Contest Judging Round-Up

For the second year in a row, the Orange County chapter of Romance Writers of America asked me to be their "Top Pick" judge for the annual Book Buyers Best contest.  This is a published authors contest with nine categories.  Entered books go through a first round of judging and score sheets are filled out.  My job as "Top Pick" judge is to read the 1st Place winners in each of the nine categories and pick the best one.  It's a ton of reading, but as far as contest judging goes it's fairly easy.  I mean, I don't have to fill out any score sheets.  Just pick the best book, in my ever so humble opinion.

Like all contest reading it was a mixed bag.  There were books I really didn't think were all that great.  Then there were the nothing memorable either way, merely OK books.  And then there were the books that featured something that "stuck" with me.  For the sake of this round-up I'm going to talk about those books; the Wendy Graded B and C books (alas, no A reads this year in contest judging!).  And, of course, I'm including the book I selected as Top Pick!

Here's a perfect example of why I like to contest judge even though it can be a time suck.  Gentle on My Mind by Susan Fox is a book I had never even heard of, and the author does some really interesting things with this story.  On the surface it looks and smells like your typical small town contemporary, but it's got some grit underneath the surface.  The heroine is in her 40s, single, and trying to put her life back together after climbing out of a bottle.  She turned to alcohol to self-medicate, and she's finally been properly diagnosed with bipolar disorder.  She's managed to patch together a relationship with her formerly estranged, now married (she was a teen mom) son and is living a quiet life.  Until the (younger) hero, an undercover cop, crashes his motorcycle into her white picket fence.

So the issues I had with the story were mostly the hero (he's an undercover cop and yet the heroine suggests to him he might want to alter his appearance to "fit in" in town. Really dude?) and some back-story, info-dump in the first chapters.  It's the heroine here who is interesting.  The self-medicating issue with her alcoholism is not one you see every day in romance.  Also she's very aware of her bipolar disorder, monitors her medication, sees her doctor regularly etc.  These "interesting issues" you don't see in romance novels every day continue toward the end.  [SPOILER] Heroine gets pregnant.  She's older, has a mental illness, and is just repairing the damage she's done to herself and her relationships. Abortion is actually thought about and discussed. The heroine isn't necessarily "overjoyed" with this news.  She's, naturally, worried.  Was kind of refreshing to read a book where the heroine didn't spout off any "I'll always have a piece of him" BS. [END SPOILER].

The Plus One Chronicles by Jennifer Lyon is a self-published, erotic romance novella trilogy - now available in a box-set.  The heroine is a former scientist pigeon-holed into that career thanks to the family business.  She's always felt like a fraud compared to her genius parents and older brother.  Then she survives a brutal attack.  She now runs her own bakery and is trying (and mostly failing) to get back to normal.  To not be so scared all the time.  And then she meets the hero, a former MMA fighter turned gazillionaire, who is very interested in making her his "plus one."  Because, you know, he doesn't do relationships.

So the hero is, frankly, pretty standard here for stories of this ilk.  There's nothing particularly memorable about him, in my opinion.  But again, it's the heroine who makes this trilogy.  She's got an ex-fiance she's broken things off with, a strained relationship with her parents, and she's tired of feeling helpless.  Sure, she'll be the hero's "plus one" for however long it lasts - but in exchange she wants self-defense lessons.  Yes, the hero does "save her" to some extent, but she's actively working to save herself - and that's what I liked about this series.

Let me count the ways I am totally burnt-out on paranormal romance.  So it's pretty remarkable really that I enjoyed Prodigal Son by Debra Mullins as much as I did.  It's highly readable (even for those of us with burn-out!) and I thought it was an extremely strong showing for an author whose entire backlist, up until this point, was in historicals. 

The hero is a bounty hunter and a "seer" - descended from a survivor of Atlantis (yes, that Atlantis).  His ability to "see" people across time and space makes him darn good at his job - until he's hired to find a car thief who jumped bail and he can't "see" him.  What the heck?  The heroine is that car thief's stepsister and since she put her condo up for bail she has a vested interest in finding him.  She eventually runs into the hero and they join forces.  What neither of them know?  Wayward stepbrother stole something other than a car and there are some Very Bad Men gunning for him.

The world-building here is in line with urban fantasy.  It's a world we recognize as an everyday world, it's just inhabited by people with "powers."  The Atlantis angle was interesting, there's a nice chemistry between the main couple, and the series-itis (this is the first book in a trilogy folks) is there, but not too annoying (the hero's siblings are on tap for other books).  If you're looking for a new paranormal, Burn-Out Girl thought this was very solid.  It's pricier as a trade paperback, but it got very good reviews in the trade journals (including a starred review in Publisher's Weekly), so your local library may be an option.

And now ::drumroll:: we have the Top Pick Winner!  Sweet Madness by Heather Snow and the third book in a trilogy.  The heroine's husband committed suicide.  This tragedy, coupled with survivor's guilt, lead to her work helping to treat veterans returning from the Napoleonic War.  The hero is a veteran from that war, and is suffering from what we now know as PTSD.  He's in such a bad way that he as been committed, although given his title and family he's hardly in a "snake pit."  He's also her cousin by her first marriage and when his mother asks her to help, she agrees to go visit him.  She sees him for the first time since her wedding at the hospital, stark raving mad, naked, and being subdued by orderlies.  Ahhhhh, romance!

This is likely a book that would drive historical purists up one wall and down the other.  However I appreciated it for how the author plays with her history without completely running off the rails.  Yes, a heroine in the early 19th century running around as amateur shrink would be unlikely - but the survivor's guilt angle worked for me.  Also her idea for helping soldiers is "talk therapy," which hardly strains at the seams.  I also liked the window into mental illness treatment during this time period.  Let's face it - the hero has money and power, even if he is believed to be totally mad.  That affords him a certain lifestyle, even if he is institutionalized.  My only real quibble is a bit of a throwaway line, where I felt that the heroine's husband (obviously "not well") is demonized a bit for the way he treated her.  I could see that rankling some readers, and while it rankled me a bit - it didn't detract overall from the story which I felt was very interesting and a different take on what we typically see in a Regency.

And that's it!  The four books that stuck with me in various, positive ways, during the course of my contest reading.  While I didn't find an "A" read this year, I did run up against some interesting books that I may not have read otherwise.  Which really, is why I keep signing up to judge contests every year even with my TBR Pile of Doom.  There's nothing quite like stumbling across a good book that you otherwise may have never found.

Top 3: Contest Judging OCCRWA's Book Buyer's Best

A couple of weeks ago I attended OCCRWA's (Orange County, California) annual Birthday Bash celebration to announce the Top Pick winner for their annual Book Buyer's Best contest.  This is a published authors contest (self-published entries were included this year).  My job was to read the highest scoring books in each category (nine all together) and pick "the best one."  While a lot of reading?  I didn't have to write out a bunch of score cards.  It was see books, read books, pick a book.

I thought about talking about all the books I read, but in the end I've decided to focus on "the best ones."  These were the Top 3, and let's talk about them from third place on down to the final winner:

A Taste For Scandal by Erin Knightley won the historical category.  The second book in a series, it stands alone very well (obviously, since I'd never read her before).  This is one of those Duke's Son Falls In Love With A Nobody books - which is to say you read it for the fairy tale.  There is some angst, but this is a romance - so naturally everything turns out rosy in the end, when in "real life, back in those days" the couple would undoubtedly have faced continual blow-back for their unconventional marriage.

What I really liked, besides the fairy tale?  The heroine is a baker.  Certainly baking heroines have been running amok in contemporary small town romances, but not so in historicals.  So the historical tidbits of what it was like to bake during Regency times?  Really interesting.  Also, the hero behaves like one would expect him to behave as the eldest son of a still-living Duke.  He parties.  He's got a reputation.  He's a nice guy underneath, but he's not exactly a paragon of responsibility when this story starts.  If I was grading this book?  Probably a B-.  I'd read more Knightley.

Such a Rush by Jennifer Echols won the YA category and made me want to punch every teenager I see at work in the throat.  These whipper-snappers?  They have NO clue how good they have it.  Where were books like this when I was a teen?!

Heroine is pure white trash, moving from trailer park to trailer park with her largely absent (naturally, this is a YA novel) mother.  Their latest home is next to a small airstrip, and the heroine, with ambition to not be her mother - hops the fence and gets a job as office girl/gopher.  She's 14 when she forges her mother's signature on a permission form and starts taking flying lessons with a man who owns a business pulling advertising banners.  Fast forward four years, her mentor is dead, and his twin 18-year-old sons inherit the business.  The heroine has plans, which do not involve hitching her wagon to silver-spoon twin brothers who will probably run the business into the ground.  One of them has other ideas though, and essential blackmails her into sticking around.

Reading the back cover copy, it sounds like a love triangle story - but, trust me, it's not.  I loved this heroine.  I know this heroine.  I'm pretty damn sure I went to high school with her.  I also found it incredibly telling that this was the contest read that handled "the sex stuff" the best.  It was responsible, sexy and believably.  This book came very, very close to being my "top pick."  So much so that I had to take Labor Day weekend to really mull it over.  If I were grading this, it would be a B+.  In the end though?  It lost out to....

Sea Change by Karen White which won the Romantic Elements category and ended up being my Top Pick.

This is a book that has something for everybody, literally.  Which sounds like a hot mess, but it's not.  I'd classify it as Southern Gothic.  It's a dual narrative story, alternating from present day to the early 1800s.  The present day story involves the heroine, a midwife, who after a whirlwind courtship marries the man of her dreams.  Except it turns out the man of her dreams was married before and Wife #1 died in an "accident."  The historical story also tells the story of a midwife, her life with her husband, unmarried sister, and the effect the War of 1812 has on them.  With this dual narrative, both involving midwives, naturally some light paranormal elements come into play to connect to the two stories.

It's beautifully written, with an evocative sense of place.  White does everything with this book (historical, contemporary, paranormal, Gothic, romance, mystery) and does it all well.  None of the elements in this story annoyed me, which is especially telling with the paranormal aspect as it's typically something that would annoy me no end.  But it didn't here, because this author swept me up and took me away to this world she created.  Also, as a librarian, it's the sort of book I can damn near recommend to anybody.  What ultimately tipped me over the edge?  Besides how wonderful the writing was?  That she was able to pull off all those elements in the same story and not screw any of them up.  I don't have a burning desire to reread it, but it's better than a B+.  My final grade would probably be an A-.

So there you have it - the best of the contest reads for 2013.  If you'd like to see all the finalists, you can check out OCCRWA's BBB contest page.  It was a lot of work, getting through nine books, but it ended up being a nice experience.  I told them to consider me again for next year - even if I'm not the Top Pick judge.  I'd happily serve as a first-round judge again (which I've done in the past).

The Joys And Perils Of Contest Judging

By romance standards I classify myself as a "slow reader."  It takes everything I've got to get through 100 books a year - and that takes some fudging (Yes, I count short stories, novellas and category romances the same as I would a 400 page single title.  Yes, that's probably cheating, but my record keeping, my rules).  By romance reader standards, that's pretty light in the pants.  I know many readers online who routinely get through 200 books a year.  And they somehow manage to hold down full time jobs, deal with their families, and the general annoyances of Real Life.  I could read 200 books a year, but I'd need to realize my life-long dream of being a kept woman to achieve it.  And since the Greek tycoons don't seem to be beating down the Bat Cave's door?  Yeah, Wendy struggles on every year to hit 100.

Which means I must have been crazy to agree to do some contest judging for a local RWA chapter.  Part of it was I was flattered.  I was asked to read all the top scoring books in each of the 9 categories and then pick the "best" overall.  So yeah - 9 books.  There are months I don't get 9 books finished.  Luckily for me my yearly sojourn to visit my family in the Midwest coincided with me getting through these books.  Wendy + airplanes + layovers = I Get Reading Done!  I read three books alone just stuck on airplanes.  Hell, I read 6 books in 5 days - which is unheard of for me.

Think of all the reading I could get done if I didn't have to worry about paying the rent!  Oh, and staying clothed, fed, healthy - you know, the little things in life.

For those of you who have never done contest judging....it's interesting.  I like to do it every once in a while to keep myself honest.  It exposes me to books/authors who aren't in my usual wheelhouse and from a professional standpoint, it helps with my general reader's advisory skills.  I also try to look more at the "big picture" of a book.  It's not just the simple of matter of did I like it, or didn't I.  It's looking at the whole scope: pacing, writing, sense of place, plot, characters, yada yada yada.  When it comes to my own personal reading I'm a see book, read book, like (or dislike) book kinda gal.  Which is to say that isn't useful with contest judging - but it does involve a bit more than that.

So after going through 9 books, I'm spending the weekend thinking about who will be the "Top Pick" winner among the finalists I read.  I'll be honest - it's between two books.  And it's.....hard.  Both had a wonderful sense of place, both had great stories, both had great characterizations, and both of them had their faults as well.  I think I know which way I'm leaning at the moment, but I'm giving myself the holiday weekend to really make sure.

Since it's been well-advertised to contest enterers (is that a word?) that I am the "Top Pick" judge - I can't talk about specifics yet.  Frankly, I don't want to spoil it.  But here are some highlights (and lowlights.....) that should be vague enough.

Grades were as follows: 3 B, 3 C, 3 D.  Yes, 3 Ds.

The B grades were all over the map when it came to "tone."  Everything from angst to fluff.  Two of the books in this range are duking it out for my final pick as I type this.  The third one was very solid, but not as strong as the other two, hence I've already decided it won't be "the one."

The C reads were ultimate mixed bag reads.  There were really well-done aspects, and other things that were odd.  Like the book that had so much emotional angsty goodness, but then the "contemporary" characters would say something that made me wonder if they were stuck in the 1950s.  Another book had characters that drove me batty most of the time, but the plot was really good.  Then there was the one where the plot could have done something fresh and different, but instead fell into predictability.  Not outright "bad" reads - but also nothing epically special.

Now, the D reads.  Oh, the D reads.  One book was going just fine until one of the most teeth-grinding sex scenes I've read in a LONG time - not to mention the annoying sequel-bait.  Then there was the book that featured the most absurd plot I have ever read in a romance novel.  Ever.  And this is coming from the girl who has read some pretty terrible category romances in her day.  I'll see you your secret babies and amnesia and raise you this book I had to slog through.  And then there was the heroine that I loathed so much that I kept hoping the hero would come to his senses and run as if the hounds of Hell were nipping at his privates.  Words cannot express how much I hated her.  Haaaaattttteeeeeeeeedddddddd her.

So what can we take away from all of this.  Contest judging isn't that different from my regular reading.  The D numbers were high.  1/3?!  But given that the other 6 titles were split right down the middle of good to average?  Pretty typical, I think, for a lot of books.  I was hoping for an A read, but didn't find one.  But I did find authors I certainly will read more of, and the two books I'm currently debating as the "Top Pick" were both nice, pleasant surprises - books I'm not sure I would have found on my own.  Which at the end of the day?  Is really the reason that contest judging kicks ass.

And for those of you dying with curiosity?  The contest winner is going to be announced in October, I believe.  So maybe before we turn our calendars over to 2014 I'll be able to name some names.....

Ancient Chinese Secret

Every once in a while a book just hits me the right way. It's not that it's a particularly outstanding, breathtaking read. It might just be an average read. It might even have story elements that aren't quite working for me. But I still find myself devouring the book in record time. Which is what happened with the last book I had to read for my contest judging, The Dragon Earl by Jade Lee.

Since Lee has been floating around the paranormal waters lately, I think this book might have slipped under a lot of reader radars. Yes, it's a historical. Yes, it's a straight-up historical with no woo-woo in it. Honest.

Description:

ONE MAN

A Chinese monk striding down the aisle was the first shock at countess-to-be Evelyn Stanton’s wedding. To watch him dispatch three groomsmen, unarmed, and to learn that he was white and the long-lost heir to the Earldom of Warhaven, was the second. He would be her husband?

ONE MISSION

After the slaughter of his family in far-off China, Jacob Cato found sanctuary. In a Xi Lin temple he learned to be strong, but now he had a grander goal: to reclaim his English heritage and the woman he’d left behind.

ONE DESTINY

Revenge. It poisoned everything he’d learned, everything he’d done, and yet every fiber of Jacob burned for it—just as he burned for the beautiful but very English Evelyn. Long ago, the conspiracy to kill his family had stranded him, lost Jacob in the exotic East and made him unrecognizable to his countrymen…and women. He had not forgotten that past. It was to make peace that he had returned. The manner was yet to be decided.

One thing of note about this book, that did give me pause, was that Leisure slapped the tagline "A new stand-alone novel from the USA Today Bestselling Author of Dragonborn and Seduced by Crimson" right on the front cover. OK, color me crazy, but I took this to mean that we had a stand alone book here. And it very well could be - although the ending gives me pause. So much pause that I actually e-mailed the author and said, "Hey, is there another book in the works cuz there's some dangly bits floating around." (This was a late night e-mail and I haven't heard back from the author yet) Which I'll admit (especially in light of my last post) annoys the ever-lovin' crap out of me....but....sigh....I really enjoyed reading this book. I mean, how much of that annoyance do I want to hang on to?

The answer? Not a whole lot. So as a teaser, here's an excerpt of one of my favorite exchanges in the book. Enjoy!

"I cannot tell if you are making a joke at my expense or if you truly believe that." She leaned forward. "Do you even know what monks do?"

"You are back to thinking I am a liar." The idea depressed him much more than it should.

"I merely wish to understand."

"Why?" The word was startled out of him. He could hardly credit that any woman wanted to understand his religion. It was unusual enough in China, where monks were revered. He couldn't imagine it in a Christian English-woman.

"If you really are Jacob, then you will know why." She frowned. "Or perhaps not. Jacob was such a thoughtless boy."

Was I? "I am not Jacob. I am Jie Ke, and I...I don't remember a great deal from our first meeting. I was a boy and you were...." He looked at his hands trying to sort through his thoughts. "You were a girl who was too proper to be fun."

She laughed, but the sound had no humor. "Jacob called me stupid - too stupid to be a countess."

He stared, the memory not settling well in his spirit. "I do not recall that."

She looked at him for a long moment, then finally sighed as she pushed away from the harpsichord. "You are right. You are definitely not Jacob." And with that, she turned and walked away.

Exhibit A

Longtime followers of this blog will remember a time when I would bitch whine incessantly about how I was burnt out on Regency Historicals and for the love of God, why was every historical romance published set in Regency England? However thanks to a starvation diet, and the new Harlequin Historical Undone e-book short stories, my moratorium on all things Regency is starting to lift. Unfortunately, I've traded one burn out for another.

Yep. I am so over (really over) paranormals.

Now some of you are probably wondering, "What does that bitch librarian have against paranormals?"

Well I'll tell you.

First, I've never been a big fantasy reader. Not even as a kid. As fantasy as I get is Harry Potter. Second? Paranormal and urban fantasy authors are apparently incapable of writing series books that stand alone. And that pisses me off some kind of awful. Mostly because I think it's sloppy writing.

Maybe it's the fact that I discovered the joys of reading by browsing the public library as a kid. Or maybe, it's the fact that most of the mystery series I follow I got hooked on by starting the series out of order. Patricia Cornwell. Laura Levine. Marcia Muller. Sue Grafton. All authors I discovered out of order, and that I still follow to this day. I have a hard time believing that mystery writers know some sort of secret handshake that allows them to write stand-alone series books. So why? Why, why, why, why can't paranormal romance and urban fantasy authors do this? And don't give me that world-building crap - because any writer worth their salt does world-building in their stories. Whether or not the book is populated by vampires, wood sprites, or werewolves - any decent book, regardless of genre, has world-building in it.

This is all a long-winded way of saying I finished the second to last book in my required batch of contest reading - Night Secrets by Cherry Adair. It's book two in a paranormal romantic suspense series, and the book does stand alone well...until the end when the author leaves about 398 plot threads left dangling in the breeze. So yeah. If you like paranormal romantic suspense hybrids and you want to try this series? You're going to need to read all three books, or at least read books two and three in order. Just sayin'.

And that's why I'm burnt out on paranormal anything. It's why I skim every review for anything paranormal I run across in Blogland (sorry y'all, I just do). I think series books need to stand alone, and no I do not think this is remotely unreasonable. Mostly because not every reader is 1) anal retentive or 2) knowledgeable about the author's work beforehand. Note to authors: You're doing a big disservice to a large, huge chunk of potential readers by ham-stringing your writing. Yeah, I said it. And yeah, I meant it. Every. Single. Word.

/ Rant over

Epic Fail

I often like to refer to myself as a "Michigan refugee." I'd still be happily living in Michigan, except for the fact that I like both me and My Man to be able to have gainful employment at the same time. I know, I'm wacky. Hence the move to southern California. We both could get jobs here.

So I find it kind of interesting that so far in my contest reading I've had one book set in Los Angeles, another set in San Deigo, and now The Cowboy And The Angel by Marin Thomas, which is set in good ol' Detroit. Coincidence?

I'm going to be honest. I can't really think of a good teaser for this book. Mostly because I had a lot of "personal" issues with the story. The heroine? Yeah, I just better not go there. The hero though? Quite yummy. I'm even a sucker for cowboys when they transplant themselves to the Motor City. Who knew?

Since I really won't can't go into why this story didn't work for me, I thought I'd mention a moment in the story that had me laughing out loud. The author does a good job with the Detroit setting. The hero even takes the heroine to a Red Wings game. Unfortunately the author did not do her homework when it came to the Detroit Lions.

Hero watches football game with heroine's brother. The Lions "score." Yeah, anyone who knows anything about football knows that would not happen. You know....the Lions actually putting points on the score board. Points that belong to them. Points the Lions help their opponents score do not count.

Although this is a fiction book. Certainly the author is allowed some creative license. I'm just not sure she should have taken that much.

Hardy har har.

Dippity Doo

I'm still working on my contest reading, so that means more book teasing in the form of blog fodder. When I first ripped open the package to pet the entries that OC RWA sent my way, Up Close And Personal by Joanne Rock was the one that made me pause. And scratch my head. And send up a silent "Oh dear God - please. Let it not be too horrible" prayer. Why? The dippy back cover copy. I mean, really dippy.

Official Back Cover Blurb:

He’s good undercover... and under the covers.

Posing as a live model in a sex class was bound to be hard—but Rocco Easton will, uh, rise to the occasion. The seductive moves of sensuality guru Jessica Winslow are no match for Rocco’s SEAL training. He’ll expose her scam—even if it means he gets a supercharged sex life out of the deal....

But things get weird when his sultry sex maven turns out not to be the con artist he thinks, but the victim of identity theft. Gone are his plans for getting even. Now he’s in protector mode. Because the identity thief is getting braver, pretending to be Jessica everywhere. Including his bed!

Seriously, my brain melted a little.

So for this go around of contest reading book teasing, I thought I'd write my own back cover copy for this book. You know, that wouldn't cause my brain to melt. Here it goes:

Super Librarian Cover Description:

Could he repossess her heart?

When an accident ended Rocco Easton's Navy SEAL career, he went to work as a repossession agent. Now his elderly father has been swindled by a smooth-talking hottie and Rocco is making it his mission to bring the woman to justice. Instead he uncovers a case of identity theft!

After a traumatic past, Jessica Winslow is determined to make her self-help Better In Bed workshops a success. But she's not prepared for Rocco, who interrupts her session on sensual massage. When she learns her fledgling business is in jeopardy thanks to someone stealing her identity, she'll do just about anything. Even if it means reclaiming her own sexuality and partnering up with one drop dead sexy repo man.

See, way better. Note to Harlequin: Will work for free books.

Book Tease

I did a post some weeks back on how I overextended myself in the Reading Obligations department. So how am I doing? Well my homework reading for my library's upcoming literary event is done (as is the outline for the panel I'm moderating and the discussion questions have been sent to the participating authors thankyouverymuch - I rule!). I still owe Sybil a review for a March HH I have sitting on my Sony reader - but since I know she won't shove bamboo shoots under my finger nails (well, I don't think anyway...), that's on hold until I plow through the 5 books I agreed to judge for OC RWA's Book Buyer's Best contest. It's a pretty cool contest actually. It's judged by "industry book buyers." Um yeah, of which I'm one. Did y'all know I buy adult fiction for 30+ libraries? In a very densely populated area? Just sayin'.

Anywho, my scoring sheets are due back by April 7. I would probably be panicking more if not for the fact that three of the books I have to read are category romance, and I can knock those out pretty quickly. This weekend I wrapped up One Tough Avenger by Diane Pershing. I was looking forward to reading this one for two reasons: 1) I don't read very much in the category suspense lines. I don't know why, I just don't. I mean, I like romance. I like suspense. I like romantic suspense. Yet, I don't seem to naturally gravitate towards Harlequin's romantic suspense lines. Go figure. 2) I've never read Pershing before. Yeah, new to me author to try!

This is where I become a book tease. I want to talk about what I'm reading for the contest, but I don't think it's right that I do actual "reviews." OC RWA hasn't told me I need to keep my big mouth shut - but admittedly, I tend to approach contest judging, homework reading, what have you, a bit differently than stuff I read for personal enjoyment and dissect (most of the time quite sloppily) in some half-assed review I throw up on my blog. So sorry, y'all are getting teased. And for this book? It's an excerpt that I found particularly enjoyable. Probably my "favorite moment" in the story actually. Enjoy!

He spread her hand, palm up, on the table and used his thumb to trace the delicate blue veins of her wrist. "I came here tonight to say goodbye," he told her.

Her face fell. "Yeah, I figured."

"And I will have to say goodbye, tomorrow. I don't have a choice."

"I know."

"But it's still tonight, and I wonder if you'd like to come up to my hotel room." He lowered his voice to a seductive whisper. "It has the softest pillows I've ever experienced. And a huge bathtub with jets."

"Does it have a mirrored ceiling?"

"Sadly, no."

"Then I guess it's not perfect."

"Willing to settle for just this side of perfect?"

She considered, a frown forming between her perfect brows. "Should I play hard to get?"

"Why would you want to do that?"

"I don't know. They say it increases anticipation."

He brought her hand up to his mouth and gently sucked on one of her fingers. "If you were to reach under the table and place your hand at the bottom of my zipper, you would have, shall we say, ample proof that I am already fully anticipating."

::wiping off my fogged up glasses::

And since I am the Super Librarian, I thought I'd mention that Diane Pershing is also pretty super in her own right. And way more super than me since girlfriend is a villain. One of the coolest villains ever. Pershing does voice over work, and was the voice of Poison Ivy in Batman: The Animated Series which originally aired during the 1990s. Incidentally, one of my favoritest cartoon shows of all time. Sigh, I really need to think about picking this series up on DVD.....