Sean Griswold's Head by Lindsey Leavitt
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is one of the best books in its genre. So many YA romance novels like to over-dramatize stuff with their boyfriends and friends and family, but the issues discussed in this book are things that really happen to people.

Although trivial teenage problems really happen to teenagers too, in this case, all the teenage characters; Payton, Sean, her best friend Jac... Grady might be an exception, aren't prone to drama. I thought the author did a really great job with character development, and all the characters really came to life for me.

This book shows a sensitive and uplifting, though somewhat bittersweet, picture of how people cope with loss and disease, and also fear, because in some cases, the fear of the situation is actually worse than the situation itself. What Payton and Jac does for Miss Marietta was very moving too, and I'm glad for Miss Marietta's mini-story in the book.

I especially loved the whole Focus Object concept and how it helped Payton get through her fears for her father. I also loved that it was thought up by her guidance counsellor, Ms. Callahan, when she was going through a hard time. I thought it was a very real portrayal of real problems of real people. =)

Dash & Lily's Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

So after I finished reading Rachel Cohn’s Beta, I realized that she had also written this book, which had been sitting on my shelves for a while.

I was interested in reading this book because I had watched Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist, and then found out that it was from a book of the same name that these authors wrote together.

I haven’t read that book, but I read this book and it’s so much fun and so different than the young adult romance you usually find out there.

I love the Book of Dares, and I love how Dash and Lily have fun with each other, being playful, and yet also honest and raw at the same time. I like how it’s not a sappy romance, but it’s real and awkward, and so funny!

Thank goodness there are two other books written by Cohn and Levithan; Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist and Naomi and Ely’s No Kiss List. I’ll have to get my hands on them asap!

Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict by Laurie Viera Rigler

This sounded like a promising book. A Jane Austen addict, Courtney Stone, falls asleep reading Pride and Prejudice, and when she wakes up the next morning, finds herself living in Regency England.

She’s in some other woman’s body, living some other woman’s life, and she doesn’t know when or how she’ll ever get back to her own time, or if she’d even want to.

I was intrigued by the storyline and I had high hopes for the book, but while it was quite entertaining, it wasn’t really all that well-written.

Courtney Stone is supposedly a Jane Austen addict, and as such, she would know the acceptable “modes of conduct” for a lady in Regency England, yet she says things like, “We haven’t even slept together yet” when Mr. Edgeworth asks her to marry him, and is surprised with his shocked response. I’d understand if she was going for the shock factor since she knows it’s not acceptable in that era, but it’s just stupid when she doesn’t get things that she should.

That being said, it doesn’t make me hate the book, just exasperated with it. I did feel that the ending was incomplete though, because we never really find out what happens to Courtney Stone.

It was definitely an interesting and fun read, and the journey was quite exciting. It’s only that I’m not sure the destination is worth it.

Finding Your Mojo by Stephanie Bond

 

From the blurb:

 

When attorney Gloria Dalton arrives in the small town of Mojo, Louisiana, she's desperate for change. Her past haunts her—at sixteen she was forced into the witness protection program and ripped away from Zane Riley, the boy she loved. After years of heartbreak and hiding, she's hoping that this move will be her last, that she can make a life for herself among the quirky residents of Mojo.

But Gloria's optimism fades when a welcome gift turns out to be a voodoo doll and her male paralegal suffers a shocking death. When the new Chief of Police arrives on the scene, Gloria's life takes another left turn—it's her first love, Zane, who doesn't recognize her behind her careful disguise.

Concealing her identity and her feelings for Zane is killing her, but when it's revealed that her employee was murdered and secrets begin to spill, Gloria realizes it's going to take a special kind of voodoo to keep her quest for her own personal mojo from hitting a dead end!

 

My thoughts:

 

Oh, I enjoyed this book! I love the romance, the suspense, the story, the chemistry… all of it!

 

I guess what appeals to me most is how Gloria lost her first love Zane Riley, because she had to go into the witness protection program, and how interesting it was when they finally meet up again and Zane has no idea who she is.

 

I think I’m in the mood for romance, because the romance in this book has completely captured my imagination, and my heartstrings. I couldn’t help rooting for the two of them the whole way, hoping that Zane would finally realize who Gloria was and that they could fall in love all over again.

 

Unlike the last book I read, the suspense here was good too, because it kept me wondering who on earth was responsible for the murders and all the mysterious happenings in Mojo.

 

I’ve also gotten intrigued by the references to some past murders in the Voodoo museum in Mojo, which I gather was from a prequel to this book. This is the first book I’ve read by Stephanie Bond, but I enjoy it so much, I think I'd like to read more of her books.

The Carriage House by Carla Neggers

 

From an Amazon review:

 

When Tess accepts a rundown house by the sea in lieu of payment for a design job, she never expects a skeleton buried in the cellar and the handsome, taciturn widower next door to be part of the package.

But the skeleton vanishes before anyone else sees it, throwing doubt on Tess's claims and throwing her into a panic, as the stealing of the skeleton likely points to murder.

This also puts a damper on her unsought, but irresistible, romance with neighbor Andrew.

 

My thoughts:

 

This book is definitely different from the usual books you find in this genre, and I found Neggers’ storytelling style interesting. That doesn’t mean that it was amazing, however.

 

I enjoyed the story, and I thought it was very imaginative and different, yes, but I’m not sure I like her writing style at all. The book seemed very predictable to me, even though Neggers tries to confuse us with certain of the characters’ points of view.

 

I thought that the story could’ve been told in a much better way, if Neggers made more effort trying to throw us from the trail, but I felt that either she wasn’t very interested in keeping us in suspense, or she was just plain too lazy to mislead us.

 

Either way, the story definitely would’ve been much better if she’d told it a different way. I have to say that I enjoyed the romance between Tess and Andrew though, there was definitely chemistry there, and I thought Neggers did a great job in building the chemistry.

 

Perhaps that’s the reason she wasn’t interested in keeping us in suspense, she was more interested in the romance aspect of the book than the suspense.

The Last Summer (Of You and Me) by Ann Brashares

 

From the Amazon review:

 

For as long as she can remember, 21-year-old Alice has spent summers on Fire Island with her parents and older sister, Riley. Riley, 24, is a beach lifeguard, more boyish in both looks and spirit than sweet, feminine Alice.

An island neighbor and Riley's best friend, Paul, whose father is dead and mother mostly absent, returns to the island after two years away and must decide whether to sell his family's house there.

More importantly, he and Alice finally act on an attraction they've felt for years, but they keep their frequent nuzzling quiet so as not to hurt Riley. Riley, meanwhile, has her own problems that could ruin Alice and Paul's clandestine romance and just about everything else.

 

My thoughts:

 

I've never read The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants or any of the author's works before, although I've watched the movie and enjoyed it, so I wasn't sure what to expect with this book.

 

I ended up really loving this book! A couple of people have said that what happens between Paul, Alice, and Riley were overly dramatic, and I agree that what happens is actually quite a trivial thing that could’ve been solved very easy, compared to so many other books out there that have more shocking and dramatic things happening.

 

But I think that’s what I like about the book. It’s real. What happens between them is trivial and made more dramatic because they didn’t communicate and couldn’t solve a very-easily-solved problem, but it’s real and could easily happen with anyone of us. I’ve had my own share of overly dramatic experiences, which could’ve been solved easily, if only I had been less immature.

 

I love this book because it’s real. It's something that could happen to any of us in real life. It's a trivial, mundane, everyday thing, that two young people didn't handle well, and because of that, escalated the tension, the misunderstanding, and the drama. And it could happen to anyone of us.

Remember Me? by Sophie Kinsella

 

I’m a huge fan of Kinsella’s, though I’ve been avoiding her Shopaholic series because I really prefer not to read series, and I’m not much of a shopper either.

 

I’ve been wanting to read this book for a while now, but have only recently bought it at the MPH distributors’ sale. I started it last night at about 10pm, and finished it at 1.30am.

 

What can I say? It was a fun and easy read.

 

The book is about 25-year-old Lexi Smart, who tripped and hit her head, woke up three years later with amnesia, a new high-paying job, a model-esque body, and a husband.

 

Well, apparently she was in a car accident and had forgotten everything that had happened in the last 3 years. Her last memory is when she tripped and fell when she was 25 years old. Now she wonders what happened in the last three years; who is her husband? how did she become a director in her company? why do her old friends hate her?

 

It’s confusing, and frustrating, and she’s not sure who to trust and what to do, but it’s exciting reading about her figuring it out, and it’s wonderful when she does, finally!

 

Certain things in the book are a little bit unrealistic, but then again, it’s so much fun reading a Kinsella book that those bits don’t really matter. It’s the aspect of the fantastical that appeals to me. I love the premise, though of course I would never want to have amnesia, but it’s always interesting to read about it.

Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez

 

I was never really interested in reading this book, but I’ve been told that out of a few of the more popular classics, this was the one I’d love most.

 

Of course it made me wonder what it was about this book that people thought I’d love. Keep in mind I had no idea what it was about, I bought the book without even looking at the summary on the back cover.

 

I finally decided to read it, took a look at the summary, and became extremely disappointed. “What?? She married someone else and he only declares his love for her again 50 years later? When they’re more than 70 years old??!!”

 

Don’t worry, that wasn’t a spoiler, that was on the back cover.

 

I thought about how much time wasted that was, because I’d love to spend my whole life with someone I love, and not just have at most a decade or so left with him. And then it actually got me thinking, am I sure I married the right man and don’t have anyone else I’m thinking about now that I’d regret not marrying?

 

Thank goodness, I’m very happy and very sure I married the man I love, and there’s no one else I’d rather marry! (Except maybe Johnny Depp!)

 

So anyway, I read this book, and loved it! And wonder why I do.

 

There’s this saying that young people in love is a work of nature, but old people in love is a work of art. That’s probably how I feel about this book.

 

This couple don’t exactly spend their whole lives pining for each other, although they fell in love 50 years ago, but they went on with their lives, well, sort of. The beauty of this book is in the storytelling, I think, but it’s quite indescribable and so intangible that I can’t put into words what it is about the book that I liked.

 

In fact, I’m not quite sure what it is!

 

Nevertheless, it is a beautiful book, and I loved it.

Scarlett by Alexandra Ripley

 

I believe most people have read or at least know of Margaret Mitchell's Gone With The Wind, and I'm sure some know about Alexandra Ripley's wonderful sequel, entitled Scarlett.

 

Now I know that as with most sequels written by someone other than the original author, you'd have people either absolutely loving it, or absolutely hating it.

 

Fortunately for me, I'm one of the former. I love Alexandra Ripley's Scarlett, and in fact, I love Scarlett more than GWTW! (*ducks*)

 

Of course, I fell in love with Scarlett in GWTW, I love her strength of character, her selfishness and how manipulative she was, how she did whatever she could to ensure a better life for herself...

 

I mean, which of us haven't done that or wanted to do that at least once in our lives. The truth is, I would manipulate others in a heartbeat if it meant my own survival. I love that she was so terribly flawed as a human, and don't forget she was so young, only a teen when the war started and she got married and then had to take care of her family.

 

In Ripley's Scarlett, she's still the same strong character, with a terrible temper and still as manipulative as ever. But she grows up. She's not as selfish as she once was, or as childish, and she definitely learns, the hard way, that she can't always get what she wants. But she grows up and learn to let things be. She's still terribly flawed, but what I love about Ripley's Scarlett, is that she allows Scarlett room for improvement.

 

Just as we all grow up and see the folly of our ways in our younger years, Scarlett grows up too. We don't become perfect overnight, and neither does Scarlett, but we all improve, or at least, we try to. And Scarlett really does try.

 

I've read Scarlett probably about five or six times now, but I always enjoy it every time I re-read it. So much so that this time, I finished reading this 884-page book in 2 days! I can't help it, it's one of my 'favoritest' book in the world!

Casey by Lori Foster

 

This is the fifth book of the Buckhorn series, but I've never read the first four. It's quite a sweet and simple love story.

 

I got this in a mail a couple of days ago, from a Bookcrosser, along with some other books, and I'd been reading a lot of really heavy books lately and just needed a light and easy romance.

 

I'm short on romance and chick-lit at the moment, and I promised myself I wouldn't buy anymore, so I've been going through some really bad withdrawal symptoms! Some days I actually don't feel like reading at all, because all other books feel so daunting!

 

Anyway, this book is about Casey and Emma. Emma is a childhood friend of Casey, and they'd shared a special history before she ran away from their town because of family problems, leaving Casey worried and devastated.

 

Eight years later, Emma's father is sick in the hospital and she decides to come back to visit him. Of course, she bumps into Casey, and they pick up where they left off. Obviously, there are a lot of obstacles in the way, not least of which are Emma's family problems, Casey's host of female latch-ons, and their past history together.

 

All's well that ends well, however, and they find a way to resolve their problems.

 

All I can say is, I really needed this book! It wasn't the best romance, or even the most enjoyable, and in fact, although it wasn't bad, it wasn't very good either. But I really needed it! And I need more! I'm considering breaking down and buying some chick-lit soon!

Romantic Novel of the Year 2009 Shortlist

A few posts ago I mentioned that one of the things I loved about reading and book blogging was that they allowed me to be a part of the wonderful online community of readers and writers.

One person whom I'm very pleased to have 'met' this last week, is author Linda Gillard, whom I got to know from the Bookcrossing forums.

As an aspiring writer myself, I love meeting authors, partly because I hope - quite unrealistically - that some of their talent might rub off on me, but mostly because I have such a huge amount of respect for them, knowing how hard it is for myself to write anything worth reading.

So you can probably understand my awe when I visited her site and found out that not only has she written and published three novels - all with very impressive reviews, her third book, Star Gazing, has also been shortlisted for Romantic Novel of the Year 2009!

The shortlist of 6 books has only been recently announced on the 13th of January 2009. The 6 books were chosen by 15 members of the Romantic Novelists' Association, and 3 judges will chose a final winner after reading the 6 shortlisted books.

The six shortlisted authors are:

1. Cecelia Ahern, for Thanks for the Memories

2. Lesley Downer, for The Last Concubine

3. Linda Gillard, for Star Gazing

4. Julia Gregson, for East of the Sun

5. Susanna Kearsley, for Sophia’s Secret

6. Judith Lennox, for Before the Storm

I'm quite excited to have found this list, and I've added some of the books to my ever-growing wishlist and Mount TBR!

My Friday Finds:

Cecilia Ahern's Thanks for the Memories is about a woman who receives somebody else's memories along with his blood in a blood transfusion after a terrible accident. How can I resist a storyline like this?!

Sophia's Secret by Susanna Kearsley is another very interesting book. It is about a bestselling author who visits a place in Scotland where her ancestor, Sophia, lived years ago. She starts writing the fictional life of Sophia but finds that she's writing more fact than fiction when she realizes she has Sophia's memories. What can I say? I enjoy books where someone can get into someone else's head?

And of course, Linda Gillard's Star Gazing, which is about a blind woman, a strange man who shows up on her doorstep one winter's night, and the love that they share.

In her site (you gotta scroll down a little), Linda talks about how she went about writing the book and what a challenge it was to describe landscape from a non-visual point of view. Especially challenging was describing the hero by the way he sounded, felt, and smelt!

I am positively intrigued! And very happy because I've been looking for some good romances to read! I think I'm going to love these.

The winner will be announced on the 10th of February! I'm so excited!

For more information about the Romantic Novel of the Year 2009, you can visit the official site.

The Demon Lover by Victoria Holt

 

Victoria Holt's name was familiar to me, but I've never read anything by her, and although I've had this book for a while, I wondered if I should read it or just give it away.

 

I decided to check Amazon.com's reviews, to get an idea of whether I'd enjoy this book or if it'd only be a waste of my time, and what I found was so controversial that I just had to read it, even if only for curiosity's sake.

 

I don't want to give away any spoilers, though you'd probably find them if you go ahead to Amazon.com and read the reviews for this book.

 

My own reaction, however, after finishing the book, is still quite confusing. Perhaps it's because I was forewarned by the reviews what to expect, that it didn't really shock me as much as it might have.

 

On the one hand, I did think that Holt's writing is great, and I'd probably read another book by her, since a lot of people mentioned in the review that they generally loved her books, just not this one. And other than that particular 'incident' in the book, I thought the whole story was very interesting and that it was very well-written.

 

That 'incident' does leave me a little confused though, I wonder about the need for it, and I wonder about the rationalization that allowed Kate to forgive the Baron, I wonder why he had to do it in the first place. As I said, I wasn't very shocked because I was forewarned, and in fact, Holt's narrator, Kate, seems to downplay it quite a bit too, which makes it seem acceptable.

 

I'm not sure if I like the book, and I'm not sure that I don't. It seems this book was more like an 'intellectual study' of the controversy it aroused, than an actual romance book I could read and relax with. Although I didn't exactly study it intellectually, ok I'll admit it, it was more for the sake of satisfying my curiosity.

Authors and their comfort zones

Once upon a time there was an author who loved to write romance. She wanted all those happily ever after endings and when she sold her first two books she knew she was going to write more. When she wrote about the hero’s point of view in her first book she was told “you can’t do that” and she couldn’t understand why. Just as the heroine and hero couldn’t make love unless they had planned to get married very soon after and it was mentioned. So each time she was told “you can’t do that” she asked why and from then on, she did her best to break one or two “rules” and get away with it. Sometimes she did get away with it and sometimes she again heard “you can’t do that”.

She also knew she loved to write about things that go bump in the night and anything that couldn’t be properly explained. At first, she was told the paranormal ideas she had wouldn’t sell, but it didn’t stop her. After all, the time would come when she could write the books she well and truly loved to write.

So along the way she wrote about a psychic who watched a woman’s death through the murderer’s eyes, about a woman who hit 30 and had her dead parents come back with the intention of staying until she found the right man, about the daughter of a famous horror actor who lived in a house that had a few secrets and prompted questions of “could that be …?” About a woman who thought the life of a society belle was better than hers until she was killed and ended up in that woman’s body only to learn she was now a suspect in the belle’s fiancé’s death. Another woman who stumbled onto a small village that only appeared the month of December where Christmas was celebrated in a big way, a woman who almost gave up her life because she was slowly fading from life until she returned to her home town where no one knew her and a dark-natured homicide cop who has a long murdered woman haunting his house and he falls in love with her.

They were all practice works for what she really wanted to do. She wanted to leave that comfort zone and write a book that had all of those “you can’t do that” in it.

Thanks to a sassy witch named Jazz Tremaine, who’d been around for the last 700+ years, she was able to do just that. It wasn’t easy forgetting those old rules and just going for it, but she did it because the book deserved the absolute best she could give it. So this author worked hard, laughed, cried, sweated blood and discovered that writing about Jazz, Nick, Irma, and Fluff and Puff was the most fun she’d ever had. That author was me and the book was 50 Ways to Hex Your Lover.

Another form of living happily ever after since I’ve since sold three more books in my witch series. The second, Hex Appeal, will be out this November and Wicked By Any Other Name and Wishing You A Hexy Christmas in 2009.

It’s not easy writing outside your comfort zone. It’s like giving up that blankie that’s worn and soft and makes you feel better. But sometimes, jumping off that cliff and swimming through uncharted waters throws you into a whole new world that may be unfamiliar, but it can also be a lot of fun.

What about you? Do you like to venture into new territory or do you stay in your comfort zone?

Linda

Linda Wisdom, the author of the new paranormal romance, 50 Ways to Hex Your Lover, will be guest blogging here about her deliciously entertaining book this Monday, the 21st of April, so make sure you visit to see what she has to say.

50 Ways to Hex Your Lover features sassy witch Jazz Tremaine, her on-again, off-again sexy vampire lover, Nikolai Gregorivich, and of course, her always-hungry bunny slippers, Fluff and Puff, who are seriously adorable but dangerously quick to chomp on anything within the grasp of their sharp teeth.

The chemistry between Jazz and Nikolai sizzles throughout the book as they are forced to work together to stop a diabolical psycho who uses his powerful dark magick to steal vampires' and other magickal creatures' life forces.

Linda will blog more about the book on Monday, but I just want to say that it was one of the best and most entertaining paranormal romances I have ever read. All the characters are interesting and truly memorable, especially the annoying ghost Irma, Jazz's greedy employer Dweezil, and the truly foul Tyge Foulshadow. Nikolai is one vampire whose fangs I'd like to get on me, except that Jazz would kill me if I touched him, and I honestly wouldn't want her on my bad side.

Linda Wisdom's 50 Ways to Hex Your Lover is a real treat for witch and vampire lovers and it is full of fun and excitement on every single page. Read more about it this Monday when Linda guest blogs here.

I recently reviewed Linda Berdoll's Mr. Darcy Takes a Wife, which was her sequel to Jane Austen's classic, Pride and Prejudice. In the review, I mentioned that Berdoll's sequel was a maturation of Austen's original story, and that Berdoll gives us so much more of everything; drama, complexity, and even sex.

Berdoll's sequel to her sequel, Darcy & Elizabeth: Nights and Days at Pemberley, is a continuation from where we left off in Mr. Darcy Takes a Wife, and again, it gives us more of what we loved in the first sequel.

In Mr. Darcy Takes a Wife, we read about Elizabeth and Darcy's relationship as a married couple, Darcy's devotion to Elizabeth, Elizabeth's love for Darcy, and even the wild sex they have. And to spice it all up, there's all the trials and tribulations their notorious relations put them through in between, most notably the annoying ninny, Lydia and the despised blackguard, Wickham.

In the first sequel, we end the book with the knowledge that Wickham is in fact Darcy's half brother from one of their father's transgressions with the hired help. John Christie, whose mother had sexual relations with both Wickham and Darcy, turns out to be Wickham's illegitimate son, whom he later murders in cold blood during his desertion from the battlefield.

Wickham is believed to be dead by all, including his wife, Lydia, but we find out that he's well and alive before the book ends. At the same time, we also see that Georgiana, Darcy's sister, is in love with Fitzwilliam and has gone in pursuit of him to war, and Elizabeth faces her pregnancy alone and later gives birth to twins, while Darcy in turn, has gone in pursuit of Georgiana.

In Darcy & Elizabeth: Nights and Days at Pemberley, the sequel to Mr. Darcy Takes a Wife, we see how Elizabeth and Darcy adjust to life with their newborn twins, Georgiana and Fitzwilliam gets married, and Wickham returns from the dead. But what really makes this sequel exciting, is that Lydia, believing the reports of Wickham's death in battle, has already remarried, and John Christie's half sister, Sally Frances, is determined to find her brother's murderer and mete out her own brand of justice.

There is remarkable connectivity between the characters and how each one relates to another. What I like most about Berdoll's sequels are that every character, even the lowliest ones, play very important roles in the plot. Sometimes there might be a passing mention of a particular character we deem unimportant, and later we see the same character again, playing a larger role.

I am amazed by Berdoll's ability to flesh out complex and interesting characters and plot lines. There isn't a single boring passage in the book, even when the characters are only talking about mundane matters. Berdoll has an amazing grasp on understanding human nature and how to make the characters seem larger than life with their thoughts and motivations.

I really enjoyed the journey with Elizabeth and Darcy and all the Pride and Prejudice characters, and also with the new and very interesting characters, that Berdoll has taken me on. While I thought that Darcy & Elizabeth: Nights and Days at Pemberley ended perfectly, with every character getting just what they deserved(especially Wickham), I can't help but be a little sad that it ever had to end. If Berdoll ever decides to write a sequel to Darcy & Elizabeth: Nights and Days at Pemberley, you can be sure I'll be one of the first to acquire it.

Laurie Brown has written exactly the kind of romance novel I enjoy most in Hundreds of Years to Reform a Rake. It has humor, mystery, ghosts, history and romance all packaged up nicely into an enjoyable paranormal love story. What can I say? I'm a sucker for paranormal romance, and judging from the fact that paranormal romance is one of the bestselling romance subgenres, I'm not the only one.

Hundreds of Years to Reform a Rake tells the story of Josie Drummond, who is a modern career woman. In fact, she is a professional paranormal investigator, and she has been hired by the ghost of Deverell Thornton, the ninth Earl of Waite, to go back in time to when the earl was still living during the Regency period. She is to prove that Madame X, the medium Deverell's mother hired to contact her dead husband, is a dangerous charlatan who wants to swindle his mother out of the family fortune. Sounds intriguing already, doesn't it? Wait until you hear the rest of it.

Josie meets the living Earl of Waite, who of course has no idea who she really is, much less that it was his own ghost who brought her from the future, and predictably, they make each other's hormones rage. So amidst all the trials that Josie has to face, trying to unmask Madame X while at the same time pretending to fit in as a proper, respectable lady in the complicated scene of the Regency period, she and Deverell fall in love. Unfortunately, time is running out for the lovers, because the longer Josie stays in the past, the more she forgets about her future, and in the end she has to choose between her modern comfortable life as a professional, and life in the Regency period with Deverell. We all know how that's going to end, but the journey is so much fun.

As with most romance novels, and especially romances with paranormal elements, many things don't make perfect sense, I mean, Deverell's ghost has abilities that are way too out there for us to even try to believe. But then again, sense is never the point with romance novels. It's all about the romance; boy meets girl, girl meets boy, they fall in love and live happily ever after. The fun is in the telling of it, and Laurie Brown has done such a great job with Josie and Deverell's love story. Hundreds of Years to Reform a Rake is pure fun, great for a late weekend night read, or a rainy Sunday afternoon, or anytime you just feel like having a dose of romance. If you enjoy paranormal romance as much as I do, you'll enjoy Hundreds of Years to Reform a Rake.

I have read Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice only once quite recently, and I have seen the movie starring Keira Knightley twice. So I'm not a die-hard fan, but I did love both book and movie. How can anyone not fall in love with the charming, bold Elizabeth Bennet and the mysterious and sexy Mr. Darcy? Their love story is so romantic and entertaining, and the rest of the cast of characters and their antics are hilarious. I, like every other person who loved the story of Elizabeth and Darcy, was glad that they ended up together, but sad that the story ended there. If you're like me, you'd be hungry for a sequel to Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice because you'd just want to know what happens next.

Luckily for me, Linda Berdoll has written a beautiful sequel to Elizabeth and Darcy's romance with her book, Mr. Darcy Takes a Wife. In Pride and Prejudice, we see Elizabeth as a girl flowering into a young woman under Darcy's romantic pursuit of her. In Mr. Darcy Takes a Wife, we see Elizabeth's flower positively blooming when she becomes Mr. Darcy's wife.

Berdoll's sequel is a maturation of Austen's Pride and Prejudice in every sense of the word. It isn't just that the characters mature and evolve in this book (there are some exceptions, I fear Lydia will never mature), although I positively love Berdoll's portrayal of all the notable characters. Berdoll stays true to Austen's characterization, but she brings so much more. Pride and Prejudice is a flowering book, just as Elizabeth was a flowering girl in it, but Berdoll's sequel has bloomed into a beautiful epic.

Everything is more mature, more serious, more dramatic, more adult, more, more, more. Berdoll's sequel is just so much more of Austen's Pride and Prejudice. If you're an Austen purist and you're reading this, you're probably throwing rotten tomatoes at me in your head right now, but it's true, Mr. Darcy Takes a Wife is more! In fact, I'd say it's almost in the same league as Margaret Mitchell's Gone With the Wind. I wouldn't be exaggerating at all, and I would be covered in rotten tomatoes.

I guess this is one book where you will either love it or hate it. In my case, I loved it, which I think is great because it's so much better when you love books than when you hate them, don't you think? There were a few things which bothered me, like Berdoll's use of the language which sometimes didn't seem right to me, but it's not enough to take away from my enjoyment of the book. I loved Mr. Darcy Takes a Wife, and I want more! And being the lucky girl I am, there's more, because Berdoll has written a sequel to this sequel. I will be continuing the exciting story of Darcy and Elizabeth in Darcy & Elizabeth: Nights and Days at Pemberley. I can't wait!

Second Glance by Jodi Picoult

Date Started: 7th Mar 2007
Date Finished: 8th Mar 2007

Rating:

Jodi Picoult is one author who has a knack for writing about the most interesting stories. This one delves into the paranormal when a man who loses his wife tries to find ways to get back to her.

He has tried to commit suicide many times, but somehow he seems invincible. Maybe it's just not his time to go, or maybe there's something else at work. His search for the truth about afterlife leads him to an amazing discovery and impossible relationships.

How many women can a man be in love with at a time? Is he still in love with his dead wife? Can he romance a ghost? Or should he stick to the woman who's still alive?

It's a stimulating read, with a lot to think about, and definitely worth reading. There were a few minor details which bothered me a little as they seem a little far-fetched, like how can he not see that the woman was wearing clothes definitely from another era? It's not a big deal, though, so it doesn't spoil the whole book. But it did distract me a little.

I love Picoult's stories, they are always food for thought. I'm looking forward to reading more of her books.

My Three Husbands by Swan Adamson (308 pages)

Date Started: 15th Nov 2006
Date Finished: 16th Nov 2006

Rating:

My parents bought this book for me on their way back from the airport. I don't know if they're trying to tell me something... Are they hinting to me to find a husband? LOL!

This was a fun book, light and humorous. Taken in the context on its own, it's quite a good read. Obviously you can't compare it to the classics and other bestselling literature, but reading it as it was meant to be, just a light, fun read. It couldn't be better.

Venus Gilroy isn't a really your typical likable character, and you'll find her more than a little stupid and spoilt, but I found myself hoping the best for her in the end. Maybe I'm just a soft-hearted fool, but well, the best of us makes the stupidest mistakes too.

All in all, it's a good book to relax with at the beach or on vacation when you don't feel like using your brain too much. So read it and enjoy it, and then move on to the better books which give you more out of them.