Rush Read

I had to finish up LIE BY MIDNIGHT so I could return it today which rearranged my reading schedule somewhat. Although, to be honest I didn't have a "formal" schedule in mind. Sure, there were a few "homework" reads hanging around, but nothing really in the "must read now" category.

LIE BY MIDNIGHT is the latest Amanda Quick and it is the second (or third) set in Victorian England. It's a hard cover and probably available at your local warehouse store for a healthy discount. It's reputed to have the last Master of Vandazia in it, although I'm confused. Is the hero the last master or was it his teacher?

I'm glad Quick left the regency period because I've developed a strange fascination for the Victorian era, both in mystery and romance. I love Elizabeth Peters' Peabody books and recently I've stumbled upon the Will Thomas mysteries with Cyrus Barker and his apprentice Thomas Llewelyn. Barker is also an "enquiry agent" and a master of "mysterious" eastern martial arts.


Both his debut novel, SOME DANGER INVOLVED and his latest, TO KINGDOM COME, took me straight to the heart and contradictions of Victorian London and life. Whether we were exploring a murder in the Jewish Quarter of London or consorting with Irish Republicans it was a rip roaring ride. I highly recommend both books by Thomas.

I hope we continue to get more romances that combine the relationship with a strong sense of Victorian England with all its contradictions.

~ sara

A big weekend in Dallas for signings -- tonight we have the Naughty Girls of Downtown Press. They'll be signing at the Waldenbooks in Lewisville at 6pm and we'll be going out after to talk about them. Yeah, we'll be chatting about them and I'm already conflicted, but we'll see. All their books are trade size, so this will either break the book budget or we'll just smile nice.

I heard LETHAL was very good, but I haven't gotten it to read and the excerpt didn't really grab me. However, I might take along my reading glasses and give it a look before making the BIG decision.

Doing the sour grapes whine because as for most of us, money is tight and at $13 plus per book, book purchase decision is a BIG deal these days. When you spend as much as I do on books and read as fast as I do, getting one book versus two or three means that one book better be darned terrific!

Besides, we're doing dinner after and I'll need a margarita after dealing with the traffic to get to Lewisville by 6pm! Timing is EVERYTHING.

Back to the purchase dilemma -- how are YOU dealing with it? Do you use a library? Share with a friend? Buy it used? Just wait until (if ever) it comes out in mass market (cheaper size)? I'm curious and I'd like to hear from you.

Dead End Jobs makes for a mystery...

After my batch of exceedingly bad books over the weekend, I decided to cleanse the reading palate so to speak and take a wander into the death side of reading. Chortle. In other words, I picked up a mystery to read today.

I didn't want too much blood and mayhem, wanted something lighter but not totally fluff, hoped for a bit of romance, would settle for a relationship. Not too stringent requirements I thought, so I pulled out the latest Dead-End Job Mysteries by Elaine Viets. Okay, Okay, I saw it in the Borders on Sunday and bought it. And I've got this problem with books lingering unread in my house, so its time was up.


The first book in the series SHOP UNTIL YOU DROP was amusing but just enough to establish the Viets name in my brain. Unfortunately, I missed the next two books -- never heard when they were available or saw them in the stores -- then at the signing on Sunday, the current book in the series JUST MURDERED was at the front tables and I decided to see if the series held up. Little did I know I'd need a change of pace!

Helen is at a new job -- sales associate in a bridal shop. As usual she manages to get fouled up with a murder, the usual nastiest one on the scene, mother of the bride suffocated in her daughter's bridal gown. What a waste of Vera Wang! Although to be honest, since I've got a 20s daughter who's addicted to all gowns Vera, I don't think from the description the cobwebby gown was a Vera, it sounded a little strange, not as magical as a Vera. Although it was a gown to make an ugly duckling bride beautiful. It was a waste as the murder weapon.

But back to the story, the bride who was a nasty case herself, the groom, the ex-husband and even the boss are all suspects. And the police are in no hurry to find the killer while Helen worries about her outstanding warrants finding her (she's on the lam from a court ordered alimony payment in St. Louis -- don't ask, it's a rather tenuous excuse for the lame jobs, interesting but tenuous and there is NO wrath like a woman scorned). And then there is Phil who Helen apparently picked up in the last book I missed. There was much too much angst in this one, too many times Helen dropped poor Phil. If she's going to get a new guy at least give him the benefit of the doubt, if not, then use him for sex. Sheesh. The mystery was passable and I might try to find the two books I missed in the middle -- I'd like to at least know where Phil came from and my daughter does have that dreaded telemarketing job for the summer. Maybe it will be fun?!?


The series in order:

SHOP TILL YOU DROP
Helen escapes to Florida and is a shop girl in a high end boutique.

So much botox, you can never be TOO thin or too greedy!

It's a killer to be beautiful.



MURDER BETWEEN THE COVERS
It's an adventure in the shelves.

Helen's got more than the recent thriller on her hands when she works at a book store.

And we thought it was just the VISA bill after a book store run that was a killer...



DYING TO CALL YOU

Helen's new job is safe -- manning, or womanning the phones in a telemarketing setup.

Who'd want to kill a telemarketer?

Thank goodness for caller id!



JUST MURDERED

Death in the bridal party.

The real story of the fun in a bridal shop and bridezillas with moms. It had to come from some gene pool.



I'm not rabid about the series, but if you're in need of a light mystery the Viets are a good bet, you'll enjoy the Coronado in South Florida and Viets has a very nice writing style and voice. She seems to be growing into this series, so why not try it?

Bitten, Stolen & Lost Sleep

I apologize in advance for any mistakes ths post will have. I haven't slept the past 2 nites. Two good friends, who shall remain blamed not blameless, got me hooked by giving me the first two books in the Kelly Armstrong "Women of the Otherworld" series.

You might say on Sunday night I was BITTEN, and Monday night was STOLEN from me if you were as slap happy as I am at the moment.

I am truly surprised and thrilled to find a new take on a genre I thought was "So Five Minutes Ago". Now, must cut this short since my husband is back from the bookstore with DIME STORE MAGIC; the third book in the series. My own copies of these two titles along with INDUSTRIAL MAGIC and HAUNTED(just released) should be here in a few days from Amazon. Maybe before they get here I can get some sleep!!

Enchanted in Dallas

Our tea group did the chick-lit thing yesterday -- aren't we just on the cusp? And what is that you may inquire or not, well, let me tell you. We met in one of the best people watching (and be seen) spots on McKinney Avenue for brunch (just like the best of the best in NYC, Dallas has a lively albeit smallish, action avenue), then we trooped (or trudged) in the heat down a couple of blocks to the Uptown Borders for a booksigning with a chick-lit author, followed by a cooldown, sitdown, gab session in the cafe. That's the summary, so now to the details...


Breadwinners Cafe is located on McKinney Avenue, with a trolley stop in front, and on a 11am Sunday morning was CROWDED with the beautiful Dallasites eating out on the shaded patios, sipping mimosas, peach bellinis, or leafy bloody marys, or hanging out waiting for a table and people-watching. The wait was interesting as we sat on the stone wall, waiting for our entire party to arrive. We saw our famous person of the day -- Greg Fields -- and his beautiful wife leaving. He looked like he'd had a great brunch. He's a local weatherman, but I'd say seeing him on a billboard or at 5AM each morning counts as famous in our town!

We were seated in the back and the air conditioning and had a lovely, delicious brunch. The drinks were as wonderful as advertised and the bread, well, delicious. It was hard not to eat too much while waiting for our food to arrive. We spent the time catching up with each other's lives, planning summer vacations and talking....BOOKS, yeah, we do that. After our leisurely and delicious brunch, we relinquished our table and headed uptown to the Borders for the signing with Shanna Swendson.

Enchanted, Inc. is the first in a series, or so we hope, of the adventures of Katie, transplanted Texan, living in big. ole New York City. And NYC is living up to its reputation for weirdness and strange sightings -- at least for poor Katie who keeps a cool head about such things as appearing/disappearing gargoyles on buildings, women in fairy wings when it's not Halloween, and men who take the Legolas look just a littttle too far! Pointed ears, oh well! Working in a no-end job wouldn't be so bad if she had a boss who was at least human, but Katie is stuck with the monster-boss and her paycheck that just makes her third of the rent for a Village apartment. But just to be in NYC is worth putting up with all of the oddities. It's better than being home in small town Texas. Out of the blue, after a really more obvious than usual weird creatured day, Katie is offered a job interview for a new position at MSI, Inc and the adventures begin.




Part of our group of avid readers with Shanna, her books, and a frog. From top, clockwise: Gwen, Kelley, Sandi, Tracey, Shanna, and unknown male fan. His wife got the other picture.


Did we mention there's a frog kissing to find a prince scene in Central Park? It's a hoot. Now the only things we need to know -- explain the RED shoes and when's the next book coming out? You just can't leave Rod, Katie, Owen, Ethan, Trixi and not to say Mr. Merlyn hanging! (or your readers). And aren't those red shoes gorgeous? Made my feet hurt to think about wearing them, but Shanna looked fabulous in them and Gwen found out the place to buy them -- Nordstroms, of course!

After the excitement of getting our autographed books, she made us pick ink colors, we were off to sit in the Borders Cafe and have a refreshing beverage and chat books some more. It's odd or perhaps not that we all have different tastes in books and yet we love to hear each other's take on books and authors. It's amazing and a great way to spend a Sunday -- in a bookstore with friends talking about books.

My weekly update on reading

Well not hardly anything has changed from last week for me. I finished Loki's Sin by Saje Williams and it was a wonderful book, with lots of twists and turns and surprises. It ended somewhat abruptly, but I expect that is because it was set up for there to be a sequel to it. So I'll be awaiting that to come out eventually.

I'm still working on Dawn on a Distant Shore by Sara Donati in audio and I'm actually getting bored with it. The first one was SO much better I think. I'm also listening to Left Behind Book 2: Tribulation Force by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins in audio at work.

In paper I'm still working on Carved in Stone by Vickie Taylor and it is starting to pick up a bit.

I also started another eBook, the 6th installment in Janet Lane Walters' All Our Yesterdays series. This one takes place in Japan.

Why I like longish road trips...

Because if I'm not driving and the road isn't too rough, I can READ!!!!

Yup, we did a family road trip to Canton, to the huge flea markets there and in 90plus heat with tremendous humidity -- oh, please let it rain -- and not a breeze to be felt! Nothing particular to buy, but trying to hit it one time before the HEAT of summer. At least it wasn't crowded, everyone else stayed home in the coolness.

Had two books with me, well, I knew I wasn't going to be able to read too much -- an ARC of a NY Times bestseller-to-be and the new QuickBooks manual. Guess which one was more interesting? They were both filled with confusion, backtracking and obstruction, but at least I'll get something out of the QB and it allows me to have a decent conversation with others. The ARC on the other hand, was painful to read and I'll have to temper my opinion until it comes out this summer. ::sigh::

The author is obviously trying a new style of writing and geez was it painful! It showed all the plot holes, lack of research (or quality research) and a fundamental lack of understanding of our political reality. Yes, yes, the author is god and creates their own universe, but give me a break, it must have some basis in reality if it's expected to be a contemporary political thriller, or suspense, or whatever. At least get the chain of command correct! Is that asking TOO much?

On the other hand, the QB manual kept referring to online help, which since I wasn't hooked up to the computer didn't really help much in my understanding of certain processes. Plus the ominous WARNINGS were enough to make me think twice about doing the install in a hurry. I'm going to need a glass or two of merlot for this operation.

As for Canton, we saw some lovely puppies, some sad ones and I'm just grateful to come home to air conditioning and my faithful, but-my-aren't-daddy's-slippers-good-to-eat year-old dog. Sweet Lex. The funnel cake was good, too.