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It's Friday and Your Turn
February 22, 2008

The responses to yesterday's blog blew me away.  A lot of the comments tugged on my heartstrings and I found myself tearing up.  Real life stories of love found, sometimes lost and found again were amazing and couldn't help but make even the most skeptical believers in soul mates.  If you haven't had a chance, go back and read the posts.  Thanks everyone for sharing your stories.  I know I'll be reading your books with a new perspective.

Now here's what I've been reading this week and then you can post your turn, what you've been reading lately.


First off was Susan Squire's One With the Shadows.  In 1822 Rome, Kate Malone has been on her own, making her way reading Tarot Cards and taking advantage of the gullible aristocracy.  Until she meets Gian Urbano and starts having visions.  Gian is a vampire with a twist.  He coexists with the Companion, a parasite that inhabits the blood.   When Kate picks the pocket of a man with a unique jewel that Gian is after, they must work together to keep it out of the hands of the evil Elyta.

I've read this series from the beginning and love the way Susan treats vampirism as a disease of the blood.  Her vampires are essentially human, but The Companion gives them special abilities.  These books suck you into this dark world with tightly woven plots and characters you can really sink your teeth into (sorry, couldn't resist). 


Then it was on to Return of the Rogue by Donna Fletcher.  Honora Tannach lived a life of physical abuse at the hands of her stepfather until he sold her into marriage to the next laird of the Sinclare clan.  Cavan Sinclare was captured, tortured and imprisoned after battle along with his brother.  He escapes only to return home to find a new bride waiting.  The nightmares of his ordeal, along with his inability to locate his youngest brother, just add to the angst he doesn't want to share with a wife he doesn't like or want.

The heroine was meek and skiddish and I was prepared not to like her, but once I put myself in her situation with all the abuse I could never imagine, her way of coping seemed acceptable.  Her gradual changes were believable and the hero's unforgiveness for his inablility to save his brother, while painful, were understandable.  The villian was my favorite kind, the one you love to hate.  




In my car, I'm listening to J. A. Jance's Outlaw Mountain.  Now I picked this up at the library because it was on the new shelf and they just got it in, but it turns out the audio is from 1998.  This 7th book in the series has Sherriff Joanna Brady investigating a body found in the desert, a lost mentally challenged adult named Junior, a jealous co worker, a newspaper reporter with an agenda, a not so nice mother, a young daughter and a lover named Butch.  Did I forget anything?

I love mysteries and I love audio books, but maybe it was coming in the middle of this series that was the daunting part.  The murder happens at the beginning, but by disc 6, so much other stuff happened that when the murder was mentioned again I had almost forgotten about it.  Now maybe anyone familiar with the series wouldn't have had a problem and maybe reading the book would have been easier.  You might want to start at the very beginning of this series, that's what I plan on doing.
 
Now it's Your Turn.  Let everyone know what you've been reading lately.

Bottom Line:  Today is the true George Washington's birthday.  So remember...You cannot tell a lie today and have a piece of cherry pie.
                                                     

Posted by Barbara Vey on February 22, 2008 | Comments (10)