Two posts in one day - that can only mean....



Fun With The Mentally Ill Day In Library Land!



Another tale for you all about The Mad Russian library patron - I swear, fiction writers couldn't dream this stuff up.



Today's little sojourn into madness was when he cornered me while he was waiting for a computer (he loves to type kooky letters to public officials). He just kept talking and talking and talking. I swear my eyes glazed over and I got slack jawed.



So here the interesting tid bits I learned today:

1. He knows all about the corruption in the aerospace industry and UFOs
2. The government is tapping his phones and intercepting his e-mails
3. His lawyer mysteriously "retired" - the government scared him off
4. Publishing companies are not returning his calls or e-mails because - the government scared them off
5. His self-published book isn't selling on his web site because - the government tinkered with the credit card paying system

The best part was that he was deadly serious, and righteously indignant. ::sigh::



The way I figure it, the morals of this story are:

1. Our mental health care system in the US is seriously wacked.
2. I don't make nearly enough money.

But I think I've said all of this before....

The last day of November ::sigh::



I guess this means I should really think about Christmas cards and shopping huh? Especially since I'm boarding a plane for Michigan on December 18.



I did manage to whip through 8 books this month, which is a really good total for me. I hit a bit of a skid in October when I read way too many paranormal books in a row. This month was a bit more eclectic having read suspense, mystery, historical romance, romantic suspense and series romance. I'm also officially up to 70 books read for 2004. So yeah me.



I wrapped up a really good series romance this morning - Three Little Words by Carrie Alexander (Harlequin SuperRomance 1186). This is book two in the author's North Country Stories series set in Michigan's Upper Pensiula.



This time out the heroine is the town librarian (who isn't a wallflower, prudish, virginal spinster - thank gawd!). The hero is a down-and-out true crime writer who comes back to town to visit with his ailing grandfather. Oh, and he also bought the local lighthouse which has since been decommissioned.



These two begin to spend time together after the hero asks the heroine to help teach his grandfather to read. But can they overcome small town gossip, their emotional baggage and fall in love?



Well of course they can - this is a romance novel after all. I like the way Alexander writes about the UP - sort of with a gee-golly affection. I also liked that the author got many of the details "right" concerning small town, backwoods libraries. It's a totally different animal, I assure you.



Next up is book three in this series - A Family Christmas (Harlequin SuperRomance 1239)

I wrote this post once, and wouldn't you know it? Blogger decided to have a snit and my ramblings got sucked into a cyberspace black hole. So let's try this again.



I'm obviously back from my trip. Central New York was fairly typical for this time of year - dreary, rainy and snowy. My boyfriend's relatives all crawled out from the wood work (he hasn't been home in 2 years) and I ate entirely too much (as usual). I naturally got sick, which is an unfortunate habit of mine when I travel. To be fair, the sore throat was here before I left California - but by Thanksgiving I had a full blown head cold. After drugging myself with Benadryl and actually sleeping, I was much better by Friday. I still have a lingering cough however that tends to rear up when I'm not pushing the fluids.



My reading during the holiday was mostly lackluster - with the notable exception of Christmas Pie by Emma Craig. It had all the necessary ingredients for a holiday romance - nice couple, a cute slightly paranormal story, sweet romance and charming atmosphere.



The heroine is a typist in a turn of the century San Francisco law firm. She is the sole bread winner for the household which includes herself and her invalid mother. Her older brother used to send money home, and then his Navy ship went missing. The family has heard no word on his fate and are naturally worried. On her way home from the office, the heroine stops in a Chinatown shop to buy a Christmas gift for her mother. The wise old woman behind the counter also gives her an old coin with her purchase saying it will bring her "good luck." And naturally, it does.



Through happenstance the heroine catches the eye of her employer - the head honcho lawyer at the firm. He's immediately smitten, and becomes quite taken with her circumstances, especially since it appears his estranged father had something to do with them. The hero is a do-gooder who has been valiantly trying to make amends for his father's successful, albeit unscrupulous, business practices in the shipping industry.



Naturally as they continue to spend a lot of time together, they fall in love.



What I really liked about this book was that it was leisurely. Very little conflict, but pleasant enough to keep me turning the pages. I also liked the "properness" of the courtship. Hero and herione are fairly formal with each other in the beginning and don't really take liberties until the latter half of the story. I also enjoyed the fact that Craig knows the time period and included many "gee-whiz" inventions of the day - the automobile, telephone and cable car.



Since I've only read a paltry 69 books so far this year (I read 89 in 2003), I'm going to zip through some of my Harlequin collection while I await more review books. I'm quickly nearing the halfway point of Three Little Words by Carrie Alexander - book two in her North Country Stories series. It's been lovely so far - featuring a librarian heroine and a down-and-out true crime writer running from his past.

Thanksgiving is just around the corner, so that means I'm hopping on a plane for central New York state tomorrow. The tradition for the last several years has been Thanksgiving with the boyfriend's family, Christmas with my family. So this will be my last post until sometime next week. I'll be too busy gorging myself, reading, watching football, sleeping and freezing to death to putz around with a computer much.



I did wrap up a pretty good suspense novel this morning - Found Wanting by Joyce Lamb. There's a bit of a romance tossed in, but I find that Lamb's books tend to work best as suspense novels first, minor romance sub plot second.



The heroine kidnapped her son 15 years ago to escape the evil clutches on the boy's father. When a new private detective hired by the villain shows up in her life, everything careens down hill quickly. The boy is snatched back by his father, and the heroine is nearly killed by hired goons.



That private detective also happens to be our hero. He initially hates the heroine for what she has done - denying her son a father - but as his case begins to unravel, so does his first impression. Nothing is adding up, especially when the FBI becomes involved. Is it possible he was duped by his employer? And will the heroine be reunited with her son?



I love Lamb's writing because it's so action-packed. Something literally happens in every chapter of this book. I also liked the fact that the heroine defended herself and didn't just stand in a corner screaming while the hero did all the fighting (gawd, I hate that!) This girl is one tough chick. Heck, she has a dislocated shoulder throughout most of the story and still manages to bloody her share of noses and kick a few family jewels.



Of course, with all the action scenes, there isn't a ton of time devoted to the romance. Lamb slows it down a bit towards the end to allow the characters to consummate their relationship, which does help some.



Lamb writes for small press FiveStar - a publisher who does a lot of direct business with libraries. Their sticker price is a bit high ($26.95 for this book), but I do recommend going the library route to pick this one up. It's a page turner for sure.

My boyfriend doesn't understand my obsession with the Barber twins. He says they are too short and have "bobble heads." I think he's just jealous. Sure Ronde and Tiki claim to be happily married with children - but I know better. In between NFL games they are pining away for yours truly.



Me? Delusional? Maybe it's all this damned California sunshine cooking the few brain cells that survived my college days.



I wrapped up Death By Inferior Design by Leslie Caine yesterday and it ended up being a cute read. Long lost family plots are fairly common in mysteries, but when handled well I never tire of them. Caine gives hers some credence by writing in a lot of suspects. Honestly, I was really guessing as to who the heroine's birth parents were and there were a suitable amount of red herrings.



The heroine is an interior designer who gets a rude surprise when she arrives to her new job. She is to remodel a bedroom as a surprise to her client's wife. The catch of course is that she only has a weekend to do it - and her arch rival will be remodeling a den down the street. It's a competetion of sorts, with the obnoxious neighbor across the street judging. Whichever room "wins" that interior decorater will get a full spread in a local lifestyle magazine.



However things get real tricky when the heroine discovers a baby picture of herself in her clients' house. She was adopted and, on her death bed, her adoptive Mom made her swear to never find her birth parents. Why is that exactly? What was her mother trying to protect her from?



Then a dead body turns up and neighborly relations get real sticky. Then the heronie begins to wonder if she wasn't the intended target all along.



It's a lot of fun, and if you're an interior decorating nut this one will be right up your alley.

How old is too old to have a crush on someone?



I have this horrible crush on someone who works indirectly with me. Very indirectly. Like I maybe see him once every couple of months. But man is he cute! Even worse - he's nice! Gawd, I hate cute, nice men. I have absolutely no will power when they're cute and nice. And did I mention he's handy? He likes to fix stuff. Argh! How can a girl possibly resist?



Now before y'all think I'm going to throw caution to the wind - it ain't going to happen outside of my fantasies. I've been with my boyfriend for almost 7 years - and damn if I don't love him. Stinkin' love. So I guess my indirect coworker will have to occupy the corner of my mind that is also home to the Barber twins. *dreamy sigh*



Yesterday was spent in front of the TV watching football - and like how depressing was that? The Buffalo Bills are bound and determined to drive me to drink. I mean, I know they were playing the New England Patriots - but damn!



In reading news, I just started Death By Inferior Design by Leslie Caine this morning. So far it's pretty cute. It's got the ole' long-lost-family-plot going on - but so far it's been entertaining. If you dig HGTV and are still wearing black because Martha Stewart is in prison - then definately think about getting this book. More later once I finish it....

By nature, I am a slow reader. If I'm on an absolute tear, I can read two "normal sized" books per week (normal in my mind being around 300 pages). I just finished a book in a 24 hour period - and more shocking is that it was by an author who was firmly on my "never again under no circumstances" list.



I read my first Jane Graves book back in 2001 - and hated it. Worse still, I think I was the only person alive who hated that book. Other online review sites liked it. Publisher's Weekly liked it. I hated it so vehemently that I vowed I would not read the author again. Why you ask? The unforgivable sin of an idiot heroine that was a compulsive liar. It also didn't help matters that the hero knew she was lying to him, but continued to let her lead him around by his *ahem* pants. I mean, I know men can be morons when it comes to sex - but really fellas. Get a grip already.



So when I got my latest shipment of review books and saw Light My Fire by said author I literally threw a hissy fit. Bad enough that my boyfriend asked me what was wrong. Usually getting books in the mail is a joyous occasion for yours truly. But I told myself to buck up! I'm a book reviewer! We're all about keeping an open mind. Besides, the back cover blurb looked promising.



Boy oh boy - what a treat this book was! Not an idiot heroine in sight! And while the hero is a lawyer (::shudder::) he's so flawed and interesting it was hard to hold his profession against him.



The hero is a defense lawyer who doesn't like himself very much. He's just won a big case, and decides to celebrate by wrapping his Porsche around a tree. Not smart. He misses a DUI by a squeak, but the judge decides to make an example of him anyway. He sentences him to 40 hours of community service on a neighborhood crime watch patrol.



The heroine is the one who will oversee his punishment, and her 3 younger brothers aren't happy about it. They're all cops. The hero is a defense lawyer - a really damn good one. Do the math. But the heroine is strong enough to not let her brothers bully her, and tells them to buzz off. Besides, the hero doesn't look like the devil incarnate. Surely his reputation for cutthroat tactics and womanizing can't be all true. Can they?



These two like each other instantly. They joke. They banter. There's sarcasm flying. Then a murder happens in the heroine's neighborhood and one of her employees in arrested for the crime. She begs the hero for help. He agrees. They end up seeing a lot of each other. And while he tries to keep his distance (he's one night stand, she's home and hearth) it's useless. It's an attraction too strong to deny.



I like wounded heroes in my romantic fiction, and this hero is different because he's not really wounded in the traditional sense. He's made his bed and now he's lying in it. Sure he's got a fabulous house, cars and plenty of fast women willing to entertain him for an evening - but our boy has a serious problem with self-loathing.



By contrast the heroine is in the twilight of her 30s and has a good life. A good family, a good business, good charitable causes - and she's lonely as hell. She wants a man who challenges and excites her - but pickins' are slim. Then she meets our hero - a man her brothers would never approve of. Well bully on them, she's entitled to a little fun. The problem being, the hero doesn't seem all that interested. Naturally he is interested, but feels she deserves way better than him.



It's an excellent read. The mystery plot keeps things humming along, but this book is all about the romance. I cannot recommend it strongly enough. Fantastic.