Books I Read and Books I Bought

Reading has been creeping along this past week for a couple of reasons. First there's been lots to do around the house. The outside is more work during the summer months, and, of course, we had the FIREFLY weekend so no reading for two whole days.

I did get through a couple of books though. After picking it up to read parts of it in the store I ended up purchasing the second Silhouette Nocture RAINTREE book by Linda Winstead Jones. (BTW, Ms. Jones your website desperately needs to be updated.) You may remember that last month I gave a less than stellar review of Linda Howard's contribution to the trilogy and had no intention of purchasing the second book. That, however, was before I got curious in the bookstore and started reading it. It was good enough to pique my interest and like I already said, I ended up buying RAINTREE: Haunted. You can read an excerpt here.

This second installment was very good. Ms Winstead fleshed out the back story and gave us full characters. I enjoyed this book much more than the first one and as a result was less concerned about how it was all going to be wrapped up in the third book. My only lingering criticism is that there is a decent enough plot here, but with the talent of these writers I guess I had higher expectations. I think the story line is a bit predictable, but I did enjoy Gideon and Hope's story quite a bit.

BTW, Gideon's interaction and conversations with the dead were well done and left me wishing (hoping?) that it could really be like that for our dearly departed. So, do I have to say that I've already purchased the third book in the RAINTREE trilogy? You know me too well. Beverly Barton's installment, RAINTREE: Sanctuary is in the TBR.

Another book I just finished is THE STRANGER by Elizabeth Lane. This is a Harlequin Historical that I purchased after I was intrigued by teasers Sybil had posted. For an excerpt go here. THE STRANGER takes place in 1881 New Mexico territory. The story set up and characters were good and I was settling into the read quite nicely when a couple of things began to irritate me.

Ms. Lane certainly seems to have well researched this time period which is always a plus, but her dialogue and the misunderstandings and miscommunications between Caleb McCurdy, the drifter who comes to help the widowed Laura Shafton with her ranch are stretched very thin and didn't make sense to me. Also, Laura's little boy Robbie's speech alters between being either too young or too old for his age, IMO. It bugged. But all that was nothing compared to page 229.

Ms. Lane created two possible plot conflicts in the story. You read most of the book knowing that one of two things or both are going to happen to foil this couple's happiness. She deals with one of the plot conflicts with a note. Yes a note. A note that was not true to the character who sent it or the build up she had given the circumstance. It too bugged. A LOT.

While I see possibilities for reading another book by Ms. Lane, I will carefully consider the plot first. So all in all, I was bummed by this one.

Last, but certainly not least, are the new purchases. Wow! There were a lot of books to chose from and buy this past Tuesday! At one point I had about 10 books in my arms, but some of them just have to wait a week.

New books purchased:
SAFE HARBOR by Christine Feehan
THE UNFORTUNATE MISS FORTUNES by Anne Stuart, Jennifer Crusie and Eileen Dreyer
HIDDEN AGENDA by Lora Leigh
VIRGIN RIVER by Robyn Carr
THE SECRET DIARIES OF MISS MIRANDA CHEEVER by Julia Quinn


I was supposed to buy:
FIREFLY graphic novel (sticky note fell off list or I would've gotten this one)
HOT WHEELS & HIGH HEELS by Jane Graves
IN DARKNESS RETURN by Alexis Morgan (3rd in Paladin series)

We're on vacation next week and not going out of town so I'll probably pick up those I missed and Joey Hill's VAMPIRE QUEEN'S SERVANT and Liz Maverick's WIRED as well.

Tomorrow I hope to have up my review of SOUL SONG by Marjorie Liu. I was fortunate enough to receive an ARC from Dorchester, a first for me, and I want to do my part to promote this book and Ms. Liu, a new favorite of mine.