I feel pretty good about the results of Keishon’s August TBR challenge, which was to read series books. Yesterday I finished Suzanne McMinn’s Her Man to Remember, which turned out to be a great book to end the month on.

1. Title/Author
Her Man to Remember by Suzanne McMinn.

2. Brief Synopsis
More than a year after his wife’s death, Roman tries to come to terms with the memory of his wife by returning to Florida, where they went for their honeymoon. Instead of getting a peaceful resolution, Roman sees a woman who looks like his wife, Leah. She has Leah’s scar and wears Leah’s bracelet. She is Leah. But she doesn’t remember Roman.

3. Copyright Year
2004.

4. Indicate if you liked or disliked it?
I loved it: 4.5 out of 5. I enjoy a good amnesia story, and this was one of the best I’ve read in a while. There was plenty of suspense in the story, but I loved how the focus stayed on Leah and Roman. Sometimes with romantic suspense, writers focus more on the suspense. My preference is for more romance than suspense, and Her Man to Remember offers just the mix I like.

5. Was the book designated a DIK or Five Heart book at any of the review sites?
I didn’t find a review of it at AAR or TRR.

6. Do you agree or disagree with the reviewers?
Not applicable.

7. Is this a new author for you?
No, I’ve read a few other books by McMinn.

8. Would you read more by this author?
Yes, and I have six or seven more on my TBR shelves.

The September challenge is listed as simply fiction. Perhaps I’ll interpret that as chick lit and read a few of the ones I have waiting to be read.

I’ve been reading some series books lately, in part because they are the subject of this month’s TBR challenge hosted by Keishon. I have at least a dozen of Justine Davis’s books that I haven’t read, so I thought I’d read one.

1. Title/Author
To Hold an Eagle by Justine Davis.

2. Brief Synopsis
Linc Reese is out in his boat when he sees a woman in the water. He rescues her, but instead of being grateful, she struggles against him and eventually turns a gun on him. Eventually, Linc learns that she is running from someone who wants her dead, which brings out his protective instincts.

3. Copyright Year
1993.

4. Indicate if you liked or disliked it?
I like it, though it’s not one of Davis’s best: 3.5 out of 5. I thought there was a little too much emphasis on how emotionally beaten down Chandra was, although it resulted in a nice ending. There was also a little too much conversation in the middle. It slowed the story down.

5. Was the book designated a DIK or Five Heart book at any of the review sites?
I’m not sure.

6. Do you agree or disagree with the reviewers?
Not applicable. As a side note, though, because this didn’t affect my rating, the woman on the cover looks like she’s in her early teens. Chandra is supposed to be small and delicate, but I think putting the model in a different dress would have made her look less like jail bait.

7. Is this a new author for you?
No. I’ve read several of her books, and I have several more books TBR.

8. Would you read more by this author?
Yes.

This morning, I finished A Breath Away by Rita Herron, another of my RWA signing books. I had been tempted by it several times in the bookstore because of its cover, which I think is terrific. The cover is perhaps the best part of the book, however: 3 out of 5.

Violet and Darlene were best friends as children. Darlene was murdered when the girls were eight. Violet had visions about what was happening to Darlene and where her body could be found. Shortly after Darlene’s death, Violet’s father sent her away to live with her grandmother.

Fast forward 20 years. Violet learns that her father is dead and supposedly committed suicide. Her grandmother wants Violet to return to the town to find out what really happened. Once there, Violet sees Darlene’s brother, Grady, for the first time in years. She is attracted to him but thinks he hates her because her father left a note stating that he (her father) was the one who killed Darlene.

The romance in this book is less successful than the suspense plot. Violet feels guilty because Darlene left her house to visit Violet. Violet also feels like she should have stopped the murder. Grady was five years older than the girls and feels equally guilty. His father insisted that Grady should have protected Darlene. Against this backdrop of guilt, it’s difficult to believe that the two fall in love.

I also wondered that they would be carrying so much guilt so long after the events. I believed that they would both be changed because of what happened to them, but Violet virtually stopped living. She never had a relationship with a man, and she feels like she doesn’t deserve to be happy. I wanted to tell her to find a good therapist, fast.

The story jumps from Grady, to Violet, to at least half a dozen other townspeople. This helped the reader get to know the suspects, but it shifted the focus from Violet and Grady, which added to the unbelievable romance. Plus, you don’t get enough of one person to feel like you know him or her. I became frustrated with each changed point of view.

The ending was strong. I was intrigued by the way the suspense story wrapped up–I was thrown off by one of the red herrings–and I thought the romantic ending was appropriate. Make that the very end of the romantic ending. There’s another conflict after the danger is past, and it struck me as forced under the circumstances.

So, A Breath Away was an OK read, probably not something I would read again. But I still like the cover.

I haven’t had much interest in anything lately. It’s probably because I’m unhappy at work, and I’m trying to decide what I really want to do. I miss the days (long, long past) when I knew what I wanted to do. At that time, it was get a Ph.D. and teach college literature courses. I realized that wasn’t for me partway through getting my Master’s degree. Since then, I haven’t really known what I wanted to do. I wouldn’t say I’ve been floundering since then, since there are certainly times I swim laps quite well and other times I tread water skillfully. For the past several months, though, I’ve been floundering.

It’s affected the blog too, I suspect, mainly because I’ve been doing a lot of thinking instead of blogging.

Here’s something a little peculiar. I still haven’t read the latest Harry Potter book. I realized that I’m still wary from book five, which I thought could have used more editing. Also, when I started reading that book and heard that someone died in it, I thought, “Just don’t let it be Sirius or Dumbledore.” Given what happened in book five, I don’t have a good track record, and it’s one more reason I’m reluctant to read book six. And please, don’t tell me if I’m right or wrong about who dies in book six. That will surely make me even more hesitant.

My coworker assures me that this one is much better than book five, but I still haven’t been in the mood to read it. I’ve picked it up a few times but put it down without reading a word. At this rate, book seven may be out before I actually read it. Which might not be such a bad thing.

Truth is, I have plenty of other books to choose from. I have so many books waiting to be read that it’s become almost discouraging. Right now, I’m reading Rita Herron’s A Breath Away. I’ll blog about it once I’m finished.

I’m off to a work party this afternoon. My sister works for the same company I do, and we’re taking advantage of the opportunity to hang out together.

Happy reading!

I’m slowly working my way through the books I bought at the RWA signing. My TBR list was big before that event, but it’s completely unmanageable now. Yikes. In any case, I read Men at Work by Janelle Denison, Nina Bangs, and MaryJanice Davidson. I picked this one up because it was the one book by Denison that I didn’t already have. Hers was the best story in the anthology; the others were interesting but not especially memorable: 3.5 out of 5.

“Slow Hands” by Janelle Denison is a coming home story that really works. So often in these stories, one character leaves the small town to go to the big city. That’s what happens in this case; Tess Monroe heads to Atlanta for college, leaving Morgan Kane behind. What makes this story work is why she does it. Tess’s mother died when she was young, so she was raised by her grandmother. The grandmother is the one who encouraged her to move to a big city and create a career for herself. She tried it, isn’t convinced she likes it, and is in a place of transition. When the story opens, her grandmother has died and she returns home, thinking that she will get the house fixed and sold.

Morgan and Tess are still very attracted to each other, and they decide to have a fling while she’s in town. So, I liked the characters and loved their chemistry. I also liked Tess’s decision at the end. I thought it really fit who she was. “Slow Hands”: 4.5 out of 5.

Nina Bangs writes the next story, “Color Me Wicked.” In this story, two people are brought together to decorate a house. These two people, Amanda Harcourt and Con Maguire, have a history similar to the couple in Denison’s story. Amanda left to go to New York City; Con planned to go with her but broke up with her before she left. Now, Con admits that he didn’t have the money to go.

While I liked Amanda and Con, I wasn’t as fond of the paranormal parts of the story. There’s a matchmaking woman who “gets off on emotional turmoil” so she brings together couples with little in common and watches the resulting chaos. There’s a mind-reading cat whose thoughts Con can hear. There are plants who perk up when people have sex near them. The result is that I enjoyed the story when it focused on Con and Amanda, and not so much when the matchmaker, mind-reading cat, and voyeristic plants were in the picture: 3.5 out of 5.

MaryJanice Davidson’s “The Fixer-Upper” completes the anthology. I have a mixed response to her books. I love her Undead series. I’ve liked some of her contemporaries and really disliked others. As for my feelings about this story . . . well, let’s start with a quick summary. Cathy Wyth moves into her new house and finds that her next door neighbor, while gorgeous, is a jerk. One day she comes home to find him replacing a light bulb for her, even though she told him not to. She startles him, which results in his getting an electric shock and falling off the ladder. When he comes to, he is a new man.

I liked Cathy. I didn’t like her friend so much, since she was constantly pushing Cathy to have sex with the neighbor. I liked the neighbor, once he woke up. I’m about to include some spoilers here. If you want to read them, click at the beginning of the white space, then scroll over it to the end of the white space. Spoilers begin: The neighbor, Ken, dies when he falls off the ladder. Jack, a ghost who lived in Cathy’s house, then inhabits Ken’s body. So, we’ve got ghost Jack in neighbor Ken’s body. So, OK, I can take this. It’s different, but I try to work with it.

But then we learn that Ken’s spirit is still hanging around. I’m not sure whether he is hanging around the house or his former body, but either way seemed creepy. So he’s dead but not really dead? There’s no real answer to this, other then the fact that Cathy and Jack believe that Ken will eventually “just fade away.” I find this somewhat disturbing. If he’s not dead, is it fair for Jack to inhabit Ken’s body because Ken is a creep? Spoilers end. “The Fixer Upper”: 2.5 out of 5.

So, Men at Work ended up being like many anthologies, with one great story, one good story, and one not-so-good story.

This site allows you to download text from a blog to create a book:

http://www.blogbinders.com/default.asp

The idea is fascinating and brilliant. I have occasionally thought about printing off pages of my blog just for fun, so this book idea appeals to me.

Drawback: Images are deleted from the file.

I’ll let you know if I decide to try it.

My Romancing the Blog column has received one comment so far. Here are my guesses about the reason.

• The column was so exquisitely expressed that there is nothing left to add.
• Readers are so busy nodding in agreement that they can’t add a comment.
• Everyone is suffering from blog boredom, and my boring column simply pushed readers over the edge.
• Readers are refusing to comment in protest of my lack of blog updates.

Any guesses? I’m not soliciting comments, really. I have already decided my first guess is correct. Ha ha! But perhaps I should have gone into more detail about the other thing Roy does with one hand in Contact . . .

If it’s actually the last guess, then I apologize. Really! I have a number of writing projects on my plate that aren’t work related, so I’ve been doing those in the evening. I hope one day soon to have a normal schedule again.

I haven’t been blogging, but I did get my Romancing the Blog column finished. First, I wrote one column, then decided I didn’t want to address this topic now. I’ve set it aside and will likely use it later. Then, I got halfway through writing a second one and realized it wasn’t really coming together. I wasn’t feeling passionate about the topic. It led me to another idea, though, so I wrote a third column, and this is the one I’m using. It goes online tomorrow.

A few bits of miscellaneous news:

• I never heard from the person who originally won my last contest, and she didn’t leave an e-mail address. I have therefore picked a new winner: Robyn! Robyn will receive an autographed copy of Eloisa James’s Much Ado about You. Congratulations, Robyn!
• Ellen Fisher explained how to activate a blogger feature where people must enter a series of numbers to make a comment. I have followed the steps and hope that this will foil the spam I’ve been getting recently. Thanks, Ellen!
• I’m cutting it close on my Romancing the Blog column . . . OK, I just checked the schedule and I’m not in as much trouble as I thought. My next column is scheduled for Thursday, so I have a little time to play with the idea I’ve started working with. We’ll see how it goes.

More book posts will follow.

I really haven’t fallen off the face of the earth. This week has been quite hectic with a trip out of town and other interesting adventures. I also seem to have caught the blog blahs that have been going around. In any case, I have done some reading, and I’m pleased I finally have a minute to blog about it.

Keishon’s TBR challenge for August is series books. I have plenty of them, so I easily met this challenge and hope to read a few more, too.

1. Title/Author
A Dash of Temptation by Jo Leigh.

2. Brief Synopsis
When famous Dash Black overhears Tess Norton telling a friend about needing a date for an upcoming party, he decides to step in and help out. This is a dream come true for Tess, who has been attracted to him since he hired her to care for his plants. Tess wants to attend the party to find someone to finance her plant business. She didn’t expect to find herself dating Dash, but that’s exactly what happens.

3. Copyright Year
2003.

4. Indicate if you liked or disliked it?
I really enjoyed it: 4 out of 5.

5. Was the book designated a DIK or Five Heart book at any of the review sites?
I didn’t read any reviews before reading the book.

6. Do you agree or disagree with the reviewers?
This isn’t really applicable. As I mentioned, I liked it quite a bit. It was fun to immerse myself in the fantasy of dating a celebrity you admire and discovering that you are a perfect match for each other. I just had to keep telling myself not to think of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes while I read.

7. Is this a new author for you?
No. In fact, I have several more books TBR.

8. Would you read more by this author?
Of course. First, though, I have to come up with a topic for my next Romancing the Blog column. This is not a good time for writer’s block.