Well it was a crazy week in Tracyland last week.  My boss had carpal tunnel surgery last Thursday and trying to get everything in order just in case she wasn’t A-ok by today was a little nutty – especially since I was going to be gone Friday.  We managed to get it all together which was a relief.

Then on Friday my oldest daughter graduated from 6th grade.  Holy cow.  Didn’t she just start kindergarten?  I mean, really? lol  I know as the years are going by it doesn’t seem like time is flying but seriously, it just doesn’t seem possible that she’s old enough!  Anyway, she looked beautiful and was definitely all smiles.  It was a good day.  Here’s a picture of her and her teacher who is just an incredible human being and a fabulous educator.

That same day brought major sadness with it when I was carrying a boatload of crap in from the car – as mom’s do – and my daughter bumped into me.  The only thing to fall and hit the concrete?  My Ezreader.  It looked fine until I tried to wake it up from sleep mode and then it looked like this:

FYI – that’s not how it’s supposed to look!  I called customer service at Astak and they said they thought the internal screen was broken and that I should email them a picture so they’d get a better idea if it could be repaired.  Since that was Friday I haven’t heard from them  – I wait impatiently for their reply!  I’m devastated.  Seriously.  I loved that thing and hope to heavens it can be repaired! **I just heard from Astak and they can repair the screen for $95.00!!!!  Doing the happy dance!**

Luckily I had my old ebookwise handy (that still has that big ole annoying splotch right in the middle of the screen) so I charged that puppy up (I mean, I was in the middle of a book I had to read NOW! lol) and tried to load my books on it.  That wasn’t working at all.  The librarian that converts the books to load to the reader would accept the books but when I would open the function on my ereader it showed that there was nothing in the librarian.  Now, I used by ebookwise regularly before I got my new ereader so I’m pretty handy with getting kinks worked out but this was just not happening.  I tried everything I knew and still nothing was happening.  So, I used the old tried and true uber-technical plan: fuck with the settings until it works.  And it worked!  I’ve not only loaded ebooks on to my reader but I’m pretty sure I also have hacked into some US military compound and am started WWIII. (can you tell my kids have been watching War Games? lol)

So despite the highs and lows of this past week it was a good one – and a good reading week as well:

Married by Morning by Lisa Kleypas was my first read of the week and it was a good one.  This is book 4 in the Hathaway family series and I very much enjoyed Catherine and Leo’s banter and their relationship just hit that right spot in me.  I have to admit that at first I was confused as to why Cat had such issues with men.  It did seem quite out of proportion to what had happened – but it was explained satisfactorily near the end of the book so that put my mind at ease.  4.5 out of 5

Next up was Lion’s Heat by Lora Leigh.  This was book 21 in her Breed series.  I know. 21.  Seems like a crazy number but they’re still going strong.  This was Jonas’s story and another good one.  The heroine was bugging me quite a bit at first but she seemed to calm down after a bit and I was able to enjoy the story so much more. lol  I read this one for The Book Binge so will tell you when the review posts. 4.25 out of 5

Can’t Hurry Love by M. Jules Aedin was a book that I won over at Jenre’s blog and I’m so happy I read it.  It was an adorable novella about a promiscuous guy, Vincent, who works in the Easter Bunny dept in the Corporation of Mythical Beings.  He gets put on probation when he’s caught in the supply closet with a satyr and assigned to help out Charlie in the Cupid dept.  Only Charlie’s pretty much on strike for cupid activities and Vincent’s not quite sure what to do with him.  I really liked the story a lot.  Although there’s not a whole lot of romance between Charlie and Vincent I loved how it ended.  Worth the read.  4.5 out of 5

My Tracy’s TBR Challenge read for the week was a Harlequin Intrigue called Bodyguard/Husband by Mallory Kane.  This was the story of a woman who has the bad luck of having the men in her life either die or disappear. Unfortunately her uncle, the local police chief, believes that it’s someone who’s obsessed with her that is causing the deaths and disappearances and brings in the FBI to investigate.  In order to be close together they get married – for real.  They find the man, as well as love.  It was a cute story. 3.5 out of 5

For the rest of the week I went on an m/m binge.

I started Once Upon A Veterinarian by Drew Zachary but got about 75 pages into the 137 and just couldn’t read any more. It wasn’t a horrible story but I kept getting annoyed at the interruptions and the vets partner was extra annoying. Needless to say I didn’t end up finishing the book. DNF

Then I read Never Let Go by ML Rhodes.  The story of two men who had known each other for years but had each been hiding the fact that they’re gay as well as their feelings for each other. They have one wonderful night together but then one gets called away for work. He tells the other not to give up on him that he’ll contact him as soon as he can. Three years later he shows up on his doorstep. They have issues to work out to say the least. This was a good story but I wanted more. I felt that the homecoming and reunion went pretty smoothly considering the hurt feelings and betrayal. Yes, there were huge extenuating circumstances (which I won’t tell you about and ruin it for you) but I still felt that it went a tad to easily. Still a good book. 3.75 out of 5

Next up was Never Look Back by Josh Lanyon. This story follows Peter Killian who wakes up in the hospital with no memory of who he is or what’s happened to him. Unfortunately the cop sitting next to him is pretty sure he’s the prime suspect in a robbery. This was a great story. Of course I love Lanyon’s books because he has such a wonderful way of having the story unfold. I loved watching the layers get peeled away in this one. 4 out of 5

I’ve had Diving in Deep by KA Mitchell for a while – since I found out that it was related to Collision Course which I read last year. Well I finally read it and I really liked this one as well. This was Cameron and Noah’s story. Cameron has been Noah’s ideal man since Noah was 15 years old. They had one wonderful night together when Noah was 19 but then they didn’t see each other. Cameron is on the road for work a lot and though he’s into Noah he still doesn’t see him as anything but his best friend’s little brother. It was a really good story that I recommend. 4 out of 5

Of course when I finished Diving in Deep I immediately wanted to re-read Collision Course, so I did. I liked it even more the second time. I see by Goodreads that I originally read it in March of 2009 and gave it 3.75 out of 5. This time I would give it a 4.5 out of 5. It was just that good.

(And, big surprise, after reading Collision Course I had to immediately start on No Souvenirs the 3rd book in the series and I’m reading it now. I’m about halfway through and loving it as well.)

So that’s it for my reading week. I hope you had a great one as well!

My Book Binge reviews that posted this last week: