Amazon discontinued the ability to create images using their SiteStripe feature and in their infinite wisdom broke all previously created images on 12/31/23. Many blogs used this feature, including this one. Expect my archives to be a hot mess of broken book cover images until I can slowly comb through 20 years of archives to make corrections.

Monday, April 15, 2013

The Month That Was March 2013

Lemon Drop: You can smile all you want Cinderella, it doesn't change the fact that I'm leaving here with those shoes.

Cinderella: Do you have any idea what I did to get these shoes?  A wicked stepmother, two wicked stepsisters, and dear Lord I had to be friends with mice.  Mice!

Lemon Drop:  Pfft, dress-making mice.

Cinderella: They're still mice.  The shoes are mine cupcake.

Me: Ahem, while you two are living out some weird shoe fetish - might I remind you that nobody has it worse than I do.  In the middle of a reading slump, I only managed to read four books last month.  Four!

Title links will take you to full reviews.

Must Like Kids by Jackie Braun - Contemporary romance, Harlequin Kiss, 2013, Grade = B-

  • Liked seeing a single mother heroine in a non-traditional role, and an enjoyable hero who has more depth than first meets the eye.  The story lost a little footing for me towards the end, but still an enjoyable read.

A Marriage-Minded Man by Karen Templeton - Contemporary romance, Silhouette Special Edition, 2009, Grade = B

  • Reunited lovers story from the typically consistent (for me) Templeton.  Heroine with trust issues reunites with the hero who broke her heart many years before.  She's now a divorced single Mom with two little kidlets, and he's a local contractor who's not all that sure he's ready for an instant family.

Sins of a Ruthless Rogue by Anna Randol - Historical romance, Avon, 2013, Grade = C+

  • I really enjoyed the first book in this trilogy, but this follow-up was a letdown.  Thin romance, superficial characters, saved somewhat by an interesting locale (a large chunk of the story takes place in Russia).

A Rake To Ruin Her by Julia Justiss - Historical romance, Harlequin Historical, 2013, Grade = C-

  • Liked the banter between the couple, but was pretty much bored by the rest of the story.  A heroine who doesn't want to marry, so decides to ruin herself.  I didn't buy into her complete lack of all things society, and her desire to hold out for a childhood BFF to return from India in case she has to marry grated on my nerves.  Toss in her belief in a "curse" (women in her family tend to die in childbirth - which I know is a legitimate fear but has been so overdone in historicals that now I just roll my eyes....) and yeah, I'm out.  Did like that the hero was a disgraced diplomat though.  

Lemon Drop: Auntie Wendy is right Cinderella.  It's silly to fight over a pair of shoes.

Cinderella: I agree.  If there is one lesson you should take away from all of this?  Don't wait around for a fairy godmother to give you a cool pair of shoes and bag a prince.  Go to college.  Conquer the world.  Make your own pair of shoes.

Lemon Drop:  That's a great idea.  Lemon Drop's Fairy Tale Footwear.  Sparkly sneakers that light up for all ages.  Can those mice make shoes?

Cinderella: Oh no.  You're not hiring away the mice!  Now that I'm a princess, I need all the gowns I can get!

Me: Oh boy, here we go again.....

5 comments:

Sheri said...

Personally I think she should have given Lemon Drop the shoes...I mean she did bring her fruit snacks! :) Lil Sis

nath said...

Ouuuuh, someone is lucky and got to meet Cinderella!! Not many reads this month, but I think you've been busy. The good news though is that there were no major dud!

Marguerite Kaye said...

Sparkly sneakers that light up - I'm in! Please can I have mine in turquoise with dark blue laces. UK size 5. Please.

Wendy said...

Lil' Sis: Yeah, exactly! Cinderella would have starved to death without those fruit snakes from Lemon Drop!

Nath: No major duds, but the two C's were blah reads for me. Sometimes those are worse.....

Marguerite: Lemon Drop has sneakers that light up - which she naturally has to show EVERYBODY. That, and she also has to tell total strangers that she's wearing "big girl panties" now. Another gem that Cinderella learned when they met ;)

Marguerite Kaye said...

Isn't it funny, we boast about wearing big girl panties at Lemon Drop's age, then we spend decades squirming around unprotected in very, very small ones, until finally gravity forces us back to them... But please, spare her that knowledge, she's so young and innocent!