College Girl, RT and Baseball

It's been a week since I've blogged something (anything) - and since my reading has ground to a halt thanks to the previous week's shenanigans, y'all get an update post.  So what's going on at the Casa de Bat Cave?  Well....

In a previous post I mentioned that I was tapped to do this "leadership class thingie" for work.  Well, that's started.  What I've learned so far?  There's no way in heck I could be a "non-traditional student."  You know, those folks who go back to school in their 30s, 40s, 50s etc.  I was very traditional.  College right out of high school, four years to my bachelor's degree, straight to grad school, full time for three semesters to my graduate degree.  Done.  With no desire to ever, ever go back.  Ever.  This small taste of "back to school" has me wondering how the heck I ever did this the first go around.  My current theory is ignorance (I didn't know anything else at the time) and alcohol (self-explanatory).  So if you're a non-traditional student reading this post?  My hat's off to you.  Because there's no way I could do it - and I don't have children to wrangle.

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Registration for the RT Booklovers Convention (in Las Vegas) opened this week and yours truly will be there.  For my first RT ever.  Why now?  Vegas is close for me (I can drive - huzzah!) and I'm going to be on a panel (definitely one, possibly two, but jury is still out).  The definite panel has to do with "voice" in blogging, reviewing and advocating for the genre.  So if you want to experience the Bat Cave live and in person (and really, how could you not?) - be sure to look for me at RT. 

I have no clue yet day or time of my panel(s) - but more information will be forthcoming as soon as I have it.

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Baseball.  My Tigers have been dismal this year.  Last place in our division dismal.  Our General Manager got "let go" and fled to Boston (boo! hiss!).  Miguel Cabrera got hurt.  Justin Verlander forgot how to pitch until recently.  Ian Kinsler has been - well, I don't even know what's going on with him.  One day he looks great, the next he looks like a guy who found out his wife is cheating on him with his best friend.  Jose Iglesias and James McCann got into a fight in the dugout - on camera.  Bruce Rondon (for the record, a relief pitcher I have loathed from day one) got sent home for the season due to "lack of effort."  Yeah, it's just been bad.  But hey, doesn't mean I still don't want to talk about baseball.

Word came out today that despite rumors to the contrary that Brad Ausmus will be back as the manager for 2016.  I'm not sure how I feel about that.  While our terrible, awful year isn't entirely Brad's fault, the Tigers have shown over the years that they just play better under managers who are cranky, old, and smoke like chimneys.  Leyland (with his Marlboros).  Sparky (with his pipe).  I'm not sure Detroit can handle managers who are as hunky and dreamy as Brad.  Sigh.  So hunky.  So dreamy.  For God's sake - the man surfs.  SURFS!!!  Now figure out what do with this nightmare of a team Brad and we'll be gold.

When Dave Dombrowski was "let go" - Al Avila was promoted to General Manager.  Fans of the Bat Cave's Tigers Meet Harlequin posts will know that Al is (now back-up) catcher Alex Avila's Daddy.  He also looks like Tony Soprano's cousin.  I mean, look at him.  If that doesn't scream "I work in waste management" I'm not sure what does.  If I was an under-performing player I'd sleep with one eye open.  Otherwise you might wake up next to a severed horse's head.  Just sayin'.

Could future Tigers Meet Harlequin stories be in the future for these two potential heroes?  Brad's dreamy and Al looks likes a villain (which in certain corners of the genre these days = prime hero material) - so don't count them out. 

Little Miss Crabby Pants Walks The Line

Oh Romancelandia, you make it so hard to like you sometimes.  And yet here I am, once again, stepping into the fray of the latest outrage du jour.  Will Little Miss Crabby Pants never learn? 

Apparently not.

Yesterday the bomb was dropped that Josh Lanyon is a chick.  For those of you who don't read m/m (male/male - as in, no vaginas to be found in the romance) - Josh Lanyon is a fairly prolific author who specializes in mysteries (as far as I can tell).  Over the years I've seen positive reviews and apparently there has been speculation (for many years now...) on whether or not Josh is male or female, gay or straight, whatever.  Speculation I totally missed because I'm not widely read in LGBT romance (I have nothing against it, have actually read some of it, but Little Miss Crabby Pants is not "widely read" ergo, she's no expert).

Some folks are not happy about this, for a variety of reasons.  The revelation in general.  How the revelation was made.  The use of a pen name to appropriate an identity or experiences you haven't actually lived.  Lather, rinse, repeat.  Little Miss Crabby Pants cannot comment very intelligently on any of this since 1) she's never read Lanyon and 2) hasn't exactly been hanging around the Internet with bated breath reading everything Lanyon has ever said or written regarding her identity.  I don't have first hand knowledge of the history.  So I'm not about to say that people who are upset shouldn't be upset because hell if I know everything that has been said over the years on the subject up to this point.  So this latest kerfuffle was orbiting around the periphery for me and frankly I was staying out of it because honestly?  I don't care.

And then, it happened.

I made the mistake of going on Twitter. 

WHY?!  WHY DO YOU DO THIS TO YOURSELF LITTLE MISS CRABBY PANTS?!?!?!?

For those of you who follow me on Twitter, you'll probably notice that my participation on the forum is pretty hit or miss.  I pop in for a little bit.  I pop out.  I go days without participating.  I lurk a lot.  Frankly I engage when I have time, and time is a precious commodity in short supply these days.  But hey, I had time so popped into Twitter which from here on out I'm just going to call The Outrage Machine.

Look, I get it.  Lanyon has managed to piss some folks off.  And honestly?  I'm fine with that.  Like I said, I don't have a pony in this race, plus I don't know the back history.  So if you're pissed, hey - more power to you.  I'm not going to tell you you're wrong.

What I am going to tell you however is to look in the mirror.  So much of the commentary I'm reading on this drama comes down to Little Miss Crabby Pants' favorite topic of the moment: Disclosure.

The irony is so rich here that I'm practically choking on it. 

Someone pass me more wine.

What exactly is Little Miss Crabby Pants implying?  The simple fact that if you're going to talk the talk you sure as shit better be walking the walk.  And certain corners of The Outrage Machine?  Yeah, go to the back of the line and sit the F down.  Or better yet, look in the mirror and start taking stock of your own baggage before wading into the fray.  Was Lanyon in the right or in the wrong?  In this instance it doesn't rightly matter much.  If your own house isn't in order, I'm not sure you're the best voice to be weighing in on the subject.

Little Miss Crabby Pants will end this missive with a tweet that speaks so much truth about the current state of Romancelandia that I'm thinking of cross-stitching it on a sampler.  An observation she wishes she had made, and I thank Kat so much for succinctly capturing my annoyance in less than 140 characters.

This Josh Lanyon thing reminds me how cliquey the (online) romance world is. It’s not a big deal if your friends are doing it.

— Kat (@BookThingo) September 20, 2015

::micdrop::

#TBRChallenge 2015: Nobody's Darling

The Book: Nobody's Darling by Teresa Medeiros

The Pariculars: Historical Romance, 1998, Bantam, In Print

Why Was It In Wendy's TBR?: Oh who the hell knows anymore!  I've had a print copy of this languishing in the TBR for at least a decade.  Seriously.  My guess?  Someone on a listserv a billion years ago recommended it.  Or it could just be the old standby Wendy excuse of "It's a western. Like duh." 

The Review: Here's a perfect example of what can happen when you let books sit in your TBR for close to a decade.  Had I read this back when I actually, oh you know, bought it - I think I would have really, really liked it.  But I've been reading romance for 16 years now and have gotten jaded.  Also there are things that bother me now that didn't bother me 16 years ago.  But I'm getting ahead of myself....

Esmerelda Fine is an orphan.  Her mother was the daughter of a Duke, but instead of marrying the man Daddy had handpicked for her, she ran away from home to elope with her one true love.  They settled in America and had two kids - Esmerelda followed by baby brother Bartholomew.  Then Mommy and Daddy get cholera and die.  Like her mother before her, Esmerelda keeps up the correspondence with her grandfather even though the old goat has effectively disowned the family and raises Bartholomew on her own.  Then one day in merry old England, Grandpapa gets the letter that strikes fear in his shriveled-up, miserly heart.  Bartholomew is dead and Esmerelda is heading to New Mexico to track down the outlaw who reportedly killed him. 

Billy Darling is a bounty hunter, which in the eyes of most makes him no better than an outlaw.  He's actually a wanted man at the moment thanks to a job gone bad, but the sheriff of Calamity, New Mexico isn't about to arrest him.  In fact, they're playing cards together in the saloon when in walks a slip of a woman who pulls a derringer on Billy.  She's spouting off about him killing her brother, which he most certainly did not - but convincing Esmerelda Fine of that is going to take some doing.

What follows is Billy and Esme getting things mostly squared away so we don't have too much of a Big Misunderstanding mucking up the plot.  Esme wants to find her brother's whereabouts however, and it's apparent that Billy is the best tracker in the area.  We all know where this is going, right?

I've read several books by Medeiros now and I've liked all of them to varying degrees, although all-out Squee! has eluded thus far.  The dedication before the start of the book makes mention of the John Wayne / Maureen O'Hara movie, McLintock! which should give those of you who know anything at all about that movie what to kind of expect here.  I suspect that's why I waited so long to read this - so scared I am of The Slapstick Humor Nightmare that can descend on "funny" romances.  But Medeiros keeps it more charming than funny ha-ha and it mostly works.

The problem comes in from outside factors - namely the secondary characters.  Billy is the baby of a family that is full of disreputable characters.  After he and Esme hit the road, his outlaw brothers find them and Billy tells Esme to trust him, ties her up and gags her in order to protect her.  Why?  Because Dear Old Brothers ask if they can have a go at her after Billy is done with her.  Esme proceeds to be terrified, Billy says no I don't like to share, and then they proceed to fool his brothers with some well placed moaning and groaning.  And throughout the course of the book, as the plot advances forward, Esmerelda keeps having to spend time in the company of the Darling Gang.  And as the reader I'm just to supposed to forget about this introduction?!  Not to mention baby brother Bartholomew who....ugh.  I could get past most of it during the reading of the book, but then we get a rosy, sunshiney sort of ending and I'm sorry - I can't get over the fact that Bartholomew is an asshole and Billy's brothers wanted to rape Esmerelda - well at least until they found out she could play "purdy music" on her violin.

Child, please.

Oh, and did I mention the Darling boys (including Billy) rode with Quantrill and Bloody Bill Anderson?  Look, I get it.  History is written by the victors and just as many people believe Quantrill and Anderson were folk heroes as those who believe they were psychopaths.  Here they are merely name-dropped.  They are neither addressed as villains or heroes - but they are addressed in relation to the hero of a romance novel.  Did I mention I was born and raised north of the Mason-Dixon?  Yeah, issues.  I haz them.

If you can get past the secondary characters who put the "problem" in "problematic elements" - the main romance itself is fairly light and charming.  Esme and Billy have a nice banter and I'm a sucker for a road romance.  There are moments in the story where both characters have to reconcile with their pasts and also address the fact that a Duke's daughter is just a wee smidge out of the league of a bounty hunter who wants to be a lawman.

I did feel at times the pacing suffered a bit (Part III of the book dragged on too long for me) and the villain is pretty thinly drawn, mostly serving as a device to move our couple through the plot and towards the happy ending.  All of this sounds like I disliked the book, which I didn't.  What ended up elevating it for me?  The actual text.  The actual book.  We live in a world where yes, self-publishing is wonderful and traditional publishers are asking authors to keep up frenetic writing paces.  As the reader?  I don't always get a quality product.  I'm sorry authors - but y'all know I'm speaking some truth right now.  Nobody's Darling reads like a book that everybody took their time on.  The author took time and care writing it.  Her editor took time and care EDITING it.  It's not even the best book I've ever read, but it reads like a frackin' masterpiece now - 17 years after it's publication date.  It is, creatively speaking, a well-put-together story.  Start to finish.  I had real, obvious, issues with the book - truly I did - but not once did I contemplate DNF'ing this.  I kept reading it because Medeiros MADE ME want to keep reading it.

So for that reason alone?  I'm probably going to slap this with a higher grade than I suspect most of you think I should.  The issues that bothered me (ugh, the Darling Gang!) are things that probably won't bother other readers and admittedly probably wouldn't have bothered me 16 years ago.  But I'm older and crankier now - and bother me they did.  Still, I think this is one worth reading and could totally see it as a "gateway western" for romance readers who don't normally go for the setting.

Final Grade = B-

Mini-Reviews: You Don't Have To Be Lonely...

I know a number of readers don't care for them, but I happen to love novellas.  When they're done well, they're tasty bite-size morsels of satisfaction.  I also happen to be a sucker for continuity series.  Those multi-author series that sometimes (but not always) feature an overarching story arc.  NotMy1stRodeo.com is a continuity novella series from Samhain about an online dating site that caters to country folk who have already been around the block (they're widowed, divorced etc.)  There are currently three novellas in the series (no idea if there will be more?), and I zipped through two of them over the weekend.  As far as I could tell, the only thing holding them together as a series is the dating site concept.  No reoccurring characters or plot elements that I picked up on.

Nothing Like a Cowboy by Donna Alward starts out just fine, but once the conflict kicks into high gear it slid south for me.  Um, to the point where I was shaking my Kindle and calling the heroine not-so-nice names.  Out loud.  In other news, My Man now officially thinks I'm insane.

Brett Harrison was married to a woman who thought being a rancher's wife would be more glamorous than the reality turned out to be.  Baggage he has it.  His twin sister is sick of seeing him mope around, so she signs him up for a dating site and sets a coffee date with Melissa "Melly" Walker, also a divorcee.  Melly was dazzled by her ex, who turned out to be a liar - so baggage, she has it.  Brett agrees to keep the date, mostly because his sister's deception isn't Melly's fault and he comes clean the moment they meet at the coffee shop.  They like each other, they share a smoldering kiss.  A future date leads to them hitting the sheets and that's when all hell breaks loose.  Conflict turns up in the form of an Amazing Coincidence.  The problem being that Melly doesn't think it's an Amazing Coincidence so much as a Big Secret.  Given that she has trust issues already?  Yeah, she freaks out.

This starts out as a very nice read.  It's kind of fun to read about an awkward first date (essentially a blind date) in a romance novel where we're often subject to suave heroes who ooze charm and charisma.  What didn't work for me had everything do with the conflict in the second half of the story.  I get that Melly is upset.  I get that she has baggage.  But her reaction and her subsequent treatment of Brett struck me as extreme.  As in, pull yourself together you stupid, selfish b*tch extreme.  Yes, the groundwork of her trust issues is laid well before, but ugh - I intensely began disliking her and no amount of Her Ex Done Her Wrong could wash the bad taste out of my mouth.  Frankly I could not for the life of me understand why Brett was so patient with her.  I'm sorry, no sex is that good, no matter how long of a drought you've had.  Alward has written better and if you're curious to try her work, I recommend following this tag for recommendations.

Final Grade = D

Disclaimer: Anderson and I presented a workshop together at RWA 2014.

 Something About a Cowboy by Sarah M. Anderson is a surprisingly tender and OMG HOTT! story.  If I wasn't sitting in front of a fan, I was wiping away tears.  It's a real winner.

Six years ago Mack Turner's wife died of cancer.  They were high school sweethearts, got married young, had babies young, and now his three sons are grown and worried about Dad.  He's 46 and alone on his ranch.  Winters get mighty lonely.  It's his youngest son who sets him up with a profile on the dating web site and gives Karen Thompson his Dad's number.  They talk and agree to meet in Billings (a three hour drive for Mack) for dinner and possibly more.

Karen is divorced and her self-esteem is in the toilet.  Her ex was totally incapable of being faithful and Karen just wants to feel desired by a man again.  She's not looking for love.  She's not looking for marriage.  Which is good because neither is Mack.  What she wants is for a man to look at her with passion in his eyes - and when Mack gets a load of her in a slinky red dress?  Yeah, wish granted!

The complaint I think some readers may have about this story is that it's very steamy and that it's short.  It's borderline erotic romance as far as content goes.  There's some "getting to know you" stuff to the romance, but honestly that's not why these two characters hook up initially.  They're there to get back, figuratively, into the saddle.  Naturally when the cold light of morning dawns, Mack finds himself confronted with his past, and needless to say he doesn't handle it well.  It's the resolution to his baggage, the emotional heft of it, that made this short novella such a winner for me.  A picture perfect afternoon read.

Final Grade = A

On a final note, I think it's worth mentioning how well I thought both authors handled the happy endings in these stories.  Again, they're short novellas and I loved that neither one tried to do too much with them.  They're basically happy-for-now, but the reader is left with the solid impression that both couples are together, in a relationship, and will, probably, down the road, make the whole thing official.  Praise the saints that neither of them crammed in a marriage proposal or pregnant with twins epilogue.

Note: The third book in the continuity series is Anything for a Cowboy by Jenna Bayley Burke (sorry haven't read, no review).  You can purchase the stories separately, or in a 3-for-1 edition.

The State Of The Bat Cave

Back in the day, when I wasn't seemingly exhausted all the time and could string semi-coherent sentences together to create interesting blog posts (no comment from the peanut gallery...), I would routinely put together chatty round-up style posts about what was going on in my life.  Hey, you're reading a one-person blog here.  Come for the narcissism, stay for the occasional romance novel reviews!  So what's going on at the Bat Cave these days?  Oh my, what isn't?

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So, yeah - work.  I'm not sure I disclosed it here yet, but I got promoted.  For those keep track at home, yeah - I've been working for this particular employer for a little over a year.  And yes, I was promoted.  This has largely been a good thing.  I mean, how can it not?  I'm Good Old-Fashioned Midwestern Worker Bee, so it's nice to be appreciated and to have my superiors believe in my abilities.  On the other hand?  There are days I sit in my new office and think to myself, "Self, what made you ever think you could possibly do this?!"  And then there are days when I feel like the master of my own universe.  Which I figure is just about par for the course whenever one takes on a new job, new responsibilities yada yada yada.

On top of this I just found out last week I've been tapped for a "leadership program."  Which means - more work. I know this blog hasn't been a hotbed of scintillating content of late, and while I LOVE my new job and am SO HAPPY I made the switch a little over a year ago now.....

I'm exhausted.  Not gonna lie.  I'm going to try to not have the blog dip down to one post a week, but this fall?  It could happen.  Seriously.  Busy, busy worker bee thy name is Wendy.

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So yeah - the Detroit Tigers.  My Last Place In Their Division Detroit Tigers.  Needless to say my baseball watching has mostly come to a close this season (there's masochism and then there's self-loathing) - although My Man is starting to watch more of his suddenly relevant Toronto Blue Jays and his favorite childhood team, the New York Mets.  So it's not a totally Baseball Free Zone at the Bat Cave just yet.

In light of my team imploding, I've taken to binge-watching Archer, an adult cartoon from the fine folks at FX.  My Man got hooked on it while I was away at a conference this summer and when I got home I got sucked down the same rabbit hole.  I've been binging via Amazon Prime and just started Season Four.  Favorite episode so far?  The Man From Jupiter from Season 3 which guest-stars Burt Reynolds.  I loved everything about that episode.

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My latest Unusual Historicals post went up last week over at Heroes & Heartbreakers.  A lot of Takes Place In England But Some Slightly Different Elements For A Change books.  Also, an appearance from The Dark Ages and some American settings (including two westerns).  Head on over and check out the shopping list.

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I haven't been very active in my usual Romance Land haunts of late because I'm finding myself more easily irritated than usual.  As in grabbing my computer monitor, shaking it senseless and sputtering, "Why?! Why?! WHY!?!?!?!?!?!?!" As I see it there are a few possible solutions to this conundrum for me:

1) I start writing scathing blog posts that would make Little Miss Crabby Pants blush and possibly alienate folks.

2) I swallow my irritation into a tight ball of rage and limit my time online for the sake of my own sanity.

3) I learn to let it go like everyone else seems to have done and instead write passive aggressive blog posts like this one.  Oh...wait a second....

Given that my Real Life is very full at the moment, and I'm still struggling to find some sort of reading groove, it's just easier for me to take the easy way out and lurk on certain corners of the Interwebs for a while.  Or, you know, just not visit at all.  Otherwise we're back to Passive Aggressive Wendy, and Lord, even I don't like her. 

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Back to sports - American football kicked off this week and....meh.  I used to really like football, but it's been on a downhill slide for me since the New Orleans Bounty-Gate fiasco which I found so repugnant that it makes my brain hurt.  Then there's the whole concussion thing.  Then there's the domestic violence thing.  Then there's the fact that I think the commissioner is a scumbag and I had to spend the whole off-season hearing about Tom Brady's deflated balls and honestly?  Tom Brady is a scumbag (IMHO).  So hearing about two scumbags fighting over deflated balls?

Yeah, I'm out.

On the bright side, maybe while My Man is watching football Wendy will actually get some reading done?  Hey, anything is possible, right?

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Lord, that was a big ol' pile of cranky.  Let's blame the heat, shall we?  The Bat Cave is located at the center of Hell at the moment, I'm convinced of it.  Days on end of 100+ heat.  As in, after dark - Wendy's going to bed - and it's still like 90 degrees outside.  I'm completely and totally over it.  And it's obviously making me a crankier crank than usual....which is just scary.

Reminder: #TBRChallenge for September

For those of you participating in the 2015 TBR Challenge, this is a reminder that your commentary is "due" on Wednesday, September 16.  This month's theme is Historical Romance.  Any historical romance.  This one should be pretty easy, unless of course you don't read historical romance.  In which case, no problem!  Remember - the themes are totally optional and are not required.  It's not about the themes but reading something (anything!) out of your TBR.

Note: This month's challenge falls on a crazy, busy hectic day for me. I'll get my own commentary scheduled to post in advance, but I suspect I'll largely be "off-line" that day. 

For more information, or just to follow along with all the participants - check out the 2015 TBR Challenge Information Page.

Not The Boss's Baby

ETA: I've provided this disclaimer before on Anderson's work, but forgot to add it here.  We presented a workshop together at RWA 2014 (9/8/15)

I tend to be fairly anal retentive when it comes to reading mystery/suspense series in order.  Romance series?  Another kettle of fish entirely.  My TBR is the graveyard where all third books in trilogies go to die. Or, as in the case with Sarah M. Anderson's Beaumont Heirs series for Harlequin Desire, I read the books completely out of order.  Having already read books two and three, I figured maybe it was time to, oh I don't know, actually read the first book in the series. 

Not The Boss's Baby kicks off the series featuring heir to the family brewing (as in beer) dynasty, Chadwick Beaumont.  Before he was out of diapers, Chadwick was being groomed to take over the family brewing business, and he's the fourth generation to run the company.  Chadwick basically works for the family.  To keep his wastrel brother Phillip in race horses and his sister Frances afloat after her various entrepreneurial ventures go belly up.  But this burning the candle at both ends is taking it's toll.  He's in the middle of the longest divorce in the history of the world, his soon-to-be-ex-wife determined to bleed every last penny out of him.  Then there's the fact that the brewery is dodging buy-out demands left and right.  Chadwick cannot fathom selling the family business, but others on the board aren't nearly as loyal.  So the guy has a lot on his mind, which means acting on his attraction to his personal assistant is probably not the best idea - not only right now, but ever.

Serena Chase broke up with her longtime boyfriend three months ago and...she's pregnant.  Being pregnant with her ex's baby isn't exactly joyous news for reasons besides the obvious.  Serena grew up in a very hand-to-mouth world.  Her parents loved each other, but let's just say family finances were extremely fluid.  Serena is the type of girl who banks her generous holiday bonuses, buys clothes second hand and clips coupons - not because Chadwick doesn't pay her well, but because Serena knows first hand what it's like to lack financial security.  So now she's going to be a single mother and her very stable job may go bye-bye if Chadwick cannot save the brewery from a buy-out.  So acting on her attraction to her boss right now?  I mean, despite the fact that she helped craft the company's fraternization policy?  Yeah, not a good idea.

But we all know where this is going right?  "Not a good idea" doesn't mean much in a romance novel.  As if this weren't enough conflict floating around, Chadwick is haunted by the specter of his long-dead father.  The kind of guy who exchanged wives every other Christmas and had numerous affairs, um - including with his various secretaries.  Chadwick is so hung up on not being "just like Dad," that he has shoe-horned himself into a life where he does exactly the opposite, except of course running the family business.  That's one thing Dad definitely wanted and one thing he never allowed Chadwick to forget.

I've read a lot of Anderson's books and she has three speeds for me: 1) The Awesome 2) The Good and 3) The OK.  This one falls under #2.  It's good, but not great.  What it does well, it does very well - namely setting up the series.  While the various Beaumont siblings do scream Sequel Bait! the author at least introduces them in a compelling manner (at a charity gala) and includes just enough of their baggage to whet the appetite for future books (uh, of which I've already read two).  I also liked that the author touched on the class issues between Serena and Chadwick, illustrating that while they both grew up very differently, that doesn't necessarily mean they didn't have their own challenges.  Chadwick had security, but not love.  Serena had love, but not security.

Where the story stumbles for me is mostly related to the Desire word count.  Chadwick's ex-wife is cookie-cutter harpy, although there's a brief glimmer where you actually feel sorry for her (and then she opens her mouth and you go right back to thinking she's vile - oh well).  There's also the small matter of the romance, which moves quickly.  I get that Chadwick and Serena have been working together for years, but working together and proposing marriage within the span of a few weeks is another matter entirely.  I actually think this would have worked better for me if Chadwick still wasn't in the middle of his divorce proceedings.  The marriage is definitely over (it's been over a year since the papers were filed), but it's another piece of very big conflict looming over the happy ending.  And as stated above - there's already a lot of conflict to go around in a story that clocks in at less than 200 pages.

All quibbles aside, I did enjoy this quite a bit.  It sets up the series nicely, and given Daddy's promiscuous ways, Anderson can keep this series going for a while.  While I unabashedly love the boss-secretary trope (I know, I know - I'm part of the problem), the pregnant-by-another is a bit of a harder sell for me.  But it all works here, despite some abbreviated moments because, you know, category word count.  This series has been pretty solid so far, and now I'm actually at that moment in time where I can read the rest of them in order.  Will wonders never cease?

Final Grade = B

Digital Review: Danger. Johnny Danger.

If nothing is going to officially tip the scales for blog readers that Wendy has finally lost her marbles - well Outside The Lines by Bella Love is the book that could possibly be the nail in my coffin.  I'll be blunt - when it's not borderline absurd, it's outright absurd.  It's an over-the-top cocktail of hot contemporary erotic romance, romantic suspense, and holy heck - the hero's name is Johnny Danger.

Yes. Johnny. Danger.

And if you think it possibly couldn't get any more absurd?  The heroine's name is Juliette Jauntie.

If you've made it this far into the review, congratulations!  Now, on to the pertinent details - you know other than Johnny. Danger.

Juliette is an accountant who has her own firm.  Well, of sorts.  She's the firm, being a one-woman operation.  She's very small potatoes.  She's hired by a soon-to-be-ex judge's wife, to do a valuation of their assets, in what is supposed to be a fairly amicable divorce.  The fly in the ointment?  Johnny. Technically her competition and not small potatoes.  His ritzy boutique accounting firm is upstairs in the same building and he is representing the judge's interests as a favor to his business partner (a close, personal friend of the judges').

This could be Juliette's big break, and admittedly she's excited to maybe take Johnny down a couple of notches.  So she ends up working through Christmas, realizes there's something rotten in Denmark, but....screw it.  She's pissed that Johnny Danger would just assume she has no life (OK, so she doesn't - but he doesn't need to know that), so once she turns in her mic-drop-valuation, she hits the nearest ski resort.

Naturally Johnny is unthrilled with Juliette's findings, as are the clients.  The directive?  Find her and bring her to heel.  Tracking Juliette down at the resort however leads to a lot more than burning the midnight oil over financial records.  For one thing these two crazy kids stumble on to a mystery and for another?  They want to rip each others' clothes off with their teeth.

In some ways this story is kind of a mess.  I have no idea exactly who Johnny is other than a guy with an absurd name.  He's this weird combination of accountant, lawyer and fixer all rolled into one.  For a while I thought he was just an accountant - but then...other stuff comes into play and frankly he smacks of another Romance Novel Gazillionaire Who Does Everything For A Living.

Juliette was an easier sell for me.  She hasn't been handed anything in life and she's worked really hard to get where she is - to the detriment of friends, having a life, doing anything other than working with numbers for a meager living.  Even if she wasn't pissed at having to work over Christmas, it's not like she has any better options, which is just sad.

This all makes it sound like the book was ho-hum for me.  If you can roll with Johnny. Danger. it's actually pretty good.  The suspense subplot was interesting, although probably could have been fleshed out more thoroughly (this is a category length novel), and the sex scenes are hot enough to peel wallpaper.  The first one at the ski resort, in particular - ooo la la!

Was it borderline silly at times?  Sure.  Was it still fun to read?  Hey, I didn't DNF it and I literally inhaled it while sitting on an airplane.  And honestly?  All the accounting stuff, the talking about numbers - well, it was kind of hot.  You'll just have to trust me on this.

It does end on a happy-for-now and it's obvious that Johnny. Danger. has commitment "issues." Which means, you guessed it, a second book in the series is in the works.  Which I get that some readers find annoying, but hey - at least this first book doesn't end on a cliffhanger.

Final Grade = B-

Note: There are two versions of this book. Seriously.  The first-person edition (that I read) and a third-person edition.  I have a lot to say about this.  Most of it involving frothing at the mouth and staring dumbly at the Amazon page in disbelief.  Authors - write the damn book how you want to write it.  How you "conceive" it.  For every reader that intensely dislikes first person, there are an equal number (seriously) of us who love it.  You can't please every reader, all of the time and this smacks (to me) of trying to do that.  Seriously. Please don't let this become "a thing."  I probably shouldn't hate it as much as I do (really, it's a silly thing to "hate on") but ugh - it just annoys me.  Write. The. Book. You. Want. To. Write.  Trying to please us readers all the time - well, that way lies madness.  And I say this as a reader who acknowledges that I have my own nutty quirks when it comes to likes and dislikes.

Mini-Reviews: Wendy's A Big Ol' Meanie Pants

I have (somewhat) of a reputation for being a cranky reader.  Or, if not cranky, at least a "tough" grader.  But this year?  I've lost my mind.  For a variety of reasons, I'm in a slump. And part of that slump seems to be that I'm either reading books I really, really love or books that I really, really am disinterested in.  As in, they may not necessarily be "bad" books - they just aren't engaging me for "reasons."  And given the size of my TBR and the looming ARC pile?  I'm giving myself permission to DNF more.  Here are the latest additions to the DNF pile - one of which was written by someone I consider a friend.  See?  Wendy is mean even to people she knows!

I have read three books by Susan Meier and none of those books cracked out of my C grade range.  So why do I keep reading her?  Because of The Angst.  She can write angst really well.  But Her Brooding Italian Boss might finally be the book that has me saying, "Oh well, so long. We're just not a good fit for each other."  I got to 30% and called it a day.

Heroine has just found out she's pregnant by her ex.  Oh, and she's unemployed (or underemployed - I can't remember now. But suffice it to say money is a BIG issue).  Anyway, instead of hauling the Baby Daddy to the nearest courthouse, she's at a friend's wedding where she runs into our Hot, Emotionally Wounded By Evil First Wife, Italian Artist Hero.  Before you can say Rescue Fantasy (thanks in large part to Hot Hero's meddling Bazillionaire Father), she's working as his personal assistant and getting all fluttery around him.

Here's the thing with Meier - she's really fond of the Rescue Fantasy and she tends to lay them on pretty thick.  Like, with a trowel.  It was little annoyances at first.  Ho hum, another rescue fantasy.  How many times is the heroine going to fret about being "pregnant with another man's baby?"  And then, it happens.  We learn about Evil First Wife and I was DONE.  Fading from glory supermodel hitches to hero's rising star wagon.  She plays around on him - uh, a lot.  Gets pregnant with his baby (presumably), doesn't tell him, then gets an abortion.  Hero now a shell of a man because of her betrayal, but naturally everyone around him (including the heroine) thinks it's because he loved her SO MUCH!!!!

I found this conflict...annoying.  The shorthand that only women who are Pure Evil would ever have an abortion.  The genre has never been good with handling this particular issue well - but it's comical how totally Old School it is here and honestly?  I found it rather insulting.  So, I'm out.

Final Grade = DNF

So, yeah.  I've known Megan Frampton a long time.  In Internet years we're like 239 years old.  She was also my editor at Heroes & Heartbreakers for several years and brought me in on that project back when it was still "a project."  I knew going into this book what to expect from her "voice," so I started The Duke's Guide to Correct Behavior expecting a frothy, light read.  I called it quits at the 40% mark when I realized I just didn't give a hoot about the characters and what happened to them next.

Through a series of improbable circumstances (namely three people dying before him), the hero is now a Duke.  He's very whiny about this.  All he wants to do is travel, be footloose and fancy free, drink and bed a bunch of women.  Um, dude.  What exactly do you think Romance Novel Dukes do?  Anyway....

His young daughter arrives on his doorstep after the child's mother dies.  What's refreshing here?  He knew he had the daughter - she isn't a secret and he had been paying Early Victorian Equivalent Child Support to the Baby Mama.  But ye gads!  More responsibility!  So he decides to hire a governess through heroine's employment agency.  A Duke using their service is a major step up for them, but oh noes!  No eligible governesses!  No matter, the heroine will take the job herself.

And....that's pretty much it.  After 40%.  I do have a reputation for loving The Angst, but yes - I am capable of enjoying light and fluff.  But I also expect conflict in my light and fluff and there just really isn't much conflict to be found here.  Other than the hero having NO clue how to be a Duke, which seemed odd since it's not like he was born in a gutter.  The guy knows how society works, so him not having the faintest clue how Duke's behave just makes him seem stupid.  But anyhoodle....maybe conflict shows up later in the story?  Entirely possible.  But at 40% I just didn't really care about these people in their thinly drawn early Victorian (1840) world and.....done.  Have you seen my pile of ARCs?  Of which this was one and it came out in November 2014?

Megan is a friend (hopefully still is if she sees this blog post....), and if I had been reading a print edition I would have skimmed through to the end.  But I just can't seem to skim digital with any sort of efficiency, so I'm moving on.  I'm hoping for better with Frampton's more recent work and chalking this one up as a bump in the road.

Final Grade = DNF