February Books

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Not many books this month, since I watched 3 seasons of Being Human (Aidan Turner is adorable and I loved the first season, but 2 and 3 were too depressing) and a bunch of Supernatural (until it started giving me nightmares and I had to stop).

Sylvester by Georgette Heyer
One of my favorite Heyers; I love when she does this sort of madcap, everything-that-can-go-wrong-will plot. The humor and drama are nicely balanced and the climax, when Sylvester finally gets over himself, is very satisfying.

The Midnight Dancers by Anne Maybury
I'm always on the lookout for books like Mary Stewart's, but though that sort of romantic suspense set in exotic locales was popular when she was writing, no one else quite measures up. The setting in this one - a fictitious small country in North Africa - was vividly drawn, but the story was sadly lacking. Brief moments of danger or mystery were few and far between, and it was a long slog through repetitive dialogue to get to them. The main character wasn't much of a heroine, either.

The Rose Garden by Susanna Kearsley
Susanna Kearsley has become one of my favorite authors, and this book is the main reason why. I love how she makes the most improbable stories seem perfectly plausible. This one involves time travel, but it never feels science-fiction-y at all. And the romance is lovely. I was a little afraid it wouldn't be as good a second time, but if anything I loved it more.

Nobody's Damsel by E.M. Tippetts
The sequel to a cutesy, fluffy book called Someone Else's Fairy Tale, about an ordinary girl who reluctantly falls in love with a movie star. The first book was a lot of fun and I read it in one sitting, but the sequel is a bit blah. The focus is more on Chloe's first case as a CSI lab technician, but there's also drama with her husband's career and the tabloids claiming they're getting a divorce. The mystery/CSI plot isn't very satisfactorily resolved, though, and the romantic drama doesn't fare much better.

It bothered me in the first one and it bothered me here, too: she always describes Jason as smelling like moisturizer, which just doesn't sound very manly or sexy to me!

Graceling by Kristen Cashore
Judging from Goodreads reviews people either love or hate this book, there's not a lot of in-between. I really wanted to like it, and for the first half I did, but in the second half the author makes some choices that I couldn't understand or agree with. I don't have a problem with a feminist agenda, but Katsa is not a "strong female role model". She's a selfish jerk.