A Soul Christmas

Wishing a Merry Christmas to all of you of you in blogland. May your day be filled with laughter and cheer, good food and good fun, and may all your Christmas wishes come true.

On this Christmas Eve, I'll share with you one of my favorite Christmas songs, and my all-time favorite rendition of this Christmas classic. Here's Otis Redding singing White Christmas:



Merry Christmas to all, and to all a goodnight!

Random Tidbits

I'm expecting the next couple of weeks to be crazy. I'm moving to a new city, starting a new career, wrapping-up on my current job, and on top of all that I have to deal with Christmas. To say that I'm stressed is an understatement.

While I would love nothing more than to curl up with a good book for an hour or two to relax, even a great story isn't enough to make me unwind. There's just too much going on in my head.

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In other news, I've discovered a fantastic way to kick your fried chicken addiction. Just bite into an undercooked chicken tender, stare at the raw center, and obsess about possible salmonella poisoning. Trust me, it'll be weeks (if ever) before fried chicken sounds remotely appetizing. Now if I could just find a way to turn myself off of sweets...

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A couple of weeks ago one of my cats, Blue, injured himself. He was healing quite nicely until a few days ago, when his paws started bleeding again -- probably from him messing with them. So we took the Cone of Shame for a test-drive.

As is his nature, Blue remained calm throughout the process, approaching it more from a "Let's figure out how to make this work" perspective. After repeated unsuccessful attempts at walking forward, he decided the best course of action would be to walk backward -- everywhere. There's nothing quite like watching a cat approach you ass first.

So the problem wasn't with Blue; it was with myself and Blue's partner-in-crime, Poe. Poe took one look at Blue with that bright blue cone around his head, and lost his ever-lovin' mind. He acted like Blue was an alien invader sent to murder us all, and alternated between cowering under the bed and executing Sniff-And-Runs. And I could only take about 30 minutes of watching my poor kitty pathetically maneuver through the apartment backwards, before I removed said Cone of Shame.

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I think I've checked Amazon at least twice this week to see if a cover has been uploaded for Julia Spencer-Fleming's upcoming release One Was a Soldier, the newest installment in her abso-freaking-amazing Clare Fergusson / Russ Van Alstyne series.

It's not that I particularly care about the cover; it's more about having a cover as proof the release date is real this time -- unlike the previous date of October 27th. Until I see that cover, that April 13th date seems very tentative to me. And boy howdy, do I want that book. Want, as in: Really. Must. Have. It. Now.

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My glomming of the television show Supernatural continues, as I eagerly await the arrival of Season 3 on my doorstep. I burned through each of the first two seasons at lightning speed, which included many late nights and very little reading. I'm going to attempt to savor the third season, and draw out the enjoyment a bit longer, but I'm also self-aware enough to realize that I have almost zero willpower and there's small chance of my being successful. Oh, and I might possibly be developing an itty-bitty crush on one Dean Winchester. Maybe.

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What about y'all? Stressed out during this holiday season? Know a good way to battle a food craving? How do your pets react to the Cone of Shame? Irrationally excited about an upcoming release? Crushing on any fictional characters?

Review: Better Naughty Than Nice Anthology

Every year from Thanksgiving to New Year's Day it's my unofficial Anthology Season. I gorge myself on holiday stories -- Christmas, Hanukkah, whatever -- and most tend to come in anthology format. This year's Blaze Christmas anthology, Better Naughty Than Nice, by Vicki Lewis Thompson, Jill Shalvis, and Rhonda Nelson provided the most solid of the new anthologies I've read this year. None of the stories wowed me, but I found all three to be pretty enjoyable. Click here to read my full review at AAR. I also read this book as part of the 2009 Holiday Reading Challenge.

Disclosure: I purchased this book myself.

Plugs and Sequel Setups: A Rant

Warning: This post contains ranting and bitchiness. 

I think I'm becoming pickier the older I get. Either that, or I have a lower tolerance for bullshit. A few years ago I wouldn't have batted an eyelash when reading this section from His Secret Agenda by Beth Andrews:

"But," she continued when Dean remained silent, "if you have a problem with people who've paid their dues to society, reconsider if you want this job." And really, did she want someone so...judgmental working for her? "One of my good friends spent time in prison and he stops by quite often."

Dillon Ward, Kelsey's brother, had served time for manslaughter after killing their stepfather while protecting Kelsey. After his release, Dillon had battled prejudice and his own guilt. Luckily, he'd gotten past all of that and was now able to move forward in a relationship with local bakery owner Nina Carlson.

Allie smiled sweetly. "I wouldn't want any of his criminal tendencies to rub off on you."

But now when I encounter sections like this? Yeah, now that middle paragraph reads to me like a flashing neon sign, jerking me out of the story for what is an obvious commercial break. Within the space of a couple of pages, the author managed to plug both her previous releases -- although the other plug was a mite subtler than this one -- and had me gritting my teeth. (In all fairness, though, I did enjoy His Secret Agenda and bought both of Andrews' previous books, so clearly I wasn't too annoyed.)

I also have to point out, as I'm sure all of you already know, that Andrews is far from the only author to plug previous books in the middle of a story, so I'm not picking on her specifically. Hers just happened to be the example I had at hand.

Maybe it's just me, and nobody else is bothered by these advertisements right in the middle of the story. Or maybe you all are just as irritated as me and want to shout: Don't plug your other books in this one, because frankly: I DON'T CARE. If I like the one I'm reading enough, I'll check out your other books. So, please, STOP with the commercials.

Then there's the case of hijacking the current story for the sake of setting up the sequel. This really ticks me off. Now, I'm not referring to not-quite-subtle hints that there will be another book in the series. I can generally roll with those. No, I'm talking about an actual hijacking of the plot, such as what occurred in Donna Kauffman's novella Lock, Stock, and Jingle Bells in the Kissing Santa Claus anthology. As I said in my review:

But what really irked me, and dropped the grade a bit, was when the author introduced a subplot midway through. At first I was intrigued, and hoped the author was using it to help bring Sean and Holly together. Uh, no. Turns out that the sole purpose of adding this little mystery was so the author could establish an elaborate setup for a future story. The ending that should have been devoted to Holly and Sean’s romance – you know, the romance in this story – felt hijacked and I felt cheated.

This little "setup" dropped the grade from a C+ to a C-, and had me pretty irritated. When I've put the time and effort into reading a book, I expect a satisfactory conclusion. I don't expect to have the characters' story shoved to the side in favor of promoting a subplot that is entirely irrelevant to the characters' romance and conflict resolution. But maybe it's just me.

With so many books containing obvious commercials, and others featuring obvious series/sequel setups, it's making me wonder if I'm the only reader irritated by this state of affairs.  

• Do book plugs bother you, or do you like knowing that the author has another book out? 
• Does it take you out of the story when you read a plug for another book, or are you able to just ignore it? 
• Have you ever felt that the ending of a book was hijacked so that the author could setup the next book in the series?
• How do you feel about obvious series/sequel setups?
  
• Am I just being a total bitch and this isn't worth ranting about? It's okay, you can tell me.

Review: Under the Covers Anthology

My review of the Under the Covers anthology by Crystal Jordan, Lorie O'Clare, and P.J. Mellor is up today over at AAR. I really enjoyed the Jordan and Mellor contributions -- Naughty or Nice and Escaping Christmas, respectively -- but O'Clare's Nativity Island didn't work for me at all. Despite one of the stories ranking pretty low, I'm happy to have discovered two new-to-me authors to read in the future. Click here to read my full review. I also read this book as part of the 2009 Holiday Reading Challenge.

Disclosure: I received this book free as an AAR reviewer.

Review: Eye of the Storm by Delilah Devlin

Title: Eye of the Storm
Author: Delilah Devlin
Genre: Erotic Fiction
Length: Short Story
Published: August 2009
Sensuality: Burning
Setting: Jamaica
Disclosure: Purchased Myself


One year ago, Marcus healed Janie's broken heart with his love. Now she has returned to Jamaica to see if their passion is as strong as before. Then Marcus's friend Cade shows up, too. Janie never really liked Cade, but when Marcus asks her to take them both to her bedroom, Janie soon learns that the two men know exactly what she needs....

Warning: This review contains spoilers.

The biggest issue I had with Eye of the Storm -- really, the only issue -- is that the heroine doesn't begin enjoying herself until the very end. The end, as in, after the sex is over. She really doesn't like Cade, and doesn't want to have sex with him, but she so desperately wants to please Marcus that she goes along with it.

During the entire sex scene -- which, given that this is an erotica short, is virtually the entire story -- Janie is visibly distressed and on the verge of tears. Marcus, who's supposed to love Janie, can tell she's distressed, but what does he do? He tells her to pretend it's him doing her and not Cade. Seriously? Maybe it's just me, but that doesn't seem like a great way to treat someone you're supposed to love.

After the sex -- which Janie physically enjoyed, but was emotionally distraught about the whole way through -- Janie breaks down in tears and admits to feeling used by the two men. I couldn't blame her; being used is exactly how it felt to me too. The two men then proceed to soothe her feelings and proclaim their love and commitment to her, but it was too little, too late for this reader. I just couldn't get the bad taste out of my mouth. What would have worked far better, in my opinion, is if this soothing had taken place before the sex. Because frankly, if the character herself isn't enjoying the sex, I'm sure as hell not enjoying it as the reader.

Eye of the Storm is solidly in D-territory for me, but I vacillated about exactly where in the D-range it falls -- mostly because, while I had problems with the plot and characters, I had no problem with the writing style. Ultimately I decided to just grade it down the middle.  

Grade: D

Review: Kissing Santa Claus Anthology

My review of the Kissing Santa Claus anthology by Donna Kauffman, Jill Shalvis, and HelenKay Dimon is up over at AAR. I had high hopes for this Christmas collection, but two of the stories turned out to be meh. I did, however, really like the Jill Shalvis entry, Bah Handsome!, so I'll keep the anthology just so I can re-read that one next year. Click here to read my full review.

Disclosure: I received this book free as an AAR reviewer.