My Kindle Came today

I have to first off say it is the easiest piece of electronics I have ever purchased. Normally I am aggravated with the new phone, etc. by now but this little beauty just popped out of the box and came already with the eBooks I had been ordering. My first book was Susannah Fraser's The Sergeant's Lady and rightfully so since I bought the Kindle to get this fabulous book. I also decided to buy my favorite book of self discovery which is Barbara Delinsky's The Summer I Dared and really need to get Susan Elizabeth Phillips Kiss An Angel since that book is the one I have reread the most and brings me such peace every time I read it. Downside is my husband and son who are so geeky had to take it and play with it for awhile and that is fine but while I have the Kindle I am waiting on the case so if they drop it I will be mad. Only thing you do notice is that everything is b/w but I bet the price would be allot more if it was and you don't need books in anything but b/w. Does this mean I will stop buying books - absolutely not that will always be my first love but do like the option of having 1,000 books in my hand at anytime.

A SEASON OF SEDUCTION by Jennifer Haymore

A SEASON OF SEDUCTION by Jennifer Haymore

09-28-10 (Grand Central Publishing) Mass Market Paperback, 416 pages

Bundle up with a wonderful romantic book this holiday season

Lady Rebecca Fisk was a widow looking for a little adventure and adventure was exactly what Jack Fulton needed. Added to the fact that Becky was beautiful, intelligent and rich help Jack justify what he was about to do and the scandal he would create. He was a man with a problem and all he needed to do to resolve his looming problem was to marry into money. He tried to convince himself that he only wanted Becky for her dowry because right now that is what would give him a ticket to freedom but something else was drawing him to her that he could not identify and scared him to the bone and made him want no other woman just Becky.

Becky had been duped by her late husband and lived with the misery that relationship brought and knew better than to trust anyone but her family ever again. But one taste of Jack’s sweetness and she realizes that she will listen to the plan he is devising and may just take a leap of faith and trust him. Yet how far will she let this go and will he convince her that marriage is the respectable resolution to the issue they have created? Jack is saying all the right words and makes more than the correct gestures to woo her but she had suffered emotionally and physically while married to her late husband and to this day bears the scars and damage he wrecked upon her body and soul.

Jack has known suffering as well through the loss of family and young love but he still needs to grab onto that one person that can put a salve on his heart and help him love again and Becky may just be the one he has searched for. He does his best to get his way but every time he gets close to sealing the deal another disaster looms over their relationship slams the door on any happiness. Still Jack hopes this will work out as he plans and spends his time trying to make Becky see that even with his past indiscretions that their life together will be filled with joy and no secret will be held back.

Each time Ms. Haymore writes a book in this series I think there is no way to top the one I just finished. I started this latest one and realize she has done just that and has proven to me how fresh this series can remain. The characters of Becky and Jack are so full of life and longing just trying to make the right connection between family, relationship and future happiness while figuring out who to trust with all their secrets. This is a wonderful story and while I recommend reading the 1^st two it is not imperative as Jennifer Haymore is a magician at connecting the plot from one book to the next but trust me you will have to buy the first two they are that good.

Mary Gramlich is The Reading Reviewer located at www.marygramlich.com

Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Weiner Speak Out On Franzen Feud

Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Weiner Speak Out On Franzen Feud: HuffPost Exclusive

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jason-pinter/jodi-picoult-jennifer-weiner-franzen_b_693143.html

THE PRINCESS OF NOWHERE by Prince Lorenzo Borghese

THE PRINCESS OF NOWHERE by Prince Lorenzo Borghese

December 7, 2010 (HarperCollins Publishers) Paperback, 336 pages

The romance of history unfolds with eloquence in this book

Being royal does not equate to happiness or less turmoil in your life. Being the sister of Napoleon Bonaparte most assuredly does not bring peace to your days but when you are a free thinking, sexually uninhibited, adventuresome person living that life anything is possible and this book so aptly shows.

Mademoiselle Sophie Leclerc is the cousin of Napoleon’s sister Princess Pauline. Pauline takes the homeless child in and lets her live as her surrogate daughter and ward while Sophie is a witness to the life of the opulent rich and over indulged. Sophie wants for nothing and feels such compassion and love for Pauline as only a child could even one as mature for her years as she is. Sophie watches as Pauline a young widow and mother dance both inside the rules and as well as fly very far outside of them in Napoleon’s France. Sophie worships Pauline and wants her happiness but does not like the marital match that is made between Pauline and the Roman Prince Camillo Borghese. Yet Sophie knows she is a witness to this life and she will be there to live with Pauline and help her deal with the consequences of Pauline’s choices.

The marriage of the tall and athletic Camillo to the wealthy and beautiful Pauline is fraught with love, fights, jealousy, affairs, feigned illness, more fighting and allot of passionate making up. Pauline is the master at this game of manipulation and makes sure Camillo always knows that there are many men that worship her and he must work to keep her and Camillo responds to her every siren call. Sophie grows and witnesses the life these two intense and sensual people have created and at times both hates and envies what they have. She becomes a lady-in-waiting to Pauline and helps her through the horrific tragedy of life, death, love and despair never wavering from her loyalty to Pauline or for one moment feeling that this is not the right place to be.

The Napoleonic era is one filled with such passion and intensity you at times find it difficult to believe it really historically happened. But it very much did happen and this history told through the eyes of a girl’s childhood into adulthood is written with such clarity and honesty that you feel you are truly experiencing the time and place. Yes there is the opulence but also the one thing that is still true today – everyone seeks to find their love match. Pauline and Camillo fought and loved with one another from the moment they met but as the story explains they really were meant for each other and the love they had was real and did survive them their entire life. History can be cold and seem unreadable at times but this book shows you the feelings that are mixed in with war and tragedy reveal how two people hold themselves together even while apart by choice or destiny.

Mary Gramlich is The Reading Reviewer located at www.marygramlich.com

Aimee’s Locket by P.L. Parker

Aimee’s Locket by P.L. Parker

First Cactus Rose Edition, 2009 (The Wild Rose Press, 384 Pages) ISBN #1-60154-683-1

Fabulous time travel mixed with intense sensuality

Dreams come in all shapes and sizes and when your dreams of what you want collide with what you have can something good come from this?

Aimee Reynolds loved to collect pieces of antique jewelry and never thought that one such piece of jewelry could turn her entire world backwards. Aimee spent a casual day shopping with her sister and wandered upon a shop with a beautiful necklace she decided she must own. But after putting it on she finds herself literally falling from Seattle in the year 2008 into St. Louis 1847. There to save her from herself is Jake Marshall a man leading a wagon train to the West and after shaking the dust from her heels Aimee decides this is the only way she may ever get back to her future because this present is not a past she wants to live. But Jake’s suggestion of how to avoid issues and keep her protected are not Aimee’s idea of a good time but she knows being as close to Seattle as possible is the answer to her question of how she got there and how to get home to her family. So Aimee decides to follow Jake plan and lets him get the impression he is in control but all along she is working her own idea out.

The trek to the West Coast is long, hot, dangerous and full of much sorrow mixed with bad tempers for Aimee but she learns to be a pioneer woman and even forgives Jake for his mis-steps on occasion. Aimee tries to convince Jake of who she really is but he just cannot figure out if she is loco or lying but either way he is stuck with her and wants to keep it that way. Yet Aimee keeps moving ahead with her plan and regardless of how she feels about Jake and the people now in her life she believes her real life and existence is based in 2008 not the wild west of 1847.

After all the hardship and pain Aimee has seen does she really now want to go home or is this place she is now living with outside plumbing and overly aggressive men where she wants to stay. Can she really see this situation as family and leave the people she loved behind in the future?

This book was a real treat for me with the twist on the time travel theme. I have read many books with time travel to the past (and future) but not one with time travel to the Wild West. To walk through this experience in Aimee’s shoes was fascinating and very well told with the full gamut of emotions and disbelief at how those in the past really did survive day-to-day. Both Aimee and Jake are believable characters with depth and display the personality and traits of their respective time period with great clarity and make the difference in time seem unimportant in comparison to their love. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and recommend it highly to all readers.

Mary Gramlich is The Reading Reviewer located at www.marygramlich.com

WICKED DELIGHTS of a BRIDAL BED (Book 4 in the Byrons of Braebourne Series) by Tracy Anne Warren

WICKED DELIGHTS of a BRIDAL BED (Book 4 in the Byrons of Braebourne Series) by Tracy Anne Warren

Avon Books (an Imprint of HarperCollins Publishers) 08/31/10 (Mass Market Paperback) 384 Pages (ISBN #9780061673443)

From page one this book is a reader’s delight

Lady Mallory Byron is a woman with allot of brothers and no husband which makes for allot of male involvement in her life but not the kind she longs for. She loves her brothers and their wives but still mourns the fiancé she lost at war even though it has been over a year. But unexpected sunshine shows up during the house party at the family estate in the form of her childhood friend – Adam, third Earl of Gresham. Mallory has always felt close to Adam and has felt a pang of regret over the rejection she received from Adam when they were young. Little does Mallory know that the age difference was the problem, never Mallory as far as Adam was concerned and now that her fiancé is deceased Adam decides with the fiancé now gone it is time to make his romantic move with Mallory.

Adam may think about this all he wants and work on forever but can he convince Mallory that his love is true, his feelings sincere and his intention is the ultimate conquest of marriage. Adam wants Mallory for his wife and trying to figure out a way to show her that he is more than a flirt and flatterer is going to be difficult but not impossible, he just needs to provide some adventure for her and shake things up a bit. For Mallory trying to reconcile her feelings for Adam and move on from the feelings she thinks she should still have for her deceased fiancé is difficult. How can Mallory learn to let go of one man and be comfortable with another without the nightmare of guilt hanging around?

Before long things are more than shaken up they are turned upside down and before Mallory can take a deep breath she must make life altering decisions based on misunderstanding and bad timing. Mallory and Adam both want a love match but fear that saying the words would doom the relationship, if only they knew they what the other was really thinking.

But the ultimate surprise awaits them both and when this knocks on the door neither of them is sure how to react or remove themselves to reconcile from the shock.

With this book you get the full gamut of romance reading. You have wonderful characters with secrets and heartache plus the longing of desire and passion. The extended family of characters always adds to the fun and a little mystery in this book to keep you on your toes. Ms. Warren has added to the series with a great addition that as with the prior books makes you want to re-read the prior books and wish the next one was coming out sooner.

Mary Gramlich is The Reading Reviewer located at www.marygramlich.com