Rereading all of Julia Quinn's backlist!

After reading all four of the original Jamie-and-Claire epic time travel love stories and having started the fifth, I took a break to reread ALL of Julia Quinn's novels. These are candy. They make me laugh. They are like old friends.

You may know how this goes....you pick up one book by an author because of convenience...perhaps you're in the waiting room and one is sitting in the basket on the floor by your feet. Or...you're in the car outside of a school (waiting) and one is found under the front seat of your car. Or....you're waiting at a red light and one flies through your open passenger side window, onto your lap...open.... in any event, once you read one page: hooked! Hooked until they are all done...again! As for me...I was looking for something light to read in the bath....Fiery Cross, while very good is not light! It has to weigh over 3 pounds. Not something easy to hold in the bath without dropping it into the water.

I have 19 of the Quinn novels in the home and got to thinking one night about How to Marry a Marquis That's my favorite Quinn novel. The whole premise is a hoot....(these are all historical romance, btw) Poor gal with 3 younger siblings to support finds a book How to Marry a Marquis (the book in the book) Reading it, she decides to practice on the estate manager...who actually is a Marquis...in disguise.

This is the introduction to Lady Danbury, that feisty older woman who shows up in the Bridgerton series. It's also the story of a good friend of characters in To Catch an Heiress. So of course, I then had to reread To Catch an Heiress. When that was done, I just had to reread Emma's, Belle's and Henry's stories again! These are older Quinn novels. More stilted but still a hoot! Many characters show up again and again in later novels....

Splendid: Emma, disguised as a maid, throws herself in front of a carriage to save the Duke of Ashbourne's young nephew.

Dancing at Midnight: Lady Arabella Blydon takes a walk in the woods and finds a mysterious stranger. Well...maybe not so strange. And not long a stranger....

Minx: Henrietta gets a new guardian....how to convince him that he doesn't want to live in the country so that she can get back to managing the estate?

Another related character is Ned Blydon....I haven't reread that book, yet...but I will as soon as I find it!

In the meantime, I've started the Bridgerton series again!

Some background on Julia Quinn: She's not really Julia Quinn. She decided on that name because that would get her books right next to Amanda Quick's (who...most everyone knows is not really named Amanda Quick! Her name is Jayne Krentz!) Julia Quinn started med school...but decided that writing fiction would be a whole lot more fun. Can't argue with that!!!

Sharon Shinn: Archangel best secret in reading!

Hey Joanie, Looks like this is the private blog just for you! Now that you've wiped the tears of laughter from the Peeps Pages...consider picking up a Sharon Shinn SAMARIA book.
There are four of them and they are all wonderful! Readership is split between men and women so you won't find her books in the romance aisle. If you're lucky enough to find her books, they'd be in the sci-fi aisle.

ARCHANGEL Introduces us to a world where the inhabitants must meet on the plains (yearly) to sing praises to their god or face wrath--in the form of devastating lightning bolts. In this world angels fly up to the heavens singing to god to heed their prayers. For example...if they pray for rain...rain comes. If they pray for antibiotics...well...that also rains down from the sky in the form of pellets. The angels marry based on finding their true mates....in which case the inside of their arm will light up. In this novel, the newest archangel-to-be (Gabriel) must find his mate before the yearly sing-fest while the old archangel has fallen away from the beliefs. He's really bad!

JOVAH'S ANGEL Set ahead 150 years during a time when Jovah isn't listening to the songs and prayers of the angels. The newest archangel is replacing Delilah who was crippled and now not interested in helping. There's political unrest, worsening weather and Alleya must find her mate before the next Gloria...in 4 short months!

THE ALLELUIA FILES A novel on the history and background of Samaria...two forces battling each other. Is Jovah a god? Or something else? The Alleluia Files supposedly contains the answers to all these questions. Tamar with the help of Jared, a friendly angel, searches for these files.

ANGELICA Samaria is threatened by armed aliens. Susannah is chosen as the next Angelica (mate of the archangel) More on the background of Jovah and Samaria

ANGEL SEEKER The last Samaria novel. Rebekah and Elizabeth's story. A novel of two (or more!) society's colliding....and the struggle to overcome the obstacles to happiness. This one is a love story and possibly my very favorite. It doesn't really further the story-line of the background of the populating of Samaria or the history of Jovah but still a wonderful novel! I guess my point here is that it's truly a stand-alone novel. It can be read or not to get the full flavor of the Samarian series.

All of these books are available through amazon.com used...some as low as a penny!

What I'm reading this week: Diana Gabaldon's time-travel series....the Jamie and Claire story! These are hefty novels...while it usually takes me one night to read a book, each of these have so far taken at least 3 days! I've finished book 3 VOYAGER and have book 4 DRUMS OF AUTUMN and book 5 FIERY CROSS in stock and ready to read!

NORA ROBERTS the most prolific romance author of all time!

For the past few days, I've tried to slog my way through the Circle of 7 trilogy. That's it. I've had it. I give up. I just have better things to do with my time! This is too bad because I've read nearly all the older stuff that Roberts has on the market and loved most of it. She should give up the paranormal stuff...her style of writing just doesn't lend itself to the paranormal.
Here's the gist: back in the 1600s a demon and guardian duked it out. They ended up in a centuries-long tie. In the meantime, the guardian had 'gifted' his descendants with special powers while the demon had impregnated a local girl, so that his line would continue. Present day: 3 descendants of both get together to fight and overcome the demon for all time.

yadda...yadda...yadda.

That's what I feel this book is about.
"Oh no! I imagined I saw a snarly old dog! It looked at me!"
"Is it imagined or is it real?" This said by the manly man. "Shoot it/stab it/grind it with your heel to see."

"Let's go here to talk and rehash events and our deepest secrets. But don't touch me because I'm not yet sure if I want you now...although, I am sure that I'm attracted to you. " Says one of the females (pick one...they all say it)

"Let's move from here and go to here to talk and rehash events and how to deal with the deepest darkest secrets...I do so enjoy baring my soul and I always talk ad nauseum about how I feel." Says the manly man (again...pick one...they all say it)

And I didn't even get to Gage's book, which at least will have a back story of a guy who had some real hardship.

Yadda, yadda...all they do is talk and move from one venue to another. I hate books where I just feel like the characters move from one place to another and yak the whole time!

Nora Roberts is like...the most prolific romance author of our time with over 300 novels in print. She was the 1st author inducted into the Romance Writer hall of fame. She writes the wildly popular J.D. Robb ...In Death Eve Dallas mystery series. Surely she can do better than this!

The books I liked the most: Any of the older free standing novels put out by Jove in the 90s: True Lies, Public Secrets, Brazen Virtue, Sacred Sins, Hot Ice (I loved that one the most!) Honest Illusions... any of those. Some of her series that I loved: The O'Hurleys, Dream, Born, the MacGregors. Pick any one of those books and I've probably read it more than 5 times! I just loved Without a Trace (the last O'Hurley novel) Now there's a man! Able to leap tall buildings, faster than speeding bullets, sexy and able to whip up a music composition and make women weep with his ability to play the flute! I want him!

Books I haven't been able to slog my way through: The Garden trilogy, the Irish trilogy, The Pride of Shane Mackade. Interesting factoid about the Shane book...it's one of the 4 Mackade series put out by Silhouette. All have Nora Robert's name in large letters above the title. (No mistaking that, eh?) I enjoyed the first 3....Rafe, Devin, Jared...but had a tough time getting to the end of Shane. Flipping through to the publication page to check on copyright date, I noticed it's not copyright by Nora Roberts! What's up with that, huh? Did she know it was so bad that she copyright it in a different name? One of her pseudonyms: Sarah Hardesty or Jill March? Or did someone ghost it because she was too busy to write it? Someone without Nora's talent? Well...actually, I don't have a copy of the book here to check on the name but at that time I though it was a little underhanded. Maybe Silhouette reasoned that Nora thought up the concept so took a novel by a different author and slipped it in there with Nora's name on it. For whatever reason, the novel just didn't have the same flavor as the other 3.

Just thought of another series that I loved: the Night series. For some reason, I always think of this series when I think of the J.D. Robb books. I believe it to be the genesis of the Death series. The family name is O'Rourke! What other clue does one need?! Night Shadow is wonderful and just a toe into the paranormal side.

So....how many people have already scarfed up a new copy of Promises in Death? It was released Tuesday.....the continuing adventures of Eve Dallas, her husband Roarke and her sidekick Peabody....

U is for Undertow is coming out when???!!!!

OK...finished with the Sue Graton Kinsey Millhone series to date. Wow...she just keeps getting better and better! The first few didn't have enough character relationship development but the last few certainly did! I loved how she split the 2 parallel stories in S is for Silence so that the reader knew what went on during the July 4th weekend of '52 even though Grafton never gave away the mystery.

Anyhoo...I can't believe I now have to wait until DECEMBER of 2009 for the next installment! Haven't her other novels all been released in the summer?

Thoughts on 'X':
X is for Xylophone -- a mystery about how a woman in her 50s became deaf with a xylophone being played 12" from her ear...oh wait...that would be V is for Vibraphone....hmmm

X is for X-ray -- a mystery about deliberate overradiation for some reasons of vengeance or greed. Then Grafton can again show her misconception of the levels of the nursing profession (I have to admit, that irked me. There's a LOT of nurses out there, I'm sure that it can't be too hard for Grafton to find one to do a little basic research)

For the record, there are LPNs and LVNs -- they are both the same level, both licensed. They are used interchangeably. One is Licensed Practical Nurse, one is Licensed Vocational Nurse.
My grandmother was one such nurse, her educational background was from a hospital-based program (now defunct) and she graduated in her late 40s.

RNs with AD -- that's an RN who graduated from a 2 year community college. Generally, it takes longer to get this degree because of the waiting list to get into the program. They take the standard licensing test that all the other RNs do. My mother is one such nurse. She graduated sometime around the age of 46.

Then there are the 3 year RNs with a diploma. That's what I have. My background is a hospital-based program (now defunct) taking the same licensing test that other RNs take.
Then the 4 year BSN programs. This is a Bachelor of SCIENCE in NURSING. I've never heard of a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Nursing. And one would never say that they have an RN on top of a BA in Nursing. For someone who graduated from a 4 year program, a BSN is sufficient, a BSN RN is redundant. There might be a few who first graduated from a 3 year program and then did the RN to BSN program who would say that they are an RN BSN. But that's not the norm.
Sorry...it just bugs me...that Grafton thinks there is a BA in Nursing and that somehow an RN is on top of that. That misconception was in an earlier novel...T is for Trespass had a character who is an LVN going into a Master's program. Well...maybe if it was an accelerated Master's program.

haha...I won't even bore you with the CERNs, the APRNs and the Master's. Then there are those who have a doctorate in Nursing, which would make that person a Dr. Nurse.

Enough on that. I did enjoy the series and kept waiting to check out the names of new characters. Jonah Robb (what a wuss!) cute name....do you know what famous author has the pseudonym J.D. Robb? Or how about Carl Dietz? What not-as-famous author has the pseudonym Dietz? hint: She's a mystery writer. In one of the early books, a character was introduced as Stackhouse. Hmmm...what famous series has a protagonist named Sookie Stackhouse?

For something really deep and insightful, try reading:
http://www.crimetime.co.uk/features/susanrowland.html

and for a really, really fabulous blog on books, try bookbinge

Plum vs Millhone

Joanie, your post got me to thinking....I've never read a Kinsey Millhone mystery by Sue Grafton! So...in between work and family visiting last weekend, I took care of that little issue and read 'A is for Alibi' the first in the celebrated Kinsey Millhone series. It was a very compelling book...I read it straight through. Different from some of the other girl gun-toter mysteries that I've read, in particular Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum. (Is there an adult female in this country who has not read at least one of the Plum mysteries? If so, wow! What rock are you living under?)

Stephanie: Has a family. In fact, we love her family! From her father with his avoidance issues, to her closet-drunk mom to her crazy grandmother, we can see the forces that shaped Stephanie into the woman that she is today! Her family could possibly be the AnumberOne reason her books are so popular! Stephenie even has a relationship with Rex, her pet hamster.
Kinsey: No family and only one reference to history...her parents were killed when she was 5 years old, so one assumes she barely remembers them. She was raised by an aunt. No siblings and apparently, no cousins although there's always that option for later books. But...Kinsey is a loner. Not even a pet!

Stephanie: Not averse to sleeping with men who turn her on but she knows them first. Joe she pretty much knew since the cradle...or was that kindergarten? (Loved the choo-choo-train game! laughed so much...) She doesn't know the mysterious Ranger as well in the first book, so she waits to get to know him better. Man of few words...that Ranger.
Kinsey: This really strained the bounds of credulity. Not only does Kinsey not know Charles, but he's a suspect in a murder investigation! The heat didn't seem all that hot and there weren't chapters of learning of the conflict Kinsey went through to make the decision to sleep with Charles. In any event, he did buy her a meal so I guess she 'owed him'.

Stephanie: An average gal who sort of fell into the bounty hunter role but is afraid to carry a gun. That gun spends more time in the cookie jar than in her purse and who knows where the bullets are?
Kinsey: An ex-policewoman--got to be a story there that hope is discussed further in future books--who makes a point to bring the gun wherever she goes and isn't afraid to use it--judiciously.

Given all that, I really enjoyed 'A' is for Alibi. I was able to partially solve the whodunit very early on and I felt good about that. I will be reading the rest of the series!

Thanks Jo....for inspiring me to add another author to my must-read list!

Charlaine Harris is just SO good!

My first introduction to Charlaine Harris' writing was through her Sookie Stackhouse series. A bar waitress who looks like the typical bimbo blonde but is very intelligent. Her problem is that she's continually bombarded with other people's thoughts. An empath, she really just wants a little peace and quiet. Her world is peopled by vampires...well...OK...it wasn't peopled by vampires until the first novel, when Bill walked into her bar and life. But...otherwise, it's peopled by vampires, weres (wolves and other shape-shifters), witches, elves and all sorts of other "supes" I gobbled these up, one each night until I finished the series. Then went on a Harris hunt and managed to find the rest of her books....her other series are more of the typical whodunit mysteries:

Aurora Teagarden, the librarian who stumbles onto dead people. Unless of course, they fall out of the sky and into her yard.

Harper Connelly the corpse-finder who was somewhat raised by drug-addicted parents. Not only was she hit by lightening, her full sister was snatched and never found. She and her step-brother Tolliver travel the country looking for dead people. For a fee. Her hope is that someday she will find her sister.

And...Lily Bard, who settled in Shakespeare, Arkansas and is still recovering from a very traumatic event that occured in her early 20s. THIS is my favorite Harris series! While whodunits are not my favorite genre (that would be romance!) I do enjoy exploring past baggage that makes characters behave the way they do. And Charlaine Harris does this with Lily's character. Her past makes Lily work on being strong. It makes her have trouble with trust. It causes her to choose cleaning as a career -- which enables Harris to bring in all sorts of random clues to solving the whodunit. But utmost, I love these novels because of the exploration of Lily's relationships with the other characters: The gym owner; the chief of police; her various clients; the PI who blows into town and just so many more. Whew...I managed to write a whole paragraph without a single spoiler! I encourage everyone to read these books!!!!

List of recently published books

I decided to take the bull by the horns this year! Instead of being tossed to and fro at the whim of the publisher's....never knowing what book was gonna' be released when and then being totally surprised during a trip to Target (seeing that my one of my very favorite authors' released a book without even telling me!) I took a trip to www.fantasticfiction.com.uk and made the following list:

1. Jeanniene Frost At Grave's End 12/30 Can this person possibly get any better? She started at the top!

2. Kresley Cole Kiss of the Demon King 1/20 Could hardly wait for the next installment of the Immortals After Dark series. I rushed to Borders on 1/19 but they didn't put any out early!!! Since it's now 1/21, I can tell you--without spoiling anything--that it was worth the wait and I'm planning on rereading Kiss... after I reread them all the way through AGAIN. Then MAYBE I'll put this set up for sale. It'll be a special set because I have every single Cole ever written, including the hard-to-find Pleasure books!

3. Christine Higgins 2/1 ooooh nooooo! Can I wait nearly 2 weeks for this book? I'll have to reread her first 3 before then just to tide me over!!!!

4. Lynsay Sands 4/1 boo hoo! This is not going to be another Argineau book. To be fair to Lynsay, she'd explored the nano theory of vampirism as far as she can. How many different ways can you read about 'the change'? But most of them were great. Lynsay is such a hoot that I'm sure whatever she puts out will be well worth the trip to Borders!

5. Kerrilyn Sparks 3/31 Yes...so Kerrilyn was an afterthought. It's so hard when a person has a million favorite authors! But a Sparks book is always a pleasure to read so she did make the list.

Ok...so even armed with this list, I still missed a few. Jayne Ann Krentz snuck Running Hot right by me! It had to be out at least 2 days before I found it! (I picked it up on a Thursday at Sams and as most everyone knows, Sams puts out their books on Tuesdays) Running Hot was the best Arcane novel to date...and I've read them all!
Julie Garwood got by me, too....Fire Ice is another FBI romance. How did I miss this? I love every single book Julie has ever read!!!!! Fire Ice is not as good as Murder List but it's better than some of the FBI romance, which means that it's very, very good! The main protagonist is one of the Murder List's main character's best friends....so it was nice to see some old friends.

I have to admit, I did not put Charlaine Harris on the list but only because she just had a Sookie novel published before I made the list, not because she didn't deserve a place on it.

So...hey...happy reading to you all!