Newspapers? That's for old people!l

Oh the conversations you will hear when Story Time lets out and kids are extra loud in a small library....

Girl (about 3 years old) LOOK! Those are newspapers!

Brother (4 or 5 years old) Old people read newspapers.

Dad (very embarrassed because the whole library heard this): No, no no. Smart people read newspapers.

Brother: No, dad. Old people read newspapers



Boy has a point...

Summer of Smutty Reads: Harlequin Present

   In the last post I admitted my guilt pleasure of reading Johanna Lindsey novels. Since my summers are known as “Summer of Smutty Reads” (where I usually indulge myself in trashy romance novels...how else do you suggest I survive Summer Reading?), I have decided to admit another guilt pleasure: Harlequin Presents.

    If you have never read them, don’t worry there is a pretty basic format. Super rich billionaire (or some foreign equally rich prince) who has either lost his wife, girlfriend, fiance  or perspective female in one way or another. In whatever way he has lost her, it has caused him to despise her and he is usually seeking her out for revenge or divorce. Throw in a pregnancy or a baby or some deep dark family secrets. And don’t forget to throw in a few bullying/blackmail scenes where our “hero” is forcing the female character to bend to him. Usually this is added because the female character is scared that the super rich hero will take away their child that she has mysterious kept hidden or will refuse to grant her a divorce. You get the idea?

    Gosh, after writing that I am beginning to question why I read this stuff. Oh, yeah…because they are addicting and pure brain candy. I can read a Harlequin Presents novel by reading maybe a paragraph each page. So why do that? I like the simplicity of the stories. You know what you are going to get. Yes, they are very cookie cutter, but sometimes that predictability is nice when you just want to turn off you brain.

    Though I am confessing this love of Harlequin Presents to you doesn’t mean I am ready to start placing HP on hold at my local library. Remember, I work in a library? Ah, the ridicule and teasing. No thank you. Nor do I want to pay $3.59 at Walmart. Buying them used is too much trouble. So how do I get my grubby hands on them? Netgalley.

    If you have an e-reader and haven’t heard of Netgalley, shame on you! It is a great site that solely deals in e-book ARC (Advance Reader Copy). I can usually get 5 or 6 HP at a time and that will tie me over for a few months. In exchange for the ARC I will give an honest review. Normally, I write a couple of sentences because that is usually the extent of a HP. No long in depth reviews because HP aren’t really that deep in my opinion. I still love them though.

    I will usually give 3 to 4 stars on Goodreads for a HP. 5 stars for a HP is very rare. Like Halley’s Comet rare. I have easily read hundreds of HP and I can count on one hand the number I have given 5 stars too.

   That being said, I wanted to mention a HP that I recently acquired from Netgalley, Princess in the Iron Mask by Victoria Parker. This is Ms. Parker’s debut novel. Here is a summary of the book from Goodreads:

A princess in hiding

   Dispatched by the king to retrieve his headstrong, errant daughter, Lucas Garcia thought this was just another day at the office. That's before he meets Princess Claudine Verbault, who's adamant that returning to the kingdom that banished her as a child is never going to happen.

A barely concealed attraction!

   Hidden from the spotlight, the now-independent Claudia has learned the art of being the anti-perfect princess. But Lucas does not look like the kind of man to accept insubordination! If only she could bargain with this frustratingly immovable man and give him something to distract him from his duty.

    While the summary is a little bland, I decided to give this a try. I was extremely surprised to find myself drawn in by the characters of Claudia and Lucas. Their dialog and chemistry are a perfect combination to keep you invested in the story. Ms. Parker was able to do what a lot of HP writers can’t do. In 185 pages, she had you fully invested in these characters. I really wish she would have focused more on Claudia’s family and their back story. There is a big rift between Claudia and her family and it was a golden opportunity to take this HP one step further. There was actually a lot of potential for this story to be drawn out. In fact I could easily see Princess in the Iron Mask as being a full fledged contemporary romance novel. Kudos to Victoria Parker for creating a unique set of characters and for constructing a HP novel that goes above and beyond the standard. 

SIDENOTE: Are the covers absolutely terrible? Terribly awesome that is. I love cookie cutter covers. I just don't know where to start when making fun of them. Don't get my started on Amish Romance covers.....

My Love Affair with Johanna Lindsey

         

      We all have our guilty pleasure authors. Authors, no matter how terrible their material may have gotten over the years, we are still loyal to. I have always loved reading but my love of romance novels can be pretty much summed up with one author: Johanna Lindsey. The first book I ever read by Lindsey was Gentle Rogue (Malory Family #3). I picked this up at the grocery store when I was in junior high. I had just started reading romance novels, but nothing prepared me for Johanna Lindsey. Gentle Rogue hooked me in forever. Georgina’s and James adventures, family,  and love story captured my inner romantic. I became addicted to her novels. This was right when the Internet was really taking off for the masses so I began scouring whatever I could find on her works. Since I was in middle school when all this started, I was too embarrassed to check out her novels at my local library (this was waaaay before the days of the privacy of self-check out). I had to get my mom to get them at the grocery store or dig through boxes at my local used bookstore. When I discovered Ebay, I was in Johanna Lindsey heaven! 

           So what makes Johanna Lindsey’s writing so wonderful in my opinion? Her characters. All are filled with their own unique characteristics and the way she compliments each couple with pinches of humor, steaminess, and chemistry is utterly awesome. 

       Over the years, I have eagerly awaited every new novel. I always manage to be the first on the hold list at my library or will abuse my librarian power to have cataloging give me the book before anyone else.

       About a year ago, my book club read One Summer by David Baldacci. This was my first Baldacci book so I was very intrigued to see what all the fuss was about. I read it and  I loathed this book. By page 10 I wanted to gouge my eyes out at the predicable and terrible storyline. I ended up discussing my disgust with the person who recommended this book to the club. He said that everyone has that one author who they will read everything they put out because you remember that feeling of how amazing their work can be. This really struck a cord with me because I had been pretty disappointed in the last 3 Johanna Lindsey novels: Let Love Find You (Reid Family #4)  (2012), When Passion Rules  (2011), and That Perfect Someone (2010). All earned 3 stars according to my Goodreads. Each deserved a 2 but my love and dedication to Ms. Lindsey’s previous work guilted my conscience into giving each that last additional star.

     So when I read that her 50^th novel would be coming out this year (6/11/13), I was excited. I prayed that she stepped it up and would return with a comeback novel that would make me fall in love with her writing all over again.

      Once I discovered One Heart To Win on the processing cart yesterday in the cataloger’s office I begged for her to immediately process it. I went straight home and dived right in. To my joy, I discovered that the Johanna Lindsey I remember was coming back! Though it wasn’t up to par with my favorites, One Heart To Win did a great job of stomping over Ms. Lindsey’s recently novels. The characters had chemistry, humor, and a wonderful sparkling repartee.

     Though it was a well improved step above her recent works, Ms. Lindsey did forget one teeny tiny part in One Heart To Win: the sex.  No I’m not saying that Ms. Lindsey went all conservative on me and left out the sex. The characters do have sex…well I’m pretty sure they did…it was super short (about one paragraph) and so vague I had to reread that one scene a few times to make sure I comprehended what was going on. I’m not saying that Lindsey’s work is up there with the descriptiveness of some of today’s erotica, but it definitely wasn’t flatlining either. I was quite surprised that Lindsey just copped out on this. I felt that by skipping a love scene(s) Lindsey was shortchanging her fans. Don’t get me wrong, I still stand by my statement that this novel is a definite improvement over her recent ones. Cake is still good without the icing, but icing always makes it so much better.

      Every summer, I completely forget everything on my to-be read list and indulge in nothing but smutty romances. My summer, I do what I want! That being said, I have included a list of my favorite Johanna Lindsey novels. If you never have read anything by Ms. Lindsey I encourage you to dive on in. Though she has had her ups and downs, most of her novels are truly wonderful and I cannot recommend them enough.

  

     Enjoy!

Top Favorite Johanna Lindsey Novels

1. Gentle Rogue(Malory #3) – Though this is the 3^rd in the series, you can easily figure out the family structure without reading in order.
2. Once  A Princess (Cardinia’s Royal Family #1)
3. Man of My Dreams
4. Paradise Wild
5. Tender Rebel(Malory #2)
6. Secret Fire
7. Fires of Winter
8. You Belong To Me(Cardinia’s Royal Family #2)
9. Angel (Wyoming #3)
10. Prisoner of My Desire
11. A Gentle Feuding
12. Glorious Angel(Southern #1)
13. Captive Bride 

Who has time for that? Not me.

Part of my job as Reference Librarian is to scan documents for people with my simple desk scanner. It doesn't happen often. Maybe once or twice a week, so I really don't mind.

Soon after I started a woman called asking if I would scan a 22 page document for her. I promptly said no because that would take  me FOREVER. She was not happy, but this taught me a valuable lesson....to set a page limit. My staff knows I won't scan more that 5 pages, but I will do up to 7 if the person is nice.

The other day, I get a call from a woman and this is how the conversation went....

Patron: Hi,...um do you have a scan and could possibly scan something for me?

Me: Sure.

Patron: REALLY? (she was super happy which set off tons of alarms for me) Great!

Me: Wait! How many pages to you have (I have learned to usually ask this first but I forgot)

Patron: Just 67.

She wasn't too happy when I said no and directed her to Kinkos.

Just like twilight?

Earlier today I had a woman come up and asked me to put a few books on hold for her. It turned out that these books all belonged to different series and she was getting them all out of order. Luckily, I have a librarian's best friend ready to sort all this out: Goodreads

We were able to figure out which books she needed to read first. While looking at the series, I noticed that they were all paranormal romances with strong female characters. I decided this is the perfect opportunity to share my new found love of Jeaniene Frost, who is the insanely talented author of the Night Huntress series.

This series and Frost's other works have consumed my live since January. I have even started pre-ordering her books. Yup. That is how you know I love an author...spending money on them.

Anyways, I started booktalking the Night Huntress series, especially the first book Halfway to the Grave.

Here is how the story went....

Me: I don't think I can rave enough about Halfway to the Grave. Cat is such a badass (sidenote: I may not have used the term "badass" since I was at work, but you get the idea). She is half human half vampire, but her mission in life is to kill as many vampires as possible.

Patron: (very excited) Ooooh, so it is like Twilight?

Me: (shocked) What? No!

This totally caught me off because I sure don't remember saying anything about a spineless female character who decides to forgo everything she has in life to follow such a pathetic excuse for man/vampire as Edward.

Who knows if she will decide to read it, but after comparing it to Twilight, I don't know if she deserves the awesomeness of Cat/Bones and eventually...Vlad. *swoon*.

Also, for those who do read Jeaniene Frost, can we all just agree that Twice Tempted (Night Prince #2) is just beyond delicious? (sidenote #2, is delicious an okay term for a book?) I left a concert early because I couldn't wait to get home and read my just delivered copy of the second installment in the Vlad/Leila story. Don't judge me....look at this cover!

See? Delicious. 

Forget the Chicken or the Egg...

Patron: Excuse me, which came first...Word 2007 or Word 2010?

Me: >_<

Plethora of Reviews

Sorry for the lack of reviews lately. I have been reading like crazy (mostly romance…brain candy), but I haven’t really had the time to sit down and type something out. The new job is going great but I hit the ground running from the moment I walk in the door until it is time to leave. Don’t ask me what I do, because half the time I can’t even remember. I am just busy. There is always something to do and I love it!

Ok, now back to the books. Like I mentioned, I have been reading a ton of romance novels. Why? Because they are like potato chips…once you take one, you have to have 20. I can easily devour these books without batting an eye. Also, my love life is going pretty awesome, so I have no problem reading about other people falling in love. Finally, I love them. Guilty pleasure! I started reading them in junior high school and I have been addicted ever since.

Let me tell you about some of the books I have read lately, the good, the bad and what’s currently being read.

The Good:
Actually, scratch that good out and let’s make this the great part. I am in two book clubs, one full of my library friends and the one I use to run at my old job. In the library book club we recently read Silas House’s A Parchment of Leaves, an adult fiction book. The person who took over the group just raved and raved about the book. I liked the fact that had 200 pages or so, but once I started reading I fell in love with Vine, the main character, House’s writing style, and the novel as a whole. The elegance and sorrow which House writes with can only be described as absolutely beautiful. This book reminded me a lot of Cutting for Stone (just minus 400 pages.) I cannot rave enough about this book and I hope this snippet inspires you to check it out!

The Meh:
Eh, more so “the not so great”. Life is too short for bad books, but sometimes you are asked to judge a competition. This is the first time I have ever judge a competition, so I went in with an opened mind. No prejudging based on the cover or the genre. I just finished The Fairest Beauty by Melanie Dickerson, a YA Christian book. First off, ahhhhmazing cover. Just beautiful. I know tons of young adults are going to pick this book up based solely on the cover. Another great thing going for it? It is a Snow White retelling. That is two great reasons to pick up this book. This is not a modern day retelling of Snow White, but the author does add a fresh spin to the love story that will grab readers’ attentions just to see how it pans out. Other than that interesting angle, the storyline and the characters were pretty two dimensional.

The Impressive:
Another one of the books I judge was Caught on Camera by Kim Law. The premise is that a video photographer has to score an in depth interview with a playboy politician to save her job. But everyone has secrets they want to stay buried…even video photographers. Anyway, I thought it would be a fairly decent contemporary romance, but I was very impressed with the characters’ depth and growth. Also, great dialog. Definitely a pleasant read!

The Funny:
One of my old coworkers recently held a program, “Best Books of 2012” which focused on the best picture books, juvenile books, and juvenile nonfiction books of 2012. I happened to be at the library when the program was happening so I went. First off, she book talked over 100 books. Serious props to her for being able to talk that much. The program was definitely interesting and she gave everyone who attended a couple of free books. There was one particular book that her book talk sold me on. Charlie Joe Jackson’s Guide to Extra Credit by Tommy Greenwald is a HILARIOUS juvenile fiction book. Charlie Joe’s antics and situations had me laughing out loud! The illustrations aren’t as comical as other popular books (DOAWK), but Charlie Joe comedic timing was superb. I can’t recommend this book enough!

The Bad:
I haven’t really read anything bad lately, given one exception. I have been seeing a ton of advertisements for Are You My Mother? By Alison Bechdel, so I thought why not give it a shot. It is nonfiction and a graphic novel, both of which I love. Maybe I should have read Fun Home first, but I went in blindly. There aren’t many books I hate, but this book is one of them. Why? I could not connect with the author at all. I thought the book was whiney, tedious, pretentious, and self obsessed. Yeah, I know that is kind of harsh, but that is how I feel. I thought, “maybe I am missing something….everyone else seems to love it.” Well there is always going to be one person who doesn’t and for this book, that is me. If someone can give me a better argument for this book, please do. I wanted to like it, but well…see above.

The Delightful:
I went back to my goodreads to see what I wrote after reading The Secret History of the Pink Carnation by Lauren Willig and all I had was “delightful.” And it truly was. This book was raved about by a friend and like I said I have been reading tons of romance lately. This historical romance was filled with intrigue and intellect. The dialog between the two main sets of characters was quirky and fun. I often caught myself grinning from ear to ear while reading this novel. I can’t wait to get my hands on the second in the series, The Masque of the Black Tulip, if someone would ever turn their copy in! Pesky patrons.

Audiobooks:
Well, I have finally gotten back into audiobooks. Ok, I am a snob when it comes to audiobooks. I prefer nonfiction audiobooks (mainly written by women) and read by the author. See? Not picky at all! I truly cannot tell you why I checked out My Lucky Live in and out of Show Business by Dick Van Dyke. I grew up watching Diagnosis Murder and The Dick Van Dyke show, so I have always been a fan. But when the book was released last year, I really had no inclination to check it out. Since I have a slightly longer drive to work now and I have decided to stop listening to the music on the radio (it is crap and I feel my brain rotting), audiobooks seem like a good idea. I still have no idea what prompted me to search to see if Van Dyke was the reader of his autobiography, but when I found he was I immediately placed my hold. This man has an amazing voice that is nothing short of enthralling. I do not think I would love his story as much as I do if I had read the book. The fact that he is the reader completely sells it.

Completely Taken Over My Life:
Last year, at the Southern Magic Romance Writer’s Luncheon the guest speaker was Sherrilyn Kenyon, who I had heard of but never read. I tried getting a hold of Fantasy Lover which is the first in her Dark-Hunter series, but was unable to before the luncheon. That coupled with the fact that I was broke is why I decided not to go. I wish I had, but alas. Well, I decided to get a running start on next year’s luncheon. I found out that Jeaniene Frost was the speaker at the 2013 Luncheon in November. I got a copy of Halfway to the Grave, which is the first in her Night Hunter series. It took a little while to get it because it had several holds. I am half way through it now and I love it. I love kick ass heroines and Cat is definitely one of them. It reminds me a lot of the Fever series by Karen Marie Moning, which consumed my life during the fall. I got the second book, One Foot in the Grave, and tore through it in one night. I bought the 3rd, 4th, and 5th in the series at the local used bookstore. Can’t wait!

Short but Awesome:
Though it is pretty new, Legion by Brandon Sanderson is a hard read to find. Great thing is that if you find it, it is a super short read (80 easy pages or so) and it is fresh, fun, and a change of pace. The main character, Stephen Leeds AKA Legion, is sometimes classified as a schizophonic or a genius. His halluncinations are the real geniuses though. Each brings their own special talents that help Leeds solve cases like Sherlock. This quick read is definitely worth a try…if you can get a hold of it.