Lessons from a Scarlet Lady, by Emma Wildes

This was one of the two most recent books I'd picked up at Barnes & Noble, and it's actually quite a good read.  It's blunt and straight to the point, very much so.

My Darling Caroline, by Adele Ashworth

Yes, it's that time again for writing another book review.  Today we have My Darling Caroline by Adele Ashworth.  At first I was under the impression when I bought the book that the husband and wife (Brent and Caroline) were estranged, just like the couple in Eloisa James' book, An Affair Before Christmas (I've read it, will review someday but not anytime soon).  But I was oh so very wrong.

FYI: This book is actually a reissue, originally published in 1998 (just found this out).

Oh my friggen book list...

Since I just finished Reese's Bride by Kat Martin (previous book review), I went to my shelf to see what books I had left.  Summer is ending at the end of this month, and I resume school on the 29th.  It turns out I have a lot of books to get through before then, and depending on my interest level, not all of them are going to be read.

Now normally I have a handwritten list that I put on an index card, but my pile of cards have gone missing for ages, and of course, my book collection just keeps growing and growing.  So here's everything I have to go through, via pictures.

Kinley MacGregor (Sherrilyn Kenyon) - Taming the Scotsman

I actually finished this book last week but don't have much to say about it.
FYI: I read this ages ago, but it saved as a draft.  Don't know why I never published it till now.

It's been a long road, so...

This morning as I was driving my mom and aunt to church (we're Catholic, go figure) I realized that Lent is over and I CAN GO READ MY ROMANCE NOVELS AGAIN!

Excuse me while I go dive into Tracy Anne Warren's At The Duke's Pleasure.


I'll be busy for the rest of the day : ) *happy happy*

Fat bunnies are fat!

Lent, you suck.

I don't think I can hold out without my books for much longer.  I've been pretty restless, and I stare at my shelf of books every moment I can.  There's a book I started (another Byron book) before this entire Lenten ordeal started, and Easter's in 23 days (April 24th).  Seriously...I'm definitely suffering here.

When I said giving up my romance novels was going to be easy, I didn't think it was going to be this bad.  The Borders down the street from my house is closing, and I can't buy any new books.  My membership is pretty much wasted if the damn store's closing.  I go to Target and see more new books (there's a certain Jo Beverley one I'm interested in purchasing) and like...come onnnnnnnnnnnn!

FML, y'all.

Total book count

I have exactly one-hundred romance books in my library.  Ninety-seven titles.

Why is this?  I bought two extra copies of The Masquerade (because it's my favorite), and an extra copy of The Prize, both Brenda Joyce novels.

After looking at my entire collection (having to move them TWICE last night because of my mom's judgmental side) it's like...Houston, we have a problem.  It's a LOT of stuff I have.  Maybe I should start selling some off, but not before I write a review for every single one of them.

Finished Scandalous Love

It was a slight tear-jerker, but not to the point that I started bawling my eyes out like some other books.  This is a rarity, even more so since I've become jaded at reading these kinds of books.  I think I ended up sleeping at 3:00something AM because of this, but I don't regret it.  Anyway I finally got my sleep this afternoon.

Scandalous Love, 8-14

Just a listing of each chapter's main points, pretty much

Finished another book

But I don't want to write a review just yet.  It's another Kinley MacGregor book and right after this, I'll be reading and reviewing an oldie-but-goodie in my library.

I first found out about romance novels when I was 8

Yes.  It's true.  I even read a couple of pages of it but I wasn't ready for that stuff yet of course, since I was just a kid.  I've been corrupted ever since then, ha!

Where'd I find this, you may ask?  It's presumably owned by my mom.  I don't know how she got it but lately she reprimands me for buying the books I have.  Hypocrite.

The book is called Chances, by Janice Kaiser, and it was published in 1987.  We still have it with us, even though I've moved houses so many times.  That book has been kept in so many damn places and it currently resides in my grandpa's TV room nestled in a bookshelf so unnoticed.  The only reason I brought it up today is because I saw it there.  No, I do not know what it's about, seeing as I've never officially read it.  But I think it was a contemporary at the time.

Not sure if I'll ever read it.  The Internet doesn't even have a stock photo of it, so is it even relevantly a known book?

I have seventy-plus books to go through

So how am I gonna pull this off?

I've been thinking about it, and while I do have plenty of books to go through, I still have many older ones to review.  After this next Kinley MacGregor/Sherrilyn Kenyon book, Taming the Highlander, I'm going to select one of my oldies and write about it here.

Bros before hos! Final take: Claiming the Highlander

As with most romance novels, this one pulled at my heartstrings, but it made me also laugh about the sheer absurdity of some things.

People advise me...

...that I should be writing my own books.

It's a possibility.  I'd like to.  I'm supposed to be extending the story I wrote during this past semester (which is now over, thank God, so I can finally get to work on this thing) but I'm not sure if I'm ready to be branching out and writing my own romance novels.

Continuing on with "Claiming the Highlander"

So all the guys of the two clans want is a woman to warm their bed, make their food, take care of the kids, and clean the house?

FUCK no.  I ain't doing that shit for ANYBODY!

The other thing is that Braden is trying to charm Maggie by calling her "baby" and stuff like that when he's not even in love with her.  It sickens me.  I wonder how I'm gonna get through this book but at least I'm continuing on where I left off.  It doesn't help that she's falling under his spell because she's been in love with him since she was a child, for saving her...on many occasions.

Not the first time I've seen this - the girl falls for the guy when she was a kid and then swears that he's gonna be her hero for the rest of her life?  Does that happen in real life?  It didn't for me!

And it's not like Maggie's got it easy, either.  The ladies are desperate to get back home to take care of their stuff (I'm not sure if they miss being ordered around by their men) and their kids, so they're getting a bit antsy in front of Maggie.  As for the guys, they tied up Lochlan (the clan laird and Braden's brother) as well as Maggie's brothers as hostages.

Seriously, is this how people dealt with situations in the olden days?  I mean one husband here in the book already bitch slapped his wife for refusing to come home!

Sometimes I even ask myself...

...why do I do this so much?  Why do I buy so many romance novels, only for my money to fly out of my wallet and into the bankbooks of the authors whom I idolize.  And not just authors, it's anything that I purchase that benefits the bank accounts of someone else.

What am I working on? Plus, two new books.

I am currently reading Claiming the Highlander by Kinley MacGregor/Sherrilyn Kenyon. As far as I know, I think her regular name is Sherrilyn Kenyon, since that's the pen name she uses for most of her titles as well as her website, obviously SherrilynKenyon.com.