So Merry Christmas to you all! I know I already said that in a previous post but I just had to do it one more time. We are still in the 12 days of Christmas so I have the right, right? 🙂 I hope you all had a wonderful holiday and received everything your little heart desired.

We had a lovely time at the Tracy household. As I told you I went to 2 services on Christmas Eve so that my ding-a-lingers could play their chimes. I managed to get video of them playing Away in a Manger at the 3:00pm service but the lighting sucked. Sorry. AND the priest (my boss) apparently was talking to a child in the back of the sanctuary and hadn’t turned her mic off – how like her! lol Just ignore that part. Please take into consideration that these kids have only been chiming for about a month…but they’re still damned cute! (My two are the the end one on the left with her back to you and the tall one in the blue dress.)

Christmas Day saw my family gathering at my house with my mom and dad, brother, s-i-l and 1 niece for dinner. It was a nice smallish group and we had a great time. Now I just have to get ready for my oldests 12th birthday tomorrow – yikes! lol

I received a new ereader for Christmas! Yay! I ended up getting the Astak 6″ ezreader and I have to say, I love it. The page turning thing is really the only thing that is taking some time to get used to since it’s more delayed than my ebookwise was but I’m learning to hit the page turning thing a tad early and it’s working out nicely. The lovely Chris, who has an ezreader as well, informed me of some little tricks and tips for adjusting to the new reader and it’s been even better. (I have to admit to ordering it myself. I asked my hubby, which I never do, what he was going to get me and he hemmed and hawed about a new ereader – he didn’t want to let the cat out of the bag. I told him which one I wanted and he told me to order it. Of course I couldn’t open it until Christmas but it was a small price to pay. :))

What I read this week: I actually read 1 book last Monday and then didn’t get to read a novel again until after Christmas. It was nice to catch up this weekend though.

First up was Remember Me by Sophie Kinsella. Lexi Smart wakes up in a hospital and is confused. She’s apparently been in a car accident and can’t remember the last 3 years of her life. She’s got a great job and what seems to be the perfect husband but she remembers none of it. Things have changed greatly for Lexi but she has no idea how or why. Also…the job and the hubby? Are they really so great? I really liked this book. I thought that, unlikely as it was, Kinsella did a great job of showing us that things can change immensely in a short period of time. But are the decisions we make under pressure always the right ones and the ones we really want to make or the ones we feel we have to make. 4.25 out of 5

Next was A Good Neighbor by Clare London. I thought I had read Ms. London before but apparently not. I did read a short that she did in an anthology which I liked but never a novella or novel. I’ll be reading more of her in the future. This story was about a teacher from a small town who was gay but hadn’t come out. He was having a once a month fling with his neighbor but they both wanted more. However the on the road job that the neighbor had didn’t really coincide with the domestic man that the teacher wanted to be. It was a sweet story and though it started off a little slowly it built up to a great finish. 4 out of 5

Next up was Change of Heart by Mary Calmes. I read about this book over a Chris the book pimps place and since I love shifter stories I just had to scoop it up. This book involved a man, Jin, who was beaten and exiled from his werepanther tribe because he was gay. Also because he was what was called a “reah” and apparently his tribe thought that was just all about wrong because reah’s could only really mate with “semel’s” (basically the alpha of a tribe) and since semel’s were all men his tribe thought he was an abomination. When he meets his semel mate and is accepted he has a hard time coming to terms with it all…especially since Logan, his mate, wasn’t gay before he met Jin. This was just a great story…a little of the “gay for you” going on but it was done so well that I just didn’t doubt Logan’s feelings for Jin. 4 out of 5

My Tracy’s TBR Challenge read for the week was The Angel and The Highlander by Donna Fletcher. A man is sent to bring home a neighboring clans daughter from a convent. The daughter is supposedly a shrew. When the man reaches the convent he finds that the daughter is dead but he falls in love with a woman there. When he finds out that the woman he loves is actually the shrew he takes matters into his own hands. I really liked this book up to a point. The romance that was going on between Alyce/Terese and Lachlan was just great until he finds out she’s Alyce and puts his foot down about things. On one hand I see that the man just wanted to be with Alyce and this was the only way he saw he could do it but on the other he tore her away from everything she loved and cared for. Yes, it all worked out in the end, and the whole “having a choice” thing was a major trope and I know that since it was a historical that that’s how they did things but I didn’t have to like it! lol 3.5 out of 5

One of the major highlights of my week was my last read; The Dark Tide by Josh Lanyon. This is the 5th (and for now) final book in the Adrien English mystery series. How do I love Josh’s work, let me count the ways. He just writes a damned good mystery!
Adrien has been renovating the other part of the hotel where his bookstore is located. When the construction workers make it to the 3rd floor they discover a skeleton under the floorboards! Adrien, who is recovering from heart surgery and being shot, hires Jake Riordan to look into some stuff for him regarding the 50 year old murder of the skeleton (well, he wasn’t a skeleton when he died. You know what I mean). In the meantime Adrien is trying to sort out his feelings for Jake after having Jake come out. It’s just not as easy as it would seem especially when he has all his old loves coming by to confuse him.
I have to say that I was so very pleasantly surprised when I started reading TDT. Not that I thought the book would be bad but I assumed that Jake and Adrien would be together and trying to work out the logistics of all that. Silly me. Josh just wouldn’t be that predictable and I’m so glad he wasn’t. The story was interesting and intricate in its mystery and I loved every word. If you haven’t read this series yet, do it! Just good stuff! 5 out of 5

Overall a damned good reading week! Did you read anything fabulous this past week?
Happy Reading!