"The Earl's Dilemma" by Emily May

From Amazon.com: 

James Hargrave, Earl of Arden, urgently needed a wife--and who better than his best friend's sister?
He wasn't looking for passion in this marriage of convenience and plain Kate Honeycourt had been on the shelf for years.
Why, then, should she so firmly turn him down? Surely she couldn't be holding out for a love match? Although, curiously, the more he saw of Kate, the more aware he became of her attractions. Maybe love wasn't as impossible as he'd once thought....

I picked this book up on the recommendation of a friend, and I am very glad I did. Emily May has created a lovely tale of falling in love, and I enjoyed it greatly. One thing that seems to be missing in many romance books of today is that the reader sees the hero and heroine fall in love. (More in the paranormal/urban arena than in others, but still.) Instead, characters suffer from "instant sexual attraction" that seems to serve as love. Frankly, I enjoy the process of the characters getting to know each other and to appreciate each other. 

James and Kate start the story on a terrible note for both of them--he needs to marry to keep his inheritance, and Kate, after overhearing a private conversation not meant for her ears, is determined to help him find a proper wife, though she's loved him for years. Both characters have to learn a few things about themselves as Kate helps James find a wife, and herein lies the story. 

I will pick up the next book by Ms. May with anticipation, and I wish her a long and prosperous career.

Rating: 4 stars

"Angel's Blood" and "Angel's Pawn" by Nalini Singh

From Amazon.com:

FIRST IN THE GUILD HUNTER SERIES from -a major new talent- (CHRISTINE FEEHAN).Nalini Singh introduces readers to a world of beauty and bloodlust, where angels hold sway over vampires.Vampire hunter Elena Deveraux is hired by the dangerously beautiful Archangel Raphael. But this time, it-s not a wayward vamp she has to track. It-s an archangel gone bad.The job will put Elena in the midst of a killing spree like no other-and pull her to the razor-s edge of passion. Even if the hunt doesn-t destroy her, succumbing to Raphael-s seductive touch just may. For when archangels play, mortals break.

I've not read Nalini Singh's work before, though I had heard of her Psy-Changeling series, recommended by other reader friends. I chose to pick up "Angel's Blood," as well as the companion novella, "Angel's Pawn," because this was the start of a new series, and a good jumping on place for me.

I'll admit, when a story involves heavenly characters--angels and demons, that is--I am always a bit wary. If an author writes the characters like they could have appeared in an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, all is good. If they try to mold their story a more Biblical mold, it's not for me. I take my faith very seriously.

Having said that, Ms. Singh writes "angels" in the Buffy mold. (As in, excellent characters, in interesting situations, with some deeper moral and ethical questions motivating them through it all.) These are excellent tales, and I will certainly snap up "Archangel's Kiss" come Feb. 2.

No spoilers, but I found all of the characters to be fascinating, and I very much enjoyed how Ms. Nalini illustrated what might happen to immortals who lose more of their humanity (as much as they had, anyway) every passing year. Very well done.

A couple of comments--Ms. Singh told us what the vampires wore, and what Elena wore, but the angels--I would have liked to know more of what these fine feathered folks were wearing. Michaella's clothing was described, yes. But  what does an angel wear when flying around the city? Some of us humans would really like to know. Also, where did angels come from in the first place? (I hope this is something we discover in future books.) I'd love to know the mythology of the race, and a bit more of their history.

My rating: 5 stars

The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker

From Amazon.com and Publisher's Weekly:

Six young men and women are called to protect the living world from the dead in Hieber's Gothic romance debut. Mysterious powers give Alexi and his peers the mission of keeping the restless dead in line and seeking a prophesied seventh guardian. Miss Percy Parker, an albino orphan with a talent for languages, fills none of their expectations, but Alexi is drawn to her all the same. Hieber draws Victorian London as beautiful and grim, with depictions of Jack the Ripper as a nightmarish many-headed hound alongside charming descriptions of the Athens Academy, Percy's boarding school, and Greek mythology that smartly draws together various elements of the story. The supporting characters are nuanced and appealing but given short shrift by the narrow focus on Percy and Alexi, though future sequels may give them more room to play. Hieber's debut shows great potential, and readers will want to revisit her intriguing world.
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"The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker" is a beautifully written story, one I very much enjoyed. Leanna Hieber writes the most lovely prose, and conveys such a sense of atmosphere with her words. Truly marvelous. The closest book I can think of to compare to "Percy," a book with the same Gothic fantasy tone, is "The Graveyard Book" by Neil Gaiman. I applaud the author for her delicate, delicious writing.

I won't say too much to spoil the plot of this one, because this is a special book. But while I loved the character of Percy Parker,  I think I love Alexi Rychman more. He is steadfast, unselfish, and powerfully loyal to his friends and the work he has been given to do. Because of that, I think that his longtime friends should have trusted his judgement when it counted. I am hopeful that they find a way to make amends in the sequel. 

Rating: 5 stars

Dangerous Highlander

From Amazon.com:

"First in a breathtaking new series, the bold and passionate Lucan MacLeod—one of three brothers cursed by dark magic for eternity—is driven by desire for the one woman he dare not let himself possess…

He is magnificently strong—and dangerously seductive. One of the fiercest of his clan, Lucan MacLeod is a legend among warriors, inspiring fear in man and woman alike. For three hundred years, he has locked himself away from the world, hiding the vengeful god imprisoned in his soul. But then, a young lass caught in a raging storm awakens his deepest impulses…and darkest desires.

Cara doesn’t believe the rumors about MacLeod castle—until the majestic Highland warrior appears like a fiery vision in the storm, pulling her into his powerful arms, and into his world of magic and Druids. An epic war between good and evil is brewing. And Lucan must battle his all-consuming attraction for Cara—or surrender to the flames of a reckless, impossible love that threatens to destroy them both…"


"Dangerous Highlander" was a book I was very excited to read, given the premise. It is very difficult to find good paranormal romances, at least for me, because as a regular science fiction and fantasy reader, often I find the paranormal romance world-building to be lacking in depth. And given the fact that this concept--that ancient "gods" are held captive in certain Highland warriors, and that an evil Druid wants to find a way to harness their power for her own purposes--was refreshing, because it didn't involve vampires or  werewolves. (Not that I don't love vampires and werewolves, but still.)

The story has some very good points. The concept is indeed fresh, and Ms. Grant has created some interesting characters. Having said that, I did find her world-building to be a bit iffy, as characters often had to throw in extra explanations over such pivotal plot points as "Dierdre is a drough, not a druid, and Cara is a druid, not a drough." As 300 year-old warriors who had long fought Dierdre and had been held in her castle for years on end, I expected that most of these men would have had a very firm grasp of who Dierdre was, as well as the lore of the druids. If they didn't know before they became warriors, they would certainly have the time and abilities to find out. And they would most assuredly have had a motivation to do so.

Also, the love story part of this book did not work for me...I never felt the connection. I suspect this was because this book was really more of a mix of romance and epic fantasy. The epic qualities meant that Ms. Grant had to focus on a grand theme, and move many characters around in her story to give them their time on the stage, and because of this, it seemed that the focus on the relationship between Cara and Lucan suffered. (Others will think differently, I'm sure.)

This is a series I will not continue to read, unfortunately. I must say, however, that I simply adore the cover!

Rating: 3 stars

Ebook Scheduling

© Saniphoto | Dreamstime.com

Everyone who knows me knows I'm an enthusiastic advocate of ebooks. I have a Cybook Gen 3 ebook reader as does my husband. (Like the device shown in the picture.) My dad has a Kindle 2. We all adore our ebook readers, and all of us buy even more books than before we moved to an electronic format. Ebooks and ebook readers are big business--just ask Amazon.com. Estimates are that Amazon.com sold between 300-400k Kindles in their first year. (Cnet.com said estimates were 380K. Read the article HERE.)

Read more about the Kindle, as well as see an on-screen demo of it, HERE.

I'm a proactive reader. When books aren't available in ebook format, I search out the publisher's webpage and email them to ask that they consider putting the book in ebook format. I've been told by a number of publishers that the money just isn't there for them. The real issue is that most publishers are worried about the ebook discount price set by Amazon.com...that is, they sell all new release titles for $9.99, where as the new hardback in the brick and morter store might sell for as much as $35.

I do understand this issue. I'm a published writer, and I've been around the business long enough to know that publishers have costs in paying authors, editors, marketing and publicity, etc. And that ebooks must be produced somewhere, by someone--that while they aren't printed in paper and ink, they do require some degree of work to produce across the variety of ebook formats. (That is, for Kindle, for the Mobipocket readers, for the Sony readers, etc.) However, having watched how the music industry reacted to digital music and music downloads, I firmly believe that any publisher who is not publishing books in ebook format is going to miss out, and may be squeezed out of a fast growing market.

Ebooks offer publishers some very nice advantages. They can make backlist books available and keep them available. They can offer older books for free or at reduced prices in order to hook new readers to an author's work. (Amazon.com currently has "His Majesty's Dragon" by Naomi Novik available for free. It's the start of a multi-volume series, and so I'm sure they hope to hook readers who will buy the sequel books.)

Now I read in the New York Times that some publishers are purposely holding back their ebook release, because they are unsure of how the ebook sales (at 9.99) will affect sales of the hardcover. To this, I have to say "Say What?"

(Read the New York Times story HERE.)

Because here's the thing--while ebook readers are more popular than they ever were, ebooks are still not a major part of the book market. The ebook reader owners, however, are typically avid, voracious readers. (As I am.) Ebook readers owners would be the type of reader to buy your new release title for $9.99, and then immediately buy all the author's other works. And those who own ebook readers typically don't, and won't, buy many hardcover books. (That's why they have an ebook reader, after all...because they didn't want the print books.) To say that one format (ebooks) will interfere with another format (print) seems a bit silly to me. If we were talking releasing the paperback and hardcover at the same time...well, obviously the hardcover sales would suffer. But the electronic book market and the print book market do not overlap in the same way.

Let's hope publishers soon figure this all out, and lose their wariness of ebooks. Some publishers have, and are jumping into the market with both feet. (Baen books, for instance, has offered older books for free electronically through their website for at least a couple of years.) Ebooks will not soon replace print books, but the ebook market is not going to go away. If publishers have something to say about the pricing, the way to address this is not by holding back, but by publishing books in both print and ebook formats and to start comparing sales numbers.

I won't buy a print book unless I'm very desperate. (I did buy a new print version of the Bible, but that's a book that doesn't work well in ebook format in my opinion.) Ebooks are my new format of choice, just as I no longer by music CDs, but prefer buying digital downloads. Ebooks are here to stay, and in my opinion, they should be available as soon as the hardcover is released. The pricing is another issue, but I'll just say (for the record) that I won't pay $35 for a print book, and have discount shopped for years. I think that states my opinion on book pricing without me having to spell it out more fully.

A Good GF Pizza Recipe

For a while now, I've looked for a good gluten-free pizza recipe that I can make quickly, without the use of a bread machine. (My previous recipe is made in a bread machine and cooked on a pizza stone. Yummy, but messy and it take about 2 hours to rise.)

I've been experimenting, and here's the recipe I've come up with that seems to work the best for me. The trick for this one is finding gluten free corn flour...Bob's Red Mills sells a corn flour, but be warned--not all their corn flour is gluten free. Those packages that are gluten free are labeled gluten free. Some of the Bob's Red Mills corn flour is processed on the same process line as their wheat products. These packages do not have the gluten free label.

For my purposes, I found corn flour in the ethnic section of my local Meijer's store. The corn flour is labeld "Masa Brosa: Harina de Maiz (Instant Corn Maize). This product is 100% ground white corn. This product is made in Mexico.

Typically, with products produced in Mexico for the local cusine, wheat cross contamination is not a problem, as corn products predominant as the food of choice. I tested the pizza crust on myself, eating it first, however, before passing it along to my son (also a celiac). I had no reaction to the corn flour at all, and when my son tried it, neither did he. My husband, not a celiac, deemed the pizza crust to be "good." That's good enough for me. :-)

Easy Gluten Free Pizza Crust

1/4 corn starch

1/4 tapioca flour

1/4 cup rice flour (brown or white)

1/4 corn flour

1 tsp baking powder

dash of salt

1 tablespoon of olive oil

1 egg

up to 1/2 cup liquid, either water or milk

Mix the dry ingredients together in a bowl by hand. Add the oil and egg and stir.

Add about 1/4 cup of the liquid. Stir by hand. Dough should be moist, but still crumbly. Add scant amounts of liquid, stirring each time, until dough is workable and firm, but not gooey. (This is the part that takes a bit of practice, and be aware that humidity, etc, will make the amount of liquid needed slightly different each time.)

Spoon the dough onto a cooking sheet or non-stick aluminum foil. (Reynolds makes a good variety of this...lovely stuff.) Spray your hands with non-stick spray, and then press the dough out into your pizza shape, about 1/4 inch thick.

Bake pizza crust for 15 minutes in a 400 degree oven. Remove from oven and add sauce and desired toppings. Return to oven and bake for 15 minutes more, or until toppings are hot and the outer edge of crust is golden brown. Remove from heat, and eat!

This makes a personal pan sized pizza. You can double the amount to make a larger pizza.

Enjoy!

All About Coffee!

Coffee. If you know me well, you know that morning does not start without it. Yet, over the years people have tried to tell me the evils of coffee. I would not, of course, believe them. In recent years, I have been happy to see that studies are proving what I already know--that coffee is Good Stuff.

The latest study, one from Harvard Medical School, shows that women who drink coffee have a reduced risk of stroke when compared to women who don't drink coffee. (I don't know about how this pertains to men, but since I'm a woman, who cares?) The more coffee they drink, the more reduced the risk. The results, released in the March 3 issue of Circulation are summarized here.

Another article on the health benefits of coffee from Harvard Medical School is found here. This article tells us that coffee may not increase your risk for higher blood pressure, it may protect against cancer and diabetes. Okay, so yes, some chemicals in coffee may raise your cholesterol, but my cholesterol was at 170 last year, and I think that's pretty good.

Coffee is morning. Coffee is sunshine. Coffee is the elixir of bright happy morning faces, of bright happy eyes. (If you doubt this, then you should see my morning face before coffee. It's not a pretty sight.) 

If you like coffee as much as I do, perhaps you want to buy your coffee where I buy mine. (Reason: I buy in bulk.) 

The place? Coffeebeandirect.com. Try the Costa Rican Tarrazu Cariblanco, found uner "regular coffees." Delicious!