TRR reviews book on a scale of 1-5 hearts. I reserve one heart rating for pure dreck. Those books that make me want to shoot myself, ram my head against a wall, or *shudder* do house work instead of read. Five heart books are those super-fantastic books that I don't want to end. I'm quite stingy with these. In fact, I didn't review one five heart book in all of 2004, and have only granted that status once in 2005 (Prairie Wife by Cheryl St. John for those of you keeping score).
Three heart books are the worst to write reviews for. Those are the "average" books. The books that are pleasant reads, but have problems that are hard to overlook. I just turned in a review for my 3rd three heart book in a row. I'm starting to get punchy.
I'm feeling guilty about this, but The Texan's Reward by Jodi Thomas was that third book. Don't get me wrong, it's a pleasant read, has a nice style and a large cast of interesting characters. Too bad there's barely a romance to speak of.
Jacob Dalton is a Texas Ranger who has spent most of his adult life rescuing an orphan girl nicknamed "Two Bits" from one scrap or another. Well "Two Bits" is now grown up, a woman thanks to puberty and schooling back east. Nell Smith now has the ability to kick Jacob's libido into gear.
Crippled in an ambush, and bound to a wheelchair, Nell decides she needs to get married. She needs a husband to help her oversee the ranches she inherited. When Jacob gets wind of her fool plan (she's taken out newspaper ads!), he rides back into town and proposes to her.
Nell is not real hot over this proposal. She does love Jacob - too much to tie him down to marriage with a cripple. He deserves a woman who can give him everything - a settled life and children.
What works here? Well Thomas can write and she has a way with characters. Nell has a habit of taking in strays, and her home across the tracks is soon stuffed to the rafters.
What doesn't work? Um, where's the romance? When Jacob and Nell aren't arguing about marrying, they're dealing with external conflict. This includes missing gold, a train robbery and the secondary cast. In fact, Jacob spends a large portion of the novel away on Texas Ranger business. There is no courtship here. There is no wooing. A couple of tender interludes do not a romance make.
The Texan's Reward is a spin-off of Thomas' Wife Lottery series (all of which are still in my TBR thanks). From what I can figure, fans of the series were really looking forward to this book and I'm sorry to report that the romance is rather lackluster.
Still I've read much, much, much worse. It's just a shame this wasn't better. It has a lot of potential, but it just never quite hits the jackpot.
About The Bat Cave
Wednesday, November 16, 2005
Monday, November 14, 2005
Another So-So Read
I wrapped up Fool's Gold by Jennifer Skully this weekend and had the exact same reaction to it as I did to In Deep Voodoo by Stephanie Bond. It was a fun, light read - but dang if it didn't have problems. This time it was the conflict.
Simone Chandler went bust when the dotcom bubble burst, so she decides to relocate to dusty Goldstone, Nevada to lick her wounds. She lives in a trailer (it has a foundation thankyouverymuch) and writes Internet erotica for a living. People pay Simone to spin fantasies for them.
Tyler "Brax" Braxton is a sheriff of a small northern California town and desperately needs a vacation. He travels to Goldstone at his sister's request because her marriage is on the rocks. Maggie suspects her husband, Carl, is having an affair.
Brax soon meets Simone and is very intrigued. Not to mention very, very horny. But Simone has apparantly been corresponding with Carl via e-mail. Could it be Simone that Carl is diddling behind his wife's back?
What doesn't work? Well pretty much all the conflict. Why Simone just doesn't come out and tell Brax why she's writing Carl e-mail is anyone's guess. Her reasoning is incredibly weak, especially when coupled with the fact that she's a very good friend of Maggie's.
Also, Simone has a domineering mother that she's incapable of standing up to - until - yeah you guessed it - she hooks up with Brax and he's given her incredible orgasms. I'm sorry, but the feminist in me really cringed over this. Couple this with the fact that Maggie has a sexual hang-up and my eyes began rolling in the back of my head. What's Maggie's problem? She's a screamer in bed and her former fiance was apparantly embarrassed by it.
OK, first off - what man is turned off by an exuberant woman in bed? Maybe I'm hanging out with a bunch of deviants (which is possible) but most men I've known in my life are all about women having a grand old time. The more vocal the better. Heck, it makes them feel like they're doing it right!
And poor Simone - having so many vocal and powerful orgasms. Poor baby! Most women I know would give a limb (or a kidney) to have that problem.
Maybe I'm an old fuddy duddy (extremely possible), but these sorts of sexual hang-ups that authors give heroines tend to piss me off more than anything else. I figure by the time a woman hits 30 she should at least have some sort of clue.
Sorry about that. Sometimes my ranting gets away from me.
However the mystery works well - as long as the reader ignores everything HQN puts on the cover. Note to whomever writes back cover copy - when the murder doesn't happen until halfway through the book, it is poor form to disclose who the victim is on the back cover copy! This story would have worked a lot better with that element of surprise.
And spoiler to follow: the title itself blows the whole mystery angle, although luckily the author doesn't tip her hand to early.
So what works? I liked the characters - all of them. Despite the conflict they have to work with, they all seem like nice people. I also enjoyed the mystery angle once the author got around to serving it up on a platter - which takes the first half of the book.
So I'm recommending this one with qualifications. It's a solid vacation book should you be stuck at an airport this holiday season - but don't expect anything too deep.
Simone Chandler went bust when the dotcom bubble burst, so she decides to relocate to dusty Goldstone, Nevada to lick her wounds. She lives in a trailer (it has a foundation thankyouverymuch) and writes Internet erotica for a living. People pay Simone to spin fantasies for them.
Tyler "Brax" Braxton is a sheriff of a small northern California town and desperately needs a vacation. He travels to Goldstone at his sister's request because her marriage is on the rocks. Maggie suspects her husband, Carl, is having an affair.
Brax soon meets Simone and is very intrigued. Not to mention very, very horny. But Simone has apparantly been corresponding with Carl via e-mail. Could it be Simone that Carl is diddling behind his wife's back?
What doesn't work? Well pretty much all the conflict. Why Simone just doesn't come out and tell Brax why she's writing Carl e-mail is anyone's guess. Her reasoning is incredibly weak, especially when coupled with the fact that she's a very good friend of Maggie's.
Also, Simone has a domineering mother that she's incapable of standing up to - until - yeah you guessed it - she hooks up with Brax and he's given her incredible orgasms. I'm sorry, but the feminist in me really cringed over this. Couple this with the fact that Maggie has a sexual hang-up and my eyes began rolling in the back of my head. What's Maggie's problem? She's a screamer in bed and her former fiance was apparantly embarrassed by it.
OK, first off - what man is turned off by an exuberant woman in bed? Maybe I'm hanging out with a bunch of deviants (which is possible) but most men I've known in my life are all about women having a grand old time. The more vocal the better. Heck, it makes them feel like they're doing it right!
And poor Simone - having so many vocal and powerful orgasms. Poor baby! Most women I know would give a limb (or a kidney) to have that problem.
Maybe I'm an old fuddy duddy (extremely possible), but these sorts of sexual hang-ups that authors give heroines tend to piss me off more than anything else. I figure by the time a woman hits 30 she should at least have some sort of clue.
Sorry about that. Sometimes my ranting gets away from me.
However the mystery works well - as long as the reader ignores everything HQN puts on the cover. Note to whomever writes back cover copy - when the murder doesn't happen until halfway through the book, it is poor form to disclose who the victim is on the back cover copy! This story would have worked a lot better with that element of surprise.
And spoiler to follow: the title itself blows the whole mystery angle, although luckily the author doesn't tip her hand to early.
So what works? I liked the characters - all of them. Despite the conflict they have to work with, they all seem like nice people. I also enjoyed the mystery angle once the author got around to serving it up on a platter - which takes the first half of the book.
So I'm recommending this one with qualifications. It's a solid vacation book should you be stuck at an airport this holiday season - but don't expect anything too deep.
Thursday, November 10, 2005
Miracle Worker
I just had an Internet user (I know, you're all surprised here), get snippy with me and one of my librarians because a web site she wanted to use wasn't loading.
Exacerbating this issue was that she was on the web site earlier and it was working fine.
I assured her I have no control over web sites. I can't fix them. If I could Blogger would always work wonderfully and my Yahoo mail would never freak out.
To prove to her that I really couldn't fix this problem I resorted to moving her to a different computer - and you guessed it - the web site didn't work on that machine either.
My clerk told me I should have said, "If you get your own computer at home the web site will always work."
Now why didn't I think of that?
Exacerbating this issue was that she was on the web site earlier and it was working fine.
I assured her I have no control over web sites. I can't fix them. If I could Blogger would always work wonderfully and my Yahoo mail would never freak out.
To prove to her that I really couldn't fix this problem I resorted to moving her to a different computer - and you guessed it - the web site didn't work on that machine either.
My clerk told me I should have said, "If you get your own computer at home the web site will always work."
Now why didn't I think of that?
Wednesday, November 9, 2005
Ambassador Wendy
Who knew talking about romance novels would make me so darn popular?
I gave my romance novel presentation for the second time yesterday - this time to a group of librarians from different libraries within the county where I work (not just my library system). I was a big hit - again. Most of the comments I heard were, "What a lovely overview! Now I know at least a little bit." Or "I wish we had one of these for every genre."
I might end up giving this talk up to 3 more times. The head of children's services where I work wants me to talk to the children's librarians plus, there's talk of me giving this presentation to our library paraprofessionals (those people who help aid librarians but do not have a library science degree). Also, one of the librarians at yesterday's meeting expressed interest in me speaking at her library. A coup since they aren't within the library system where I work.
So what have I been discussing? Well I give a basic overview of the genre (What is a romance? Why are they sneered at? etc.), discuss the sub genres (historical, paranormal, contemporary, romantica etc.), what's hot right now, what's not right now, then a brief discussion on the RWA conference and the online romance community.
So far the favorite part of this presentation has been when I explain what TSTL stands for. That usually draws a big laugh. I also provide a list of handy web sites and even plug some area bookstores that are "romance friendly."
In other public speaking news - I'm without a children's librarian for the next two days. That means I had to do preschool storytime today (the kids must have had bags of sugar for breakfast) and a school visit of 60 grade schoolers tomorrow (I'm thinking of shooting myself this afternoon).
I gave my romance novel presentation for the second time yesterday - this time to a group of librarians from different libraries within the county where I work (not just my library system). I was a big hit - again. Most of the comments I heard were, "What a lovely overview! Now I know at least a little bit." Or "I wish we had one of these for every genre."
I might end up giving this talk up to 3 more times. The head of children's services where I work wants me to talk to the children's librarians plus, there's talk of me giving this presentation to our library paraprofessionals (those people who help aid librarians but do not have a library science degree). Also, one of the librarians at yesterday's meeting expressed interest in me speaking at her library. A coup since they aren't within the library system where I work.
So what have I been discussing? Well I give a basic overview of the genre (What is a romance? Why are they sneered at? etc.), discuss the sub genres (historical, paranormal, contemporary, romantica etc.), what's hot right now, what's not right now, then a brief discussion on the RWA conference and the online romance community.
So far the favorite part of this presentation has been when I explain what TSTL stands for. That usually draws a big laugh. I also provide a list of handy web sites and even plug some area bookstores that are "romance friendly."
In other public speaking news - I'm without a children's librarian for the next two days. That means I had to do preschool storytime today (the kids must have had bags of sugar for breakfast) and a school visit of 60 grade schoolers tomorrow (I'm thinking of shooting myself this afternoon).
Monday, November 7, 2005
Romance? I Know It When I Read It
I wrapped up a fairly good book this weekend. Unfortunately, I had to write a review for it. Why unfortunately? Because I felt the book was mis-marketed and will likely miss it's target audience. I'm sorry - it just wasn't much of a romance. However, it was an entertaining cozy mystery. What's a reviewer to do? Bail out and assign it an "average" rating and explain exactly what the book is in the body of the review.
The mystery reader in me really liked In Deep Voodoo by Stephanie Bond. The heroine, Penny Francisco, has just learned her divorce is final. She got to keep her health food store, and her cheating husband, Deke, got to keep the rambling Victorian house she lovingly restored. Now the town floozy she caught him in bed with is painting her house pink. Pink!
Penny's friends feel she needs to move on, so they figure throwing her a "happy divorce" party is just trick. Everyone brings gag gifts, anonymously of course, and with the annual Voodoo Festival going on in tiny Mojo, Louisiana it seems inevitable that someone would give Penny a voodoo doll dressed up like Deke. So Penny drives a pin through the doll's chest all in good fun - only to discover Deke dead in his home office a couple of hours later. Yep, stabbed in the chest.
Penny is prime suspect #1 - not because the police believe in voodoo, but because there is a ton of circumstantial evidence. Riding to Penny's rescue is B.J. Beaumont - a private investigator out of New Orleans, who just happens to be in town looking for a missing teen.
What works? OK, I like Penny. What woman alive hasn't either been the woman scorned or known the woman scorned? I also loved the menagerie of secondary characters. There are a lot here, and they all add to the story. In fact, Bond is setting this book up as the first in a series about quirky Mojo.
What doesn't work? The romance. For one thing, B.J. and Penny exchange about 3 sentences in the first 100 pages. It's not until Deke is dead that they spend any sort of time together, and even then it's to save Penny's bacon. Also, the story takes place in less than a week - so I'm all about believing the lust here, but the "I love yous" are a bit hard to swallow. Still, Bond doesn't make the mistake of having Penny pregnant with triplets and blissfully married in the epilogue. Thank gawd!
So I recommend this one with qualifications. If you're looking for a bang-up romance, this probably isn't going to do it for you. However, if you like lighter mysteries with lots of quirky characters and local color - then have at it! In Deep Voodoo works very well on that score. So well in fact that I'm looking forward to the next book in the series, which is supposed to be out sometime in 2006.
The mystery reader in me really liked In Deep Voodoo by Stephanie Bond. The heroine, Penny Francisco, has just learned her divorce is final. She got to keep her health food store, and her cheating husband, Deke, got to keep the rambling Victorian house she lovingly restored. Now the town floozy she caught him in bed with is painting her house pink. Pink!
Penny's friends feel she needs to move on, so they figure throwing her a "happy divorce" party is just trick. Everyone brings gag gifts, anonymously of course, and with the annual Voodoo Festival going on in tiny Mojo, Louisiana it seems inevitable that someone would give Penny a voodoo doll dressed up like Deke. So Penny drives a pin through the doll's chest all in good fun - only to discover Deke dead in his home office a couple of hours later. Yep, stabbed in the chest.
Penny is prime suspect #1 - not because the police believe in voodoo, but because there is a ton of circumstantial evidence. Riding to Penny's rescue is B.J. Beaumont - a private investigator out of New Orleans, who just happens to be in town looking for a missing teen.
What works? OK, I like Penny. What woman alive hasn't either been the woman scorned or known the woman scorned? I also loved the menagerie of secondary characters. There are a lot here, and they all add to the story. In fact, Bond is setting this book up as the first in a series about quirky Mojo.
What doesn't work? The romance. For one thing, B.J. and Penny exchange about 3 sentences in the first 100 pages. It's not until Deke is dead that they spend any sort of time together, and even then it's to save Penny's bacon. Also, the story takes place in less than a week - so I'm all about believing the lust here, but the "I love yous" are a bit hard to swallow. Still, Bond doesn't make the mistake of having Penny pregnant with triplets and blissfully married in the epilogue. Thank gawd!
So I recommend this one with qualifications. If you're looking for a bang-up romance, this probably isn't going to do it for you. However, if you like lighter mysteries with lots of quirky characters and local color - then have at it! In Deep Voodoo works very well on that score. So well in fact that I'm looking forward to the next book in the series, which is supposed to be out sometime in 2006.
Thursday, November 3, 2005
OK, You Can Shut Up Now
It's a dangerous thing to stand Wendy up in front of a room and ask her to talk about romance novels. But that's what I was asked to do today, and I think it went fairly well.
I did a presentation at a meeting this morning for all of the library system's adult services librarians. It was basically a general reader's advisory talk about romances. So I covered things like all the sub genres, nifty web sites, and how librarians could help/cater to romance readers who use the library.
I never know how my attempts at public speaking will go. I tried to keep the presentation lively (especially during the romantica/erotica discussion!), and tried to address issues that several readers have mentioned to me in the past. Most importantly I hammered home that reader's advisory is about finding a book the patron will enjoy - not a book the librarian will enjoy. So if the librarian thinks all romance is tripe (which it isn't of course), they should still treat the patron with respect and not sneer at them.
Thankyouverymuch.
Did everyone love my presentation? Well probably not - but the people who enjoyed it really seemed to enjoy it. The head of the department in particular was quite enthusiastic, and she tends to read non-fiction exclusively. In fact, she so enjoyed it she's looking into taking my dog and pony show on the road. I might be giving this exact same talk next week at a different library function.
Stay tuned.
I did a presentation at a meeting this morning for all of the library system's adult services librarians. It was basically a general reader's advisory talk about romances. So I covered things like all the sub genres, nifty web sites, and how librarians could help/cater to romance readers who use the library.
I never know how my attempts at public speaking will go. I tried to keep the presentation lively (especially during the romantica/erotica discussion!), and tried to address issues that several readers have mentioned to me in the past. Most importantly I hammered home that reader's advisory is about finding a book the patron will enjoy - not a book the librarian will enjoy. So if the librarian thinks all romance is tripe (which it isn't of course), they should still treat the patron with respect and not sneer at them.
Thankyouverymuch.
Did everyone love my presentation? Well probably not - but the people who enjoyed it really seemed to enjoy it. The head of the department in particular was quite enthusiastic, and she tends to read non-fiction exclusively. In fact, she so enjoyed it she's looking into taking my dog and pony show on the road. I might be giving this exact same talk next week at a different library function.
Stay tuned.
Tuesday, November 1, 2005
Wendy, Librarian Queen Of The Universe!
I got really good news yesterday. Not only did I get a very nice annual evaluation from my boss, she also gave me a very nice raise. So hopefully I'll start seeing a little extra on my paychecks by the end of the month.
In other news, my employer didn't reimburse me for my trip to Reno for RWA back in July - but they let me go on company time. This meant I didn't have to dip into my own stash of vacation time. The catch being that I would have do a presentation upon my return for all of the adult services librarians. Guess what I'm doing on Thursday?
I'm all set to go. I whipped up a PowerPoint presentation, got a handy list of web sites together and even rounded up some giveaways. RWA sent me some stuff (rulers, buttons, bookmarks), plus I'll be giving away from autographed books I got in Reno.
I'm rather looking forward to it. Finally a chance to educate other librarians and show off my romance geek tendencies!
In other news, my employer didn't reimburse me for my trip to Reno for RWA back in July - but they let me go on company time. This meant I didn't have to dip into my own stash of vacation time. The catch being that I would have do a presentation upon my return for all of the adult services librarians. Guess what I'm doing on Thursday?
I'm all set to go. I whipped up a PowerPoint presentation, got a handy list of web sites together and even rounded up some giveaways. RWA sent me some stuff (rulers, buttons, bookmarks), plus I'll be giving away from autographed books I got in Reno.
I'm rather looking forward to it. Finally a chance to educate other librarians and show off my romance geek tendencies!
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