Tag: Favorite Reads

What’s your kind of hero?

Posted May 15, 2008 by Casee in Discussions | 6 Comments

When I was sixteen, I spent the summer in Palm Springs with my aunt. She taught me how to drive a five speed that year and let me go just about where ever I wanted. There was only one small problem…it was a 1982 VW Rabbit that was prone to overheating and not starting. In the middle of the summer, the weather gets hot in Palm Springs (to put it mildly). Needless to say, as a new driver of a five speed, I stalled it plenty of times. It was one of those times (in a parking lot) that two Firefighters came to my rescue. They’re pushing the car up and back in the parking lot and I’m trying to pop the clutch. Oops, the key wasn’t turned to “On”. They may have laughed a little, but they didn’t make me feel like the dumb blonde I no doubt felt like. Thus began my obsession love affair w/ firefighters. I love firefighters. I love firefighter heroes. I think part of it is that they’re already heroes.

So what kind of heroes do you like? Do you like a military man? A man in uniform?

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Tagged: Casee Says, Casee Says, Favorite Reads, Heroes

Epilogue: Yay or Nay?

Posted May 11, 2008 by Casee in Discussions | 19 Comments

So I was re-reading Dream Manby Linda Howard and it got me thinking about Epilogues. I love when a book has an Epilogue. I like seeing what is happening after the characters get their HEA. Dream Man has one of my favorite Epilogues of all times.

Dane rolled out of bed, looked at Marlie, turned green, and dashed for the bathroom. She propped herself up on her elbow, considering the situation with mild disbelief. “I’m the one who’s pregnant,” she called. “Why are you having morning sickness?”

He came out of the bathroom several minutes later, still rather pale. “One of us has to,” he said. He groaned and collapsed on the bed. “I don’t think I can make it to work today.”

She nudged him with her foot. “Sure you can. Just eat some dry toast and you’ll feel better. You know Trammell will tease you if you don’t show up.”

“He already does.’ Dane’s voice was muffled in the pillow. “The only thing that keeps him from telling everyone else is that I know something just as bad about him. We have each other in a Mexican standoff.”

She threw back the covers and got out of bed. She felt wonderful. She had been queasy a little at first, but never quite to the point of throwing up, and that soon had passed. For her, that is. Dane was still throwing up regularly, every morning, though it was just past New Year’s and she was now six months along. He was paying the price for getting her pregnant immediately after their wedding.

“I wonder how you’re going to handle labor and delivery,” she mused aloud, giving him a wicked look.

He groaned. “I don’t want to think about it.”

He didn’t handle it at all well. As a labor coach, he was a complete washout. From the time her pains started, he was in agony. The nurses loved him. They installed him on a cot next to her, so he could hold her hand; it seemed to give him comfort. He was pale and sweating, and every time she had a contraction, he had one too.

“This is wondering,” one of the older nurses said, watching him with joy. “If only all the fathers could do this. There may be justice in this world, after all.”

Marlie patted his hand. She was ready for this to be over, even if the price was these steadily increasing pains that were now threatening to become very serious indeed. She felt heavy and exhausted, and the pressure in her pelvis threatened to tear her apart, but a part of her was still able to marvel at her husband. And she was supposed to be empathic! Dane had suffered through every month, every pain, with her; she wondered just how labor pains felt in a man.

“Oh, God, here comes another one,” he groaned, gripping her hand, and sure enough, her belly began to tighten. She fell back, gasping, trying to find the crest of the pain and ride it.

“This is going to be an only child,” he panted. “There won’t be another one, I swear. God, when is he going to get here?”

“Soon,” she answered. She could feel the deep, heavy tightening within. Their son would arrive soon.

He did, within half an hour. Dane wasn’t able to be there during delivery; the doctor had been forced to give him a sedative to ease his pain. But when Marlie woke up from an exhausted doze, he was sitting in the chair beside her bed, looking pale and exhausted himself, and he was holding the baby.

His rough face broke into a grin. “It was rough,” he said, “but we did it. He’s great. He’s perfect. But he’s still going to be an only child.”

So share with us…do you like having an Epilogue in your books? If yes, what is one of your favorite Epilogues?

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Tagged: Casee Says, Casee Says, Epilogues, Favorite Reads, Linda Howard

Guest Blog: Contemporary Historicals

Posted December 19, 2007 by Book Binge Guest Blogger in Promotions | 5 Comments

First of all I would like to say that I am honored to be asked to guest blog. I love your blog and it’s a real treat to get to be here with y’all.

Ok, this may sound odd but I am going to go to old school on y’all. Looking through my bookshelf I see various names and titles; all my favorite books that must be kept. You know Judith McNaught, Susan Elizabeth Phillips, Lavyrle Spencer. The list goes on and on. Well it hits me; some of my favorite books are contemporary or at least not considered a historical. Which is odd considering that when I started out I would only read Regency historical novels. I was missing out on a lot as it turns out.

Well being that I started out with Once and Always by Judith McNaught it is easy to say that I started out with the best. So naturally when I moved to contemporary I started with hers. The first one I read was Double Standards. Of course being the modern woman that I am I initially had a few issues with it.

In the exclusive, glittering world of business superstars, Nick Sinclair was a legend… The ruggedly handsome president of Global Industries handled his business the way he handled his women — with charm, daring and ruthless self-control. A man used to the very best, Nick hired Lauren Danner, and assumed the proud beauty would soon be another easy conquest. But Lauren’s flashing wit and rare spirit dazzled him — and slowly, against his will, he was intrigued, challenged — and in love.

Yet Lauren was living a lie, a charade that became more dangerous with every passing moment. Trapped in a web of deceit, she fought her growing love for Nick. Her secret could destroy his fragile trust — and the promise of life with the most compelling man she had ever met!

Nick Sinclair is the hero and in typical JM style he is dark haired and handsome, but he is a smoker and he has some very outdated ideas about women, men, and relationships. Now had this book been set in 2004 or hell even 1994, his behavior and his attitude would have so been a deal breaker. Yet when you look back and see that it is set in the early 80’s you realize that JM wrote it true to the times, with very little exaggeration. To me the emotion in this book was real. When Lauren found out about Nick’s family, oh my I ached for the two of them. Lauren had her moments when I wanted to pop her one, but when I step back and try to look at things from a woman’s 1980’s perspective then I can understand why she is the way she is and why she made the choices that she made. All in all it is a fabulous book that gets a bad rap for not being contemporary enough. Yet I am sure had it been read when it was released that it would have been a statement making book.

Now being that in the early 80’s it was still early in my life I have very little to compare it to unless it’s other books wrote in the era. The next book I would like to talk about is Separate Beds by Lavyrle Spencer. This book is also set in the early to mid 80’s and it too gets a bad rap. Number one it is a contemporary marriage of convenience book. I also know that you have to be a fan of that to enjoy the book.

Catherine Anderson and Clay Forrester come from two completely different worlds, but one blind date leaves them forever linked. Clay, a handsome law student, and Catherine, a serious, bookish undergrad, experience an evening they will never forget. Fortified by the beauty of the night, as well as a bottle of wine, they share a night together. A few short months later, Catherine discovers she’s pregnant. They agree to a marriage of convenience, an arrangement that suits them both-until they begin to fall in love.

Catherine is hard to like I will give you that. Her behavior with Clay was annoying but the more you found out about her background the more you could understand the whys and wherefores of it. Her father was a monster, he needed his ass kicked clear from here to the Mississippi River and believe me I could have done that for her. She pushed Clay away a lot but Clay should have forced her to discuss what her problems were. Of course if that had happened the story would have been remarkably different.

I know one of the main issues many have with this book is that Catherine moves into a home for unwed mothers. Yes in 2007 that would be unheard of but in the early 80’s you either did that or went to stay with Aunt Debby and came back a year later with no baby. Oh and if you live in the south people still whisper about what you ran off to do. Beyond that I think the story shows how two people at the same time both make different decisions about the same thing. The both think that they know what is best for the other and yet they have no clue as to what they truly are feeling. Overall I love the book; yet when I read it I remind myself that is did not happen last week, last month, or hell even last decade. This book is very emotional. Catherine and Clay both grow up in so many ways and I think that LS shows that very well.

To me, these books that were wrote in the early 80’s when society was changing so much need to be viewed almost in the same way you would view a historical. Things were different then. Yes, woman had gained a lot since Regency England time but still had a long way to go. Men also had a lot of changes to accept as humanity evolved and both men and woman stepped out of the traditional roles of the past. However, had the things that we read about in these books and disdain, feeling that we as modern woman would never behave they way the woman did in these books; be thankful they did. Had they not, women nor men would be where we are today.

Overall Double Standards and Separate Beds are fabulous books when you read them with an open mind and look at them as if they are in the contemporary historical genre.

So what do you think? If you hadn’t read these books, would you be able to read them today with an open mind? What other books/authors fall into this “contemporary historical” category?

Kelli

A Day in the Life of an Unappreciated Princess

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Tagged: Contemporary Historicals, Favorite Reads, Guest Blog, Guest Blog, Judith McNaught, Lavyrle Spencer

Guest Blog: A Few of My Favorite Things

Posted November 21, 2007 by Book Binge Guest Blogger in Miscellaneous, Promotions | 16 Comments

When Holly asked me to be a guest here at BOOK BINGE, I was looking through my notes and drafts and realized I could sort of combine some stuff and incorporate a suggestion Holly made which was to talk about some books I’m thankful for since tomorrow is Thanksgiving.

What I came up with are books I’m thankful I read at a particular time in my life. Maybe not the first books I think of when I think of favorites, but memorable books nonetheless.

The first book I want to talk about is THE WOLF AND THE DOVE by Kathleen Woodiwiss. Man, who knew there could be sex in historical fiction? I sure didn’t before I read this book back in 1978. I’ve read the book only a couple of times but can remember some portions of it very clearly. It had a huge impact on me. I also met an amazing woman whose name was also Kathleen through that book. It was the first relationship I had with someone who was also an avid reader and read the same type of books I did. My oldest son who was born in 1986 is named after a Kathleen Woodiwiss’ character in ASHES IN THE WIND.

The next book I want to talk about is WHITNEY MY LOVE by Judith McNaught. I read this book back in 1986 right after my oldest son was born. I’d always loved historical fiction and asked for a recommend from ‘Jean’ the owner of a small independent bookstore. She pointed to a display of the books and said, “I haven’t read it, but a lot of my customers are raving about that book.” This book knocked my socks off. I haven’t re-read it in years, but I loved it then and I glommed all the McNaught books I could find, which weren’t many. Judith McNaught is the first author I ever wrote and saw in person. My youngest son is named after the Duke of Claymore. Need I say more?

THE WITNESS by Sandra Brown is also a book I’m very grateful for. The book came out in the summer of my 41st year. For some unknown and still unexplained reason I began having panic attacks in June of that year. As a result, I was unable to sit still and read anything. I missed reading so much. As I worked that summer to get myself together I tried book after book after book. THE WITNESS was the book that broke the barrier. Great suspense and romance and strong on character. Thank you Sandra Brown.

SHATTERED LEGACY by Lora Leigh is very special to me. Lora repeatedly let her readers know before it’s release at Ellora’s Cave that this wasn’t a book with an HEA and was the beginning of an on-going series. It was different, engrossing and more layered than Lora’s previous books. Six months before my Mom died she had a week long stay in the hospital. She hated being by herself and liked to have one of us stay with her even when she was sleeping. I would go and sit for hours by her bedside reading and holding her hand. There is so much to distract you in a hospital with people coming and going and all the noise in the hallway. It can be agonizing sitting and waiting. Somehow, I was engaged in that book, riveted actually and it kept me sane and my mind still while I was sitting with Mom. How can you ask more than that of a book?

My final entry for books I’m thankful for is actually a sub-genre of romance novels. I’m talking about erotic romance. GG, my husband, has always been so positive, supportive and encouraging about my reading. As with many husbands, boyfriends, and significant others he enjoys fringe benefits when I read a particularly hot and steamy book. Even though we will never engage in most of the stuff I read about, I have to say that erotic romance arrived at a wonderful time in our lives. I think there should be a t-shirt that says, “I’m smiling because my wife reads HOT romance novels.” So to every one of you great erotic romance writers who given GG and I a little spice in our lives, thank you!

So what about you? Is there a book you read at a pivotal moment in your life? Have you read a book that changed your life or the way you think about something? Or maybe, there’s one book you are particularly thankful for. Take a second and tell us about it. It might change someone else’s life too.

Rosie
Nobody Asked Me