"Dangled Carat" by Hilary Grossman - 3 Stars (***SPOILERS***)

Book description available via Amazon.

I didn't realize Grossman's "Dangled Carat" was a memoir until I was about 80% of the way through the book, so that had a major impact on my feelings as I was reading. To be honest, if it had been fiction, I would have given it a lower rating. The story itself was okay, except for the fact that Marc came across as a jerk in a number of instances and I couldn't figure out why Hilary would put herself through the stress and pain of staying in the relationship. Yes, they did end up married in the end, but was the ring really worth all of the pain he put her through in the years leading up to the wedding? There were also Marc's family and friends to contend with, who may have meant well with their advice to Hilary to break things off and efforts to force Marc to propose, but they just seemed interfering and almost cruel to me. I would not have been able to handle that kind of pressure from so many people and probably would have broken things off for that reason alone. I have to admire Hilary for knowing what she wanted and being strong enough to resist the pressure from those around her to walk away.

My biggest frustration with the book was the author's writing style. I had a hard time keeping track of the timeline because of the way the author randomly inserted flashbacks into the middle of whatever part of the story she happened to be telling. She also tended to go off on tangents a lot, and spent too much time describing irrelevant details like what their vacation condo in Islamorada looked like. Some details are welcome and necessary, but three pages seemed excessive to me. Overall, though, it was an okay read. I was definitely engaged in the story and wanted to know how things would turn out in the end.

NOTE: This review is also posted on Goodreads and Amazon.              

Anybody interested in joining a romance book club?

I keep promising to get better about posting on this blog, but haven't been successful at keeping that promise so far.  I'll try to do better this time (even if I'm the only one reading it! LOL).  It's been a ridiculous time at work - my boss retired, I'm working on a major project, etc.  I'm still reading as much as ever, but by the time I get home at night my brain is mush. I'm sure if I actually tried writing a review, it would be completely nonsensical!

Anyway, I've been thinking recently about how much I would like to start (or join, if one already exists) a local book club for lovers of romance novels.  I'm not big on paranormals (other than time travel - LOVE time travel, particularly Lynn Kurland), but I'd be open to historicals, contemporaries, romantic suspense, new adult, and who knows what other subgenres.  Maybe I'll discover something new to enjoy!  If anyone in the DC metro area (particularly Northern Virginia) happens across this blog and is interested in joining such a book club, please let me know!  I've met a couple of people who would be interested, but we need a few more to really call ourselves a club and be able to have engaging discussions of the reading material.

I've thought about visiting Lady Jane's Salon in Silver Spring (well, really Bethesda) to see if I could find a few like-minded individuals to join this hypothetical romance book club, but somehow life always seems to get in the way and I never make it.  Also: it's in BETHESDA.  I'd have to take I-495 to get there. Who wants to be on the Beltway on a Saturday night?  (Okay, I'll stop whining now.  I bet Lady Jane's is awesome and I'm really missing out by not going.)

If we can't get enough locals interested, maybe we could do a "virtual" book club like the ones on Goodreads instead.  I've tried to break into some of those groups in the past, but either they're too large to allow for everyone to contribute to the discussion, or they're not interested in adding new members.

I would love to hear feedback on this idea.  If any of you are already in successful book clubs, what makes them successful?  How do you help to structure/guide the discussion to make sure it keeps flowing and everyone feels comfortable contributing?  Any other tips you'd like to share would be appreciated.

I'm back!

So...life kind of got in the way of my blogging aspirations for a while.  I've still been reading lots of books, both good and (unfortunately) bad, but I wasn't feeling well enough to write about it for a while.  I've managed to stay active over on Goodreads, though - over the next few days, I'll post a few of my reviews from there to get the ball rolling again here on the blog.

I hope everybody out there is doing well and finding lots of good reading material to keep them occupied. I'm always looking for suggestions - please feel free to share if you've read something good recently.  I'm currently reading the new Julia Quinn romance (LOVE HER!!!) and getting ready to start the third book in the Divergent Trilogy by Veronica Roth (also highly recommended).  There are several other books that have been released recently or are about to be released that I am really looking forward to picking up too, including "The Perfect Match" by Kristan Higgins and the latest installment of Emily March's Eternity Springs series.  I love that feeling when there are almost TOO many books coming out that I want to read RIGHT NOW - it's kind of like drowning, but in a good way (if that makes any sense at all).  I love having my next few book choices already planned out.  :-)

"Broken Wing" by Judith James - 4 Stars (***SPOILERS***)

Book description available via Amazon.

This is not a book I would have picked up on my own, but it was highly recommended in a number of places, so I decided to give it a shot. All I can say is wow - what an emotional rollercoaster! In some ways it felt more like a historical fiction novel than a historical romance, partly because the author provided so much historical detail and also partly because the second half of the book focused so closely on the hero and his journey back to the heroine after he leaves her to seek his fortune so they can be married. The heroine is missing from the story for quite a while, but the author does go back and update the reader on what she's been doing while the hero has been gone. The hero is a deeply wounded and flawed individual, which is certainly understandable given the circumstances of his childhood and history of abuse, not to mention what he goes through after being washed overboard during a storm at sea. By the end of the book, Gabriel, the hero, has gone through so many changes and experienced so much growth that he almost seems like a different person. 

The main reason I can't give this book 5 stars is that I thought the problems between the hero and heroine were worked out far too easily in the end. Sarah, the heroine, is almost too perfect and too understanding of Gabriel's struggles. I believe in the power of love and forgiveness as much as anyone, but I still think her relatively easy/calm acceptance of Gabriel's abandonment is unrealistic, even given her knowledge of the struggles he had already experienced in his life. I would have liked to see him grovel a bit more before she forgave him and moved on with their life together.

One thing I especially liked about this book is that so much of it is told from the hero's point of view, which is unusual because most romances are told from the heroine's point of view. The book was unusual in other ways, such as the fact that the vast majority of it took place outside London, and even outside of England. It was very refreshing to read something that doesn't focus on the typical round of parties and balls during the London Season!

Overall, I did enjoy this book and found it to be an engrossing read. I look forward to reading more books by Judith James in the near future!

Can you read more than one book at once?

A poster on one of the romance boards I sometimes visit posted an interesting question today: Can you read more than one book at once?  If so, do you have problems keeping the stories straight?

For me, it's more unusual to NOT be reading more than one book at a time.  I usually read at least 2 books at once - most of the time it's actually more like 3 or 4. I always have at least one hard copy book and one ebook going at a time, plus sometimes an audio book if I come across something interesting that I can borrow from the library. I don't usually have a problem keeping the stories straight since I try to choose different genres/time periods to read at once (ie. one mystery or romantic suspense, one historical romance or historical fiction novel, and one contemporary chick lit or romance novel). If there's one book that particularly catches my interest, I'll stick with that one as much as possible. Otherwise, I'll choose what to read depending on the situation. If I'm at home, I try to read the DTB. If I'm in the car, it's the audio book. If I'm bored at work or have some free time while I'm out and about, it's the Kindle book since I can read it on my phone even if I don't have my Kindle with me.

What are your thoughts?

A-Z Author Challenge 2011 - Round 1

Back in January, I decided to participate in a reading challenge on one of the romance message boards I sometimes visit.  The challenge was to read one book for each letter of the alphabet, using the first letter in the author's first and last name to determine the letter it represented.  Difficult letters like Q were allowed to be found anywhere in the author's name, not just at the beginning.

Participants have a whole year in which to finish the challenge, which seems like a lot of time to me since it works out to about 2 weeks per book.  Despite being a pretty fast reader and having ample time to finish each book, at first I thought that it would take me all year to finish the challenge because I tend to be a "mood" reader.  I had a feeling that I wouldn't do a good job of sticking to my list because the ones I had picked might not fit with what I felt like reading when I got around to that letter.  To my surprise, I managed to finish my list in about 4 months.  I found the challenge to be very enjoyable because it forced me to vary my reading and find new authors for some of the letters, so I didn't get stuck in a rut and keep reading the same thing over and over. I still chose to read some books that weren't on my list, and I also switched out books for some of the letters because I found something more appealing than what I had originally planned to read, but the planner in me was very excited about having my reading all planned out in advance. :-) That way I didn't agonize over which book to choose and waste time that I could be using to actually read!

In case anyone actually stumbles across this blog and is interested, here is my completed list:

A - Adele Ashworth - My Darling Caroline - 2/13/2011
B - Celeste Bradley - Desperately Seeking a Duke - 2/26/2011
C - Allison Chase - Most Eagerly Yours - 1/14/2011
D - Jude Deveraux - Forever - 3/22/2011
E - Eileen Dreyer - Never a Gentleman - 4/3/2011
F - Jane Feather - A Wicked Gentleman - 3/9/2011
G - Julie Garwood - Sizzle - 2/18/2011
H - Diane Haeger -The Queen's Rival - 3/30/2011
I - Eva Ibbotson - A Countess Below Stairs - 1/30/2011
J - Judith James - Broken Wing (NOOK) - 4/16/2011
K - Carla Kelly - The Admiral's Penniless Bride (KINDLE) - 4/23/2011
L - Julie Anne Long - The Runaway Duke - 3/13/2011
M - Laurel McKee - Countess of Scandal - 3/20/2011
N - Linda Needham - Marry the Man Today - 3/18/2011
O - Olivia Drake - Seducing the Heiress - 1/25/2011
P - Mary Jo Putney - The Bargain (NOOK) - 4/10/2011
Q - Amanda Quick - Scandal - 4/8/2011
R - Maya Rodale - A Groom of One's Own - 2/15/2011
S - Susan Holloway Scott - The Countess and the King - 2/6/2011
T - Elizabeth Thornton - The Marriage Trap - 3/2/2011
U - Lisa Unger - Beautiful Lies - 4/27/2011
V - Virginia Henley - Unmasked - 5/3/2011
W - Wendy Markham - The Best Gift - 2/22/2011
X - Cathy Maxwell - You and No Other - 4/17/2011
Y - Rebecca York - Royal Lockdown (KINDLE) - 1/28/2011
Z - Laura Zigman - Her (KINDLE) - 2/2/2011

I enjoyed the challenge so much that I've decided to try and do it twice more before the end of the year. I'm already working on my second list, which I'll post soon. I may post reviews of some of the books, too.  Who knows - this is a new blog, so I don't know exactly what I may feel like writing yet!

"The Valcourt Heiress" by Catherine Coulter - 2 Stars (***SPOILERS***)

Book description available via Amazon.

I think this will be the last Catherine Coulter book I pick up. Honestly, I'm not even sure why I bothered to finish this one. I've always hated Coulter's contemporary FBI series (couldn't even finish the first one I tried), but her historicals used to be very good. However, this book was mostly boring and far-fetched. IMO, the heroine definitely suffered from "too stupid to live" syndrome. In the beginning, she decides to run away even though she has no idea where she is going to go, no ready funds and limited skills to protect herself. After she is kidnapped (what a surprise), the hero rescues her (though he thinks she is a young boy at the time). Instead of accepting the protection he offers, she hides in the woods until he and his men leave because she doesn't trust him. Despite that, she follows him to his castle and decides to pretend that she has lived there all along. She starts wearing dresses again and decides that because she can read, write, and make lists, she will become the castle steward. This book takes place in the 13th century - how many female stewards would there have been then? Probably very few, if any. Also, is list-making all that useful of a skill? Apparently the author thinks it is because the hero, heroine, and Queen of England are all held up as examples of good list makers. Coulter talks about list making a LOT - that's probably one of the reasons I found the book to be so boring. The hero and heroine are both weirdly obsessed with soap, too, which is another thing that seems odd for the time period.  Didn't people in the Middle Ages think frequent bathing caused death?  The witchcraft plot with the heroine's mother was unbelievable and kind of stupid too. There were a number of other plot twists that seemed to come out of left field, which made it very hard to get into the story.

Aside from the general stupidity and seeming anachronisms, I was particularly bothered by the scene where the heroine loses her virginity because she essentially rapes the hero. Certainly he was not awake to give consent when she flung herself on top of him! Even after he wakes up and it's already too late to undo what has happened, there are a couple of times he says no. Then, all of a sudden when the heroine wants to stop because she's in pain, he wants to keep going. He later describes it as one of the best sexual experiences of his life. Are we supposed to believe that rape is okay just because the man is the victim?

It didn't help that I listened to the audio version of this book and found the narrator to be EXTREMELY irritating. I think she was trying to sound "posh" so she pronounced some words oddly and had an annoying habit of rolling her r's at the end of a word. I wish she would have just spoken normally - her regular speaking voice is quite nice, and I probably would have enjoyed listening to it more had she not jarred me out of the story every time she said something strange.

Overall, I'm generously giving this book 2 stars because I liked a few of the characters and there were a couple of amusing scenes. For the most part, though, I would not recommend this book.