Dreams

Had the strangest dream today (yes, I didn't get to sleep until after 0600, so it was today).  This was one of those rare occasions when I was dreaming, then wake up, do something, and go back to sleep and slip right back into the exact same dream.  Brendan Fehr (Michael Guerin, Roswell) represented my brother (worst casting EVAR, brain!) and it was full of the most bizarre and wonderful events.  The dream left me with something important to my waking life, and all I can consciously remember are Brendan as my brother, a vague recollection of having a sister and a welcome and much-needed hug from a real-life friend I haven't actually seen in person in fifteen years.  Oh, and the word "skin," imbued with great importance, though not related to the story-arc of Skins on Roswell.

I have new insight into the importance of hugs in my life, and the strange idea that I've been hugging wrong.

Book: Underground Guardians: Protector by Lisa Renee Jones

I read the first third and it was rough and slow reading.  Then I took a break to read several other books.  I came back to this book, night after night, and would read a few pages and just give up and pick another book to read.  At the end of each book, I would try to read this one again.

Mason is tortured by his belief that he is Arion (and yes, this was purposely styled after the Aryan Brotherhood of Nazi Germany), by his belief that Holly won't love him if she knows (something), by his belief that Holly needs to love him of her own free will without knowing that he has Mated her as an Arion.  There were several times that I was disgusted that this educated and seemingly strong woman would just knuckle under to Mason's orders, particularly when it related to matters of trust - hers for him or his for her.  He would basically say, "No, we're not going to talk about it, we're going to screw instead."  I paraphrased, of course, but it was pretty much the same result every time.  She would want to discuss whatever he was keeping from her, and he would insist on having sex instead.  And she would give in.  Again.

The sex scenes were blah, and it seemed more like some chemical reaction that made them need to rut constantly than a passionate need to touch each other.  I get being in love and this wasn't it for me.

I got to 83% and finally decided in the middle of a paragraph that I really just didn't care what happened to any of the characters or care how the book ended or care that I was leaving a book unfinished.  I just felt relieved to be done. I skimmed through the rest of the book, and what few things caught my eye were more tortured Mason, tell instead of show about the Arions, and Holly being overpowered by Mason yet again to have sex.  She's crying desperately over something and two paragraphs later, she's screaming in ecstasy.  Oooookaaay.

So, your mileage may vary, and it was definitely not one I enjoyed.

This was a free Kindle download.