Random McRandyPants

And that is actually a pretty apt nickname for me today.  Well, this whole year.  In fact, I think I shall change my internet nickname everywhere to Random McRandyPants.  :)

Not only am I finally reading a good book, but also it gets bonus points for the proper use of the word "alumnus" to refer to one male former student. More bonus points because it's a favorite trope and I'm enjoying it. Yay! The last three books have been just not right.  OK, two of them outright sucked and the third was just vaguely pleasant.  And then...we get to the sex.  I guess I have been spoiled reading good fanfic, because I was like, what?  He kisses her and then they're having sex?  Where's the foreplay?  Where's the making sure she gets hers?  This guy has a reputation and the girls line up to do him and he's all five minutes in the sack the first time he makes love to the love of his life?  Apollo he is not, for sure.  I mean, he at least apologizes for not lasting five minutes.

Tonight, at OTB, this girl sat at a table near me, and her jean skirt was so short, I was sure she was gonna flash the whole restaurant.  Then, when she and her date were walking away from the table, he puts his hand out, right behind her ass, but then decided not to, I guess. I thought it was funny because his hand immediately went to her ass area instead of the small of her back.  Then, "Oooooops.  We're at On the Border, not the local biker bar."  lol

Sold two things today, one on Amazon and one on eBay.  Yay!  Two more things out the door to new homes.  I wish I could figure out what days the mailman actually comes to our house.  This is the no-mail-gettingest place I've ever lived in in my life.  At least three days a week there is nothing in the mail.  He doesn't even slow down as he walks past our house.

Still haven't been able to get hold of my girlfriend to see if she and her husband are doing Thanksgiving this year.  When he's deployed, I don't even bother asking, I just show up, but since he's home again this year (and I'm happy he's out of Iraq, really!), I have to confirm, just to attempt courtesy.  I do hope they are, though, because I look forward to seeing those Basic Training Airmen every year and hearing their stories about their hometowns and why they enlisted.  And since I'm a dirty old lady, I look forward to checking them out.  I'll be honest.  :)  A girl's gotta have *some* fun.

Random stuff about me - possible TMI

This is random stuff about me, but if you don't want to read some personal stuff, just move along.  I'm not pulling punches because some stranger from the Ukraine doesn't want to read about *that.*

I am a perv.  I can make a verbal sexual innuendo out of just about anything someone says.  And even if I don't say it, my mind nearly always goes there.  This is why I sometimes giggle to myself out in public.

I have Native American blood, about three generations back.  This is really apparent in my father - he's got that black hair that's so dark it almost has blueish highlights - and in my brother - dark skin and black hair.  Me, I am about as white-skinned as a person can be.  I like to say that I have red-headed skin.  Didn't get the red hair, but the pale, pale skin and freckles definitely hit me, and boy, do I have a temper when riled.

The hair on my body is divided into zones.  Above the waist (including my arms here) shades from dark brown on my head to light brown, almost dirty blonde on my arms.  Below the waist, it's all black.  This was very embarrassing in the sixth grade, when all the other girls didn't have to shave because their leg hairs were all light-colored.  My leg hairs are seriously black.  There's no missing them or ignoring them.  lol

I have one of those, what do women call it on a man?  A treasure trail?  And yes, it's black.  Since I am a woman of a certain age, I have been in communal showers in school, and have been camping where the showers were more or less communal, if not co-ed.  I've been asked why I don't shave it or bleach it or something.  I just don't see the point.  If someone gets close enough to me to see it, and he (or she) is squicked out because I have a line of black hair on my belly, then there's something wrong with them, not me.

Despite my struggles with self-esteem, practically my whole life, I'm about the least vain person I've ever known, and I've never thought I was ugly.  I've never colored my hair.  Never wanted to.  I've actually always thought the color of my hair is beautiful.  I don't wear makeup.  Not only does it make my skin feel very weird, I look ridiculous wearing it, and have been complimented plenty (usually a backhanded compliment) on how I don't need makeup to look good.  Unless I'm going to a job interview, I dress for comfort, not for fashion or to impress anyone.  I just don't care what the current fad is, and I certainly don't dress according to those what not to wear shows.  I am just totally comfortable in my own skin.  That doesn't mean that I always like what I see in the mirror, more that I just don't care if someone else doesn't like what *they* see.  My one concession to appearances is that I won't leave the house to go somewhere public without a bra.  Still, this is more about me than anyone else.

I'm beginning to have liver spots on my hands, and it reminds me of my grandfather, which makes me feel kinda old.  But again, to the suggestion that it's time to buy the fade cream, I said, "Frak that!"

Next to my hair, my eyes are my best feature.  They're a hazel that ranges from green when I'm in a certain mood (yeah, that one) to yellow when I'm really ill.  Otherwise, they change from greenish to brownish to goldish depending on what I'm wearing and what my mood is and what the weather's like.  Both my parents eyes are/were hazel.  Interestingly, my sister's eyes are blue and my above-referenced little brother's eyes are brown.  Go figure.

My love languages are touch and acts of service.  I tend to use these on other people more than other people use them on me.  It's somewhat difficult to determine someone else's love language in a public transaction or with an acquaintance I don't see often.  And it's not like people wear signs.  "I like words of affirmation."  "Gifts make me feel loved."  And whatever the fifth one is.  I can't remember.

I fell insanely in love with Battlestar Galactica 2003 when I finally watched it in August and September.  So much so, that I'm having trouble keeping up with my current shows, because I just don't want to watch anything that's not BSG.

I like erotica and smut.  I still insist on it being well-written, using proper grammar and spelling words correctly.  Also, it really needs to be physically possible.  If his tongue is in two places at once, I better be reading a scifi story with an alien male in it.  Yes, I am a Grammar Nag who is also a Smut Aficionado.  I am a woman of contradictions.  :D

I'm not quite sane, but I'm high-functioning insane.  There are things that if people had experienced them firsthand, they'd probably be having some intensive inpatient therapy.  I say welcome to my life.

In my late teens and early twenties, I was um, indiscriminate, to put it delicately.  Thanks to guardian angels or something, I never got any communicable diseases, and I've only been pregnant twice.  Lost one, had one.  Now that I'm older, the pendulum has swung totally the other way.  Any sex I get is ALL in my head.  I'm totally ready for it to swing back to the middle, preferably in the next year or so.  lol

Now, I have to do something from my supposed to list.  Methinks it will not be read an assigned book.  I have had crap luck with the last two.

Book: Magician's Peril by Paul A Wunderlich

This was a freebie sent to me by someone who asked me to review the book.  I hunted through my email, but can't find the website name.

Magician's Peril is fraught with inconsistent place names, proper names that are difficult to pronounce, and words so big that even I didn't understand what was going on most of the time, and I used to read dictionaries for fun.  Frankly, it read like someone for whom English is a second language, someone trying to impress people with his command of English, and failing mostly because he's using the words incorrectly.

A sorcerer sent out an evil spell for some dastardly purpose.  It infected a town and killed a bunch of people.  The story is told in six parts, allegedly by the daughter of the "mayor" of this town.

I had a really hard time reading this book, in part because of the repetitive telling of events.  It has taken me well over a month to read it.  By the middle, I really just wanted to make myself finish the book, and by the end, I was thoroughly blissed out that I was finally done.  I can't even tell you how it ended, just that it finally did.

The characterization was just not compelling enough to overcome the overwrought language.

To the author, I offer an apology that your first review here on Amazon is not a more positive one, but I just can't rate it any higher.  I'll give you two stars for effort.  It could be a really great story under all that.

Book: Primal by Raven and Lain Bower

I'm going to point you at J. Westfall's review because s/he said pretty much what I think about this book.

http://www.amazon.com/review/RXNAAQQ9TJ0L/ref=cm_cr_pr_perm?ie=UTF8&ASIN=B0081C6CLK&linkCode=&nodeID=&tag=

In the beginning the poor writing, bad grammar and worse editing were not quite as apparent. As the book wore on, it all got worse. I was pretty much ignoring all that and was interested in the premise of the book, which was that of a person in Witness Protection who actually had some knowledge of paranormal creatures. It could have been really fascinating. Then, bam! The next chapter didn't have Wrey (previously known as Maria) and Arvon in it, but some other characters, apparently a bunch of thugs in the Rekin, some kind of mafioso.

It was evident to me from the first paragraph that this chapter had been written by a completely different person; wording, pacing, even editing were all of significantly less quality than what I'd read previously. Aside from that, it was boring. I took to skimming those sections and only reading the sections with Wrey and Arvon in them. By the end of the book, the better-written sections became not noticeably different from the thug sections in quality, and I kept forcing myself to keep reading. Not even the sex redeemed the story.

I was disappointed at the spot in the plot where the author(s) chose to end the book. It's definitely not the end of the story for Wrey or Arvon. Unfortunately for the authors, I don't give a crap. Unfortunately for the publishing house, I didn't bother reading or skimming any of the previews they stuck in the last 30% of the book.      

This was a freebie at Amazon (not any longer) and I just can't recommend it to anyone.

Book: Summer Nights by Susan Mallery

I received a PDF of this book through NetGalley for the purposes of review.

Annabelle was a fun character, and the Stryker brothers all seemed like good guys. I believed the slow growth of friendship between Annabelle and Shane, but didn't really believe the sexual chemistry between the two. To put it bluntly, they were boring. I was much more interested in Charlie the firefighter's desire for and journey toward motherhood than I was in Shane and Annabelle as a couple.

I absolutely adored the relationship that grew between Annabelle, who was all but terrified of horses, and Shane's "killer horse" Khatar. Khatar found a kindred spirit in Annabelle, who despite her fear of horses, was never afraid of Khatar. He loved her from the moment he met her, and even protected her from a snake in a chapter near the end. Funny how the friendship between the horse and the girl was far more intriguing than that between the romantic leads.

Shane had issues, all based on his previous wife, Rachel, and because of one sighting of Annabelle at a bar at the beginning of the book, painted Annabelle with the same brush, even after he started sleeping with her. It took a couple of fights with his younger brother, Clay, to get his head on straight, and for me, his turnaround would have been too little, too late, after all that distrust.

While I liked the book fine, it didn't whet my appetite to read any more of the Fool's Gold books, unless there's going to be a book about Charlie. Her issues and her need to be part of a family might be interesting enough to draw me in.

I've enjoyed other of Ms. Mallery's books, and hope to enjoy more in the future, but this one just didn't do it for me.

What dreams may come

Yesterday, I dreamed about visiting my kinfolk in Oklahoma, and toward the end of the dream, my cousin Zack walked in the front door.  Zack was my favorite cousin, and he died more than ten years ago.  He was the only one of my cousins who really *got* me, maybe because he was, too: twisted, perverted, vulnerable, lonely.  Yet he was always a gentleman when it counted.  Maybe because we were both onlys for a good period of time before we became eldests.  I don't know what it was about him.  But it was so good to see him in my dream that when I woke up, I was nearly crying for how much I miss him.

You know how they say that a woman will tend more often than not, to marry someone like her dad?  I don't know about the marry part, because my ex was nothing like my dad.  But when I'm deciding whether or not to be attracted to a guy, there's some truth to that adage - strong, silent, alpha when he needs to be, completely dry sense of humor; more often than that, though, any man gets compared to Zack, at least subconsciously.  Aside from the familial relationship, he was my ideal.  He's how I knew that there was someone out there who would get me and love me just the way I was, warts and all, who wouldn't be put off by my sexual innuendos in the most innocuous of conversations, or by my innate ability to flirt with anything human.  Now, as I close in steadily on the "halfway" mark, I have to wonder where that person is, because I've never found whoever it is.  Granted, for the last fifteen years, I've been actively not-looking, but that's beside the point.  :)

Back to the dreaming thing.  This morning, I was dreaming something, and the dream morphed, as dreams are wont to do, and I was tied up, with Helo from BSG looking at me *that* way, and then the dream morphed again, into something else I don't remember.  When I woke up, I was still stuck on being tied up by Helo, with my brain whining, "C'Mon, man!  I can't even get any action in my DREAMS?"  Perhaps that particular bit of the dream was the result of too much BSG smut, as if there exists such a thing as too much smut of any variety.  lol

And yes, I did just share perhaps too much information.  Look at the labels.  :D

Days go by....

I've been really struggling the last few days - maybe the last few weeks.  I'm just so sad all the damn time.  I cry over the stupidest stuff, stuff that usually will at least bring back happy memories.  Last night, I was overwhelmed listening to an REO Speedwagon song, and just bawled for ten minutes.  REO is generally really happy memories - good friends, great concerts.

I'm thinking I definitely have to get to the doctor and get back on my anti-depressants, and hope like hell that works, because if it doesn't, I don't know how much longer I can hold out.  And for frak's sake, I'm not talking about suicide.  No, I'm talking emotional breakdown.  Loonybin.  Inpatient stuff.  Thought scares the bejesus out of me.

Today was a bad day, sort of

There were moments when today was just a regular day.  I woke up early, after a really good hunk of sleep. I didn't have a headache.  I wasn't even hungry when I woke up.  I was a little melancholy, thinking about how long it had been since I worked at Six Flags, but nothing too serious.

Then, this afternoon, something happened.  Randomly, for no reason at all, I'd just start crying.  It was confusing and distressing and I really needed a hug.  Or two.  A couple of hours ago, it finally quit and things were back to "normal," if that term can ever really be applied to me.

Tomorrow I get to replace the battery in my newly returned to me car, and go to an appointment in Addison.    I can hope that today's emotional weirdness will not repeat itself.  I hate crying, but at least today I didn't do it in public.

Book: Diary of a One Night Stand

Reviewed for Addicted to Books

In Diary of a One Night Stand, Weis employs one of my least favorite romantic tropes: cheating spouse.  As I began the book, I thought it was somewhat refreshing that the heroine was a woman of a "certain age" and that she was taking her happiness into her own hands.  Then, turn the page, not only does she have a daughter, but also a husband, with whom she climbs into bed when she gets home.  At that point, she instantly became less attractive as a heroine, in my eyes.  While I could empathize with her feelings and her dilemma, I couldn't really condone the circumstances of her extracurricular activities.

Kara's husband, Cal, was a lawyer, and worked too many hours, even while he was recovering from heart surgery.  He started the book as something less than a villain, but more than the stereotypical clueless husband.  Kara was a lawyer with a different firm, and also worked a lot of hours.  She met Scott at some sort of business function, and he pursued her for a week before she gave in and met him for a tryst.  Their "relationship" progressed unreasonably quickly from there.

I found Scott to be extremely overbearing - making decisions for Kara and for Kara's daughter, Simone, without regard to Kara's wishes or stated desires.  Whatever the physical package, and as written he was both handsome and fit, he would have turned me off pretty quickly had I met him in real life.  He was the kind of guy who thinks that his money can buy him anyone's affections, and Kara was not strong enough to set some boundaries for him; she just let him steamroll right over her.

New Orleans is a fascinating city and I generally enjoy almost any fiction set there, but there was little in this book to identify the setting as NOLA beyond the frequent use of the city's name.

By far the best part of the book was Simone, a ten year old, horse-loving girly-girl, who sometimes possessed a wisdom beyond her years.  Her childlike, uninhibited joy in things was a bright spot in an otherwise mostly dreary romance.

The end was abrupt and much too simplistic, and the epilogue made me wonder a little about Kara's sanity.  Really.

Obviously, your mileage may vary.

TV: Battlestar Galactica (2003)

Back when BSG was on the air, I didn't really get a chance to watch it.  It was during one of the times when I didn't have cable, and trying to consistently get a friend to record it for me was just too much trouble.  Besides that, I was still pretty into the two Stargates, and wasn't looking for a new fandom.

But a few weeks ago, I was skimming through the Amazon Prime streaming looking for something to watch and decided to see if BSG was on the free list yet.  I was thrilled to find out it was, and went on an unintentional binge.  I watched the mini-series, Razor and all four seasons.  Then the last episode was over and I was in shock.

I've watched a lot of TV.  I mean, a LOT of TV.  As a kid, I was allowed to watch Sunday nights, you know, Marlon Perkins and Wonderful World of Disney.  That was it.  Any other TV I got was at other people's houses, and was rare.  I've kind of made up for it since then, between a former subscription to Netflix and my current Amazon Prime.

Anyway, Battlestar Galactica ripped out my guts, repeatedly, and put them back in differently.  I've never seen another show that so perfectly resonated with me - characterization, visuals, music, plot, relationships (friendships and otherwise - relationships are the main reason I stick with ANY show), premise.  Over a week went by and I couldn't even think of watching something else.  I hunted down some fanfic to ease the taste of POOF out of my mouth - you'd have to see the very last episode to understand that one - and went on a little reading binge.  Then, I started watching it all over again.  I'm taking my time this second time around, paying closer attention, noticing different things, and I'm still in love with this show.

Part of me wishes that I'd been able to see it during its heyday, and gotten involved in the fandom.  A bigger part of me knows that had I tried to watch this while the Stargates were still occupying my screen time, I wouldn't have connected with this show in quite the same way.  I'm sad that it ended after four seasons and there's nothing more except fanfic.  That's a little hard to deal with.

Yes, I'm aware I'm talking about a TV show, and yes, I'm aware I'm a little strange.  And?

Book: Pushing the Limits

I received Pushing the Limits through NetGalley for the purposes of reviewing it.

Echo and Noah are two very different teens whose lives intersect in the school counselor's office.  Collins is no ordinary school counselor, either; she's on loan from social services specifically to help at-risk kids.  Echo and Noah start out with very little in common other than being at-risk, for completely different reasons.

Echo is extremely depressed, trying to deal with the death of her beloved brother and an accident involving her mother, both the year before.  Noah's parents have both died, and he's struggling with how to get out of foster care and reunite with his younger brothers as a family and isn't sure that school is the best way to do that.

Collins assigns Echo as Noah's tutor.  Truthfully, he needs motivation more than tutoring and though at first they strike sparks, they begin to tentatively reach out to each other in friendship.

Echo and Noah begin to journey toward recovery, both separately and together, and the trip is poignant and funny and joyful and heartbreaking.

Secondary characters are lifelike, and one is the subject of a follow-up book coming out sometime soon - maybe late fall?

There are references to sex, without the ridiculous insistence on abstinence that is frequently so prevalent in books about teens.  Yes, some real teens practice abstinence, but there are plenty who don't, and this book is refreshingly full of regular teens of both kinds.

Pushing the Limits doesn't end Happily Ever After, and it would be a much poorer book if it did.  Instead, we get a glimpse of where Echo and Noah are, where they want to be, and how their individual struggles inform each other's progress toward health and happiness.

I loved this book, and am really looking forward to the following book.  Since I'm not a fan of the YA genre, I can't praise much higher than that.

So I somehow missed a whole month - money and health

I was looking at my blog statistics (I do that randomly because I enjoy seeing how far away people are from me) and noticed that it's been more than a month since my last blog entry.  Bad girl.  I'm not really into spanking, but if I were, this would be a perfect excuse.  Anyway.

I had a small windfall come in that has eased my financial crunch a great deal.  I mean, since I'm used to living on $50 or less a month, having several months' worth of income is like being rich!  I set up a budget to make sure I avoid spending it all in one place.  I've been there before.  When my mom died, I inherited a piece of land in Florida.  It took two years to sell it, and when I did, I just went crazy.  I didn't even spend it on important stuff, really, though I did buy myself a laptop and some educational courses online.  Mostly, it went to food (some groceries, but mostly dining out, a LOT), and clothes for the teenager.  When I think about how different the last four years would have been had I just put that money aside for a rainy day, I want to smack myself.  It was gone in less than a year, and I was right back where I'd been before, which wasn't terrible, but definitely wasn't great.  All that to say that I learned from that experience and from the last four years of having next to no income, and I've parceled out that money with a tight fist.  It's not nearly as much, but I bet it'll last longer.

My CPAP started sounding weird a couple of weeks ago, and I hoped like crazy that it would last me a few weeks until I could get in to see a doctor (which I can do now, more on that) and schedule a titration.  Unfortunately, it didn't last much more than another week, but I've had it eight years, and I've used it every single day without fail, so I guess I got my insurance company's money's worth out of it.  I plan to get it fixed so I have a spare, but in the meantime, I trolled Craigslist for a machine, and found one almost identical to mine that was only $100. Now a month ago, I would have been in a huge panic, because even that $100 would have been nonexistent, but I felt free to buy the used machine without undue stress because I'd "named" all my money (that's a Dave Ramsey thing, and some of what he says makes sense) and created a small emergency fund and a larger reserve fund out of that windfall mentioned above.  I went several nights without the CPAP and sleep sucked and so did the rest of my life.  I was muzzy-headed, I was exhausted all the time, and worst of all, I got heartburn.  I haven't had heartburn in nearly eight years.  Uck!  OK, maybe that wasn't the worst.  It also messed with my sleep cycle again, though frankly, that's so messed up that I never know when I'm going to be able to sleep at night or if it'll be daytime.  So I'm thrilled for several reasons:  I found a machine so much like the one I'm used to; I could afford to buy it; the person selling it was legit; my heartburn went away again.  Huzzah!

One of the first things I did when I had the money all settled was to rent a car for a week, so I could get some necessities completed on my own schedule.  While I had the car, I visited my storage unit and picked up a fairly substantial load from my storage unit.  I chose mostly my Amazon stuff, with an eye toward reactivating my Amazon store, but also fit other things into the nooks and crannies.  Then a week or so ago, a friend picked me up in her Tahoe, and we went to the storage unit again.  Between the two of us, we stuffed that Tahoe pretty full and got a really large portion of my stuff out of there.  Now I know that in the near future, I WILL be able to reopen my Amazon storefront and that will increase my income again.  Because I haven't had my car and couldn't ship things out, that has really cut into what little income I was used to having, so I'm thrilled that I can finally see the light at the end of that tunnel.

OK, back to that doctor thing.  I applied to the local county health plan, and got approved.  So while it won't be free, I can see a doctor again and get prescriptions for very little money, and that will reduce some of my stress as well.  I know that my health is not great, and I've pretty much been ignoring lots of little things because I knew that unless I wanted to rack up some serious ER bills for basic health maintenance, seeing a doctor was out of the question.  Now I can get in to see the doctor, get my blood numbers checked, get back on some meds (like for depression, not having meds has been a serious issue for me for the last two years) and maybe work my way up from Fair health to Good.  After all, I have a grandson I want to see again, and though his little sister isn't made yet, I want to meet her, too.

I've got other stuff, but I think I'll take that into a separate post, because this one's gotten a bit long.

Five Things I'd Tell the Teen Me

There is not enough money in the world to entice me into being a teen again, and yet, there are some things I might like to let the teen me know - things that wouldn't change much, but might make me more sane as I grew up.

High school is not your time.  You'll be cool someday, and some of those people from high school will wonder to your face why they didn't bother to know you back then.

Find something physical you love to do and indulge on a regular basis.  Trust me.  And on that note, it's not running.

There is no such thing as normal, so just quit wondering why you're not and figure out who YOU are.  I guarantee you're unique.

Those shares of stock mom buys you every year?  Make sure you always know where the certificates are because mom won't.

Some people in the family will never like you.  Let go of trying to please them and learn to please yourself.

And a bonus...take a different date to the Military Ball.  You'll both enjoy it more.

There is very little chance that any of us will have the opportunity to encounter our teen selves and impart any wisdom at all.  What we can do is pay attention to the teens around us today.  Find ways to share what we know in subtle ways.  Remember, we're adults, and as such, we know nothing in their eyes.  I've taken chances and shared my own youthful foibles with my daughter.  Other parents were horrified, but I wasn't a perfect teen.  I was miserable, and she deserves to know that and maybe, if we're both lucky, use that to make her own mistakes and choices.

Book: Fifty Shades of Grey - trilogy

Despite the furor over the Fifty Shades trilogy, I really had no intention of reading the books anytime soon.  However, my daughter lent me her copies, and I didn't see the point in wasting the opportunity to read them free.

Each book had its pros and cons, and what I remember, I'll list, but mostly this is about the trilogy as a whole.  First and foremost, the Fifty Shades trilogy is a love story.  It's not recognizable as a romance if you've spent any significant time reading romance novels, but it IS a love story.  

There's a lot of sex, and I do mean a lot.  You might expect to find all manner of strange and bizarre sexual practices in the books, judging from the labels thrown around in mainstream media, the most controversial of which is "mommy porn."  Ugh.  That may be a post in itself, but that label grates at me.

Christian is a practicing Dominant, and has had a succession of submissive lovers contracted to him over the last eightish years.  He meets Anastasia and without understanding what the attraction is, falls for her, hard.  He approaches her in the only way he knows how and offers her a contract as his submissive.  Ana not only is clueless about the relationship he's offering, she's never had sex at all, but she's equally attracted to Christian and after serious consideration, accepts his contract but keeps it from her closest friends.

Here's the odd part.  This contract, which is laid out in the book, is easily the kinkiest thing I read in all three books.  It outlines what could happen and asks Anastasia to define the limits of the relationship - what she will and won't do or allow to be done to her (her soft and hard limits), and it's pretty thorough.  Yes, you read that second sentence right.  There is almost no sex in the book that could really be deemed very kinky.  There is some anal play, which for some may fall outside the vanilla label.  There is some spanking and even whipping, some light bondage and one instance of not so light bondage and one use of what I think from reading another book is called a St Andrew's cross.  All the rest of the sex I remember is consensual vanilla sex between two adults, though definitely not all missionary vanilla sex by any stretch of the imagination.  There are toys involved, and lubes and certainly they use just about every room in the house and more than a few outside of the house.

That's not to say that the story is all hearts and roses, because it's not.  Anastasia is, as I stated earlier, completely clueless about the D/s relationship, and struggles with the issues her lack of understanding causes.  She forgets to use her safe word to stop something that is hurting her and blames Christian for her mistake.  She wonders constantly during the first book if she can really handle what Christian wants from her but keeps going back nonetheless.  Christian, for his part, is more patient and understanding than he would be with someone already in the BDSM lifestyle, though extraordinarily possessive, and intolerant of Ana's insecurities.  Christian is extremely resistant to the idea of a relationship that is not contractual.  He doesn't know how to do that, believes he is incapable, doesn't want to.

Now for the bad.  Overall, this trilogy could have used a more professional editor.  By that I mean one who wasn't so involved in the story that he or she failed to see fixable issues.  In the first book, there is an egregious overuse of the word "clamber" in all its permutations.  I'm not talking about ten or twelve times, either.  I mean easily over a hundred uses in a four-hundred-page book (Maybe shorter, I didn't actually count the pages).  The word continued to be overused in the second book, though not as extensively, and the third book had a totally different word or phrase that I got sick of reading (though I've forgotten it at the moment) and it didn't begin to approach the quantity of clamber in the first one.  There were grammar and spelling mistakes that could have and should have been caught and fixed prior to printing, enough that I thought more than once, "Wow, she should have gotten a better editor."  Probably I was not supposed to be thinking with a red pen while I was reading her books.   James has some skill to hone before she'll be really good.

After a while, I got a little tired of the lack of sexual imagination.  There was nothing here that I hadn't read before, certainly nothing to warrant the label "mommy porn" or any kind of porn.  Erotic, yes, sometimes.  Sexy, definitely.  Porn, not hardly.  Christian was supposed to be this dominant with a capital D, and he was in charge nearly always, but as he was portrayed in the book, he didn't have much imagination, or if he had it, he didn't use it.  There were several occasions when I read something and just knew it was going to get really good, and then was disappointed by the vanilla sex, albeit slightly rough vanilla sex.  Mostly, I think it was supposed to be kinky just because Christian was In Charge.  Whatever.  After the furor of the trilogy's over-the-top sexual escapades, I was disappointed to finish reading and realize that nothing truly different ever actually happened.  I've read kinkier flashfic.

On to the good.  E. L. James has some serious writing chops, and I would love to read more from her, assuming she hires herself a more competent editor.  I laughed and cried and got involved with the characters, and fell in love with Christian and Anastasia as they were falling in love with each other.  I want to read more about these two, and about their continuing adventures, and those of their extended family.  I can't give a much better compliment than that.  No one was two-dimensional.  

The sex was well-written, despite being rather too vanilla to live up to the hype.  There was no tab A, slot B boring description, though it was sometimes a bit repetitive.  The contract was pretty comprehensive, and showed at the very least that E. L. James researched the subject matter enough to adequately share something with which not all of us have first-hand experience.  The explanations of the contractual D/s relationship were written in such a way that it was interesting to read rather than being an infodump on an unsuspecting Anastasia/reading audience, though Anastasia was understandably overwhelmed several times.

At the end of the third book, there were some extras, including a small passage from Christian's perspective. Though I would not want to read the entire trilogy again from his point of view, there are at least half a dozen important forks in the road (certainly several from each book) where I would love to know what was going through his mind.  In particular, during that very powerful moment in the second book, I want to know what was going through him to cause him to make that not entirely conscious choice.

The epilogue, though entirely too long, not only gave us a happy enough ending, but it also totally left room for us to revisit Christian and Anastasia and to share further triumphs and tragedies.

Overall, while I was disappointed that Fifty Shades did not live up to the media hype with regard to deeply exploring the D/s relationship and the BDSM lifestyle in general, I truly enjoyed the love that developed between Christian and Anastasia and will likely read all three books again some time soon.  I did learn some new things about dominants and submissives and "laters, baby" made its way into my vocabulary.  :D

Book: Death of a Serpent by Susan Russo Anderson

I received a copy of this book for review through Reader Spoils.

Having never read any of the other Serafina Florio mysteries, I don't know if in one of the earlier books, more background is given. In this one, the writer just jumps on in to Serafina's life, including a summons from her close friend to view the scene of a murder at her place of business. Many, MANY people are introduced in the first few chapters - so many that I was very confused about pretty much anybody except Serafina and Rosa. Most baffling of all were the conversations Serafina had with Maddelina (?). I'm still not sure whether she's alive or dead.

It's never established how or why Serafina Florio is particularly qualified to solve a mystery, aside from the fact that she's willing to keep looking and is perfectly willing to nose into other people's lives. I didn't find the character of Serafina, or any of the characters, for that matter, especially appealing, nor was the mystery compelling.

I disliked the writing style, with its short, choppy sentences and weird frequently-backwards dialogue. Perhaps this type of dialogue is in keeping with that time period for Sicily, but it was pervasive and got annoying. Death of a Serpent was well-written, technically, thus the three stars. I found few grammar errors outside of dialogue (where I give it a pass, for the most part), and no spelling or homonym errors that I recall. In addition, because some local words and phrases were thrown in randomly, I learned some Italian in context (though truthfully, some of it, I wouldn't have known what the word meant except that I already knew a very similar word or phrase in Mexican).

Other people will enjoy (and obviously have enjoyed) the book, the dialogue, the syntax, the characters, the mystery. I didn't, but I can't really hold that against Ms. Anderson. The writing was good enough technically that I will probably look for other works by Ms. Anderson, but I doubt I'll read any more period pieces.

Book: Let Me In by Callie Croix

I am reviewing a copy I received through NetGalley.

Let Me In is a very short story about Marine Talia coming home from the Middle East for a three-week break. I enjoyed this story, and could have enjoyed it more.

There was some slight inconsistency/confusion regarding how long Talia had been friends with Angie, and that took me out of the story a bit too much from the beginning. Talia's issues with her mom didn't warrant so much attention. I found it difficult to believe that a woman, a Marine, as squared away as Talia is in her professional life would be so profoundly insecure about her mother's illness and how other people would see it. The romance moved a bit too fast for me - fast is somewhat of a necessity with such a short story, but in this case, the move from crush to submissive sexual behavior to a possible HEA was just too much for me. And I definitely had to suspend my disbelief on how fast her mother went from 60 back down to 0.

On the good side, Croix's descriptions of Talia's response to her mother's situation, and the interactions between them were stunningly well done. Angie and Talia's friendship and connection was easy to feel, though I never got how they met, since Talia's pretty much been out of the country the entire time they've known each other. I completely understood her attraction to Liam - he sounds all around like a really good guy. The sex was steamy enough, though there was very little of it. The characters, all of them, are interesting enough that I'd like to revisit them, get to know them better, hopefully in a longer story.

It was a fast, fun read, and I'll look for more by Croix.

Book: Improper Relations by Juliana Ross

Widowed Hannah, who serves a distant family member as a lady's maid, is in the family library working on something and since she wishes to remain alone, hides when she hears someone enter the room. She is both mortified and titillated to witness Leo, the youngest son, having a sexual encounter with a housemaid. Turns out, Leo knew she was there and approaches her with a proposition.

While the premise is a bit salacious, Improper Relations ends up being a sweet, albeit short, love story. What starts out as a learning experience for Hannah blooms into a romantic and emotional relationship for both Hannah and Leo.

As with any romance, there are obstacles, and the roadblocks in this story necessitate a tissue or two.

The ending was a bit too pat and the resolution was handled much too quickly, but other than that, this was a really enjoyable story, and I'll probably add it to my keeper folder to reread when I need a certain kind of HEA.

I am reviewing a copy of Improper Relations provided to me by NetGalley.

Book: The Siren by Tiffany Reisz

I am reviewing a copy of The Siren I received through NetGalley.

When I finished The Siren, my only thought was "Wow."  I'm still not convinced I can adequately convey what I think about this book.

First, I can't really classify it.  It is NOT a romance.  It does contain graphic sexual scenes, and yet I wouldn't consider it erotica.  It is a love story, but not a romantic love story.

Nora, Zach, Soren, Wesley are the four major characters - basically three male characters whose lives revolve around Nora's life and activity.

The very basic gist is that Nora is a well-known erotica writer who has something more personal she wants to write and hunts out a better publishing house.  Zack is a high-falutin' editor who looks down his nose as something so trashy as erotica, but decides to edit her book, as long as she does it his way and only his way.  Soren is Nora's past, her old Dom.  Wesley is a pre-med student, living in Nora's house and serving as her houseboy, to be politically incorrect, in exchange for room and board.

Some of Nora's past life is revealed to us in glimpses through her writing.  In addition to editing the book to Zach's exacting specifications, she writes pseudo journal entries, which she subsequently erases without saving.  These journal entries almost entirely relate to her past relationship with Soren, and it is in her relationship with Soren that I find my only real disappointment with The Siren.  Though she and Soren are presented as a sub and her Dom, their interactions strike me (in my admittedly limited understanding of the "alternative" lifestyle of BDSM) as closer to Master/slave than D/s, and Soren's power over her fear-based rather than love-based.  I never doubt that she loves him, even now, but I just don't see his love for her.  Maybe this is a failing in me that I am simply unable to really connect with the deep level of physical pain he "gives" her - how this can possibly be love.

There is a plenitude of sexually graphic scenes in the book that I did not find erotic.  Emotionally impactful, yes.  Erotic, no.  I felt like I had found a diary full of intimate passages about people I knew, describing how they came to be so connected.  I had no trouble at all envisioning Nora's love for each one of these men, and she did love them, though each one entirely differently.  And Zach's and Wesley's love for Nora was equally accessible.

The Siren is emotionally uncomfortable, in a good way, and the story continues unrelentingly to the end, and resolves in the only way it can.  It's not a Happily Ever After.  It's not even a Happily Enough For Now.  It's just the only way this book could end, the heartbreakingly right way for this story, or this piece of the story, to conclude.

I unashamedly admit to grabbing my box of tissues and blowing my nose through several minutes of "Wow." I will most definitely be looking for more work from Tiffany Reisz.

BzzCampaign: Sobe Lifewater with coconut water

I got to be in the Sobe BzzCampaign for their new Lifewater with coconut water flavors. I received coupons, a free bottle of Lifewater with coconut water, and a cute little lip balm, which sits by my computer. It gets used, of course. lol

Since I've been having transpo issues, I didn't get to the grocery store right away, but when I did, I found Kroger having a sale on Sobe, so I stocked up for my house-sitting gig.

While most of the flavors were tolerable when ice cold, I found that I didn't really enjoy the coconut water flavors. The sugar free ones, as usual, leave a funky taste in my mouth, but I did particularly like the fruit punch flavor of Sobe, and already knew that I liked the green tea flavor.

A successful campaign for me, just because now I know there are two flavors of Sobe that I really like, so I can keep both on hand for when I need a pick-me-up.

Review: Tampax Radiant tampons

I got a sample pack from Vocalpoint of Tampax Radiant tampons.

These particular tampons come in resealable packets, and are contained in colorful insertion tubes.

My period is less regular these days, and so I didn't get the opportunity to try them out as quickly as I planned.

Though I like the idea of the resealability, I don't like it in reality - the seal has a mind of its own, and closes itself randomly, making one-handed disposal of the used insertion tube pretty much impossible.

The insertion tube colors are pretty, though I really don't get the need to make them all pretty.  I mean, it's my period.  Who cares what color the damn things are?

I have the same issues with these Radiant tampons as with other Tampax tampons - they expand only sideways, in panels, rather than in one contained more or less tubular pattern.  For me, this expansion has two problems:  it makes them uncomfortable to wear (whoever says you can't feel tampons when you're wearing them is lying like a rug), and makes one more difficult to extract when a change is necessary.  In addition to that, the samples I tried didn't have a knot in the string.  This made a tampon change take nearly five minutes, most of which was pulling at, and losing my grip on, the extraction string.  Not fun!  And grrrrr!

They are usable, and will do in a pinch, but I won't be running out to buy them, and I'll be passing the coupon on to someone else.

For comfort and fit and leakage protection, Playtex Sport is still tops on my list.  Of course, not having a period anymore would be the very top, but.....

Five Passions

I have many more than five things about which I am passionate, but in no particular order, I'll share the top five.

My grandbabies.  Understand, right now, I just have the one, but if my love for him is any indication, I will be plenty passionate about all of them.  Being a gramma is unquestionably one of my purposes in life.

Babies in general.  I love babies.  I love babies of all shapes, colors, sizes and species.  In human babies, I'm fascinated by their facial expressions, the ways in which their burgeoning personalities express themselves, and I adore the way babies just love everything around them.  No holds barred.  I love holding them, talking to them, listening to them, watching them sleep (in a nonstalkery way, naturally), just everything!

Books.  I have been having a sizzling love affair with books for well over forty years now.  My mother read to me in utero, and I learned to read for myself well before kindergarten.  I love the way books smell and feel, and how a good one can take me someplace I've never been and make it seem as familiar as my own back yard.  I won a Kindle Fire in January, and despite my personal belief that I would never really be able to love an e-reader like I love books, I have to say that I am won over.  That little tiny thing currently holds the text of or links to over three thousand books, the vast majority of which were free, giving me the opportunity at any given time to read whatever genre or length of book I want, in complete privacy.  I'm astounded by how much I now put off reading actual print books in favor of reading "just one more" of my e-books.

Reading.  You might think this is cheating, listing it separately from books.  No.  I read anything I can get my hands on, from magazines to blogs to book reviews to product descriptions.  I've been known to read a cereal box is nothing else is available.  Granted, having that Kindle Fire makes it much less likely that I will not have a book available to read at any given time, but still, reading encompasses so much more than just books.

Movies.  I love action movies in particular, but I just love movies.  I love watching them, having rousing discussions about their merits, sharing my opinions about them, learning things about myself and my fellow humans through movies.  I am easily entertained, but still hate stupid movies.  I want smart entertainment, not that lowest-common-denominator crap that Hollywood churns out on a fairly regular basis.  I love movies that make me feel something - make me laugh or make me cry, make me wonder or question, make me change my mind.

What do people most misunderstand about me?

People who meet me in real life frequently think that I am angry or unhappy, regardless of whether or not I'm smiling.  I've never understood why, and when asked, they've only ever said that my face always looks angry or unhappy.  I never see what they see.  It used to be something that would irritate me badly, to be in a great mood only to be asked, "What's wrong with you?"  Now that I'm older, I just figure that my mien scares off the people who aren't interested in seeing below my surface, for which I am somewhat thankful.

People who have only known me online often think I'm cold and unfeeling.  Perhaps this is because I choose to communicate in proper English, and I'm more comfortable when I am certain that what I'm trying to communicate is what I'm "putting down on the page," which translates to more formality than most people are used to with emails, Facebook or blog comments.  I do try to utilize emoticons, especially when I'm just not sure that what I'm saying is what they'll "hear."

In reality, I'm neither chronically unhappy nor cold or unfeeling.  I'm just a white chick with baggage.

I like the English language, the nuances of using it properly.  I love books.  I love learning new things.  I hate talking on the telephone.  I like sex and I'm not afraid to talk about any kind of sex there is to any person who brings up the subject, even if it's not a sexual activity in which I personally would indulge.  I love babies of all  shapes, sizes and species.  Except roaches.  I don't like any of those, babies or not.  I'm not a smiler or a laugher, so if you get either out of me, consider yourself among rare company.  I've made mistakes, some pretty bad ones, ones I'd rather people didn't know, but I'm also willing to share those mistakes when I see that someone may be able to take my lesson and use my consequences to avoid some particular pitfall in their own life.  I like proper pronunciation and enunciation, and have to work not to correct others' speech, since my only child is grown and out of the house now, and hers is the only speech which I had a right or responsibility to correct.

Do people often misunderstand you?

App Review: Random Mahjong

I found this accidentally while I was on Amazon searching for something else. I actually downloaded it through my Android phone, though I've since removed it and re-downloaded it onto my Kindle Fire.

The colors are vibrant, with pretty backgrounds and several different choices of tiles. The board moves as I remove tiles, making the remaining tiles bigger and easier to see and match up. The only downside I've found is that if I get down to the last tiles and can't remove them, the board reloads exactly as it was and I get to try again. I'd rather it shuffle the tiles and give me a new chance. However, that is a very small nitpick and most definitely has not kept me from playing the game late into the night when I'm supposed to be charging my phone. lol

The ad bar across the bottom is barely noticeable, and hasn't distracted me at all from playing.Random Mahjong

Book: Fifty Shades by E. L. James

I finished the Fifty Shades trilogy, thanks to a generous friend who shared hers with me.  I'll have more to say in a real review, but first impressions and just for the sake of accuracy?  The kinkiest thing in this trilogy is the idea of some of the things that :might: happen, and which are alluded to in The Contract.  No, really.  And it's not erotica, nor is it the more hideous label of "mommy porn."  Ugh.

Book: I Only Have Eyes For You by Bella Andre

Though this isn't the first Bella Andre book I've read, it's the first in the Sullivans series for me. I was able to read it free via Netgalley.

I loved the bits of the Sullivan family I glimpsed, even though there wasn't actually much of the family in this book. It was well-written enough that I kind of got to know the family even without them being there. This particular story did stand easily on its own, and yet I believe that I will get more out of it if I read the first three and then reread this one. There are little subtleties that didn't make or break the story, but made me wonder what I didn't know.

Sophie and Jake have been in love with each other practically forever (since she was five, anyway, when Jake became friends with her brothers), and neither has believed that the other was really right for them despite that. Sophie decides to shake her nickname Nice off after her brother's wedding (her twin sister Lori is Naughty), and goes all out after Jake, who naturally can't resist her. They have an amazing night together, and he skedaddles while she's still asleep, leaving her wondering what the heck happened when she wakes up alone in a strange house.

There were definitely some cons to this story. Most notably, the formatting. I don't know if there was some formatting issue with the file Netgalley sent to my Kindle, but the dialogue in particular was formatted with weird markings in place of quotation marks. This was very distracting, and though I began to tune it out, anytime I put my Kindle down and then picked it back up again, it struck me anew. At location 401, there is a dangling phrase that doesn't belong in the story at all; "foot yacht through rough waters after three sleepless nights" is right in the middle of a sentence about something else entirely. When Sophie breaks down and goes to see Jake two and a half months after their wild, hot night together, they have a conversation in which she is vague about dates and since they only had sex on that one occasion, that stuck out at me as out of character for someone of her intellectual caliber. When something happened to Sophie and she ended up in the hospital, the entire family, including her mother, rallied round her, but I was disappointed that Sophie had apparently not had a conversation with her mother about her feelings for Jake; Mom Sullivan seemed to be pretty close to her kids, and while I understood that Sophie didn't want to share that night with her six very over-protective brothers, I didn't really get why she didn't talk to her mom during that intervening time.

On to the silver lining. The characters are real and individual, and some get more "face-time" than others. I really enjoyed the story - the progression of emotions as Sophie and Jake got to know each other differently than they had before, and as they each learned some new things about themselves in the process. I loved having an alpha male who had what he considered a seriously debilitating problem that instead turned out to be something that could bring him closer to Sophie. The bedroom activity was hot enough without pushing beyond vanilla or into erotic in any way - just two people who loved each other and wanted to have hot, sweaty sex with one another a lot.

I like romance. I particularly like erotic romance. Bella Andre's I Only Have Eyes For You is a sweet romance that didn't leave me feeling cheated by a lack of superhot sexyfun, and did leave me wanting to get to know the rest of the Sullivan family. Thumbs up from me.

Book: Amulet 2 by S. Wolf

Jason's back in this sequel to Amulet, though the titular amulet belongs to someone else now. Interestingly to me, I found the plot more cohesive in this sequel and, at the same time, the sex not nearly as hot. There were fewer mistakes in this story (though still a few), but they really didn't take me out of the story too much.

We're five or so years down the road, and Jason and his pack have created a circle of friends bound by love and true friendship, and they're all pretty happy. Sam is pregnant and fairly soon into the book, goes into the hospital to have the baby, but something happens. Because he's special to Malchediel and Ambriel, Jason is offered the opportunity to "fix" things. In something vaguely akin to Ebenezer Scrooge's visits from various Ghosts of Christmas, Jason tries to figure out if he should fix things; how different would his life be if one little tiny thing were changed? Two? If he changed nothing?

Jason's journey through his own life (past, present and future) in his quest for that answer is touching, and eventually he makes the right decision for himself and his new family, and it's a choice that both makes sense to the character and isn't too farfetched to be realistic.

Then, the epilogue sets things up for another sequel, and the circumstances of that setup strain my credulity a bit too far. There may be more to this story, but I think I'll stop here and be satisfied with this ending.

Much thanks to S. Wolf for the opportunity to download this book free from Smashwords.

Booklet: Cradle Robber by Jessica Reve

This story was so poorly edited that I can't even tell you if it had a good premise. It was so poorly edited, in fact, that it wasn't the least bit erotic. In addition to that, it was *extremely* short, taking me maybe five minutes to read from beginning to end. Punctuation was barely an afterthought, and spelling and grammar were atrocious.

I noticed when looking it up to write the review that there are two more parts. I'm not even remotely interested in reading them, even if they're free. This author seriously needs a beta reader, at the very least.

Book: Amulet by S. Wolf

While this was not the best story I've ever read, it was a pretty darn good one. Jason was well-explored, though some of the secondary and tertiary characters were rather flat. I would have liked a little more story before Jason chose to share the secret of the Amulet, but that's just personal preference.

Jason is an 18-year-old senior in high school, who saves somebody's life and gets an unexpected reward. What he does with the reward is, as Paul Harvey used to say, "...the rest of the story."

The story could have devolved almost in porn, but Wolf took Jason on a little journey of discovery. There are definitely sexually explicit scenes in the book, and they are plentiful, but none of them were more than mildly beyond vanilla, even in description.

I liked that Jason was a more than a little nerdy, fairly typical high school boy. He was in lust with a Hot Chick, he had at least one good friend who'd been with him through good and bad, and he was pretty comfortable in his own skin as he knew it. Jason used the secret of the Amulet to create opportunities to spy on several people. Rather than being a Peeping Tom who gets off on his spying (though he does, just not on the spot), Jason observes with curiosity and interest - he uses these occurrences to learn something, about himself, about sex in general, about other people. Ultimately, he uses the secret of the Amulet to again attempt to save someone from harm.

Wolf has written a sequel to Amulet, with the same small circle of friends, and if it were within my budget, I'd look forward to reading it. :)  


Edited to add:  S. Wolf contacted me through one of my websites to offer me a coupon to read the sequel free.  It's reviewed separately.

Book: Moonlight In a Pickup Truck by Serena Zane

I'm a sucker for a good friends to lovers story, and this could have been that.

The writing was in the style of a student with an assignment - run-on sentences, misplaced commas (mostly just missing), and much more tell than show, though I don't recall any spelling errors. It was very stream-of-consciousness, from the point of view of the HS sophomore girl having a last little bit of time before her good male friend goes off to the Navy. (On a side note, mmmm, love a man in uniform. lol)

By the girl's own admission, she had been pretending to be his friend the entire time, because she didn't want him to know she was in love with him. I get that, but the way it was written, it seemed as if she really wasn't his friend in any way, and that made the transition a bit more difficult to swallow.

I was disappointed that the girl was portrayed as knowing she shouldn't have been driving because she'd drunk too much, but doing it anyway in the hopes of getting into the guy's pants. Mom grounding her could have been the least of her worries!

Extremely short.  Worth a shot for you, maybe.

Book: Holding Out For a Hero by HelenKay Dimon

Holding Out For a Hero had been on my To Read list for well over a year, so when I found it at the local library, I was really looking forward to reading it.

What a disappointment. The plot held promise, but failed to deliver to my satisfaction.

The heroine was bland and boring, though seriously annoying. Should I ever have the misfortune to have someone like her in my personal life, I plan to run, not walk, the other way, and possibly file stalking charges. Really. She hired the man to investigate, then hired someone else to shadow him, so she would always know where he was and she could show up anywhere, including at a friend's house when he was having dinner.

Chemistry between the romantic couple was more fizzle than sizzle. The love scenes were a bit like reading the Wall Street Journal - that is, tedious. About 60% through the book (the first love scene was at about 55%), I started skimming pages and fully reading every third or fourth page. I'm pretty sure I didn't miss anything important.

There were few or no noticeable grammar errors, so at least it had that going for it. I don't plan on reading another HelenKay Dimon book anytime soon, though, even so.

Book: Dark of Night by Suzanne Brockmann

I will confess to being out of reach of a library for a little over a year, so haven't read any of the last few Troubleshooters books. Thus, I have none of the complaints that many of the one-star reviewers have. Other than the already established couples growing relationship-wise, I'm not attached to "super-couples." Watching soaps in the 80s and 90s cured me of that. lol

I was a little confused at the beginning. When I started reading chapter one, it took me a minute to realize that the entire prologue was a dream/escape for Dave. I've been there - had a need to have some elaborate world to go to in order to keep from giving up, so I understood it once I realized that's what it was. However, the segue there was not as smooth as I would have expected.

There were several times while reading that I had to click back to the previous chapter or scene with certain characters to refresh my memory on what was happening when I "turned the page." I like the alternating scenes and multiple locations, I just thought some of the transitions were so long that I couldn't keep straight what was happening where. Maybe I'm getting old.

I felt the Robin-into-rehab story was a little too pat. Those Troubleshooters are smart enough to have come up with a better story than that to explain Robin's sudden disappearance from a movie shoot. Him needing to withdraw from the public eye happens often enough. Homicidal stalker, perhaps? Severe food poisoning?

There was more tell in this book than I thought was necessary, and I inferred that it was there for newcomers to the Troubleshooters series, but some of it could easily have been edited out. Several times, characters explained things to each other for the audience's benefit. I guess if this is the first book you're reading about SEALs or government operatives, you need it, but I thought much of that was also unnecessarily telly rather than showy.

On the other hand, I laughed out loud (in a good way) more than a few times while reading Dark of Night. There were at least half a dozen occasions where I wanted to highlight and share something from the book with friends, though I only ended up sharing one.

What I found in Dark of Night were characters who took some good, hard looks at themselves and came to some difficult realizations about their personal quirks and their interactions with others. In that respect, this book was a joy to read. Characters I've grown to love begin to behave in ways that are not in keeping with the mask they've presented to others, even to others very close to them, even the mask they presented to themselves. Sometimes one learns things about oneself that are extremely uncomfortable and hard to integrate. I empathized with Decker's struggle. I did feel that his acceptance of it, after all that, was a bit rushed, but I guess there's only so much room in a book.

I loved that nearly everybody had a chance to step up to the plate and show some wisdom or strength of character. Oddball things from the past would create opportunities to showcase smarts that aren't necessarily visible on the surface. Tracy and Sophia, in particular, have obviously been heavily underestimated by both their teammates and by long-time Troubleshooters readers. Neither is as fragile as others have made her out to be.

Near as I can tell, everybody on the two teams has a Happily Ever After now, though I personally would quite gladly read more about these characters ongoing struggles and growth, even without the main romantic couple thing that has been Brockmann's stock in trade. I'm planning to reread the entire series in one go at some point, and this one will most definitely be included.  (And there's another story about Jules and Robin coming out this summer!)

Book: Palatino's Pets by Ernie Centofanti

First, the book was a wee bit disjointed storywise. I feel like there could have been a better way to weave together the origin of the artifact and its subsequent life on Earth. I might enjoy reading more about the visitors, should Mr. Centofanti's muse cooperate in that endeavor. (How I wish that Amazon would put the title and author's name on the review page in big old letters for reference purposes!)

I found it a bit unbelievable that a woman (human, for that matter, regardless of gender) found this artifact and just figured it out by messing around with it. At that point, I just suspended my disbelief and read on. Obviously, as I never even finished college, I have no way of knowing how accurate the science of quantum physics was. I liked the bits of Dr. Edison's research notes interspersed into the story at various times. It might have been telling rather than showing, but her notes made the telling entertaining.

I inferred from the cover that there would be some sexual misconduct, to put it lightly, on the part of the villain. There was, but frankly it was mild and didn't live up to my expectations. All the bad stuff basically happened off-camera and was referred to only vaguely. Palatino's depravity could have been demonstrated to greater effect were some of those things actually spelled out "on paper." Perhaps that is just me - I respect that others will read this and find it horrifying enough as is.

Palatino was an absorbing antagonist, though his devolution was much too fast for me. I felt like the man I had gotten to know throughout the book would have responded to the obstacles in his path more intellectually rather than emotionally.

I did find about two dozen mistakes, though I'm sorry, Mr. C, I didn't note them individually so that I could send them to you. Had the note about errata been in the front of the book, I would gladly have done so for your benefit and the benefit of other readers.

All things considered, I found the book to be pleasing enough that I ran the battery on my Kindle down to nothing and had to go do those other things I should have been doing in the first place. lol

Book: Storm Warning by Kadi Dillon

I enjoyed this book a great deal. It has a good plotline and interesting characters.

However, it desperately needed an editor! Homophone errors were in abundance - waste for waist, for one example. In one instance, the author used the word immersed in a sentence where a female character came out of her hotel room for the first time in four days - she immersed from her room rather than emerging from it. These errors piled up more and more heavily in the second half of the book and became infinitely more distracting.

Despite these issues, I did finish the book, and like I mentioned earlier, I enjoyed reading it. If the author can find a competent editor, I'd love to read more about several of the secondary characters.

Book: Flotilla by Daniel Haight

The story of Jim and this part of his journey to manhood kept me reading until the end. What I read was a great story, with some caveats.

On the plus side, great characterization, and the descriptions of the Colony were well-done enough that I could visualize something I never actually knew existed. Jim was a typical teenage boy - drinking, rebellion, thinking about sex, love for his sister, frustration with his parents - very easy to get into his head and remember how things used to be for me. And the "I don't know why I drink" part was spot-on. An addict really can't answer that question, particularly one who *knows* that what he's doing is bad for him, doesn't want to do it, but does it anyway. Why did you do that? I don't know is a valid answer, not a copout, for some, and it worked very well in this case.

There were some inconsistencies, though. It looked to me as if the story had originally partly been written in third-person, and not all the third-person was removed. There were over a dozen places where editing had obviously been done, but not completed - extra words were still in the sentences, words with the wrong tense or wrong point of view were still in place, things like that. Within a couple of chapters, Madison was described as being ten, eleven and then eight. This definitely should have been caught by any competent editor. Jim was allegedly fourteen in the second summer (though he was described as being fifteen more than once), which is When Things Happened. However, he was scared spitless of being drafted, even though he was under the age (stated as older than fifteen) at which he would need to worry. It made that particular part of the book ring falsely for me, even though the action was fantastic.

My final and biggest complaint is that the story just ended. The escape reached a certain point where Jim could relax a little bit and gear up for the rest of his journey north, and I put my finger on the right-hand side of my Kindle page and nothing. I poked at the darn Kindle five or six times before I realized the book was just done. There was no epilogue. There was no warning. There was no wind-down. Just the current location, as is at the end of every chapter, and then nothing.

To Haight's credit, none of these things kept me from finishing the book. I *wanted* to keep reading about Jim and his adventures. Imagine how marvelous it would have been without these problems!

Book: Guardian by Elita Daniels

The blurb talks about secrets being revealed by a guardian. I read to 93%, then skimmed the rest. At 93%, there were still no secrets revealed. This was a bunch of disjointed snippets put together. Sometimes the pieces made sense and sometimes they didn't. I'm still trying to figure out what this book was. It wasn't terrible, it was just pointless. Though Anna felt passion of various kinds, I never felt them with her. The words were just words, words that didn't convey any real meaning to me as the reader. She was in love with somebody, but I never understood why or really anything about her. I never cared about her or her well-being.

Grammar and spelling were good. Book was well-edited.

I'm not sorry to have skimmed the remaining 7% of the book, and I have zero interest in any other books by this author. Your mileage may vary.