hi bloggers!

Greetings, earthlings!

I know, I know. I'm sucking at updating. I don't know what's wrong with me... wait, there are many reasons, but we are not going to get into that now.

What's been going on in my life?

Well...

I'm almost done with higher education. HOORAY!
I'm starting to read more - the past five months have been reading suicide. (I think I read four books, total.)
I read Smooth Talking Stranger by Lisa Kleypas.... andohgoshIdon'twanttosaythisandadmitit but I was disappointed. Yes, disappointed. Not up-to-par to her other works. Sadness!

The other books I'm waiting for:
LK's third (fourth?) book in the Hathaways series with Poppy and the *mysterious* Harry (?) Rutledge; Elizabeth Hoyt's fourth and last in the "Legend of the Four (?) Soldiers" series, To Beguile a Beast (talk about tortured hero!)... and that's it.

First, I realize that I SUCK at remembering stuff. I used to be so good, especially with my beloved romance novels. What happened?! (I think it's my age. Sigh! LOL)

Second, I know I said I wouldn't read any more romances, but after these two, I'm done! Well, I bet I'll keep reading LK's... dang it, it's like an addiction.

Third, I will try my very, very best to update at least three times a week. (we're starting out small and working to greatness.) I'm thinking Mon-Wed-Fri. And, if you haven't noticed, I time-stamp so that all my entries are at 10:02 am. 10:02 is a good time, I say.

Fourth, I have followers! (What does that mean? I'm still not familiar with eblogger....) But HOORAY! Someone kind of wants to read all of the douchebaggy and jerkish things I have to say! Thanks, you guys :)

Fifth, I need to erase my nail polish. It's cracking. Goshdarnit.

With that, I bid you a wonderful Friday and a book review, which will, amazingly, be in exactly an hour. Hooray!

xoxo,
Alice

Emily Giffin: Something Borrowed

Something Borrowed: C+
Chick-lit, women's fiction

An unexpected love affair threatens a long-lived friendship in this soap opera–like debut from Atlanta ex-lawyer Giffin. Since elementary school, Rachel and Darcy have been best friends, with Darcy always outshining Rachel. While single Rachel is the self-confessed good girl, an attorney trapped at a suffocating New York law firm, Darcy is the complete opposite, a stereotypical outgoing publicist, planning a wedding with the handsome Dex. After Rachel's 30th birthday party, she knocks back one drink too many and winds up in bed with Dex. Instead of feeling guilty about sleeping with her best friend's fiancé, Rachel realizes that Dex is the only man she's really loved, and that she's always resented manipulative Darcy. Rachel and Dex spend a few weekends in the city together "working" while Darcy's off with friends at a Hamptons beach share, but finally Rachel realizes she'll have to give Dex an ultimatum... (Publisher's Weekly)


Here is a book that I loathed to read. Really, really loathed. There are many reasons as to why I would have never even touched this novel.

1. I hate reading about cheaters
2. Rachel, the heroine, cheats with her best friend's fiance.
3. I hate cheaters.

"But Alice," my book buddy Nancy said to me, "just try it."

And so, I did, with mixed feelings. And all through the book, I read with mixed feelings.

This book is not a romance. It, however, is a book about friendship, about relationships, and about self and on discovering who you are.

The gist of the story is this: Rachel turns thirty. She has a party, with of course, her best friend, Darcy, who is gorgeous and everything Rachel is not. Rachel is smart and intelligent, but more Plain Jane than anything else.

So she turns thirty. She gets pretty drunk. She and Darcy's fiance, Dex, are on their way home when ...one step after another, they get to her place, and they do the unthinkable.

What was so hard for me to read about this book was not that they cheat once and own up to their mistakes.

It's that they repeatedly sleep with each other - and the "mistake" turns into a full-fledged affair. A secret affair. It's the fact that they both knew what they were doing, and yet they did the wrong thing.. over and over and over again.

Gritty. Dirty. Ugly.

Reality?

Perhaps.

Griffin explains why the affair happens: that Rachel had always had feelings for Dex but never felt she was good enough, how Dex really loved Rachel, too, but got caught up with Darcy, how Darcy is selfish and pretty-much spoiled...

..and it's through this affair that Rachel is finally able to say, "Darcy, I love you because you're my best friend, but I love myself and I care about what I want, too." - and hence the affair. Rachel wants it and she wants Dex.

But, good citizens of the earth, we cannot all have what we want. And no matter what anyone tells me, getting involved with a man who is already in a relationship is wrong on so many different levels. Have more respect for yourself: if I was Rachel and Dex claims to love me, why can't he love me enough to leave Darcy? Why does our relationship - our love - have to be something clandestine?

It's not a healthy way to start - or be in a relationship, and I don't care what your heart tells you. Listen to your rational brain!

However, I will give Emily Giffin credit in that... the book sucks you in. I read it, partially cringing, partially intrigued - in the same way a fatal car accident is (minus someone dying). And it did give me much to think about.

What would I have done if I was in Rachel's position?
What would I do if I was in love with my sister's (with whom I'm very close with) or best friend's fiance?

As much as I would love to jump up and yell, NO, I WOULD NEVER DO WHAT RACHEL DID!, I cannot be 100% sure.

All I can hope is that I wouldn't do what Rachel did: I hope I would be woman enough to find myself - and respect myself - to walk away and do what is right to myself, no matter how delectable the boy is.

In conclusion: read if you want to think about these issues. But don't read if you want a snuggle, feel-good romance. It's definitely not that.

A B+ for writing style - she really is marvelous at telling the story, but D for the overall content of story.

Tess Gerritsen: The Keepsake

The Keepsake: B+
Jane Rizzoli & Maura Isles series, book 7


Y'all know how much I love Tess Gerritsen and her lovely writing. I got my grubby little hands on her latest novel, The Keepsake, and read the day away - finishing it in something like five hours.

And, of course, I liked it, though her descriptions of psychopaths and sociopaths really scare me. This might be a good place to state that if you're the owner of a weak heart, this is not a read for you.

A mummy is found in the basement of an eclectic museum in Boston. Dr. Maura Isles, semi-reclusive medical examiner, is present at the CT scan to determine more specifics of the mummy. When they discover that the mummified body dubbed Madam X is not 2,000 years old and instead is a modern-day murder victim, the Boston PD step in.

Tough woman and Boston PD homicide expert, Jane Rizzoli steps in with her team to investigate when they find yet another victim, a keepsake of another sort. It's discovered that the killer, the "Archaeology Killer," is obsessed with preserving its victim. It's when a third body is found, along with the disappearance of a beautiful but suspicious Egyptologist that the situation intensifies.


I was engrossed in my novel - the dark scene where Rizzoli is investigating when my sister knocked on my door. My heart tripped. "I'm reading a murder thriller... leave me alone!" (LOL)

I'm a huge fan of archaeology (I wanted to be an archaeologist when I was younger.) The digging, the discovery... Egypt with its pyramids and hieroglyphics - awesome! (Plus, the whole sexy-swagger-of-Indiana-Jones didn't hurt.) It's no surprise that I was entranced by The Keepsake from the very beginning.

...and now, I really want to be an archaeologist! (Similar to how I wanted to be a doctor when I was watching Grey's Anatomy. Me persuaded by media? No way Jose!)

The story moves fast, the characters are complex, and the thrill is disturbing, but enticing.

The further development of Daniel and Maura's illicit and forbidden relationship had me gripping the book even tighter. Dang it, I want to know what happens! Dang it! Dang it! And, I was a little disappointed that there wasn't more interaction between Gabriel and Jane, but that's just me being selfish.

The ending was a little predictable, but good, regardless. If you can stand the blood and gore - and you are thirsting for some good 'ol action, read this one. It's fun, I tell ya!

Lisa Kleypas's SMOOTH TALKING STRANGER excerpt

From the wonderful ladies at the Judith McNaught Bulletin Board, here is an excerpt of Lisa Kleypas's new book, Smooth Talking Stranger, that was printed in the Romantic Times Magazine.

Only twenty-seven more days! Hooray!!


Excerpt

Jack Travis kissed me until the sensations flowed in directions I couldn't go, spilling and sliding darkly. As I felt a desperate ache cambering low in my body, I finally understood that if I slept with this man, he would take everything. All the defenses I had built would be destroyed.

Shaking, I pushed at him and managed to turn my head long enough to gasp, "I can't. No. That's enough, Jack."

He stopped at once. But he kept me against him, his chest moving hard and fast.

I couldn't look at him. My voice was hoarse as I said, "That shouldn't have happened."

"I've wanted this since the first second I saw you. His arms tightened, and he bent over me until his mouth was close to my ear. Gently he whispered, "You did too."

"I didn't. I don't."

"You need some fun, Ella."

I let out an incredulous laugh. "Believe me, I don't need fun, I need--" I broke off with a gasp as he pressed my hips closer to his. The feel of him was more than my dazzled senses could handle. To my mortification, I hitched up against him before I could stop myself, heat and instinct winning out over sanity.

Feeling the reflexive response, Jack smiled against my scarlet cheek. "You should take me on. I'd be good for you."

"You are so full of yourself . . . and you would not be good for me, with your steaks and power tools and your attention-deficit libido, and . . . I'll bet you're a card-carrying member of the NRA. Admit it, you are." I couldn't seem to shut up. I was talking too much, breathing too fast, jittering like a wind-up toy that had been wound to the limits of its mechanism.

Jack nuzzled into a sensitive place behind my ear. "Why does that matter?"

"Is that a yes? It must be. God. It matters because--stop that. It matters because I would only go to bed with a man who respected me and my views. My--" I broke off with an inarticulate sound as he nibbled lightly at my skin.

"I respect you," he murmured. "And your views. I think of you as an equal. I respect your brains, and all those big words you like to use. But I also want to rip your clothes off and have sex with you until you scream and cry and see God." His mouth dragged gently along my throat. I jerked helplessly, muscles jolting with pleasure, and his hands gripped my hips, keeping me in place. "I'm gonna show you a good time, Ella. Starting with some take-no-prisoners sex. The kind when you can't remember your own name after."

"I've been with Dane for four years," I managed to say. "He understands me in a way you don't."

"I can learn you."

It seemed as if something inside me had started to unravel, weakness spreading, all my body tightening against it. I closed my eyes and bit back a whimper. "When you offered me the apartment," I said weakly, "you implied you had no ulterior motives. I don't appreciate the position this puts me in, Jack."

His head lifted, and his lips brushed the tip of my nose. "What position would you prefer?"

It's gonna be good... I can feel it in my bones. :)

Siri Mitchell: A Constant Heart

A Constant Heart: DNF
Some girl and some guy


Y'all know how hard I try not to be a hater.
I try hard.
Really hard.

Well, actually, that's a lie. I don't try hard when the writer writes something that is complete monkey poop.

In most cases, I force myself to read half the book before I toss it out the window. I got about twenty pages in when, in exasperation, I banged my head on the desk several times. So not only did I have a bitter mental experience from reading this book, I had a large forehead-bruise to show for it.

A Constant Heart takes place in the medieval times, when ladies and gentlemen paid their respects to the King or Queen by going to court.

Some Girl, with the face of an angel, is to marry Some Guy... an earl, if I'm remembering correctly. She is well prepared for the task, but is still scared, reasonably so.

Some Guy is some earl who has had a very bad experience of marriage because of the cheating ways of his first wife. He is determined to hate everything about Some Girl and Some Girl's business, and every aspect of married life.. better yet, he doesn't even want to marry her. He just needs her dowry to buy back his family's estate.

So off starts their brilliant and very charming marriage. Then they go to court. Some Girl is scared and she discovers that the Queen hates her. We don't know why. (Actually, it's just me since I didn't finish..)

Not so bad of a start to a medieval romance, you might be thinking.

Do not be fooled!

It was the writing style of the book that threatened to eat my soul. It is a book written in the first person POV, which normally doesn't bother me at all.

However, it switches off between Some Guy and Some Girl's point of view... indistinguishably! It would switch off between the Some Girl's first person POV and then Some Guy's.

This is an example and interpretation of a scene from the book and what Alice was thinking as she read through this jungle of point-of-views.


I was unhappy.
I was unhappy at the world and everything that was happening. Did I do something wrong? What was I doing wrong? I needed to talk to someone... I knew this wasn't a good idea.
Alice: who is talking?

--

I was unhappy. Was this supposed to be happening? Unfortunately for the both of us, we were in this situation whether we liked it or not. It would be in our interest to make the best of everything.
Alice: Right. Unhappy. Who??

--

Unhappy. I'm unhappy.

Alice: I'm unhappy too. Who are you?

---

Unhappy.
I wished I had never married. I wanted to talk to my best friend (insert Another Girl's name).
Alice: We know that both of them are unhappy, damn it! Who the he--... oh.... *reads Another Girl's name)... this is Some Girl!

*Goes back up to the very front of the page to reread, keeping in mind that the first person who talked had been Some Girl.*

Now imagine doing this every two or three pages. The little dotted line (---) indicated a change in the perspective, but never revealed who was talking. The font was the same. The color of the font was the same. The I's and you's were the same.

And when a new chapter began (every two or three pages), sometimes it was the POV of the person who had been talking/ thinking at the end of the previous chapter... or it was the start of the other person's POV.

You had to read in order to figure out who was talking, and then go back to re-read everything in context.


How aggravating!!!!

It not only took me twice as long to read everything, I was tired of reading the same scene twice - once in Some Girl's POV and the other time in Some Guy's POV. For the love of mother earth, I don't need to know both character's thoughts for each. and. every. single. action they commit.

It's dreary. And boring. And dull. And uninteresting.


Moral of review:
If you're an author, don't write like this. It sucks.
If you're a reader, don't read this. It sucks.

not in any way book related

...but I practically peed in my pants reading this.
























Happy end-of-Monday!

kind-of sad news

I wish you had a wonderful New Year and that you kept warm during your holidays.

I've decided, after much thinking, to not (really) read category romances this year and instead, focus on the books I've listed on my '101 books in 1,001 days' challenge - which are (sadly) littered with classics and other "noteworthy" books of literature.

I'm also very busy this semester with my five (!!) classes... which means Alice's time for reading has gone from <----------------> to <-->.

I will try to update this blog with useful tidbits and reviews of books that I've read last year, but I will not be focusing on romance new releases (minus the new Elizabeth Hoyt and Lisa Kleypas that I've been selling my soul for).

My sincere apologies. I'm sure you'll now go home and cry into your pillow, but fear not... I shall remain being my extremely interesting self and I will continue to blog about bookish stuff. What can I say?

I'm a booknerd.


With that said, I'm almost done with The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
Um. Well. It's different... and hilarious. I laughed a lot - not that it really takes a to get me to laugh - but I did.

Review will come. Shortly.