Friday Book Trailer

Once again not an actual book trailer, but the trailer for the new show Vikings on the History channel.  I'm hoping that the series is really popular and creates a demand for more Viking romances Like Johanna Lindsey's Viking trilogy.

Here is the hauntingly beautiful opening credits of the show as well.

I have tried searching for some recent romance books on the Viking era but have not come across anything of interest yet.  So I think I am off to reread about the Haardrad family again.
  

Johanna Lindsey - One Heart To Win

Finally!  We move away from the Regency era to Montana in the 1880s.  Once again hoping the old Lindsey magic is evident in this novel because I couldn't even finish the last book.

Some young ladies marry for money and social standing, a few lucky ones marry for love—but Tiffany Warren is marrying to end a feud. Honoring her mother’s promise, Tiffany reluctantly travels west to meet her estranged father and his enemy’s eldest son, rancher Hunter Callahan. Once the Warrens and the Callahans are united by marriage, both clans will stop squabbling over a disputed strip of land. In the chaos of a train robbery Tiffany seizes a golden opportunity: By assuming the identity of her father’s new housekeeper she can live with the father she never knew and assess his true character, as well as that of the neighboring cowboy to whom she is betrothed. But, too late, Tiffany discovers that the rivalry between the Warrens and the Callahans has escalated when the Callahans steal the Warrens’ housekeeper as soon as she steps off the train! Now, Tiffany, who is pretending to be Jennifer Fleming, finds herself living in the enemy camp, under the same roof as her fiancé. All too soon she learns her intended is a handsome, sweet talking charmer whom she has to fight off because he can’t keep his eyes—or his hands—off Jennifer. After Tiffany’s charade is exposed she refuses to marry Hunter to end the feud. As Hunter goes about claiming his rightful bride-to-be, he knows that although he loves two women—proper, elegant Tiffany as well as spunky, passionate Jennifer—he has only one heart to win (Amazon).

Outlander TV Series

Oh my God!  Oh my God! Oh my God!  Oh my God! Oh my God!  Oh my God!  I need this to happen and I need it to happen now!  Apparently the Outlander series is one step closer to being made into a cable TV series.  You can read more about it here:  http://www.deadline.com/2012/07/ron-moore-to-adapt-outlander-novels-into-cable-tv-series/#more-302257

If they do this, it would work out perfectly if they did one season per book like they do with the Game of Thrones.  Only problem may be the casting, who could possible fill Jamie's shoes?  For now, I will have to make do with reading the books and waiting for the newest one to come out.

Used Bookstore

I went to my favourite used bookstore yesterday and found out that after 25 years they are closing.  What am I going to do??  This is the absolute best store in the city.  There are only a handful of other used bookstores around and they either do not have a good selection, of books, lack a romance section, or are poorly organized.  This place was perfect, they had almost a whole room devoted to romance novels, every book was on a shelf and in alphabetical order.  I could spend hours looking through the shelves for the perfect summer read.  It was here that I discovered Nora Roberts, Lisa Kleypas, and Sandra Brown.

The first time I went to this store I was about 13.  I can even remember one of the books I bought (and still have), it was Heather Graham's "A Pirate's Pleasure".  Over the years I would go sporadically, but in my early twenties I often went about once a week, especially during the summer break.  After a while I found that I gravitated to certain authors and would only go to the bookstore when a new book might have made it's way to the shelves.  I am hoping that another book lover will open a similar store with the attention to neatness.  For now, perhaps my summer will include trips to other local used bookstores to see if anything can come close in comparison.  On a positive note, I received over $50 in credit for the books I took to the store yesterday and the books they have left were 50% off the sticker price (which is already 50% of the selling price).

Review - The Witness by Nora Roberts

Elizabeth Fitch is tired of living her life by her mother’s strict rules. So the minute her mother leaves for a medical conference, Elizabeth is out the door and headed to the mall. One new wardrobe, one new BFF, and two new fake IDs later, Liz finds herself at Chicago’s hottest nightclub. But before the night is over, Liz will be a witness to murder, when Alex Gurevich, the nightclub owner, is eliminated by two of his business associates. Twelve years later, Liz, now living as Abigail Lowery, has built a new life for herself as a freelance computer-security programmer in Bickford, Arkansas. Abigail’s first and only priority is staying one step ahead of the Russian Mob, who has never stopped trying to get rid of the one living witness to Gurevich’s murder. The only problem is that Bickford’s new chief of police, Brooks Gleason, simply refuses to let her live in peace, and nothing Abigail says or does seems to convince him that she doesn’t need his help (Amazon).

This is Nora at the top of her game.  In fact I think it is the first novel since Three Fates  that I really enjoyed and want to read again.  My attention was riveted from the first sentence to the last page.  The whole book could have focused on Elizabeth/Abigail in the first year or two after the murder and I still would have read it.  I found Abigail's character to be believable in light of how she was raised, what happened to her and how she had to live.  Although at times her mannerisms and social skills made me think she was a little Autistic.  Not sure if she was, or if Roberts portrayed her that way to show how stunted her upbringing was and the lack of social connections she had before meeting Brooks.  Brooks seems to be the typical Beta male lead, a take charge type of guy that does so while considering the feelings of others.  I did find him to be pushy and overbearing at the beginning with Abigail.  But I let that go, because she was so reclusive, if brooks wasn't pushy, there would have been no love story.

There were no unexpected twits or turns in this novel, but I enjoyed it all.

Friday Book Trailer

Today I am posting a book trailer for a book I have not read yet.  But the video is absolutely hilarious.  It's Ellen "auditioning" for the Fifty Shades of Grey audiobook.  Everywhere I go, I am hearing about this book.  Everyone is talking about it, some reviews are great, others not so much.  I haven't decided if I am going to read it.  But that seems to be my MO with really popular books for some reason.  I waited until about 2000 before finally reading the Harry Potter series - and loved it.  Same with Diana Gabaldon, kept seeing her books at the store and would read the back cover.  But I would always put the book back and think I would get it next time.  Once I finally picked one of her books up, I was hooked.  Although the opposite happened with the Twilight series.  Everyone was telling me to read it, when I finally did I was disappointed.  So I am still on the fence about this book, but still find this video highly entertaining.



You might also want to check out the first 3 chapters of a parody, apparently this guy also has a book deal now http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13548945-fifty-one-shades.

Review - Rainshadow Road by Lisa Kleypas

Lucy Marinn is a glass artist living in mystical, beautiful, Friday Harbor, Washington.  She is stunned and blindsided by the most bitter kind of betrayal:  her fiancé Kevin has left her.  His new lover is Lucy’s own sister.   Lucy's bitterness over being dumped is multiplied by the fact that she has constantly made the wrong choices in her romantic life.   Facing the severe disapproval of Lucy's parents, Kevin asks his friend Sam Nolan, a local vineyard owner on San Juan Island, to "romance" Lucy and hopefully loosen her up and get her over her anger. Complications ensue when Sam and Lucy begin to fall in love, Kevin has second thoughts, and Lucy discovers that the new relationship in her life began under false pretenses. Questions about love, loyalty, old patterns, mistakes, and new beginnings are explored as Lucy learns that some things in life—even after being broken—can be made into something new and beautiful (Amazon).

For the most part I would say that I liked this book, but I didn't love it, and at points I was cringing.  What I liked about the book:  Lucy and Sam were enjoyable characters that had chemistry together.  Although the Amazon blurb leads one to believe that there is a "big misunderstanding" with how they start dating, in actuality Sam tells Lucy right away about Kevin setting them up.  I found this a refreshing way to deal with the plot rather than Kleypas relying on a hidden secret only to bring it out later for drama.

What I didn't like: the book seemed to waffle between being a contemporary romance and chick lit.  When it read as romance I found the story flowed more and had more chemistry.  When it read as chick lit, I lost interest and skimmed the pages.  Although Lucy and Sam had chemistry, I would characterize the romance in this book as subtle.  I much prefer Kleypas' books that have steamier love scenes.  There is also a paranormal element to the story involving Lucy's ability to change glass into butterflies and Sam's ability to grow plants.  I didn't really see a need for the magic.  It felt like it was placed in the book as an after thought.  Overall, not one of Lisa Kleypas' best efforts.  If you are looking for a meatier romance try one of her historicals or the contemporary Texas trilogy.

Johanna Lindsey's Let Love Find You Cover

It's finally here.  Well the cover, not the actual book.  I had my first look at the cover for Johanna Lindsey's new book Let Love Find You.



What do you think?  It doesn't really grab my attention.  Well, maybe the floating scarf spewing out of her chest does.  Overall, I find the cover lackluster and the storyline unappealing.  I will definitely be borrowing this from the library.