Who’s back? Well, “she”, my summer reading muse has returned with a bang! Some days or months do you feel like you’re in a reading funk? Nothing good, same old same old. You know you’ve read that plot before, so many times before and you’re bored. Bored I tell you! It’s almost an effort to go to a store, or go to a site (hopefully, Fresh Fiction, nudge nudge) and look at what’s available. Read that vampire story, seen that type of hero, ho hum, another SEAL, wonderful, just what I don’t need. Hmm, what about that mystery? No, don’t want to learn about making lace, sorry, seriously, how many people can die in that small town? Well, what about a thriller, fast-paced, heart pounding, read faster thriller? Uh, dear, not working. Skip to the end. Sigh.
Yes, dear friends, that is the slump I’m talking about. I’d resorted to rereading old favorites but even Georgette Heyer let me down. It was a sad sad time in my life. The reading muse was gone. I know there were good books out there, fellow readers were raving about this novel, that author, but sorry, nothing was grabbing me by the throat. Oh, I didn’t stop reading just was taking a break from the excitement of reading, you know, when you’ve got to TELL EVERYONE about this new book or new author they CAN NOT MISS! Don’t get me wrong, I still read. At least my one book a day, can’t stop doing that. And I’m finding new authors, and characters and stories that keep me enthralled for an hour or so. Ones that I highly recommend, characters that invade my dreams at night, not ready for their story to end, or worse, trying to explain WHY they did what they did. And let me tell you that is SO annoying at times. I mean, seriously, the book is done, no sequel in sight. Let me rest!
(I could go off on a tangent about when you stop reading a book, do you feel as if the characters are on pause and they’re just hanging there waiting for you to hurry up and come back to read so they stay out of danger, in love, whatever? I do, it’s sad and scary sometimes.)
Well, this month has been special for me because the muse started to stir. First it was HIDDEN WIVES, it’s a debut novel by Claire Avery. I probably would never had tried it, the theme of polygamy and fundamentalist excess is not something I seek out to read, but I met the authors and was intrigued, so I tried their book. Wow, yup. great story and the characters made me feel and dream. Then when entering new books into Fresh Fiction, something I do every single day of the year, even holidays, by the way, I ran across a cool cover, SCOUNDREL by Zoe Archer. Wow, they did a good job! And I was intrigued enough to beg, to see if we had an available copy of the first in this series, WARRIOR. We did, it was available, as an ARC, no cover worth mentioning, sigh, and I read it! Okay, let’s be honest, I consumed it! Sorry, folks you’re going to hear me ranting about it for weeks! And it’s not out until SEPTEMBER. Sorry, but put it on your list now. If you love Indiana Jones movies, thought they could have done a better job with The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, then you’ll be as excited as moi when you get your “eyes” on this one! Now I can only hope I get to read the second book, SCOUNDREL, soon. You’d think they’d cut me some slack and let me read it, don’t you? Ah, the needs of the reviewers, grumble mumble. Sigh.
So, what about you, anything interesting, what are you raving about?
I’ll be putting together a list of summer reads this week from all your comments on this blog and my previous summer reading blogs in June so hope you’ll be back and check it against your own lists! Maybe there’s a gem you overlooked? Who knows, it happens all the time!
Until next time…Get out there and READ a book…
Sara Reyes
DFW Tea Readers Group
Join us at Readers ‘n ‘ritas November 12-14, 2010! with Sherrilyn Kenyon and more guests
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Comment and of course there will be a prize! One will be for a signed copy of DARK FLAME by Alyson Noel and the other, well, it’s a surprise!
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