TBR Challenge Review: Like No Other Lover by Julie Anne Long

Format: mass market paperback
Length: 371 pages
Pub Date: 2008
Publisher: Avon
FTC: purchased used

This is one of those series that everyone seems to love...but I honestly can't remember if I've read any of the other entries in it. I may have read I Kissed an Earl, but I have no record of it. It sounds really familiar. I hate my memory sometimes. Anyway, I think this qualifies for this month's theme, since I am *really* behind on the series. I'm especially behind everyone else who has read the series because they're all breathlessly awaiting Lyon's book. I'm back at #2. We'll just call this month's theme "aka Late to the Party."

I love Julia Anne Long's voice. Her writing is so evocative, you just sink into the story. It's sly and witty without being too obvious about it. I found myself smiling at turns of phrase, just because. And the characters were all uniformly well formed. There are no cardboard secondary characters here.

Why high ebook prices are insulting for readers

It's rare that I piggyback onto a Dear Author post. Usually, I just pop into the comment section or hop onto Twitter to chime in, but today's post struck a nerve for me. I'm just going to write my reaction in my usual, meandering style.

I'm reading the Clare Fergusson series by Julia Spencer-Fleming right now. Or rather, I WAS reading it. Until I went to buy the next installment and discovered that Minotaur has set the ebook price at $9.99. The rest of the series is priced at $7.99, but that particular volume is out of print in mass market. $9.99 for a book printed in 2006. I'm not paying that. I can afford to pay it, but I'm simply not going to.

Review: Fountain Filled With Blood by Julia Spencer-Fleming

Format: ebook
Pub Date: April 2010
Publisher: Minotaur (Macmillan)
Length: 348 pages
FTC: Purchased myself

Yes, I'm very late to the Clare Fergusson series. I read In the Bleak Midwinter three years ago, but hadn't picked up any other book in the series. When the Reading Slump That Will Not Die grabbed ahold of me this last year, I decided it was time to bring back mysteries to my reading and the blog. So naturally, I thought of this series and purchased book 2.

I'm a very secular person. I don't attend church. Any church. Ever. And I tend to intensely dislike even the hint of infidelity in my reading. Which is what makes it so improbable that I'd like this series so much, but I really, really do.

Clare Fergusson is an Episcopal priest living in rural New York. A retired army helicopter pilot, she's attracted the danger of Chief of Police Russ Van Alstyne's work. She's also reluctantly attracted to the man behind the title...the very married man. To complicate things further, he is reluctantly attracted to her as well. It's there. They're aware of it. But so far (this is book 2, after all) are doing their damnedest to avoid acting on it while trying to stay friends. Because they do click on a personal level that neither one wants to give up.