It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?
Read
I haven’t been blogging much, but I have been reading. I usually don’t think about how much I like books relative to each other. My favorite book is always my next book to read. But since I have a whole stack sitting here, I thought it might be a fun exercise to rank them in order of how much they delighted me.
Number 12: No Man’s Mistress by Mary Balogh. I’m not sure how I missed reading this before since I know I read the first in the series, More Than a Mistress. This one was a fun romp in Somersetshire and London. Her newer books are better, but I enjoyed this.
Number 11: Daring to Dream, Holding The Dream, and Finding the Dream by Nora Roberts. I’m counting these as one book since I read them back-to-back. I hadn’t realized that I’d read at least the first two before. The last one didn’t have anything familiar, so maybe I missed it. Newer Nora Roberts’ books make better use of theme or character, but these were enjoyable.
Number 10: Spell Bound by Kelley Armstrong is the penultimate in the series, apparently. I liked this but enjoyed some of the earlier stories, more, probably because young Savannah Levine isn’t my favorite character.
Number 9: Delusion in Death by J.D. Robb. This series is always a reliable distraction for me.
Number 8: A Glimpse of Evil by Victoria Laurie. Some readers didn’t like that the whole slate of characters moved from Michigan to Texas in this book, but it didn’t bother me and I enjoyed the new setting.
Number 7: A Perfect Blood by Kim Harrison. I loved the first couple of books in this series, but some of the middle ones were confusing and convoluted. I was pleased that this book had the energy of the earlier ones and that I was able to follow the plot with no problem.
Number 6: Fair Game by Patricia Briggs features characters I’ve enjoyed in past Patricia Briggs books. It’s one of three books I read in the last month set in Boston. That was completely by accident but I liked spending time there when the news was so centered on that city.
Number 5: Flirting with Pete by Barabara Delinsky. I’m not sure why I don’t read Delinsky more often — I often find her books healing in some way. Another Boston story.
Number 4: Celebrity in Death by J.D. Robb. My favorite of the …in Death series are the books that pull more from the regular characters. Much of this book deals with a movie being made about one of Eve Dallas’ earlier cases. With actors running around playing the people in the story, identity issues naturally surface.
Number 3: The Secret Mistress by Mary Balogh is a recently written prequel to No Man’s Mistress and More Than a Mistress. The heroine and hero were the comic relief in those two books, so it was fun to see how Balogh made a story work for these characters who are unconventional in romance novels.
Number 2: Divergent by Veronica Roth. My only problem with this book was that the second in the series is only available in hardback because I wanted to read it right now. If I get on the wait list at the library now, maybe it will be here for me when I get back from my trip.
Number 1: Born to Darkness by Suzanne Brockmann leads a new series set in a near future when America’s government is run by corporations and research has released unexpected powers in the brains of some individuals. I loved (in a I-hope-it-never-happens-way) this world. Brockmann’s talents for action-packed romanced worked tremendously well in this setting.
Reading
I’m slowly reading The Serpent and The Moon by HRH Princess Michael of Kent about Diane de Portier and Catherine d’Medici. They loved the same man, King Henri II of France, and the same chateau, Chenonceau. I’ll be visiting the gardens at Chenonceau later this month and I’ve really enjoyed learning the history.
My fun books right now are Moonlight in the Morning by Jude Deveraux and, on my phone, Kitty’s Big Trouble by Carrie Vaughn.
Will Read
What’s next? I’ve got more books on France than I have time to read before the trip and I haven’t figured out which, if any, I’m going to take with me. So, I’m not sure what’s next. I’ll figure something out.
It’s Monday! What Are Your Reading? is a weekly meme hosted by Sheila of Book Journey. Be sure to check out her post today to see her selections and the list of links to all the other participating bloggers.