Moving On And Getting Drunk With Power

After weeks of waiting, I finally get to write the blog post I've been dying to write.  After ten years with my current employer in various roles (branch manager, materials evaluator, now public services-slash-materials evaluator), I have accepted a new position with a new employer.

Now my policy on the blog is never to name my employer "outright."  I don't hide it, but I also don't shout it from the rooftops.  So that will continue with this "new job."  What I can tell you is that I'll be staying in the same geographic area, working for a large library system, and I will be the new head of their collection development department.  What does this mean?  Right now I put together order lists of adult fiction for my current employer and select materials specifically for the library branch I work at.  Starting on May 19, I will give that up - with some sadness because holy cow I love me adult fiction.  What I will be doing instead is overseeing the entire collection management department for a very large library system.  No more buying for Wendy.  Instead Wendy will be overseeing the whole shebang.
 

Wendy is now officially drunk with power.

This has been a bit of a roller coaster since February.  I had applied for the job late last year and when I didn't hear anything back I figured, "Oh well, they're not interested."  Then around President's Day here in the States I got a call for a screening interview.  I went to said interview and no lie, left there feeling like I bombed it.  I didn't have a good feeling coming out of that interview, at all.  So I was pretty shocked when just a few days later I got a call about a second interview.

By this point My Man and I had to have a "come to Jesus" moment.  When I started working as a librarian 15 years ago (where has the time gone?), I was pretty adamant about not getting into administration.  Honestly, I thought I'd be pretty terrible at it and it's also not why I got into the profession in the first place.  Well now here I was interviewing for a job that would very much be "administration."  My Man wanted to make sure I was doing this for the "right reasons."  Jumping the gun maybe since I hadn't had the second interview yet?  Probably.  But he wanted me prepared and he wanted me to really think about it.  Which I did, after talking around in circles for a while because, this is me we're talking about.  Talking around in circles is just what I do.

As sure as I was that I bombed that first interview, I left the second interview feeling pretty fan-freaking-tastic.  I've never nailed an interview more in my life.  I went straight into work and met privately with my boss.  At that point I hadn't told him about the first interview because why upset the apple cart if it turns out to be nothing?  Well, probably a good thing I met with him right away because as we were wrapping up he got a phone call that was a reference check.

Bingo-bango, everything was set in motion.  It just turned out to be slow-moving and going uphill.  Hoops.  Lots of hoops.  I've been dying to spill this news for weeks now, but alas, offer not official until it's in writing and the salary package took some time.  

I'm super excited, mostly because it means getting to work full-time, all-the-time in collection management again.  It also means I'll be in charge of overseeing what I'm most passionate about in this profession for a very large library system.  At the end of the day, collection is everything.  It's the backbone of everything libraries do.  I can't wait to jump into the thick of it again.

Growing The Romance Reader

News broke today that after eighteen years The Romance Reader was shuttering it's cyberspace doors forever.  For you young whipper-snappers out there, TRR was the first online website to turn an unflinching eye towards reviewing romance novels.  This seems like not-so-much a big deal now, but in 1996?  Gather round ye young whipper-snappers and let Auntie Wendy tell you a story.....

In 1996 romance readers essentially relied on word of mouth and RT Book Reviews (then still going by the name Romantic Times).  Romantic Times was, and has always been, great with giving you the rundown of what is published every month.  But in 1996?  It was very rare to find reviews that were, shall we say, critical.  Every book was good, very good or super-great-squee!  As for other review outlets?  No Amazon, no GoodReads, Publisher's Weekly gave you four mass market reviews a week (for all mass market originals, not just romance!  Yes, four!), Kirkus = you must be joking right, and while Booklist and Library Journal were starting to cover romance, these were not household names that your Average Jane Romance Reader was going to have access too.  So yeah, word of mouth assuming you were lucky enough to have another romance reader in your life or Romantic Times, which loved damn near everything. 

TRR coming on the scene can be likened to a bomb going off.  It's why I tend to roll my eyes when authors start crying "Bully!  Those Mean Girl Bullies!" when they get a 3-star rating over at GoodReads.  TRR heard it all, most of it revolving around being staffed by "unqualified reviewers" who were "frustrated writers who couldn't get their crappy stories published so they spent their free time tearing down published authors."

All this sounds vaguely familiar, doesn't it?  Yeah, some things never change.

Anyway, TRR was the first and a few years after, Laurie Gold (originally a TRR reviewer) broke away to start All About Romance, which featured a more interactive vibe that TRR never adopted.  And from there we got Mrs. Giggles, blogs, Twitter, GoodReads and so on.

As some of you may know, I was a TRR reviewer for many years, from 1999 through 2007.  So you'll forgive this old codger fuddy-duddy if I wax poetic for a few moments on the site closing down.  My discovery of the romance genre is forever linked with TRR.  You see, in 1999 I was a wee baby Super Librarian.  Sort of like Spider-Man before he was bit by the radioactive spider (or whatever).  I had landed my first real professional job and they expected me to purchase adult fiction.  No problem, accept my adult fiction knowledge was a wee bit rusty after 5+ years of academia (my entire course-load consisted of reading things that weren't fun).  I also, naturally, had developed a healthy disdain for the romance genre.  As one does when they earn two college degrees in 5.5 years.  I learned quickly though.  Romance circulated well at the new job.  Hey, some of these books don't even have Fabio on the cover!  Of course I had no clue who Nora Roberts was (true story), but I was willing to learn.  Which is where TRR comes in.

I was on a listserv (remember those?) that was for "new librarians."  One day someone sent out a message about two helpful web sites, one of which was TRR.  I, naturally, went looking.  And reading.  Wow, some of these books sound good!  I read a few romances in high school and these reviews don't make the books sound anything like those few heaving, lusty historicals I read at 16.  So I decided I would pick up a few of the highest rated (five-hearts in TRR speak) books that sounded appealing to me and start reading.  You know, just to broaden my horizons.  The first book?  Watermelon by Marian Keyes.  OK, technically chick lit - but I loved it.  I inhaled it.  I then went on to read My Dearest Enemy by Connie Brockway, the Born In trilogy by Nora, Patterns of Love by Robin Lee Hatcher (the original heathen mass-market version, she later rewrote it for the inspy market) and some others that I now can't recall specifically.

I was hooked.  And even though my knowledge wasn't extensive, I wanted more.  So I e-mailed TRR, I sent in some sample reviews, and Dede Anderson "hired" me.  When I probably should have been reading through popular authors (you would be shocked the "big" authors Wendy still hasn't read.....) I was learning the genre in a trial-by-fire way.  Which is to say, Dede sent me random books and Wendy read them.  The great, the good, the bad, the OMG I Think My Eyes Are Bleeding books.  Every last word.

The romance reader that blogs before you today was raised up by TRR.  It's where I discovered category romance, my love of western historicals, and my insatiable need for erotic-just-about-anything.  Oh the authors I read!  The books I read!  The reviews I wrote!  I used to write great reviews.  Sometimes I go back to TRR, read my great reviews and wonder what the heck happened.  Actually the answer is pretty simple: I burned out.

After eight years of reading whatever random books TRR sent my way, I just couldn't do it anymore.  I had started my blog in 2003, in part because I wanted some place where I could talk, not necessarily about books, and I was starting to get the itch to do more reviews here.  TRR reviewing took up a lot of my reading time, and I wanted to focus my reviewing efforts more on stuff I was interested in.  Was I going to miss out on those gems I might not discover on my own?  Yes.  And that gave me pause.  But I was ready.  I got to the point where my attitude was starting to go a little sour, and that's not a good thing when you do that sort of reviewing.  So TRR and I parted ways, on good terms.  They soldiered on, and so did I.

In 2011 RWA came calling, having lost their collective mind and deciding I should get their annual Librarian Of The Year award.  More than a little part of me was slightly floored.  I used to review for TRR!  Wait, I'm not blacklisted?  People, like me?!?!  Hell, I remember attending those first few RWA conferences that I went to and not telling a soul that I reviewed for TRR.  So I did what Wendy knew she had to do - I literally thanked Dede Anderson and The Romance Reader in my acceptance speech.  Part of me expected someone to yank me off stage, but oh how times have changed.  The simple truth is, there is no Romance Reading SuperWendy without TRR.  I may have discovered the genre some other way.  But it was a listserv and a message from some random librarian that had me clicking on that link way back in 1999.  It got me hooked.  It got me writing book reviews, or in the immortal words of My Man "so you're going to do book reports for free?"  I often say this blog is responsible for a lot of the good that has happened in my life, but really - it all started with TRR.

Thank you ladies for the past glorious eighteen years and thank you for helping to raise up countless romance readers.

Note: TRR will eventually cease to exist and there will be no collective archive - which means Wendy needs to think about all the reviews she has over there.  Jury still out, but I'm considering trolling through and "reprinting" some of my personal favorites (good and bad) here at the blog or possibly GoodReads.  But I'm still undecided.....

The Month That Was March 2014

Me: Wow.

Lemon Drop: I picked it out myself! 

Me: You don't say? 

Lemon Drop: Look how well I match Auntie Wendy!  ALL FLOWERS!

Me: How can I argue with that logic?  And the Elton John sunglasses are a nice touch.

Lemon Drop: Always have a statement accessory.

Me: Yeah, definitely what the outfit was missing. How about we talk about what I read last month - is that all right with you Edith Head?

Title links take you to full reviews.

Secrets at Court by Blythe Gifford - Historical romance, Harlequin Historical, 2014, Grade = B+

• A lovely medieval. The author immersed me in the time period without info-dumping and I found the characters really intriguing people. 

Don't Look For Me by Loren D. Estleman - Suspense, Forge, 2014, Grade = B-

• Twenty-third book in long-running series finds PI hero searching for money man's missing wife.  What he finds instead are mobsters, drugs, and a cute young thang who is up to her eyeballs in trouble.  Great writing, great world-building, but found aspects of the ending a little slap-dash.

For His Eyes Only by Liz Fielding - Contemporary romance, Harlequin Kiss, 2014, Grade = C

• Liked the artist hero, and the story does "get better" as it goes along - but heroine made bad first impression and never quite recovered for me.

Natural Law by Joey W. Hill - Erotic BDSM romantic suspense, Ellora's Cave, 2004, Grade = B-

•  Cop hero who is a sub falls for Domme heroine while hunting down a serial killer.  Other than sub aspect, hero is stereotypical Straining His Leash Alpha Cop - which.....ho-hum.  Also, found the suspense elements lacking and frankly a little tacked on.  Would have much rather enjoyed this as pure romance without added serial killer stuff.

His Hometown Girl by Karen Rock - Contemporary romance, Harlequin Heartwarming, 2014, Grade = B

•  Heroine returns to small town she left behind at behest of her employer, a corporate farming conglomerate and spars with hero, the boy she left behind now running his family's farm.  Interesting conflict, great emotional angst, and I'll admit - a few tears leaked out.

Telling Tales by Charlotte Stein - Erotic romance, Sourcebooks, 2014, Grade = B

• Four college friends reunite when their former professor bequeaths them his house. House party meets menage.  What I loved here is that while there's lots of Sexy Times, Stein never loses sight of the primary romance.  Also, great touches of humor throughout - a trademark of Stein's.

Every Part of You: Taunts Me by Megan Hart - Erotic romance serial novella, St. Martin's, 2014, Grade = B

• Third installment in five part serial.  Hero stops denying himself and proposes to heroine that they start dating.  Naturally complications ensue.

Every Part of You: Denies Me by Megan Hart - Erotic romance serial novella, St. Martin's, 2014, Grade = B+

• Fourth installment in five part serial and my personal favorite.  Heroine makes the fatal mistake of falling in love with hero - who naturally ends up breaking her heart.  Oh the angst!  The delicious glorious angst!  I wanted to wallow in it.

The Returning Solider by Soraya Lane - Contemporary romance, Harlequin Romance, 2014, Grade = C

• The dreaded OK read.  Never felt a lot of chemistry between hero and heroine.  Also found the looming ghost of the heroine's dead husband (the hero's BFF) problematic for buying into the happy ending.  Not awful, but Lane has written better - says me.

Lemon Drop:  Edith Head?

Me:  Never mind.  Your Auntie Wendy is speaking in old fart tongues again......

Little Miss Crabby Pants Fires The Canon

Another day in Romancelandia, another day with a guy trying to tell us what is wrong with the romance genre.  The latest entry to Is This Guy Serious? is brought to us by Noah Berlatsky who wrote this article for Salon entitled: I'm A Guy Who Loves Romance Novels - and Jennifer Weiner Is Right About Reviews.  I know women online who have concocted drinking games to the phenomena of men reading romance novels.  I also know women online who get annoyed with Dudes Talkin' Romance Novels because it implies that the genre isn't "validated" until it's read and discussed by a Roving Band Of Penises.

I'm a bit more casual about it.  I'm fine with men reading and talking about romance novels.  Hey, the more the merrier I always say!  Where I run into issues is with articles like this one.  Berlatsky bemoans the lack of a romance genre "canon."  A definitive list of books within the genre.  But digging deeper into his article what he is really bemoaning is A Lack Of Canon Featuring Books That I Deem As "Good."

That's not how canons work.  Don't believe me?  Let's ask our good friend Merriam-Webster:

3 [Middle English, from Late Latin, from Latin, standard]

a :  an authoritative list of books accepted as Holy Scripture

b :  the authentic works of a writer

c :  a sanctioned or accepted group or body of related works 

Notice how the words "good, "enjoyable" or the phrase "shit I'm gonna lurve" are nowhere to be found.

First, no book anywhere is going to be universally loved.  People being people after all.  What canons should do is tell you where you've been and show you where you're going.  Within the romance genre, the canon should be books that hold historical and cultural significance for the genre.  In other words: they're not all going to be books and authors you love.  They're not all going to be books and authors who "stand the test of time."  They should be books and authors who shape, mold, leaving resonance within that genre.  Like the pebble tossed into a quiet stream - there should be a ripple effect.

Yes, Mr. Berlatsky - there is a romance canon.  Reading and enjoying the genre isn't enough.  Bemoaning that it's hard to find shit you personally like isn't enough.  It's understanding the history of the genre.  And lucky you - here I am to give you Wendy's Starter Guide To The Romance Canon That You Think Doesn't Exist.  It does exist - it's just not required by law to be validated by your personal tastes and preferences.

1) Jane Austen.  I would actually argue that Austen isn't necessarily romance, but I'm including her on the list because so many others do consider her as such.  Where I think Austen's biggest cultural significance lies is that she was writing books, novels, with a strong female perspective.  She was writing about shit that women wanted to read about.  Bloody revolutionary.

2) The Sheikh by Edith Maude Hull.  Published in 1919 and for that reason an extremely problematic book.  But a real ground breaker in terms of exploring female sexuality.

3) Georgette Heyer.  The Regency-set historical romance as we know it today is about 95% Heyer and 5% Austen.  Austen was writing about contemporaries, Heyer was writing "historicals."  Her influence among entire generations of historical romance fans and writers cannot be overstated.  Love her books, hate her books - there's not denying her importance.

4) The Gothic Queens.  Mary Stewart, Victoria Holt, Phyllis Whitney, Barbara Michaels - the women who gave a voice to genre-benders.  Not only is their influence keenly responsible for romantic suspense, their reach goes beyond romance and dips into the mystery/suspense genres as well.

5) The Flame and the Flower by Kathleen Woodiwiss.  A true game-changer.  A cultural event.  It was the Fifty Shades of the time.  It started a revolution in romance, the lusty bodice ripper.  It gave a voice to women and their sexuality at a time when exploring that sexuality was met with extreme prejudice and derision (you could argue not a whole lot has changed).  Yes the language is over the top.  Yes rapey-heroes suck.  But within historical context (see #2) - its importance should not be overlooked.  Raise your glass, bow down before the queen.  We all should thank Ms. Woodiwiss.

6) Nora Roberts.  Berlatsky finds her prose atrocious (dude, whatever), but you cannot discuss romance canon without Roberts.  The problem comes with the fact that she's so bloody prolific.  I would argue her place belongs on this list with her category romances and her series books.  Nora's category work was revolutionary at the time she was publishing them.  The heroines had lives outside the romance.  They "existed" outside of the romance.  Nora's category heroines didn't NEED the hero - they simply got "better" with the heroes.  That's a huge distinction.  Also, the influence of her trilogies and connected series books cannot be ignored.  There were series before Nora, but certainly I think you can look at her for pushing their importance and desirability among the romance readership.

7) Jayne Ann Krentz.  Another tricky one.  She wrote some well respected single title contemporaries (I'm specifically thinking of the mid-to-late 1990s stuff) and you can easily make an argument for her Jayne Castle work.  But you know what?  I'm going with Amanda Quick.  Specifically the earliest Quick historicals.  I think those books helped bring a lot of readers back to historical romance after years of lusty over-the-top bodice rippers.  What Quick was writing was very different for the time and traces of that voice can be found among many of today's newer writers.

8) Christine Feehan.  Love her, hate her, she was doing paranormal romance before it was cool.  She was doing it when supposedly "nobody wanted to read it."  She deserves some respect for that.

9) Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers.  The influence of this work on the inspirational sub genre cannot be overstated.  Rivers lit the fuse and threw a Molotov cocktail into a market that desperately needed it.  Before Rivers?  Inspirationals were home to saccharine do-gooders who never stumbled, never felt temptation - in other words, they had no flaws.  Or at least, you know, "real" flaws.  Ask any inspirational romance author working today, this book makes their list.  It's that important.

10) Suzanne Brockmann.  Were there military heroes before Brockmann?  Yes.  But I would argue what Brockmann did was take the military hero and catapult him into super-stardom.  She's the reason there are hundreds of thousands of SEALs in Romancelandia - be that for good or ill.

11) The Erotic Romance Goddesses.  Bertrice Small, Thea Devine, Susan Johnson, Robin Schone.  There is NO erotic romance sub genre without these amazing women.  Love them, hate them, repeat after me - the sub genre does not exist without the groundbreaking work these women did, especially with "mainstream" publishers.  Yes, women have voices, and yes - we like sex.

12) The Color of Love by Sandra Kitt.  What Terry McMillan did for mainstream women's fiction, Sandra Kitt did for the romance genre.  She gave a voice to African American women.  She showed readers that romance heroines could and do look just like they do.  We still live in a world (sadly) where interracial relationships are given the side-eye, and this mid-1990s release has influenced many authors who have followed.

I think anytime you read a classic or a "canon" title, you have to approach it from a historical perspective.  Would many of these books "hold up" to contemporary readers?  Maybe not.  But what they do is tell a story of a genre.  They tell a story of a genre that continues to be vibrant and interesting, a genre that continues to evolve over time.  As women change, as the culture changes, as time marches on - genre fiction (not just romance) reflects that.  It's literature (yes, literature) that exists in the here and now.  It helps to tell a story of who we were and who we hope to become.  That Mr. Berlatsky is canon.  Even if it is books and authors you don't necessarily "like."

This is hardly an exhaustive list.  I would love to hear your additions to the romance canon (and why) in the comments section.

Stolen Kiss From a Prince

I'm not a huge fan of royalty books, and for the record, I'm less of a fan of fake, made-up royalty books.  I "get" why they're popular within romance circles, especially with American readers.  Heck, we tell King George III to take a hike and then we spend the next 200+ years obsessed with all things royal.  To Americans, especially, royalty is immediate short-hand for "fairy tale."  We're a country that made Walt Disney a boatload of cash after all.  So while Stolen Kiss from a Prince is a book that wouldn't normally land in my wheel-house, I've been meaning to try Teresa Carpenter again.  Mostly because she's a local author, and the one previous book I tried was a DNF thanks to my own wacky, irrational reader baggage.  My foibles aren't her fault, and I liked the writing well enough to give her another go.

Julian is the "spare" Prince to the throne of Kardana.  While he was groomed to be a fine, upstanding, proper royal, the threat of him actually taking over the throne is slim.  His older brother, Donal, is married and son, Samson "Sammy,"  is a toddler.  Then Donal and his wife decide to take a ski holiday and a winter storm nobody thought would be severe, lead to a downed planed and a missing royal couple.  Sammy is in the neighboring kingdom of Pasadonia, and Julian goes to collect him, to bring him back to his family, and runs up against nanny Katrina Vicente.

Katrina is a nanny in the royal house of Pasadonia, and is a minor royal herself.  However it's not a relationship she plays up - just the opposite.  Katrina's goal in life is to blend into the woodwork as much as humanly possible.  If she could morph into a potted plant she would.  She's been the one caring for Sammy, who has become uncontrollably distraught after his own nanny opened her big fat mouth and tells him about his parents being missing and implying that they're never coming home - which honestly, nobody knows for sure yet.  Now in storms Julian, disturbing the child even more after she nearly pulled her own hair out to get the child to settle down and rest.

We all know where this is going, right?  Julia is all Alpha male, jumping to conclusions and making assumptions.  Katrina is the nanny who can soothe the most savage of toddler beasts.  Before you can say Cinderella, Katrina is charged with keeping watch over Sammy as the trio flies back to Kardana, Julian oversees his missing brother's duties, and keeps on top of the rescue efforts.

This is an old-fashioned romance.  Which implies that I'm damning it with faint praise, which isn't my intention.  "Traditional" is probably the better word.  If you were a romance reader who discovered the genre thanks to that ubiquitous grocery bag full Harlequins at 1) grandma's house 2) at the babysitting job and/or 3) in mom's closet - this is the sort of story you probably would have found there.  I could totally see this being a "gateway" book for some romance neophyte teen girl, rummaging around at a library used book sale.  It's got all the ingredients to make fairy-tale lovers happy - the heroine who doesn't want to be the center of attention but swoops in to save the day anyway, the handsome Alpha prince with just the right amount of Jerk Tendencies, family tragedy to ramp up the emotional angst, and lest we forget - the precocious tot.

Where this story elevates itself from just your normal, run-of-the-mill fairy tale is with the ending.  Eventually, like should happen with all good romance heroines, Katrina finds her voice.  She learns to stand tall.  To a certain extent she does continue to run scared, but she also is unwilling to settle for second best.  She loves Julian, but she's not going to settle for just loving him and Sammy.  No, she deserves to be loved in return - which means Julian having to wake up and smell the coffee.

So while this normally isn't my sort of read, it's a very pleasant way to spend the time.  If you're not a huge fan of royalty books, there's probably not a ton here to sway your opinion. But if you love the fairy tale?  If you want the handsome prince hero?  Look no further.

Final Grade = B-

TBR Challenge 2014: How To Misbehave

The Book: How To Misbehave by Ruthie Knox

The Particulars: Contemporary romance novella, 2013, Loveswept, Digital-only, Camelot series #1

What Was It In Wendy's TBR?:  I picked this up last year at the RWA Conference in Atlanta.  Mostly because I've never read Knox and everybody seems to lurve her books.

The Review: 

"Quit 'honeying' me.  I'm not your honey.  I'm a person, Tony, and I want to have sex with you.  Don't go thinking you're some kind of god just because you know I like you."

And that would be why I ended up liking this novella.  Certainly I had my quibbles (this is me we're talking about) but this was such an enjoyable story I want to drop everything and read ALL the Ruthie Knox I can get my hands on.  Which, I can't right now, but I'm still tempted.

Amber Clark has led a fairly sheltered life.  She grew up in a conservative, religious household in tiny Camelot, Ohio, attended a Christian college, and then came home to work as the director for the local community center.  That's how she comes into contact with Tony Mazzara, a building contractor who is doing some remodeling work at the center.  Tony, typically, leaves late which means Amber gets stuck waiting around for him to finish so she can lock up.  Which is how she finds herself at the center when the town's tornado sirens go off.  Now she and Tony are stuck in a dark basement together.  Gee, however will they pass the time?

Knox has essentially written a small-town contemporary that didn't set my teeth on edge, which I'm beginning to believe is no small feat.  I loved that Amber grew up in a religious household, and while having lost a hold of her faith, she's a good person who is somewhat innocent without being naive or brain-dead.  She's a girl who desperately wants a life, but has made a few missteps along the way.  Tony is the kind of guy who would inspire a saint to have naughty thoughts, and I loved how she flirted and bantered with him without coming off like some insipid ingenue I want to smack half to death.

Tony is all Alpha Male With A Tragic Past.  What I liked about him is that the author gives him some minor, realistic flaws.  I mean, just the goofy stuff that bothers us "normal" folks.  Things like, he doesn't like spiders and pitch-black-darkness tends to freak him out.  Certainly Amber's brand of sexy sweetness flips his switch (typical), and he does have an annoying tendency towards pet names ("bunny" and "honey" being the two favorites) - but he's Grade A Solid Blue Collar Hero, and really what's not to love about that?

There's plenty of angst to propel the emotional payoff forward, and while it would seem like these two characters have nothing in common, I'm left with the feeling that they're a good fit.  I did think there was a fair amount of Insta-Love going on here, but it's a minor quibble when I got sucked into the writing, enjoyed the characters so much, and got a bunch of delicious angst.

And now, once again, I'm off to get my hands on the rest of the series.  Another counterproductive TBR Challenge read.  Read one book, buy three more.  Which is a happy problem to have - although someone please tell me Knox gives me more brother Patrick Mazzara down the line.  Because....dayum.

Final Grade = B+

Dear Mr. Verlander

Dearest Justin,
Last night was your night.  The night it finally happened.  You not only got your first major league hit, but you got two major league hits and came around to score your first run.

I know, those silly National League teams.  Making pitchers have at-bats.  It's cruel.  It's unusual.  I'm pretty sure it defies the Geneva Conventions.  And as interleague play has rolled around every year, you've had to toil away at the plate and encounter nothing but futility.  You've had to contend with reporters pestering you with "So, is this the game you think you'll get your first major league hit?"

Now I know you're a professional athlete.  I know you are THE Justin Verlander.  I know you must work very hard at your job.  But let us reflect for a moment on WHY you got those first two major league hits and scored your first run all in the same game.

A game played a San Diego.

A game that THE Super Librarian, along with the added punch of the Super-Parents just happened to be in attendance for.

That's right Justin.  Ma, Pa and most importantly - me, me, me - just might be your good luck hitting charm.  I mean, I know you're rumored to be dating Kate Upton, but honestly what does she have that I don't have?

Oh.

Yeah.

But was she ever RWA Librarian of the Year?  Can she create whole plots of Harlequin novels based on your teammates?  Oh sure, she may look OK in a bikini but really, what's more important to you?

Wait.  Don't answer that.

But hey, I was there Justin.  I was there for those two hits.  I think we both know that me being in the stands had everything to do with everything.  You know, just like in The Natural!

Just replace the hat with a tiara and add a cape.  You'll get the idea.

Sincerely,
SuperWendy

Reminder: TBR Challenge for April

For those of you participating in the 2014 TBR Challenge, this is a reminder that your commentary is "due" on Wednesday, April 16.  This month's theme is Contemporary romance.  This one should be pretty easy, right?  However, remember - the themes are totally optional and are not required.  Maybe you're in the mood for a paranormal or historical?  Hey, that's OK!  It's not important what you read, just that you pull something (anything!) out of the TBR pile.

It's also not too late to sign up for this year's challenge.  For more details, please see the information page.

Digital Review: Every Part Of You: Takes Me

Megan Hart wraps up her first serial, Every Part of You, with this fifth and final installment, aptly titled Takes Me.  Like pretty much all of Hart's work, I quickly got hooked on the characters and became invested in them finally, blessedly, working their way into a committed relationship.  This one has been bumpy, thanks to a hero with serious Daddy Issues.

When last we saw Elliott, he was being an asshat to Simone.  Takes Me opens up with Simone wallowing.  She's hurt, she's wounded, she's a shell.  She made the colossal mistake of falling for Elliott, who has turned tail and run.  Her ex, who cannot bare to see her like this, thinks that what she needs is a sex club - and off she goes to get some release.  Meanwhile, Elliott has a run-in with Simone at their office building that leaves both of them battle scarred and wounded.  Then his past shows up on his doorstep one evening and Elliott has to face the cold, stark reality that the best thing he ever had in his life?  He threw away.  Is it too late for him and Simone?

I'll be honest - I didn't love this.  Mostly because I'm so over the sex club "thing."  I get why it's here, but I still wasn't in love with it.  Simone's ex thinks a "release" will do her good - and while the encounter is hot, and she gets off on it - it only temporarily fills the hole that Elliott's departure has left behind.  In other words, sex is great, sex is fun, but sometimes not even sex can fix everything that is making you feel "bad."

But still.  Sex club.  Blah.

Anyway, where this story does work is with Elliott's grovel.  This serial has mostly hinged on Elliott being screwed up emotional (oh boy, is he!) and him being a jackass.  For the most part, Simone holds her own with him.  She's emotionally "strong."  Her mistake is falling in love with him, and bless her heart - she doesn't make things easy for him when he tries to apologize.  He does a fair amount of begging and pleading, which well he should!

I did feel things were a little rushed at the end, but I'm not sure if that's because they were, or if I'm such a sadist I just wanted a lot more blood and angst on the page.  Also, by this point, I was pretty well invested in Simone and Elliott as "real people" (which I know they aren't - but Hart's characters have that effect on me) and just wanted to spend a lot more time with them.  This hasn't been my absolute favorite thing that Hart has ever written, but it was so very good and did what I want all serials to do - which is to hook me, propelling me through the installments with a sense of anticipation and urgency.

Final Grade = B-

Overall Grade For The Serial = B

Third And Long

As a librarian I get asked the question (a lot) of why people choose to read romance.  The fact is, there are a lot of reasons why, and far be it from me to try to tell anyone why I think they're reading what they're reading.  I mean, they could just be reading it because they like it.  When it comes to answering that question for category romance, I'm a bit more forthcoming.  The appeal of category, I think, is that the shorter word count means a strong, intense focus on the romance.  And really, at the end of the day, aren't we all reading romance novels because we want the romance?  Which is where Night Games by Lisa Marie Perry stumbles for me.  As a family drama?  It's good.  As a soap opera?  It's borderline great.  As a romance?  Um, not so much.

Even though Charlotte Blue has a complicated relationship with her parents she accepts a job offer with the NFL team, the Las Vegas Slayers, that they just purchased.  Charlotte is an athletic trainer and isn't afraid to stand-up for herself in a male-dominated workplace.  Standing in her way?  Nate Franco, also an athletic trainer, whose father used to own the franchise before the Blue family "swindled" it out from under him.  The corker?  Nate and Charlotte have met before, in a club, where the sparks going off between them almost led to them burning up the sheets.  So needless to say?  Between the coitus interruptus and the family dynamic, things are a little complicated between them.

The problem with this story has everything to do with the pacing.  As a romance, a category romance at that, it just doesn't work.  Nate and Charlotte spend little to no time together for the vast majority of the story - which is instead spent on world-building (OK, normally a good thing), a plethora of secondary characters, and drama that is only peripherally related to the romantic conflict.  What this story wants to be, and really should be, is a full-length, full-blown, family saga.  You know the kind - the disapproving parents, the kids eager to prove themselves, the various villains working behind the scenes, the family secrets, the exes that just won't stay gone - that kind of family drama.

There's just too much going on outside of the romance, which means when it comes to the romance?  Charlotte and Nate get lost in the shuffle.  Honestly I was much more interested in all that family drama stuff than I was in the romance, and for what is supposed to be a romance novel?  That's the kiss of death.

There were also a few hiccups with plot and characterization.  Nate comes off as an entitled prick on occasion because of the fact that he feels the Blue family swindled him out of his family birthright.  Um, OK.  Listen cupcake.  The franchise was your Dad's business.  How about taking that silver spoon out of your butt and getting your own damn life?  Then there's the fact that I'm supposed to believe that Charlotte's twenty-two year-old sister would be in charge of PR for an NFL team.  OK nepotism, but really?!?!?!  Finally there's the idea that the NFL commissioner's office wouldn't be all over the sale of a franchise.  Heck, even when that runs smoothly (and there are no accusations of dirty dealing) you can bet your bottom dollar they'd be up to their armpits in it.

This leaves me feeling OK, albeit disappointed.  There's a lot of stuff going on here and because of that I never felt like the romance was center stage.  However it does leave me curious.  What will the next book in the Blue Dynasty series be like?  Now that the author has laid a fair amount of groundwork - will the next story, featuring a disgruntled quarterback and one of Charlotte's sisters, have a stronger focus on the love story?  Will I get all of the drama plus a strong, focused romance?  Time will tell.

Final Grade = C

H&H: Unusual Historicals For April 2014

New month, new unusual historicals!  I've over at Heroes & Heartbreakers with a new shopping list.  Nice variety this month - including the 1920s, colonial Salem, Massachusetts and a bookseller hero who sounds kinda dreamy.

Head on over and check 'em out!

Digital Review: Every Part Of You: Taunts Me & Denies Me

As much as I love Megan Hart's books, I did have my doubts about how she would handle a serial.  I love serials, but honestly they're a different sort of writing.  Authors who excel at writing short, serials may be a good fit.  But I read Megan Hart's books almost exclusively for her characterizations.  She writes dynamite, fully-realized, flesh-and-blood characters.  And how is that going to translate to a fast moving serial format?  Turns out, pretty well.

Taunts Me is the third installment and Elliott comes to the realization that he can't stop thinking about Simone.  He's not looking for a permanent thing, he's terrible at relationships, but this woman has crawled under his skin and is driving him to distraction.  So he tells her, that yes - he wants to have steamy sexy times with her and then proceeds to lay out his ground rules.  Simone, for the most part, is highly amused and is ready to agree to Elliott's "demands" - just so long as her needs are being met as well.  And you know what?  It's going along swimmingly until Elliott breaks his own rules.  He gets jealous of Simone's former lover.

This is the installment that moves things forward by having Elliott stand his ground.  To stop running scared, which he basically was doing in the first two installments.  It's easy to see how he would be intrigued and scared of Simone all at the same time, and finally, blessedly, he's going to stop denying himself, and her, what could be a very fulfilling relationship - even if he doesn't want to call it that.

Final Grade = B

Denies Me is the fourth, and second to last, installment.  This is the entry where all the conflict finally comes to a head.  After his fit of jealousy in the last entry, Elliott has decided that maybe he and Simone should try dating.  Yeah, dating.  You know, dinner, dancing, drinks, maybe a show?  Dating.  It's pretty out of character for him, and Simone hasn't been on a "real" date in so long she thinks she might have forgotten how - but she genuinely likes Elliott.  As in, likes him likes him.  And that's her fatal mistake - because eventually everything Elliott said would happen?  Does.  He's an asshat and rips her heart to shreds.  Which sends Simone reeling and back to the one place where she knows she can seek comfort, even if it's only temporary.

Hart's genius as a writer has always been her characters.  She's so great with characters that when you get big, splashy, emotional angst from the plot you're left lying on the floor, gasping for breath, trying to stop the bleeding.  As in, you need to remind yourself that they're "made up" and "not real people."  The moment when all the conflict hits boiling point?  It literally sucks all the air out of the room.  It's bloody fantastic.

Final Grade = B+

The Returning Hero

I've read most of Soraya Lane's backlist and she's quickly become one of those authors where I never know what I'm going to get.  She's written books I've highly enjoyed, books that have made me angry and now with The Returning Hero, the dreaded "OK" read.  For the record, I hate writing "OK" reviews.  It's like trying to extract a tooth with a pair of pliers.  There's nothing inherently wrong with this story, per se.  There aren't elements in this story that I can point to and say "This is why I wasn't wild about it" - it's just.....OK.  Let's see if I can find my way out of this paper bag.

Jamie Mattheson has been a widow for six months.  Her soldier husband died in an explosion and she's now all alone, with only his now-retired bomb-detecting military dog, Bear, for company.  Knocking on her door is Brett Palmer, her husband's BFF, who was also injured in the same explosion.  He survived, with burns on his back that required skin grafts.  He's been putting off visiting Jamie, mostly because he's always had the hots for her.  But he promised Sam he'd look after her, and believe you me, he knows that Jamie is way off limits.  He may have met her before Sam, but once her and Sam hooked up?  He backed off in a major hurry.  Just because Sam is now dead doesn't change anything.  Or does it?

So that's pretty much the gist of it.  Jamie invites Brett to stay at her place because 1) she needs help with Bear 2) they've always been friends and 3) she's lonely in the now big, empty house.  Naturally Brett cannot say no, and then spends the rest of the book fighting his attraction for Jamie.  What I liked most here was that the author doesn't keep any "big secrets" percolating to the bitter end.  By the halfway point in the story Jamie has a pretty good idea of how Brett feels about her because, get this, he actually talks to her about it.  Jamie, in turn, is attracted to Brett and thinks they should explore these feelings.  Sam is gone.  Sam is dead.  And yes she loved him, but to keep on loving him and denying anything "new" to come into her life isn't going to bring him back.  The fly in the ointment?  Logan.  Another BFF who is fairly outraged by the idea that Brett would be horning in on Sam's girl. 

It's just....OK.  I think my problem is that for a long time I didn't feel a lot of chemistry and attraction between the couple.  The author tells me they have the hots for each other, but there's not a lot on the page to convince me of that fact.  The attraction does get stronger as the story gains some traction, but it's pretty light in the pants in the early going.

Also, and I know this is understandable, the ghost of Sam looms large and there are times it toes the line into "icky" territory for me.  I think if the chemistry between Jamie and Brett had been stronger, it wouldn't have bothered me so much.  But even in the mushy epilogue I kept getting this vibe that Jamie and Brett are a couple to keep Sam's memory alive and his death is something they have "in common" - as opposed to them being a couple on their own, in their own world, without Sam.  Yes, they both loved him - but in the end Sam shouldn't have anything to do with their relationship.  Sam is used too much as common ground for my tastes - and I'll be blunt, six months?  If the relationship between Jamie and Brett had been stronger (in other words, without Sam lurking around) I probably wouldn't have found six months jarring.  But as it was - it seemed way too soon.

So I'm probably nit-picking all of this to death, and I really think it's because this story didn't push me strongly on either end of my spectrum.  Mileage is going to vary here.  I can see some readers loving this story and slapping it with a bunch of A+++ ratings.  I, personally, didn't find it offensive in a way to illicit any strong loathing reactions, but again - what do I know?  In the end, it's a dreaded OK read for me.  The kind of book that immediately flies out of my memory once I've completed the epilogue.  Or makes me crazy wondering about why I didn't like it more.....

Final Grade = C+