Monday, February 25, 2008

899. The Gilded Lily (Helen Argers)

Synopsis from Amazon:
A protagonist who rebels against the social conventions of the Gilded Age, Nina De Bonnard has a sharp wit and a temper to match. As a young girl, Nina experienced a side of male behavior so damaging that she picks and rejects male suitors like the gowns in her closet. Such behavior earns her a reputation, and makes her a target for the amorous attentions of some and pedestal-toppling plans of others. She is drawn to Jordan Houghton Windsor, eldest son of the Windsor newspaper dynasty, who is the only man strong enough to challenge her willfulness. But misunderstandings keep them apart, and no sooner is one conflict resolved than fate conspires to separate them with another.

My rating: 1 star

My review: A really crap romance couched as "historical fiction." It's not even Edith Wharton-lite; it's more like Edith Wharton for Dummies. The author embraces the veneer of the Gilded Age, such as its incredible opulence, but she fails miserably in addressing the social issues of the upper class. The book's main problem is its main character Nina, a self-centered brat. Now, I like the occasional self-centered character (we can't all be humble, modest, generous souls) but Nina is so annoying that by the second half of the book, I began to wonder why Jordan even bothered with her because in my mind she had no redeeming qualities. Anyone who is a fan of Edith Wharton and/or Henry James will find this book ridiculous.

898. Lord Carew's Bride (Mary Balogh)

Synopsis from author:
Love has not been kind to Samantha Newman, but friendship has. When her emotions are rubbed raw by the reappearance in her life of a villain who had broken her heart some years before, she turns with gratitude to the kindly Hartley Wade, with whom she had developed a warm friendship when she mistook him for a gardener during a visit to the country. She accepts his proposal, expecting a quiet, safe, undemanding marriage. She does not know that Hartley is the Marquess of Carew and that he loves her passionately -- and believes she returns his feelings.

My rating: 3 stars

897. The Courage to Love (Samantha Kane)

Synopsis from Amazon:
Kate Collier is still recovering from a vicious rape and trying to make a success of her dress shop when Jason Randal and Anthony Richards return to London from the Continent, intent on winning her. She's known them for years, ever since they served with her late husband in the Peninsula against Napoleon. She'd been in love with them for almost that long. To discover they feel the same is a shock, but Kate isn't ready to turn her life back over to a man, or men. Jason and Tony prove hard to resist, however, especially when their close friendship blossoms into desire for each other as they make Kate's body burn with passion. The combination of their insatiable desire for her and their journey into a sexual relationship with one another is irresistible to Kate. A nightmare from her past tries to keep them apart, but the three long for a life together in spite of society's censure, and they will not be denied.

My rating: 3 stars

896. The Bridal Season (Connie Brockway)

Synopsis from Amazon:
Music hall performer Letty Potts is the original sow's ear who turns herself into a silk purse. Burned out of her rooming house by her unscrupulous ex-boyfriend Nick Sparkle, Letty needs to get out of London--and fast. Opportunity presents itself in the form of a train ticket to Little Bidewell discarded by Lady Agatha Whyte, society wedding planner. Upon her arrival, Letty is mistaken for Lady Agatha by the Bigglesworth family who have hired her to make their daughter's wedding the event of the decade. Never one to let good fortune slip by her, Letty utilizes her acting talent to pass as a duke's daughter forced to earn a living as a wedding coordinator. Thoroughly enmeshed in prewedding preparations, Letty finds herself unable to hurt the Bigglesworths who have welcomed her--as Lady Agatha--so graciously and who need her so much. However, when it turns out that the Bigglesworths' neighbor, the oh-so-handsome, unquestionably honorable, and all too eligible Sir Elliot March, is also the local magistrate, Letty figures it's time to get out of Dodge, uh, Little Bidewell. The larcenous Letty is utterly astonished by her overwhelming attraction to the serious--and seriously sexy--Elliot. He, too, seems completely astounded by Letty's natural sensuality, which leaves Elliot prone to behave in a most ungentlemanly manner. To further complicate matters, who should appear in Little Bidewell but the notorious Nick Sparkle, who believes Letty's working a con and wants in on the take. When the jig is up and Letty must face the music, it is left to Elliot to investigate and possibly prosecute the woman he has fallen in love with and wants to marry. Will two such different people, from such disparate places in society, be able to close the gap that exists everywhere but in their hearts?

My rating: 4 stars

895. Falling In Love Again (Cathy Maxwell)

Synopsis from Amazon:
At the start of every chapter in this charming Regency title are lines from English folk songs. And like these songs, the romance between Mallory Edwards and John Barron is at times quaint, humorous, ironic, touching, and heroic. Mallory's family has always owned Craige Castle, so when financial circumstances require that Mallory marry to keep the Castle in the family, she does so out of duty. Young and inexperienced, she is willing to take her mother's advice about relationships. When her new husband abandons her on their wedding night she makes peace with her new and lonely life until John's debts force Mallory and her mother out of their family home. Seven years after her wedding night, Mallory goes in search of her husband, and finds he has much more to offer than financial stability.

My rating: 3 stars

894. Rumpole and the Golden Thread (John Mortimer)

Chateau Thames Embankment

Synopsis from Amazon UK:
This collection includes "Rumpole and the Genuine Article", "Rumpole and the Golden Thread", "Rumpole and the Old Boy Net", "Rumpole and the Female of the Species", "Rumpole and the Sporting Life" and "Rumpole and the Last Resort".

My rating: 5 stars

893. Last Bus to Woodstock (Colin Dexter)

Synopsis from Amazon UK:
The death of Sylvia Kaye figured dramatically in Thursday afternoon's edition of the "Oxford Mail". By Friday evening Inspector Morse had informed the nation that the police were looking for a dangerous man - facing charges of wilful murder, sexual assault and rape. But as the obvious leads fade into twilight and darkness, Morse becomes more and more convinced that passion holds the key ....

My rating: 3 stars

892. Beware a Scot's Revenge (Sabrina Jeffries)

Synopsis from Amazon Canada:
Nothing ruins a good vacation quite like being kidnapped, as Lady Venetia Campbell, who has returned home to Scotland for the first time in five years, learns when she is captured by the "Scottish Scourge." The sexy highwayman turns out to be Lachlan Ross, her old neighbor and friend in disguise. Ross refuses to let Venetia go until her father repays an old debt, but Venetia vows that Ross is going to rue the day he decided to involve her in his plan for revenge.

My rating: 3 stars

891. Two Weeks With a Stranger (Debra Mullins)

Synopsis from Amazon Canada:
Wedded and bedded, Lucy is devastated when she's abandoned by her new husband the very next day. Though it was a marriage of convenience, their heated wedding night gave her hope that it would turn into something more. But she refuses to be the demure bride left behind on a country estate while the stranger she married goes gallivanting about London—even if she has to create a scandal of her own.

Simon, the Earl of Devingham, would prefer his exquisite young bride remain at home where he left her. Instead, she follows him to London . . . seducing him with her fiery kisses, enchanting him with her scorching touches, and awakening in him an insatiable hunger. His duty to the Crown demands that he remain in town, but Lucy has entered a most perilous game—and she will not forfeit without Simon's total surrender.

My rating: 2 stars

Sunday, February 17, 2008

890. Drop Dead Gorgeous (Jennifer Skully)

Synopsis from Amazon:
Certain that she will depart this world at the tender age of twenty-eight, Madison O'Donnell is determined to experience breathless, passionate love in the two weeks left to her, no thanks to her stuffy boss, T. Laurence Hobbs!

T. Laurence is the perfect tax accountant, a man who likes his ducks in a row and his numbers in a column. But there is no way he will sit by while the lovely Madison throws herself at the absolute wrong man.

If the only way to save Madison from herself is to make her fall madly in love with him, then it's up to T. Laurence to make it happen. And as he turns his number-crunching skills to capturing his sexy secretary, he's beginning to think that there is more to life than death and taxes!

My rating: 4 stars

Excerpt: [from Chapter 1]

MADISON O’DONNELL loved a lot of things. Chocolate peanut butter cups and hot dogs with extra mustard. The treasures she found on her once-a-month rounds of the Saturday garage sales with her mother. A good mystery, a great romance and erotic videos. She loved telling clients she’d cut her boss into pieces and stuffed his body parts into the bottom drawer of her filing cabinet. It made them smile, and goodness knew people needed a smile when faced with a tax consultation early in the morning. Madison loved to make people smile. She loved her wavy titian hair—the word red would simply never do. She loved her three older brothers, her mother and her mother’s sugar-n-lemon pancakes.

Yes, Madison “loved,” but she’d never been “in love,” and falling in love was something she absolutely had to do before she turned twenty-eight. Which meant she had only fifteen days left to achieve that nearly impossible goal before it was too late.

But fall in love with whom? After pondering the question the entire day, Madison still hadn’t a clue.

T. Laurence Hobbs, her staid yet adorable boss, entered her cube, and blew her musings to the winds. On the other side of her cubicle, fingers tapped ditties on keyboards and ten-key adding machines and the low rumble of voices drifted through the six-foot partitions. The phone rang on the desk in front of her. T. Larry—a nickname she loved and he’d endured with long-suffering sighs over the seven years he’d employed her—harrumphed when her hand went automatically to the receiver. Choosing the phone over him, Madison swung her chair, put her back to him and answered with a chipper smile.

“Carpal, Tunnel and Syndrome. Mr. Hobbs’s office.” Spoken fast and slurred, the client wouldn’t understand the play on words, which should have been Carp, Alta and Hobbs, CPAs. T. Larry would know, though. His frown jabbed her between the shoulder blades, and her smile widened. She loved teasing him.

“Hey, beautiful, what are you doing?”

She didn’t recognize the voice on the other end, but hanging up on anyone calling her beautiful was inconceivable. A nice voice, sexy, deep. The perfect voice for phone sex lite. Who was it? She could have asked, but relished figuring out his identity on her own.

Hoping for a clue, she said, “Just waiting for your call.”

At her back, T. Larry puffed like a fire-breathing dragon.

“What are you wearing?”

Jim? He’d always wanted to know the color of her panties. Though he’d never asked over the phone. Ooh. “Something red and lacy.”

T. Larry broke into a spasm of coughing, recovering before she had to turn around and pound his back.

“You’re driving me crazy, how was your day, did you think of me?” was said as one purring sentence, as if her mystery man had only one thought on his mind.

Not Jim, the voice was too tempting. Not Matthew, either, since he’d broken it off at the beginning of May, over a month ago. Unless he’d decided he’d made a mistake. She was willing to forgive just to find out if she could have fallen in love with him given more time. Hmm, what was the best way to play this? “I can’t say I did think of you today.”

“I’m wounded. Make it up to me by having dinner with me.” A touch of laughter laced the deep voice. Matthew, for sure. He had a quirky sense of humor, a thick skin, and it was just like him to forget he’d snapped her in two like a twig.

It had taken her a whole day to get over it. Still, “Don’t you think we ought to talk about what happened first?”

T. Larry cleared his throat, then his arm slid into her line of sight, the finger of his other hand tapping the face of his watch. Five minutes to five, she was still on his time.

Matthew went on. “Let’s talk about it over champagne and veal picatta.”

Veal? She couldn’t bear to think about those poor calves stuck in pens and slaughtered like…Madison shoved T. Larry’s arm away. “I’d love to have dinner, but I’ve got to catch the 5:20 train home, and my brother Patrick’s picking me up—”

“Your brother?”

“—and it’s too late to tell him I won’t be on it.” Besides, she shouldn’t have dinner with her former beau at all without first discussing that goodbye. “So call me tonight, Matthew.”

“Matthew?” A quizzical tone, probably raised eyebrows, too. Oops, she’d put her foot in it. She was always doing that.

“My name’s not Matthew. Is this Kim?”

With only fifteen days left until her birthday, she was beyond the usual embarrassment. “I’m Madison.”

He laughed, a lovely full laugh that must have come straight from his belly. “I’m really sorry. I thought—”

“And I thought—”

“So what are you doing tonight?” A deep breath, a smile still in his wonderful voice. “How about dinner?”

Madison laughed with him. “You don’t even know me.”

“You’re Madison. I’m Richard.”

“Nice to meet you, Richard, but I still can’t have dinner with you tonight.”

“I know. Your brother’s picking you up from the 5:20 train.”

T. Larry knocked the back of her chair with his knee. She waved a dismissive hand and plugged a finger in her ear.

“How about tomorrow?” Richard pushed.

Friday. She was free. He really did have an amazing voice. Madison was never one to dismiss coincidence. Coincidence was destiny patting you on the back. Especially with her birthday bearing down like an avalanche. Twenty-eight. What if she never knew what it was like to fall in love? What if Richard was The One, her destiny?

“Okay, I’ll have dinner with you tomorrow.” She bit her lip to keep the excitement from bubbling over. “But no veal.” Then she told him what she looked like so the man of her dreams could recognize her across a crowded restaurant.

889. Freaky Friday (Mary Rogers)

Not a bad movie either

Synopsis from Amazon:
Annabel thinks her mom has the best life. If she were a grown-up, she could do whatever she wanted! Then one morning she wakes up to find she's turned into her mother ... and she soon discovers it's not as easy as it looks!

My rating: 4 stars

Sunday, February 10, 2008

888. Just a Kiss Away (Jill Barnett)

Synopsis from Amazon:
Arriving on a lush Pacific island, Eulalie Grace LaRue was soon to be reunited with the father she hadn't seen since childhood. Yet before Lollie's dreamed-of meeting could take place, the lovely Southern belle was caught in the crossfire of a violent revolution -- and thrown into the rugged arms of Sam Forester.

On the run in the jungle, the battle-scarred soldier of fortune didn't know what to do with the pampered blonde placed in his care. Survival was his top priority, but he could not resist Lollie's seductive charm ... or deny the growing attraction between them. Though Sam thrived on chance and risk, falling in love was the one chance he wasn't willing to take.

Powerless against the desire that consumed them both, Lollie surrendered to his passionate embrace. But when he dismissed her affections, she was determined to fight for him ... to prove that in the steamy heat of paradise, two hearts would find the love of a lifetime ....

My rating: 4 stars

Excerpt: [from Chapter 1]

Luzon Island, Cavite Province, July 1896

The machete just missed his head.

And Sam Forester needed his mercenary head, preferably still attached to his body. He spun around. A guerrilla soldier stood a foot away with the long curved knife held high, ready to strike again. Sam punched him. A familiar crunch rang from his callused knuckles to his wrist. He shook the soreness from his hand and stared down at the soldier. The man wouldn't get up soon.

Sam picked up the machete and a moment later whacked a path of escape through the dense jungle bamboo. Where the growth allowed, he ran. Damp, pointed leaves of oleander scratched his face. Cut bamboo crunched under his feet. Wet, furry vines slapped at his shoulders and head. He raised the machete and sliced through a low, smothering ceiling of jade vine. All the while he could hear the others chasing him.

He burst into a clearing—no jungle to tangle him up, to hold him back. He pushed harder for the chance to gain a little ground. Running, running, pulse throbbing in his ears, he looked up. It was still dark. A virid canopy of giant banyans blocked out the afternoon sun. Ahead all he saw was a wall of green—the never-ending sea of tree-palm fronds and another dark wooden forest of island bamboo.

Mist steamed up from the humid ground as if the earth had cracked open over the seas of hell. A sweet, almost sickening smell hung like fog in the heavy air. The smell grew stronger, the leaves around him thicker. He ripped at them, driving on, harder and harder, tearing through a dense, twisted prison of sweet jungle jasmine. The rough, woody vines caught on his shoulder, scratched his arms and hands. They seemed to suddenly wrap around him like long grasping fingers, determined to slow him down, hold him, or trip him. But he couldn't trip. His escape depended on it. One fall and they'd have him. The guerrilla soldiers were that close. Though now he couldn't hear them over the pounding of his heart, he could still sense them, could feel them. They were hot on his heels.

Then he heard them right behind him, crashing through the underbrush. They panted. They swore. They stuck to him as if they were his own shadow, ever present. He heard the crack of their machetes—long, deadly, curved steel blades that splintered a path in the tall bamboo. With each chop, each hack of metal against splitting wood, the frenzied sound of pursuit ran an icy path of fear through Sam's bones.

Sweat streamed down his tanned face, under the black leather eye patch he'd worn for eight years, over the hewn angles of his life-weathered face, and trickled down through the dark shadow of a three-day beard. His perspiration mixed with the sweltering beads of humid, thick, steamy air that cloaked everything on this heaven-and-hell island.

His vision blurred from the wet air… or from the sweat; he wasn't sure which. He sped on, stumbling once when he couldn't see anything but a dark wet blur. He swabbed his good eye with a torn sleeve. His heart drummed in his ears. It was a beat to run by.

A new fragrance filled the air. The smell of risk.

A sudden blood rush sent him running faster, pounding through the jungle. The bitter metallic taste of danger was so palpable, so real, that it swelled in his dry mouth with the same urgency of sexual impulse. His brink-driven breaths increased, faster, faster, until they burned in his chest like hot acid. His legs churned. His ridged thighs contracted. Mud suddenly swallowed his feet. He couldn't move.

Damn! He pulled forward, determined not to let dirt and water stop him. He fought on, dragging and slogging his legs forward. His boots felt like lead. The mud got deeper. It sucked at his thighs. His calves ached. The muscles in his forearms tightened. He trudged on and on. Now the mud was only ankle-deep. He broke free, still ahead of the men who chased him, and soon he had gained ground once again.

He ran. They pursued. It was a game in which he wavered on the edge, maybe even the edge of death. He was in his element. He tested the fates. He challenged the odds. And he gambled with his life, because the thrill was keener and so much more intense when the price of failure was so dear.

A white, wicked smile cut like lightning across his hard jaw.

Sam Forester lived for this.

887. Last Seen Wearing (Colin Dexter)

Synopsis from Amazon:
Valerie Taylor has been missing since she was a sexy seventeen, more than two years ago. Inspector Morse is sure she's dead. But if she is, who forged the letter to her parents saying "I am alright so don't worry"? Never has a woman provided Morse with such a challenge, for each time the pieces of the jigsaw start falling into place, someone scatters them again. So Valerie remains as tantalizingly elusive as ever. Morse prefers a body -- a body dead from unnatural causes. And very soon he gets one ....

My rating: 3 stars

886. My Dearest Enemy (Connie Brockway)


Synopsis from Amazon:
The terms of an irascible uncle's will robs Avery Thorne of the home he loves, and throws him into contact with the new owner, an argumentative suffragette named Lily Bede, whose letters follow Avery on his adventures around the globe. Now Avery is returning home, hoping that Lily will have failed to make the manor house profitable, thereby ensuring that it reverts to him. When they finally meet, she finds him just as arrogant and domineering as in his letters. He finds her just as tart-tongued and provoking. They're each beset by an attraction that leaves them sleepless, restless, and burning with desire. Avery, who considers himself a gentleman above all else, finds the self-control required to resist Lily increasingly hard to come by, while Lily chaffs under a self-imposed restriction against marriage, which she deems "legalized slavery."

My rating: 4 stars

Saturday, February 9, 2008

885. On the Prowl (Kimberly Dean)

Synopsis from Amazon UK:
Slinking through shadows. Slipping through open windows. Jimmying locks. Talia Sizemore hadn't intended to become a thief, but what a rush her secret identity is! The more she steals, the more she craves the danger and the exhilaration. Her newborn freedom encourages other liberal tendencies and soon she's pushing the limits of her sexuality to keep experiencing the same highs. The situation only gets hotter when a bull-headed detective starts investigating. Riley Kinkade has set his sights on the New Covington Cat Burglar, and Talia can't help but squirm as he closes in on her. The man's smart, observant and extremely imposing. He's also the sexiest thing she's ever seen. He's out to get her, but she finds herself wanting to be caught. Her desire for him is absolute. He's watching her every move, but still, she can't stop stealing. There's something incredibly arousing about being bad right under the good detective's nose. As the frequency of her thefts increase, so do his thorough searches of her home and person. Once he gets his hands on her, watch out! This is one sexy cat and mouse game that is guaranteed to spiral out of control.

My rating: 4 stars

884. To Scotland, With Love (Karen Hawkins)

Synopsis from Amazon UK:
When Lord Gregor MacLean learns his childhood friend, Venetia Oglivie, has been abducted by a fortune hunter, he rides off to Scotland in hot pursuit. If he doesn't rescue the provocative wench swiftly, she'll be ruined by the scandal! But when an irate Gregor catches up with her, arrogantly expecting a hero's welcome, the sparks between him and the strong-willed Venetia begin to fly. And while they're trapped by an unexpected snowstorm, those sparks grow so hot they could burn the inn down! Now if Gregor can only convince Venetia that his motive for marriage isn't duty, but desire ....

My rating: 3 stars

883. The Secret Passion of Simon Blackwell (Samantha James)

Synopsis from Amazon Canada:
Haunted by painful memories of the past, Simon Blackwell wants little to do with society and nothing to do with love. A chance encounter in the park and a split-second decision to save a boy's life bring him into the home of the grateful mother and her cousin, Lady Annabel. He can steel himself against the family's warmth, the little boy who reminds him of his own, but there's a siren's call intrinsic to Annabel's very being to which he becomes utterly lost, and found.

My rating: 3 stars

882. The Marriage Wager (Candace Camp)

Synopsis from Amazon Canada:
With a nod to Jane Austen, Camp launches the Matchmaker series, set in 19th-century London and concerning the lovely widow Lady Francesca Haughston, mistress of romantic chicanery. When Francesca claims that she can get any marriageable girl engaged by the end of the season, Sinclair, the fifth duke of Rochford, accepts her wager, but only if he can choose the girl. The target he picks is Constance Woodley, a spinsterish young woman who's been living with her uncle since her father's death, hopeless for a future as anything but a chaperone for her spoiled younger cousins. Constance has no idea why Francesca has taken her under her wing, but doesn't worry too much about it: she's feeling alive as if for the first time, especially when she meets handsome Lord Dominic Leighton; unfortunately, he turns out to be Francesca's brother and way out of Constance's social class.

My rating: 2 stars

881. Dangerous Cravings (Evangeline Anderson)

Synopsis from Amazon Canada:
By day, Tampa homicide detective Alex Reed is fiercely intelligent and tougher than any of the men in her department. By night, she explores her darker side by writing highly erotic novels of bondage and submission under the pen name Victoria Tarlatan. Detective Cole Berkley is Alex's longtime partner and best friend. He doesn't know anything about her secret hunger to be mastered, but he's about to find out. A serial killer is working his dark magic, transforming wicked women into works of erotic art. His hapless victims are found tied to the bed in classic bondage poses, strangled and tortured in unspeakable ways. To crack the case, Alex and Cole go undercover in the BDSM community, posing as Master and slave, Dominant and submissive. Can Alex hold on to her secret while being forced to play out her most private fantasies with her partner? And can Cole handle the change in his tough-as-nails partner from one of the guys to a woman with deeply erotic needs? The friction between them will soon be the least of their worries. The killer has a list of intended victims. Victoria Tarlatan is on it, making Alex next in line for the killer's transformation. Will she pay for her Dangerous Cravings with her life?

My rating: 2 stars

Friday, February 1, 2008

880. Naked Lunch (William S. Burroughs)

Synopsis from Amazon:
A classic of modern literature for over 35 years, Naked Lunch is the unnerving tale of a narcotics addict's monumental descent into hell, as he travels from New York to Tangiers, and then into the Interzone. There he finds a nightmarish modern urban wasteland in which the forces of evil vie for control of the individual and all of humanity.

My rating: 2 stars

879. Their Eyes Were Watching God (Zora Neale Hurston)

Synopsis from Amazon:
At the height of the Harlem Renaissance during the 1930s, Zora Neale Hurston was the preeminent black woman writer in the United States. She was a sometime-collaborator with Langston Hughes and a fierce rival of Richard Wright. Her stories appeared in major magazines, she consulted on Hollywood screenplays, and she penned four novels, an autobiography, countless essays, and two books on black mythology. Yet by the late 1950s, Hurston was living in obscurity, working as a maid in a Florida hotel. She died in 1960 in a Welfare home, was buried in an unmarked grave, and quickly faded from literary consciousness until 1975 when Alice Walker almost single-handedly revived interest in her work.

Of Hurston's fiction, Their Eyes Were Watching God is arguably the best-known and perhaps the most controversial. The novel follows the fortunes of Janie Crawford, a woman living in the black town of Eaton, Florida. Hurston sets up her characters and her locale in the first chapter, which, along with the last, acts as a framing device for the story of Janie's life. Unlike Wright and Ralph Ellison, Hurston does not write explicitly about black people in the context of a white world--a fact that earned her scathing criticism from the social realists--but she doesn't ignore the impact of black-white relations either:

It was the time for sitting on porches beside the road. It was the time to hear things and talk. These sitters had been tongueless, earless, eyeless conveniences all day long. Mules and other brutes had occupied their skins. But now, the sun and the bossman were gone, so the skins felt powerful and human. They became lords of sounds and lesser things. They passed nations through their mouths. They sat in judgment.
One person the citizens of Eaton are inclined to judge is Janie Crawford, who has married three men and been tried for the murder of one of them. Janie feels no compulsion to justify herself to the town, but she does explain herself to her friend, Phoeby, with the implicit understanding that Phoeby can "tell 'em what Ah say if you wants to. Dat's just de same as me 'cause mah tongue is in mah friend's mouf." Hurston's use of dialect enraged other African American writers such as Wright, who accused her of pandering to white readers by giving them the black stereotypes they expected. Decades later, however, outrage has been replaced by admiration for her depictions of black life, and especially the lives of black women. In Their Eyes Were Watching God Zora Neale Hurston breathes humanity into both her men and women, and allows them to speak in their own voices.

My rating: 3 stars

878. Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell (Susanna Clarke)

Synopsis from Amazon:
It's 1808 and that Corsican upstart Napoleon is battering the English army and navy. Enter Mr. Norrell, a fusty but ambitious scholar from the Yorkshire countryside and the first practical magician in hundreds of years. What better way to demonstrate his revival of British magic than to change the course of the Napoleonic wars? Susanna Clarke's ingenious first novel, Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, has the cleverness and lightness of touch of the Harry Potter series, but is less a fairy tale of good versus evil than a fantastic comedy of manners, complete with elaborate false footnotes, occasional period spellings, and a dense, lively mythology teeming beneath the narrative. Mr. Norrell moves to London to establish his influence in government circles, devising such powerful illusions as an 11-day blockade of French ports by English ships fabricated from rainwater. But however skillful his magic, his vanity provides an Achilles heel, and the differing ambitions of his more glamorous apprentice, Jonathan Strange, threaten to topple all that Mr. Norrell has achieved.

My rating: 4 stars

My review: The writing is excellent and the basic plotline is very interesting. Unfortunately, it takes a while for the story to gather momentum and capture the reader's interest (or at least this reader's interest -- for the first 100 pages I had no idea where the story was going). But, once it does, the book is fun.

877. Daniel Deronda (George Eliot)

Synopsis from Amazon:
George Eliot’s final novel and her most ambitious work, Daniel Deronda contrasts the moral laxity of the British aristocracy with the dedicated fervor of Jewish nationalists. Crushed by a loveless marriage to the cruel and arrogant Grandcourt, Gwendolen Harleth seeks salvation in the deeply spiritual and altruistic Daniel Deronda. But Deronda, profoundly affected by the discovery of his Jewish ancestry, is ultimately too committed to his own cultural awakening to save Gwendolen from despair.

My rating: 4 stars

876. Kaffir Boy (Mark Mathabane)

Synopsis from Amazon:
Kaffir Boy does for apartheid-era South Africa what Richard Wright's Black Boy did for the segregated American South. In stark prose, Mathabane describes his life growing up in a nonwhite ghetto outside Johannesburg--and how he escaped its horrors. Hard work and faith in education played key roles, and Mathabane eventually won a tennis scholarship to an American university. This is not, needless to say, an opportunity afforded to many of the poor blacks who make up most of South Africa's population. And yet Mathabane reveals their troubled world on these pages in a way that only someone who has lived this life can.

My rating: 4 stars

875. Rumpole and the Angel of Death (John Mortimer)

Synopsis from Amazon:
The irascible but always entertaining Rumpole is back, this time in a series of short stories that have him facing the usual assortment of human detritus at the Old Bailey. Rumpole's delightful compatriots--the determined and politically correct Miz Liz Probert, Mr. Injustice Graves, the beleaguered Claude Erskine-Brown, and, of course, She Who Must Be Obeyed -- are once again in evidence, as are Rumpole's inadvertent humor, his keen understanding of the criminal and not-so-criminal minds, and his wily defenses of some of life's biggest losers. Here the barrister must defend, among others, an animal-rights activist accused of murder and a wife-killer whose dedication to teaching wins him a dangerous friend. In addition, there's a story told by the never-before-heard-from Hilda (She Who Must Be Obeyed) that's subtly hilarious and chockful of sharp-tongued wit.

My rating: 5 stars

874. The House With a Clock In Its Walls (John Bellairs)

Synopsis from Amazon:
Lewis always dreamed of living in an old house full of secret passageways, hidden rooms, and big marble fireplaces. And suddenly, after the death of his parents, he finds himself in just such a mansion -- his Uncle Jonathan's. When he discovers that his big friendly uncle is also a wizard, Lewis has a hard time keeping himself from jumping up and down in his seat. Unfortunately, what Lewis doesn't bank on is the fact that the previous owner of the mansion was also a wizard -- but an evil one who has placed a tick-tocking clock somewhere in the bowels of the house, marking off the minutes until the end of the world. And when Lewis accidentally awakens the dead on Halloween night, the clock only ticks louder and faster. Doomsday draws near -- unless Lewis can stop the clock!

My rating: 5 stars

873. Private Games (Tawny Taylor)

Synopsis from Amazon UK:
Playing for Keeps
Maddy Beaudet needs to shake things up a bit, but playing a board game isn't exactly what she considers exciting. Jace Michael has just moved across country to recover from an ugly divorce. Anxious to dive into work with both feet, the last thing he needs is a distraction, but the minute he meets Maddy, his employee no less, and learns about the game she's playing with her friends, a whole different game comes to mind.

Master May I?
Britt Olsen is shocked when Andre Cruz-Romero delivers a birthday gift, mistakenly mailed to Britt's former home. Unfortunately, what she finds in the box isn't what Britt expected. Then again, neither is Andre. The sexy entrepreneur who sports golf shirts and khaki pants by day wears leather by night. And the room that used to house Britt's workout equipment now holds a different kind of apparatus for an entirely different kind of game.

A Game of Risk
Taking risks is what day-trader Olivia Blake's life is all about. Well, at least financially. Personally, is another story. It takes the draw of a card for her to approach the man she's pined over, her older sister's brother-in-law. The minute she does, she wonders if she's made the right decision. "EMT" - Ty Wilcox spends his days rescuing people who toss caution to the wind and get injured-or worse-in the process. Playing it safe is the only way to live. But after seeing Olivia in a skimpy dress that almost covers her vitals, he wonders if risk is the four-letter word he'd always thought it was.

My rating: 2 stars

872. My Surrender (Connie Brockway)

Synopsis from Amazon UK:
Determined to uncover the truth about her father's death and to assist English spies in infiltrating Napoleon's inner circle, impulsive Charlotte Nash uses her position as a London debutante to garner crucial intelligence information for the English Crown, but her self-proclaimed mission is threatened by the arrival of Dand Ross, a dangerous Highlander.

My rating: 4 stars

871. The Book of Three (Lloyd Alexander)

Synopsis from Amazon Canada:
Since The Book of Three was first published in 1964, young readers have been enthralled by the adventures of Taran the Assistant Pig-Keeper and his quest to become a hero. Taran is joined by an engaging cast of characters that includes Eilonwy, the strong-willed and sharp-tongued princess; Fflewddur Fflam, the hyperbole-prone bard; the ever-faithful Gurgi; and the curmudgeonly Doli-all of whom have become involved in an epic struggle between good and evil that shapes the fate of the legendary land of Prydain.

My rating: 5 stars