drives away in the family's minivan without an explanation, taking the photograph with him.
Not knowing where he went or why he left, Grace struggles alone to shield her children from Jack’s absence in the days that follow. Each passing day brings only doubts about herself and her marriage and yet more unanswered questions about Jack, along with the realization that there are others looking for Jack and the photograph -- including one fierce, silent killer who will not be stopped from finding his quarry, no matter who or what stands in his way.
When the police won’t help her, and neighbours and friends alike seem to have agendas of their own, she must confront the dark corners of her own tragic past to keep her children safe and learn the truth that might bring her husband home.

The reasons why I kept turning the pages so fast were several, I really like mysteries from the past, I like believable and interesting characters like Grace and he has a vertiginous writing style that keeps us going back for more.

As Grace attempts to find more of her husband's life that can explain his disappearance she soon discovers there are few people she can trust. Then suddenly Jack calls and she understands he is in big trouble. And that old photo seems to be the only clue as to what is really happening so Grace starts an investigation to find out who the other people are and what happened to all of them. Coben takes us through some truly unexpected turns before we really find out what's going on. There are several layers to the story as it deals with trust, innocence, and loss and introduces some interesting characters like a mafia boss, a former rock star and a killer among others. In the end I was truly surprised with what's suggested. If every of his books are like this one I'm putting them all on my wish list!

Grade: B+

The Rain Came Late This Year....

...but it has done a lot of damage already. More photos here

The Game of Love - Edith Layton

I recently mentioned here my love for Signet Regencies and this book is a Signet Super Regency. A traditional regency a bit bigger in size. It's part of a trilogy which my friend I. loaned me. I went to check the correct order on Fantastic Fiction but the list there is by release date and I ended up reading the middle one first. That didn't spoil my enjoyment of it although I would have preferred to read them in order.

Francesca Wyndham knew the folly of gambling. She had seen her father, Lord Wyndham, lose the family fortune, forcing her to become a plain chaperone to an empty-headed young Miss.

But now Francesca was taking a gamble even her father would have blanched at. She was falling in love with the irresistible Arden Lyons, a gentleman who was clearly anything but a gentleman when it came to winning what he wanted, whether a hand of cards, a test of strength, or a lady's favours.

She knew nothing about this man except that she wanted him from the moment she saw him...and though his past was a dark mystery, his motives for choosing her over other seductive or wealthy young beauties were even more mysterious. Still, Francesca dared to pit her innocence against Arden's expertise -- in a game where passion took all...

My favourite thing about this book was the hero - Arden Lyons. When Arden meets Francesca she is working as a companion to a rich tradesman daughter. A place her father, a notorious gamester, found for her since he lost all his fortune and couldn't support her. We soon realise that Arden decides to court the said daughter in hopes of being closer to her companion. However he believes her to be a widow and 25 when in truth she is single and 21.

With a harsh past behind him Arden believes someone older and experienced would be ideal for him and confronted with Francesca's inexperience he feels she deserves better. But he doesn't want to abandon her, as her father does to run away from debtor's prison, and offers friendship and transport back to London instead. Francesca feels more attracted to him the better she knows him and to totally ruin her good image of himself, he decides to take her on a journey of discovery of his past. From his noble biological father to the slums of London where he spent sometime doing all sorts of jobs till he became king of the underworld and decided to leave that life behind. We get to know him at the same time has Francesca and there's a lot to be said of a man who protects and loves a heroine enough to want the best for her and so wants to give her a safe future without him or the eventual threats of his past.

There's a mystery subplot about who tries to kill Arden that is at the same time a plot device to allow Francesca and the reader to see how beloved he really is by everyone in the criminal world. Although that really borders on the cliché somehow Layton pulls it off and we end up with a nice little sweet story.

Grade - 4/5

New Additions to the TBR pile

Some interesting ones this week. The Woman In White I read a loaned one when I was a teenager, I want to see if it's as good as I remembered...

Charlotte Bronte - Villette
Wilkie Collins - The Woman In White
Patricia Cornwell - Blow Fly
Nicole Galland - The Fool's Tale
Anne Easter Smith - Daughter of York

Take the Jane Quizz

I've been at the Becoming Jane website (which I haven't watched yet) and took the Jane quizz. They think I'm a Romantic! Well, I could have told them that!
:-P

The Other Boleyn Girl - Philippa Gregory

I bought this book a few months back but I was hesitant to pick it up. Anne Boleyn's story is one I researched a long time ago and I wasn't too sure I wanted to revisit it. However this month I decided to read it with A. and A. so we could all discuss it and now I'm glad that I did it.

I wasn't sure I was enjoying it very much at first. Mary Boleyn seemed, at times too innocent and tongue-tied, and at other times an intelligent observer of human nature. I wasn't too convinced with her as a character! A king's mistress should be at the time an enviable position and she seems not to care for it which I found a bit unbelievable. Also Anne seemed too sophisticated for a girl of 16, not only she knows anything and everything about manipulating and seducing a man she is even knowledgeable enough to know her sister wont hold his interest for long and the real secret to do that. Even if she has learned a few tricks in the french court it seems a bit too much that in that time and age powerful nobles like her father and uncle would listen to a mere girl of 16. She seems a bit over the top in her ruthlessness and her knowledgeable attitudes. It's difficult to believe that Mary, being the king's mistress would so readily be ordered about by Anne, she would surely revel in the power she had. And being born is such a family of courtiers it's also difficult to believe she would be as innocent and without malice as she is portrayed here. She might be young but she was surely aware of what riches she could and should obtain. If nothing else from being brought up that way.

I became much more engrossed in the action after Anne captures the kings attention, and seems much more aware of what's at stake, and Mary is allowed to spend more time in the country with the children. It's seems to me that both sisters are much more fleshed out after that and it became more interesting for me too.

I think Gregory tried to paint them has having two opposing tempers and attitudes. To me she went a bit too far, that black and white approach is too unreal. The story is reported from Mary's point of view who is the narrator and is usurped and sometimes humiliated by Anne on her way to the throne. It would be too easy to say that one was the good and the other the bad but I feel that they basically did the same thing. Gregory chooses to portray Mary's affair as the family's ambition and Anne's fight for the throne as her personal ambition but can we really say that was what happened? And is that really relevant? The girl who had Henry's attention when he first thought of getting rid of Catherine would do all in her power to be his future queen. And if Anne was an intelligent and learned young woman who participated in the debates regarding the new religion to help her cause I think that that is more compliment to her than something to condemn. What she may not have realised was that, after getting rid of one queen it would be easier for Henry to get rid of another if she fell out of favour or didn't give him the desired son. He was a king of which it was safer to be mistress than wife.

As Mary's story unfolds I became more and more interested in her. She did really marry a "nobody" and she had to go away because of it, it seems like a beautiful love story and I found myself eager for more details about her and William's courtship. Much more than about Henry and Anne's which is ruined a bit for me because of Gregory’s portrayal of Anne who must have been scheming and determined yes but also intriguing and more complex than she appeared here.

Gregory does take several liberties with the story and I'm usually okay with that if there are no known facts or if there are several theories about it but I was really disappointed with what she decided to use to support Henry's accusations. Totally unnecessary I think, history is interesting enough in this case; no need to pass for truth something that is widely known today to be a lie... The case against Anne Boleyn was so badly done and the king's interest in getting rid of her was so open that even his contemporaries (and Anne's enemies) felt it unfair and without cause.

So yes I think Gregory is a good storyteller if even I am sometimes jarred out of the story by things I recognise as not being true or because the characters react in ways that I find are too modern. I will read her again but I'm hoping she won’t pull much more stunts like that one or she will ruin the books for me.

Grade B

Valentine's Day

Image by Webweaver


Well this is really not about St Valentine's Day so much as I think every day is a good day to show your other half that you love them. Nonetheless I couldn't resist buying a gift for today (I love to give my other half gifts and do it all the time...)

But being Valentine's Day got me thinking that I've read lots and lots of Christmas stories but I never read a Valentine's Day one, the reason the 2 are linked in my mind is that Signet published over several years some of the best Christmas stories ever in the form of anthologies and in the same collection (and sometimes with the same author), were published several Valentine's Day anthologies. I was never curious enough to look for those (all out of print and hard to find nowadays) but that is going to change. I'm in the mood for some Valentine's Day stories! Any recommendations?

Mwah Award

Marg surprised me with a Mwah Award and I'm feeling really good today because the idea behind the award was a really sweet one. Here's what the original creator of the award said:

"So, the point (and I do have one) to this post is motivated by my desire to hand some of that love and kindness back around to those who have been so very, very, very good to me in this bloggy world. My hope is that those who receive this award will pass it on to those who have been very, very, very good to them as well. It's a big kiss, of the chaste platonic kind, from me to you with the underlying 'thanks' message implied. I really do appreciate your support and your friendship and yes, your comments. ... Mwah!"

So now to spread some more love to those who share with me some of my good and bad moments online I choose:

My fellow bloggers at Lights Camera History - A. and A. and Rosario who has been "outing" me on her Nottingham blog!

Acts of Violets - Kate Collins

I read the first book in this series a while ago. I wasn't too enthusiastic about it so although I already had this one in the TBR pile I didn't pick it up right away. Last week I was organising my books and I decided to read it and send it on its way as I don't plan to read the rest of the series.

During the annual Pickle Fest, Abby's boyfriend Marco inexplicably disappears for a day. When he returns, he's the main suspect in the death of a clown. It seems the cops have found Snuggles pushing up water-spurting daisies-and Marco was the last person seen leaving Snuggles's house. Although Marco is still a mystery to her, Abby knows he's innocent. Now she has to find a way to prove it.

As with the first book I found the main character too light-headed and sometimes a bit dumb. She is always making sarcastic observations that don't sound funny at all but come across as a bit crazy. Besides she is supposed to have been dating Marco for 3 months and she never went to his house? Weird...

In this book Marco is accused of killing a clown after the said clown threatens Abby. It ends up being known that he didn't go after the clown because of Abby but because of a friend of his sister who was being harassed by him. After being arrested and then released on bail he asks Abby to try and investigate who the killer is. At first she doesn't want to do it as she thinks she won’t be able to do it alone. It's her boyfriend shouldn't she be eager to find the real culprit? And he doesn't tell her the whole truth about what really went on between him and the clown. Uh? Don't they trust each other? I know I read this one totally out of order (which might have some influence on my lack of enjoyment) but I thought Marco and Abby if they are not boyfriend/girlfriend at least trusted each other...

Regarding the mystery itself Abby talks to a lot of people who don’t seem to help much, even Marco ex-colleagues from the force don’t want to help because of their boss, and then, suddenly, she thinks of something and solves the mystery. It just lacked so clues along the way, some suspense maybe…

I think it's the "smart mouth" tone (that she is always using to talk to herself) that doesn't convince me but the truth if that for me Abby is a bit far from my favourite cosy heroines like Hannah or Dixie.

Grace: C

Which City Do You Belong In?

You Belong in Rome

You're a big city soul with a small town heart Which is why you're attracted to the romance of Rome Strolling down picture perfect streets, cappuccino in hand And gorgeous Italian people - could life get any better?

What City Do You Belong In?

Hmm who would say? I was sure I would be London...or Prague... or Barcelona... must go to Rome and see if this is right!

New Additions to the TBR Pile

The only book I received this week was a historical mystery. I haven't read many yet but it's a genre that I enjoy and hope to find some new authors to try as is the case of this one:

Lindsey Davis - The Silver Pigs

Chocolate Cake

I'm supposed to be on a diet but there's something about chocolate cake I just can't resist!

Request to Publishers

I've recently read 2 Anne Stuart collections, 2 books featuring each of them 3 stories previously published as categories. Considering how many (and she has many) of her books are hard to find and out of print I would really like it if you could publish more of these books. Or how about collecting some her short stories from several different anthologies and reprint them as a single book? I promise to buy them all new and I don't even mind paying a bit more!!

And since I'm on a requests mode could we do the same with Mary Balogh's Signet Regency stories. I've read them but I want to OWN them! Please publish them again!!!

Partners In Crime - Anne Stuart

Jane Dexter wants to hire an arsonist and mistakens Sandi Caldicott,a lawyer, for one of his clients. Sandi is in need of some adventure and pretends to be a criminal. What follows is a romantic suspense plot involving secret inventions whose plans are going to be sold to foreign countries and be used with less than peaceful intentions and Jane and Sandi are going to try and avoid that.

To avoid the selling of the plans, her late brother's invention, Jane needs to set his laboratory on fire since she doesn't know where the plans are but they must surely be there. But soon they find that her uncle might have been her brother's killer and may be after the plans himself.

It's another pleasurable read, Jane and Sandi are interesting characters. Jane starts off a bit too shy, sensible and plain but she slowly evolves under Sandi's influence and provocations. It's a case of opposites attract between a self-effacing librarian and a big shot high society lawyer. The attraction is sooner recognised by Sandi than Jane, even after she finds the truth about him. The book is especially funny while Jane doesn't know about the identity mistake and there's a scene where they visit a crime lord in which Sandi pretends to be his client and his client pretends to be him and it's obvious that Jane is the only one that doesn't have a clue that was really hilarious! By the way Sandi is short for Alexander, in the beginning I was a bit puzzled as I'm more used to Sandi being a female name.

In the end - that comes about with some interesting plot twists and a really disappointing villain (or maybe just a not so villanous one) - she is ready to truly be his Partner In Crime and give him a hard time in the process. I thought the wrap up in the end could have been a bit better, Stuart comes up with some surprising events but somehow we have no real suspense, the tension is just not there.

Grade: B-

Asterix Aux Jeux Olympiques

A really entertaining movie!! I loved Brutus who didn't get one single thing right! JC - Julius Cesar - totally in love with himself. And Obelix emulating Cyrano de Bergerac and helping Alafolix saying poetry to Princess Irina! Nice and funny, just great for a Sunday afternoon!

Hand In Glove - Anne Stuart

Another category by Anne Stuart. Entertaining and suspenseful although this time I guessed the villain fairly early.

The story had quite a curious setting, a puppet factory where most of the workers and the owner seem to have a puppet alter ego. Judith Daniels arrives trying to discover what really happened to her friend whose death was officially ruled an accident. Although she comes under an alias, Ryan Smith, the factory owner soon discovers who she really is.

As Judith tries to find more about Lacey's death a dark shadow emmerges decided to stop her. At the same time she and Ryan feel more and more attracted to each other but she is unable to trust him and even believes he can be Lacey's murderer.

I must say that I wasn't too impressed with the heroine's description. She seemed a bit too beautiful to be real. I think I prefer some of Stuart's less perfect heroines. Other than that the book had lots of potential but somehow falls a bit short. It has a dark atmosphere but it never quite felt dark enough, then the murderer in the puppet suit should have terrorised me as I really dislike costumes but somehow never did, the hero has a pretty dark and hard past but it's not fully explored. He has all of her usual bad boy's characteristics - dark, mysterious, unhappy past - except the bad behaviour.

However it's still Anne Stuart so it's still well written and a nice and entertaining story in an unusual setting. In fact now that I've been spoiled by her latest romantic suspense titles whenever I read these earlier books it feels like she was already writing in that direction, she just hadn't fully explored them yet. But there's something pretty unique in Stuart's books that makes us remember them. In this one it was the setting.

Grade: B-

Read Along Challenge - List of Reads

- The Other Boleyn Girl, Philippa Gregory (Ana T., Alex, Ana O.)Read
- The Scent of Shadows, Vicki Pettersson (Alex, Ana O.)
- The Ruby in the Smoke, Philip Pullman (Ana T., Alex, Ana O.)Read
- The Inheritance of Loss, Kiran Desai (Alex, Ana O.)
- The Game of Kings, Dorothy Dunnett (Ana T., Alex, Ana O.)
- The Savage Garden, Mark Mills (Alex, Ana O.)
- The Secret History of the Pink Carnation, Lauren Willig (Alex, Ana O.)
- A Vision of Light, Judith Merkle Riley (Ana T., Alex, Ana O.)
- The Time Traveler's Wife, Audrey Niffenegger (Ana T., Ana O., Alex)
- The Prince of Cups, Gayle Feyrer (Ana T., Alex)
- The Eyre Affair, Jasper Fforde (Ana T., Alex)Read -
- The Virgin's Lover, Philippa Gregory (Ana T., Alex, Ana O.)
- Ritual Sins, Anne Stuart (Ana T., Alex)
- The Devil's Waltz, Anne Stuart (Ana T., Alex)
- The Unfortunate Miss Fortunes, Jennifer Crusie (Ana T., Alex)
- The Widow, Anne Stuart (Ana T., Alex)
- Into the Fire, Anne Stuart (Ana T., Alex)
- Chesapeake Blue, Nora Roberts (Ana T., Alex)
- Drums of Autumn, Diana Gabaldon (Ana T., Ana O.)
- A Vision of a Murder, Victoria Laurie (Ana T., Alex) - Read -
- Lady Beware, Jo Beverley (Ana T., Alex)
- All J.D. Robb (Ana T., Alex) -
- The Passion of Artemisia, Susan Vreeland (Ana T., Alex)
- A Um Deus Desconhecido, John Steinbeck (Ana T., Ana O., Alex)
- As Mulheres da Casa do Tigre, Marion Zimmer Bradley (Ana T., Ana O., Alex)
- A Casa da Floresta, Marion Zimmer Bradley (Ana T., Ana O., Alex)
- Pequenas Infamias, Carmen Posadas (Ana T., Ana O.)
- These Old Shades, Georgette Heyer (Ana T., Ana O., Alex) Read
- A Filha da Fortuna, Isabel Allende (Ana T., Alex, Ana O.)
- O Círculo da Cruz, Iain Pears (Alex, Ana O.)
- Mystic River, Dennis Lehane (Ana T., Alex, Ana O.)
- Pope Joan, Donna Cross (Alex, Ana O.)
- Retrato a Sépia, Isabel Allende (Ana T., Alex, Ana O.)
- Salem Falls, Jodi Picoult (Alex, Ana O.)
- Saving Fish from Drowning, Amy Tan (Alex, Ana O.)
- Wrapt in Crystal, Sharon Shinn (Alex, Ana O.)
- The Seducer, Madeline Hunter (Ana T., Alex, Ana O.)Read
- Ghost of a Chance, Yasmine Galenorn (Ana O., Ana T.) Read
- Niccolo Rising, Dorothy Dunnett (Ana T., Ana O.)
- As Paixões de Julia, Somerset Maugham (Alex, Ana O.)
- One Night for Love, Mary Balogh (Alex, Ana O., Ana T.)
- Shadows and Strongholds, Elizabeth Chadwick (Ana T., Ana O., Alex) Read
- Tipping the Velvet, Sarah Waters (Ana O., Alex)
- Jenna Starborn, Sharon Shinn (Alex, Ana O.)
- Wicked, Gregory Maguire (Ana O., Alex)
- Shantaram,Gregory David Roberts (Ana O., Alex)

New Additions to the TBR Pile

Only 1 this week but hopefully a good one. An anthology I got because it had an Anne Stuart short story in which the main character is based in Alan Rickman's Sheriff of Nottingham. I just couldn't resist such a bad boy story!

Anthology - To Love and to Honor

Wasn't he the best part of the movie?

Read Along Challenge

Following the January Rereading Challenge I am now involved in the Read Along Challenge with A. and A..

After making a list of the books we have in common we decided to read them at the same time so we can chat and comment about them as we go along. I'll list the books chosen in a separate post so I can better edit when needed. The first book is Phillipa Gregory's The Other Boleyn Girl.

This Is All I Ask - Lynn Kurland

My last reread for the January Rereading Challenge. I didn't manage to read as many as I hoped but the one missing will be reread soon, it's Jane Austen's Pride & Prejudice!

Gillian of Warewick knows no other treatment than the terrible physical and mental abuse issued by her father. When he arranges a match for Gillian with Christopher of Blackmour, she is fearful: Blackmour is rumored to be an evil sorcerer. When Gillian meets him, he proves to be far more of a man than her father is, yet he is unwilling to be a lover to Gillian. She finds that Blackmour has as many psychological scars to heal as she has physical scars.

First of all I must say that I've tried several Kurland books but this was the only one that made it to my keeper shelf way back when I first started reading romance. I had really fond memories of it and I was hoping it would make for a good reread. It wasn't exactly terrible but I'm afraid it wasn't as good as I remembered.

Gillian starts the book terrified of her father and of the man he wants her to marry and that she believes to be a dark sorcerer. Although her fear his understandable we immediately know that Christopher is nothing of what she believes him to be and the reason for him to marry her as nothing to do with evil deeds or malicious intentions. In fact her is hiding a secret that he doesn't want her to find.

This seems like the beginning of a great story but my problems with it were Kurland's attempts at being funny. Those scenes did not come across as humourous but as childish. I was forever having to remind myself that Gillian was not 14 or 15 years old because she kept sounding like a child in those scenes and I was jarred out of the story. The same for some of Christopher's actions even if he was a bit better. he is scarred by a villanous first wife and he suddenly decides that because Gillian wants to get pregnant and visit's the castle whore to know more about it she must be evil too and mistreats her and sends her away. And this doesn't happen in the beginning, it happens in the middle after he knows her better and what she suffered at her father's hands. Oh the attampt at fantasy with the witches was wasted on me, I don't think it really added to the story and to me it felt like an artificial way of wrapping things up.

I know I'm making it sound pretty bad and I'm a bit worried because I was looking to a B- grade and now it feels I'm describing a much lower grade. The thing is I liked the characters! I liked Christopher, even with that outburst and even if some of the details of his secret seemed to easy for him to handle. Then I really liked Colin, his right hand man, and Jason his squire and Robin of Artane. I even liked Gillian wen she wasn't sounding like a 14 year old. But the book lacked depth to fully explore the traumas of both Gillian and Christopher and then attempted a humour that really didn't work for me.

Grade: C+