This month wasn’t really the greatest in reading. Most of my reading has been limited to night and I”m falling asleep rather quickly these days. Between the upcoming move, the end of school, late nights at work, late nights at home, writing has fallen by the wayside, as has reading. But some was done!
I’m having a problem with Chrome and Firefox. Chrome won’t let me scroll my pictures here on WordPress. Firefox won’t let me open Facebook games past the opening page. It pisses me off. Certain browsers do certain things and now I’m having to swap. Sucketh royally!
I received a book as a surprise gift yesterday.
It takes place in WW2 Japan and centers around a captured American Soldier and a Japanese Prostitute. I’m looking for a place to slide it into my challenge. If I can’t find a spot, well then, it’s become a Free Space!
I’m continuing my challenge and chipping away at it. After last month’s bonanza, I was disappointed when I looked in May’s folder to see 3 books – and the 3rd isn’t finished! I’m about 75% done with it and I don’t think I’m going to fall it over to next month. I’ll finish it in the next couple of days.
First up! First in a series
You might remember last month I read the amazing and fabulous fantasy that probably takes place on another world –
In which that haves – those with ‘gifts’ and the havenots ‘those without them’ are separated by more than class or money. All gifts are transferable, can even be broken up amongst family members, but one – the most powerful gift of them all. It CHOOSES where to go and the current recipient is a lowly police officer. The Shock of Night alludes to many things – how the lowly police officer became the King’s Personal Inspector, that somehow, much to the jealousy of many, the lowly police officer not only became the King’s personal Inspector, but also managed to obtain a title, therefore he was worthy of marrying the woman he loved and somehow, he managed to accuse, prove his accusation and as a result, execute a member of the nobility, who was conspiring to assassinate the king. By Divine Right came available at a great price (free) the last day of April, so in a sense, I read this part of the story backwards. All Shock of Night insinuated is explained here – the lowly police officer who makes friendly with the urchins he worries so much for in Shock. How he befriends them and why they trust him. His pissing off his superior ALL the time because he just knows this isn’t right. There are deaths, unusual deaths popping up all over continent and in his suspicions and travels and asking questions of people he’s not supposed to be asking, he keeps running into this woman from the nobility who teases him and treats him like an equal when he’s anything but….
It is a love story, a mystery, a crime thriller. It’s the book I should have read first. Seeing how there are several after Shock, I believe next year I’ll try this series again and read them in order.
Next up – A mystery
I have not read this book before, however I’ve read this author before. I have loved her before, great sex. But in reading THIS book, I was reminded why I hadn’t read her in a while and the niggling thing about her writing that bugged me even before, but that I glossed over because of…
the great sex!
First, this is the first book in a HUGE series – The Arcane Series – in which extremely large words are thrown about to describe the paranormal and take place in the past, present, and future. The thing is, she writes the past under Amanda Quick, the present under Jayne Ann Krentz and the future or alternative universe under Jayne Castle. Confused? Me too. The books don’t run in order and bounce around all over several hundred years. That’s not my problem with the series.
My problem is the incredibly unnecessary rich, yet confusing language. I’m a simple person. easily satisfied. This book – and with her others, I’m now reminded – seem to be a study of how quickly the story-telling can be bogged down with words no one uses except maybe at a English Professors Conference. And then not even then! Even the way lower class who live in the gutters speak better than I do. Hoity Toity!
This is the first book of a 13 book series. I don’t have an exact date, simply it takes place during Queen Victoria’s reign. It starts of with a strange, but sexy gorgeous man, hiring a single female to a secret estate, to photograph the secret estate’s Secret Society Club artifacts. Now you’d think the female would come with tons of entourage, this thing ISN”T done, but her family is in dire financial straits, (a deep dark secret we find out about later on) and in order to keep them with a roof over their heads (that would include 2 younger siblings and a maiden aunt) Venetia (yes, that’s her name) has gone into business and THIS photo shoot will keep them in eggs and bacon for a while! She’s also decided that since she’s an independent business woman and for reasons (remember the dire financial straits) is destined to be a spinster, she wants to be ravished at least once in her life. And the strange but gorgeous sexy man (Gabriel) is just the ticket to scratch her itch.
Add in a fire, a stolen notebook, thinking he’s dead and capitalizing on said death pretending to be a widow (which puts her foot FURTHER into the door of Respectable Society to make her family’s lives nicer) and a shitload of psychic mumbo-jumbo – also said dead gorgeous sexy man returns to life and complicates her widow-hood and you have a fine tale full of words and music and me consulting a dictionary at least at every page.
And the sex is great.
I’ve read her before. NOT this series. Older historical romps with great sex. At some point, I’ll probably want to return to this series and see where all the Secret Society of Psychic Mumbo Jumbo goes. But not this year.
And last
A book recommended by a friend
This would be the movie/tv series I forget that Richard might be in, will be in, I dunno. He talks about it, several friends have read it and have gushed about exponentially! Why?
Because Father Lorenzo Quart IS Richard Armitage. I mean – tall, youngish, gorgeous. His mission, is to discover who hacked the Holy Father’s computer.
Not the Vatican’s computer. The POPE’S computer and left a very specific message to the Pope.
It is a love story, the story of a church in disrepair, the story of 3 factions wanting the church or its property for a variety of reasons. From religious to commercial purposes. It is the story of a marriage falling to pieces, it is the story of a nun on a strange sort of sabbatical. It is the story of a chronic gambler who is now in deep debt to the local mafia and what he’ll do to come up with the funds. A journalist who is as crooked and slimy as a certain sheriff of Nottingham, a story of two strange deaths and a gorgeous priest, who refers to himself as a soldier in expensive suits and shoes, sent to get the gist of the entire thing and figure out WHO hacked the Pope’s personal computer!
Oh,. And musn’t forget the Three stooges show up.
I am 75% done with the book. I plan to finish it in the next 2 days. At this point, I’ve found it to be lushly written (and translated) a complex and heady read. I’ve also found it to be sexually frustrating because… well the priest is gorgeous but still at this time, has remained true to his vows. He appreciates a beautiful woman, or even a not so beautiful woman, but he appreciates the body and the mind. And I find that so very frustrating.
Tune in next month when I tackle a book with a contest, a book with dragons, a book I bought and a diverse read! For starters! 
Y’all have a great weekend!
zee's muse 