Comment Policy, State Of Health and Audiobooks

A bit of a catch-all post, since I sort of feel like the blog has been a Dead Zone this week and I've got a few little things to talk about.

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First things first, as much as I hate to do it because since the Blogger upgrade the whole thing sucks harder than my vacuum, I've turned on word verification for comments.  I know, I know.  Really folks, I wish I could leave it off - but the level of spam I'm getting is starting to annoy me.  They were just targeting older posts, which wasn't quite as annoying because for any post older than 90 days I make y'all go through comment moderation.  But the asshole spammers seemed to have figured that out, so now they're targeting more recent posts.

So yeah, the crappy Blogger captcha is on. 

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I'm still not totally "right" (no comment from the peanut gallery), but I'm mostly back to normal after my recent bout of sickness.  If nothing else it served as a reminder that really, I need to take better care of myself.  Oh, like maybe I need to get better about exercising more consistently.  I'm the bandwagon poster girl when it comes to exercise.  I go great guns for a while, and then something happens to make me fall off.  This last go around it was taking a tumble down the concrete stairs at work while hauling a box of moldy, disgusting books that some "generous" soul donated to us to the dumpster.

Really folks, you can throw books away.  No really, you can.  Especially if it looks like they were living life as a petri dish for the last 20 years.  Libraries are broke, we're not desperate.

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I've been listening to some audiobooks recently, mostly as a way to keep my reading mojo going and amuse myself while commuting.

What I tend to like about Robert K. Massie's books is that he makes Russian history accessible to your average lay-person.  Catherine The Great: Portrait of a Woman was a really interesting listen for about the first half.  The stuff about her childhood, and her eventual "courtship" and marriage to Grand Duke Peter.  After she becomes Empress though it kind of fell apart for me pacing-wise.  It just....wasn't quite as stimulating.  It ended on a strong note for me though since by that point those wacky French are having their revolution, and it was interesting to read about Catherine's opinion on that minor bloody matter.  All in all, it was something I'm glad I listened to, and really glad I didn't read.  I think it would have been a slog if I had tried to read it.

After that it was Catch Me by Lisa Gardner, who I'm quickly realizing writes good suspense threads that I enjoy listening too, but her main characters tend to irritate me.  I'm not sure if I hated Boston homicide detective D.D. Warren, or I just hated the way the reader read her.  I also felt the author had a tendency to info dump a little too much via her characters pontificating on suspect profiling etc.  Also, is it just my dumb luck that the two Gardener books I've listened to (this one and Say Goodbye) dealt with pedophile story lines?  I kept going with it because I loved the suspense thread, and was riveted by one of the secondary characters.  Again, a good listen, but I'm in no rush to keep reading about D.D. Warren and unless a back cover blurb intrigues I'm probably done with her as a character.

Right now I'm in the middle of In The Woods by Tana French, a book recommended to me by online buds (Keishon most notably) and coworkers.  The reader is....not the greatest.  It feels like all the characters are yelling their dialogue.  Everything comes out like there is an exclamation point at the end of every sentence.

Also, the storyline, while interesting is kind of bugging me.  The basic idea is that Rob Ryan went missing with his two BFFs when he was around 12.  He was found, covered in blood, while his two BFFs have been missing ever since.  He, naturally, remembers nothing.  He grows up, becomes a homicide detective, and is now working a case that is eerily similar to his own.

Here's what I don't get: his past is a huge secret.  His bosses have NO clue.  He used to go by Adam Ryan, and as an adult he started using his middle name, Rob.  What, they don't have something like social security numbers in Ireland?  Employers, especially law enforcement, don't run background checks on their employees?

HOW THE HECK IS HIS PAST SUCH A BIG BLOODY SECRET??!?!?!?!?!!?!?

Maybe we're just more paranoid here in the States.  Hell, even I had to be fingerprinted when I applied for my current job and I'm a librarian (although I am around children all day, so I really do understand the logic behind it).

But I'm keeping with it, mostly because now I'm sucked into the crime.  We'll see how I feel about the ending before determining if I'm going to carry on with the series.

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So that's what's going on around here.  Anybody reading anything good?  Have an audiobook recommendation for me?

Congratulations It's An Alien And Gushy Author Lurve Fest

First, I'm starting this blog post with a whine.  I'm sick.  I woke up at approximately 4:30AM this morning to reenact that scene from the first Alien movie.  I hate calling in sick to work.  It sets the Good Little Midwestern Worker Bee side of me into a guilt-trip induced malaise.  The worst part is that I feel just crappy enough that I haven't taken advantage of this unwelcome, unexpected day off to do any reading. Ugh, and I've resorted to drinking herbal tea.  People, this is a true sign of how icky I feel because the only time I drink steeped grass clippings is when I feel like something the cat hacked up.

I know - whine, whine, whine.  I would say pass the cheese, but honestly the way my intestines feel right now dairy products....probably not the best idea.

On the bright side?  I'm seriously pathetic enough at the moment that My Man is hovering.  He even came home on his lunch break to check on me. 

But enough of my narcissism and blatant plea for Internet attention - I have a new post over at Heroes & Heartbreakers today.  Basically it's a big ol' giant love fest for HelenKay Dimon's Harlequin Intrigue books.

Head on over and take a gander.  Maybe leave a comment.....

Winner! Giveaway: A Giant Pile Of Harlequin Passion

For those of you who are hesitant to be the first commenter on a giveaway post?  Well, lady luck could still shine down on you!  Thanks to magical randomness of random.org the winner of the giant pile of Harlequins and an RWA tote bag is lucky #2.....

Willaful!

Willaful, you can find my e-mail address here.  Please drop me a line with your shipping address and I'll get your goodies in the mail this week.

For the rest of you - stay tuned!  I'm planning on doing another giveaway very, very soon.

Giveaway: A Giant Pile Of Harlequin Passion

Yes folks, the RWA 2012 tote bags and mother-lode of books giveaways are back!

This go-around I'm giving away a giant pile of Harlequin category romance from, what I consider, their "passion" lines.  Represented here are Harlequin Presents, Harlequin Desire, Harlequin Blaze and Kimani Romance.

For your chance to win this giant pile of goodies, leave a comment on this blog post, and answer this question:

If you could go anywhere in the world for a "romantic getaway" - where would it be?

Winner will be announced on Tuesday, September 25.  And sorry folks - this one is open to US residents only.  Blame it on the heavy box.  The rest of the giveaways from here on out will be open to international folks as well - promise.

TBR Challenge 2012: The More The Terrier

The Book: The More The Terrier by Linda O. Johnston

The Particulars: Cozy Mystery, Berkley Prime Crime, 2011, Book 2 in series, In Print

Why Was It In Wendy's TBR?:  I was at an RWA local chapter meeting and the author was signing copies of this.  I wasn't going to buy one, but then I read the back cover blurb and noticed the murder suspect's name was Mamie (that's Mame-eee, not Mammy) and that just so happened to be my grandmother's name.  Yes folks, I'm this easy.  Impulse buy ahoy!

The Review:  Lauren Vancouver runs an animal rescue shelter in southern California.  After a divorce that left her wounded, she started volunteering at a shelter run by Mamie Spelling, a woman who would turn out to be a mentor.  When a local pet store chain announces their plans to open up their own rescue?  Lauren wows them with her business plan, and gets the job.  The problem?  Mamie wanted that job.  So the two had a falling out of sorts, and haven't spoken to each other in years.  That is until Lauren gets a very strange phone call from Mamie.  It's strange enough that Lauren drives across town to her old friend's shelter and what she discovers shocks her.

Mamie has become an animal hoarder!  Determined to help, Lauren calls the local authorities and during the rush to get the animals out Bethany Urber shows up.  The former head of a cosmetics empire, she sold her company and now devotes her time to her own animal rescue, as well as a network she founded called Pet Shelters Together.  The idea is for the local shelters to work together, share resources, yada yada yada.  The problem is Bethany, who is a media whore of the highest order and is about as warm and fuzzy as a rattlesnake.  She'd been strong-arming Mamie to join the network, threatening exposure of her hording if she didn't. 

Uppermost in Lauren's mind is saving the animals and getting help for her old friend.  She doesn't know who this new Mamie is, but she can't ignore the fact that the woman helped her out when she was at a low ebb, post divorce. However things get more complicated when Lauren gets another hysterical phone call from Mamie.  Turns out she stopped by Bethany's place and found the woman dead.  Oh, and Mamie's fingerprints?  Happen to be on the gun that did the deed.

I cut my reading teeth on cozy mysteries and still have a soft spot for them.  The problem is either my tastes have radically changed or the de-evolution of the sub genre is starting to get to me.  Cozies have come to rely very heavily on "hooks."  It's apparently not enough to just have a lighter-toned mystery these days with minimal blood and guts.  No, you need a gimmick.  Magical cats, knitting, baking, vintage fashion, underwater basket-weaving, etc.  The problem is that it is easy for these "hooks" to overwhelm what should be the focus of the story - the puzzle of solving the mystery.  And if, as the reader, you're not madly in love with whatever the "hook" is?  You're in for a ho-hum read.

Which is exactly what happened to me here.  There's a lot of animal stuff here.  Lots of stuff about rescuing and finding adopted homes and Lauren making home visits and finding animals abandoned on the doorstep of her shelter and what's going to happen to the animals that were recovered at Mamie's and.....

I don't care!

I want to care about the dead body.  Who killed Bethany?  But it's buried under a lot of other stuff that I was personally not interested in.  I wasn't reading this book to learn about animal rescue organizations.  I was reading this book for a light mystery.

So what does this mean?  Well, it means that unless it directly involved the mystery-solving I pretty much skimmed large chunks of this book.  I just wasn't into it.  But that doesn't mean that some other reader might not be into it.  It's just that I am, admittedly, not a hardcore animal person.  I like doggies.  I like kitties.  But I also am not volunteering my time and money towards animal causes.  If you are?  This may be just the read for you.  Johnston has created a heroine who is obviously passionate about her job.  Who loves animals and loves to work at finding homes for them.  I simply wasn't invested in this aspect of the story.  And because it takes up a large chunk of the book?  It meant I wasn't really all that invested in the rest of the goings-on either.  There's a pleasant read here, and I did zip through it in a day, but I now know enough to say this just ain't my cup of tea.  One is enough, I'm out.

Grade = C

The Month That Was August 2012

Lemon Drop:  Yo, yo, yo Auntizzle Wendizzle!

Me: I have no idea what you just said, but um....hi?

Lemon Drop: Just keepin' it real.  Like Snoopy With The Double G hangin' the LBC....

Me: You could quite possibly be the whitest white kid to ever white.  How about I just tell you about what I read last month and maybe by that point you'll stop trying to be all gangsta up in here.

Lemon Drop: Drop it like it's hot Auntizzle!

Me: Good Lord.

Title links lead to full reviews.
 
Thunder on the Plains by Rosanne Bittner - Historical western romance, Sourcebooks, 2012 (1992 reprint), Grade = DNF

•  A writing style that wasn't flowing for me and a Mary Sue heroine ultimately led to this DNF.  Bittner has worked well for me in the past, but not with this particular book.

Sweet Temptation by Maya Banks - Erotic romance, Berkley, 2010, Grade = D

• I'm done.  I'm completely over BDSM.  I couldn't wrap my mind around a "hero" who thought it wasn't right to be in a relationship with his dead BFF's sister, but it was totally OK to screw her brains out and arrange a gang-bang for her.  My hero.  Not.

Starlight by Carrie Lofty - Historical romance, Pocket, 2012, Grade = B

• Daughter of a famed union organizer falls for the new owner of the mill, who inherited it from his Dead Daddy with the stipulation he turns a profit within one year or his inheritance is bye-bye.  A heavy adversarial relationship melded with a marriage of convenience and a seriously villainous villain.

Copy That by HelenKay Dimon - Harlequin Intrique, 2012, Grade = B

• Hero shows up at twin brother's house just in time to rescue heroine from hired goon.  A heavy action-style plot similar in style to Dimon's other Intrigues.  She works well with plots of this nature, and this was a quick, fun read.  Harlequin Cheat Sheet: Twins!, Heroine Done Wrong, Two Romances For The Price Of One, Law Enforcement

The Outrageous Confessions of Lady Deborah by Marguerite Kaye - Harlequin Historical, 2012, Grade = C-

• Chalk this one up to me not being able to suspend disbelief enough to buy a Dowager Countess going on a house-breaking adventure with a former military man turned vigilante Robin Hood-type.  Did find the aspects of "secret identities" and the revelation about the heroine's first marriage interesting reading however.  Harlequin Cheat Sheet: Widowed Heroine, Horrible First Marriage, Military Hero, Author Author!, Revenge!

The Navy SEAL's Bride by Soraya Lane - Harlequin Romance, 2012, Grade = B

• Former Navy SEAL coping with his new desk job falls for pretty elementary school teacher who hasn't had the best luck when it comes to big, strong military men.  Lane does overplay some old school category tropes, but it all leads into a wonderfully emotional confrontation scene.  Harlequin Cheat Sheet: Navy SEAL Hero, Heroine Done Wrong, Daddy Issues

Lemon Drop: BDSM?  What the heck is BDSM?

Me: Let's just say it's one less thing I'll be reading that would cause Papaw to have a massive coronary....

Lemon Drop: That's a good thing, because I've got Papaw wrapped around my little finger.  He didn't stand a chance when faced with the sheer awesome cuteness power of Lemizzle Dropizzle.

Me: This is getting out of hand.

Lemon Drop: Like a boss Auntizzle.  Like. A. Boss.

Me: I'm way too old for this.....

Digital Review: Because Of You

Because of You by Jessica Scott is now almost a year old.  When it was first released it made a big splash in various online circles I frequent because 1) It was the first non-reprinted book offered by the resurrected LoveSwept line and 2) Scott is an active participant in various social media forums.  I'm just now getting around reading this a year after the fact mostly because I tend to actively avoid books that aren't necessarily "hyped" - but ones that everyone and their dead Grandmother seem to be talking about.  Because, you know, I'm contrary like that.  Now, with the release of her second book on the immediate horizon, what did I think of this debut?  Pretty good.  Not great, but very promising.

Sergeant First Class Shane Garrison takes his job as an infantry platoon sergeant very seriously.  It's his job that his men are ready for, and survive, combat.  His marriage now a bad memory, he's got nothing left other than a job he loves and his men.  Then, on the eve of his latest deployment back to Iraq, he meets pretty nurse, Jennifer St. James.  One shared kiss later and suddenly he's thinking about more than just his men.

Jen is a survivor, now down one breast thanks to a battle with cancer.  She was dragged out to the bar by her well-meaning BFF and all she can think about is how uncomfortable she is, and can anyone notice that one of her boobs is a silicone falsie?  Then she meets Shane, and while she's still uncomfortable, he's the first man in Lord knows how long that makes her feel something other than sorry for herself.  Dare she say it?  Could it be that this man makes her feel desirable?

What follows is Shane getting deployed, bad things happening, and him returning home to the very military base hospital where Jen works.  Naturally Shane in a hospital bed with pins in his legs while his men are still fighting in a sandbox thousands of miles away doesn't exactly sit well with him.  Will Shane ask for, and accept, help?  Will Jen be strong enough to be the person that Shane, although he won't admit it, needs?

I've never been what one would call an overzealous fan of military romances.  I realize now the issue may be the sheer over-reliance on Navy SEALs.  If we're to believe Romance Novel Land conventions there are currently 2 million retired SEALs and about 1 million active ones.  So it was really refreshing to read about a Sergeant.  A Sergeant in charge of an infantry unit no less.  Given that Scott is in the military herself, the added touches and details added a nice authenticity to the story.  But it's not what stuck with me.  Nope.  Not at all.  It was the "nurse stuff."

I spent the first 18 years of my life, sitting around the dinner table every night, listening to my mother talk shop.  Mom has been an RN for over 30 years.  My older sister is also an RN.  And while neither of them have necessarily worked the kind of cases that military hospital nurses would see?  I really appreciated that Jen behaves like a nurse.  A very good patient-care nurse.  She's one part compassionate and two parts no-nonsense, no-bullshit. 

He massaged his temples with his thumb and index finger.  "I don't want any more damn drugs and I want this fucking tube out of my dick."

"We can't take the catheter out because you've got seventeen stitches holding your guts inside of you.  So unless you feel like picking your spleen up off the floor because you want to be stupid, the quote fucking tube stays."

And...

"Don't tell me I don't understand.  Don't tell me it's not the same.  No one understands life and death like soldiers do.  Just like no one understands life and death like doctors do."

Hand to God, I could practically hear my mother and sister saying those lines out-loud as I read those passages.

Where this story stumbles a bit for me is in execution.  Shane and Jen are separated for chunks of the story, normally a major rule violation for me in the category format, but not the end of the world here.  Scott does introduce a lot of secondary characters to fill the void, and they're all generally interesting people.  The problem is that the reader is now getting less of the main romance and more invested in the secondary characters.  Which would also be fine, depending on the reader, except two of the secondary characters are left seriously twisting in the breeze at the close of this book.  It smacks dangerously close to a cliff-hanger for me, which I generally dislike outside of the suspense genre and I am really not a fan of in category romance.  One hopes that the author will revisit this story line, although the back cover blurb of her upcoming book doesn't provide a lot of insight on that score.

But this is still a very solid debut, and an interesting one.  If you're a fan of military-themed romances, I personally think this one is a must read.  Granted I don't read a lot of them, but this one felt very fresh to me in a lot of ways.  I liked Shane, even when he was behaving like a butthead, and I liked that Jen, while vulnerable over her cancer fight, was still a capable women with a life and a career, outside of landing a hunky wounded warrior.

Final Grade = B

Reminder: TBR Challenge For September

For those of you participating in the 2012 TBR Challenge, a reminder that your commentary is "due" on Wednesday, September 19. 

The theme this month is Other Genre Besides Romance.  I know, I know.  Y'all are suffering because Wendy also reads mystery/suspense.  If you're one of those souls who only reads romance?  Remember, the themes are totally optional!  Treat this as a "free pick" month and grab a neglected romance out of your pile.  The themes aren't important - reading something that's been lying around neglected is the real goal.

Wow, I can't believe it's September already?  Only four months left to the challenge for this year.  For a list of all of this year's participants, be sure to check out the TBR Challenge 2012 Information Page.

Vanilla Is All I Need

It's official.  I'm totally over BDSM.

As a reader, as a librarian, I can look at The Siren by Tiffany Reisz with a trained enough eye to tell you - yes, she's a very good writer.  There are even moments in this story where I would label her a "writer's writer."  Why?  Because if I were a writer, read this book as a writer, I'd flog myself three ways to Sunday for not being clever enough to write half the stuff Reisz does in this book.  Like how erotica has more in common with horror than the romance genre?

Brilliant.

So why didn't I love this book?  Let me try to explain.

Nora Sutherlin is a "guttersnipe" erotica writer who is currently working on the book of her heart.  For this precious bit of work, her old publisher won't do, and she's hoping that Royal House, a more literary-bent publisher will be just the ticket.  But she doesn't want to work with just any editor.  No, she wants to work with Zachary Easton, a Brit who moved to New York after his marriage flamed out.  To say he's not exactly enthralled to be working with Nora is an understatement, and then of course he actually meets her.  To put it bluntly, she terrifies him - and yes, he's going to work with her.

The early chapters are very lively.  Nora is the sort of dominant personality I have been dying to see in an erotic novel for some time.  She doesn't have a penis, and she's dominant.  Thank you sweet baby Jesus, right?  Yeah, wrong.  Because Nora is not a Domme.  She's actually a switch.  Which means she swings both ways.  At one point she was "collared" (as a submissive) to her lover Soren.  But she left him.  It was only after she left him that she "switched," and took up writing.  But the man isn't totally gone from her life, and adding complications are her feelings for her 19-year-old houseboy-slash-personal-assistant, Wesley, and now her new editor, Zach, who just so happens to still be in love with his wife.  Separated from her though he may be.

So yeah.  Look, I know that in the BDSM world switches happen.  But frankly it smacks of having your cake and eating it too when it comes to fiction.  I finally get a Domme heroine and wait....no, I don't.  But I'm a big enough person to admit that this is just me being petty.

No, the real problem is that for the longest time this story has no heart.  I see the skeleton, the flesh, even the spleen - but the heart is missing.  There are elements to this story, mostly the Soren "stuff," that smack of nothing more than cheap shock value.  Think of it as settling in to watch Masterpiece Theater, and then halfway through someone splices in Honey Boo-Boo where Sherlock Holmes should be.  For too long it's clever writing with....not enough to make me care beyond said clever writing.  When the heart finally does show up?  I'm several hundred pages into the book and worn down to the nub.

Nora is actually neither Domme nor sub.  No, our girl is an Emotional Coward.  Yeah, I said it.  And yes, it's just as much fun to read about as you would think.  I think I'm supposed to see her as liberated.  As daring.  And all I see is a coward who won't own up to her feelings.  Who won't allow herself to be happy, to be who she wants to be with, because frankly she's warped as hell.  And no, that's not a commentary on the BDSM "lifestyle."  That's commentary on someone who refuses to grow up, to own who she is, and walk across broken glass to get what she wants (or needs, depending on your perspective).  The fact that she hurts people because of this?  Yeah, just pisses me off.  And it certainly doesn't endear her to me that she hurts the one character I gave a damn about.

Nora, you suck.  And not in a good way.

For an erotica novel I have to say, this one is surprisingly tame - the shock value over Soren aside.  For clueless folk who think erotica is "just about sex," I can mentally picture them muttering in disappoint the number of times the author employs the ol' Fade To Black.  Honestly, it's the tamest erotica novel I've ever read.  The BDSM stuff is....well, BDSM stuff, various floggings and beatings and what-not.  The author writes it well, although I'm so frickin' sick of the ubiquitous "club scene" I could just scream.  Not the author's fault, that's just me hitting sheer saturation level.

What I'm left with is....I'm not sure.  This is well written.  There are some emotional pay-off scenes at the end that are really fantastic.  But honestly?  This book is too long.  There's too much "book within a book" stuff - even though, yes, I'm aware those passages of Nora's work-in-progress are supposed to be a window into her psyche - yada yada yada whatever.  I also got really irritated with Nora.  A lot.  She's a coward.  She deeply hurts the one character I like but hey that's OK because it's for his "own good."

Stupid cow.

There's another book in this series coming (ha!) soon.  Reisz can write.  She's very talented.  And I'll try her again when she's done with Nora.  My bus stops here.

Final Grade = C

What I've Been Up To

So I hope everyone enjoyed my guest author feature last week with Jami Davenport.  Now it's time to get back to business as usual here at the Bat Cave and that means.....

Yep, it's back to being all about me.

Hey, at least I embrace my narcissism. 

So what have I been up to?  Gee, what haven't I?

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First things first, I had a post go live over at Heroes & Heartbreakers last week all about my favorite librarian heroines in romance novels.  Why not head on over and take a gander, assuming you haven't already?

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Despite the fact that I have review obligations coming out of my ears, I took a wee breather last week to read new books by two of my favorite mystery/suspense writers.  Just to make me a little bit of extra crazy?  Both of these new books released on the very same day!

I know as a romance reader that in some circles, all of my reading material of choice would be deemed as "fluff" - but romance is the last genre I tend to go to when I want "brain candy."  No, when I want fluff?  I mean, real fluff?  It's cozy mysteries all the way.  Death of a Neighborhood Witch by Laura Levine is the latest in her series featuring freelance writer Jaine Austen (no relation).  This story involves the untimely death of an unpleasant elderly woman who had a brief flirtation with 15 minutes when she stared on a D-grade Munsters knock-off sitcom.  When she ends up dead, Jaine ends up the prime suspect, seeing as how it was her cat, Prozac, who killed the old lady's decrepit pet bird.

I was disappointed in the last book in the series, and this one was a nice recovery read.  The mystery was solid, and Levine keeps the sitcom-like antics flying.  My only real complaint?  When exactly did Jaine's neighbor - fabulous gay Neiman Marcus shoe salesmen, Lance, morph into such an asshole?  I used to love his character and the last two books?  Yeah, asshole.  Still a solid B for me.

After that it was Last To Die by Tess Gerritsen, the latest in her Rizzoli/Isles series.  I gave up on the TNT TV series based on the books after one year, largely because Hollywood morphed Dr. Isles into a pod person - but I'm still going way strong with the books.  The suspense here involves three young teenagers whose parents were killed in suspicious looking "accidents."  Two years later?  The foster families where all three kids were placed are also killed.  Meaning all three of these children have cheated death, twice.  It's up to Boston homicide detective, Jane Rizzoli, and Boston medical examiner, Maura Isles, to find the connection - assuming there is one.

What I tend to really like about Gerritsen's suspense are her characters.  She writes really interesting characters, in large part, I think, due to her past as a romance writer.  You can fudge a lot with plot and tension in the suspense genre to overcompensate for ho-hum characters.  In romance?  Yeah, good luck with that.  The Rizzoli family "stuff" is fantastic here, and Gerritsen pushes Isles into an introspective corner after her ill-fated love affair with a priest (yes, a priest!) flames out.  I also thought she did a lovely job with the kids in this book, all misfits that don't quite fit in - even at the boarding school where they end up that seems to cater to tragic misfits.  The suspense?  Was OK.  Not terrible, but also not Gerritsen's best.  It didn't light my world on fire, but it's a good entry to the series, so there's not a lot to complain about.  A very solid B for me.

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My idiot Detroit Tigers were in town over the weekend to play the Anaheim Angels, so Saturday night Lil' Sis and I hit the ballpark (sans Lemon Drop).  We got seats in the club section - which means we had a waitress who took our concession stand orders and brought us our food.  Good thing too, since the game required a lot of junk food and beer thanks to Angels rookie phenom, Mike Trout, Justin Verlander getting lit up like a pinball machine, my idiot third basemen Miguel Cabrera arguing balls and strikes with the umpire and naturally, getting tossed - and oh yeah, we lost 6-1.  Let us relive the day through a series of pictures Lil' Sis snapped....

Justin Verlander warming up.  I swear they paint those pants on him.

Timing is everything.  Miguel Cabrera and our rookie, Avisail Garcia - scratching himself.  Niiiiice.

I believe the Tigers were down 5-0 at this point, when this advertisement came on in the stadium.  Don't mind if we do!

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I've still got a mountain of reading to get done, the September TBR Challenge is right around the corner, there will be more RWA tote bag giveaways and oh yeah - I owe the Lemon Drop fan club a post.

Stay tuned!

Jami Davenport Week Winners!

Thanks to everybody who stopped by last week for Jami Davenport Week! As promised, using the magic of random.org I have drawn winners to receive a print copy of Fourth And Goal.  Also, as an added bonus - while Jami was on vacation last week she picked up a handcrafted vase from her favorite pottery store.  So there will be a fourth winner! 

Drumroll please.....

The winners of a print copy of Fourth and Goal are:

LoriK

Chantilly

Booklover1335

The winner of the vase is:

Lavada

Ladies, please e-mail me with your shipping address and I will get your prizes in the mail soon.

Jami Davenport Week: Forward Passes Excerpt

I hope everyone has enjoyed Jami Davenport Week here at the Bat Cave.  I'd like to thank Jami for stopping this week to talk romance football.  To conclude the fun, Jami and Burroughs Publishing has given us a snippet of her upcoming release, Forward Passes.  Book two in the Seattle Lumberjacks series, this is the story of hotshot quarterback, Tyler Harris - the Asshole With The Heart Of Gold that featured prominently in the first book, Fourth And Goal.  Enjoy!

Description:

Tyler Harris has it all, but he's not sure he wants it anymore.

With two Championship rings, superstar quarterback Tyler Harris is at the top of his game with nowhere to go but down. He's the best quarterback in the league, not to mention gorgeous, rich, and a self-proclaimed asshole. So why does he feel so detached and apathetic? When a great uncle wills a priceless waterfront estate to Tyler under the stipulation he remain in residence for ninety days, Tyler reluctantly agrees in order to escape a looming scandal.

Hiding out in the run-down mansion with no TV, no Internet, and no cell phone service challenges him to explore other methods of entertainment such as the fiery-haired vixen living next door. The only time Tyler feels alive is when he’s matching wits and trading barbs with the sassy redhead or seducing her in his bed, in his truck, on a picnic table, in a float plane, and anywhere else he can get her naked.

Lavender Mead has good reason to dislike jocks, namely an absentee father who deserted his family to coach college football and her unfortunate penchant for bad boys who play ball for a living and break hearts for a hobby. She vows to steer clear of Tyler’s dangerous charm, but sparing with the arrogant athlete ignites their mutual attraction into hot passion. When they discover just how much they have in common, the truth threatens to rip them apart.

Excerpt:

Chapter 1—What Goes Up

A man about to make pro-football history should be a lot more excited about it.

Like a well-programmed robot, Tyler Harris zeroed in on his receiver, instinctively calculated the distance, and lofted the ball into the air. The second the football left his hands he knew it’d be a touchdown catch. His cousin and the Seattle Lumberjacks top wide receiver, Derek Ramsey, blazed into the end zone, spun around at the exact right moment, and caught the ball.

Ty waited for the smugness, the confidence, the satisfaction to surge through him. He waited for the greatest natural high on earth to engulf him, a high better than the best sex, and that was pretty damn, fucking good.

Usually.

But nothing happened.

Two more minutes to glory. The defense took the field and held the Bruins. The clock ticked off the last seconds until the scoreboard displayed: 00:00.

The stands erupted.  Confetti blinded Tyler in a snowstorm of red, white, and blue. The stuff swirled through the air and stuck to his sweat-soaked uniform. Teammates slapped his back. Coaches hugged him. The roar of the fans deafened him. Sportscasters crammed microphones in his face and barked questions at him. Rabid reporters yanked on his Number Eleven jersey and fought for his attention.

He stood frozen in place, staring at the scoreboard. He felt more like a shell-shocked soldier than a conquering field general who’d led his troops to victory in the final battle and won the war.

Except he wasn’t a general. He was no fucking hero. He’d never risked his life to save others. He’d never tramped through the desert or the jungle not knowing if his next step would be his last. He’d never sacrificed so others could have a better life or even have a life. He was just a guy gifted with an athletic body and a no-quit attitude. He didn’t deserve this: the adulation, the money, the fame, none of it.

But since when did he give a shit if it was deserved or not?

What the fuck was wrong with him?

Every football player lived for this moment from the first second he gripped a football in his hands. It should’ve been the happiest time of his life, a defining moment in a career of defining moments; two Super Bowls under his belt and a sure MVP of the game. He was a future Hall-of-Famer with a lot of gas left in his tank, still in his prime, not yet thirty years old. The press touted him as the hottest QB in the league.

Nowhere to go from here but—

--down.

Nothing had been the same since Ryan died. Try as he might, he couldn’t find his passion for the game, for life, for anything. Hell, not even for sex.

Like a disembodied spirit, he observed the scene, detached and way too fucking melancholy in the midst of the celebratory mayhem engulfing him. Jostled around by the sea of humanity, he barely felt them. He stood in the middle of the crowd, numb, apathetic, and alone. The emptiness smothered him, gnawed at his gut, consumed him.

Regardless of his apathy, he wouldn’t rain on his teammates’ parade.

Forcing a grin he didn’t feel and adopting his cocky façade, he faced the TV cameras and gave them what they’d come to expect from him, an arrogant, yet entertaining, recap of his performance. Then he stood on the podium, made one of his typical fist-pumping speeches laced with humor. After which he did every post-game interview with his usual brash panache. No one noticed his mechanical movements or the dead smile.

Was this all there was?

What had happened to his legendary enthusiasm for the game, his penchant for living life on the edge? What happened to him? He’d lost himself somewhere between college jock and superstar athlete, yet it hadn’t mattered before. He’d lived in blissful ignorance until that fateful night when Ryan died of cancer.

If you stripped away all the hype and his public image, he didn’t have a fucking clue who lived underneath.
All this deep shit rattling around in his brain was way too much introspection for a dumb jock. He shook off this momentary lapse into deep thought, took a deep breath, and squared his shoulders. In a week, he’d start the relentless pursuit of winning all over again because losing, for Tyler, had never been an option.

Glancing at his watch, he followed his teammates out of the locker room via a back door, down the long hallway leading to buses waiting to take them to the airport. A couple hours and a few glasses of champagne later the team plane touched down in Seattle. Security hustled them past the large crowds to waiting limos.

Waving and grinning, he acknowledged the hordes of fans crammed into every spare inch of terminal space. He paused and breathed in the crisp Seattle air. His teammates shouted to each other, planning parties that would last well into the morning.

Cass, his long-time fiancé and even longer-time girlfriend, would expect to attend every one of them. She’d already texted him with her location at a teammate’s home on Lake Washington. The Vegas line against them ever getting married had once topped out at fifty-to-one and dipped to fifteen-to-one after he’d set a date for two weeks from today.

Claustrophobia set in, smothering him. He felt trapped, trapped in a career he no longer had a hunger for. His self-created, bad-boy image pigeon-holed him in a role he wasn’t sure he wanted to play. His upcoming wedding in two weeks weighted him down with doubt.

He needed to escape, clear his head, gain some clarity.

Tyler slid behind the wheel of his sports car and accelerated out of the underground parking garage. His wheels spun on the rain-slickened streets as he turned a corner too quickly. Instead of heading toward I-5 and Mercer Island for a night of celebration, he turned in the opposite direction, dodging in and out of cars on the four-lane street. The light ahead turned yellow, Tyler punched the gas.

And slammed right into the back of a police car.

Jami Davenport Week: Favorite Football Romances

Are you ready for some football?

OK, so how about some football romances?

Jami thought it would be fun to write up a list of her favorite football romances.  Without further ado, here they are:

Susan Elizabeth Phillips - Any book in her Chicago Stars Series, although my personal favorites are This Heart of Mine and Natural Born Charmer.

Bella Andre's Game series - Game for Anything, Game for Seduction, Game for Love.

The PerfectPlay by Jaci Burton.  Or as Wendy likes to call it, the book with the most posted cover in the blogosphere.

Description:

Football pro Mick Riley is an all-star, both on the field and in the bedroom. But a sexy, determinedly single mom just might be the one to throw him off his game...

For years Mick has been taking full advantage of the life available to a pro athlete: fame, fortune, and a different girl in every city. But when he meets and beds confident, beautiful event planner Tara Lincoln, he wants much more than the typical one-night stand. Too bad Tara's not interested in getting to know football's most notorious playboy any better.

As the single mother of a teenage son, the last thing Tara needs is the jet-set lifestyle of Mick Riley; even though their steamy and passionate one-night stand was unforgettable. Tara's life is complicated enough without being thrust into the spotlight as Mick's latest girl du jour. Tara played the game of love once and lost big, and she doesn't intend to put herself out there again, especially with a heartbreaker like Mick.

But when Mick sets his mind to win, nothing will stop him. And he has the perfect play in mind.

Not Another Bad Date by Rachel Gibson 

Description:

Adele Harris has never had a problem finding a man—it's finding a good man that's damn near impossible

Adele Harris has dated them all-geeks, nerds, liars, losers. Egomaniacs, nymphomaniacs, and just plain maniacs. She's been set up and stood up, and now she's had it up to here with the jerks of the world. It's enough to make a girl give up dating forever. If only she could find a guy that made her heart flutter like her first love, Zach, the college quarterback who swept her off her feet senior year... before dumping her to marry someone else. Okay, so he wasn't perfect. But when Adele heads back to Cedar Creek, Texas, for a family emergency, she discovers that her hometown heartthrob is still as sexy as ever—and now he's single.

It could be the end of Adele's streak. After all, forgiving Zach for breaking her heart years ago and learning to trust him again will take everything she's got, but Adele can handle anything... anything but another bad date.

Line of Scrimmage by Marie Force

Description:

In the Hail Mary play of a lifetime, a sexy NFL quarterback has just ten days to convince his wife to give him a second chance before their divorce is final—and he has to act fast because she’s already engaged to her high school boyfriend. Line of Scrimmage is a story of reunion, redemption, rejuvenation, and renewal. Readers will laugh and cry and hope—that at the end of the day, these two lovers, who clearly belong together, will somehow find their way back to one another.

Hot Stuff by Carly Phillips

Description:

Annabelle Jordan and her two sisters were little orphans in frilly dresses and ruffled panties when they went to live with their sports-lawyer uncle in his testosterone-fueled world of locker rooms, bookies and gambling.
Now the girls are all grown up, and publicists in their uncle’s firm, The Hot Zone. Yet Annabelle is all woman, despite her upbringing. And she’s naturally drawn to real men—like her latest client, ex-football legend and businessman Brandon Vaughn.

The chemistry is potent, undeniable…irresistible. But Annabelle soon realizes that Brandon is much more than just another jock. And that she’d better hold onto her panties if she doesn’t want to lose her heart

The Game of Love by Jeanette Murray

Description:(digital only)

Christina St. James is ready for normal. After walking away from her pro tennis career and a toxic relationship with a star hockey player, she’s starting a new life as a teacher and tennis coach in a small town. Now all she needs is an average guy to share it with.
Brett Wallace is no average guy. Forced to retire from the NFL after an injury—and suddenly single after being dumped by his status-conscious wife—he’s returned to his hometown to coach the varsity football team. Wary of women interested only in his celebrity, Brett finds Chris’s indifference to his former career refreshing.

The last thing Chris needs is to get involved with another pro athlete, but she can’t deny the sparks that fly between them. So she agrees to a purely physical, no-strings attached affair. But the rules of the game change when she falls for him…

Playing for Keeps by Liz Matis

Description:

Journalist Samantha Jameson always wanted to be one of the boys, but Ryan Terell won’t let her join the club. Fresh from the battlegrounds of Iraq, reporting on a bunch of overgrown boys playing pro football is just the change of scenery she needs. If trying to be taken seriously in the world of sports writing wasn’t hard enough, Ryan, her college crush, is only making it harder. As a tight-end for the team she’s covering, he is strictly off limits.

Ryan Terell is a playmaker on and off the field, but when Samantha uncovers his moves, he throws out the playbook. Just as he claims his sweetest victory, Samantha’s investigation into a steroid scandal involving his team forces him to call a time-out to their off the record trysts. But then a life threatening injury on the field will force them both to decide just how far they’ll go to win the game. 

Wicked Game by Mercy Celeste

Description: (digital only)

Miami quarterback Jaime Dalton is living every man’s fantasy. If that fantasy included a pottery-flinging cook, an embezzling accountant, and now blackmail, then his life is perfect. It was Cass Pendleton, his new personal assistant, with her sexy panties and drop dead eyes that made his life a living hell.

Cass Pendleton and Jaime Dalton have been mortal enemies since the first day of kindergarten when Jaime pulled her hair and Cass knocked him flat on his ass.

Jaime is on the verge of superstardom in the NFL; all that’s missing is a Super Bowl ring and a personal assistant who can handle his business without handling his business.

Cass seems to be the best person for the job. She’s smart, mouthy, dependable, pig-headed, loyal, and completely not his type. So why can’t Jaime think of anything except Cass?

He knows one thing for dead certain. If the game doesn’t kill him, sex with Cass Pendleton most definitely will.

Goals for a Sinner by Lynn Shurr

Description:

Unlucky in love, sports photographer Stevie Dowd has given up on men in order to concentrate on her goal of getting a cover shot for a prestigious sports magazine.

Connor Riley, wide receiver for the New Orleans Sinners, has remained celibate all season to strengthen his game for a Super Bowl victory.

Their goals collide, literally, when Connor bowls over Stevie on the sidelines as she attempts to get her perfect picture.  Realizing Stevie is the woman he had a crush on in high school, Connor feels his vow is about to be broken.  Can he win both the Super Bowl and Stevie Dowd?

Seriously, I think this is the most beef cake I have ever posted on this blog.   Do you have any favorite football romances?  If so, what are they?

Jami Davenport Week: The Interview

When I conceived of the idea to host a Jami Davenport Week (or as I like to think of it, The Woman Who Wrote A Football Romance That Didn't Make My Eyes Bleed Week), I knew we would have to do an interview.  Jami graciously agreed, even after she saw my questions.  Without further ado - give a warm Bat Cave Welcome to Jami Davenport!

Wendy: Jami, welcome to the Bat Cave!  Tell readers a little bit about yourself....

Jami: I’m one of those writers who disproves the “writers are introverts” theory. At any conference, you’ll find me in the middle of the rowdiest table in the bar. Not that I’m a huge drinker, just a huge socializer. I love hanging out with people, and I’m always watching and filing info away for future books. I’ve been writing since I learned the alphabet. In fact, I still have the first thing I ever wrote at about age five, a story about a horse named Wildfire, illustrated by me.

I was born and raised in North Central Washington, attended Washington State University, received degrees and education and business, taught high school for a few years, got a job in IT, and I’m still at that same day job. In my free time, I used to show horses. Since my show horse retired last year, I’ve put my riding on hold to concentrate on writing more books. I currently live on a small farm near Puget Sound with my hubby, a green beret turned plumber, two large dogs, and a spoiled rotten cat (aren’t all cats spoiled?). You’ll find my dogs, my cat, and my horse in many of my books, as I can’t write a book without featuring at least one animal.

Last but definitely not least, I’m a huge Seattle sports fan.

Wendy: When did you start to seriously pursue your writing? How long and how many manuscripts had you completed before receiving “the call?”

Jami: About eight years ago, I posted a fan fiction piece. My writing was so popular that several readers pushed me to pursue publication. Ready to realize my life-long dream of being published, I joined two chapters of RWA (Peninsula and Olympia) and a few online writing groups. Almost immediately I was inundated with “writing” rules by well-meaning authors. The rule I heard the most was “sports romances don’t sell.” Discouraged, I put away the football romance I’d been writing for over a decade and concentrated on a more sell-able contemporary.

I sold the contemporary (also the first novel I’d ever completed) a few years later and several super-erotic books under another pen name. After a couple years of making very good money writing under the other pen name, I found myself burned out on erotic romance. I decided to concentrate on the Jami Davenport pen name and writing what I really loved—hot contemporaries.

Wendy: How did you come up with the idea of Seattle Lumberjacks series?

Jami: I’ve been writing football-themed romances for years (if I told you how long, you’d figure out how old I really was), though I’d never allowed anyone to read them. In fact, my first attempts were essentially YA’s. Fourth And Goal is the metamorphosis of that long-ago YA into an adult romance novel. Derek and Tyler (from Fourth And Goal) have actually been in my head and on paper in some form or another for about twenty years.

Sports romances are definitely my passion, which makes sense because I’m passionate about sports, especially football. In my original version, I called my team the Seahawks, which, of course, I couldn’t use when it came time for publication. I brainstormed team names. It had to be something that represented the Pacific Northwest. I considered Chinooks, but that was already taken, as were several others I liked. I poured over lists of Washington state high school mascots but nothing worked for me. Since I live in Shelton, near the Olympics, I naturally thought about old-growth timber which used to everywhere and the tough men who tamed the wilderness.

I also wanted my series to be as realistic as possible when it came to football scenes. I’d read so many sports romances in which the author obviously didn’t research the sport. My husband played D-1 college ball as a fullback/linebacker, so he proved to be an invaluable resource. Local Seattle sportscaster, Jen Mueller, also provided an insider’s answers to my questions. BTW, Jenn has a great blog called: “Talk Sporty to Me.”

Wendy: Loose Id published the digital edition of the first book, Fourth And Goal and earlier this year you took the plunge into self-publishing. We hear a lot about self-publishing in digital, what led you to self-publish the print edition of Fourth And Goal?

Jami: Loose Id is wonderful as a publisher and extremely author-friendly. My contract stated I could ask for my print rights back if the book wasn’t published in print within one year. As a computer geek, I believe in ebooks and the future of ebooks, but this is one book I REALLY wanted in print. So I asked for the print rights and hired the talented Kim Killion at Hot Damn Designs to do the cover and formatting. I did the setup on CreateSpace myself.

I don’t have any plans on self-publishing other books at this time. Because of my day job, I prefer to spend what spare time I have writing, not working on publishing books. I’d rather delegate those duties to a good publisher.

Wendy: When can readers expect to see more books featuring the Lumberjacks?

Jami: Last winter, Loose Id passed on Book 2 of the Seattle Lumberjacks series. It wasn’t hot enough for what they publish, and I didn’t want to add more heat to this particular book. They generously released me from my obligations to sell the series to them. Free to shop the book around, I targeted a few top-notch digital publishers and waited. I’d done my research, and I knew I’d be thrilled with a contract from any of them. Boroughs Publishing Group was the first to make an offer. Forward Passes is currently in edits and the release date will likely be late fall 2012.

Wendy:  I have to admit that I am dying for Tyler’s book (Forward Passes), mostly because he comes off as The Asshole With A Heart Of Gold in Fourth and Goal. What were the challenges in writing his story? (It was the swearing right? I’m going with the swearing….)

Jami: Definitely the swearing was an issue. Personally, I never use the “F” word, so every time I type it, I cringe. I did a search for it in this manuscript, and it occurred 167 times. I cut quite a few of them out of the book, except at the beginning. Tyler is Tyler, and I couldn’t cut them all or he just wouldn’t be himself.

I also found it difficult to juggle his jerk persona with the nice guy buried underneath. I didn’t want him to come across as too much of a jerk but he couldn’t be the sweet, guy-next-door either. I’m guessing there will be readers who won’t like him one bit, but my critique partner and I loved him.

I introduce a linebacker named Zach in Book 2 who becomes Tyler’s nemesis. Their dislike of each other continues into Book 3. I’ve been having a lot of fun with that, too.

Wendy: Seriously, I cannot wait for that book!  Finally, you’re obviously a sports fan. If you met a Sports Genie, and he granted you one sports-related wish, what would it be?

Jami: Hmmm. That’s an easy one: For the Seahawks to win the Super Bowl.

Wendy: Dear Sports Genie, I'm less demanding at the moment than Jami.  At this point I'd settle for the Buffalo Bills being respectable.

Jami, thanks so much for stopping by!  Folks, Jami will be checking for follow-up questions in the comments, so feel free to leave one....or two!  Also, remember that for every comment you leave on a Jami Davenport Week post - you are automatically entered for a chance to win a print copy of Fourth And Goal!

Jami Davenport Week: Fourth And Goal Review

Please note: this review was originally posted on June 14, 2011

My reputation for being Little Miss Crabby Pants seems to be getting out.  Or at least my annoyance with romance authors who include professional sports in their books and muck up the details.  My various tirades on this subject is what led Jami Davenport to e-mail me about her latest ebook, Fourth And Goal.  Ms. Davenport assured me that she knew exactly how I felt, as she's a football (Seattle Seahawks) and baseball (Seattle Mariners) fan herself.  She asked if I would be interested in reading her latest for review, and after a quick perusal of the excerpt, I signed on.

Derek Ramsey is a wide receiver for the Seattle Lumberjacks - he's just not sure for how long.  A star athlete in high school and college, his career in the NFL has so far been a bust.  He's well aware this is his last shot, and he's going to work his ass off to make it work.  What he doesn't need are any distractions, so when he hires old friend Rachel McCormick to be a live-in caretaker for his property, he really questions his sanity.

Buddies growing up, Rachel and Derek shared one wild and passionate weekend of Hot Nookie.  She made the mistake of confessing her true feelings, and he bolted faster than you can say "Wham, bam thank you ma'am."  Coupled with the hurt feelings over this incident, Rachel's father, Derek's high school football coach, has become embroiled in an old points-shaving scandal.  Rachel knows that Daddy is innocent, which means he's taking the fall for one of his old players.  Derek seems like a good place to start snooping.

I love a good reunion story, especially when the reunion involves a love affair gone bust.  Rachel adored Derek, so when he spurned her affections, it left her deeply wounded.  For his part, Derek is a moron.  He has feelings for Rachel, and can't seem to quite get her out of head, but since he's a guy, it takes him a while to admit it.  All this gets complicated when they tumble back into bed together (boy howdy, do they tumble!), and Derek has the best game in his fledgling NFL career.  Hey, ballplayers are nothing if not superstitious.  They're just going to have to keep on burning up the sheets!

I really enjoyed the fact that Rachel is a heroine who knows football.  She lives and breathes it.  While she's the nonathletic klutz in a family of athletes, that doesn't mean she didn't learn a thing or two.  In fact, Derek was such a good player in high school and college because she worked with him breaking down game tape.  Her father's troubles led the arena league team she was working for to let her go (guilt by association).  She needs to snoop on Derek to clear her father's name, to give herself a chance at a career she wants, but frankly, she also needs the money.  She also needs to figure out what she wants to do.  She wants to get into scouting, but between her father's troubles and the fact that she doesn't have a penis, it's proving to be difficult.

This is an erotic romance, and I generally go into this genre expecting "sexy and fun."  So when an author gives me some depth, it's always, in my opinion, a nice addition.  While there are plenty of Sexy Times between Rachel and Derek, their mutual back stories, coupled with Derek's burgeoning stardom (once the team starts winning!) gave this story such a lovely feel.  Nobody knows the Lumberjacks exist, until they go on a winning streak, and with that comes more demands on Derek's time.  Who does he say no to?  I also appreciated the added touches of Derek's beat-up body surviving the grind of an NFL season, and also that he wasn't a mega-super-duper-star right out of the gate.  You know how many guys have great college careers but are either a bust or "just OK" in the NFL?  Quite a few.

I do have a couple of nit-picks, because you know - this is me we're talking about here.  First, point-shaving in football is not an easy thing to do.  Unlike basketball, teams aren't scoring points every other minute.  In order for it to work, you pretty much need the quarterback in the mix.  Derek, as a wide receiver, wouldn't be the best guy for the job, because WR is a "dependent" position.  In other words, someone needs to throw him the damn ball.  I suspect the author realized this, so she stacks the deck in her favor by making the QB Derek's cousin-but-they-might-as-well-be-brothers, Tyler.  So Rachel thinks that either Derek could be protecting Tyler, or they were in cahoots together.  I'll admit it, I nit-picked this aspect of the story half to death, but the author wraps it up in a way that I was sold on it by the end.

The writing itself is quite good.  It does take a little while to get to the Sexy Times, so some readers might find the first portion of the story "slow" - but it worked well for me as far as setting the stage is concerned.  The one aspect that didn't always gel was the author's tendency to use football lingo/euphemisms in the story - especially during love scenes.  A couple of times, this can be cute.  More than that?  We land in eye-rolling territory.  Less definitely would have been more.

But you know what?  I really enjoyed this story.  A lot.  With my nit-picks, my final grade would generally be around B- or B territory.  However, I gotta say it, I got sucked into this book.  I mean, hook line and sinker sucked in.  I was deeply invested in these characters.  Not just Derek and Rachel, but all of them.  Even Derek's asshole cousin, Tyler, who cannot string a sentence together without dropping the F-bomb half a dozen times.  Hooked folks, I'm positively hooked.  So....

Final Grade = B+

When does the next book come out?  Dang.

Introducing Jami Davenport Week!

This blog was started for the sole reason that I'm self-absorbed.  I like talking about....well, me.  I also like talking about the books I'm reading, and way back in 2003 I didn't have a whole lot of people in my Real Life to share my romance reading with.

OK, I had nobody.

As blogging has evolved, book blogging in particular, more and more promo has crept in.  I haven't done a whole lot of this sort of thing.  Mostly because 1) I have a full time job 2) I have a full time life and 3) I'm self-absorbed and think this blog should be all about me.  I have absolutely nothing against blog tours or guest posts, it's more like I just think they're not always a good fit for my blog.  Well, unless a great idea falls into my lap.

I first "met" Jami Davenport through a fantastic e-mail she wrote me in 2011.  She stumbled across a comment I made over at Dear Author about how I pretty much refuse to read sports-themed romances.  I like sports and I like romance - the problem is I hate romance authors who do little to zero research on the sports they feature in their books.  I get this image in my head of Barbara Cartland in a bubble bath, manically laughing and saying "Women don't care about football/baseball/rugby/Quiddich so long as the hero is hot and hunky those silly girls will lap it up!"

Yeah, no.  Not this girl.  This girl gets all Hulk-smash when an author has an AFC team meeting an NFC team in a playoff game - before the Super Bowl.

Jami's pitch to get me to read Fourth And Goal, an upcoming romance from LooseID featuring a football wide receiver hero was convincing enough that I said, "Sure, why the hell not."  And one night, while babysitting Lemon Drop so my sister and The Super Genius Brother-In-Law could go out to dinner like grown-ups, I inhaled it.  Devoured it in fact.  The book even landed on my Best Of 2011 list.

Months went by, and Jami e-mailed me again.  She was self-publishing a print version of F&G and wanted to know if she could blurb my review on the book cover.  This led to a discussion on her writing book two in the series, finding a publishing home for it, and voila!  Before you can say "smack Wendy simple," I'm telling her that I want to host Jami Davenport Week here at the Bat Cave.  Now that she has found a home for book two?  Here we are.

I've got several posts planned for this week, along with a fantastic giveaway!  Thanks to Jami's generosity, I will be giving away three print copies of Fourth And Goal, the first book in her Seattle Lumberjacks series!  Every time you comment on any of the Jamie Davenport Week posts, you will be entered to win. 

So sit back, and enjoy!

Contest is open to both US and international readers.  Winners will be announced Monday, September 10.

Winner: Danger, Danger Will Robinson!

Awwww, look at those happy lil' minions.  They're so happy because they're here to announce the winner of the Danger, Danger Will Robinson giveaway!  Thanks to the mighty random powers of random.org the winner is none other than.....

Nikki!

Nikki, drop me an e-mail with your shipping address and I'll get your box of goodies to the post office pronto (I will clean out my home office, I will clean out my home office, I will clean out my home office.....)

For those of you still jonesin' for an RWA tote bag and piles of books - never fear!  By my count I've probably got half a dozen giveaways to go!  After a brief hiatus, we'll pick things up again next week.

P.S. - Just a shout-out that I loved reading everybody's responses to this particular contest question.  And for the record?  Yeah, library basements are creepy as hell.