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Showing posts from February, 2007

Beau Crusoe / Carla Kelly. 2007

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You know how it is when you wait ever so long for something that when it finally arrives whatever you've been waiting for simply cannot live up to expectations? I was actually afraid to pick this up and read it after it arrived in the mail a week ago. But 24 hour after it arrived I started in on it and I wasn't disappointed. It was trademark Carla Kelly all the way and full of the things that make her a distinctive writer and one of my top 5 favorites in any of the romance sub-genres. It was in turns funny and poignant. It's a lovely character-driven romance, which seems to me to be rather rare these days. The hero, James Trevenen was an officer in the Royal Navy who was marooned on a small, deserted island in the south Pacific for 5 years prior to the beginning of the story. He is on his way to London to receive a medal for a paper he wrote upon his return to society about a species of small crabs he spent many hours observing while alone on his island. I loved the

Mini Nora glom

When I came back to romance reading a number of years ago, I stuck almost exlusively to historicals. So even though her books are everywhere, I never read a Nora Roberts book until Angels Fall last summer. And even though I really liked it, I had so many books in my TBR pile, I wasn't ready to start in on her backlist. But with the Lifetime movies this month I figured I'd at least read those 3 books prior to watching their adaptations. I finished Carolina Moon last night and I wasn't disappointed. I loved all 3 books. So here are some random thoughts based on my NR mini-glom: Unlike some readers, I love all the head hopping and various POVs. I like her style that gives us a glimpse from the perspective of so many characters. Blue Smoke was my favorite of the 3. Reena's family made that book for me. I have read too many books with characters coming from dysfunctional families. I loved seeing that you could have this strong heroine who certainly had experienced trauma

Finally almost finished

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I really like this one, but it had to be the most frustrating thing I've quilted to date. I went through a dozen needles and countless starts and stops with the way my thread kept shredding. It was the coolest, hand-dyed thread that matched the blues so well. But I'm not sure I'll try to work with this thread again. The fact that I was using batiks didn't help. Definitely a learning experience. The quilting itself is boring--just basic meandering. I seem to lack the courage to try something more complicated. One of these days....