Anyway, prior to dinner I popped into Barnes and Noble (it's SO convenient to have a humongous B&N right inside the mall!) and picked up Cry Wolf by Patricia Briggs. The book is a spin off from her Mercy Thompson series, which is one of my favorite urban fantasies. This series features Charles, the enforcer for his father's werewolf pack. His father is the Marrok, or the head of all werewolf packs everywhere. Charles was sent to Chicago to deal with a werewolf pack that is having problems, and there he meets Anna, an Omega wolf, who has been badly abused by her alpha and the rest of the wolves. Charles's wolf recognizes Anna as his mate, and Charles is struggling for his human nature to catch up. He has this primal need to be with her, and yet, she's been badly abused and is struggling to adjust. He convinces her to come back to Montana where he lives with him, and the adventure goes from there. The book is MUCH more romantic than the Mercy Thompson series, and just as compelling. What I like about it is that as an urban fantasist, Briggs doesn't shy away from the seedier side of things, the adventure part of the book is harrowing and scary, but the romance between Charles and Anna is undeniably sweet and tender. It's a terrific juxtaposition. I'd imagine this series will end up being tremendously popular. My only complaint is that I wish Briggs wrote faster. If you decide to pick this book up, fair warning, we first meet Anna and Charles in the anthology On the Prowl, in the short story Alpha and Omega. But the books are absolutely worth the money. I'd give Cry Wolf a B+.
Yesterday was really hot and humid in DC. Which pretty much is par for the course. I stayed in and watched a couple of movies. But more than that, I finally cracked open Linda Howard's Death Angel, which I'd been hoarding both looking forward to reading it, and dreading it, since I wasn't crazy about her last couple of books. I would describe this book as vintage Howard. The story is incredibly fast paced and exciting, the sex is hot, and the hero is to die for. The most interesting part to me was the heroine, Drea, who is the mistress to a drug kingpin. She likes the lifestyle, the gifts she receives, the clothes she wears. She grew up poor and has sworn that she'll never live that way again. She plays dumb and is content to be arm candy. Until her boyfriend hands her over to an assassin for a night of hot, mindblowing sex. Sure, she loved the sex, but is totally humiliated and frankly, pissed off. So she plots her revenge, stealing over $2 million from him, and pulls it off brilliantly, considering that her boyfriend considers her to be fluff. Of course, once he discovers her double cross, he send the same assassin after her. What follows is a terrific cat and mouse game where Drea earns the assassin's respect and admiration as she tries desperately to out run him. I barely put this book down yesterday. The pages turn incredibly quickly and easily. The tension between Drea and the assassin is smoldering (trademark Howard) and the story is full of twists and turns. I'd give this book and A-.
OK, Scott just called me, and told me about a salon in Alexandria, VA that uses carp to gnaw the dead skin off the bottom of your feet during a pedicure.
As a lover of romance novels and romantic movies, I'm a huge fan of the BRG, or better known as the BIG. ROMANTIC. GESTURE. When Lloyd Dobler holds up his stereo blasting Peter Gabriel's In Your Eyes to Diane Court in Say Anything, I give the big sigh. When we see Mr. Darcy striding across the moor towards Lizzie, great coat billowing, I give the big sigh. In Return to Me, when Bob shows up in Rome to find Grace to tell her how much he loves her, I sigh.
I'm headed to Hilton Head (WOOHOO -- VACATION!) in a couple of weeks for a week of vegetating with friends. I can hardly wait! The only catch to my fantabulous vacation in Hilton Head is the 10 hour drive from Washington D.C. to get there.
would be absolutely fantastic! But here's the thing -- the stupid thing is $35! I can buy a hardcover and paperback version of the book for that kind of money. Plus, I hear from LeeAnn that the recordings of Harry Potter are fantastic, and it would be fun to get to listen to them too. But I'm just too cheap to buy the recordings, so I've been thinking about trying out an audiobook rental service. The thing is, I'd like to be able to download them to my iPod, rather than having the CDs. I know there are a couple of services that provide iPod versions of audiobooks.
Anyway, almost all of my family came over on Saturday to swim and then for a cookout. We had a great time, but PHEW was I tired by the end of the day! Yesterday we went to see Mamma Mia, which was cute, but DEEPLY cheesy, and had dinner at Gordon Biersch (yummy!). Then we went home and watched Justin Timberlake host the ESPYs, which was lots of fun. He was terrific and did this song and dance number that was hysterical and very witty.
In other news, I learned the "Cupid Shuffle" this weekend. Reaffirming to myself that I have no dance ability whatsoever. Oh well, I have other gifts.
Hey everyone! Sorry, I've been kind of MIA lately. Crazy busy week and house guests coming this weekend. Argh!
In other news, I FINALLY finished Tribute by Nora Roberts last night. I can't remember the last time it took me a week to read a Nora book. I attribute this to the fact that the heroine is a home renovator and there is really very little, except perhaps professional bowling, that bores me more than any kind of home renovation. Now, I think it was genius of Nora to write this storyline, with so many people addicted to any kind of Do-It-Yourself projects and the HGTV phenomenon. I loved the hero, Ford though. Total nerd. But a hot nerd. I appreciated that tremendously, I'll tell ya! I wasn't quite as warm and fuzzy on the heroine and the mystery confounded me. I just didn't pick up the breadcrumbs, I think. Anyway, I'd give this book a B-, I think. I didn't love it. But hey considering that I adore 95% of what the woman writes, I can't really complain.
I had a chance to meet up with my lovely friend, Rachael, last night for dinner. We met at Clyde's in Reston, which is one of my favorite restaurants. It's funny, my niece works there as a hostess, and when we got there, my friend Christine and two other good friends of mine were there celebrating her birthday. So Rachael ended up meeting half the world before we sat down to eat. We had a terrific time chatting and catching up. She's just the warmest and bubbliest person. And considering that this weekend will be a GIANT milestone for her, I couldn't be prouder or more impressed with how she's conducted herself this year.
Friday night, after my workout, I finished up a book I was reading in order to review, Lord Scandal by Kalen Hughes. My review will post soon over at RNTV, but I'll say this, I think Hughes has a really terrific voice and has a really bright future in romance. It's interesting to me though, I was speaking with another romance fan who said to me that she couldn't get over Hughes' online personality, which she perceived as snarky. Clearly, I don't hang out the same places as Kalen, I see her over at the Bitches occasionally, but I don't know her at all. But I got the point. I definitely am a reader who judges authors by their online personas. If I think they're bitchy or confrontational, it will automatically put them on my "Do Not Buy" list. How do you guys feel about that?
my hand from wielding the hammer, but it was good to get some aggression out. Sunday afternoon I went to Sara's and began campaigning for us to go to Disney World in January. My niece, Meghan is working for Westin these days, which means she gets tremendously discounted hotel rates. Sara was pretty resistant to the idea at first. Until I played my trump card -- I asked Brad. I knew Brad would be on board! So we're tentatively planning to go to Disney right after the Christmas holiday, January 4 - 10. That's if Sara and I can get the money saved. But it should be fun. We've refined our strategy from last time we went and think we'll only do Disney this time. And we'll do Animal Kingdom first. And we'll pace ourselves better. Anyway, the prospect of a really fun vacation has gotten me all perked up! I'm definitely excited at the idea of having something fun to look forward to. And not that far away!
I discovered on Friday night that one of my all time favorite movies is on Cinemax On Demand this weekend. This movie is, in my opinion, Cameron Crowe's master work -- Almost Famous. Truly, I love every single thing about this movie.
soundtrack has over 50 songs on it, and it featured one of the largest music budgets for a movie up until that time. The music though is classic 70s rock: Elton John, Simon & Garfunkel, Rod Stewart, the Allman Brothers, and The Who. It's amazing.
I first heard about this list over at The Good, The Bad, and the Unread. Apparently Esquire magazine recently came out with a list of 75 things every man should know how to do. It's a really interesting list, most of which I was nodding yes to, particularly the one about giving a woman an orgasm so you don't have to ask. :wink:
First, Shut Up Leona Lewis! And also Shut Up Chad Kroeger and Santana. Both songs now make me throw up a little in the back of my throat.
I'm starting to really look forward to JJ Abrams new show, Fringe. Abrams created Alias and LOST. He also directed MI:3 with Tom Cruise. He's a brilliant innovative director and the master of the mind f*ck. I'm not even sure of what the show is about, but I'm in. On this show and Joss Whedon's The Dollhouse, which comes out in January. SIGH. I already can't wait for TV season to start again. We were robbed last season!
HINT! HINT! HINT!)
I am a child of the 80s. I was born in 1971, which means my formative years were spent with the glory of 80s music. I adore it. But another phenomenon that came out of the 80s, that I'm not even sure still happens, is the mix tape. You remember, you were finally getting serious with your boyfriend. You decide to make him a tape of SUPER romantic music to show how much you love him and how serious you were about him. You gave titled the tape something romantic, and you gave it to him -- as a sign of your love. Good times, good times.
Yay! I went to Borders today and picked up Nora Roberts' new release, Tribute. And it's set pretty much locally to me (my folks just bought a house in the Shenandoah Valley).Plunging into the project with gusto, she's almost too busy to notice her neighbor, graphic novelist Ford Sawyer, but his lanky form, green eyes, and easy, unflappable humor (not to mention his delightfully ugly dog, Spock) are hard to ignore. Determined not to perpetuate the family tradition of ill-fated romances, Cilla steels herself against Ford's quirky charm, but she can't help indulging in a little fantasy.
But love and a peaceful life may not be in the cards for Cilla. In the attic, she has found a cache of unsigned letters suggesting that Janet Hardy was pregnant when she died and that the father was a local married man. Cilla can't help but wonder what really happened all those years ago. The mystery only deepens with a series of intimidating acts and a frightening, violent assault. And if Cilla and Ford are unable to sort out who is targeting her and why, she may, like her world-famous grandmother, be cut down in the prime of her life.
I'm reading C.L. Wilson's September release, King of Sword & Sky. It's book 3 in the Tairen Soul series. I'm enjoying it...sort of. There's a ton going on, and since Rain and Elly have already married, the focus is much less on their romance, and much more on the more epic nature of the story. I'm about 2/3 of the way through and I find myself having no problem at all setting the book down to do other things. I think this is a symptom of the romance being much less in this book. I'll have to finish it of course, Wilson is well known for her climactic endings, so it's very possible that my impressions will be completely wiped out by the end of the book. But I devoured the first two, and I'm definitely not experiencing that this time.
I'm loving the Jordin Sparks/Chris Brown duet, No Air. I'm not sure why, but it's probably the harmony. I really love it when two singers have voices that mesh together perfectly.
NOT a Rafael Nadal fan, and was very sorry to see Roger Federer, who I think is an absolute class act, lose. But Roger, as expected, did it with grace. He is a true champion. Now I'm in the doldrums until July 20, when it becomes the "Most Wonderful Time of the Year" -- football season. Yeah baby! Just two more weeks, and hope begins to spring eternal again. SIGH. I love football.
PS - Happy Birthday to my very sweet friend and actual Yankee Doodle Dandy, LeeAnn! I hope you had a wonderful birthday, sweetie! Sorry I missed sending you good wishes on the day!
...and I'm a cheapskate. No, not all the time. But sometimes I hit that mental wall, and I refuse to spend any more. And then almost every time I regret it.
A striking beauty with a taste for diamonds and dangerous men, Drea Rousseau is more than content to be arm candy for Rafael Salinas, a notorious crime lord who deals with betrayal through quick and treacherous means: a bullet to the back of the head, a blade across the neck, an incendiary device beneath a car. Eager to break with Rafael, Drea makes a fateful decision and a desperate move, stealing a mountain of cash from the malicious killer. After all, an escape needs to be financed.
I'm headed to Lewes, Delaware with my friend Tracy this weekend. I'm taking Roxie with me. It should be fun, since this will be her first time ever at the beach. I'm looking forward to seeing her reaction. Tracy's dog, Lucy, is one of Roxie's best friends, so they'll have a great time together.
