The Golden Darter
My Life Through Books
Middle School was a weird mix of classics and Star Wars. I was obsessed with The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux to the point of the book falling apart. I also discovered that while I love Jane Austen, the Bronte sisters can go hang. As for Star Wars... I've read almost every meta-verse book that was published up until the New Order cannon. I can still go into detail and recite storylines of a few beloved books. Hence, my nerd life began.
High school was very paranormal, vampire, scifi, etc. I would literally go online and search for book series that concerned vampires and read everything on the list. We are talking Anita Blake, Charline Harris, Anne Rice, Amelia Atwater-Rhodes, Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, Tanya Huff, Steven King, etc. This was before they sparkled, ya'll. Early college was philosophical and political theory for school, and mainstream fiction in my personal time. Wicked, Life of Pi, Memoirs of a Geisha. These are the 3 books that pushed me into my next phase, mostly because of how ambiguous I felt about them, and their questionable endings.
Late-mid college I was introduced to LaVyrle Spencer by way of Hummingbird courtesy of a gripe session with my Mom about how depressing the books I had been reading lately were. I've never looked back and have been hooked on the romance genre ever since. I've read and loved a ton of LaVyrle Spencer (who is a little hit and miss), Judith McNaught (of the rapetastic 80s era of romance), and Georgette Heyer (who writes in the vein of Austen). More recently I've discovered the joys of contemporary authors like Susan Elizabeth Phillips.
Lately I've been trying to read more non-fiction. I really do enjoy learning about subjects that interest me, but non-fiction can feel like work sometimes. So I fall back to romance. You just can't go wrong with knowing that there will almost always be a happy ending.
Currently reading
The Love List: 1 (Half Moon House)
There is a reason I stopped reading historicals. After a while, they all start to blend into the same story. Sure, there are a few variations on the general themes and a handful of authors who can truly write something special with the time period, but on the whole each story is the same. Which was the case for me with The Love List.I never really cared for Aldmere, our hero, because he was the same brooding, duty-bound Duke with a tortured past that I've read a dozen times. Brynne was slightly better since she was trying to throw off convention and live life on her own terms (and actually takes some dramatic steps to do so), but for some reason I never really liked her. Not that I disliked her. I was just apathetic. And the "adventures" those two were having in trying to track down Aldmere's brother... They just seemed to go on... And on... And on. At times, I would forget why they were heading somewhere or doing something because five tangents would have begun before their destination was reached.SIDE RANT:Also, for the love of all, you HRom men... If you think that you are heading into a situation where having a gently breed lady (meaning she's never be involved in anything more violent than loosing a tooth) tagging along isn't sure a great idea, and might in fact be a liability to everyone involved... PLEASE feel free to NOT LET HER GO. I reallllly dislike that trope. Going into a dangerous situation with a vulnerable fluff-ball is just going to get someone hurt. Which means that when someone doesn't get hurt, and everything seems much less dangerous than it was built up to be, I begin to feel like nothing bad will happen ever to these people and get bored. Now this is not saying that all female characters should stay on the sidelines while the men do the heavy lifting. Not at freaking all. But some heroines (you know the ones I'm talking about) just need to stay out of the line of fire because they are going to get someone killed. Possibly themselves.I became so bored, I didn't even skim to see the ending because I can pretty much guess it. They find Tru. The List isn't published. Marstoke is punished. Brynne gets her orphanage. Everyone is happy and gets married. The sequel is about either Hesita or Tru. Maybe both. Not that I disliked this book... I just didn't like it. And when you find yourself apathetic about every character and plot line in a book at 65% though, it's time to throw in the towel and move on.So here's me... Moving on.Copy courtesy of Aspendawn Books, via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
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