Gemini Heat: OMG! & Contest

Great Moments from Last Night's Reading

Book: Gemini Heat

Author: Portia Da Costa

Page left off at: 119

Spoiler level: low

I was first introduced to Portia Da Costa via the only anthology I have ever read, a vampire erotica volume I won from the lovely and clever Tumperkin. It actually wasn't insanely erotic when you compare it to the vampire stuff a lot of us are reading these days, but it was great and I was particularly impressed with Da Costa's story - lovely unexpected descriptions within a saucy set up. So I went ahead and got Gemini Heat.

Whoa! This is a book that just doesn't quit, and in terms of hotness, it makes The Black Dagger Brotherhood books look like a Marice Sendak tale.

PLOT
There are these twins, Delia and Deana, sort of your regular English girls next door, one more shy, one more adventurous, but neither particularly wild and wanton. Then Delia meets billionaire Jackson "Jake" de Guile. She tells him her name is Dee and has exciting stranger sex with him at an art opening.

Fast forward: Jake thinks he's dating Dee, but it's really both twins he's dating; Deana and Delia switch off with him and breathlessly fill each other in about their escapades after. And Jake turns out to be a gaspingly creative SEX MANIAC who, well, you don't what to expect next from this guy

This is a tale of sexual escalation. The twins are sort of shocked at what they do with Jake, but they keep going, and they are sort of conflicted about the vaguely demeaning nature of it all at times, but they don't want to stop. And Jake keeps drawing them into more extreme activities. I'm just under halfway through this book, and frankly I'm a bit apprehensive about what Jake will want to do next, but nothing will stop me from reading on. Nothing!

I am especially worried about what Jake will do when he discovers they're twins, because he's just a little bit dangerous and unpredictable and he thinks he's in control of the game.

An overall thought on erotica, not that I'm an expert.

One of the marks of a great, say, paranormal is, of course, that the sex scenes move the plot forward. They're integrated, not just titillating side trips. I wonder if the case isn't reversed for erotica. In a bad erotica, the story is just filler to set up the next sex scene. In a good erotica like this, you can't extract the story from the action; the story heightens the sex scenes, and it is gripping in its own right.

Other things I'm enjoying here.

Another thing I love here is the relationship of the twins. They have really different styles of dressing, but they've created "Dee" as a composite of them, and they collaborate on what they'll wear for these dates (if you can even call them that) to achieve the right "Dee" effect. I also love their British ways, and the way they say "bloody" a lot.

The stellar description is still here, too. But it's economical and powerful and never feels long and boring. The care, for example, that Da Costa takes with a description of Jake's eyelids: "The shape of his eyes was unusual, too. In a caucasian face, they were slanted, oriental, almost cat-like. Wide-set and with thick, sooty lashes, they had a slight overfolding of the lids at the inner corners." This is a really strong image that continues to serve the reader throughout the book.

I have this book in heavy rotation with "Death of a Pirate King" and "Duke of Shadows" because frankly, "Gemini Heat" is a little too rich and hot to be consumed all at once. At least by this reader. All three of these books are so fine. I'm currently in reader heaven.

Contest

You can win Gemini Heat, people!

Go to Portia Da Costa's blog for a contest to win this book as well as Double Dare by Saskia Walker (whose work I don't know). The contest is a celebration for the joint release of Walker and Da Costa's Spice Briefs, which appears to be a new line from eHarlequin.

To win the contest, you read two excerpts and answer two questions. They're fun to read. You won't believe where Portia stops hers. Gasp!

Crazy dirty ebook deals
Eharlequin is currently running an interesting special: from 12–3 p.m. every day this week, you can get specific works from Historical Undone, SPICE Briefs and nocturne BITES for .89 cents. If you read the excerpt of Portia's story, you'll be pleased to know that hers is available for .89 cent download on Monday November 3rd between those hours. But the regular price is only $2.69, so either way it's a deal. I'll go for it whether I remember on Monday or not. And even though I don't have an ereader.

I really wish I had an ereader, but I'm too poor to buy one. Paris Hilton, if you're reading my blog, can you just send me one? I'll take any ereader that's Mac compatible. I'd be so grateful. And if you throw in a mac laptop and InDesign software, I'll dedicate my novel to you. Actually, I would. I think I will never get an ereader.

Anyway, Gemini Heat.

Question of the day: what's your subgenre path?

 I've been thinking about how different readers come to books with different reading backgrounds, and it got me thinking about the paths we take through subgenres. 

For example, I came in with Outlander and Bitten and proceeded from there, and my subgenre path would be:

Urban Fantasy - paranormal - historical - erotica - contemporary.  

I guess I'm not counting Outlander there. What is it, even? I haven't hit steam punk - is that a subgenre?  Do people consider M/M a subgenre? You can have M/M of any subgenre, but I often see it called out separately. So M/M is in there after historical for me if it is. Also, though I read several of the Kushiel series, I didn't list fantasy in there.  I don't consider myself a fantasy reader. Yet. 

Okay, that's like nine questions!  I need more coffee.

But do tell, what is your subgenre path? And if you have answers to any of my other questions, feel free. 

I condemn the recent events!

I just want to state for the record that I condemn the recent events at DIK island. 

Where in the world is CJ NOW?

Hey! I'm over at Desert Island Keepers today, telling about the six books I'd bring to the island to add to the giant Desert Island Library.  

Tomorrow, Day #2 on the desert island, I tell what heroes I'd bring and why (even though somebody else took my #1 hero draft pick before me.) But I have good ones. 

Day #3... anything could happen. Come visit!

Conflicted on Windflower

Okay, my thinking has been so mixed on this book! I have been really busy to post, but also just so conflicted, I wasn’t sure what to say.
Almost as if I am of two minds…

Carolyn Jean: Let’s talk about the writing. The writing is technically better than most of what I read today in genres. Especially the descriptions. The imagery is just richer, and the authors are always finding fresh ways of saying things instead of resorting to clichés.

Crazy little CJ: Yeah, and toward the end, you were skipping huge chunks of that description. Admit it, you got bored! I know I did. I wanted more hot action.

Carolyn Jean: But whose fault is that? I think I said in a past post, I can’t help but think that if I’d read it as literature rather than romance, I wouldn’t have skipped description. I expected different things from it.

Crazy little CJ: It’s called the worst of both worlds.

Carolyn Jean: Maybe in how the description slowed things, but not at the level of the plot. This plot was way richer and more panoramic than the genre literature I’m used to, and that was an absolute improvement. I liked that there were more balls spinning, more moving parts in terms of cause and effect and hidden motivations, more complexity, and numerous loose ends tied up.

Crazy little CJ: Tied up implausibly.

Carolyn Jean: Maybe a few minor things were tied up implausibly, but to me, that doesn’t ruin the whole book. It was bigger and more ambitious, and I appreciated that. And the canvas was larger, taking us to numerous shores and making a minor aspect of the 1812 War (divisions in English opinion and their various plans and gambits vis a vis the Americans) a central part of the plot. I learned new things about history here, and I love learning new things in books as long as they’re well woven into the drama, which this stuff was.

Crazy little CJ: I happen to know you interrupted the reading of Caressed by Ice for this, and you were sort of eager to finish so you could get back to sexy Judd.

Carolyn Jean: But does that mean this is a worse book? Actually, I think this is the superior book. But yes, I looked forward to getting back to Caressed. Am I just a product of this generation of romance and subgenres? Just because Frank Sinatra doesn’t rock, does it mean Metallica is the better band?

Crazy Little CJ: Yes, excluding their new album, which sucks. Also, you’re forgetting how Ana brought up 19th century writers like Jane Austen and Emily Bronte. Do you think you would skip giant boring passages of description in Pride and Prejudice? No, because there aren't any.

Carolyn Jean: But she was talking more about heroine Merry’s lack of power and wherewithal, and the hero’s brutishness, and the scenes that headed toward forced seduction.

Crazy Little: Uh! I want to chop that Devon up with my little arms.

Carolyn Jean: I don’t have a specific problem with all that; these sorts of books belong to the world of fantasy and fairytales, not to the world of reality, and I’m a reader who can be fine with certain things in books (ultra-violent vigilante vampires, women shooting guys because they’re jerks, guys brutishly seducing conflicted virgins on pirate ships) that I would abhor in reality. So I enjoyed those scenes to an extent, though the power imbalance got old. I think the bottom line is, even though Merry changed and became braver, it seemed like there was little inward transformation of the relationship.

Crazy Little CJ: Yeah, she got braver, but her bravery would lead to her having to be rescued. It bugged me.

Carolyn Jean: Also, this book was more sophisticated in terms of human psychology and character, especially where the secondary characters are concerned. In fact, the character of Rand Morgan is one of my favorite ever characters I’ve ever encountered, secondary or primary.

Crazy Little: Whatev. He’s named after rum!

Carolyn Jean: How do you know rum isn’t named after him?

Crazy Little CJ: Because I looked it up on Wikipedia, Biyotch. Captain Morgan has been around since 1944.

Carolyn Jean: Is Biyotch even how you spell it?

Crazy Little CJ: Don't put up that photo, you look like a freak.

Carolyn Jean: It's too late to retake. I already sent off the book to Kmont, and you have to put up a photo. I was trying to express conflictedness.

Crazy Little CJ: I need some rum right now.

Carolyn Jean: Don't you dare! I have deadlines. I shouldn't even be blogging. Anyway, there were tons of great moments. I loved the pirate details. All their little rules, and drunken debauchery. And when Devon showed up in his piratey leather vest and coat with no shirt after he took part in whipping that guy for insubordination? And Merry is like, Yum, you are like a badass pirate.

Crazy Little CJ: That was actually me who said that.

Carolyn Jean: Also, being that I came to romance late, I was really enjoying this on a genre history level. This is where books we now love evolved from. Devon is really Judd’s grandfather in many ways. Plus, this is a book a lot of our buddies treasured 20 years ago. I feel like a giant hole in my reading knowledge has been filled in. I am so grateful to have read this book. It will stay with me a long time.

VERDICT: So conflicted.

Other thinking: Ana's now infamous review. MaryKate's meditations on old school. Kmont begins to mercilessly make fun of book here. (anybody else?)
Read about tour here.

Widgets + Q & A + veiled threats

What is with the new widgets in my sidebar?

Q. Has crazy little CJ, whose eyes like to follow anything that moves, taken over the blog and gone widget crazy?

A. No.

Q. Does big CJ want to win prizes? Is that the reason the widgets are there?

A. Partly, but I'm also excited for both books. And hey, if you visit Meljean's site, please vote for the ereader. Go check it out - she is also giving away lots of cool daily prizes!

Q. Will crazy little CJ come during the night and chop me up with her wee little arms if I don't vote for the ereader?

A. Nobody is specifically saying that.

Q. Is this a cheap fast post because big CJ is too busy to do a real one?

A. Maybe.

Q. Where in the heck is that Windflower post?

A. In fragments in a file somewhere.

Q. Is crazy little CJ angry at all the people who called her creepy?

A. Possibly.

Okay, seriously, these widgets are for two books I am totally excited to devour. You can read my past fawning over Meljean Brook's work here. Erin McCarthy is a sort of new-to-me-author who I am officially getting into; I loved Fallen (discussed by me here) and this new book sounds just excellent.

Is this creepy?

I think in some marriages the wife gets to make the decor decisions, but not in the Carolyn Jean household.

Exhibit A: this lovely and charming portrait of me, Carolyn Jean, at age 5, done by an elderly aunt who was a sort of amateur painter. I just love it. I think it's totally retro, and growing up, it was the source great pride for me--this was actually done from a school photo, and I never owned that gold bracelet or held that basket of flowers, but I liked to think of myself as the kind of little girl who maybe would sit with a basket of flowers and a pretty bracelet.

Also, my two younger sisters were bitterly jealous they didn't get portraits, too. One of the privileges of being the oldest. You seem more special because you're the first.

Anyway, cute, you say, right? Who in their right mind wouldn't want such a charming portrait in their living room?

My husband, that's who. He says this is CREEPY! He feels like my childlike eyes follow him around the room. That I have a creepy look on my face. And he won't let it be in the living room. So anyway, it's in my office. Is it creepy? Humorous maybe, okay, but creepy?

Going out of town!

I'm heading out of town this weekend, so Thrillionth will be quiet until Tuesday.

The WINDFLOWER also headed out of town yesterday, to KMONT.

When I get back I will be doing my final post on it! Not that I haven't already posted the hell out of it, but there is a lot to say about it. And I can't wait to see what everybody else says.

Kittens: a horny hero's best friends? NOT.

My husband and I got a good laugh out of this Windflower seduction scene: handsome Duke/Pirate Devon brings Merry to a lovely, out-of-the-way and hay-filled barn to see some kittens.

They play and cuddle with the kittens upon the soft hay, and then the kittens and the mother cat run off, and a hot and steamy scene ensues.

Obviously, implausibilities help to make books fun to read - otherwise, they'd be like life. But the idea of people successfully having sex in a barn full of kittens is one of the most farfetched things ever. I should know, as two kittens live here in this apartment.

To kittens, people having sex is an irresistible feast of play opportunities. Excitement in the air! Moving body parts to pounce on! Clothed is okay, naked is better, but if the people are under the covers? Go, kitty, go kitty, kill kill kill!

I know Devon spent years with fierce pirate Rand Morgan, but he doesn't know what ruthless is until he tries to have sex with Merry in front of kitties. The kitties will take him DOWN.

I've never really minded animals watching, if you know what I mean, if they don't try to get involved. We've had older cats that just sleep and lounge nearby. I'm fine with that. Hmmm. Maybe this is a poll. Update: see poll at left.

The fascinating minor planets in the Windflower system

Great moments from last night's reading

Book: The Windflower

Author: Laura London (a.k.a. Tom and Sharon Curtis)
Page left off at: 412/spoiler level: HIGH HIGH HIGH. DANGER DANGER
The last part especially WILL ruin the book for you.
Part of the Windflower World TOUR!
Sorry, I know I am now hitting the wall of my allotted two weeks on this book, but it is very dense and rich!

I continue to not know what to think about it. I've become way more fascinated with the secondary characters than the main characters, which I suppose could be a bad sign, but these are some of the best secondary characters I have ever read in any romance/fantasy sub-genres.

I think that's because part of the deal with this book is that the center of gravity isn't the romantic pair. To me, The Windflower is more a sweeping, almost epic portrait that simply includes the pair. In more recent genre offerings, nearly everything orbits around the romance, and you may get quirky secondaries or whatever, but nothing at the richness and depth of these. I think there's a sort of 'deliver the goods' mentality out there today that I'm not immune to, but it doesn't exactly increase quality.

SPOILERS BEGIN

My great moment from last night was between Cat and his estranged father, Cathcart. I loved this. They are both so tentative with each other in their own ways. Cathcart "had learned to keep his phrases simple. In the past, anything more had sounded surprisingly insincere, even when it was meant from the heart."

Some ways into the conversation, Cat starts crying, and you really get how upset he's been about Merry, and that generally he's this young boy who's led a pirate life where you can't cry.

"Of all times, of all places for this to happen - he thrust his face into one callused palm with a sound somewhere between a gasp and a groan. In a moment he felt himself being drawn into the warm oval of his father's arms. He would have cast off the hug because he usually hated being touched, but this clasp was startling in its strength and tenderness, and the darkness around him began to recede though the sobs came harder, painfully racking contractions in his esophagus. He murmured, "This is so bloody embarrassing."

Later in the hug...

"He [Cathcart] felt the slight gather of tension in his son's well-muscled shoulders, and he stepped back, gently releasing the boy, not with regret but with grateful wonder that he had had this brief first chance to hold his unchildlike child."

And later...

"As he [Cat] took the comfortable chair Cathcart offered and settled into its velvet upholstery, it occurred to him that there was one thing Cathcart offered the people around him that Morgan never gave to anyone. Peace."

SUPER SPOILER BELOW
Seriously, it will RUIN the book for you.

Which brings us to Morgan, who is such a complicated and delicious character. There's one point where somebody mentions that all along, Morgan has just been performing a pirate's version of matchmaking, and that was so interesting, to sort of think of him as the pirate's parallel to some old dowager trying to get a couple to cross paths at teatime, only he does it all in a sort of brutal piratey way.

And I know I made him seem sort of harmless in my 'memos' post, like he's all image, but it really isn't true. I think it's a testament to the authors' skill here that he is so compelling - you're drawn to him, but you know to be wary of him. Like one of those weird creatures at the bottom of the sea, so colorful and unique and amazing, but with a painful sting.

The Windflower Memos

Book: The Windflower

Author: Laura London (a.k.a. Tom and Sharon Curtis)

In this 1984 classic, young, naive Merry Wilding is kidnapped in error by handsome semi-rogue-ish pirates.

Memo to Merry
RE: beating on a man's chest
I hope you don't take this the wrong way, because I know you are very naive about the ways of pirates, but please stop beating on Devon's chest with your little fists. You've done it several times now, and where has it gotten you?

That's right. Nowhere. I know that Devon told you he'd teach you the best place to kick a man and hasn't yet come through with the information. Maybe you are waiting for that, but in the meantime, you could explore other options. I am sure that Ana over at Book Smugglers would be more than happy to give you a few ideas on what to do to Devon. The boy pirate clothes, however, are definitely working for you.

Memo to Rand Morgan
RE: your "campaign"
You have such a fearsome worldwide reputation as a bloodthirsty bandit, a murderous barbarian, the stuff of nightmares! Recently, however, it has come to my attention that your ship is in fact an idyllic place where men play and sing all day and are loving to women and animals, a haven where boys can be like Peter Pans and escape the evils of slavery and whalers, where things are even voted on. Furthermore, I understand from Ana's review that in fact there are not one but two peers of the realm aboard, (I haven't gotten to that part, but I suspect you may even be one of them. At any rate, you are quite an upstanding fellow.)

Of course I know why you did it - chicks dig pirates! Don't worry, your secret is safe with me, but I'm curious: who is your PR agency? I totally want to hire them to pimp my novel when it comes out.

Memo to Devon
RE: last nightOh, Devon, Devon, Devon. Last night you really wanted to have sex with Merry, and she you, yet while she was covering you with trembling kisses, she emoted about how bewildered she was by her own desires and begged you to stop making her feel the way you make her feel. You got fed up and kicked her out.

I totally understand. You were tired of holding all the power. You wanted your heroine to have more backbone, to show more agency. Ana over at the Book Smugglers wants that too! Think about it for a second: you and Ana both want the same thing. This could be a love match!

Memo to Cat
RE: Save yourself!
Dear, dear beautiful sexually ambiguous Cat. Just to let you know, there is an island somewhere; I don't know its location or I swear I'd tell it to you. All I can do is give you this photo.

Cat, this island is full of girls who are fixated on you and your mysterious ways, and the number of fixated girls is only going to grow as this book gets passed around. One Samantha Kane has provisionally claimed you, but don't be lured by the dirty photos on her website; those are not people who live on the island; REPEAT: they do not live on the island, they are characters in the dirty books she writes and she will not be able to protect you from the inhabitants of the island.

For the love of all that is holy, Cat, protect your remaining shred of innocence and memorize the image I have supplied here. If you see this hut on this beach, you must beg Morgan to turn the ship the other way, and if he will not, you must jump into the waves and swim, swim, swim! Save yourself, Cat!

Windflower: early commentary & a WTF moment

Great moments from last night's reading

Book: The Windflower

Author: Laura London (a.k.a. Tom and Sharon Curtis)
Page left off at: 137/spoiler level: Low
Part of the Windflower World TOUR!

Okay, I'm not very far in this book, so I sort of don't have an opinion yet. But I do have observations! One is that this is an unexpectedly rich book with some stunning writing here. I haven't been tracking standout passages, but there are many. Here, from where I left off last night:

Far above the Black Joke the sun was a lonely stranger, a flat circle with sharp edges that were blue and phosphorescent. A breeze rich in sea spice ruffled foam from the slate-covered ocean waves and made the ship deck lively with furling shirts and pant legs, swinging lines, fresh cheeks. Under the uproar of the great wheaten staysails Merry watched bright, busy light skitter on the sailmaker as he mended. His knuckles were swollen and red, like candied cherries. His palm was so tough that he used it as a thimble...

I really really love the sun was a lonely stranger and bright, busy light and knuckles that look like candied cherries, and the artistic way the sailors are described via furling clothing and fresh cheeks.

I find when I want to slow down and dip in this book is a great experience. Sometimes, however, there is more description than I am used to, and I'll get impatient and want to get to the good stuff. Like, from pages 53-55 it's all description of the year passing. "As the days of September began to lessen..." etc. I mean, it went on and on. October, Christmas. Spring. Like THREE pages! It was the authors trying to put time between one event and another, but today, that would be one sentence: A year went by. And that's what I'm used to.

Reading it, I was reminded of when I watch an old Clint Eastwood movie or something, and there's a long scene-establishing shot and then a long shot of a bad guy pulling up in a panel-sided station wagon for a couple minutes. It's great movie making, but you're aware it's not today's pace.

My impatience with this long scene setting isn't just the pace, it also has to do with expectations. Say if I was reading somebody like Anita Brookner or George Eliot I would accept it. But I think because I know I'm reading romance here, I expect bawdy excitement. I read an MMF erotica recently and after a while, I couldn't be bothered to read the story parts at all. Did I just type that out loud? Do I have a point? Yes.

I realized that when I stop trying to compare this book to current genre and subgenre stuff, (which is like comparing apples to crack), and when I stop trying to decide if I like it, or figure out what it is and just let it take me, I have a fabulously enjoyable time with it.

(Frankly that goes for romance part too, but that's another post, which could be titled something like, healthy relationship politics vs a deeply embedded fantasy trope that secretly titillates me.)

WTF moment
Okay, the first night I was reading it, I had this total WTF moment. Is this sly humor, or are they seriously setting the stage in a psychological way? Imagine my surprise, if you would, when, on pp 1-2, I encountered this passage describing the virginal girl alone in the garden:

She would have been so much more comfortable, she thought, if she dared sit as the housemaids did on the back stoop in the evening, with the hems of their skirts pulled up past their knees, laps open, bare heels dug into the cool dirt. A slight smile touched her lips as she imagined her aunt's reaction should that lady discover her niece, Merry Patricia, in such a posture.

Setting down her pencil, Merry spread and flexed her fingers and watched as a tiny yellow butterfly skimmed her shoulder to light on the ground, its thin wing fluttering against the flushing bulge of a carrot. The beans were heavy with plump rods, and there would be good eating from the sturdy ruby stalks of the rhubarb. Merry looked back to her drawing and lifted her pencil.

The rutabagas weren't coming out right. The front one had a hairy, trailing root that jutted upward at an awkwardly foreshortened angle...

OMG. The garden is full of penises, and I think the butterfly wing is her hymen! Were the authors laughing in their sleeves as they wrote this? A paragraph later we learn about a dream that had invaded her mind: the unicorn had come again! What??? Does this unicorn appear elsewhere? It seems this unicorn is way different than the unicorn that invaded the dreams of her childhood. This one was:

...pawing and snorting, looking bigger than it had been before, its muscles white and glistening beneath its creamy texture, its chest broad and heaving, its horn poised and thick.

She hides under the covers, but then wants to look. He wants me to ride him, she thinks. Tell me, Windflower lovers, are these authors being funny? I have to think this passage was meant to be funny. At any rate, I found it highly entertaining. Opinions welcome.

Please don't think I'm making fun of this book. It is 9:26 pm right now, and you can't imagine how greatly I'm looking forward to taking it up again.

Drats! Help!

I shake my fist at Christine, who gave me a Z for the names  meme. Help!!

I might do five posts about Zsadist - and will! - unless somebody can remind me of other Z's.  I don't even know Zorro!  Help!!

Who are heroes in books that you have read whose names begin with a Z?  Maybe I have read them, too.   

But look at this cool image I found in the wikipedia commons. 

Weekend of fire and luv!

It's been FREEZING here in Minneapolis. Well, not really, it's been in the 60's during the day and the 40's at night, but our landlord hasn't turned on the heat, so our apartment has been cold!  And we started thinking about how great it would be to have a nice FIRE in the fireplace.

Sitting in front of fires is one of our main winter activities. So we just had two cords of wood delivered from the fella who delivered it last year.

All that wood is sort of a splurge at this point being that my freelance business as an advertising writer has ground to a halt. Gulp. But I'm making splendid progress on my new novel. (And maybe I should add that I'm just fooling around - that really isn't our apartment pictured above.)

Well, isn't this just love orgy time in blogland. Last weekend, as many of you may recall, was the weekend of anger. But now, oh, love love love. Yesterday I loved my pals LB and Tump.

And now I got an "I love your blog"  award and will give it! I got this award from three different places: Naida at The Bookworm, Marg at Reading Adventures, and Ana and Thea of The Book Smugglers, three great blogs where you can always find good company and smart reviews of an eclectic range of books.

The rules for this award are that you need to:

1) Add the logo of the award to your blog
2) Add a link to the person who awarded it to you
3) Nominate at least 7 other blogs
4) Add links to those blogs on your blog
5) Leave a message for your nominees on their blogs!

So I'm officially awarding this award to:

Aymless of Aimless Ramblings
Brie at Musings of Bibliophile
Wendy at Kicks & Giggles
Christine at Happily Ever After
Rachael at What I am Reading
LB at NOSE
KB at Babbling about books

And I am going to be SO MAD if you don't play. Just kidding. I still have to do Christine's Z. I can't keep up!!

Now you are ONE!

Imagine, just a year ago there was no place for a girl to read about things like tree sex (secret: beeswax!) or get a NOT AT ALL OBJECTIVE opinion on whether photos of nekkid menz look like Nate from My Fair Captain, or get brilliant, thoughtful, insightful and sometimes smart alec takes on the hottest M/M novels from such a fabulous and great girl. Happy blog birthday, Nose in a Book.

But wait, there's more! Because, just to think, one year ago there was ALSO no place where slap v. tash arguments could rage, and where coy silliness could live in harmony with startling intelligence, and where a birthday would merely be celebrated with an INSANE placeholder like this. Happy blog birthday to you, too, Isn't it Romance.

I so heart you both, Lisabea and Tumperkin!

A golden rogue’s caress…

The Windflower has landed!
Ah, the legendary 1984 romance, favorite book of superfabulous author Joanna Bourne and superfabulous blogger MaryKate and all kinds of other exciting people is now in my hot little hands!

Like so many of my readerly pals, I've always wanted to read this seminal book, but it's been out of print for years.

Recently, clever Ciara happened upon it at a UBS and snapped it up. Then she and Ana at Book Smugglers hatched a plan to share the love and send the book on a worldwide 24-blogger reading tour! I can't wait to read it and see what all the fuss is about!

The Windflower was written by a husband wife team, Tom and Sharon Curtis (AKA Laura London.)

Coincidentally, my husband also got a book written by a husband and wife team on the very same day Windflower came in the mail for me - The Age of Voltaire by Will and Ariel Durant. And his book deals with the same general period in history, too.

I got no end of teasing, but I don't care.

Okay, here is the blurb:

She longed for a pirate’s kisses, for a golden rogue’s caress… Every lady of breeding knows: no one has a good time on a pirate ship. No one, that is, but the pirates.

Yet there she was, Marry Wilding- kidnapped in error, taken from a ship bound from New York to England, spirited away in a barrel and swept aboard the infamous Black Joke…. There she was, trembling with pleasure in the arms of her achingly handsome, sensationally sensual, golden-haired captor - Devon.

From the storm-tossed Atlantic to the languid waters of the Gulf Stream, from a smuggler’s den to a guilded mansion, Merry struggled to escape… to escape the prison of her own reckless passions, the bondage of sweet, bold desire….

Read all about the tour here.
Read Ana's thumbs-down review here.
MAP will be updated soon!

Visions of Heat: Beam me up!

Great moments from last night's reading

Book: Visions of Heat

Author: Nalini Singh

Spoiler level: Low

Okay, here I am halfway through this book and I'm so into it.

Psy and Changeling: the rundown

For anybody who doesn't know the series, the world here is made up of three groups: the Psy, a race with highly developed intellectual and extra-sensory skills, and they can link via a kind of invisible web, and they're super into business and money, but have nearly stamped out their emotions. And then there are the animalistic Changelings, sensual, emotional, sometimes fierce shapeshifters who turn into various large cats and wolves and live a kind of idyllic existence apart from the Psy. Oh, and humans are around, too. BO-RING. They don't have a big part.

So why is it so fun and addictive to read about the Psys and Changelings? The Psy here is Faith NightStar, who lives in the middle of nowhere with guards and monitors, and has been groomed to use her rare psy foresight gift to make business predictions all day. She starts getting these awful dark visions, but if the Psy leaders find out, they'll likely confine/institutionalize her. So she seeks out Sascha, a woman who broke from the Psy race to be with a changeling and meets Vaughn, a jaguar changling. Rowrrr. Like, has anybody not read this besides me?

Anyway I've really been appreciating the whole Psy/Changeling contrast, and little exchanges like this one between Faith and Vaughn early on:

"I'm Psy. I don't feel fear." Pulling away, she angled her head to face him.

His focus on her was so intense, she felt stripped bare. "Then what would you call it?"

"A physiological reaction to unknown stress factors."

The slightest hint of a smile played about his lips. "So, what other physiological reactions did you experience?"

She thought he might be laughing at her but had no way of judging the veracity of that conclusion.

Another thing I love is when they're meeting and interacting on their sort of mental 'net', and they appear to each other as cold stars in a veil of blackness. It's really a kind of nightmarish world, but Faith thinks it's beautiful in its own way. I never forgot from Slave, the first book, how the Psy could mentally follow each other around on that web of theirs. It's also wonderfully creepy, because this mental web thing makes the boundary between psy minds feel dangerously thin.

One of the reasons I think these books are so satisfying is because the central romantic drama aligns with a central theme of the human experience: the intellect vs the emotion. It's an old battle, an old dance. And it just never gets boring!

The old Star Trek used to have this, according to some. Dr. McCoy (Bones) was emotion, Spock was intellect, and Kirk was the perfect joining of the two.

What's interesting is that in Star Trek, perfection was Kirk. But in Singh's world, or the way it looks 1.5 books in, the ideal is the changlings, who are way over on the emotional side of the spectrum (and not, say the humans who would probably be the mixture).

Though in another way, it makes sense that the fierce/sensual/emotional changling side would get the high value in the world of romance.

The human don't figure much, though they apparently have the better libraries. Perhaps to read about all the exciting Changeling on Psy action.

A self-absorbed and experiential review of Fallen

The book Fallen by Erin McCarthy has been sitting by my computer forever. I've been meaning to write about my experience with it, which was oddly intense. But I've been putting it off, because I know that I don't have a lot of objectivity about it.

Oooh, it sounds like I'm going to pan it now, doesn't it? Quite the opposite.

A little context: as many of you know or guessed, I lost a family member this past summer, which was (and still is) quite devastating (but I'm not saying this to get sympathy! Please: no sympathy comments. I'm serious.) I say it only to make this discussion make sense, because Fallen was the book I was reading through the whole long process of the events unfolding. And one thing about sadness: it can make you tired, so I was reading really slowly, a few pages a night and then zonk. So it was like this book took one long sad month to read.

And I couldn't have asked for a better book!

Fallen centers almost entirely two characters: fallen angel Gabriel and forensic scientist Sara Michaels. They're both tormented, trying to recapture their lives after awful tragedies. And they care about each other, treat each other with extreme kindness and come to understand things about each other from close, thoughtful observation. Was the psychological precision with which they observed each other unrealistic? I just don't know. What I can say is that it sure felt nice to be with these two characters acting this way at that particular time, compared to say, a smartass heroine and some monstery guys.

The world of the book was fabulous, too--a richly drawn New Orleans past and present, and a lot of the action takes place in Gabriel's apartment, which is a safe haven for them both. They even bring a little homeless kitten into the apartment. It was just such a comforting and pleasing read.

Not to make it sound boring. I mean, there are a couple pretty grisly murders--both happen offstage, but there are plenty of details, and a sense of danger. And a whole smoldery, sexy subplot where Gabriel and Sara totally want each other but can't be together for various reasons.

Overall, I would describe this as a thoughtful, somewhat psychological paranormal that I would highly recommend, especially if you're in a melancholy mood. This is part of McCarthy's "seven deadly sins" series of "dark paranormals." I can't say I found it so dark but labels can be so weird.

Covers, too. I can assure you, Gabriel is never a statue like it shows on the cover--he looks like a normal guy through the whole thing. And I always saw Sara's character as normal looking, too--not like the gorgeous creature on the cover. Who is that woman with the shiny beautiful hair and satiny back-baring dress and why is she hugging a statue?

I won this book from Wendy over at Kicks and Giggles (Thanks, Wendy!) I'm definitely going to read more of McCarthy's stuff.  Other Erin McCarthy recommendations welcome! This book is also reviewed at Scooper Speaks and Romance Reviews Today.

The Book Smugglers made me do it!

Every month, Ana and Thea over at The Book Smugglers challenge somebody to a dare, and have them do something quite outside their comfort zone.

I'm over there today, and what do they have me doing? Reviewing my first ever contemporary romance. Gasp! It's Sugar Daddy by Lisa Kleypas - a book that both Thea and Ana loved.

It's all part of their action-packed Lisa Kleypas week, which will be full of reviews of already published and soon-to-be-released Kleypas books, an interview with Lisa Kleypas herself, and, of course, a giveaway! Go join the fun.

Winner & it's my birthday

Okay, LadyTink has won the suggest-a-blog contest!

Some really fun ones were suggested here. Thanks everybody. I love finding new blogs.  The prize: a book from my collection, recommended by me specifically for Ladytink. Luckily she has Shelfari, so if it's reasonably up to date, hopefully there will be one or two she hasn't read on the list I just emailed to her.

Also, it is my birthday today! I was woken up by fluffy cute kitties and my husband, and now I have all sorts of free time to do revisions on my new action packed and somewhat smutty and questionable novel. And later I will take a lovely fall run, and then have yummy food and wine with good company.  AND I have a new box of books.  I have so much to be thankful for today!

Barnes & Noble: Speedy Delivery kraziness!!

Okay, I just have to report in on this: I ordered this batch of books (see below) on Wednesday the 17th and they just arrived today!  From NJ to MN!

This was my first time using Barnes & Noble (I used to go with Amazon).  Like Amazon, you get free delivery with orders over $25 from B &N, but whereas Amazon's free delivery takes like a week to 10 days, B & N's free delivery got these books to me in TWO days!  

When the UPS truck pulled up and delivered a Barnes & Noble box, I almost fell over.  New books.  Mood much improved.  

Feeling blue. Maybe new books will cheer me up!

Actually, I know they'll cheer me up. Especially these beauties that I ordered this week.

Visions of Heat. Okay, I had started Caressed by Ice without having read Visions, and was persuaded to not read this series out of order.  You can't imagine how hard it was to put Caressed down. Maybe you can. I am so into the Nalini Singh world.  

The Bride of Casa Dracula. Oh, shit, I just realized I'm reading this series out of order, too! This is another #3 where I haven't read the #2.  Marta! If you happen on this post, please, avert your eyes! 

I really loved Happy Hour at Casa Dracula, the #1 of these series. (Discussed by me here.) It was so delightful and fun, with a great narrator. Win all three of Marta's books here. Win Bride here. Both contests end Friday.  

UPDATE: Check out the trailer at QB's! I usually don't think trailers are that funny, but this one is hilarious. OMG.

Dark Desires after Dusk. I can't get enough of this crazy Kresley Cole series. I understand this one is about Cade, the rage demon. I have it on good authority that Cade has lickable horns. When you look at Kresley's photo in the back cover, she doesn't look like the kind of girl who would write these sorts of stories. 

Here is a book I wanted to order and was foiled: Death of a Pirate King.  But only the ebook is available now.  Do you have an ereader? I am SO jealous.  It doesn't come out in PRINT until September 29th! I will order it then. I am foaming at the mouth in anticipation for it. Adrien! Jake!  A pirate!!

My two part review of Lanyon's incredible Hell You Say is here.  Bottom post goes first. 

  

New blogs and my own damn contest!

Okay, I'm officially getting into the spirit of Book Blogger Appreciation Week at My Friend Amy's by:

1. Exploring new blogs

I've really been appreciating the community building aspects of blogger appreciation.  Here two new-to-me blogs I'm pleased to have discovered:

Literary Escapism  This is a really well put together blog with thoughtful interviews and lots of cool features. I especially like Jaxon's amazingly robust list of author websites.  Wow!  And check out her upcoming releases. I see a lot of my blogging friends already know this one. 

Damn Heart I have really been enjoying the attitude of the blog (like this entry on Pirate King) as well as other engaging posts. And I like her taste in books! It's written by a Scottish woman named Sayuri. 

2. Holding a contest

Okay, this is a contest with a customized-to-you book prize. 

TO QUALIFY: You find a new-to-me book blog you think I'd like, from My Friend Amy's list or anyplace else and provide the link in the comments.

1. It can't be random; the reading tastes have to relate somewhat to mine to qualify. I will randomly choose from the qualified entrants! 

2. If it's on my list (at left) already, it's not new to me. I've temporarily alphabetized the list just for this contest.

PRIZE: You tell me your tastes or blog url and I'll provide you with a list of books from my gigantic personal collection that I think you should try next, and you will pick one and I'll send you that book. If I'm in a certain mood, I may send you more than one!  

DEADLINE: Saturday September 20th!

UPDATE: All entries qualified. Randomly generated winner: Lady Tink!  

The Marky Mark - Judd connection

I just started Caressed by Ice by Nalini Singh.

I'm really enjoying it so far! I read the first book in this series, Slave to Sensation, but not #2, Visions of Heat. I usually don't read out of order and it's a weird experience. You feel a bit like you're not in the club. But it's nothing compared to if I hadn't read Slave. Then I'd be like, WTF? Because you need that Psy world set up.

I'm amazed at how well Singh imagines the Psy world. It's so intricate, complex, and strangely logical; the way she talks about it and its effects and projects and factions, you'd swear it already exists and she's just reporting on it. It just has that much heft.

Anyway, does anybody else think Judd on the cover looks like Mark Wahlberg? Even down to the hairstyle. I think it every time I look at it.

My personal baggage moment with The Duke and I

Look how much I’m posting about The Duke and I!! I want to say right off that even though I’m kicking its tires a bit, I really liked it, engaged with it, and richly looked forward to reading it every night at bedtime, which is my sole measure of a book’s worth these days.

Here’s the thing with it - the book started out feeling like total confection—in a good way. Light, fun, bright, slightly weightless. Like cotton candy. Nom nom nom.

But then it tossed up an issue that totally shocked me.

One background thing about me: I don’t want kids and never have. Even as a young girl, I found baby dolls to be a crashing bore. As far as I was concerned, Barbies—and frankly, even troll dolls—were a whole lot more fun. Don’t get me wrong, I love being an aunt, and actually, I have the cutest, smartest, funnest nieces and nephew ever. But you know, here at home, I’m good with just cats.

SPOILER***
So I'll get to the point--here’s a conflict that arises between the newlyweds:

You told me you couldn’t have children,” she interrupted, her eyes flashing with anger. “There’s a very big difference.”

“Not,” Simon said coldly, “to me. I can’t have children. My soul won’t allow it.”

And later:

Daphne had aroused him in his sleep, taken advantage of him while he was still slightly intoxicated, and held him to her while he poured his seed into her.

His eyes widened and fixed on hers. “How could you?” he whispered.

[later in that scene]…But she had just curled up into a little ball, her knees tucked against her chest, obviously determined not to lose a single drop of him.

And later:

She wasn’t ashamed of her actions. She supposed she should be, but she wasn’t. She hadn’t planned it. She hadn’t looked at him while he was sleeping and thought—he’s probably still drunk. I can make love to him and capture his seed and he’ll never know.

It hadn’t happened that way.

Daphne wasn’t quite sure how it had happened, but one moment she was above him and the next she’d realized that he wasn’t going to withdraw in time, and she’d made certain he couldn’t…

Or maybe—She closed her eyes. Tight. Maybe it had happened the other way. Maybe she had taken advantage of more than the moment, maybe she had taken advantage of him.

She just didn’t know. It had all melted together.

So, Simon moves out to another estate and shuns her for months, she turns out not to be pregnant, but then they get back together and the issue is sort of transmuted into something different and resolved in that way.

But I was really hung up on Daphne's attempting to force parenthood on Simon - when she went into the marriage accepting there would be no children. I mean, in Regency England obviously women were forced into parenthood all the time. And I’m not saying this is on par with forced seduction or anything.

I think the point is, I had this sort of outrage on behalf of the hero, and I wanted the heroine punished way more than she was, and I wanted her to feel regret and repentance for the act way more than she did.

I am dimly aware that in the world of the book and the time, and all the sort of rules of this genre, Daphne probably paid sufficiently for these actions. But you know, it was my personal baggage moment.

Have you ever brought personal baggage to a book?

My "The Duke & I" X-Files moment

Am I still on  The Duke & I  by Julia Quinn? Yes I am. It got pre-empted by a couple other books, but now it's back on my radar.

Actually, I finished it. And overall I rather enjoyed it! But I have two things I want to discuss. The first is the cover. This copy was lent to me by Sarai, so it's not the cover you see now when you go to B & N. But I sometimes stare at in in bed thinking, what IS that thing in the background? That roundish, metal-looking thing. Is it a water tower? It's not like I take a magnifying glass to it. The thing is really clear. It doesn't look Regency to me.

Even with my rudimentary skills with Photoshop, it would take me about five minutes to erase it and replace it with sky.

I have consulted with Dear Husband on it. He agreed it appears to be a modern water tower of some sort, though his agreement may have had more to do with his wanting to get back to his own book and not stare at the cover of mine.

So what is it? Can anybody tell me? Because it looks like a late 20th century water tower.

Theory 1: Maybe Regency-era construction was such that this sort of thing could have been produced, and I just don't know what I'm talking about.

Theory 2: It has something to do with the World's Fair, or one of those exhibitions they put on. Like they had one in North and South.

Theory 3: The cover is supposed to be like that, and it is saying, here is your suburban home in the background, but this book will transport you to the Regency era.

Theory 4: The work of a disgruntled book cover designer.

I'll discuss the second thing tomorrow, or Wednesday. The second thing is about sex! And it is a spoiler. 

Saturday things to do

GIVE

MaryKate of Adventures in Katidom is co-chairing RBTB's Unleash Your Story fundraising team for Cystic Fibrosis, where authors and readers help raise funds for a great cause! Go see what it's all about, and the crazy thing she has pledged!  And Liza at Blogging by Liza has pledged something even crazier! Excellent!

 

WIN

Writtenwyrdd, a blog full of cool fantasy & speculative fiction talk and tidbits, (today is a thing on pre-industrial world building!) is having an anniversary contest where you can win art and mugs, including an Evil Editor mug. (Do you know who Evil Editor is? Check out his query facelifts. Very fun.)

VOTE

Vote here for your fave blogs in the BBAW contest. Cough*bookbingeforbestromanceblog*cough.

FEEL SORRY for me
I am sort of glum. AND I have to work all weekend. But I just wrote the most brilliant radio ad. Now I have to think of some slogans and campaigns for a different company. Then I will go running and then I plan to corrupt my handsome and normally healthy-eating dear husband into consuming some big greasy burritos while watching an old Monk on DVD. Ole! It's Saturday! And then work some more.

LOVE my kitty
Look what Oblio did to our recycling corner. But look how cute he is! It is so hard to be mad at him.

In addition to helping out with the recycling, Oblio enjoys investigating the mysteries of the toilet because, hello, things disappear down it--what is up with that?? One of his most favorite activities is to perch on the rim of the toilet while DH pees, and sometimes Oblio walks back and forth under the pee stream, like it is a magical bridge. I find this oh, about ninety billion times more amusing than DH does.

The other thing that happened that sounds made up and isn't

Okay, the second thing that sounds made up but isn't (first one here) happened last week on my train ride back up from Chicago to Minneapolis. I vastly prefer the train over the car for a number of reasons:

A) It's 6 or 7 hours of uninterrupted reading time.

B) It's cheaper and more earth friendly than driving.
C) I'm a crap driver.
D) The last time we took our 14-year-old car in for weird sound investigation, the mechanic refused to take it on the highway due to concerns for his personal safety. (NOTE: this does not stop DH from driving it on the hwy whenever he gets it in his head to.)

Train car of hell

Usually my Amtrak experience is totally pleasant, but this ride was shockingly awful. My car was full of people eating smelly food, kids fighting and babies crying, and, while I can roll with those things, as they do not specifically prevent reading, I was getting SUPER annoyed at the people behind me playing DVDs really loud, some sort of movie with lots of talking.

I tolerated several hours of this by a kind of fierce concentration. I was finishing Anne Aguirre's sci-fi novel GRIMSPACE, and absorbed in it, so that helped, though I sure wished those DVD people had brought earphones. And so did the people around me.

Anyway, around Tomah, WI, I was relieved when the movie sounded like it was over, and I figured they'd shut the thing off. By that time, I was finished with GRIMSPACE and was going on to Kesley Cole's DARK NEEDS AT NIGHT'S EDGE.

And they put in another movie--a kid's movie with bells and horns and screechy mouse voices. So I'm like, fuck this, I'm outta here. I grab my purse and my backpack and my water and M&Ms and go in search of a new seat in a totally new car. Which you're NOT supposed to do on a train. So I walked through the sleeper car, the lounge car, another crowded car, and then I come to this one really nice, quiet, non-food smelly car that had one whole double open seat.

Train car of heaven

I sit down, and open my book. Just then the train stops and my new car empties out even more, and becomes even more quiet. So I'm reading in perfect peace for an hour, and this fresh faced young college boy across the aisle asks me where I'm going and I tell him and I ask him, etc. He's going to some college named St. John's in St. Paul, he tells me.

We proceed to have this pleasant little train passenger conversation, and while we're talking, all these wholesome, fresh-faced college boys pop their heads up around me. They all seemed to know each other, and they were all smiling and SO sympathetic to me being in this other car. Now, I'm past the age of getting that kind of attention from college boys, so I was like, this is weird.

Then they're really keenly interested in what I'm reading. Which was slightly embarrassing, considering the cover. I give them a kind of G-rated version of the plot, explaining that it's a very exciting story about a ghost and a vampire. They all seem to find crazy-fascinating.

Finally I'm like, St. Johns? And they're like, Seminary School. They're studying to be priests. I almost spit out my M&M's. And I'm like, whoa. Cool. And I'm thinking, gee, I'm really glad I didn't go into any kind of detail on the whole vampire chained to a bed and amorous ghost plotline.

We talk a bit more, and then we all just go back to our reading. The thing was, they weren't trying to talk to me about religion or anything. I think they were just really heavy into human kindness. Maybe that is the first level of priest study. I can't say how pleasant it was. Car of heaven.

Where in the world is Carolyn Jean?

I'm over at Book Binge doing a special review of WIRED by Liz Maverick for their Shomi Spotlight month.

Wow, WIRED was such a damn fine read—fun, exciting, sexy, plotty, mysterious—the perfect balance of a book. Okay, first, a bit about the plot, because you know what’s funny? The back blurb, like many events within the book itself, makes a whole lot more sense in hindsight. Translation: not a lot of help from the flap. So here’s the deal:
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