It Takes A Village

If you blog hop around Romance Novel Land you've probably already found out about Romantic Advances - a new joint venture (with a crap-load of work being done by Jane at Dear Author) of several bloggers with apparently too much time on our hands. The brain child of Jane and Sybil, they thought it would be pretty cool if there was a web site that could be one-stop-shopping for romance readers.

I was approached (along with several other reader-bloggers) to provide content. A chance to use my librarian powers for good, rather than evil. Frankly, I think they just hit me up because they know I get neat-o catalogs, but whatever.

The web site (click on the banner in this post or on my side bar) is still in the beta phase - which means we're testing it. If there is something you love, or hate - please let us (and by us I mean Jane as she's sort of making all the executive decisions on this bad boy) know. I'm just one of the mindless drones typing in a bunch of stuff.

One thing to note, because some of us try to have lives (as pathetic as mine might be most of the time), we're only featuring RWA recognized publishers. We had to narrow it down somehow. So for those of you writing for small presses, assuming RWA likes your publisher, the best way to get your book listed on the site is to fill out the form here.

So take a look around and see if it's a site you can use. And for the Lil' Sis - yeah this was the exciting announcement I mentioned in yesterday's blog post. Probably doesn't do much for you, but it makes us romance readers happy.

The Vanishing Librarian

Unlike her niece and nephew, Wendy has not been reading

So yeah, I vanished there for a bit. I spent Memorial Day weekend on vacation from the real world. Besides the usual weekend drudgery chores (ironing, cleaning, laundry, grocery shopping), I didn't do a darn thing. I slept a lot and didn't read. Oh, and I've been watching my Detroit Tigers go on a losing bender (four in a row - not good boys).

A couple of items of note - I'm now an Amazon Associate, so any book cover you click on here at the blog will take you to Amazon where you can buy the book. You should do that, because I get a teeny-tiny bit of money from each sale and it takes a village to build my To-Be-Read pile.

Besides mentally checking out this weekend, I've been really busy at work. We've got about two more weeks until the end of our fiscal year and I'm spending money like a drunken Paris Hilton on Rodeo Drive. It's shameful how much I'm buying right now. Tomorrow I expect the entire cataloging department to show up with a noose.

But enough of my excuses, what's coming soon? Hopefully an exciting announcement tomorrow and back to reading. I really need to get back to reading.

Little Known Favorites

I believe Jennie started this meme, and shock of all shocks, no one has tagged me for it yet. Probably my horrible track record of doing these things. But this one looked fun, so here it is.

The Little-Known Favorites Meme
Rules: List and describe three of your favorite books that other people might not be familiar with. Then tag five people. See, easy!

Hearts by Stef Ann Holm
This is book four in Holm's turn of the century Bride For All Seasons quartet, and one of the last historicals she wrote before moving on to contemporary settings. This one is a real charmer! The heroine is an intelligent, athletic teacher on the brink of spinsterhood. Men want delicate flowers, and she has a shelf full of athletic trophies. When she gets suspended from her teaching position for teaching sex education to her female students, she travels to Harmony, Montana to visit a very pregnant friend. She meets the hero, a body builder and gym owner who is used to having women fall at his feet. What he finds is that he's intrigued by our heroine who is acting as if she's not the least bit interested in him. It stands alone from the series very well and is a great find for you Americana lovers. TRR review by yours truly here.

Breathless by Laura Lee Guhrke
::big sigh:: This is probably my favorite romance novel of all time. Librarian in turn of the century, small-town Georgia is an outcast because she got a divorce. She blames that divorce on the local whorehouse which she is working to shut down. Meanwhile, there are powerful men who don't want to see that happen, so they hire the hero to stop the heroine. Oh, did I mention the hero was also the lawyer who represented her scum-sucking ex-husband in the divorce and proceeded to smear her reputation? Adversarial relationships are always tough and I would suggest to every author who thinks about tackling one to read this book. Frankly, Guhrke is one of the very (very) few to ever get it right (in my eyes anyway). Seriously, I own two copies of this bad boy - that's how much I love it.

Courting Miss Hattie by Pamela Morsi
The poor heroine in this book is named Hattie and isn't much to look at. Hence she has the nickname "Horseface Hattie." Needless to say she's a spinster, but she's a spinster sitting on prime farm land. A man comes a-courting and it makes the hero, who has worked on Miss Hattie's farm for years, a teeny bit jealous. But he's set to marry the prettiest girl in town, and Hattie has always been like a sister to him. That is, of course, until a brotherly kiss turns into a barn-burning scorcher and everything between them changes. Love this book. Morsi writes PG-13 sex, but the sexual tension in this story just about scorches off your finger prints. Great, great book.

And there we have it. All romances I'm afraid - but hey, you won't get cooties. Promise.

Two Aspirin And A Bottle Of Whiskey

It's always a crap-shoot reviewing books that are parts of series when you personally have no previous knowledge of said series. A few things I look for:

• Don't info-dump
• Don't assume that every reader who picks up the latest book is familiar with the previous novels
• Make me want to find the other books in the series.

In other words, I want to be hooked. I'm a sucker for series, even when I moan about how there are too damn many of them nowadays.

Christine Warren's The Demon You Know is the third book (for St. Martin's anyway - I have a sneaking suspicion that there are other books in the universe via Ellora's Cave but her web site sucks big ones and hasn't been updated in forever) in the Others series. The author does a very good job with the world building and plot. Too bad I was wishing a slow, painful death for the heroine.

Abby Baker is completely unremarkable. Her job at a local TV station is that of glorified gopher, she hasn't had a date since the Clinton administration, and she's plain with a capital P. So how does she find herself in the middle of a riot in New York City? By stupidly agreeing to do a favor for a friend.

Two months previously humans found out that the paranormal exists. Demons, werewolves, vampires, witches etc. are real and walking around amongst us. Naturally everyone is not terribly happy with this, and rioting breaks out. Abby is looking for an escape route when she sees three thugs accosting an Other. She ends up in the middle of it and WHAM-O, she's possessed by a fiend.

Rule is a demon. His job is to keep the fiends in line. Fiends are like rogue demons. Demons = good. Fiends = very, very bad. Rule's above ground looking for Louamides, a fiend underling that he was using as an informant. Word on the street is that Lou is hiding out from Uzkiel, a very bad fiend set on doing very bad things. Rule wants to capture Uzkiel, and to do that he needs to find Lou. Imagine his surprise when he finds him hanging out in Abby's body. Oh well, he's just going to have to kidnap the girl.

Try as I might, I could not for the love of all that is holy figure out what Rule saw in Abby. Here it is folks, the condensed version of Abby's character in order of appearance:

• Dumbfounded
• Too-stupid-to-live
• Shrill
• Too-stupid-to-live and shrill

And because of this you just know there's a half-assed escape attempt don't you? The first 100 pages are Abby screaming and whining about being kidnapped and held against her will. All she wants is to go home to her nothing life. Never mind the fiend possessing her body. She wants to get away! Far, far away! And what? Just walk around with Lou in her empty head for the rest of her life? So she kicks, she screams, she argues ad nauseam. Rule is a demon, why he didn't perform some demon magic to glue her gums shut is a mystery to me. I mean, the guy has lived for a 1000 years and he picks this girl? Yeah, it's nice when the hero falls for the plain girl, but when the plain girl has the personality of a banshee? I'm sorry, that makes no sense. No amount of good sex is enough to overcome that. Of course I'm not ruled by testosterone either, so what do I know?

I totally get what Abby saw in Rule - he's hot. There's a lot of lust here, but in the end that's all there is. All Abby and Rule seem to do is bicker, have sex, and oh yeah - defeat a fiend, but I'm just not convinced they'll have a happily ever after. They'll need to spend their entire relationship in bed if it has any hope of succeeding.

Despite the subject matter, this story is actually very light. It's like one step away from MaryJanice Davidson and Katie MacAlister. Not quite that light, but nowhere near dark either. This was a quick read for me, and the author has a breezy style. That said, it was the kind of book I needed to take frequent breaks from. Abby annoyed me that much.

So it's not as bad as a D, but an annoying heroine is a pretty big sin in my book so Final Grade = C-. Maybe fans will go for it, but I just don't see many newcomers being converted.

General Housekeeping

Regular visitors to this blog who pay attention might have noticed by now that the blog links I had on my side bar have vanished. Thanks to someone out in Blogland (and I know it was a romance reader, but dang I can't remember who now), I discovered Google Reader - which has quickly become my new addiction. Such an easy way to keep up with my favorite blogs, plus I've added a slew of others that I only kept up with periodically when I "remembered" to check them. Now, Google Reader does my checking for me. Very handy for those of you who don't update all that often ::wagging my finger, you know who you are::

I thought about keeping some blog links on my side bar, but honestly they were starting to get on my nerves. So bye-bye linkage. I'm sorry if that offends, but I just got sick of my side bar. If you need links that badly, hit Romancing The Blog, or check for the occasional embedded links I provide in blog posts.

In it's place I thought I'd add a breakdown of how I "grade" books that I post reviews for here. Frankly, I always thought it was self-explanatory, but I once got a very puzzling comment about my grading on one of the many e-mail loops I'm on. The poster was horrified that I only gave a book a "B" when "everyone else" she knew who had read the book just gushed endlessly over it. So there I was, justifying a "B" grade and trying to convince this person that hey, a "B" is really good in my eyes. So in case any of you out in Blogland are similarly horrified, there's now a handy breakdown for you on the sidebar.

As a general rule, I'm pretty stingy with the A grades. The book really has to knock my socks off to the point that I'm contemplating a reread. I have zero time for rereading people, so if I want to reread a book you know it has to be good. On the other end of the spectrum, I'm also pretty stingy with the F grades. The book really has to be horrible for me to hand down such a grade. I'm the sort of person who looks (really looks) to find that one redeeming quality, and if it's there the book escapes the dreaded F to land in D territory. See how nice I am?

I'm Ignoring Them

My two dirty bathrooms. I'm ignoring them. I just can't muster up that much excitement for my toilet brush - I'm sorry. So I'm blogging instead. Who doesn't love a librarian with priorities?

Newsworthy bits - I met Rosie yesterday! The poor dear was just desperate to find a new used bookstore after the one near her home had the nerve to close. Like, how wrong is that? It's a bit farther for her to drive, but hopefully I hooked her up with a new place to try - and she did buy several Harlequin Historicals. See, this is why we like Rosie.

In other news, after much arm-twisting on the part of The Boyfriend and Sybil - I'm going to RWA in Dallas. Bought my plane ticket and everything. Of course, I haven't actually gotten the time off from work yet - but no problems there. It's not like the place will fall down without me, unlike the last job when all the crazies decided to band together when they figured out the manager was on vacation.

This means hitting the Librarian's Day Event (and trying not to sound like a moron should I actually talk to Nora or Jayne Ann Krentz [who used to be an academic librarian, so y'all know she's really smart]). It also means that I turn into a freebie whore junkie and snap up as many promotional items and books that I can. In my defense, some of it goes to the library. I don't horde them all to myself - so says she with 800+ books in the TBR.

Oh good times! The question is, will RWA survive me, Jane, Sybil and KristieJ? And anyone want to start a betting pool on how long it takes before one or all of us get kicked out?

Of course we won't get kicked out. Unless I start tackling people to get to the books. Then I might get kicked out. But truly, I'm a very polite person in real life. Honest.

Oh Michigan, My Michigan

Thirteen Things That Make Michigan Great And Wendy Homesick
(by way of explanation, I'm originally from MI and only live in California for the beautiful weather, movie star governors, picturesque wildfires, earthquakes, ocean breezes, and good jobs. Yeah, it's all about the job)

1) Mackinac Island Fudge Ice Cream - Mackinac Island is an island (well duh) in northern MI and the state's tourist trap. Hopeless romantics will know the island from the cheesy Jane Seymour/Christopher Reeve movie Somewhere In Time. It's quaint. It's lovely. There are no cars allowed on the island and they have the best damn fudge in the world. Someone decided to take that fudge and put it in ice cream and so was born what is commonly referred to as Wendy Crack. I used to mainline this stuff in high school, even eating it for breakfast - because ice cream is the breakfast of champions. Unfortunately it's not available outside the state of MI, which is probably a good thing because I no longer have the metabolism of a hummingbird.

2) Meijer - Oh how I miss Meijer (pronounced My-Er). It's like a Super WalMart without all the pesky labor violation allegations. If you can't find it at Meijer, you can't find it anywhere. Buy a gallon of milk, spark plugs, new underwear, and the latest Harlequin all in one place.

3) Ted Nugent - The Motor City Madman, Uncle Ted and the poet laureate of Michigan. "I make the pussy purr with the stroke of my hand; They know they gettin' it from me; They know just where to go when they need their lovin man;they know I do it for free" Oh good times! Would you believe my younger sister refused to use these highly romantic lyrics from Cat Scratch Fever in her wedding vows?! That girl always lacked good taste.

4) My family - Awwwwwww.

5) Cute kids - My older sister's kids. Look at how cute the little wieners are (click on picture to enlarge and get full cuteness overload)


6) Hot chicks - This one is for The Boyfriend. Now you'd think living in southern California that it would be "hot chick" overload but The Boyfriend loves Midwestern girls. Adores them to bits. And hey, Playboy has more than once declared the girls of the Big Ten the hottest college girls - and who are we to argue with Playboy?

7) Bell's Beer - This is a local brewery in Kalamazoo (I got a gal...), and they have this kick ass summer brew called Oberon. It's like beer on crack. Nothing finer than sitting in the backyard on a humid day, firing up the grill, and downing the Oberons until your eyes cross. They need to start distributing to California. Like yesterday.

8) Aretha Franklin - The Queen Of Soul has lived in Michigan for many years. We adore her.

9) Motown - Easily some of the best music ever recorded. I tend to prefer the male acts myself - Marvin Gaye, The Temptations, Stevie Wonder,The Four Tops etc. Frankly, I just don't think it was the same once Berry Gordy got a bee up his butt and moved the whole operation to Los Angeles. Yeah, we got the Jackson 5 out of the deal - but maybe Michael wouldn't have gone so crazy if they had stayed in the Midwest. Just saying.

10) Da U.P. eh! - The Upper Peninsula. That strip of land that sits between Canada and Lake Superior. It's lovely up there. Lots of trees, lots of deer, and a whole lot of eccentrics. If you like scenery, it's the place to be.

11) Madonna - You can run but you cannot hide chica. Frankly she's been trying to make people forget (for years) that's she's from Bay City, but we claim her anyway. If only for the fact that she wants everyone to forget and Michiganders are just evil that way.

12) The Great Lakes - I love how Californians think they've got the monopoly on beach life. Michigan is surrounded by water, and there are hundreds of smaller lakes dotting the interior. Hey, you can't surf there, but you can certainly loll about and give yourself skin cancer all the same.

13) The Sports - Michigan is a great sports state. They have great basketball (Pistons), baseball (Tigers) and hockey (Red Wings) teams. Of course, we also have to admit to the football (Lions) team. Oh well, you take the good with the bad.

Sugar, Sugar

Despite a love of erotica, I've always been drawn to what I call "sweet" historicals. "Sweet" in a contemporary setting - not so much, but I love them in historicals. Maybe it feeds into the "simpler time" cliche for me. But with traditional Regencies on life support (and I was never a huge fan of these anyway since I'm not wild about the Regency period), finding a sweet read today is hard. Really hard. Especially when you hit the bookstore and you see nothing but erotic romance and vampires.

The Preacher's Daughter by Cheryl St. John definitely fits the bill for readers looking for sweet. This is a nice story with internal conflict. No dastardly villains, just characters trying to heal from their respective pasts. This is a sequel of sorts to The Doctor's Wife (which I still haven't read - yeah, yeah, I know) - so those of you who have read that story will understand just what kind of past the hero, Benjamin Chaney, has to overcome.

The story opens with Lorabeth Holdridge, a girl desperate for a life. Her father is the town preacher in Newton, Kansas and has raised Lorabeth to be pious, dutiful, and hardworking. Yes he cared for her and nurtured her, but the girl has no life. She has dreams, even though she is extremely sheltered. This is a girl who has never had candy (I'd be begging for death myself), made any true friends, been allowed to socialize, and dang she spends her weekends at church. But Lorabeth has concocted a plan, and her father miraculously relents. She's going to work full-time for the Chaney family. Dr. Caleb Chaney has a busy practice, and his wife Ellie is ready to give birth to child #5.

Ellie's brother Benjamin has just set up a practice as a veterinarian, and he takes one look at Lorabeth and realizes he's in trouble. She's so pretty, so nice, and way too good for the likes of him. But he has this selfish desire to "protect" her and that means spending time together, getting to know her, and eventually falling in love with her against his better judgment.

Ben had the Childhood From Hell (see: The Doctor's Wife). Mama was a drunk and a whore - which means Ellie, Ben and younger brother Flynn all had different Daddies and were neglected. Ben saw things adults shouldn't see, let alone children, and let's just say it stunts him emotionally. Even coming to live with Caleb and Ellie later on, he's still unsure. He doesn't know how to be a man, or even what that entails. To him "being a man" isn't desirable, and to a certain extent he equates it to evil. He is trapped by his past, even though his sister has begged him to "let it go." He can't - until he meets Lorabeth.

What I like here is that Lorabeth is innocent without being too-stupid-to-live. She's been very sheltered. She has simple dreams and takes immense joy in having new experiences. Reading the newspaper, buying a new dress, trying jellybeans for the first time; it's this innocence that Ben is attracted to. But just because she has a wide-eyed innocence about her doesn't mean Lorabeth isn't strong. There are also many moments where she is the smartest character in the room. She has a quiet conviction about her, thanks in part to her faith. How this will work for readers is anyone's guess. For a long time Lorabeth smacks of "too good to be true," but then the closing chapters show up. Lorabeth was certainly sheltered, but she knows her own mind. And to think Ben was concerned with her protection from the big, bad world. Silly man.

Ben fits the mold of the tortured hero, and St. John has a way of giving her characters horrific baggage while keeping the story gore-free. The truly awful things tend to happen off-stage, and the actual page count is used to deal with the aftermath.

I think enjoyment of The Preacher's Wife is going to hinge on how well the reader likes gentle stories - because that's what we have here. Out of this author's previous work (which I'm still reading through), I'd compare this one to Sweet Annie. Two sheltered heroines who fall in love with two worldly heroes. And while Ben is certainly worldly, in many ways he is just as innocent as Lorabeth. That whole arrested development thing thanks to a horrific childhood. On a final note, I might also suggest that readers who are fed up with slut :ahem: "active" heroes might want to give this one a look. Lorabeth and Ben are equals in every sense of the word.

Final Grade = B.

Philistine

I'm not above seeing romance as a "sisterhood" - flame wars and all. Romance readers all share one thing in common - an "us vs. them" mentality. We're used to being made fun of. We're used to having our intelligence questioned. We're used to people who can't seem to keep their mouths shut making sweeping generalizations.

It's been this way for years, and I'll eat my shoe if it ever changes. In other words - we're used to it.

One thing I like about romance is that there is something for everybody. Case in point, authors/books I like annoy other readers, and there are authors out there that other readers rave about that just leave me flummoxed. I've mentioned more than once that I just don't understand the J.R. Ward love-fest. I'm sure she's a lovely person, and I'm happy that she's enjoying so much success. Bully for her. But I just don't "get" the appeal of her books. (OK, I do get it on a certain level - you have a bunch of emotionally tortured Alpha heroes running amok - but beyond that I don't get it).

Hey, I do my part though. I buy Ward for work. So never let it be said that my personal prejudice gets in the way of my job.

But I never feel like a philistine until Laura Kinsale's name pops up. I think it's just expected in some circles that all romance readers should lurve her books. I slogged through the first 150 pages of Flowers From The Storm before giving up and declaring it a lost cause. While I was cataloging the TBR, I came across two more of her books, flipped through the first couple of chapters, then tossed them in the UBS bag with a resounding thud. Why? Her writing. I just cannot get into her writing.

"I've yet to fathom it. No doubt I never will. How canst thou expect any real consideration from a person of his -- " Archimedea Timms paused, searching for a suitable word. " -- his ilk, Papa?"

"Wilt thou pour me a cup of tea, Maddy?" her father asked, in just the sort of amiable voice that left one with no room to start an effective argument.

"He is a duke, for one thing," she said over her shoulder, a parting shot as she marched through the back dining room to locate Geraldine, since the parlor bell was in disorder. The time it took to find the maidservant, see water drawn and set to boil, and return to the parlor was not enough to make her forget the sequence of her thoughts. "A duke can scarcely be supposed to care seriously for such matters -- the square is above thy left hand -- as must be perfectly clear when his integration has not been prepared for the past week."

::Snore:: ::Thud:: What? What was that you say?

I read strictly for pleasure, which means I don't want to work to hard to enjoy a story. No, I'm really not stupid. My family tree doesn't consist of one branch (no, really), and I don't spend Friday nights writing love letters to Larry The Cable Guy. But I was in school for a long time, and I think it just burnt me out on books I had to decipher line by line, word for word. I want a good story, good characters, and enough of a plot to keep me flipping the pages. I don't want a brain cramp. I don't want to ram my head through a wall. And I don't want to fall asleep. At least not while I'm reading...

I hate flowery. I hate dialogue that I can't "get" with the first read through. I don't require See Spot Run - but somewhere in the middle is good. I like clean. Straight lines, clean prose, and not a lot of "stuff" mucking it all up along the margins. Clear as mud right?

Right now I'm in the middle of The Preacher's Daughter by Cheryl St. John. I think St. John is a very good writer. She writes strong and clean - and that style tends to really appeal to me. I don't want to call it sparse, because she evokes plenty of images and emotions - and she does it in few words, without boring me to tears.

"Her mother had died of boredom. Tedium. Monotony. Lorabeth Holdridge looked up from the worn Bible on her lap to her father, sitting with his eyes closed in prayer. She was convinced that no one could spend every night of their life in this manner without a little piece of their dreams drying up and dying week by week, month by month, until finally there was nothing left alive and their spirit simply left their body."

Now that works for me. I see a young woman slowly drifting away, desperate for a life - heck, desperate for something different to happen outside of the monotony. And St. John gives that to me in one paragraph. Now structure wise? I'm not sure. Maybe My Sister The English Major will pop in and educate me. I've never been one to dissect structure because frankly, I just don't care enough. I mean, hello? Have you read my blog for any stretch of time? I'm horrible with punctuation, grammar, sentence structure etc. I want enough of that stuff to make the book readable, but while some readers will become annoyed when a semicolon is used incorrectly, I just can't get my panties in a wad over it. Sorry. I know I'm part of the problem.

Maybe I sat through just enough English classes in college to quickly become bored with what others think of as "good" or "great" writing. I know bad writing when I read it - but I think there are many different shades of "good." No two authors write the same (well unless one of them is a plagiarist), and while authors can certainly share similar "tones," there is always a little something that makes everyone different. Sometimes it's hard to find when you are confronted with the sea of "sameness" that tends to permeate the bookstore, but it's there. Sure all paranormals and Regency historicals look the same? But are they really?

Thanks to Isabel over at Book Binge for inspiring this post. Although if a flame war erupts I'm sure she'll fling rotten tomatoes my way.

Think, Think, Think

Everyone's favorite Harlequin Historical author (OK, so she's my favorite HH author), Cheryl St. John, has tagged me with a Thinking Blogger Award.

Oh the irony. Right now my brain has the consistency of feta cheese. That is to say it tastes pretty good, but is crumbly.

Personally I think Cheryl just saw that I was reading her new book and was hoping a little ego stroke would grease the wheels. Hey, I'm not above bribery - but cash people. Cold, hard cash. Small, unmarked bills delivered in a nondescript manila envelope.

To pass along the fun, here are the bloggers that make me think - I read all of them while infusing myself with my morning caffeine in the meager hope that they'll jump start my brain. Sometimes it even works:

Smart Bitches Who Love Trashy Novels

Dear Author

Romance Reading Mom

It's My Blog and I'll Say What I Want To

Nobody Asked Me

Step Away From The Plastic

Knock Off is Rhonda Pollero's debut mystery and it's written under her "real" name. She's published oodles with Harlequin Intrigue under the name Kelsey Roberts.

Knock Off is pleasant enough, but something about it feels off to me and since I just finished it I'm not sure I'll be able to articulate well. OK, so I'll try. Just for you all.

Finley Anderson Tanner (yeah, F.A.T.) is an estates and trusts paralegal with zero ambition in life unless it involves bargain shopping for slightly damaged designer duds. She cruises eBay while in the office. She's in the habit of taking long lunch breaks, and at 5:01PM she's running for the door as if the Hounds of Hell were nipping at her heels. That is until one of the lawyers in the firm dumps a case in her lap.

Stacy Evans is a "real" widow - which in Palm Beach, Florida means she's over 30 and genuinely upset her husband is dead. The man died when he fell asleep behind the wheel of his car and Stacy is convinced it was no accident. No, he was murdered! The firm wants Finley to pat Stacy on the head, mutter soothing words and handle the estate business. Instead, Finley finds herself investigating - and the more she snoops, the more she thinks that Stacy Evans' suspicions aren't just the ramblings of a grieving widow.

It takes a while to warm up to Finley, and some of this falls under personal prejudice - so go with it. I have a hard time sympathizing with someone who lives paycheck to paycheck, has mountains of credit card debt, and given the story arc, easily spends $40 a day at Starbucks. Hey, shopping can be fun (witness my TBR), but a budget is a beautiful thing. I'm probably showing my frugal Midwestern underpants here - but while I admire Finley for her love of a good sale, I have a hard time liking her. She's a bit bitchy - even if she does have a knack for turning a funny phrase.

But something remarkable does happen. Over the course of the story, Finley does grow up - some. She starts taking her job seriously. Damn, she's even showing up to work early and snooping on the weekends! Now, if she could just keep her hormones in check. Her boyfriend, Patrick, is the "perfect guy" but he doesn't get her blood boiling. No, the blood boiling is thanks to the investigator she hired to help with the case, Liam McGarrity, a former cop with bad boy tattooed on his forehead.

The mystery is pretty good, although the resolution is a bit of a letdown. It felt rushed. Also, I just couldn't buy the bad guy. Maybe with some more exploration? Again, it felt rushed. Also, Liam is a big ole' question mark. Why did he leave the police force? Is he boffing his ex-wife? Is she even his ex? All questions not answered, but one assumes will be addressed in future installments.

All in all, I didn't hate it, and I didn't love it. Will I read the next book in the series? Jury is still out - but probably. Work has been feeding my cozy mystery addiction for the last several months now and I don't see that letting up anytime soon. Final Grade = C. Again - didn't love it, didn't hate it, so average.

Hooray For Hollywood

This documentary has been years in the making, and I just got word they're premiering it at this year's ALA conference in Washington D.C. And, I won't be there. Oh well. The Hollywood Librarian is a look at the profession through the lens of Hollywood. Sometimes they get it right, and sometimes they get it oh-so-wrong.

I've been looking forward to seeing this film ever since I heard the director speak at a conference (many moons ago - I was still living in Michigan). The best part was that she brought a lot of film clips!

Check out the trailer, and take notice of the"Hysteric" Librarian For Freedom button. I have one. A former coworker (and former nun!) gave it to me when I announced I was leaving behind the marginally sane Midwest for the Land Of Burnt Out Hippies. That was three years ago folks and the Patriot Act is still with us.

Stupid Girls

Ever find yourself reading an enjoyable book, then the epilogue comes out of nowhere and bites you in the butt? That's what happened to me with We'll Never Tell by Kayla Perrin. This story was really good, until the final 8 pages.

Shandra James in one skanky ho. A pledge to the exclusive Alpha Sigma Pi sorority, Shandra is the type to steal a man just because she can. No one's boyfriend is safe, and her latest target is Henry Reid.

Henry is engaged to Phoebe. Phoebe is unthrilled with Shandra's latest project, and has warned off both the ho and Henry. Unfortunately, neither is listening and after a whole lotta drama - Phoebe decides that Shandra needs to be taught a lesson. Enlisting the help of her two best friends, Miranda and Camille, they plan a special initiation just for Shandra. Except, of course, the plan backfires and Shandra goes from skanky ho to corpse.

Now, Phoebe didn't kill Shandra, but given the initiation she planned she definitely has something to hide. So the three friends vow to "never tell" - which of course doesn't last too long. Soon it's all spiraling out of control and Phoebe is prime suspect number one.

I initially picked up this book because Perrin set it at my alma mater, the University at Buffalo. While the author takes some liberties for the sake of the story, she does a very nice job with the setting. It has a nice sense of place that I think even non-Buffaloians will enjoy.

The characters here are a bit tough, as they aren't always "likable." However, they are realistic, behaving like young women in their early 20s. That is to say, they don't always think and are a bit self-absorbed. Phoebe, like many women, is quick to blame the other woman for her relationship troubles, when what she should be doing is keeping Henry's Mr. Happy in a mason jar. Just saying. Phoebe's in lurve (or thinks she is) and believes Henry is The One. So, like many women, when that is threatened she doesn't stop to think "why," instead looking to knock-out the source of that threat.

Once Shandra disappears and turns up dead, the story really cooks and Perrin writes some great suspense. Phoebe becomes increasingly more paranoid, the cops get involved, and the university is breathing down her neck. The resolution is also really great, and the author provides several suspects (all with decent motives) to keep the reader guessing.

The next paragraph probably constitutes a spoiler - so you've been warned:

The problem comes in the epilogue. Before Shandra's death there was another murder on campus and another sorority sister was attacked. The author (or her editor) must have felt the need to address this outside of a "random nut job attacking young women" angle because she dashes off a "resolution." Unfortunately it doesn't work. It's not really resolved. Phoebe learns the truth, or what she suspects is the truth, but merely hopes the police "make the connection" and that she "certainly wasn't about to bring it up to them." Besides the fact that the victims to these crimes don't get any justice, you think Phoebe would have learned a little something about telling the truth to the authorities after the Shandra mess. Apparently not.

Granted, justice for victims does not always happen in real life - which is the main reason why (I think) mystery and suspense novels are so popular. There is a resolution. The bad guys get caught and get what they deserve. Perrin doesn't really do that here (although the main Shandra story is resolved). I'm not a writer, and I don't play one on TV, but I think I would have preferred Perrin to not introduce this angle at all. Completely write out the bit about the sorority sister getting attacked, and leave the earlier murder "unsolved." I suspect the author included this aspect to the story because in real life a student was murdered on campus in 1990, and the guy was never caught. I started college in 1993, and students on campus were still shaken up over it. I heard a lot about safety, being out alone, etc. during my freshman orientation. I think what would have been better is to leave that earlier murder "unsolved" and then include an author's note about the real life case. But what do I know? You can read more about Linda Yalem here.

Final Verdict: Without the epilogue this story is a solid B. The characters aren't always likable, but I found them believable, and the suspense is page-turning stuff. However, with the epilogue my opinion sinks all the way down to a C-. Harsh, but it really left a bad taste in my mouth.

Five Alarm

There are a few people who read this blog who actually know where I live - this post is for you all, assuming "I" made the national news. I was on my way home from work tonight to find myself stranded for two hours. Yes, I was a girl without a country when I discovered my neighborhood on fire and helicopters dumping water from the sky. Living in southern California, fire season is a very real threat and we've had no rain this winter. It's going to be a bad one folks, and this blaze is (I'm sure) merely the warm-up to what is going to be a hellish summer/fall.

The good news is that no homes were in danger. They did evacuate the nearby RV park - but that was about it. The reason I was stranded for two hours is because they closed off the main roads leading directly to my apartment. I finally learned of a bass-ackwards way to get home from a cute cop that was directing traffic. I finally made it home around 8PM. Naturally The Boyfriend was very worried about me, what with him still being in New Jersey on business. I am a grown-up, but he seems to actually be in love with me, so he was concerned for my safety. All is well, and that cute cop (and would a cute cop lie to me?) assured me that everything was under control and they had no intention of doing evacuations. That's right all you romance junkies - the book collection is safe from harm! (And isn't that really what everybody is worried about?)

Whatever we pay our firefighters, it's not enough. Bless you boys.

PS - Yes, those are actual photos, but I ripped them off. I didn't actually take any, what with my digital camera being held hostage in the apartment I couldn't get to for 2 hours. And I'm so glad The Boyfriend comes home on Wednesday. This excitement just about did me in.

Skin Rag

I didn't read Karin Tabke's first book for the sole reason that it featured a plot device I loathe - the good girl who goes "bad." Blech. Too many crappy romance novels featuring virginal librarian heroines who want to be "naughty girls" has a way of ruining that particular type of story for a person.

Anyway, Skin is Tabke's second novel and I have to admit that for a while I was really enjoying it. It has a plot like cotton candy - totally bad for you, but it tastes good and it gives you a sugar high. Unfortunately the story hits the 350 page mark - meaning it's long enough for the cracks to begin showing.

Francesca "Frankie" Donatello is a mafia princess. She wants nothing more than to run Skin - a women's magazine and one of the few legit holdings owned by her father. Unfortunately sales are starting to slump, but Frankie has a great idea. Why not make over Skin? Her plan is Cosmo meets Playgirl. But her father is very old-school sexist and hates the idea. So much so they have a heated argument, he tells Frankie she is "dead to him" and the very next day he is assassinated. Frankie pauses for about five seconds, then is determined to hire a hot male model to be her first ever centerfold. No moss grows under this girl's feet.

Enter Reese Bronson, an undercover cop assigned to get the dirt on the Donatello crime family. With Daddy dead, the cops are worried about a turf war. Infiltrating Skin seems like a good way to sneak in, plus Frankie being Daddy's daughter, she might have been the one to order the hit. After much convincing, Frankie hires Reese as her model. He's perfect, but he kicks her hormones into overdrive - and she has sworn off men. Her last boyfriend pillow-talked all of her business secrets out of her and took them to the competition. So no more mixing business with pleasure. Anyone want to guess how long this lasts?

Reese's plan is to get Frankie into bed, have lots of hot, sweaty monkey sex, then pillow-talk all of her family's secrets out of her. That's about it when it comes to his top-notch investigative police skills. He's also a paint-by-numbers Alpha hero. His Mommy abandoned him. He blames himself for his sister's death. He's estranged from his father. Gee, where have I read this before?

Ultimately what sinks this story is the "romance" and I use the term loosely. There is no trust. Zilch. Nada. Reese is determined to believe the worst in Frankie, even though his gut tells him otherwise. Frankie suspects Reese is a cop, but dang her clothes just keep falling off of her. More problematic though is the fact that she runs hot and cold. One minute she's determined to keep her pants on, the next she's ripping Reese's shirt off with her teeth. I swear, I half expected to see the old "her body betrayed her" line in this story (To Tabke's credit, she doesn't use it - but the word "sexily" appears a couple of times. Sexily? Is that even a word?)

Skin is the kind of book you can enjoy if you don't look beyond the surface. The plot is over-the-top, Reese is very alpha, and Frankie is a "woman in peril." But the author is determined to work the romance angle into this story, and she just never quite pulls it off. Too many trust issues. Too many unsavory details. I know undercover work is messy - but there's something not kosher about a hero who is 1) using the heroine for sex and 2) using her for sex so he can work a case. Yeah, I know it could probably happen - but I don't want to read about a romance hero doing it.

A word about the police angle in this story. I read the Harriet Klausner review that called Skin a "police procedural" and about choked. Reese doesn't really do any "cop stuff" except 1) save Frankie from hired goons and 2) try to solve the case by having sex with her. I don't know much about police work - but I'm thinking your average cop doesn't solve cases by ripping women's panties off of them. If they did, I think most 16-year-old boys would be begging to be junior detectives. Just saying.

No, Skin is a "beach read," pure and simple. If you go into the story with that attitude, and don't look below the surface, it's entertaining. There's a definite camp factor here. Unfortunately I was assigned to review this bad boy - and I was reading it from a glass-bottom boat. Final Grade = D+

The Duckman

Hey it's Friday and I have the day off. Of course I'm spending the day at the mall shopping for new clothes. Since I was born without the Female Shopping Gene, I hate clothes shopping - but hey! It's still Friday!

In honor of surviving another week, let us bask in the glow of The Duckman. I don't know about you all - but nothing says romance to me quite like a man willing to make an ass out of himself for my personal amusement. How can Andi just sit there expressionless? Hello?! Ice Princess? Check for a pulse.

Crap On A Cracker

The cataloging project is done. Before I started this torture, The Boyfriend suspected I had 800 books. I was praying hoping it was more like 600. Damn his eyes, he was right. I hate it when he's right because that means I'm wrong!

But it's kind of nice to have it finished, and guess what? I only had one duplicate. I haven't cataloged or kept track of my books for years and I only managed to have one dup. Yes, it is as we've suspected - Wendy is an anal-retentive idiot savant.

I'm thinking my next step will be to keep track of The Incoming. How many books am I adding to the TBR and how much am I spending. I suspect it's not much. Between the Borders gift certificates I earn with my Visa card, my online book trading, what I receive for review, my love of used bookstores, and whatever I check out from work - I really don't think that much money is leaving my wallet. Does anybody out there keep track of this? Beneficial? Depressing? Have a good method? I might have The Boyfriend design a spreadsheet for me with cool charts. He's a Microsoft Excel genius, whereas I land somewhere between idiot and novice.

In other news, I need to get some serious reading done. I hope to finish up Skin by Karin Tabke either today or tomorrow. It's a book with issues, but it's readable in a guilty pleasure sort of way. I don't want to directly compare this book to Shannon McKenna - but that should give you an idea. You know it probably shouldn't be working for you, but it's entertaining and like cotton candy. Not exactly nutritious, but it tastes good and gives you a sugar high. It's going to be hard a review to write though.

After that I have two library books waiting for me - Knock Off by Rhonda Pollero (AKA Kelsey Roberts), a mystery and We'll Never Tell by Kayla Perrin (which I'm really looking forward to!) I also got a copy of Claiming The Courtesan by Anna Campbell, and flipping through it I find my interest has waned a bit. It's a library book, so I think I'll probably check it in, send it on to some other lucky patron, and it's available if I want to check it out again. I just am so not interested in reading an English setting right now.

By The Power Of Greyskull!

Boy wait five minutes and the Romance Land Blogosphere erupts. I wasn't going to comment on any of this but 1) I'm a librarian and got something to say and 2) I just can't help myself. As far as train wrecks go this one is a doozy.

My favorite malcontent British blogger, KarenS, has incited the ire of the founder of the leading romance novel reviews/industry print magazine. Go on with your bad-ass self girlfriend! Reading the rambling letter made my eyes cross, but here are some juicy (and mind numbing) tidbits I picked:

None of our members deserve such ridiculous bloggers, especially from mean-spirited women posting notes from the quiet of their houses while those in the rat race of business life are working long hours. To think you only have time to promote personal vendettas is sad.

Oh shit crud this pushes my feminist hot button in a huge way. One, she's suggesting that all bloggers are bored housewives who have no clue what the "real" world is like. Two, she's implying that said "bored" housewives are somehow inferior and lacking in intelligence. I know some stay-at-home moms and I'm insulted for them. Frankly, the very ideal of feminism is that women should be "allowed" to be what they want to be. If you want to be a stay-at-home mommy - good for you. If you're a CEO - good for you. One is not inferior to the other. Women have fought long and hard to be taken seriously. We want to make our own choices, our own decisions - and we certainly do not want someone (especially another woman!) implying that our choice is somehow inferior. Free will is a beautiful thing y'all!

Bloggers who have no idea of the work it takes to be an author and a publisher in today's competitive market should not be welcome on board. And if you check into the sales of some of the people you're "dissing" don't be surprised to see they sell well, or is that the reason they are the object of your disaffection?

Actually I think bloggers have more of a clue than your average Jane Blow Schmoe. Well, at least I think I do. I know that authors toil for years on their writing. Then once they've written their book(s), they have to go about navigating the business of publishing. That means agents, editors, publishers, lawyers, contracts, legalese - gawd, it's enough to make your eyes bleed. Then you hurry up and wait. That book you sold a year ago (maybe longer) is just getting published and the 3 manuscripts you've finished are collecting dust because your agent hasn't been able to sell them. Then once that book is in print, you have idiot non-romance readers asking you when you're going to write a "real" book. Bloggers might not know all the dirty, gory details, but we do have a vague idea.

As far as dissing goes - reviews do sell books. How many books is anyone's guess. I know many (and I'm talking many) readers who have bought books after reading a "bad" review. "Good" reviews give the reader some detail as to what works, what doesn't, and the rating (or grade) is actually pretty moot. I've bought a lot of books that got mediocre or bad ratings because hey, the plot sounds kinda interesting or this author has worked for me in the past so why not try the new book? And we've completely skipped over positive reviews. I know for a fact that when I post a good review for a western at least 3 other bloggers are going to go out and buy it. That might not sound very impressive - but every little bit helps.

But what it really boils down to is power. How much power do bloggers have? My guess - not a whole lot. If we did between me, Sybil, Rosie and KristieJ historical western romances would be flooding the market, Lorraine Heath would leave England behind, and Avon would sign Susan Kay Law to write more westerns. I do think some blogs have more of a presence than others (Dear Author, the Smart Bitches), but by and large most of us got into this game to find people "like us." People crazy enough to horde romance paperbacks, catalog their books on Library Thing, and shout from the mountain tops about all the great (and not so great) books we read.

Typically, this debate tends to annoy me because it's a rehash of a very old "debate" and there's no resolution to it. A few years ago it was online review sites that were "mean." Now it's bloggers. Lather, rinse and repeat. But this particular train wreck was just too bizarre to ignore. Plus, she mentioned The Secret, and frankly librarians and booksellers everywhere are starting to break out in hives from that nonsense. Here's a clue folks - positive thinking is great, but if you really want to get ahead there's a lot to be said for good, old fashioned hard work. A solid work ethic is going to get you a lot farther in life than thinking shiny happy sunshine thoughts. Just saying.

Super Librarian out.

Why I Do It

So how is the cataloging project going? Very well actually. I only have two Rubbermaid totes to go - the Anything Remotely Contemporary Tote and the Series Romance Tote. All of my historicals and trade paperback/hard covers are done.

All of this playing with my books has sort of reinforced that I have too many. It also makes me question whether or not I should keep reviewing. I read roughly 100 books a year, and about half of those are review books. The other half is whatever I check out from work or unearth from the TBR. At this rate, I will never be in danger of reading through my TBR which means something has got to give. Most likely I need to take some serious time off from acquiring more reading material.

The Boyfriend thinks I should keep reviewing. It's definitely brought more "good" into my life than bad, and it's also a really good "professional development" activity for my resume. It keeps my hand in, so to speak, and it really allows me to keep on top of what's new, what's hot, what's not - at least as far is romance and mystery fiction goes.

I tend to go in cycles with my reviewing gig. When I read a great book - I love it. I especially love it when I read a great book that I more than likely wouldn't have picked up on my own. I've also discovered great authors by reviewing. Off the top of my head - Susan Wiggs, Maggie Osborne and Emma Holly. The first books I ever read by any of these authors were review books I was assigned (in order: The Hostage; I Do, I Do, I Do and Beyond Seduction).

Unfortunately I've noticed one big trend over the last 8 years I've been reviewing - it's either feast or famine. I'm either working through a stack of great books or a stack of duds that cause my eyes to bleed. I'll be honest, when you're working through a duddy stack this "job" loses more than a bit of luster.

It's when I hit a slump of crappy review books or look at my TBR a little too long I start to get the itch to quit. Will I ever? Not likely. In the long run, the good outweighs the bad - but it's a little daunting when you've cataloged almost 500 books and you've still got two Rubbermaid totes to go. So a hiatus might not be uncalled for. Maybe later this summer...