Tessa Dare ... a great New To Me Author...

I just discovered historical romance author Tessa Dare.  Now to be fair, she's only been published for a year, so I'm not that far behind. She's one of the authors that I heard many many blogs praise, so I was a wee bit leery to pick up.


I received a ARC of her up coming ONE DANCE WITH A DUKE (review to be posted closer to the release date -May 25, 2010- @NightOwlReviews.com) Needless to say, I loved the book and proceed to glom onto her first three books and really enjoyed them.
Lucy was my favorite of the heroines and Gray was my favorite hero, though there were all great. Sophia was a bit on the selfish side and Bel was a bit too idealistic, but they were all still great reads.  I can't wait for more!

What I read today was...

SMOOTH TALKING STRANGER (Travis Family #3) by Lisa Kleypas

...and it was freakin' great!!!!  Jack and Ella are now my favorites of this series.   Jack is just so damn yumm-mmm-my!

I love LK's historicals and her contemporaries are even better...that's saying a lot for me, as historical is usually my prefered genre, aslo, I usually hate first person, but she really makes it work.  Her contemporary writing style is very different from her historical, though in both subgenre's she can totally suck you into a character and scene.

I loved this book so much that I hated finishing it.  Now, I want Joe's story!!!!  I really hope we get it ...and we get it soon. :oP

Could You Read...

a romance with one of the main characters being named Dangerous Dan and another is named Raging Thunder?  OMG I saw these names and couldn't stop the giggling! I know that I COULD NOT read this, I would giggle every time I read their names, it would totally throw me out of the story.  To top it off, when I see Dangerous Dan, my brain changes it to DASTARDLY Dan.

The only way I COULD read something with such bad names is if this was a Mel Brooks style spoof, ala BLAZING SADDLES...then it might be a good funny read, but not a romance. 

Maybe it's just me, but an author's choice of names for the h/H can alter my view of a book, and a bad name can ruin a romance book for me.  I read one book where the hero's name was Milton, it just didn't work for me.  Other names of romance h/H (when they have NO nickname, and only go by "this" name) that could take me out of the story, and cause a serious fit of the giggles:
Herbert, Kirby, Bertha, Beuhla, Edna, Ethel
Sure, there's more that wouldn't work, but I don't have time to list them.  Also I get sick names like Tucker and Austin, but they don't disturb me to the point that I giggle.

What name would take you out of a romance?

Ereader Contest

I love the fact that  Monica is not only running an Ereader contest,  but she is also active donating books to soldiers, I spent 4 years in the Army so this is dear to my heart.
You can find her eReader contest here:
 http://www.bibliophilicbookblog.com/2009/12/ereader-anyone-you-choosei-knowagain.html

AND

Dontate books to Soldiers here:
http://www.readingatwar.blogspot.com/2009/12/it-begins.html

Slow reading...for me

Well I haven't read a whole lot lately, the mood just wasnt' there.  I found myself "playing" on the internet and with my card and jewlery making supplies.  But I did mangage to get in the following, which I still need to write reviews to post on http://www.nightowlreviews.com/ :

EARLY DAWN by Catherine Anderson (very ho-hum read for me)

THE BLISS FACTOR by Penny McCall (really enjoyed this book...and that this took place in parts of Michigan that I was familiar with and could visualize)

HOW I MET MY COUNTESS by Elizabeth Boyle (great book, I can't wait until her next release in September!!!)