Thursday, March 13, 2008

Nada Review

I think I love you, SPYMASTER’S LADY. I think you are my new favorite book of the year now! Or maybe you are tied with Demon Night. I don’t know yet. I am too fresh from bed with you.

Sometimes when I love a thing, I want to talk and talk about it, and other times when I love a thing, I sort of don’t want to talk about it. I just want to sit quietly and enjoy it. That seems to be the case here. I don’t want to tell what the plot is or say what I liked it.

So apparently, not only am I a crap blogger this week, but no kind of reviewer either.

I will say this: you know how you sometimes catch of scent of something, and you don’t know what it reminds you of right away, you only know it was something wonderful? Like it fills you with a good feeling. And eventually you remember—oh, that day at the bakery, that summer at the lake. I sort of had that a lot with this book, not with scents, but more conceptually. Little things would evoke a pleasant feeling, and then I’d think, oh this scene or that scene. Sigh.

Also, I shamelessly pimped this to not only my mom, who tends to go for more literary fare, (though she loved The Outlander years before I did), but also to my pal Lauren, AND even to Mark! I hope that wasn’t a mistake. Mark is always looking for exciting books to read on planes. I pimped Janet Evanovich’s One for the Money to him as plane reading recently and he hated it. Isn’t that weird? He found the whole “bad girl voice” as he called it annoying. Anyway, he might read it for an upcoming plane trip based on my oh-so-strong recommendation, but he imagined he might get his own copy and rip off the cover and the inside color picture. And then he was like, what if the plane goes down and everybody finds out I was reading a book called The Spymaster’s Lady? Like it’s clutched in his dead hands. However, if the plane started going down, he could pitch it across the cabin.

Enough about Mark! Back to my non-review. The Spymaster’s Lady by Joanna Bourne. Oh, what a pleasure this book was!

12 comments:

meljean brook said...

I first read DEMON NIGHT last year, so it's my favorite book of this year, too :-D

It's just a complete breath of fresh air, I think.

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Kati said...

Oh yeah, I loved this book!

Joanna Chambers said...

I know what you mean. Does a little part of you want to keep it a secret?

KT Grant said...

This book has regained my faith that historical romance is alive and thriving.
Ah, Demon Night blows. Heh heh.

lisabea said...

I appreciate that TP chose the Pats and not those emeffing Giants.

The pain. It's still so fresh.


And CJ. OMG I couldn't pay G with a year of sexual favors to read a romance. No way. Sci fi? Fantasy? Pron? shure thing. You two should do a duel review. That'd be a hoot.

Carolyn Crane said...

MJ - I wasn't sure if it was a breath of fresh air or not, as it was my FIRST historical!

TP: that book cover is really funny! And handy.

MK: You may have been one of the recommenders here.

T: I do want to keep it secret a little. Or more, not kiss and tell.

KB: Being that this is my first historical, I never had faith in them to lose. Now I do, though.

LB: do you think I will regret? Oh, you probably haven't finished it. Let me know if you think I should rescind the recommendation. If he hates this one like he hated Evanovich, my recommender credibility is going to start dropping.

lisabea said...

I lost my cred. with a single book recommendation years ago after having (making) G read Terry Pratchett's Reaper Man. He told me it was worse than trying to read Monty Python. And then used the the "s" word: Sophomoric. Pfft.

I'm impressed you got him to read Evanovich. Not to be sexist, but that's a pretty hard dude sell, no?

Christine said...

CJ I love your non reviews. Don't stop writing them. :)

Jenn said...

I'm with you. After first reading about it (here, in fact), I went out and bought it. ...And have been quietly loving it ever since.

I agree with katie(babs); this book reminded why I got hooked historical romance in the first place.

Carolyn Crane said...

LB: I think he didn't know what he was getting into.

Christine: Thanks! That is so sweet to say.

JG: I'm so glad you're enjoying this book.

sula said...

i felt the same way upon finishing this book. In fact, I wanted to write something review-y about it for my blog, but found myself lost for words. So...I just gush about it over at other people's blogs. lol.

Speaking of significant others reading romance...my BF picked up 'The Billionaire Next Door' the other day and upon reading the back blurb and after my urging decided to take it home with him. He is categorically NOT a reader, not to mention English is his third language and it takes him a long time to get through books. But I remain hopeful. heh.