Quilts and Books

Well, hasn't the romance online community been messed up this week? I'm glad I've managed to stay away from the big blogs and virtually hang with folks who tell it like it is and mostly just want to read some good books. So in that spirit, how about a little book talk and a couple of pretty pictures?

First up, I've totally failed at posting my last two TBR Challenge reads. I did read the books. In February my recommended read was Almost a Scandal by Elizabeth Essex. This review of the book at DukeDukeGoose (damn, is that not the best blog name ever?) is what made me decide to read it for the February challenge. I have to admit I was skeptical because it's a Regency "chick in pants" book and I generally find them implausible. Not this time. Essex made it perfectly reasonable that heroine Sally Kent could pass as a young boy who knew her way around a ship. People often see what they want to see. And when the hero figures out the truth pretty quickly, well, …

Last month while I was out in California to spend Christmas with my in-laws, I had the great pleasure of meeting up with our TBR coordinator, SuperWendy. She took me to an awesome used bookstore with a whole room full of romance. As I write this I am kicking myself for not taking a picture of the Room of Awesome. Anyhow, while I now buy pretty much only in digital, there were some titles I was anxious to buy to fill in my print keeper collection. I scored about a dozen of those. There was also a little section of old Signet Regencies. As I browsed through, I picked out this book by Gayle Buck (no website found), an author I had enjoyed reading before. This was one I had not read.
So even though it had only been in the TBR pile 4 weeks, I picked it out because it was short (this month's theme) and in honor of my visit with Wendy. Love for Lucinda is the story of our heroine, a recent widow who had a brief, unhappy marriage to a libertine. Lucinda's late husband kept her exiled …

To Scotland with Love is Patience Griffin's debut book. And it's the first book in her "Kilts and Quilts" series. Quilts! Quilts! ..... Oh, what's that? The theme this month is the holidays? Never fear! While the grass is green on the cover, the first two-thirds of the book take place in the days and weeks leading up to Christmas and it ends a few weeks after Easter. Lots of holiday stuff within. And quilts.

Cait Macleod moved to Chicago from Scotland with her parents when she was 13. A short time after that, Cait's mother died of cancer. Cait grew up, began a career as an investigative journalist, but gave it up to marry her husband, Tom. He turns out to be a serial cheater and dies in the middle of sex with another woman. I assume Cait's father is also dead because Cait decides to sell everything she owns and move back to her home town in Scotland where her only remaining relative lives, her maternal grandmother, Deydie. Cait and Deydie haven't had …

This is my first TBR post since November. I am totally cheating.

This month's theme is RITA. Susan Wiggs has won 3 RITAs. This book was published June 24, so it's been on no one's TBR for more than 3 weeks. But it was due back at the library yesterday, so I had to read it and return it lest I start wracking up fines. My library TBR pile is often a delicate dance between books I have to read right away and books I can renew. And that doesn't take into account the books I own and would like to read.

Anyhow, my library has started this interesting program called "Quick Picks." In an effort to attract people back into the library, high-interest books are made available only to walk-in patrons. If you get lucky you can by-pass the reserve lists, but there is no renewal. The program has only been in place a month and I go over a couple of times a week to check what's on the Quick Pick shelf (the library is only 200 yards from the back door of the law library w…

This month's theme is books that received lots of hype. I don't really have anything like that in my TBR pile, so I decided to go off in a totally different direction and review the first SF romance I've read in ages. This book was a finalist this year in the RITAs and the description was intriguing so I picked it up several months ago. I finally read it this weekend and I really, really liked it. Fisher was nominated in the "Best First Book" category. If this is her first book, I'm definitely looking forward to more.

Earth is in a bad way as the environment has become extremely toxic. A new world has opened up that has incredible potential to provide the sustenance Earth needs. But there's a very strange phenomenon on this planet. Whenever a new human arrives on the planet, someone from that person's past is reincarnated into a very human-like body and is somehow tethered to their human. Everyone has a "ghost" trailing behind them. The gho…

OK, this book has been in the TBR pile 3 weeks max because it was just published last month. But since it fits this month's theme--paranormal or romantic suspense--by being both, and because I was dying to read it, I didn't really look for anything else to read.
This book is part of Shiloh Walker's FBI Psychics series. The FBI Psychics are part of a task force that sort of flies under the radar. FBI officers with special psychic abilities work to solve various crimes. In this book one of the members of the task force, Vaughnne MacMeans, is charged protecting a young boy with strong psychic abilities that others want to exploit. Young Alex, along with the man watching over him, Gus, have been living on the run, hiding from criminals who want Alex. But Alex's untrained psychic abilities make him a beacon. Vaughnne wants to help keep Alex and Gus alive and teach Alex how to shield himself and use his gift properly.
Vaughnne is a woman who's been on her own since she …

This month's TBR theme is Western and this book begins and ends in the west, with a huge middle part set in Philadelphia, my favorite city. So it's a win on all counts. I picked this up a number of years ago at an RT book-signing where I briefly met Beverly Jenkins and purchased an autographed copy. I still have a whole stack of books from that day that are blocked from view by all of the other TBR books that have been acquired in the meantime. I ran across this when moving the stacks around a while back and pulled it out to save for western month. It is a sad thing when one forgets a whole stack of books.

Wild Sweet Love is loosely connected to two of Jenkins' previous books (Something Like Love and A Chance at Love) that I haven't read, but I didn't feel lost at all. This book stands on it's own nicely. This is also the first book I've read by Jenkins. It won't be the last, that's for sure.

WSL tells the story of Teresa July, a Black Seminole, who…

This month's TBR theme is hot and steamy. I rarely read erotic romance, so I was about to pick something else for this month when I remembered I had this on my Kindle. I think it was free for a while, or at least very cheap. Escorted, by Claire Kent, is the story of Ander, a male prostitute, and Lori, a best-selling romance writer. Lori, at age 27 is still a virgin and she decides it would be easier to hire someone for sex than go through the angst of sex with someone who would expect her to have more experience. Since I've read a fair share of historicals featuring a female courtesan, this turnabout was kind of interesting.

The book is told entirely from Lori's perspective, although in the 3rd person. I thought Kent did an excellent job of letting us see Ander's feelings through Lori's eyes. There's a lot of awkwardness as what begins as a business transaction turns into a relationship. Lori is unapologetically inquisitive; we learn about Ander through her pe…

This month's theme is Classic Romance. I really don't have anything left in my TBR pile that meets that definition. Since Mary Jo Putney has written at least one romance that I do consider classic (Shattered Rainbows, how I love you), I picked up this one, which is one of her earlier books.

Gentle reader, I could not read this book. I didn't throw it against the wall. I threw it away.

The book opens when a semi-drunk Gervase, having made a tryst with a serving girl at the inn where he's staying, stumbles upstairs, goes to the wrong room and proceeds to rape 15-yo Diana. Despite the fact that she's screaming her head off, he assumes it's the serving girl just playing games. Her screams bring her father who then forces the two of them to marry. When Gervase sobers up, he refuses to consider that he might have gone to the wrong room. He believes he was entrapped. So he writes a letter to his lawyer instructing him to pay Diana an annual allowance under the condit…

With the annual RWA conference around the corner, this month's TBR theme is books that won or were nominated for an RWA RITA award. A list of past winners can be found here. I had no luck finding a comprehensive list of nominations, which is unfortunate as I'm sure some of those books also reside in my TBR pile. When I scanned the list of winners, though, I immediately remembered that I had Susan Wiggs'Lord of the Night on hand. In 1994 it won the RITA for Best Romance of 1993. According to Amazon, I bought this back in 2005, and I'm going to assume that I bought it after seeing it discussed on one of the old AAR message boards. If I remember correctly, this book had its lovers and haters. One big reason for the hate is the fact that the hero is 39 and the heroine is 18. In fact the hero, a widower, has 2 grown children.
Lord of the Night takes place in 16th century Venice and centers around Sandro Cavalli, who holds the title Lord of the Night-- he is captain general …

This month's theme is "more than one," i.e. multiple books by the same author sitting in the old TBR pile. In addition to this RS title, I had one of Howard's older category romances which I think I'll save for later this year or next year.

Kill and Tell begins with the shooting death of Karen Whitlaw's father. His body is left in an alley in the French Quarter of New Orleans and detective Marc Chastain is assigned to the case. Marc believes his victim was homeless and estranged from his family, so initially the detective assumes the elder Whitlaw was the victim of random violence. He contacts Karen so she can come to New Orleans to claim the body.

Karen is a nurse in Columbus, Ohio. Her father, a Viet Nam vet, deserted her and her mother when Karen was 7 and Karen's had almost no contact with him since. Her mother had had occasional contact, but over time Karen had refused to speak him when he would call. Now Karen's mother is also dead. Still reeli…

This month's TBR theme is "new to me" author. I was surprised, looking through my stuff, to see how many of my older books were by authors I've already read. Maybe that just says something about my buying habits. Anyhow, I decided to go with something that hasn't been around all that long, but I have been rather anxious to read. Monsoon Wedding Fever is Narayanan's first book, so she's pretty much new to everyone.

The most notable fact about this book is it's setting, which is India. I confess to a whole lot of ignorance when it comes to Indian culture. So it was really rather fun to  learn some new words and enjoy something a little different.

The romantic elements of the story were a little less satisfying, though. Riya and Dhruv were college sweethearts. Dhruv's upbringing in a dysfunctional family had given him a dim view of love and marriage. He got cold feet one day and abruptly disappeared from Riya's life. Six years later he abruptly …

Desired is Nicola Cornick's 5th book in her 6-book series "Scandalous Women of the Ton." I have enjoyed all of the entries in the series, including this one, for their unusual heroines, settings, or situations. Desired is the story of Tess, Lady Darant, a thrice-widowed woman with a huge fortune and a reputation of licentious and careless behavior. If she is received anywhere respectable it is more likely because of her sisters Joanna (book 1) and Merryn (book 3). Owen Purchase, Viscount Rothbury, is a former American who inherited the title and somewhat run-down estates from a distant cousin. He is a good friend of her sisters' husbands.

We learn at the book's opening that Tess is really not the woman painted by her reputation. She was horribly abused by her second husband and she hides her pain behind a carefully constructed facade. She has no desire to marry again and spends her time secretly aiding radical causes and drawing political cartoons. Owen is workin…

This month's TBR theme is "Recommended Read." I couldn't find anything specific that really fit with the theme. What I do have is a pretty nice pile of old Signet Regencies that I bought thanks to years of participating in the Regency Yahoo email loop. I must admit that these days I just skim the messages, but there was a point when I was a regular participant in the group and I jotted down all kinds of recommendations and then went off to the UBS or eBay to see what I could find. Joan Wolf wrote a couple of Regency trads that to this day remain favorite re-reads: The American Duchess and His Lordship's Mistress. Fortunately much of her back list is now available in e-format. Today she writes for the Christian market.

This particular book is one of her earliest books. Here's the blurb:

Only a girl as captivating as Catriona Maclan could have overcome the scandal of her birth to shine as the most sought-after young lady of the London season. Only a girl as dari…