TBR Challenge: Saddled and Spurred by Lorelei James

Format: Trade paperback
Pub Date: March 2011
Publisher: Signet
Length: 328 pages
FTC: received at a signing at RT

Late again... but I have an excuse this time. I was on vacation with no access to the internet.

The theme this month was western, and since historical westerns are my least favorite genre, I picked a contemporary that I received at this year's RT Convention. I figured that it's better to whittle from the top, considering how many books I brought home from that trip that ended up languishing in the TBR.

I normally love Lorelei James. Her books are spicy, but always seem to have some excellent characters with real emotion, real problems... Despite what can often be wall to wall sex scenes, I'm never really tempted to skim.  Unfortunately, that was not the case with Saddled and Spurred.

I can't quite figure out what's wrong with this book, except to say that after reading 150 pages of it, I didn't care to read further. It's just completely uninteresting to me. No memorable characters, no real humor or emotion. Nothing to keep me reading further. Very unusual for this author. It could also be the different publisher, because all of the other ones I've read have been published with Samhain.

I'm not sure if that counts as having "read" the book, but I made it about halfway through before throwing in the DNF towel. But at least it's no longer hanging around the old TBR.

Recipe: Cream Cheese Pound Cake

I've only made one previous pound cake, the Blackberry Swirl Poundcake from Martha Stewart. This one is a more traditional one, and I must say makes THE BEST strawberry shortcake ever. But...the ingredients are fat, fat, and more fat, so save this one for when you want to distribute most of it to the neighbors, family, friends...anything to get most of this cake out of the house because it is addicting and way too easy to make.

1 1/2 cups butter, softened
1 (8 oz) pkg cream cheese, softened
3 cups sugar
6 eggs
3 cups flour
dash of salt
1 tablespoon vanilla

Heat over to 300 degrees F. Grease and flour bottom, side and tube of a 10 x 4 inch angel food cake pan or a 12 cup fluted tube cake pan (Bundt®--this is what I used.)

In large bowl, beat butter and cream cheese with electrix mixer on medium speed until creamy; gradually add sugar, beating well. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until blended.

Mix flour and salt; gradually add to butter mixture, beating on low speed just until blended after each addition. Stir in vanilla. Pour batter into pan.

Bake 1 hr 40 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan on cooling rack 10-15 minutes. Remove from pan to wire rack*; cook completely, about 1 hr.

*This is a crucial step that I messed up on. I set mine out to cool on a regular pan and the bottom got a little soggy. There is a lot of residual moisture in the cake, so a wire rack is important!

Hump Day Movie: Man From Snowy River (1982)

[Photo: ©1982 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation]

 This is one movie from the 1980s that I think those of us born in  the late 1970s and early 80s got heartily sick of. It was on TV every time you turned around for decades. But I haven't seen it in a long time, and since it's a Disney movie, thought it might work for something to watch with the boys.

The good news: the makeup screams 1980s, but other than that, it's still very watchable.

My favorite part of The Man from Snowy River, besides the lovely scenery, is Kirk Douglas. I just loved him in anything he ever did. Especially when they gave him a quirky role (or two) in a movie that let him have a bit of fun.

This is a WESTERN. It's set in Australia, but has every genre convention found in just about every western movie ever made. Coming of age, overcoming adversity, falling in love with the boss's daughter...you name it, it's here. The Man From Snowy River is worth revisiting. If only to get that famous film score stuck in your head for weeks.

Hump Day Movie: Thunderheart (1992)

This is one of those movies that surprises you. You think you're going to get a standard thriller with some cultural appropriation, and instead you get a thoughtful exposé on real events that happened during the 1970s in South Dakota.

Thunderheart stars Val Kilmer, Sam Shepard, and Graham Greene. I think this is one of the first movies I ever saw Greene in, and it's definitely the one where I developed my crush on him.

Kilmer plays an FBI agent in the 1970s sent as a liason to an Sioux Reservation to investigate a murder because he is 1/4 Sioux. The problem is that he doesn't identify with his Native American heritage, and to the people on the rez, he's just another white man in a suit. Once he arrives, he discovers that there is far more going on than a "simple" murder. He steps into the middle of a war, and some machinations by greedy people that have turned the South Dakota Badlands into the murder capital of the country.

There is a bit of "Hollywood" to the story, but enough heart remains to make this one of the more memorable Kilmer movies. It's one I recently re-watched on Amazon Instant Streaming, and it's held up just fine. It's also available on DVD for around $6.

It is very violent, however, and more than a little disturbing given the subject matter. If you haven't seen it, you've missed out.

Review: Bedding Lord Ned by Sally MacKenzie

Format: Mass market paperback, ebook
Pub Date: June 5, 2012
Publisher: Kensington
Length: 325 pages (plus a novella in the back of the print version)
FTC: ARC courtesy of the publisher

Part of the magic of Sally MacKenzie's writing can be found in the details. Her humor is the kind that builds. There's the laugh-out-loud outrageousness, too, but it's the small touches that make her books a cut above the pack when it comes to funny historical romance.

In this case, the critical detail is a pilfering pussy cat named Reggie with a fondness for stealing red undergarments.

Review: Heart of Steel by Meljean Brook

Format: Trade paperback, ebook
Pub Date: November 2011
Publisher: Berkley
Length: 320 pages
FTC: Purchased myself

It's rare for me to find a book with true depth that I also love on a really emotional level. Heart of Steel was such a book for me.

I know I've talked about my history background before. But I minored in English lit. Which means I've read and analyzed my share of literature, both contemporary and classic. And, while I love it, most genre fiction just doesn't have the layers there to really analyze in the over-detailed way you tend to do in lit crit classes. Heart of Steel has depth to spare. And at barely 300 pages for the trade paperback version, that's saying something.

Blog Tour Review: Lucky in Love by Jill Shalvis

Format: Mass Market Paperback, ebook
Pub Date: May 22, 2012
Publisher: Grand Central/Forever (Hachette)
Length: 341 pages
FTC: Review copy courtesy of the publisher

It's probably a good thing no one was around to witness my booty shake when my copy of Lucky in Love arrived in the mail. I loved the first three in the Lucky Harbor series, and just knew I'd love this one, too. I live in a small town in the Sierras, so I'm very critical of small town romances. This one balances the good aspects of small town life with the very real negative aspects. But then, I've never met a Jill Shalvis small town romance I didn't love.

Recipe: Rum-Coconut Key Lime Pie

I've never made key lime pie before. I rarely make pies at all. Partly because they're difficult to share with the neighbors, and partly because I hate making pie crust. But I saw this recipe in a recent Pillsbury Casseroles and Potluck cookbook, and it sounded divine. Also? It doesn't use a traditional pie crust, but an incredibly yummy mix of coconut and crushed cookies.

TBR Challenge Review: The Rake's Retreat by Nancy Butler

Format: Mass Market Paperpack
Pub Date: April 1999
Publisher: Signet
Length: 224 pages
FTC: Purchased myself (no idea when, though)

I admit, this month's theme was a bit of a real challenge for me. I don't have that many books pre-2002 that remain unread. I've either read them, donated them, or sold them. But I found this traditional Regency lurking in a a random pile and decided it would work just fine.

I'm not really a category reader; I tend to like longer books. Which also makes the Regencies sometimes a problem for me. They're fairly short, too. But like categories, a skillful author can make me forget how short the book really is, and that's what happened with the Rake's Retreat.

Quickie Review: Crystal Gardens by Amanda Quick

Format: Hardcover, ebook
Pub Date: April 24, 2012
Publisher: Putnam
Length: 320
FTC: Purchased myself

It's been years since Amanda Quick's books have wowed me. I admit, the Arcane psychical stuff just isn't my cup of tea, but she's had paranormal or mystical elements in her work for decades now. What makes her more recent stuff, and this book in particular, so weak is that she is rehashing old themes and burying her characters in setting and psychic trappings. There's nothing new here, and the classic stuff is tired.

Amanda Quick used to have wonderful characters, strong heroines and enigmatic heroes. Ravished is one of my favorite romances of all time. There was adventure, humor, passion. All of that seems to have gone away, and we're left with an anemic pairing of two people whose auras are attracted to each other, but who never really have a basis for falling in love. There's no chemistry. No heat at all. And their characters are so thinly drawn that I found myself not really caring about them.

Even the mystery was ho-hum and easily figured out. Something has gone wrong with Amanda Quick's writing, and I'm not sure why. Maybe Jayne Ann Krentz/Jayne Castle/Amanda Quick needs to slow down her writing schedule. Because this isn't just phoned in. It's the literary equivalent of a broken up cell phone call. Half of it is missing and what's left isn't worth worrying about.

If you're a die-hard fan and still want to read it, I highly suggest using the library. This isn't worth the hardcover price (or the high ebook price). I'll keep my fingers crossed that the author can put some emotion and depth into her next offering.


My Grade: F

The Blurb:


Evangeline Ames has rented a country cottage far from the London streets where she was recently attacked. Fascinated by the paranormal energy of nearby Crystal
Gardens, she finds pleasure in sneaking past the wall to explore the grounds. And when her life is threatened again, she instinctively goes to the gardens for safety.

Lucas Sebastian has never been one to ignore a lady in danger, even if she is trespassing on his property. Quickly disposing of her would-be assassin, he insists they keep the matter private. There are rumors enough already, about treasure buried under his garden, and occult botanical experiments performed by his uncle—who died of mysterious causes. With Evangeline’s skill for detection, and Lucas’s sense of the criminal mind, they soon discover that they have a common enemy. And as the energy emanating from Crystal Gardens intensifies, they realize that to survive they must unearth what has been buried for too long.

Recipe: Blueberry Coffee Cake Muffins

This week is Staff Appreciation week at our school. (It's also Teacher Appreciation Week nationwide.) In addition to a luncheon that our parent group organizes for Friday, we bring in goodies all week long. Today, I brought in two types of homemade muffins: Blueberry Coffee Cake Muffins (recipe by Ina Garten)  and Banana-Pecan Muffins (recipe by Tyler Florence).  The banana muffins will require some tweaking for my altitude since they turned out a little on the dry side for my taste, but the blueberry ones? Perfect!

I have been on a quest for the perfect blueberry muffin for a while now. Most of the muffins I've made have been tough, dry, and just kind of meh. Even when I am very careful not to overmix and watch my oven like a creepy stalker. But these are moist, tender, and not overly sweet.  They kept fine overnight, although the tops got a little sticky, so be careful how you cover them.

Recipes for Cinco de Mayo: Queso Dip, Guacamole, Margaritas

I love Mexican food. And Tex Mex. And I don't need a holiday to break out any of the following recipes. The queso dip is originally from Food Network Magazine. The margaritas are a recipe I've had from multiple sources. They're not traditional, but they're really easy to make for a crowd. Also, they're a little on the strong side, so  adjust to your preference!

Queso Dip

3 tablespoons minced onion
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 small can chopped green chiles
2 tablespoons flour
1/3 cup beer*
1/4 lb muenster cheese, grated
1/4 lb cheddar, grated
a handful of chopped cilantro.

In a small oven-safe skillet (I use cast iron), saute onion in oil. Add can of green chiles, flour, beer, both cheeses, and the cilantro. Stir with a whisk until the cheese melts, then broil until bubbly. Add more cilantro as a garnish and serve with tortilla chips.

*You can add more beer to thin this out for a terrific nacho sauce. If you can find them, the HOT Ortega chiles really make this terrific.

Review: About That Night by Julie James

Format: ebook, mass market paperback
Pub Date:April 3, 2012
Publisher: Berkley (Penguin)
Length:304 pages
FTC: Purchased myself

I've read a few Julie James books, and they just keep getting better. About That Night is easily the best one yet.

It takes some skill to make an ex-con, rich boy with a penchant for dating supermodels appealing, but James does that so easily it is almost criminal. Because Kyle might just have made it into my all-time, favorite hero list.

Tired of the Reader Shaming

I've mentioned before my high tolerance for historical inaccuracy as long as the story and characters are compelling. But once again, I feel the need to rant about something I've seen more and more frequently among blogs and on Twitter. There's a continuing trend in the book reviewing world that really sets my teeth on edge. Specifically, it's the calling-out of historical books as historically inaccurate.

Now, I'm not talking about taking someone to task when they've touted their book as 100% accurate. I'm not even talking about when a historical romance feels too modern, as that is often a failure in world building. I'm talking about the use of pejorative labels that shout out mistakes and errors, big and small, and invite attack against the book and the author's craft.

I understand the frustrations of those who would like historical romance to be more historically accurate, or those readers whose fields make them particularly sensitive to historical errors. But I think, as a group, this attack against "mistoricals" isn't doing what people hoped it would.

Instead of helping those accuracy-seeking readers find books that fit their standards of historical authenticity, it is making readers for whom those mistakes aren't a problem feel ashamed of their reading preferences.  In short, it's an extension of the reader shaming that many romance readers already suffer under from the non-romance reading public.

Instead of using terms like "wallpaper" or "mistorical" in an often snide tone, why don't these seekers of historical excellence come up with a positive term to trumpet a book that does it right? Instead of mocking a book for something that sales figures already indicate the majority of readers don't care about, why not highlight those books that will satisfy even the worst nitpicky reader?

And yes, "mistorical" is just as much of a pejorative as "wallpaper" is. You can tell by the superior tone of comments whenever that word is used. The public mocking of errors by certain people in my Twitter feed have had my finger hovering over the Unfollow button more than once. 

I don't enjoy feeling like I have to justify my preference for story and characters over historical accuracy. Or that I'm somehow letting down the book world if I really don't care that a book mentions an event that is a few months off from its actual date. I'm not a lazy reader (as often suggested by those of the pro-accuracy brigade.) My reading preferences are just that, and I don't think anyone should make me feel like I have to justify them because they've decided to make their own reading preferences into a crusade.

Nonfiction Review: Prague Winter: A Personal Story of Remembrance and War by Madeleine Albright

Format: Hardcover, ebook
Pub Date: April 24, 2012
Publisher: Harper
Length: 450 pages
FTC: Review copy courtesy of the publisher

If you're like me, the most you know about Czechoslovakian history is tied directly to appeasement during World War II.  I knew just the bare facts about what happened: France and England allowed Hitler to take over Czechoslovakia without putting up a fight (effectively ignoring an alliance that should have protected the country), hoping that he would be happy with that and would not encroach further outside his current sphere of influence. And, as history tells us, that appeasement was a spectacular failure.

What I didn't know was what life was like for those living inside German-occupied Czechoslovakia. I didn't know why Hitler wanted that land, what ruses or justifications he used, or what happened after the West basically turned a partially blind eye to the problem. Prague Winter fills in those gaps with a wealth of research and knowledge in a way that incorporates the author's, former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, family history and background.

Suggestions and Feedback from RT12 for RT13

I've only been to one previous RT event, so it could just be that last year was an outlier. But this year's RT was crowded, the lines were really long, the food ran out early at nearly every event, as did the swag.

That didn't happen so much last year.

I think a large part of that was that RT didn't cap attendance or set a registration deadline (that I know of.) And there were several "high profile" authors who normally don't bother with RT.  They also opened up most of Saturday's events to a one day "FAN" pass. I don't mind the end of the "mangeant" (Mr. Romance) so much as the fact that they took a paid , convention-only event and then substituted something open to the public that they could then get extra $ for.

Especially when they were constantly RUNNING OUT of everything.

RT Convention: Day Three

Day Three:

By Friday, RT was starting to kick my butt. I had to pry myself out of bed for a quite lame party that consisted of breakfast. No info on the publishing house that "sponsored" it was there at all.

Following that I went to a series romance party hosted by authors in the Harlequin series imprints. After a brief introduction from each author, holding one of their covers, we played a brief game. 

RT Convention: Day 2

So...I didn't get this posted yesterday. Not much of a surprise. Busy, busy, busy.

Here are a few highlights from Thursday.

Historical Author Chat: Mary Balogh was unable to attend, but Lorraine Heath kindly stepped in to take her place.

Lorraine Heath, Jennifer Blake

 

Loretta Chase, Sarah MacLean

RT Convention: Day One

Having learned my lesson last year, I decided to skip a few sessions so I didn't wear myself out completely.  So I had time to get the photos off the ole camera card!

By far, my favorite panel today was the Romance Reader Family Feud hosted by Louisa Edwards, Vivian Arend, Tessa Dare, Zoe Archer and Nico Rosso. Based loosely on the old game show, teams had to guess which answers to questions were the most popular based on a survey sent around through Twitter.

 

 Survey Says...

Nico and Vivian

I also attended a writer's panel today. My first one at an RT convention. I'm not an author (published or aspiring), but I wanted a peek at what a panel was like. I attended the Love, Mythology and Monsters one with Stephanie Dray, Jackie Barbosa, Zoe Archer and Leeana Renee Hieber. Very cool to see how authors could incorporate mythological themes as a way to heighten emotion and tap into our deepest fears and beliefs.

The Ellora's Cave party this year had a hip hop theme, with tshirts, pants, sunglasses, hats and more as swag! Entertainment was a brief routine:

Heading to RT!!

In a few hours,  I'll be on a plane headed to Chicago for the RT Booklovers Convention! The convention runs Wednesday through Sunday. I will try to post daily updates, but as busy as I was last year, I'm not making any promises. I will be posting to Twitter, though, so you can follow along with the hashtag #RT12 or just check out my feed @buriedbybooks.

Some highlights I'm looking forward to are attending a JR Ward panel, attending Zoë Archer's Mythology panel (it's for writers, but sounds cool) and, of course, going to the parties.