Archive for April, 2008

The Last of GBGA IV

Friday, April 25th, 2008


We’re most of the way through the bag of books now. I have some that will be more appropriate come Christmas, and a few others that I’ll give away as time goes on, but this will be our last week of the Great Book Give-Away for now.

In June I’ll be away for a week, so maybe I can do my posts ahead of time and give away books that week.

Anyway, for now, the last, but certainly not the least of the Great Books is Ginna Gray‘s In Search of Dreams, a Silhouette Special Edition. I tend, you may have noticed, not to read a lot of category series books.

Well, I read some, but mostly I try to read outside the field I write in. But I have long made an exception for Ginna Gray. Ginna writes from the heart. Her characters always touch an emotional chord for me. Plus she writes about the west, and that’s always a draw.

In Search of Dreams tells the tale of J. T. Conway and Kate Mahoney. It’s been so long since I read it that I can’t tell you the details at all. But I know it touched me because I’ve hung onto it for nearly eight years!

So there you have this week’s group:

  • Morrigan’s Cross by Nora Roberts
  • Charming Grace by Deborah Smith
  • Four In Hand by Stephanie Laurens
  • Promise Me Tomorrow by Candace Camp
  • In Search of Dreams by Ginna Gray

Make a comment sometime this week and Gunnar will find a treat with your name on it. If you are the first one he picks, you get the books.

He thinks we should keep this going indefinitely. He says there are still waaaaaay too many books in this house and he’d be happy to find them new homes — particularly if treats are involved.

I say, enough. For now.

I need to focus on Seb and Neely’s frogs this week. The missing in action Chapter Eight is about to hop into view (I hope). And tomorrow I’m going to a genealogical conference which should be fun — and instructive. So I need to focus.

Stay tuned. Gunnar will be back tomorrow night with the winner.

Long Time Favorite

Thursday, April 24th, 2008


Back in the dark ages — well, the 1980s — when I was first getting started reading — and writing — romances, I found a few authors whose books were automatic reads.

One of the earliest among them was Candace Camp, who at the time was writing historicals as Lisa Gregory and contemporaries as Kristen James. It didn’t matter what she wrote, I read it. And I loved them all.

To my way of thinking her Kristen James book, The Sapphire Sky, is one of the best contemporary single title romances of all time. I read it often, and it never loses its intensity or its charm. And Nick, ne’er-do-well that he is, is one of my favorite heroes.

And her Rainbow Season, written as Lisa Gregory, is probably in my top three all-time favorite historicals.

Dynamite books, emotional blockbusters, both of them. She’s well worth watching out for. And she’s now written fifty or so more terrific books.

One of them is Promise Me Tomorrow. Writing now under her own name, Candace Camp, she tells the story of beautiful thief, Marianne Cotterwood, and Justin, Lord Lambeth, the man who is trying to figure her out.
Promise Me Tomorrow is a delightful book of engaging characters and secrets galore.

Do you have favorites from years ago that you go back to? Which are they?

Regency Romp

Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008


I love regency novels. Of course Jane Austen is a favorite — particularly Persuasion and, of course, Pride and Prejudice, though I’ve never felt the same warmth for Emma.

I’m also extremely fond of Georgette Heyer and have a collection of the new Arrow editions of her books (which are not in my bag of ‘finding new homes for’). Sorry about that.

But today’s book is a delightful regency romp by talented, clever, witty NYT-Bestselling author, Stephanie Laurens, called Four In Hand.

And no, she’s not referring to horses.

The title refers to the four stunningly attractive, perfectly delightful Twinning sisters — including the irresistible Caroline — whose guardianship it befalls Max Rotherbridge, the Duke of Twyford, to inherit.

Max, a regency rake of the first order, is not given to “guarding” women’s virtue. He would very much like to bed, not wed, the delectable Caroline. But even a rake like Max knows that isn’t in the cards.

On the contrary, it’s his duty to protect her from men such as himself. It’s his duty to protect all the Twinning sisters from unprincipled men and bad alliances. Max has his work cut out for him.

I found Four in Hand to be absolutely delightful. If you like regency romps, I’ll bet you like this one.

# # # #

Lovely HM&B medical author Margaret McDonogh has just sent me a picture of a frog she stumbled across.

She says that, given the look on his face, he could be my Missing In Action Frog #8.

Margaret has a good eye for resemblances. It is my frog indeed. Though why he also reminds me of Jack Nicholson, I’m hard pressed to say.

Oh, and IF I get my book done by May 1, I get to go to visit youngest grandchild who is now crawling like a Marine from room to room. Such a talented girl.