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28 Days of Heart Campaign

I was incredibly flattered to be asked by All Romance eBooks (an organization that I've recently begun supporting with WAY too much money) to participate in their 28 Days of Heart campaign, which will raise both funds and awareness of Heart Disease, something that certainly has hit my family.

Here are the details on the campaign:
Beginning February 1, 2010, ARe, the digital bookseller that owns All Romance and OmniLit, will release one new novella per day for twenty-eight consecutive days. All proceeds from the sale of these shorts, which will be offered exclusively on AllRomance.com and OmniLit.com as individual eBooks, will be donated to the American Heart Association.

How awesome is that??

Anyway, in addition, they are interviewing a variety of romance reviewers, and they asked me to be part of the group, which is incredibly flattering.

My interview can be found here, along with those of some seriously kick ass bloggers, all of whom I follow!

If you're at all an eBook reader, please consider supporting this worthy and wonderful cause!

To Infinity & Beyond...Again

It's pre-launch week. Space Shuttle Endeavour is scheduled to launch at 4:39 AM EST on February 7th. It's the last night launch for the Shuttle program, which is kind of cool.

Know what's less cool?? 4:39 AM.

On Super Bowl Sunday. It's totally fine though. I'm not bitter.

Not at all.

Anyway, it's doubtful there will be any blog-love from me until I get back from the launch on Monday, February 8. 'Til then, y'all behave!

In Which Kati Ponders...Things

Good morning, Everyone! Hope that each of you is having a good week. I have a bunch of random randomness today.

TV: I checked my DVR last night, I have twelve, count them twelve episodes of TV on it that need to be watched. And that's after I watched Private Practice (why am I sticking with this show when it's perfectly wretched?!) and an episode of The Big Bang Theory last night. I also just read that How I Met Your Mother was renewed for a sixth season. Is anyone else starting to really think it's time to, you know, actually MEET the mother?

Reading: Truth, I've got a review due at the end of this week, and I'm not enjoying the book at all. It's not that it's not well written. Oh no, it is gorgeously crafted. I just...don't really enjoy the author's style. Which means the review is going to be tough for me to write. Unless my level of interest in the story increases. Anyway. To combat the listlessness I feel about this book, I keep picking up OTHER books. First was Kristan Higgins' new release The Next Best Thing. I quite enjoyed it. But it's not my favorite by her. I believed the heroine's issues, but DAMN the hero was perfect and she was all "no thanks, I'm good" which I found frustrating (as usual). Now I'm finally reading Hard to Hold by Stephanie Tyler. And no surprise, I find the hero, Jake to be delicious. I love, love, love me some Navy SEALs. Thank goodness I've got the second book sitting on my shelf.

eReader: My eReader should be delivered tomorrow (Hurray!). I can't wait to load up a couple of ebooks on it and get to reading. First will be Archangel's Kiss by Nalini Singh (smooches to Nalini for sending it to me early). I'm beside myself to get started. I'll be playing with it all weekend, I'm quite sure.

Movies: I withstood ALL the Twilight drama, refusing to pay good money to see it in the theater or to rent it on Pay-per-View. But it's now on Showtime. I see a viewing of it in my very near future. I really enjoyed the first book, so I'm expecting to enjoy the movie too. Plus, I loves me some broody teen angst.

What's going on with you guys? Anything good? What are you reading?

SAG Awards Red Carpet Grades

Wow! We haven't done these in a while. I skipped doing the Globes altogether. But the SAG Awards is my favorite awards show because it's only actors and the speeches tend to be funny and irreverent. Plus, the fashion is usually tons of fun. And I love the "My name is _____, and I'm an actor" intros before the show.

Anyway, we had some very good fashion for the SAGs with only a couple of misses (by two lovely women), so on to the fashion:

I thought Christina Applegate's dress was truly lovely. Gorgeous color, fitted perfectly, showing the appropriate amount of skin and just beautiful.
Grade: A

I find Diane Kruger to be very hit or miss. Besides the fact that she does have delicious arm candy (Joshua Jackson), she can sometimes go a little far out. This dress is lovely. Beautifully fitted and she looks very statuesque in it. I'm not sold on the color, but think that it probably doesn't translate as well in photos as it did live.
Grade: A-

ETA! I totally forgot Christina Hendricks. This dress was actually chosen by fans. This isn't the most flattering picture of her, but she looked absolutely luscious in it.
Grade: A

Again, not completely sold on this dress. It's a little matronly to me, for someone who is as stunningly beautiful as Sandra Bullock. But I love seeing her get all the recognition for her role in The Blind Side. And I can't wait to see what she has in store for us at the Oscar's.
Grade: B

I think this dress hits Penelope Cruz funny. It's in a spot that makes her look a little squat, which she certainly is not. I like the cocktail-y feel of it, and I think the shoes are lovely. But overall, it gets a "Meh" from me.
Grade: C+

She's young, and she has a glorious body, but I just don't understand why Anna Pacquin is constantly in the plunging necklines. This one in particular left me a bit cold. The shoes are fantastic with the dress. But again, I dunno, I just, didn't love it.
Grade: C+

I think this dress is risky. The fabric is such that every bump and nook and cranny shows. And there was a shot from behind Kate Hudson on stage where I was like, "Her ass looks kind of lumpy", which of course, it's not. I like the look of it, and I think that it's lovely, I just wish the fabric had been of a different material.
Grade: C +

I think Julianna Margulies must be kind of shocked at how well The Good Wife is being received. It's one of my favorite new shows on TV. But I'm irritated with the fact that she continues to choose dresses that do nothing to flatter her seriously bangin' bod. This dress is just wrong. Good color, wrong fabric, weird neckline = Unflattering
Grade: D+

Memo to Carey Mulligan: Contact Keira Knightly's stylist immediately. No seriously. Because even if you don't love Keira Knightly, the girl knows how to dress on a red carpet. This dress looks like she pulled the curtains down from her living room windows and attached a brooch to them. It's a very, very bad look on a tiny, waiflike girl who is definitely adorable.
Grade: D-

Oh Julie Bowen. Oh Julie. What am I going to do with you? This dress is unflattering in the extreme. Did you buy it off the rack? Is that why it's fitted so badly to your bod? Which I happen to know, having just seen you in your undies in last week's episode of Modern Family, is FANTASTIC! So, why? Why would you do this to yourself?
Grade: F

Drew Barrymore is known for doing a "look" on the red carpet. And I sort of get what she's going for here. But doesn't her dress look a bit like the rings of Saturn? And did she have sex in the limo on the way over? Why does her hair look so bad. I'm just, at a loss.
Grade: WTF?

And there you have it. My Red Carpet wrap up.

What fashions did you like from the SAG Awards? Who did I miss?

In Which Kati Sucumbs to the Pressure

I finally did it.

Today I bought a Sony eReader Pocket Edition (the pink one, of course). I figured to start small. I'm not even sure how I'll like this e-book thing. I've read a few e-books, but always on my computer, which I've always found ponderous. So this is a new leaf for me. I popped over to the Sony site this morning and discovered they were having a sale until tomorrow. So the eReader that would normally cost $199 was discounted to $179. It was serendipity.

So now I enter the world of the e-book sophisticates. I'd imagine I'll spend some time this weekend perusing Calibre and pouring over Teddy Pig's site to figure out what the heck it is I'm doing. I can hardly wait to get started! Yay!

So, eReader sophisticates, what advice do you have for me? Any programs I should check out immediately? Any other advice? Do you have an eReader? And if so, which one? And do you love it?

To Have & To Hold by Patricia Gaffney - A Review(-ish)

I mentioned before that I love romance Top 100 lists. Not too long ago, Dear Author's Reviewers chose their Top 100 romances. Number one on the list was To Have & To Hold by Patricia Gaffney. This is a book I'd been hearing about for literally years, but still hadn't picked up. I found a copy on Half.com and bought it, thinking I'd finally have an opportunity to see what the hoopla was all about.

The book, published in 1995, has a definite old school feel to it. First, there is a rape in it. No, this is definitely NOT forced seduction. The hero absolutely rapes the heroine. It is an act of power, and an act of sheer brutality. He does it because he can. And it's harrowing to read. Second, the story is completely character driven. There is quite a conflict between the characters, but there is no ancillary nonsense going on. It is strictly a love story, which is wonderful. Third, and I think most compelling for me, is the redemption of the hero. Sebastian Verlaine is a Very Bad Man. And the route that Gaffney takes to attempt to redeem him is one that was fascinating to read.

Cover Blurb:

Suave, cynical, and too handsome for his own good, Sebastian Verlaine never expects to become a magistrate judging the petty crimes of his tenants and neighbors. Nor can the new Viscount D’Aubrey foresee that, when a fallen woman appears before him, he’ll find himself beguiled against all reason to alter her terrible fate....

Rachel Wade has served time in prison for her husband’s violent death, but she soon discovers that freedom has its own price. For no one will offer her a second chance but a jaded viscount who needs a housekeeper. Scorned by the townspeople of Wyckerley as D’Aubrey’s mistress, tempted beyond her will by the devilish lord, Rachel risks all she had to claim a life of her own...and a love that will last for all time.

When we first meet Sebastian Verlaine, he is doing everything he can to get rid of his current mistress. You see, she bores him. Pretty much everything in his life bores him. And the less interested he is in anything, the more dangerous and nasty the games he plays become. He's decided to travel to Wyckerley, to his seat, Lynton Hall. But first, he will act as magistrate in Wyckerley's court of law. Not because he has any interest of course, but because it might relieve a measure of the boredom he seems to feel constantly. Sebastian sits through a variety of small trials, realizing that no, the court of law certainly did not distract him, he might be even more disinterested now than he was when he started. Until the last trial. Mrs. Rachel Wade's trial.

Rachel is has been released after 10 years in prison, but is arrested again for indigence. She claims to have been robbed of her money, and was returned to Wyckerley, the site of her first trial to stand trial again. Sebastian is immediately fascinated by this woman. She's tall and thin, she has dark hair, except for a thick strand of gray at her temple. She refuses to make eye contact, she's practically concave, she's so determined not to offer any offense. More than that, she shows absolutely no emotion. She's a blank slate. And with that, Sebastian finds his newest distraction. He decides to take her into his custody as his housekeeper. There she'll work off her fine and report to the sheriff once a week to check in on her parole. But more than that, Sebastian will seduce her, and toy with her, and make her his entertainment.

Rachel is fully cognizant of his plan. She realizes that by accepting the posting, she will be subject to both Sebastian's whims and to his use of her body. She feels she has no other choice, despite the fact that she has no experience as a housekeeper. She agrees to his offer, and they travel to Lynton Hall.

They begin a tortuous relationship, with Sebastian constantly pushing Rachel to do things that make her uncomfortable, constantly trying to break down that facade of emotionlessness. It's all a game to him. Except that there is the tiniest inkling of interest in him, which of course, he squashes.

Rachel suffers from nightmares about prison. One night, when she wakes from one, she goes to the library to find the dullest book possible to put her to sleep. Sure enough, the book works, but when she awakes, moments after falling asleep Sebastian is there. And with little to no feeling he tells her that it's time. And then he rapes her. The scene is brutal, horrible, and truly shocking. The entire time I was reading it, all I could think was, "You bastard!" and "No possible way Gaffney can redeem him."

As regular readers of this blog know, I'm a proud member of the romance old school. While I understand the complaints that many readers have about forced seduction scenes, I love many old school romances that have forced seduction in them. But this scene pushed at my limits. There was no emotion. No eventual capitulation. Rachel never felt anything except horror at what was happening to her.

Soon after this, Sebastian invites some of his most dissolute acquaintances from London to visit him. He forces Rachel to act as his hostess. One of his guests, Sully, is actually the heir to Rachel's dead husband. And quickly, the guests begin looking at Rachel as a game. Sebastian allows them to toy with her, asking horrible, invasive questions, and forcing her to answer. Until Rachel finally flees the room. Sully asks Sebastian whether Rachel is his, to which Sebastian answers no. And Sully leaves to go find Rachel, to force her to have sex with him.

No one spoke for a moment, then they all spoke at once, in low voices full of lewd enjoyment and manufactured shock. Sebastian couldn't hear the words over the soft buzzing in his ears. Something was tearing inside. Something was coming completely apart.[...]

He felt the tear down the middle of himself widening, and that was wrong it shoudl have been narrowing. He'd just done a thing to make himself whole again. [...]

Something happened then. He wasn't on the piano bench with Kitty on his lap. He was halfway across the room. He heard a snap in his head, exactly like a bone breaking, and at once the eerie fugue state evaporated. His past and his future had broken cleanly in two. This, now, was the present, a violent limbo he had to smash his way out of to survive.

And with that, Sebastian goes and rescues Rachel from Sully's attempted rape.

It is after this, Sebastian realizes what a bastard he has been. And he slowly, gradually begins to attempt to befriend Rachel. For her part, Rachel has literally never had someone take an interest in her. Her experience with her husband and in prison has left her emotionally scarred and bereft. Sebastian begins to woo her. By apologizing for his treatment of her, by giving her small gifts, by nurturing a friendship that would encourage her to confide in him. And as they get to know each other, their attraction grows. Soon they are lovers again, and are both truly happy and are falling in love. Rachel knows that Sebastian will leave Lynton Hall at some point, and she keeps telling herself to enjoy what she has now. But Sebastian keeps pushing at her barriers, and wants to know Rachel completely. And soon she's fallen for him utterly.

So, what to say about this book? I have truly mixed feelings about it. I think that the prose is stupendous, as is the characterization. This book is completely character driven. Each character has wonderful internal monologues that help we the readers get to know them better. The setting is sublime, and the author realizes that the tension between the characters is enough to keep the story moving. There doesn't need to be a lot of ancillary nonsense going on. That being said, I just...didn't buy Sebastian's complete 180. How, in one moment, he regretted everything, and from then on, he was all puppies, and rainbows, and sweet, solicitous hero. It's like he was a completely different person. I couldn't reconcile the Sebastian of the first part of the book and the Sebastian in the second. It's like he had the ruthlessness excised from him. And I just didn't buy it.

I liked Rachel tremendously. In fact, if I were to do my favorite heroines again, I believe I would list her. But I couldn't get over how Sebastian victimized her. And in the end, I'm not able to say that I completely loved this book. I admire the prose and the characterization, the pacing, the setting and the plot. But Sebastian's brutality just isn't something I can forgive.

Final grade: C-

I'm Playing All Over the Internetz

Hey everyone!

I'm playing with the fabulous Carolyn Crane (better known to me as CJ). We're talking about one of my all time favorite romances, All Through The Night by Connie Brockway, which I forced CJ to read. Come join us at The Thrillionth Page.

I'm also playing with Kate today, reviewing Beyond the Night, the first in Joss Ware's new Envy series. Come see whether I loved the book at Babbling About Books.

I hope you'll come join us!

Lead Me On by Victoria Dahl - A Review(-ish)

Jane Morgan had a tough childhood. Her mother was something of a prison groupie. Marrying Jane's dad, who was in prison, and then, when they divorced, marrying another man, Big Mac, who had also been in prison. Jane's stepdad, Mac is more of a father than her biological father ever was. Jane spent most of her young teens behaving very, VERY badly. Acting trampy and attracting the attention of completely inappropriate boys. As an adult, Jane is horrified by her youthful actions and has swung the extreme opposite direction. She's an accomplished professional, and has modeled herself as conservative and quiet. She only dates the "right" men, and wants a quiet, unassuming life.

All of that changes when William Chase walks inter her office. Chase runs Extreme Excavation, and, well, he blows things up for a living. He's got tattoos, and drives a pick-up truck, and is everything she does NOT want in a man. He takes one look at Jane and is intrigued. She's all buttoned down and uptight, and he's just sure there's more to the story. He asks her out, and she politely declines. He shrugs it off, but gives her his number anyway.

A few nights later, Jane decides (after a few adult beverages) that she's going to have one night of trashy sex to celebrate her birthday. She decides that Chase is the guy. She calls him, he accepts and they end up having decidedly steamy sex at his place. But when he gets up to get in the shower, she bails. Unfortunately, Chase is thinking this is the beginning of a possible relationship, and Jane is thinking that perhaps they can use each other for sex. Will they ever be able to work it out?

I was thrilled to read this book and truly enjoy it. The first two this series just didn't work for me, when they seemed to work for every other romance reader in the world.

OK, I'll be willing to admit it, Chase just totally worked for me on every level. No really. EVERY level. He was hot, self-aware, protective, apparently excellent in the sack, and had tattoos. He's everything I love in a romance hero. And I loved how he worked to thaw out Jane and help her through her issues. I actually enjoyed Jane, and usually, I end up having a high level of annoyance with heroines who push perfect heroes away. But I understood Jane's reluctance, and I thought that Dahl gave her a terrific back story that was completely credible and justified her actions throughout the book. This book was entertaining, quick and wonderfully engaging. I'm thrilled to be able to say I'm on the Victoria Dahl bandwagon.

Final grade: A

Cool Water

Josh Holloway is going to be selling Cool Water by Davidoff again.
Is the man delicious or what??