I am on vacation this week, enjoying a visit from some of my family, but I have been squeezing in time to read. It helps that 2 of my sisters who are visiting a big readers too! I just finished Hissy Fit by Mary Kay Andrews this morning. I thoroughly enjoyed every page! I am looking forward to getting a lot more reading done on Sat. because we are going to the lake for swimming and sailing. I will be slathering on the sunscreen and catching up on my reading. Visit FreshFiction.com to learn more about books and authors.

For those who might not know Hump day is Wednesday, becuase there’s 2 days of the week already passed, and only 2 days of the week left until the glorious weekend. It’s going to be a three day weekend, and I hope many of you have some wonderful plans. If all goes according to plan my mom is coming Friday afternoon. She’s supposed to be letting me know for sure as she had an angioplasty last week, and was to have seen the doctor to get cleared for flying. Then Saturday evening will find us watching our oldest graduate high school. Unfortunately he has to work at 10PM, because another high school is having a lock in at his job, and we won’t have time to take him out to celebrate! Because of my school year winding down I’ve decided to read something quick and easy. I read Somebody’s Baby by Tara Taylor Quinn. It’s book 10 in the Shelter Valley Stories. I haven’t read all the stories in this series, and didn’t feel like I needed to in order to know what was going on in the small town of Shelter Story. Ms. Quinn allowed enough back story, without…

Or, why I sometimes like historical fiction more than anything else… I’m babysitting a script so I thought I’d take the time to ponder on yesterday’s reading since today my reading time was limited to menus and map directions. Had lunch with my friend and co-worker M today and as usual, we discussed our reading. She’s stuck on a book verging on chick-lit (not her favorite by any stretch of the imagination) and I was extolling the historical I stayed up MUCH too late to finish — EARTHLY JOYS by Philippa Gregory. Sometimes you just feel like reading a certain type of book, and the Tudor series by Philippa Gregory being reissued by Touchstone traces the stories of characters in Tudor England. Not necessarily the main well-known actors but fictionalizations to tell much more than the surface story. EARTHLY JOYS begins the story of the Tradescants, gardeners to the royals and their advisors. Also, by the by, the founders of one of the first museums as we know them (open to the general public, or anyone who could pay a small fee) today. Isn’t history interesting? Except for the “rape” or “whatever you want to call it,” I really enjoyed…

Our family made a trip to the cinema and saw Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, one of DC’s favorite books. Even though we were the only ones laughing, a fun time was had by all. So much, the dialogue is still being quoted. Marvin the paranoid android: “Life? Don’t talk to me about life!” Mouse 1: “Rubbish, we don’t want to be happy, we want to be famous!” If you have a chance, and the lines for the Star Wars are too long, check it out at your local theatre. Definitely a DVD purchase when it’s released. Visit FreshFiction.com to learn more about books and authors.

Okay, trying to fix the site feed, so hang on to your hats, it’s not as easy as you think. Visit FreshFiction.com to learn more about books and authors.

Time for my weekly update on what I’m reading. And I’m still trying to figure out this whole loading pictures thing and this didn’t work like it was supposed to from the directions so bear with me.In print, I finished advance copies of Susan Gable’s The Pregnancy Test last week and moved on to Holly Jacobs’ Lovehandles, which I finished this weekend. Now I’m reading The Moon Witch by Linda Winstead Jones, the second book in her Fyne Witches Sisters trilogy. In electronic I am reading an advance copy Loki’s Sin by Saje Williams. I can’t remember if it was Chapter 6 or 7 I got through last night before going to bed. In audio I am about halfway through my second listen of Face the Fire by Nora Roberts. This is the third book in her Three Sisters Island trilogy and is fairly good. It puts me in the mind of the TV show Charmed, which I love, so that’s probably why I’m enjoying the trilogy. I’m not a huge Nora fan, so I am trying to do hers in audio rather then taking the time to read them since they usually are not keepers for me. I do…

Well, two good paranormal books down, I also read two historicals…MR. IMPOSSIBLE by Loretta Chase and THE CHASE by Cheryl Sawyer. (Enough “chase” in that sentence?). Loretta Chase has been a favorite historical romance author of mine for years — way too many to admit here. One of my very favorite historical romances is LORD OF SCOUNDRELS and I wish I could say that MR. IMPOSSIBLE was up there with the best of the best. But it’s probably not possible to hit homers every time. So, let’s start with the title. Good grief, who came up with that one? It is just not a good historical title and along with MISS WONDERFUL, Chase’s book from 2004 and the beginning of this series, the titles just don’t do it for me as a harbinger of a great historical book. Probably, just me, but once you get past the unfortunately modern sounding title (it just sounds like fluff to me) you’ll find a delightful book set in 1821 Egypt. Ah, an exotic land, filled with poverty and newly uncovered mysteries and treasures, fought over by warring Europeans and local tribesman. What a setting for a romance! Like Susan Squires’ THE COMPANION you…

After my low of the week, and don’t you just hate it when you anticipate a book (or movie for that matter) and then it just doesn’t quite live up to your expectations? It’s an “okay” book or movie, but you were expecting to be blown away? Well, although my one read this week fit the description, I may have had a more open mind about the others I read. CARVED IN STONE by Vickie Taylor was a more than pleasant surprise. Hey, where have I been? Are there other gargoyle stories out there? The only gargoyles I’m acquainted with were in that silly Disney movie with Demi Moore. Oh, and a few hanging out on cathedrals in Paris, or lingering in a over designed garden landscape. Taylor’s book has nothing resembling Disney in any way or sort. Thankfully. Ah, except for the French heritage, and I guess with a gargoyle, you do need the French. We open with a monster under the bed (or not) and then flash forward to a modern Chicago complete with sexy men and women (sizzling with sexual tension, thank you very much) who battle their natures and a nasty bunch of neo-conservatives. You gotta…

Been a couple of days, but with work, daughter home from college, husband on vacation and Star Wars Episode III, it’s been difficult to find time to read much less yak on about it in a journal. But ha, did you think I wasn’t reading? Silly you! Finished EVERY WHICH WAY BUT DEAD on Friday. Sad to say, I thought I could finish in a single setting, but this episode, for me at least, is not as good as the first two. Either, she was rushed to get it out to satisfy her fawning fans or she lost her creative sparkle for a bit. And the front cover blurbette — “Great sex. And an even better plot!” — well, please, one scene of doing the sublime and a bunch of gnawing on a demon scar is NOT great sex. If you don’t have an ongoing amount of sexual tension, it just becomes a formulaic scene — insert some sex here. As for great plot, walking on a character then forgetting him until the last summary chapter, or throwing us a bad guy without motivation rhyme or reason, or whisking away a main character (was the stage too crowded to manage?),…

We had our monthly dinner meeting tonight, and as usual, it was wonderful! I never knew how great it was to meet with friends and discuss books and authors until I started going to tea nine years ago. And the monthly dinners are even better. No chance of being overheard and dinner with friends is always nice. Besides they help cook and bring goodies *g*. We had two guests this month — due to a death in the family in April, we had to cancel our April dinner, so we just doubled our fun in May. Our guests were very different, writing different types of romances and yet both have an avid following within our group. Holly Jacobs can’t help it, she writes funny. And believe me, she is as much fun in person (or on the phone) as she is on the printed page. We got the inside scoop on her dealings with the vendetta the suicidal chipmunks are waging on her, as well as a glimpse into future books after she finishes off two series she’s working on now. It was a wonderful conversation — sorry I kept knocking over the phone, Holly! My only problem is how…