The Paid Companion by Amanda Quick

I sometimes enjoy historical romance, mysteries. I generally love Amanda Quick. I have read a number of her novels and I guess it is just time that I move on to someone else.

There are some scenes in this book that are very familiar but I enjoy the sameness of the writing. It's like a comfortable old chair. Unfortunately, when I came to one of the few "love scenes" in the book, I was amused to realize that the scene was exactly like scenes that I have read in her books before. While the scene is unique for first or second time readers of Quick, it is too familiar for someone who has read several books by the same author.
When I got to the scene, I stopped reading wrote down what I thought would happen, and then picked up the book and read exactly what I predicted. SMH

Anyway, the book was pretty good, if you have never read a Quick novel this is a nice one to start with. If you have read her before, don't expect anything new and you won't be disappointed.

I Take this Man

I think that this book was meant to be funny.

While there were times that I did laugh, those times were few and far between.

I can stretch my imagination pretty far, however, to read this book the suspension of reality that is necessary is a bit more than I can do, heck it's more than I want to do.

The plot device that we see used here is pretty familiar, girl gets left basically at the altar. Penny Frankel's fiance sends a note to her about fifteen minutes before their wedding is to begin to tell her that he can't do it. I don't mind a familiar idea, but I want to see that plot develop in a way that is fresh, interesting, and believable. For me what happens next was new and original but as the story progressed, not too believable.

I have to say that it is hard to really feel that you know these people. They seem more like caricatures than actual people. It is also hard to feel interested or sympathetic toward them.

As the book progressed, I rolled my eyes so much that I finally had to catch myself in case did myself lasting harm. One or two unbelievable occurrences in a book is probably acceptable but page after page we find people behave in ways that just are not reasonable. I would love to give examples but it is hard to without throwing out spoilers.

There is a love scene in this book that comes, for me out of no where. No real people would feel at all disposed to sharing any type of intimacy with so many unresolved issues on the table.

This book is supposed to be funny and light I am sure but I was annoyed for most of the time that I was reading. I kept saying to myself no reasonable person would be have this way. One of the characters is kidnapped, KIDNAPPED and neither he nor his father seem to harbour any real feelings about that fact. They are able to move on rather speedily with no real thoughts of revenge or even justice. I mean who are these people and on what planet do they exist??? Even in the world of novels that I generally inhabit, I expect to see emotions and thoughts that actually correspond to the events in people's lives. Not here.

I know I was supposed laugh when I read this book. However, I am telling you, if you have any ability to reason laughter is not possible. I finished it but God only knows why.

The Bright Side of Disaster by Katherine Center

I loved the author's writing style in this book. Her particular brand of humour and honesty pulled me in from the beginning. I wanted to see what would happen to these people. I cared about Claudia and I believed that her conflicts were real.

However, I have to say that I was very disappointed to read another book about a woman who cannot effectively stand up for herself and whose self esteem was apparently so low that she would allow a man to treat her as poorly as he saw fit. I got so frustrated with Claudia that it was hard for me to finish this book. Claudia's passive acceptance of Dean's actions, just rubbed me the wrong way I wanted to see her stand up for herself and I was disappointed when she didn't. However, after thinking about this book I appreciated Claudia a little more, at times in our lives most women have accepted less than they deserved from the men in their lives. So even though I still don't like how Claudia behaved, it rang true for me. Finally, I must say that having had breastfed 3 daughters, it was nice to see someone give a pretty accurate account of how hard breastfeeding is for some at the beginning.

I was, originally, so disappointed in Claudia and sad for her that there was no way that I could recover enough of my initial liking of your writing style to really enjoy the book. However, this book made me think quite a bit, the characters also felt like real people, and for me those are always traits of wonderful authors. I look forward to Ms. Center's next book.

Veil of Roses by Laura Fitzgerald

While the heroine of this book is an adult woman, I feel as thought I was reading a coming of age book.

I found this character to be so compelling that I could not put this book down until I knew her whole story.
When we meet Tamila Soroush, she is living in Iran with her parents where she has grown up. Her parents had lived in the United States but we find that they came back to Iran when Tamila was a very small child and have remained there ever since.

We find Tamila, not really moving forward in her life, when her parents make arrangements for her to go to the United States on a three month Visa. Their hope is that Tamila will meet someone, through her sister, and marry and be able to stay in the U.S.

This book allows us to watch Tamila as she vocalizes the frustrations that she feels with her life, and the lives of all women in Iran. We are allowed to witness her making friends and learning what freedom means to women in America. I found her explorations and her limitations to be poignant and frustrating. When her sister, treats Tamila as a child, in my opinion, I get so upset. I feel that her sister should have a better understanding than anyone of what it must mean for Tamila to be able to move about at her own will for the first time in her life.

I hope that I have not said too much about this book but I have to say, I loved this book. I loved the choice that she ultimately makes and I am so glad that I read it. Now that does not happen often.

Simple Jess, an old title that was new to me

I read about this book at another site and I just had to see what made so many people think it was so great.
I have read Pamela Morsi books before, one of the first Morsi reads for me was "Doing Good" that book made me laugh, cry and tell others about it, I also went out to get a few more of her books to add to my TBR pile ( which is really three plastic roller boxes underneath my bed). When I realized that she also wrote some romance novels years ago, I thought, hmmm maybe I'll see what those are like. One of them made me so angry that I literally chucked it in the garbage. It just made me feel good!

However, Simple Jess is insightful and interesting. It will make you turn the pages. There were times, when as a woman, I was so infuriated by how the widow, Althea Winslow was treated that wanted to scream. However, the writing was so good that I believed it, I believed this could really happend and I believed in the feelings that each character was feeling. I have to say that at the end of this book I felt cheated, when I read a romance novel, I expect the end of the novel to be about the two main characters. I want to see the novel resolve itself with them. Not with two secondary character. Even having said that, this book is definitely a keeper, if you can find it. It took me a while.