This book was wonderful. It made me run out to the library and get the ones that came before it. This was the final book in what Mary Balogh's website call the "Simply quartet." Simply Unforgettable, Simply Magic and Simply Love are the others in the quartet. They are about teachers at Miss Martin's School for Girls in Bath, England. Simply Perfect is about Miss Martin, a thirty-five-year-old headmistress spinster. She is headed to London to deliver two girls who are to be governesses. She abhors the ton, dukes in particular, so it only makes sense that she would meet and fall for a marquess who is heir to a dukedom. Joseph, the marquess, is the father of an illegitmate daughter and is also expected to marry one of the coldest fish I have ever seen in the historical romance genre thus far (as I have read, which isn't far). While far from perfect I very much enjoyed it and plan to read many more by this author.
Saturday, January 3, 2009
Simply Perfect by Mary Balogh
This book was wonderful. It made me run out to the library and get the ones that came before it. This was the final book in what Mary Balogh's website call the "Simply quartet." Simply Unforgettable, Simply Magic and Simply Love are the others in the quartet. They are about teachers at Miss Martin's School for Girls in Bath, England. Simply Perfect is about Miss Martin, a thirty-five-year-old headmistress spinster. She is headed to London to deliver two girls who are to be governesses. She abhors the ton, dukes in particular, so it only makes sense that she would meet and fall for a marquess who is heir to a dukedom. Joseph, the marquess, is the father of an illegitmate daughter and is also expected to marry one of the coldest fish I have ever seen in the historical romance genre thus far (as I have read, which isn't far). While far from perfect I very much enjoyed it and plan to read many more by this author.
The Devil's Due by Jenna Black
The Devil's Due is the third installment in Jenna Black's Morgan Kingsley series. Morgan is asked to look into the possession of a young man who belongs to a demon-hating organization. Was it voluntary or by force? Morgan's relationship with Adam progresses - are they friends or enemies? Morgan's demon Lugh pushes the boundaries of their alliance and tries to force her into submission. Morgan also discovers that the demons have been continuing their work to create more compatible hosts and have succeeded. This book was better, I thought, than the second. Morgan considers some of the demons around her to be friends while her relationship with Brian starts to weaken. I personally would have no problem with Brian going bye-bye; I don't think he's the one for Morgan. Nice guy but not special enough. Wouldn't it be interesting if he ended up being possessed? I guess I'll have to wait until the end of July to find out. Speak of the Devil is released on July 28.
Black Magic Woman by Justin Gustainis
This was one of the awesomest (I am aware that's not a word) books of 2008. You start reading it and you think it's going to be like a Jim Butcher's Harry Dresden book...but it's not. You might think that there will be a romance between Quincey Morris and Libby Chastain...but there isn't. It was just different than anything else I have read from the urban fantasy genre. Cool story, very cool characters, cool backstory (Quincey's family), and kick-ass witchcraft. Read this book! The next book in the series, Evil Ways, is out now. Read it too!
Georgette Heyer
In light of what I said earlier about historical romances I decided to go back and read the queen of them all: Georgette Heyer. My local library only had a few titles so I picked The Quiet Gentleman. I'm about 100 pages in and I'm enjoying it with one exception...Every other sentence ends with an exclamation point! (ha ha)
When J. K. Rowling was halfway through the Harry Potter series I read a review by Stephen King. He thought the books were great, with one exception: adverbs. Every line of dialogue was described (?) by an adverb. If you've read the books you know what I mean. I think Ms. Heyer is using her exclamation points much like Ms. Rowling uses her adverbs; they are distracting, not detrimental to the story. Hopefully, I can get past the extraneous punctuation and get to the good stuff later on. :)
When J. K. Rowling was halfway through the Harry Potter series I read a review by Stephen King. He thought the books were great, with one exception: adverbs. Every line of dialogue was described (?) by an adverb. If you've read the books you know what I mean. I think Ms. Heyer is using her exclamation points much like Ms. Rowling uses her adverbs; they are distracting, not detrimental to the story. Hopefully, I can get past the extraneous punctuation and get to the good stuff later on. :)
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
My Top Ten Favorites from '08
All the blogs I've been reading lately have been listing their favorites from this year so I figured I would give it a shot. I've only just recently started a book journal (not this blog, obviously) so I'll do my best to be accurate not to mention that I will be forgetting so many that I would want to include (so sorry)...These are in no particular order:
Black Magic Woman by Justin Gustainis
Magic Bites & Magic Burns by Ilona Andrews (count them as one)
Moon Called, Blood Bound, & Iron Kissed by Patricia Briggs (count them as one too)
Demon Night by Meljean Brook
Touch the Dark, Claimed by Shadow, & Embrace the Night by Karen Chance (also one)
Blue Eyed Devil by Lisa Kleypas
Kim Harrison's Rachel Morgan series
Acheron by Sherrilyn Kenyon
Faefever by Karen Marie Moning
Hunter's Prayer by Lilith Saintcrow
Other authors I discovered for myself this year:
Diana Gabaldon
Terry Goodkind
Lee Child
Gena Showalter
Christine Feehan
Julia Quinn
Lori Handeland
Tara Janzen
J. R. Ward
Julia London
Vicki Pettersson
Anne Stuart
Cindy Gerard
Vicki Lewis Thompson
Lara Adrian
Maryjanice Davidson
Laura Griffin
Faith Hunter
Lynsay Sands
Looking at this list makes me wonder what I read before 2008 :) Thanks to all those hardworking people who are much more diligent than I and are able to keep their book blogs up to date and so damn interesting. You have no idea how much I (and so many others out there) appreciate all your efforts. The genre of urban fantasy (as well as romances of any type) has become an utter obsession of mine that I can't keep up with all the books I want to read (and I read a-lot). Please keep up the good work in '09!
Black Magic Woman by Justin Gustainis
Magic Bites & Magic Burns by Ilona Andrews (count them as one)
Moon Called, Blood Bound, & Iron Kissed by Patricia Briggs (count them as one too)
Demon Night by Meljean Brook
Touch the Dark, Claimed by Shadow, & Embrace the Night by Karen Chance (also one)
Blue Eyed Devil by Lisa Kleypas
Kim Harrison's Rachel Morgan series
Acheron by Sherrilyn Kenyon
Faefever by Karen Marie Moning
Hunter's Prayer by Lilith Saintcrow
Other authors I discovered for myself this year:
Diana Gabaldon
Terry Goodkind
Lee Child
Gena Showalter
Christine Feehan
Julia Quinn
Lori Handeland
Tara Janzen
J. R. Ward
Julia London
Vicki Pettersson
Anne Stuart
Cindy Gerard
Vicki Lewis Thompson
Lara Adrian
Maryjanice Davidson
Laura Griffin
Faith Hunter
Lynsay Sands
Looking at this list makes me wonder what I read before 2008 :) Thanks to all those hardworking people who are much more diligent than I and are able to keep their book blogs up to date and so damn interesting. You have no idea how much I (and so many others out there) appreciate all your efforts. The genre of urban fantasy (as well as romances of any type) has become an utter obsession of mine that I can't keep up with all the books I want to read (and I read a-lot). Please keep up the good work in '09!
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