Eek! I'm a bad blogger! The long weekend here got me all messed up. I totally missed my Monday post (nothing much to say anyway about the WIP because THERE ISN'T ONE.). And it's six pm and I just realized it's Wednesday. Duh.

So this week I finished Erin McCarthy's The Taking. LOVED this book! The first time I ever read one of Erin's more "serious" books, I felt she had a hard time switching from her usual voice, which is funny with often sarcastic, smart-mouthed heroines, as there were elemetns that seem to fit, especially dialogue. But this time it was smooth, and the story was wonderful.

I've now started Sophie Kinsella's Twenties Girl. Already laughed out loud once!

I went to the book store the other day, mostly because my son wanted to go. I usually buy ebooks now, but I thought I'd look at the books and maybe buy one (because you know, if you don't buy any paper books, the book stores will close, and I do love book stores :-) But I couldn't find a single book that appealed to me. I'm a contemporary lover - I like them humorous or deep, more on the hot and spicy side. But it seemed to me that everything I looked at was paranormal. No offence to paranormal writers and readers, but most of that stuff I just can't get into. I don't mind a hot historical a la Kate Pearce or Sylvia Day. I like their stories because the heroines aren't simpering virgins, but are strong, sexy women.

What do you think? Are there enough good contemporary romances out there? Got any recommendations for contemp, or hot historical?

I finished Breaking Loose by Tara Janzen. Nice satisfying ending in some ways, in other ways of course she leaves you hanging, desperate for the next book - hurry, Tara!!! I need to know!

This week I started Riding on Instinct by Jaci Burton. This book is part of a series about the Wild Riders, an undercover biker group and the heroine of this story is working undercover as a stripper. Cool.

And if you'd like to read a powerful and moving poem, check out my critique partner Nara Malone's winning poem Blue Harbor, in the the September edition of Emuse.It won the Summer Madness competition.

This week I read Crazy Cool by Tara Janzen. I love Tara Janzen! I love her voice. I started reading her books a few months ago but just got back to this one in my TBR pile. This one was especially hot! Surprising as it’s one of the earlier stories in this series. I’m reading them all out of order, but that’s okay. Lots of action, lots of sex, lots of smarts…I gotta read every book she’s written now!

And I read Hard and Fast by Erin McCarthy .
I love Erin McCarthy, she’s one of my favourites, and this book was very enjoyable. She has such a talent for snappy dialogue. But there wasn’t much to the story. Imogen’s thesis could have caused a lot more conflict for the couple had she pursued her original idea, but she quickly abandoned that because of Ty. And Ty’s dyslexia didn’t provide much conflict at all until the very end of the story. I kept thinking as I read, “Things are going way too smoothly for this couple, something bad has to happen.” And then all it was, was a fight and some ill-chosen words right at the end of the book. Ty’s greatest fear was losing his racing, because he had nothing else to fall back on because he couldn’t read – THAT could have made a huge conflict, if his racing career had somehow been threatened. But it was a nice story, with some amusing moments as usual in Ms McCarthy’s books, and great characters. That’s another thing Erin does really well, her characters are always different from the last one. A good lesson!