Recent Read

Tribute by Nora Roberts

Why this one: I adore her JD Robb books and I really like her single book titles. I picked this one up in SF and I had a grand time taking it to work and showing everyone where she signed it. I think just about everyone there has heard of Nora Roberts and many have read her books. So it was kind of fun to do some boasting.

Plus, being sick and all, I wanted a nice comfort read and few do comfort reads better for me than Ms. Roberts

Steam Level: It was warm, not boiling like some of her Eve and Roarke books, but quite nice. Beside with this author it’s not so much about the sex as the characters.

Website Blurb: Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley is a long way from Hollywood. And that is exactly how Cilla McGowan wants it. Cilla, a former child star who has found more satisfying work as a restorer of old houses, has come to her grandmother as farmhouse, tools at her side, to rescue it from ruin. Sadly, no one was able to save her grandmother, the legendary Janet Hardy. An actress with a tumultuous life, Janet entertained glamorous guests and engaged in decadent affairs but died of an overdose in this very house more than thirty years earlier. To this day, Janet haunts Cillas dreams. And during waking hours, Cilla is haunted by her melodramatic, five-times-married mother, who carried on in the public spotlight and never gave her a chance at a normal childhood. By coming east, rolling up her sleeves, and rehabbing this wreck of a house, Cilla intends to find some kind of normalcy for herself.
Plunging into the project with gusto, she’s almost too busy to notice her neighbour, graphic novelist Ford Sawyer but his lanky form, green eyes, and easy, unflappable humor (not to mention his delightfully ugly dog, Spock) are hard to ignore. Determined not to perpetuate the family tradition of ill-fated romances, Cilla steels herself against Ford’s quirky charm, but she can’t help indulging in a little fantasy.
But love and a peaceful life may not be in the cards for Cilla. In the attic, she has found a cache of unsigned letters suggesting that Janet Hardy was pregnant when she died and that the father was a local married man. Cilla can’t help but wonder what really happened all those years ago. The mystery only deepens with a series of intimidating acts and a frightening, violent assault. And if Cilla and Ford are unable to sort out who is targeting her and why, she may like her world-famous grandmother, be cut down in the prime of her life.

My thoughts: I enjoyed this book. And as choice for a comfort book to read while not being in the peak of good health, it was a good one. I liked both Cilla and Ford – ‘specially Ford. He really was good at accepting Cilla and all her neurosis. He was a lot more laid back then many of her heroes. And all things considered, Cilla was fairly down to earth. I thought she obsessed a bit too much about her grandmother, but I guess given the fact that she was a larger than life figure through out her life, it was acceptable. I really enjoyed the renovation parts of it and the fact that she flipped houses for a living. A good blogger friend and her husband do this kind of as a hobby and my sister is married to someone who builds custom houses for a living and she has showed us some of the houses he has built so I found the renovation bits interesting. And considering I just recently had my kitchen redone, I found them even more so. I’ve read in a review or two that some readers found Ford to be almost stalker like – but I didn’t find that. He was open and upfront to Cilla about what he was doing. Overall, this made a great read for someone not in the mood to try something adventurous.

Grade: 4 out of 5

And in other news – Lisa was right and I was wrong. I couldn’t hold out until September to visit Chapters. *sigh* It’s an addiction – what can I say. And *gulp* I bought in a big way too. My purchases included:

Wild and Hexy by Vicki Lewis Thompson

What can I say - those Author Talk interviews really work!

One Real Man by Janette Kenny

A Western and the price was right.

Sea Fever by Virginia Kantra

I have the first one - unread of course

Lost in You by Alix Rickloff

New Author - Good Price - what more could I ask?

Cutting Loose by Susan Anderson

She's an author who has never disappointed and I missed getting it in SF

Delicious by Sherry Thomas

I missed meeting her and getting this one in SF too :-(
So even though I didn't get to meet her, at least I have the book

On the Prowl - Anthology

Janine gave Alpha and Omega and Cry Wolf such a good review at DA that I just had to read them. Jill gave me a copy of Cry Wolf to read in SF so before I start reading that one, I just had to read Alpha and Omega in this anthology - right?