The Painted Rose

Malaise has officially sent in and it's all Laura Lee Guhrke's fault.

Ever read a book that you know you should like but for some reason it leaves you feeling sort of eh. That was my reaction to The Painted Rose by Donna Birdsell. It's a strong debut novel, and it really is a good read. I would have no problem recommending it to library patrons. Honest. For some reason though I had sort of a mixed reaction to it. Let's see if I can iron it out.

Lady Sarah Essington has not left her family home since she suffered from a tragic accident 8 years earlier. She now wanders the estate wearing veils, never allowing anyone to see her scarred face, and tends her gardens obsessively. Well now she's decided she wants to learn to paint, and her doting older brother secures a tutor whose work Sarah has long admired.

Lucien Delacourte is a French artist running away from his problems. The death of his wife and young daughter continue to haunt him to the point that he can no longer paint. Desperate to escape France (and his creditors) he reluctantly takes the job of tutoring Sarah.

OK, what I liked. First, I love it when the author shows her characters becoming friends before lovers. Sarah and Lucien immediately hit it off, but develop a friendship first. I also tend to be a "wounded" character junkie, so having 2 wounded main characters in the same book was really great.

OK, what left me feeling eh. The nondescript time period. This story supposedly takes place in the late 1770s but outside of mentioning the fad of towering powdered wigs I never got a sense of the time period.

Also, I'm admittedly not a huge fan of family members as villains. The conflict here is provided by Sarah's bored sister-in-law who wants to bed Lucien in the worst way. There's also some tacked on conflict involving someone trying to kill Sarah that just felt like too much. Honestly, the sister-in-law (who receives a great comeuppance in the end) and her secretive older brother are enough conflict. The whole "someone is out to kill Sarah" thing just gives the final 75 pages or so a TV Movie Of The Week feel.

Still, I should have liked this book a lot more. It was a quick read and this is really a very good debut. It just suffers because of my current lack of enthusiasm for historical romance. The only two historicals that truly moved me this year were Prairie Wife by Cheryl St. John and To Dream Again by Laura Lee Guhrke (the latter published in 1995!)

Anyone else having this problem? Or am I just inventing "issues" again? And can anyone out there recommend a really moving historical romance? Bonus points for western/American settings.

Back Into The Swing

Librarians may not get paid much, but you can't beat the time off. I get an obscene amount of paid holiday time, hence I was off work yesterday for Columbus Day.

Now I'm not going to complain about this, but holiday time is sort of a double-edged sword. I always come back to a massive, overflowing library book drop. This morning it took me and a library page over an hour to wade through it. A neat trick since all of my shelving carts are full and overflowing. I earned my keep by shelving videos and DVDs to free one of them up.

In other news I'm so bloody happy that the Angels beat the Skankies last night I can hardly stand it. If the Skanks had won I would have had a serious dilemma. I can't stand the White Sox either. What the heck would I have done if the Skanks and the White Sox made it to the ALCS? I probably would have been rooting for Chicago by default - but damn I would have felt dirty afterwards.

In reading news, I'm finally getting back into it. I took an extended break and literally didn't read a page out of any book for almost a week. I should have The Painted Rose by Donna Birdsell done by tomorrow.

Awaken Me Darkly

Awaken Me Darkly by Gena Showalter was one of the books I picked up for free at RWA in Reno. It was a fairly decent read, up until the Aaron Spelling ending.

Mia Snow lives and works as an alien hunter in New Chicago, sometime in the future. The world-building here is incredibly light so a lot of these details are non-existent. For instance people don't shower with water anymore and chocolate is a rare delicacy. But since I'm not a stickler for heavy duty world-building this didn't bother me too much. You science fiction/fantasy fans might start grinding your teeth though.

Aliens live among us on Earth. Some of them are okey-dokey. Others are not so cool. The alien hunters are sort of like bounty hunters in the Wild West. They can bring in suspects dead or alive. Pretty much shoot first, ask questions later.

Someone is kidnapping and killing men. Mia finds alien hair at one of the crime scenes and latches on to Lilla En Arr, who didn't kill anybody but definitely knows something. Then Mia's partner is mortally wounded and the only one who can save him is Lilla's sexy brother, Kyrin. In exchange, Kyrin wants Mia to free his sister. Also, Kyrin seems to be tangled up in the mess with the missing and dead men.

This book works for a while because I liked Mia. Talk about a major bitch! I'm sure some readers will be turned off, but frankly after overdosing on goody-two-shoes romance heroines, Mia is the perfect antidote.

Unfortunately the author leads her character into an ending that just doesn't worth. Hokey is the word that immediately jumped to mind. Also, there are major loose ends here. Honestly, when did authors decide that loose ends were "ok" as long as the book was part of a series? This seems a rather new development with me, and several of my favorite authors (mystery writers included) have left sloppy endings in their most recent work.

You can tie everything up reasonably well and still mine it for future material in another story. Honest.

All in all, an average read.

The Aliens Have Landed

I know making fun of Harlequin's cover art department is like shooting fish in a barrel - but damn. Wait, check that. Damnity, damn, damn.

What is up with this chick? I can't decide if she's:

• Possessed by a demon
• Drank Kool-Aid offered to her by her friendly neighborhood cult leader
  
• Under mind control from invading alien hordes
• A Stepford wife

It's almost like I can hear sublimal messages buzzing in my head when I look at this cover. "Look into my eyes. You will buy this book. You will rob the local bank. You will shoot up your local post office with an AK-47....."

Seriously creepy. My condolences to Myrna MacKenzie.

Baseball Talk

So long Alan Trammell. I'd say we hardly knew ya - but damn, you did play for the Tigers for 20 years.

Honestly, I'm not surprised by this. The Boyfriend and I were just discussing if Tram would have a job after the end of the season. I said no - not because my Tigers finished under .500 (again), but because the team just quit this last month. Heck, even that embarrassingly awful team from 2002 (119 losses) played with some fire in their bellies down the stretch.

A lot happened this season that wasn't Tram's fault. Carlos Guillen basically being out the whole season really hurt. Also, who expected Magglio to be out with a hernia? But I wasn't always wild with Tram's line-up choices or the way he called the games. Still, we need pitching bad. Whoever decided we should unload Kyle Farnsworth needs to be beat up side the head repeatedly.

So where does that leave us? Boston winning the AL Wild Card (again) and the Evil Empire winning the AL East. Again. I'm about ready to sell a kidney for a little variety.

Wendy's World Series prediction? The Skankies. They're rolling now folks, and unless the starting pitching takes a major dump, I don't see any other AL team beating them (the Angels have the best shot IMHO). And the NL? Puhleeze. I have no faith there. I mean, I know Boston had major momentum last year, but St. Louis should have kicked their asses. Instead they rolled over and died.

All in all, I'm rather depressed by the whole thing.

Fantastic Book Alert

I'm about to do something evil.

I'm going to gush about a book that is very hard-to-find and naturally out-of-print. Now might be the time to think about selling one of your kidneys on the black market.

I've read some enjoyable historical romances this year, but nothing that's really moved me. Nothing that has smacked me in the face, put my heart on my sleeve and emotionally invested me to the depths that To Dream Again by Laura Lee Guhrke did. This is a great, great book. My suggestion - even if you have no interest in it by the end of this posting, if you see it in a local used bookstore, buy it for a friend. Really, it's fantastic.

I have a hard time articulating why a book works for me when it's a keeper. I know that sounds a little weird, but I think it might be because all of my "keeper" books emotionally effect me in some way. It's hard to articulate emotions - which is probably why I will never write a romance novel. But let's see if I can muster up a decent explanation.

Mara Elliot is a widow with her back up against the wall. Her husband, James, has gotten himself killed. James was a dreamer. A wanderer with itchy feet who dreamed big then packed his bags when his get-rich-kick schemes fell short. Mara gave him an ultimatum 4 years ago, which is how he ended up in America and how he ended up dying in a mine collapse.

But Mara is resourceful. She has taken the small company that James started in London's East End and made it solvent. Sure she has had to work her fingers to the bone, but for the chance of security and independence Mara thinks her sacrifices have been worth it. But James death ruins everything. The bank calls in a loan.

To save her company she must enter a partnership with Nathaniel Chase, a man who knew James. Like James, Nathaniel is a dreamer and has this bizarre idea to manufacture toy trains. Mara is terrified out of her mind, but to save her company she had to give Nathaniel controlling interest. So they're making toys whether she hates the idea or not.

However something miraculous happens along the way. Nathaniel decides he wants their partnership to work. He decides he wants Mara to trust him. He wants the pretty young widow to live life instead of being afraid of it. He just didn't intend to fall in love with her.

Throughout all of this are Nathaniel's dreams, Mara's fears, a young boy in desperate need of stability and the villain, Nathaniel's older and jealous brother.

Sometimes as a reader you just know when a book is going to work for you. I knew it within the first chapter. I knew it when Mara stands up and tells Nathaniel in no uncertain terms that she will not have her security threatened by another "rainbow-chasing dreamer." I knew it because Guhrke rings more emotion out of her characters than any author has a right too.

I knew it when I read:

She lowered her face into her gloved hands, loving him for being the man that he was, hating him for not being the man she wanted. But most of all, she hated herself for the pain she had caused him and the fear that made her unable to take it away.

I'm sorry, I just about lost it there.

Extremely minor quibble here: I did feel the book was about 50 pages too long. But honestly, who am I to complain? Nathaniel is just about the most perfect Beta hero I've read ever and Mara might be scared, but man she's a woman to admire. A great, great book. Guhrke should be proud of this one.

Tag, I'm It!

Nicole tagged me. Here are the "rules":

1. Delve into your blog archive.

2. Find your 23rd post (or closest to).

3. Find the fifth sentence (or closest to).

4. Post the text of the sentence in your blog along with these instructions. Ponder it for meaning, subtext or hidden agendas...

5. Tag five people to do the same.

Here is mine:

"We've fired up our grill a couple of times already, but I'm thinking tomorrow will officially herald in springtime for our corner of the Midwest."

First things first, I was still living in Michigan and firing up the grill in April is a momentous occasion. April in Michigan can mean snow - so it was a nice day. I also recall that we grilled ribs using a new sauce recipe we found and they were tasty - but that's neither here nor there.

We were having friends over (newlyweds who have since divorced) and going to watch the Red Wings game. Hockey. Remember hockey?

Who am I tagging? No one. You can all breathe a sigh of relief.