February in Review: All About that Balance

Productive Writing Days (1k+ words written):  22

Books Read:  12

I didn't do as well in February.  Obviously.  Some days I just got out and nothing happened at home for me to read or write that day.  I mainlined a series of books and it took its toll.  While I was glad to be back in Tortall, and this has nothing to do with those books, I know better than to mainline anything.  But I did for the Study Series, and I started re-reading Beka Cooper, and after I finished Mastiff, which was the only one I hadn't read, I wanted to read or re-read all of the Tortall books again and...well, you know what happened.  If I mainline a series, I go slower towards the end, because, lag.  If I don't mainline, I'm going to flop around, leave the series, and not come back to it for months.  Well, I finished Trickster's Queen last night and promptly started another book, and finished it today, but I'll write about that later.  This is February in Review, after all, not March.

I keep telling myself the world won't end if I don't do this.  It doesn't matter, don't be so hard on yourself.

But, if I'm not hard on myself, who's going to be?  Some of my biggest mistakes are not being hard enough on myself.  I have to push me.  If I don't push myself, how am I going to become better?

I'm between being kind to myself, it's okay if I don't read/write every day.  But at the same time, I am generally happier on the days I do those things.  But despite that, I've been having bad days.  That comes from Like Sucking.

I won't go into that either though.  I'm not quite where I need to be, but I'm farther than I could be.

And that's that.

January in Review--Yes, I'm Back!

Words Written:  ~30k.  I missed one day.  ONE DAY.

Books Read:  18.

I'm on my way back.  It started because I began making myself write everyday since New Year's.  I'm not one for New Year's Resolutions.  The only ones I really make are to read and write more.  That's it.  This is the sum of who I am.  I'm just going to have to accept this.

It took a lot of going back.  What went wrong?  What set me down this path?

So, I looked at my writing files, the old ones, the finished ones.  I looked back at the blog.  I looked back at my Goodreads.

Apparently, my last good year was 2014.  That was when I still read a lot, I wrote a lot.  When I still had dreams?  Before I graduated from university.

I've said it before, and I'll say it here, I regret going past an associate's degree.  It wasn't worth debt.  Nothing is worth going into debt over, and my student loans aren't even that bad compared to most (or literally everyone because mine are just at $10k.

But I can't go back in time and fix it.  I can't even go back in time to slap my younger self.  C'est la vie.

I'm doing a lot of re-reading.  I spent most of last year re-reading stuff, and it seems like that will very much be the case this year.

One of them was the Study Series by Maria V. Snyder.  Now, I had bought the newer books as they came out, but I didn't read them.  They'd just been sitting on the shelf.

Stephen Lawhead's last book was in 2014.  I think the last Dresden book that's not a comic was put out in 2014.  How am I supposed to be okay when my favorite authors aren't putting out books?  Granted, Lawhead's put out another one, just last year, and the next in the series comes out AT THE END OF THIS MONTH, but I digress.  But I don't think it's coincidence.

Life still sucks.  I wrecked my car at the end of November and still can't get a new one.  I have very, very little going for me.

But I don't want to hang myself in the backyard anymore.  The things that would set me off, that would have me wondering if we had rope anywhere don't do that anymore.

It's a terrible thing, to forget who you are.  It's also pretty wonderful to remember and find yourself and follow your bliss again.

Oh yeah, and I had a blast in Scotland.   It seems when all my other dreams were dead, I still held on to that one.  And I want to go back.  I want to go back So Bad.

I'm Still Here

I know, I know, it's like I disappeared.  I'm still here.  I want to go back to myself.

The girl who was supposed to be a fantasy author.

The girl who could read 120+ books/year.

The girl who dreamt of other places other than her hometown.

The girl obsessed with the Celtic mythos.

I'm going to be 25 this year, and I feel like I have nothing to show for it.

I barely made reading challenge this year.

I didn't make an Easter post--hard to when I've mostly walked away from my faith.  Although, I'm a little drunk right now, and I'll admit that tonight was the first time I've written in my prayer journal since January.

I want to write again.

I want to read again.

I want to leave Mississippi--even if I don't know where that'll be.

I want something, anything different.

My complacency, I think, has been slowly killing me.

I want to get back to myself.  I wasn't always this way.  And I don't want to be this way.

I have written a little bit, but there's more to add to that.

Candid, Candide, and the Candidates

“Each player must accept the cards life deals him or her; but once they are in hand, he or she alone must decide how to play the cars in order to win the game.”
― Voltaire, Candide

Oh, this road has been long and hard.

“I have wanted to kill myself a hundred times, but somehow I am still in love with life. This ridiculous weakness is perhaps one of our more stupid melancholy propensities, for is there anything more stupid than to be eager to go on carrying a burden which one would gladly throw away, to loathe one’s very being and yet to hold it fast, to fondle the snake that devours us until it has eaten our hearts away?”

1) We started going to church again. I am not taking back anything I've said about the Church. I will not apologize for observations or feelings. I will not pretty up the damage growing up in church with legalistic influences has done. I've had to find my way back, and that's iffy at best.

He wanted to know how they prayed to God in El Dorado.

"We do not pray to him at all," said the reverend sage. "We have nothing to ask of him. He has given us all we want, and we give him thanks continually.”

If for some odd reason your pastor decides to preach from Candide, this is the part where he'd say, "We need to have an El Dorado attitude!"

2) I'm still unemployed (walked out of my job nearly 2 months ago). I had a dream I went back to work where I walked out, and the reasons I quit were still there. No lie. In the dream, nothing had changed. Perhaps it was better to stay there? Or to leave? Whatever, no going back!

“Work keeps at bay three great evils: boredom, vice, and need.”

3) Reading's still okay.

“For my part I read only to please myself and like only what suits my taste.”

4) Writing's been bad.

“A great work must be novel without being far-fetched, frequently sublime, but always natural. The author must know the human heart, and how to make it speak; he must be a poet, without letting any of his characters speak like poets; and he must be a master of his language, using it purely and harmoniously and not letting the rhyme interfere with the sense.”

5) Oh yeah, and on a larger level, American politics has reached an all new level of low: Pissing contest for the ages!

“In every province, the chief occupations, in order of importance, are lovemaking, malicious gossip, and talking nonsense.”

I'm sure I've mentioned it before: Candide is probably my favorite classic. Because I can give my blogpost a proper commentary with quotes from that slim treasure.


This is the world God created, therefore it is the best of all possible worlds. And everything happens for the best in this best of all possible worlds.

I would have that in quotation marks as well, but I can't seem to find it either on Goodreads or my own pretty copy of the book. At least, not in so many words.

In light of Point 1, looking at Point 5, and thinking back to things I've said:

1) God appoints.  Guess what, Christians? WE, THUS FAR, HAVE SURVIVED OBAMA.

2) If Jesus said He would be there until the end of the world, do you believe it or not? I don't recall Him saying it was easy. He just said He'd be there.

3) Jesus also said somewhere not to worry about tomorrow.

I find this sound advice when it comes to American politics.

(I also think if I read my Bible as much as I looked up Candide quotes, maybe I'd be better off. Or maybe not, because this is the first time in a long time I played on Goodreads quotes.)

At the end of the day, I have no control over what happens. If I don't have control over it, I don't want to worry about it. At the end of the day, it gets filed under "Not My Problem."

I try to file as many things as possible under "Not My Problem."

I did not ask to be born. I did not ask for most of what's going on in this world. Don't believe what our generation is like? Go on Tumblr.

I do have to live in this world. Come hell or high water, I do have to live here until a new one is created. I will live here. I will have a good attitude about it.

Fine! I will try to have a good attitude about it.

“All that is very well," answered Candide, "but let us cultivate our garden.”

November in Review

Books Read: 3

Books on the Currently Reading Shelf on Goodreads: 13 (but I have more that I have bookmarks in that I didn't mark on Goodreads.

Approximate Word Count: ~7,508
 
It was a busy month, k?


Book List:

• The Escape by Mary Balogh, historical romance, 5 stars
• Book 3 of the Survivors' Club.  Very, very, very good.  I expect no less.

• Winning Miss Wakefield by Vivienne Loret, historical romance, 4 stars
• Pretty decent.  Liked the characters.

• Confessions at Midnight by Jacquie D'Alessandro, historical romance, 3 stars
• I didn't like it as much as the first one, but it was okay.

October in Review

Books Read: 10

Books on the Currently Reading Shelf on Goodreads: 13 (but I have more that I have bookmarks in that I didn't mark on Goodreads.

Approximate Word Count: ~11,363
 
Woo-hoo, improvements.  I think I did okay.  I read a little and wrote a little.


Book List:

• Welcome to the Jungle by Jim Butcher, graphic novel, 5 stars
• DRESDEN

• Checkmate by R. L. Mathewson, contemporary erotic romance, 3 stars
• I'm surprised I even finished this book.  That guy made me so mad...  But he pulled through in the end.

• Burning Alive by Shannon K. Butcher, paranormal romance, 3 stars
• This series has been advertised in the back of the Dresden Files, and it was at the Book Bag.  I wasn't wowed by it, but it was good enough to make me want to read the rest of the series, and since I already got them, you know...

Naked Nobility by Sally MacKenzie, historical romance

• The Naked Duke, 3 stars

• The Naked Baron, 4 stars

• The Naked Marquis, 3 stars

• The Naked Earl, 3 stars

• Not great literature, but, I mean, I obviously read a bunch of them.  They're funny and ridiculous.  Good for the quick and fun.

• The Curly Girl Handbook, by Lorraine Massey, nonfiction, 4 stars
• A celebration of curly hair, some curly confessions, really good for the curly girls out there!

• Daring Miss Danvers by Vivienne Loret, historical romance, 3 stars
• A series that was cheap for Kindle and I bought the whole series, wasn't terribly impressed, but it was still pretty decent, gonna read the rest of them 'cause I got them anyway.

• The Fatal Tree by Stephen R. Lawhead, contemporary fantasy/sci-fi, 4 stars
• Favorite author release.  It wasn't as strong as the earlier books in the series, but it was a conclusion that didn't end wrong.  It ended the way it had to, like any other SRL book.  He doesn't waste time wrapping it all up.

September in Review

Books Read: 10

Books on the Currently Reading Shelf on Goodreads: 13 (but I have more that I have bookmarks in that I didn't mark on Goodreads.

Approximate Word Count: ~3134
I've had some improvements. Summer is apparently, a rough time for me. Well, it's been a rough year. But I hit a reading stride a little better, and I did write today, and I might write a little more later.


Book List:

• Playing for Keeps, by R. L. Mathewson, erotic romance, 3 stars
• Funny. Just, funny.

 

• Hunting Season, by Shelly Laurenston, paranormal erotica, 4 stars
• Vikings, Crows, Goddesses, Gods, just a lot of mythology, and your usual Laurenston faire. Fun stuff.
   
• Seeing Eye Mate, by Annmarie McKenna, paranormal erotica, 3 stars 
• Interesting.
   
• Checkmate, by Annmarie McKenna, paranormal erotica, 3 stars
   
• Kiss of the Goblin Prince, by Shona Husk, paranormal romance, 4 stars 
• I adored Dai. This was the sequel to The Goblin King. Really Good Book. Angsty hero, angsty widowed heroine. Good stuff, good stuff.
   
• Moonshine, by Rob Thurman, urban fantasy, 4 stars 
• Another Cal Leandros. I'm working on book 3 now.
   
• The Bridgertons: Happily Ever After, by Julia Quinn, historical romance, 3 stars
• I wasn't terribly impressed. I didn't care for the Bridgertons all that much, and happily ever after is kinda boring. Still, it's always nice to see that these characters are still crazy about each other after so many years have passed.
   
• The Suitor, by Mary Balogh, historical romance, 3 stars 
• Cute. This goes along with the Survivors series. The hero runs away when his family selects a bride for him. The would-be-not-a-bride is the star, along with her sweetheart. Aww-worthy.
   
• Perfection, by R. L. Mathewson, erotic romance, 4 stars 
• Sequel to Playing for Keeps. Really cute.
   
• More than This, by Shannyn Schroeder, contemporary romance, 4 stars
• First book in a series.  It was pretty good.  Nice guy hero, unhappy-with-her-life heroine.

August in Review

Books Read:  5  Books on the Currently Reading Shelf on Goodreads:  14 (but I have more that I have bookmarks in that I didn't mark on Goodreads.   Approximate Word Count: ~1500 --if that many
  Bad month.  Really, really, really bad month.  My birthday ended it on a high note.  The good thing about keeping track of this, however, is that I'm seeing where my reading and writing cycles go.  I have a general idea, but now I can track it better.
  Book List:

• Hexed, by Kevin Hearne, urban fantasy, 4 stars
• Good second book, continuing the series.

• Pack Challenge, by Shelly Laurenston, paranormal erotica, 4 stars

• Go Fetch!, by Shelly Laurenston, paranormal erotica, 4 stars

• Here Kitty Kitty!, by Shelly Laurenston, paranormal erotica, 5 stars
•  Together, all three books are the Magnus Pack series.  Laurenston stays true to form, and geez, I'm addicted.
• Here Kitty Kitty!'s hero is my favorite.  Nik doesn't own a TV.  He reads.  And offers to let Angelina borrow his books so she can read too.  Be still, my heart.

• You've Got Male, by Elizabeth Bevarly, contemporary romance, 2 stars
• Eh.  There was no blow-up.  And I guess I just didn't like it that much.

July in Review

Books Read:  7  
Books on the Currently Reading Shelf on Goodreads:  13 (but I have more that I have bookmarks in that I didn't mark on Goodreads.  
Approximate Word Count: ~14,178
 
Writing improved a little, reading not at all.  Hey, I've been doing work and school and all this other crap and I'm bad at time management...
 
Book List:

• Kiss of Fire, by Deborah Cooke, paranormal romance, 4 stars

o   PNR that ISN'T erotica.  And DRAGONS.

• Lord of Scoundrels, by Loretta Chase, historical romance, 4 stars

o  SEE HERE.

• Carrie, by Stephen King, horror, 4 stars

o   I read it in a night.  1) I am scarred for life.  2)  I wish I had telekinesis.  3)  I really like the name Carietta, like a good name for a kid someday. If only the story wasn't a tragedy.
4) By any other author, some of it might be annoying. Well, the narrative, excerpts, interviews, etc WERE annoying. However, you do not question the King. You. Do. Not. Question. The. King.

• Just the Way You Are, by Christina Dodd, contemporary romance, 4 stars

o   Christina Dodd isn't one of my brand names, but I like to read her from time-to-time.

• The Black Prism, by Brent Weeks, fantasy, 5 stars

o   I like Brent Weeks' NIGHT ANGEL trilogy, and finally started on the LIGHTBRINGER trilogy.  Wasn't disappointed.

• Hounded, by Kevin Hearne, urban fantasy, 5 stars

o   Sexy 2100-year-old wiseass Irish Druid who runs a bookshop.  An occult bookshop.  Mayhem and awesome snark ensue.  Review calls the author and main charrie, Atticus O'Sullivan, the respective heirs to Butcher and Dresden.  NO ONE WILL EVER REPLACE BUTCHER AND DRESDEN.  However, if you absolutely adore Dresden, you will like this series, and will tide you over till the next book comes out.

• Jim Henson's Labyrinth:  The Movie Novelization by A. C. H. Smith, movie novel, 3 stars

o   Interesting.  It was a lot more detailed than the movie (obviously).  I read a review once that there was ONE LINE from Jareth that supposed to make him look like a completely different character.  Whatever it was, I missed it.

Re-Reads - The Mane Squeeze, Bite Me, and Wolf With Benefits.  DON'T JUDGE ME, OKAY?

Oh, and I got paid today.  And passed bookstores and bought other stuff, and now I've spent all my spending money and I need serious help with this financial thing.  I'm bad with money.  Really, really bad.  Like, I have no self control in a bookstore, but all my bills are paid/will be paid because I DO set aside bill money, but still, maybe I need to buy a book about finances and read it, and apply it...

June In Review

Books Read:  9
Books on the Currently Reading Shelf on Goodreads:13
Days I Wrote Productively: 2
Approximate Word Count: ~3,ooo

Okay, so this was a crappy month.  I did manage 9 books/stories.  I didn't manage much writing, and there's nothing to show for it.

In my defense, I am back in school, I had a 5-week course, that I take my final for this week.  I can't go back and fix June.  I can only strive to do better in July.

Book List:

• Bite Me, by Shelly Laurenston, paranormal romance/smut, 5 stars

o   I freaking loved Vic Barinov.  He and Lock MacRyrie are now my para-fi-crushes.

• “Miss Congeniality” from the Anthology When He Was Bad, By Shelly Laurenston, paranormal romance/smut, 5 stars

o   It says it’s part of the Magnus Pack series, but I read it anyway.  It was about one of the characters in the Pride series.

• Skin Game, by Jim Butcher, urban fantasy, 5 stars

o   Well, duh, it gets 5 stars.  It’s a freaking Jim Butcher.  It’s also the only non-romance fiction book I read during this month.  But it was awesome, as always.

• “My Kind of Town” from the Anthology Sun, Sand, Sex, by Shelly Laurenston, paranormal romance/smut (obviously), 4 stars

o   In The Mane Event, a snaggle-toothed hybrid is mentioned.  This story is about her brother.  It’s a cute story.  And witches!

• The True INFP, nonfiction, 4 stars

o   I’m an INFP.  It was on Scribd.  Why not?

• The Proposal, by Mary Balogh, historical romance, 4 stars

o   First book in the Survivors’ series.  As always, Mary Balogh’s books don’t run in the normal way of romances, but it’s still pretty good.

• The Arrangement by Mary Balogh, historical romance, 5 stars

o   Second book in the Survivor’s series.  I loved Vincent Hunt, Viscount Darleigh, and his heroine, Sophia Fry.  He’s blind.  Completely, with no hope of getting his sight back.  She has low self-esteem and thinks she’s ugly.  He doesn’t like that.  Oh, and there’s the whole unhappy home before she agrees to marry him...

• Beyond Heaving Bosoms:  The Smart Bitches’ Guide to Romance by Saran Wendell & Candy Tan, romance-related non-fiction, 5 stars

o   A wonderful celebration of the romance genre!  Seriously.  Romance books lead the sales of all book sales.  Most readers are college educated and have money.  And they spend their money on books.  Romance rules.  It’s an awesome book.  Seriously.

• Eternal Hunter by Cynthia Eden, paranormal romance/smut, 3 stars

o   Cynthia Eden is often grouped with Shelly Laurenston.  A lot of times in those anthologies, there would be a Cynthia Eden story.  I was curious...and wasn’t really impressed.  It was a functional romance, with good characters, and a good plot.  I guess the big thing was that it wasn’t funny, and I didn’t like the writing style.

Um, What?: Reading Edition

I would like to say this post is ‘cause I’m a snooty college student majoring in psychology, but in reality, this is about reading.  First, last, and always, I am a bibliophile.

This started a few books ago, during one of the splendid Codex Alera books that I paused, took a moment, and actually looked at the words.  I was trying to see how the sentences were crafted and get a sense of style.  I mean, I love Jim Butcher’s books.  They’re easy to read, fast-paced, and basically chocolate for the glutton.  If there’s anyone’s style I’d like to study, it’d be his or Lloyd Alexander’s.

After about two paragraphs, I kinda shook my head.  It was just words. Words forming sentences, that formed paragraphs, that told one of the best stories I’d ever read.  But it was just words.

I dismissed that notion.  No reader worth their library believes books are just words.

When I’m reading, really reading, into-the-story, not-putting-it-down, I see the words on the page, can even sometimes remember where it was at on the page if I want to find it again.  There’s not a lot visual going on for me.  I get impressions of images and voices and people; in other words, not the mini-mind-movie other people talk about.  And, um, I read romance and romantic smut.  During a love scene, I don’t want a visual so much as I want to figure out how in the blazes is that position even possible?  And, how big is this bed?  But I digress.

I’ve done some semi-research on what books do for your brain.  Everyone agrees:  reading is good for you.  But what exactly is going on?

Well, here I am at the Carey library, bored out of my mind between classes; hungry because I have no cash on me so I can’t eat (I’m broke till Thursday anyway); stressed because I don’t get the statistics homework; stressed even more because I don’t have my textbooks yet and can’t do the assigned reading; disappointed because I thought I was just going take some time to re-read The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss, which is a splendid book, but a heavy one and I’m having as much trouble with it the second time around as I did the first time around; dejected because I just finished the latest Pride series book, the list goes on…;  and with nothing better to do, or able to do, I’m Googling what’s going on in the brain whilst reading.

And here’s what I found:

Okay, so it’s common knowledge the words evoke images.  What I found interesting was that the brain doesn’t bother with much distinction between your real life experiences, and the experiences you read through in fiction.

So, there’s no distinction between reading Frodo going to Mordor, and actually going into Mordor yourself?  If you read it, your brain thinks you did it?

And the readers go, Huh?  Me too, readers.  Me too.

But seriously, both articles say it.  (I looked at a couple, but these were the two I really liked.)

Although, considering the commitment required to read Lord of the Rings, yeah, it feels like you went to Mordor.  Heck, it feels like that just watching the movies.  You’re slightly exhausted at the end, and not quite yourself anymore.  Or at least that’s how I felt when I finished watching all three movies in a short span of time to expose the little brother to them after watching the first two Hobbit movies.

So, when there’s the reader memes saying you’ve lived a thousand lives?  Well, there’s scientific evidence to back that up.

“The brain, it seems, does not make much of a distinction between reading about an experience and encountering it in real life; in each case, the same neurological regions are stimulated.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/18/opinion/sunday/the-neuroscience-of-your-brain-on-fiction.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

Have your ever felt so connected to a story that it’s as if you experienced it in real life? There’s a good reason why: your brain actually believes that you have experienced it.

http://oedb.org/ilibrarian/your-brain-on-books-10-things-that-happen-to-our-minds-when-we-read/

They don’t quite say the same thing, but the point remains.

Interesting.  In that case, can I put that I saved Prydain with Taran, Chicago (and the rest of the world) with Harry Dresden, and Daneland with Beowulf on my resume?  What?  My brain thinks it did those things.

I just wanted to see what the deal was with reading something that was just words, that’s not just words.  And somehow, I wandered off the reservation, and now I'm questioning every experience I thought I had and all the ones I read.  They’re some interesting articles though.  Verra verra interestin’.

May In Review

Books Read:  22
Books on the Currently Reading Shelf on Goodreads: 14
Days I Wrote Productively:  11
Approximate Word Count: ~12,500

Can't talk.  Reading paranormal romantic smut.

Book List:

• Who Will Take This Man? by Jacquie D'Alessandro, historical romance, 4 stars
• I didn't like it as much as I liked her other books, but I still liked it.

• Where the Heart Leads by Stephanie Laurens, historical romance, 4 stars
• This book and the previous one kind of ran together.  It was really good though.

• Heart of Stone by C. E. Murphy, urban fantasy, 3 stars
• Maybe because I took so long to read it, but it just sort of...didn't do it for me.  However, I already have books 2 and 3 in the series, so I will finish it out.  I didn't hate it obviously.

• A Dance of Blades by David Dalglish, fantasy, 3 stars
• This was another book I spanned.  2 problems.  1 - It's a prequel to an already existing series that I have not read.  2 - This entire damn series got re-released in print with revisions and I bought the 3-pack on Kindle a while back.  I still got book 3 to read (this was book 2), and then there's a book 4 that's either coming out soon if it's not already out.  It's an interesting story, but this whole thing is annoying as hell.  I should've just waited to read it.  I'd've bought it in print.  Depending on how I feel about book 3, I might just go back and re-read the entire updated set.  But geez, I'm annoyed.

• "Can't Get Enough" from the anthology Everlasting Bad Boys by Shelly Laurenston, paranormal romance, 4 stars
• Ailean and Shalin's story in the Dragon Kin series.  Oh my gosh, it was every bit as good as I'd hoped it would be.

• "Dragon on Top" from the anthology Supernatural by G. A. Aiken, paranormal romance, 4 stars
• Ghleanna's story.  Hilarious.  I feel the need to share this, because it's everything you need to know about the Dragon Kin series:
• If anyone knew how ill-equipped Ghleanna was for babysitting duty, it was her brother. Even their own mother stopped allowing Ghleanna to babysit Bercelak after she’d dangled him over an active volcano, threatening to toss him in. And then there was that other time when she’d left Bercelak alone on a mountaintop when he still couldn’t fly, but not before she told him, “It’s not that Mum and Da don’t love you—they just don’t want you anymore. But I’m sure someone will come along who does.”

• Lady Amelia's Secret Lover by Victoria Alexander, historical romance short story, 4 stars
•  Victoria Alexander got me into historical romance. This has been out a while and I finally read it.  Wasn't disappointed. I'll be getting her newest one ASAP.

• Web of Love by Mary Balogh, historical romance, 3 stars
• Spanned.  This book was really heartbreaking.  The heroine's first husband is alive for the first 100 pages, and then the hero is sick and she's tending him...and oh my gosh.  It's really good, but really sad, and doesn't run like the usual romance at all.

• Romancing the Duke by Tessa Dare, historical romance, 4 stars
• Hey look, something that came out this year!  For the most part, I like Tessa Dare's books.  However, her heroes do tend to skew like the a-holes from the glory days of the bodice-rippers.  That is NOT okay.  Docking a star.  Other than that, it was funny and sweet, and oh my gosh.  The hero and heroine both showed a lot of growth, which is ALWAYS important.

• Captain's Fury by Jim Butcher, fantasy, 5 stars
• This is just brilliant.  God, I love this series.

• An English Bride in Scotland by Lynsay Sands, historical romance, 3 stars
• Wasn't terribly impressed, but the characters were okay.

• Princep's Fury by Jim Butcher, fantasy, 5 stars
• Probably the weakest in the series, but it ended great.

• How to Drive a Dragon Crazy by G. A. Aiken, paranormal romance/smut, 4 stars
• Didn't like it as much as the rest of the series, but still.  ANNNND, now we wait for December for the last book to come out.

• The Beast in Him by Shelly Laurenston, paranormal romance/smut, 4 stars

• First Lord's Fury by Jim Butcher, fantasy, 5 stars
• It's finally over.  I freaking love this author's books.  It's an excellent series.  Excellent.  Just excellent.  The best fantasy series no one's ever heard of.

• The Mane Attraction by Shelly Laurenston, paranormal romance/smut, 4 stars
•  Sissy Mae and Mitch Shaw.  Fun stuff.

• The Mane Squeeze by Shelly Laurenston, paranormal romance/smut, 4 stars
• This was probably my favorite in the series.  A geeky bear who loves honey and plays with his toes.  Hm mm.

• "Like a Wolf with a Bone" from Howl for It by Shelly Laurenston, paranormal romance, 5 stars
• I ought to be ashamed of myself.

• Beast Behaving Badly by Shelly Laurenston, paranormal romance, 4 stars
•  Bo is why I don't typically like smut.  He's an a-hole, but he gets better.

• Big Bad Beast by Shelly Laurenston, paranormal romance, 4 stars
• This is the one I've been waiting for!  I love Dee-Ann and Ric.

• Bear Meets Girl by Shelly Laurenston, paranormal romance, 4 stars
• I adore the bears.  I want a bear shifter.

• Wolf with Benefits by Shelly Laurenston, paranormal romance, 5 stars
• I like Ricky Lee and Toni.  Theirs was a sweet romance.

Note:  Shelly Laurenston and G. A. Aiken are the same person.

April in Review

Books Read: 14
Books on the Currently Reading Shelf on Goodreads: 15
Days I Wrote Productively: 7
Approximate Word Count: ~7,100

Obviously, I didn't write much.  However, given how much I read, I'm not beating myself up about it.  Finals are next week (my last final is May 7), and then I have the rest of May off, and then return to classes June 2nd.

Book List:

• Sleepless at Midnight by Jacquie D'Alessandro, historical romance, 5 stars
• Geez, I love this author's books.  Like, really.  Laugh out loud funny.  If you haven't tried her and you like romance, go forth and read!

• Much Ado About You by Eloisa James, historical romance, 3 stars
• Good story, but no blow-up.  You have no idea how important the blow-up is in a romance book until you read one that doesn't have one.

• What Price Love? by Stephanie Laurens, historical romance, 5 stars
• Oh, oh gosh.  Honorary Cynsters.  This is splendid.  Simply splendid.  That is all.

• Furies of Calderon by Jim Butcher, fantasy, 5 stars
• I love Jim Butcher's books.  This is awesome, and read pretty quickly for a 600+ page book.

• Ashes Ascendant by Kevin McLaughlin, contemporary fantasy, 4 stars
• I didn't like it as much as the first Blackwell Magic book, but it was still pretty good.  The cast is great.

• Cynders and Ashe by Elizabeth Boyle, historical romance short story, 3 stars
• Um, it's hard for romantic short stories to be good.  There's often little to no blow-up.  I need that blow-up.

• Whirlwind Affair by Jacquie D'Alessandro, historical romance, 4 stars
• Double blow-up:  when you're not sure the hero and heroine are going to wind up together AND the villain makes a grab for the heroine.  Woo-hoo!

• The Taste of Innocence by Stephanie Laurens, historical romance, 5 STARS
• Okay, Charlie Morwellan - annoying hero, but really, really, REALLY pulls through in the end.  Sarah Conningham - love her, just love her.  And the villain gets the Zuko award (not as big a jerk as he could've been).  Simply lovely.  Wonderful.  The Honorary Cynster to end all Honorary Cynsters.

• Temptation and Surrender by Stephanie Laurens, historical romance, 5 stars
• The last of the Cynster series.  I adored Lucifer and Phyllida, and I liked Jonas and Emily.  And Lucifer and Phyllida had a huge part.  So much yes.  I still have the twins' books to read, but this is the last book proper.  The books I have left are the Cynster females.

• Academ's Fury by Jim Butcher, fantasy, 5 stars
• Oh, geez, the plot thickens, and it's getting exciting, and I'm so glad I have the entire series!

• The Raven and the Rose by Kevin O. McLaughlin, contemporary fantasy short story, 4 stars
• I like Ryan Blackwell.  I really, really, like Ryan Blackwell.  Very good character.  I read By Darkness Revealed last year.  There are typos here and there, but overall pretty good.  Mistakenly, this takes place before Ashes Ascendant.  Oops.  Anyway, moving on...

• Accidentally in Love by Claudia Dain, historical romance short story, um
• Again, hard for authors to pull off a romantic short story.  But this was really disappointing.  There wasn't anything but the heroine's obsession with the hero, and the hero wondering why he suddenly felt something for the heroine.  It just wasn't it.  This goes under, "slice of life" or "what we hoped happened a lot in the past, but probably didn't," not "great romance."

• The Skeleton Project, Fright Pack #1 by Wayne Thomas Batson, humor/paranormal shorts anthology, 4 stars
• And now it's time for Silly Stories with Mr. Batson, the part of the show where Mr. Batson comes out, and tells a silly story.  Great way to spend a slow day at work. 

• Cursor's Fury by Jim Butcher, fantasy, 5 stars
• I love this series.  It's exciting and wonderful.  Just wonderful.  Go forth and read!