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

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

Rereading some balogh and just bought Janga's puzzler and the new Thea Harrison novella.

I have no idea! It's really lovely.

Sept. 10 Aly
Sept. 17 Janga
Sept. 24 Kasey
Oct. 1 Phoenix 77
Oct. 8 Shh I'm reading
Oct. 15 DLS
Oct. 22 Okie
Oct. 29 Manda
Nov. 5 Aly
Nov. 12 Janga
Nov. 19 Kasey
Nov. 26 Phoenix77
Dec. 3 Shh I'm reading
Dec.10 DLS
Dec. 17 Okie
Dec. 24 Manda

Let me know if you have any conflicts and I'll move it around.
Deb

Sorry, yes, I had forgotten to check email!

No clue.

Still waiting to hear from kasey, Shh..., and Phoenix. And anyone else who wants in. Aly, you will do tomorrow right?

I'm a big Sarah Mayberry fan . I got sold with The best laid plans.....

Weeeelll. He grew up on a cattle ranch. But he's now a retired singer. The heroine farms on his family ranch but goats not cattle.
Even so it's pretty western

I prefer the last two Hathaways to the earlier ones.

Finished The Last Renegade. Any Jo Goodman is a good book but need to mull it over and maybe reread before I decide what I think....

She's 9 months pregnant and a tight fit...Sorry, I thought that was clear.

This is from Welcome Home Cowboy by Karen Templeton. It won a RITA in 2011.

As far as I know it is the first time for her as a puzzler.

Great. Aly please do and I'll get a schedule up as soon as I've heard from everyone.

Hm. Looks like most of our usual participants havent looked yet so I'm going to wait another day to post the answer....

I will reread it as well. Perhaps I would have liked it better if it wasn't supposed to be the ugly duckling story. It seems so strange that James would try to win her over by acting disinterested...surely what she needs is to learn that he is I fact passionately interested. I realize that ultimately he shows her that but why would he even pretend not to be? The business about the other man is not really convincing.
I found myself thinking about An Affair Bwfore Christmas, which I love , and where it really makes sense for him to pretend that.

I really enjoyed The Lovesick Cure. Didnt like the passion of Patrick Macneill but probably that's because my grandmother spent 6 months in burn wards and it made it all too real.
About to start Jo Goodman's new book the last renegade.

There are lots of this book I loved--including how Theo finds her own style and figures out that she just shouldn't listen to the people calling her ugly.
And I do understand that James is young and ashamed when he leaves.
But the first chapter--where he basically says he can't love her--seems so inconsistent with the rest of the book, that it really bothered me. And it also bothered me that he came back and never really apologized--first he kisses her pretty much against her will and then he starts acting like the man he thinks she wants--but he never just says he's sorry. And she takes him back without an apology. This really bothered me--did it bother anyone else?
It also really bothered me that he didn't contact her for 7 years--this woman that apparently has been like a sister to him and that he loves and lusts after. I realize that was necessary for the plot but it just didn't work.
Her writing is always amazing, but I think it is precisely because her characters come alive that I got so angry on Theo's behalf, and so annoyed that she took him back without the apology. Explanation, sure, but no apology?

The Hero to the Rescue, Modern Version.

I love this book; I had a really hard time picking a section to share. But I think this scene (besides cracking me up) captures the tone of the relationship between the two. Also I love how attracted to her he is despite her being a) 9 months pregnant with her dead husband's child and b) apparently always on the heavy side to start with. (In case you are wondering she's used her cell phone to call him.)



"Heroine?" Hero called out when he banged open the front door, fighting Bumble [a dog] for first right of entry. "Where are you?"

"Bathroom," he heard from down the hall. His heart pounding--she'd said she was stuck and couldn't get up--he raced through the house, Bumble slipping and sliding beside him, only to find himself facing an empty, puddled room, dotted with the occasional cat.

"Where-?"

"In here," she said from behind the quivering, aquarium-themed shower curtain. Bumble trotted over to check, then woofed, like Yep, that's her all right.

"You're in the tub?"

"Uh, yeah."

Hero paused. "As in-?"

"Yep."

"Oh." His chest started to tickle with the effort not to laugh. "Wow. This is embarrassing."

"You're telling me. And don't think I didn't consider staying right here until the baby comes. Are you laughing?"

"Wouldn't d-dream of it."

"Don't think I've ever heard you laugh before."

"It might've been a while," Hero said as the chuckle erupted.

He heard a sigh.
"Okay, hand me the robe, I'll put it on as best I can and then you can help me out of here."

Hero scooped up the robe from the floor, threading it behind the edge of the vinyl curtain, where an unseen force snatched it away.

"And here I thought I was gonna get to see you naked."
"You did not just say that."

Whoa. Sun must've been a lot hotter than he realized.

"Apparently, I did."

"You'd probably be scarred for life." The curtain shimmied. "Trust me, this is a lot of naked."

"And this would be a problem, why?"

The metal rings screeched as Heroine shoved the curtain back from the bottom. Looking highly chagrined, she sat in the tub with the robe haphazardly wrapped around her, covering the best bits. The dog seemed determined to get in the tub with her. "Because we don't have that kind of relationship?"
"We do now." Hero frowned at her. " How should we do this?"

"Not sure. Although getting rid of the dog--Bumble, for crying out loud!--might be a good first step."

After a good thirty seconds of wrestling with and cussing at a hundred-pound dog determined to guard his mistress, Hero had banished Bumble and approached the tub again, ignoring the periodic WHOMP! as the whining dog tried to break down the door. Then, before he could reconsider or Heroine could protest, he stepped in behind her, grabbed her under the arms and hauled her to her feet, after which he stepped back out, handed her a towel and left. Although he--and Bumble--stayed close by. Just in case.

"You still there?" she called from inside.

"Hell, yeah. How're you doing?"
"Fine. Now." A pause.

"Thanks."
"No problem." Hero grinned. "You still embarrassed?"

"Did you see anything you weren't supposed to?"
"Unfortunately, no."
Then she laughed. That full rich laugh that shoved him a little bit further down that road. "And you lie like a rug."

He leaned closer to the door and said in a low voice, "And you have absolutely nothing to be embarrassed about--"

Who wants to be in on the fall schedule? And if you are willing to do Sept 10 let me know--otherwise I will.
Deb

Just finished The Ugly Duchess. Will write more in the monthly read section. I had very mixed feelings--thought the hero should have apologized and explained before he got so high handed with her. Also the first chapter --specifically his feelings about her--seem wildly inconsistent with the rest of the book.
Reading the midnight scandal short stories. I liked the first two. Still working on the third