The Slightest Provocation.

I finshed reading it and I loved it.

Sorry Politics, you guys are just not for me. As the story touches on you, I always have to re-read paragraphs a couple of times to understand you. I could skip all parts about you, but then I really want to understand the story to it fullest. Seriously, we just don't get along well. It's horrible.

But luckily, you guys did not one bit ruin my enjoyment of the romance going on.

Kudos to Pam Rosenthal.

Check out the news, reviews, whatever, on the author's website, especially the excerpt. It's one of my favorite part of the story. It's sweet, Mary and Kit, the way they think of each other, the way they still love each other. It just shows in all their thoughts, in everything they do. Yes I love their thoughts, love reading about their past. I love how the story flows. It's so differrent from other novels I read. You either love this book or hate it. And I love it. It's so hard to explain. It's so special! , everything! I love their carriage ride scene at the end, especially Mary and Kit's enticipation to it. It's so sexy, it's kinda romantic in a way.

Note: Post subject to edits. I trying hard to put my love for this book into words.

Why can't there be more historial romances like this?

Cute Art.

About two years ago, I rented Kasey Michaels' Too Good To Be True from a second-hand book store because I fell in love with the cover:

It's raining hearts! ♥ Sooo cute. Love the umbrella. Love this cover. I even scanned a high resolution of the image for my own keep sake. I love it.

After going through Kasey Michaels' website, I found the cover of Bowled Over similar to Dianne Castell's I'll be Seeing U:

Of course this is not the first case of different book covers using similar art. But if I'm an author (yea dream on), it's a sucky feeling knowing that your book cover isn't that unique.

But I love the cartoon. The couple looked so comfy together. ♥

Great writing is important. Who cares about the theme/genre?

I just finished Sinead Moriarty's A Perfect Match & From Here to Maternity. I suddenly remember an incident a day a couple of years ago:

I was telling one of my friends that I cried throughout reading the whole of the last chapter of Inconceivable by Ben Elton. I added that the book is about a couple trying for a baby, and that it's worth reading.

But my dear friend said something along the lines of, "I'm not married. I don't want a baby anytime soon, so I don't think this books is suitable for me."

Oh.

A little introduction of myself: I'm turning 23 in December, still young, single, and happy with life (well, of course there're occasional discontentment with my hair, my dress, and not earning enough money etc).

So why I'm reading a book about a couple trying for a baby?

The answer?

The really good writing. Duh.

Book description for Inconceivable:

Lucy desperately wants a baby. Sam is determined to write a hit movie. The problem is that both their efforts seem to be unfruitful. And given that the average IVF cycle has about a one in five chance of going into full production, Lucy's chances of getting what she wants are considerably better than Sam's.

What Sam and Lucy are about to go through is absolutely inconceivable. The question is, can their love survive?

It says nothing about the great writing though. It's just about a couple trying for the baby.

Dont' ask me why I even pick up this book. There's no answer why I pick up certain books.

But what the heck, I'm glad I read it. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Like I said, I cried throughout the whole of the last chapter. Which is a good sign, really.

So, no matter the theme/genre, if I can start reading a book and never put it down till the end, that means I'm damn well like it. And also because of the abit of romance in them anyway.

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Recipes for a Perfect Marriage by Kate Kerrigan (Morag Prunty) is another great book I've read and love, AND which, according to my dear friend, I should have no reason reading:

New York food writer Tressa returns from honeymoon worried that she has married her impossibly handsome new husband Dan out of late-thirties panic instead of love.

There's a prologue excerpt here.

Try it. This kind of book can either bore you to death or make you love it. For me, it's love.

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A Perfect Match & From Here to Maternity was fun to read; the husband in the story keeps telling bad jokes, and the wife is great at sacarsm, as are most of the characters. It's the hilarious elements in these kinds of stories that kept me reading.

Another example of "unsuitable" books for me (again, according to my dear friend) that I've read are Risa Green's Notes from the Underbelly & Tales from the Crib (about being pregnant and being a mother), which I did a short rant about here. Yes, these books makes me laugh too.

Currently there are no books in my TBR about marriage or baby woes, but I'd be looking. No reason not to read them just because I'm not pregnant.

Sunday Night.

I finished reading Karen Kelly's Temperature's Rising. Read it in one day! My favourite line is, "No wife of mine is going to put her life in jeopardy. I'm not going to sit at home and worry about where the hell you are." Sounds cheesy, and common in most romances maybe, but it still sweet. I love reading these lines. ♥

I love you.

I just finished reading John Updike's Marry Me.

The not good: The ending confused me.

The good: The number of times that I get to read the phrase "I love you".

I do understand why this phrase is rare in most of the romances I've read; once it's uttered, it calls for the hero and heroine to get married and so it's basically the end of the story already.

Marry Me is a story about married couples and "I love you" is directed at the third party, so it's the cause of problems.

But I still like reading that phrase.

Lisa Plumley

I found Lisa Plumley:

I lingered on her website all because of all those pretty covers:

A great website too, full of lenghty excerpts here, here & there, everywhere. Enough for me to deduce that I may enjoy her books if I ever get my hands on it. And she seems to write romantic comedies.

Erin McCarthy's Pretty Book Cover

Would you just look at that!!

OMG! The covers of Erin McCarthy's Vegas Vampire series just gets better and better. I thought nothing could beat Bled Dry's pretty cover, and guess I was wrong~ I wish there's a fifth book...

Lauren Willig's Pretty Website

You know, I was just clicking around the web (just randomly clicking on author links , when I came across Lauren Willig's website.

I love it!

Never heard of her before, never read her books, but..

I love the website!

In fact, I like it so much that I'm shamelessly using the same background colour (#F8E6E1) as hers for use for my side bars here.

I've got 3 new books. So drum roll please.

Buying new books every week is really a bad habit. I feel guilty when paying for them at the cashier. But after I tuck them comfortably on my shelf, I felt a great sense of satisfaction (got-my-hands-on-them kind of satisfaction) followed by dread real quick after realising how many books I have in my TBR pile.

I know of others with a hundred books waiting to be read. Mine is peanuts compared to them. But for my standards, having more then 5 currently and knowing that there will be more books coming and no time to read them -- sucks.

Anyway, Introducing my three new books:

I just realised I got Viva Las Bad Boys! (also by HelenKay Dimon) on 9th Aug 2006 (which is Singapore's birthday!) I got this book, Your Mouth Drives Me Crazy, on 8th Aug 2007. So it's just a day short of a year. Damn. I really hate waiting. But luckily her next book is released on March 2008.

But isn't that like, 7 months later? Damn.

Next!

Perfect Kisses! I love both Susan Johnson's & Sylvia Day's writings, and as for Noelle Mack, I'm still reserving judgment. I've got one of her book, Three published under Aphrodisia.

I do like Three and had enjoyed reading it. I only didn't like the fact that the hero and heroine didn't get married, though they did pledge to stay together. I'm all for marriages and having babies in the endings.

Next!

I wonder anyone remembered this page I created. It's about the title Sun, Sand, Sex. I checked back the newly-revamped Kensington page here, and they amended the title (correctly) with the comma instead of the "and" (as in Sand, Sand and Sex). But the kept the wrong spelling of Jennifer Apodaca's name!

Jennifer Apodaca and Shelly Laurenston are new to me. I can't wait to read Linda Lael Miller's story! She's one of my very first romance authors and I've enjoyed most of the books she have written. It's been quite a while since I last read her work.