Dls’s Comments (group member since Sep 14, 2010)

Dls’s comments from the Fans of Eloisa James & Julia Quinn group.

That would be great Cheri.

It's her first. It's fantastic and I can't wait for the rest of the series.

I can do it now. It's Trade Me by Courtney Milan.

I guess I missed the controversy about Cassandra Clare. Can someone fill me in?

Would anyone like to volunteer for next Monday? I can't reach Kritika.
Deb

Would anyone like to volunteer for next Monday? I can't reach Kritika.
Deb

Would anyone like to volunteer for next Monday the 25th? I can't reach Kritika.

Would anyone like to volunteer for next Monday the 25th? I can't reach Kritika.

I am reading Listen to tbe Moon by Rose Lerner.

And that last line should be I'm used to it.

I am not sure that is how it would be classified. It could be, but it's the first in a series and at least one of the series definitely won't be a NA.

If the first conversation between hero and heroine sets the tone for the future…I’m not sure what this one says about them. But it’s a wonderful book.

By the time I leave, the classroom is empty.

The hallway outside isn’t, though. There’s one person from class still there, and he’s the last person—the very last person in the world—that I want to talk to at the moment. He’s leaning against the wall, looking even more like a businessman than a student. He looks at me now. His eyes are the ridiculous blue of ocean waters on some tropical beach. They make me think of a spring break that I will never be able to afford.

“Hey,” he says.

I’m not sure how to respond. My hands are still shaking. I don’t think I can keep it together through a longer spat with him. I should have kept my mouth shut in the first place.

I give him the barest of nods and keep walking.

“Hey,” he repeats. “Heroine.”

That does stop me. Teacher didn’t know what to call me. How does Hero know my name?

Slowly, I turn to him. I’ve never talked to him before today. Maybe he emailed someone while we were in class? One of his…people. Someone like Hero has to have people, right? He parked in an official visitor’s spot with impunity. Getting a class roster would hardly pose a problem.

But wait. Even if he got my name off the official class roster, he wouldn’t know I go by Heroine. He’d only know my legal name.

I swallow.

And then he does something I’m not expecting. He gives me a sheepish smile. It’s so different from the cocky grin that he normally wears that I take a step back.

“I’m sorry,” he says.

“For what?”

He shrugs. “You’re right. It’s not my place to say it doesn’t matter what people say about you. And I should have stopped that before it turned into a pile-on.” He indicates the room we just came from with a tilt of his head. “I was just taken aback.”

He looks at me like he expects me to shrug it all off, like I’m supposed to pat him on the shoulder and say that it’s okay.

But it’s not. And the fact that he thinks it can be just makes me feel worse. Nothing about my life is okay right now, and he can’t change that.

“Can I…” he takes a deep breath, and then that cocky smile is back on his face, like he’s sure of himself again. “Can I get you coffee or something as an apology?”

He holds his hand out to me, like I’m supposed to shake it. When he does, his coat—impeccably tailored gray wool—pulls back from his sleeve. For a second, with his hand outstretched, I see dark ink against his wrist, the edge of a tattoo that seems completely at odds with everything I know about him.

For just that second, I wonder if I’m imagining it. His life has been an open book to the world ever since his father first put him in a television commercial at the tender age of twenty months.

Everyone knows everything about Hero, boy prodigy, certain successor to Dad’s Company. Everything…except I’ve never heard of that tattoo.

I take another step away from him, putting my hands behind my back.
“Let me explain something,” I say. “You get to park in a spot reserved for the chancellor’s office.”

He grimaces. “Yeah. I usually don’t. But when I started school, he … um.” He trails off, as if realizing that now is not the time to remind me that the entire university administration is no doubt slavering over the potential endowment boost his attendance represents.

“By contrast,” I say, “I have an hour between this class and the next one. If I can’t knock off one of my assignments in that time, I will be up until two tonight.”

His smile fades.

“I’m sorry.” I say. “You’re probably a legitimately decent person. But I don’t have time for your apology.”

“Two-second version then. I’m sorry I was clueless. I’ll try to do better.”

He looks at me, his eyes serious, and that damned something, that coiling awareness in my stomach starts up again. It almost makes me mad that he won’t let me walk off steeping in my anger. No; he has to take that away from me, too.

“I’m sorry I lost my temper,” I say, and I start to leave.

“Heroine.”

I turn back reluctantly.

“You were right about almost everything you said,” he says. But there was one thing you were really wrong about.”

“Oh?”

He gives me another one of his smiles, and this one seems to curl around me, catching me up in a wave of warmth.

“You said that I didn’t notice people like you.” His voice lowers. His eyes are relentlessly blue, and they cut into me. “That’s completely false. You’ve never been invisible to me. I saw you the first day we crossed paths, and I’ve been seeing you ever since.”

I don’t know what to say. I don’t know what to think. Against my better judgment, that little spark of something ignites in my stomach. A flame dances, ready to catch fire.

But I have to be vigilant.

“On the contrary,” I hear myself say. “This morning, you cut in front of me in the parking lot. You were three inches from me. And…” I hold up my sleeve, showing the damage.

He winces.

“So when I said you didn’t see me, I meant it. Literally.”

His eyes shut. “Shit.”

“It’s okay,” I tell him. “I’m used to it.”

Yes--sorry for the misspelling. I was going by memory, I'm afraid.

Hi
Below is the schedule for the start of 2016. Please let me know if the date I gave you doesn't work.
Deb (DLS)

February 8 Rachel
February 15 June
February 22 Manda
February 29 (leap year!) Phoenix
March 7 Okie
March 14 Janga
March 21 Cherie
March 28 Ali
April 4 Susan
April 11 DLS
April 18 Leigh-Ayn
April 25 Irish Eyes
May 2 Rachel
May 9 June
May 16 Manda
May 23 Phoenix
May 30 Okie
June 7 Janga
June 13 Cherie
June 20 Ali
June 27 Susan
July 4 DLS
July 11 Leigh-Ayn
July 18 Irish Eyes

She has at least one other book where the husband is unfaithful, Dancing with Clara. It is really fascinating--the heroine who is wheel chair bound pays the hero, a weak rake, to marry her. Instead of sheltering her as her father did he opens her life up and also finds a way to get her walking. Although he struggles with his bad habits and falls back into them, he is unhappy about it.

It's not a light book--at the end it's not even clear that he will overcome his habits--but we see in a later book that he has.

Balogh really does stay within the mores of the time more than any other writer I know.
The Obedient Bride is fascinating precisely because Balogh pits the mores of an upperclass guy (which allow for mistresses) against those of a young idealistic and probably more religious girl (who believes in fidelity) and shows how his behavior results in both her losing her awe of him and him gradually realizing how badly he's behaved. I don't always like her heroes but I can always see how the situation really might have occurred and am always fascinated to watch how she plays it out.
In this book I can see how their marriage might eventually work out. I am not fond of the hero but I do like rereading the book to see how thoughtfully she's developed their relationship

Janga I think A Counterfeit Proposal was already rereleased. I thought this might be Irresistible before I realized it was A Counterfeit Proposal.
I find the first two books in that series very angsty but in the right mood I like them and the third is one of my favorites.

I would say Balogh is like Quinn in her treatment of sex.

She is amazing in many ways. I think she is the best I know, bar none, at keeping in period and capturing what people actually did all day. She also has very distinctive plots. And her characters are vivid and different --they don't blur together.

I love A Summer to Remember, and Slightly Married which follows as the first in the Slightly series may be one of her best. Most of the Slightly books are excellent and they should be read in order I think.
Technically A Summer to Remember follows One Night for Love which is not one of my favorites but I really don't think there is enough overlap to require you to read it.

The simply series is also wonderful but it does have characters from the slightly series.

Many of her older books are very angsty. If you enjoy that they are amazing.

It's easier for me to list the ones I don't like (the first snowdrop, the first and last web books) than the ones I do.

I think I know it. In which case two couples.
The funny thing is at first I thought it was another book by the same author and 3 couples.

Hi
Please let me know if you want to be on the Monday Puzzler calendar for the first half of 2016. Thanks for reminding me Ali!
Deb