783. Promises Linger (Sarah McCarty)

Synopsis from Amazon UK:
1868, Wyoming Territory

Elizabeth Coyote will do anything, anything at all, to save the ranch she loves, including marrying Asa MacIntyre, a broad shouldered, lean hipped silver eyed gunslinger with a ruthless reputation for getting the job done. Asa dreams of a place of his own, a wife, and the respect that comes with both. Marrying Elizabeth may have started as a means to an end, but nothing in Asa's wildest dreams prepares him for the excitement of unleashing the carnal woman beneath his wife's prim and proper exterior.

My rating: 3 stars

782. Forbidden Pleasure (Lora Leigh)

Synopsis from Amazon UK:
People have heard fleeting rumours about The Club. Located just outside Washington, D.C., only its members know where men go when they want to indulge the desire to share their women with a carefully selected male partner. John "Mac" McCoy resigned his membership from The Club when he married Keiley Hardin. Tempting and innocent, sweet and sexy, she would never accept Mac's desire to share her with another man. However, Mac's fantasies of sharing his wife haunt his dreams. Then Jethro Riggs, Mac's best friend, arrives at their home in Wyoming. Of all the men, it was Riggs whom Mac most shared his women with. They shared the same views on pleasing women, and a hunger to push the same boundaries. Slowly Mac and Riggs introduce Keiley to a pleasure she has never known.

My rating: 4 stars

781. White Heat (Cherry Adair)

Synopsis from Amazon Canada:
Emily Greene met Max Aries at a party in Florence. The two left early and spent the next few days in a steamy romantic tryst. Then Max disappeared. Now he's back, investigating the alleged suicide of his father—and Emily's professional mentor—artist and art restorer Daniel Aries, whose death turns out to be connected to a series of mysterious murders and bombings of religious sites. Unbeknownst to Daniel's clients, Emily has actually been doing most of Daniel's work for the last few years, and she now finds herself tangled up in a deadly game of international terrorism.

My rating: 2 stars

My review: Predictable plot with an annoying heroine who acts hysterical. There are also some inconsistencies -- how does T-FLAC have such access??? If the Pentagon contracts out finding terrorists, it's no wonder we aren't winning the war on terror. In general, I don't like techno-thrillers. There's always too much techno and not enough thriller. Not one of Cherry Adair's better books.

780. Courtesan (Louisa Trent)

Synopsis from Amazon:
New York 1883
With her deceased father's creditors pounding at the door, starvation imminent, and nothing left to lose, eighteen-year old Sarah Winslow signs a note to excuse her indebtedness. Little does she suspect that she's just sold herself into an exclusive brothel, her ruination orchestrated by Sebastian Turner, a wealthy gentleman who has bought and paid for her virginal innocence for reasons all his own. For eighteen long years, Seb has methodically plotted to destroy the Winslow name. And he succeeds. He now owns all of Michael Winslow's possessions, including his lovely daughter, Sarah. Seb has everything he ever wanted. Only now that he does, it's not enough. He wants more ... from Sarah. His needs know no bounds but those of pleasure when it comes to the prim and proper lady he has made his Courtesan.

My rating: 2 stars

779. Sin (Sharon Page)

Synopsis from author:
Venetia Hamilton is no stranger to erotic art — her father’s lush paintings are one of society’s secret pleasures. But Venetia has never experienced true desire. Not until she meets Marcus Wyndam, the Earl of Trent — a powerful man who holds her future in his hands and awakens her curiosity with one searing kiss. His expert touch is only the beginning of her carnal education, but something more dangerous than submission may be the price she pays for such unimaginable delight ....

My rating: 4 stars

778. The Human Comedy (William Saroyan)

Synopsis from Amazon:
The place is Ithaca, in California's San Joaquin Valley. The time is World War II. The family is the Macauley's -- a mother, sister, and three brothers whose struggles and dreams reflect those of America's second-generation immigrants.. In particular, fourteen-year-old Homer, determined to become one of the fastest telegraph messengers in the West, finds himself caught between reality and illusion as delivering his messages of wartime death, love, and money brings him face-to-face with human emotion at its most naked and raw.

My rating: 4 stars

777. See Jane Score (Rachel Gibson)

Synopsis from Amazon:
Setting: Seattle, Washington
Sensuality: 8

At long last, Seattle Times columnist Jane Alcott has a shot at a full-time assignment. She badly needs the income, but unfortunately, the opening is for a sports reporter traveling with the Seattle Chinooks hockey team and she knows nothing about the game. To add to her difficulty, the team doesn't want her, especially Luc "Lucky" Martineau, the Chinooks $33 million goalie. The team stonewalls when she tries to interview them and they haze her mercilessly; it isn't until the superstitious Luc decides that she brings good luck that Jane gets a shot at being a real journalist. But when her acceptance by the team leads to spending more time with Luc, Jane finds, to her dismay, that he’s more than a handsome, empty-headed sports jock and her heart is in danger.

For his part, Luc learns that behind "plain Jane's" boring dark clothing and black-rimmed glasses lies a quick wit, nerves of steel, and a personality that charms him. And when Jane appears at a team banquet with a new haircut, makeup, and a killer red dress with matching sexy stilettos, Luc's affection fast-forwards into a major case of serious lust. But if Jane lets herself fall in love, she'll have to find a way to explain the secret she's hiding before it becomes public knowledge and Luc's passion turns to hate. Can she bring herself to tell him the truth? And if she does, will he forgive her?

My rating: 4 stars

776. Heiress For Hire (Erin McCarthy)

Synopsis from Amazon:
Amanda Delmar is rich and spoiled. All her father ever expected of her was to be beautiful, so that's what she's done. But at 26, the shallowness of pleasure seeking and shopping till you drop is getting old. Apparently her father agrees, because when Amanda follows a friend to a small town in Ohio, then asks her father to send money, he cuts her off. Suddenly Amanda needs a job. Enter Danny Tucker, a farmer and a decent man who has just discovered that he has an eight-year-old daughter. Against the advice of his parents, he hires Amanda to watch little Piper, and, amazingly enough, she's very good at it. Amanda and Danny are drawn to the qualities they see in each other that no one else can, yet they think they don't belong together.

My rating: 4 stars

Excerpt: [from Chapter 1]

There were some things money couldn't buy. For everything else, there was her father.

Since Brett Delmar couldn't—or wouldn't—provide Amanda Delmar with love, affection, or respect, at the very least she figured he should foot the bill for a few of life's necessities. And luxuries.

"Daddy, just two hundred. That's all I need." Amanda checked out her manicure and grimaced. If he could only see how godawful her nails looked, he would understand that this was an emergency.

"Why not make it two thousand? Why not make it ten thousand?" Her father's sarcasm came crackling through her cell phone.

She decided to ignore it. "That's so sweet of you! And it's not even my birthday."

That wheezing was probably the sound of his blood pressure going up. She felt a momentary twinge of guilt. She didn't want to give him a heart attack. She just wanted a manicure.

"Amanda Margaret."

Ouch. Trotting out the middle name was never a good thing. Amanda set her front porch swing swaying. She ran her fingers idly through the lilac bush that hugged the porch as she rocked back and forth.

She was enjoying her summer in East Bum Fuck, or if you went by what the map said, Cuttersville, Ohio. It was quaint and different and full of fawning men, eager to pay court to the rich girl from Chicago. Visiting the country had been a lark to quell boredom, and following Boston Macnamara to Cuttersville had given her both a destination, and another way to piss her father off. But the town had its drawbacks in that there were actually establishments that only accepted cash, as unbelievable as it seemed. And her father, with his many mountains of money, was back in Illinois, getting cranky about her spending habits.

Which was ironic, considering he had created those spending habits, nurtured them in her. He had praised her beauty and her style as a child and scoffed at her attempts to use her brain. Now he found those very traits he had fostered in her annoying.

All her attempts to please him had failed, and around about her eighteenth birthday she had stopped trying.

"Yes, Daddy?" If he could use sarcasm, surely he would recognize it.

"Have you heard of tough love?"

Amanda stopped playing with the tips of her hair extensions and frowned. Maybe she had been in the country too long, ogling brawny farmers and getting back to nature. "Is that a new designer? Did P. Diddy start a line of street wear? Why haven't I heard of it?"

He snorted. "No, it's not a goddamn clothing line. It's what I'm about to do for your own good, because I love you and you need to get serious, Amanda. You're almost twenty-six goddamn years old. When I was your age, I was making half a million a year already."

Amanda moved her mouth in a silent "blah, blah, blah." She had heard this speech before. Could recite it backward and forward and in French.

"You need to work for your money."

She was. Listening to him blather was hard, painful work, and she had to endure it every time she needed cash. It was as bad as flipping burgers at McDonald's would be, she'd bet.

Maybe it was time to get a job. Not that she was qualified to do anything, given her degree in art appreciation. But it was getting a little old to beg for money all the time, and the childish satisfaction of spending her father's fortune no longer had quite the same charm.

My God, maybe she was actually maturing. There was a scary thought.

Amanda reached down and scooped up Baby, her teacup poodle, and stroked her downy head. She was getting stressed out, and Baby was soothing, her fluffy fur poufing around Amanda's fingers. Baby's devotion was simple and uncomplicated, and Amanda appreciated that.

"So, this time, I'm serious, Amanda, I've had it. I'm instituting tough love. In the end we'll both be happier this way."

Amanda heard herself sigh. She really was getting too old for these circular arguments. There was no fight left in her. That's why she was nesting in the country, to relax. "What are you talking about? What does tough love actually mean?"

"It means I'm cutting you off. No more money."

"What?" The words didn't make sense. They were unintelligi-ble to her. Daddy was money, money was Daddy, and he couldn't possibly mean…

"No. More. Money. Ever. That's what I mean. You'll have to fend for yourself from here on out. I know your rent is paid for the duration of the summer, so you'll have plenty of time to look for work. There's the two thousand I gave you last week. That should hold you over until your first paycheck."

"It's gone already! Baby needed dog food." And she had needed a new handbag, one better equipped to handle the dust of the country.

"What the hell is the dog eating? Beluga? Christ, Amanda, give me a break. That dog is the size of an egg. It probably eats a can of dog food a month."

Amanda felt the beginnings of panic, followed by pure anger. How absolutely like him. He gave, and he taketh away. Her father had a serious power trip going on. He just loved being the one in control, holding the cards, manipulating her life.

Well, she wasn't going to beg. Not this time.

She'd just run to the money machine instead and make a large cash withdrawal on her credit cards. All six of them.

"Well, if you're really serious about this…" She paused, giving him time to regain his sanity.

"I am."

"Then I have to go. I have to find a job before I die of starvation and exposure."

Or worse, her cell phone ran out of minutes.

775. My Life and Hard Times (James Thurber)

Synopsis from Amazon:
Widely hailed as one of the finest humorist of the twentieth century, James Thurber looks back at his own life growing up in Columbus, Ohio, with the same humor and sharp wit that defined his famous sketches and writings. In My Life and Hard times, first published in 1933, he recounts the delightful chaos and frustrations of family, boyhood, youth odd dogs, recalcitrant machinery, and the foibles of human nature.

My rating: 5 stars

774. The Mummy Case (Elizabeth Peters)

Synopsis from Barnes and Noble:
Radcliffe Emerson, the irascible husband of fellow archaeologist and Egyptologist Amelia Peabody, has earned the nickname "Father of Curses" -- and at Mazghunah he demonstrates why. Denied permission to dig at the pyramids of Dahshoor, he and Amelia are resigned to excavating mounds of rubble in the middle of nowhere. And there is nothing in this barren area worthy of their interest -- until an antiquities dealer is murdered in his own shop. A second sighting of a sinister stranger from the crime scene, a mysterious scrap of papyrus, and a missing mummy case have all whetted Amelia's curiosity. But when the Emersons start digging for answers in an ancient tomb, events take a darker and deadlier turn -- and there may be no surviving the very modern terrors their efforts reveal.

My rating: 2 stars

773. Uncle Fred in the Springtime (P. G. Wodehouse)

Cover of first edition

Synopsis:
The Duke of Dunstable was a nobleman of proud and haughty spirit, swift to resent affronts and institute reprisals — the last person in the world, in short, from whom one could hope to withhold pigs with impunity. Yet the Earl of Emsworth, faced by the appalling prospect of losing his prize pig, the Empress of Blandings, and reckless with the courage born of desperation, defied him to do his worst and sought an ally in Frederick, fifth Earl of Ickenham. It was an axiom with Pongo Twistleton that his Uncle Frederick was one of those people who ought not to be allowed at large. When, therefore, that irresponsible, perennially youthful peer, masquerading as a famous brain specialist, not only plotted to save the Empress but craftily intervened in the tangled love-affair of Polly Pott and the poet Ricky, Pongo feared the worst. And his fears were amply justified. At the critical moment the Duke's coldly efficient secretary, the detested Baxter, aided and abetted by Lady Constance Keeble, threatened to wreck the whole gigantic scheme. Blandings Castle was shaken to its very foundations.

My rating: 5 stars

Publication information:

• 1939 (25.8.1939)
• Herbert Jenkins
• London
• Dark red cloth & gold lettering
• Copyright page states "First printing 1939.."
• Dust wrapper priced at 7/6
  

772. Our Town (Thornton Wilder)

Synopsis from Amazon:
Pulitzer Prize-winning drama in three acts by Thornton Wilder, produced and published in 1938, considered a classic portrayal of small-town American life. Set in Grover's Corners, N.H., the play features a narrator, the Stage Manager, who sits at the side of the unadorned stage and explains the action. Through flashbacks, dialogue, and direct monologues the other characters reveal themselves to the audience. The main characters are George Gibbs, a doctor's son, and Emily Webb, daughter of a newspaper editor. The play concerns their courtship and marriage and Emily's death in childbirth, after which she and other inhabitants of the graveyard describe their peace.

My rating: 5 stars

771. Letting Loose (Sue Civil-Brown)

Synopsis from Amazon:
Jillie McAllister escaped to Paradise Beach to start over somewhere beautiful ... and far away from her philandering ex-husband. But she's already lost her job, run over a mailbox, become embroiled in a heated small-town controversy ... and run afoul of the local law in the person of the good-looking Chief of Police Blaise Corrigan.

My rating: 2 stars

770. Annie John (Jamaica Kincaid)

Synopsis from Amazon:
Jamaica Kincaid beautifully delineates hatred and fear, because she knows they are often a step away from love and obsession. At the start of Annie John, her 10-year-old heroine is engulfed in family happiness and safety. Though Annie loves her father, she is all eyes for her mother. When she is almost 12, however, the idyll ends and she falls into deep disfavor. This inexplicable loss mars both lives, as each grows adept at public falsity and silent betrayal. The pattern is set, and extended: "And now I started a new series of betrayals of people and things I would have sworn only minutes before to die for." In front of Annie's father and the world, "We were politeness and kindness and love and laughter." Alone they are linked in loathing. Annie tries to imagine herself as someone in a book -- an orphan or a girl with a wicked stepmother. The trouble is, she finds, those characters' lives always end happily. Luckily for us, though not perhaps for her alter ego, Kincaid is too truthful a writer to provide such a finale.

My rating: 3 stars

My review: Another book read in school. Having to read this book as an adolescent going through some of the same problems as the protagonist hit a little too close to home. I recall feeling very disturbed by the graphic descriptions towards the end of the book and did not enjoy reading the book at all, which is unfortunate because, looking back, I remember that the book is beautifully written. But, perhaps, that is the point of great literature.

769. Scandal (Heather Cullman)

Synopsis from Amazon:
When Gideon Harwood, who has recently returned to England from India, is introduced to Lord Stanwell in London, he is surprised to find he already knows the nobleman, but by a different name. To prevent Gideon from revealing his bigamous secret, Lord Stanwell offers Gideon the chance to wed his daughter, Julia, since marriage will give Gideon the one thing all of his recently acquired wealth cannot buy: entree into the ton and better marriage prospects for his sisters. Forced into a marriage of convenience, both Julia and Gideon initially agree to pretend their marriage is a love match, but as they gradually get to know one another, both of them find keeping up the pretense that they are in love is suddenly very easy to do.

My rating: 1 star

768. Shattered Rainbows (Mary Jo Putney)

Synopsis from Fantastic Fiction:
Catherine had saved Lord Michael Kenyon on the battlefields of Europe. Now, she is standing in his London drawing room asking him to pretend to be her mate. Catherine is in line to inherit a title, an ancient home, and heritage -- if she arrives on the Island of Skoal with her husband, who unbeknownst to Michael is dead.

My rating: 3 stars

767. Promise Me Tomorrow (Candace Camp)

Synopsis from Barnes and Noble:
Placed in an orphanage after the murder of her parents, the eldest child of Lord and Lady Chilton had given up any hope that her family in England would ever look for her. Marie Anne, now known as Marianne Cotterwood, has little experience with love, but cannot deny her attraction to the suspicious and arrogant Lard Lampton. When Marianne is the victim of some lethal "accidents," it becomes clear that someone is looking of her after all. Someone who does not want her to discover her true identity.

My rating: 3 stars

766. Force of Nature (Susan Johnson)

Synopsis from Barnes and Noble:
After 23 years in Florence, fortune hunter Lucy Attenborough has brought her daughter, Jo, home to Montana … and there is no denying that Jo is the daughter of powerful and influential Native American warrior, Jon Hazard Black (the hero of Johnson's sexy historical Blaze). Jo is not only lovely, but the ambition she inherited from her father has led her to become an engineer, though such a career is practically unheard of for a woman in 1888. Jo soon enchants Hazard's family and captivates wealthy local rancher Flynn Ito as well. Flynn is the outrageously handsome, enigmatic son of an Irish scullery maid turned mule skinner and a Japanese samurai. Like his father before him, Flynn has matchless skills both as a warrior and as a lover. Jo's audacity in inviting herself into his bed attracts him from the start, and her quick mind and responsive body soon make him realize that he never wants her to leave. But when Flynn's enemies make Jo their weapon in a range war, the lovers must decide whether there is more than desire between them ....

My rating: 3 stars