Tag: romance

Vows

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Spencer, LaVyrle. Vows. Jove, 1988.

Reason read: Spencer’s birthday is in July. Read in her honor.

We begin Vows just outside the territory of Wyoming in the year 1888. Vows is a sweet story peppered with the perfect amount of old west/new territory drama. Victorian decorum mixes with modern day sensibilities about love and intimacy. Emily Walcott, a feisty tomboy and fiercely loyal to her family is engaged to a family friend she has known since childhood. Charles Bliss followed her family from back east to Wyoming so not only is he a family friend, he is the epitome of home. However, the sparks don’t fly when she is kissing Charles Bliss on the wild western plain (thanks, Natalie, for that phrase). Still she knows he is a good man and her family has loved him forever. Enter Thomas Jeffcoat, a stranger in town. Newly arrived, he is the antithesis of Charles. Rough around the edges, a threat to her family’s business, and not afraid to speak his mind. Tom Jeffcoat knows how to make sparks catch fire when it comes to Emily Walcott. And there are sparks from the very beginning of their acquaintance. Who will Emily chose for her beau? Safe and familiar Charles or wild and unpredictable Tom?
As an aside, even though Spencer bucked the stereotypical bodice ripper cover, she kept the cliché of one character vehemently hating another while the attraction silently simmered. Love/hate relationships are the perfect vehicle for smoldering passions.

Line I liked, “How difficult it was to unravel a lifetime’s snarls” (p 284).

Author fact: Spencer thanked her local librarians for helping research details in Vows. I just love that.

Book trivia: Vows is simile central. Be prepared for “like a mole,” “like a white flotilla,” “like a giant,” “like a railroad tunnel,” “like an unspring wagons”, and on and on.

Music: Strauss Blue Danube, “While Strolling Through the Park One Day”, “All Praise, All Glory, Now We Sing”, “The Blue-tailed Fly”

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the obvious chapter called “Romance Novels: Our Love is Here to Stay” (p 203).

Hatwearer’s Lesson

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Joe, Yolanda. The Hatwearer’s Lesson. Plume, 2004.

Reason read: Yolanda Joe was born in March. Read in her honor.

When Grandmother Ollie speaks, her granddaughter, Terri, best sit up straight and listen with both ears wide open. Ms. Ollie knows a thing or two about life, love, and loss. When she couldn’t write Terri’s fiancé’s name (Derek) in her Bible she knew trouble was brewing. Terri might be a successful Chicago lawyer and one half of a gorgeous power couple soon to be married, but what is she to do when Grandmother says there is bad luck coming? Derek is wealthy, sexy, and smart. Terri, only thinking about image, cannot afford to lose Derek so she does what any practical woman would do. She ignores the mystical warnings. Terri thinks she has it all with her career and Derek, but her luck goes from bad to worse when first, she discovers her hunk of a boyfriend has been stepping out on her with a rival. Then her grandmother suffers a fall that lands Ollie in the hospital and in need of an operation. This health scare couldn’t come at a better time. Going back home to Alabama to care for Ollie gives Terri the much needed time away to clear her head. Except. What about her professional legal career? Will her absence jeopardize her place in the firm? She does have rivals sniffing around her clients. And what about her heart? Will she ever be able to trust Derek again? She has rivals sniffing around her man, too. Life becomes even more confusing when she meets an Alabama country boy who wears his heart on his sleeve and trustworthy honesty on his tongue.

Head scratcher: correct me if I am wrong, but I do not think you need to block your number when calling from a cell phone. No one will know if you are standing in your own bathroom or at the North Pole when you make a call from a cell.

Author fact: I am reading four Joe books for the Challenge. I finished Bebe’s By Golly Wow. Still to go are He Say, She Say and This Just In.

Book trivia: According to Joe, hat wearer is one word: hatwearer. My spell checker hates me right now.

Playlist: Gladys Knight, James Brown, Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, Stevie Wonder, Sammy Davis Jr., Lena Horne, and Luther Vandross.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “African American Fiction: She Say” (p 12).

Nine Year Cycle

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Jones, Trevor. Nine Year Cycle: a Memoir. Self Published, 2024.

Reason read: As a member of the Early Review program for LibraryThing, I get to review amazing books. This is one such book.

If I had to give Nine-Year Cycle a one word review it would be Grace with a capital G. Grace and civility, if I were to add another word to the mix. Trevor Jones writes about a theme everyone can relate to: love or rather the desire to be loved. At face value, Nine-Year Cycle is about Trevor Jones and his two great love affairs, each lasting nine years. Digging deeper, Nine-Year Cycle is a commentary on what it meant to be a gay man at the very start of the AIDS epidemic and later, the unpredictability of online dating. These are two very dangerous ventures for homosexuals.
Jones lost his first great love to AIDS. He handled the tragedy with a considerable about of grace. Thirteen years went by before he tried to find love a second time, this time on the internet. His second relationship was far more complicated, involving immigration and religion. I don’t think it is a spoiler alert to say I was nervous for him when he first met “Angelo”. The entire time I was worried it would be a scam; that Angelo had an ulterior motive. [As an aside, I watched a documentary on a serial killer who preyed on gay men by posing as a potential lover on internet dating sites. Scary stuff.]
Readers who want a happy ending will have to make their own judgement about Nine Year Cycle. Jones is far more forgiving than I could ever be.

Author fact: Jones is known for his theater work, but he has also done movies and television appearances.

Book trivia: because I had the e-book version that I was reading on my phone, I could not see the cover design.

Playlist: Jose Carreras, the Beatles, Duran Duran, Spandeau Ballet, George Michael, Mozart’s Alleluia from Exsultate Jubilate, and Stacey Kent’s “I’m Putting All My Eggs In One Basket”.

Sense and Sensibility

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Austen, Jane. Sense and Sensibility. Everyman’s Library, 1992.

Reason read: Read in honor of Sense and Sensibility being published in October.

Marianne, rejected by John Willoughby, is impetuous and needs sense. Her sister, Elinor, is the sensible one who will not let on that she is crushed when Edward Ferras plans to marry another. Sense and Sensibility tells the story of two very different romances. Although both are rejected they deal with it in different ways. To utter the words extinction of the individuality is to imply that the price of marriage is a loss of one’s sense of self. Threaded through the story of romance is another, more societal, theme of male dominated lineage. Austen was extremely observant about the world around her. She chose to write abut the country gentry because they stayed in her head, sometimes for years. Like other women authors of her time, Austen published Sense and Sensibility anonymously.
As an aside, I have read a lot of critical reviews of Sense and Sensibility and I have to wonder if Jane’s ghost laughs at the critics who took their task too seriously. Is Jane a psychiatric radical? She is a philosophical conservative? How deep can one delve into the ideology of sense and sensibility? Did she fashion Fanny after the Shakespearean character of Iago?

Author fact: Jane Austen had Elinor and Marianne on her mind when she was twenty years old. She was thirty-six when Sense and Sensibility was finally published. That is a long time for characters to be floating around one’s head.

Book trivia: My version of Sense and Sensibility (Alfred A. Knopf, 1992) has an introduction by Peter Conrad.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “An Anglophile’s Literary Pilgrimage” (p 20).

Boy Meets Boy

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Levithan, David. Boy Meets Boy. Alfred A. Knopf, 2003.

Reason read: August is the new back to school month. Since most of Boy Meet Boy takes place in a school, read in honor of lockers everywhere.

The world inside Boy Meets Boy is the fantasyland where we all want to live, or at least visit whenever the mood strikes us. A place where kindness reigns supreme and hate just does not seem to exist. At. All. Main character, Paul, is unlike any teenage boy you will ever meet. He is sensitive, smart, funny, romantic, thoughtful, and a serious empath. His environment is a high school where students, dissatisfied with clubs of the cultural norms, create groups like the Joy Scouts, the French cuisine club, and the Quiz bowling team. The janitors are closet (pun totally intended) wealthy day traders. The parents form groups like P-FLAG (Parents and friends of lesbians and gays). The town itself is ultra-accepting – there is a bar called the Queer Beer bar where straight guys sneak in to hit on lesbians. It’s like a paradise for the LGBTQ community: the perfect world where everyone is welcomed and joyfully accepted. Even insults are always playful and harmless. The quarterback can also be the homecoming queen – shoulder pads and manicured nails come together in one character, Infinite Darlene. Cheerleaders can afford Harleys. Mothers make pancakes that resemble the topography or states or continents. Imagine that.
But. In order to have an interesting story, you need conflict. Right? The conflict is love and all of its broken hearts. Paul was once dumped by Kyle. Now Kyle wants Paul back, but only after Paul has started something with a new boy, Noah. Noah has been burned himself. So when Noah finds out Paul kissed another boy, he’s a goner. Now Paul wants Noah back while Kyle chases Paul. Then there is Ted who was dumped by Joanie for Chuck. Somehow, Paul tries to mend all these hearts, including the ones he has no business mending. The big question is, will he win Noah back or will Kyle win his heart?

Author fact: Even though David Levithan wrote a long list of books, I am only reading Boy Meets Boy for the Challenge.

Book trivia: I could easily see this being made into a movie.

Music: Dave Matthews Band’s “All Along the Watchtower” (but not really DMB) and “Typical Situation”, “One More Day”, Depeche Mode’s “Personal Jesus”, “We Are the Champions”, Cole Porter, Pink Floyd, “Bizarre Love Triangle”, “I Will Survive”, “She’s All Mouth”, Elvis’s “Love Me Tender”, “Heartbreak Hotel”, “All Shook Up”, Ella Fitzgerald, PJ Harvey, Erasure’s “Always”, Indigo Girls, Chet Baker’s “Someone to Watch Over Me”, Beatles, “If I Had a Hammer”, “Time after Time”. “It’s Always You”, and “Let’s Get Lost”, and “Michael, Row the Boat Ashore”.

BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter called “Best for Teens” (p 23). Interestingly enough, Pearl thought Boy Meets Boy was more appropriate for boys than girls.

World at Night

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Furst, Alan. World at Night. Random House, 1996.

Reason read: Furst was born in February. Read in his honor.

We begin The World at Night on the 10th of May in 1940 before dawn. Jean-Claude Casson, film producer of forty-two years of age, is in bed with his assistant, Gabriella Vico. The phone rings…it’s Casson’s wife. Marie-Claire wants to talk about the dinner party she and Jean-Claude are throwing that night. Does this not sound like the start to a torrid romance novel? Far from it (although there is passion within the pages)! By the end of the first chapter Casson has received a telegram recalling him back to active duty. The Germans are on the move and will occupy France shortly. Without warning Corporal Casson is pulled into a completely different life and, after three months when he returns home to Paris, the old life he left behind has completely vanished. As a movie producer he needs a way to stay useful in the eyes of the enemy. What can he do to earn a living during the German occupation? Somehow, in some way, this line of work makes him the perfect recruit for espionage. The only convincing he would need would be political. Which side are you on, boy? This question becomes pertinent when a simple lie traps Jean-Claude. He realizes no one is one hundred percent evil or one hundred percent good which makes the danger all that more a stark reality. You don’t know of whom you should stay clear or who you can trust.
If you are looking for a spy thriller with lots of violence, The World at Night is not for you. The dangers are subtle and barely suggested. Instead, Furst is a master of detail. From fashion and the automobiles to the food and drink and music, the culture of Paris lives and breathes alongside its society. Furst’s imagery is perfection: what do you picture when he describes a young woman as having “hen-strangler hands”? Furst takes you into 1940s Paris with love. A commentary on authenticity. I believe authenticity comes from the ability to faithfully mimic primary sources; the ability to take first-hand accounts and recreate them exactly. Once you see faithful details repeated you assume a truthful interpretation. Such is The World at Night.
Speaking of characters and love, I could not help but fall in love with Jean-Claude Casson. His mature passion for beautiful women and the way he makes each one feel as though she were the only one in his life…sigh. When he finally settles on one particular woman you root for them to be together.

As an aside, when Casson had to turn in his automobile I needed to look up the Simca 302. I found it is a sexy looking car. Perfect for Casson. Then there was the German Horch 853. Can you imagine that thing bombing down the road today? What about the Citroen Traction Avant?
Another aside, did Furst name his book after Christopher Isherwood’s The World in the Evening?

Line I loved, “It was like being hugged by a wine-soaked onion” (p 161).

Author fact: Furst has been compared to Graham Greene, John le Carre, Somerset Maugham, Flaubert, and Balzac.

Book trivia: my copy of World at Night included a segment on the research Furst conducted to write an accurate account of Paris during the early stages of World War II. It also included a list of suggested reading. I found it curious that even though I am reading some of the same authors Furst recommended (Isherwood and Gilbert), I am not reading the exact titles.

Setlist: Adagio for Strings by Samuel Barber, Beethoven, “Begin the Beguine” (as an aside, I can remember my father telling me this was my grandmother’s favorite song), “Body and Soul”. Johnny Hess, “Marseillaise”, “Mood Indigo”, Stephane Grappelli, and “Time on My Hands”.

Nancy said: Pearl describes the plot better than some reviews I have read.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “We’ll Always Have Paris” (p 255).

Tula Station

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Toscana, David. Tula Station. St. Martin’s Press, 2001.

Reason read: I needed a book by an author from Mexico for the Portland Public Library Reading Challenge. As for the Book Lust Reading Challenge, I have no idea why I picked it.

Tula Station opens with the tragic aftermath of a hurricane that took the lives of hundreds of people. Within the pages of Tula Station there are three narratives: First, Froylan Gomez’s biography for Juan Capistran, his alleged great-great-grandfather. Froylan is declared dead after the devastating hurricane, but his wife doesn’t believe it. After finding a journal, she thinks he has faked his demise to be with another woman. She wants Toscana to rewrite the journal, which tells of Foylan meeting Juan Capistran, as fiction to lure Froylan home. Second, a historical portrait of Tula and her station. Third, Froylan’s own obsession with the woman, Carmen, for whom Capistran supposedly gave up his life.
Toscana’s writing is sly. There are two Juans, two Carmens, two writers, and two disappearances. I found hints of impropriety riddled throughout Tula Station. An uncle glancing at his niece’s calf muscles, for example. Never enough to cause outright outrage. And speaking of outrage, reading this book was a lesson in patience. There were times when I wanted to create massive flowcharts to track everyone, but I refrained.

A quote to quote, “I am falling because I let you go” (p 250).

Author fact: Toscana, born in Monterey, Nuevo Leon in the north of Mexico, has been compared to Carlos Fuentes.

Book trivia: this book was extremely hard to get. No local library had it and an interlibrary loan would have taken months. Luckily, it was available through Internet Archive. This is the first book (and hopefully the last) that I read solely through IA.

Nancy said: Pearl was one hundred percent correct when she said Tula Station demands much of the reader.

Playlist: Bach, Beethoven, and Liszt.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Mexican Fiction” (p 153).

I Capture the Castle

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Smith, Dodie. I Capture the Castle. St Martin’s Griffin, 1948.
Smith, Dodie. I Capture the Castle. Read by Toby Jones and Holliday Grainger. BBC4 Radio, 2016.

Reason read: A long time ago we stayed in a castle. It was June and very romantic.

Teenage Cassandra writes in her diary like a typical girl. She makes observations about not-so typical situations, like the fact her family lives in poverty in a rundown English castle. Her dream is to become a famous author so to practice she recounts the lives of her family with sharp and witty commentary. As she says, “contemplation seems to be about the only luxury that costs nothing” (p 25). At the onset, the name of the game seems to be to marry off sister Rose to the highest bidder; and that man seems to be American Simon Cotton. Poor Rose cannot even find a suitable dress for dinner let alone charm her future husband over a decent meal. I Capture the Castle is more than a dating game, it is the story of society’s opinion of a woman’s place. It says something about the attitudes about feminine decorum.
One of my favorite moments was when Simon and his brother Neil spotted Rose and Cassandra in ratty fur coats. To avoid anyone seeing them in such shambles Neil pretends they are a bear and “kills” it before mother can see. How perfectly ridiculous yet, there is an air of social grace in the midst of destitution.

As a personal aside, I could relate when Cassandra was seduced with the help of music. I have been there myself, both as seducer and seduced. Music can say a lot without saying anything at all…if you know what I mean.

Author fact: Dodie is Dorothy Gladys Smith, born in 1896. I Capture the Castle is her first novel, but she is also responsible for the Disney story of the One Hundred and One Dalmatians, inspired by Pongo, Smith’s own Dalmatian.

Book trivia: I Capture the Castle was made into a movie “most romantic” but before that, it was a play in 1954. Confessional: I have been saying I captureD (past tense) the castle for days now.

Audio trivia: the BBC4 Radio version is a big production with a full cast complete with music.

Playlist: “Green Sleeves”, “The Isle of Capri”, “Blow the Man Down”, “God Save the King”, Handel’s “Air from the Water Music”, Debussy’s “Water Music” and “Clair de Lune”, La Cathedrale Engloutie”, “La Terrasse Des Audiences au Clair de Lune”, Bach’s “Lover” and “Sheep May Safely Graze”.

Nancy said: Pearl admitted it was hard not to smile when reading the first line of I Capture the Castle. What was that first line? Read the book to find out.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “First Lines to Remember” (p 86).

At Weddings and Wakes

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McDermott, Alice. At Weddings and Wakes. Farrar Straus Giroux, 1992.

Reason read: June is a very popular month for weddings…to the point where it is almost cliché.

Time is handled in a “This Is Us” fashion: time goes backwards and forwards in At Weddings and Wakes. Time moves through memory and observation and seems incrementally slow. This is the story of what it means to be Irish-American in New York, told from the point of view of Lucy Dailey’s school-aged children. Again, I was reminded of “This Is Us.” The viewpoints are poignant and sad, tender and true to life. This Is Life. Lucy dutifully brings her children from Long Island to see her sisters and stepmother in Brooklyn. The three generations of family all have a rich bittersweet history to tell. Aunt Veronica needs alcohol to numb her grief. Aunt Agnes is nothing but sharp-tongued and career driven. But, the sweetness and light is found with Aunt May, a former nun in the midst of a romance with mailman.
McDermott is a master at displaying human emotions and behaviors in a way that you swear the characters are in your life; just ghosts who have just passed into another room while you weren’t looking.
As an aside, can I just say how much I love the slug scene that appears in the beginning of the book and then returns at the end?

Line I liked, “She inherited her mother’s easy access to regret” (p 52) and “The need to disagree rose in her like appetite” (p 87).

Author fact: I am reading five McDermott books. I cannot wait for That Night and Child of My Heart. I have already read Charming Billy and The Bigamist’s Daughter .

Book trivia: this should have been a movie.

Setlist: “All the Things You Are” by Jerome Kern, “Wild Irish Rose”, “I’ll Be Seeing You”, “I’ve Been Working On the Railroad”, “Rambling Wreck From Georgia Tech”, and “The Caissons Go Rolling Along”.

Nancy said: Pearl did not say anything specific about At Weddings and Wakes.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “A…is for Alice (p 1).

Katherine

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Seton, Anya. Katherine. Houghton Mifflin, 1954

Reason read: I needed a book with a name in its title for the Portland Public Library reading challenge. Katherine was next in line.

This is a love story. A fourteenth century story to be exact. Katherine Swynford has loved John of Gaunt, the Duke of Lancaster ever since she first laid eyes on him as a young girl of thirteen. As a commoner, predestined to marry a lowly knight, Katherine’s standing in society is, at best, only to be a lady-in-waiting for the Duchess of Lancaster. That is as close as she can get to the man of her dreams. Yet, meeting the duke has sealed her fate. The saga that follows spans three generations of life and love. Seton does a fantastic job weaving true history with a fabricated backstory of romance. If you get the chance, listen to the audio version. It’s fantastic.

Author fact: Seton also wrote Green Darkness which is on my challenge list.

Book trivia: the 14th century of England is accurately portrayed in Katherine.

Audio trivia: I don’t think I have ever heard someone pronounce “joust” as “juiced.”

Setlist: there were lots of songs sung, but not many by name. “Here We Come a Wassailing” was the only one.

Nancy said: Pearl said Katherine is a good example of Seton’s ability to combine fact and fiction in her work.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the odd chapter called “Romance Novels: Our Love Is Here to Stay” (p 203). I would have thought it would be in a chapter about history.

Outlander

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Gabaldon, Diana. Outlander. Read by Divina Porter. Recorded Books, 1997.

Reason read: Valentine’s Day is in February. Outlander is somewhat of a romance.

Modern day is 1945. War is afoot. Claire Randall is on holiday with her newly reunited husband, Frank. Both have been involved in the war, he as a soldier, she as a nurse. Scotland is a chance for them to reconnect, a second honeymoon of sorts. The couple finds useful ways to spend their time, him researching information on family ancestry and she looking for herbs and medicinal plants. While wandering around the Inverness countryside, Claire hears a tiny humming noise emanating from Scotland’s version of Stonehenge. Upon touching a buzzing stone, Claire faints then reawakens in 1743. So begins the journey of Claire Beauchamp that everyone knows so well. the burning question on everyone’s mind is how will she get back to modern day history professor and husband, Frank?
The real question to me is, after tangling with her husband’s ancestors, would she change her own present day life? On the heels of reading Kindred by Octavia Butler, I couldn’t help but make comparisons between the two time-travel novels. Butler’s Californian heroine, Dana, not only accepted her situation readily, but understood her purpose for being sent back to slave-era Maryland. Gabaldon’s English heroine, Claire, barely questions her jump back in time and seems to integrate herself into 1743 seamlessly. Dana finds a way to take her husband back in time with her while Claire not only leaves her modern day husband behind, but falls in love and marries a 1743 Scotsman. Claire’s main purpose, after some time, seemed to be her usefulness as a nurse and her knowledge of events in the future to save the clan who took her in. Neither Dana or Claire seem too anxious to return to their original place in time.

As an aside, when I mentioned to a friend that I had started Outlander her eyes lit up as if I had just handed her a million dollars. “Oh, I love that book” she gushed. I could tell she wanted to say more , but I hushed her with a “nope, nope. nope.”

Author fact: Gabaldon, at the time of publication, was also a professor. cool.

Book trivia: There is a certain craze surrounding Outlander. My husband cannot wait for me to watch the series. Even though there is a movie of the same name, they are not one and the same.

Playlist: “Up Among the Heather”.

Nancy said: Pearl classified Outlander as paranormal. She also calls it the best of the five (at the time) books in the series.

BookLust Twist: Pearl favored this one. From More Book Lust in the obvious chapter of “Time Travel” and again in Book Lust in the chapter “Romance Novels: Our Love is Here to Stay” (p 203) and “Romans-Fleuves” (p 208).

God of Small Things

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Roy, Arundhati. God of Small Things. Random House, 1997.

Reason read: God of Small Things won the Booker Prize, a prize that is normally awarded in October.

The God of Small Things opens with a lush description of the monsoon season of Ayemenem and the statement, “Baby Kochamma was still alive” (p 4). The simple statement hooks your breath back into your lungs while your mind jumps the rail, “what do you mean still alive?” Still? As in to imply not supposed to be of this earth? As reader, be prepared to bounce between time and space. In one chapter we will cremate a woman, in the next she will be alive and flirting.
Rahel and Estha, twins who are separated after tragedy. Death is a tragedy. Divorce is one, too. But lack of social standing is the most tragic of them all. Like a pervasive black and choking smoke, the ancient Indian caste system hangs dark and poisonous in the air. The ongoing separation of Paravan and Brahmin, touchable and untouchable, inhaled through nostrils and accepted as common as air to breathe. I was reminded of Dr. Seuss and his star bellied Sneetches. But like all unfair systems, the order of life doesn’t always work when there is a tilt, an upset in the balance. Especially when opposites attract. I don’t know how to review this book without giving too much away so I speak in circles. Jusr read it.

Quotes to quote, “On their shoulders they carried a keg of ancient anger, lit with a recent fuse” (p 67). I love it when writers take the intangible, like anger, and make it something touchable. Here’s another, “Shadows gathered like bats in the steep hollows near her collarbone” (p 154). One more: “They were not arresting a man, they were exorcising fear” (p 293). If that doesn’t say it all about racism…

Author fact: Roy studied to be an architect. she decided to write a book. God of Small Things is her first novel and wouldn’t you know it? she wins the Booker Prize.

Book trivia: I watched a short Ted video on why one should read God of Small Things. I don’t know if the makers of the video had this intention but I thought it was cute.

Nancy said: Pearl said God of Small Things was “simply glorious.”

Playlist: Elvis Presley, Handel’s Water Music, “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”, “The Sound of Music”, “Baby Elephany Walk”, “Colonel Bogey’s March”, Little Richard, “Ruby Tuesday”, “My Favorite Things”, “So Long Farewell”,

BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter called “India: a Reader’s Itinerary” (p 125). Also from Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “Scenes from Sri Lanka” (p 197).

Mosquito

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Tearne, Roma. Mosquito. Europa Editions, 2008.

Reason read: Sri Lanka’s President Rajapaska’s party wins majority in elections (August 2020).

Mosquito has been compared to The English Patient and Atonement because of its theme of love in a time of war. Sri Lanka is a country torn apart. The Liberation Tigers want a separate Tamil state. Everyone is supposed to speak Singhala, the national language. There is violence over this mandated language. Mosquito is exquisite in its portraits of people. Each person lives and breathes with vitality. Notable author Theo Samarajeeva has fallen under the spell of a teenage artist (twenty-eight years his junoir) and, despite the growing conflicts, is brazen enough to think his fame will keep him safe. His latest book is being made into a movie. Teenaged Nulani Mendis (modeled after the author?) lost her father to the conflict. With a brother who can do no harm, a difficult uncle and an overbearing mother at home, Nulani finds solace and happiness painting Theo’s portrait over and over again. But she has also attracted the attention of Liberation Tiger convert, teenaged orphan Vikram. To watch Vikram being groomed and manipulated was hard. My favorite character was Sugi, Theo’s manservant who had become an unusual friend to the famous writer. His character is critical to the love affair between Theo and Nulani.
Tearne has captures poignant elements of grief. The not wanting to be near reminders of a loved one forever gone is very familiar to me. My only eye-rolling comment is the repeated insistence that 17-year-old Nulani is “wise beyond her years” as if this makes it okay for a man 28 years her senior to be attracted to her. My confessional: at the end of the book I wanted the fairytale ending. I didn’t care about the age difference and felt petty for doing so in the first place.

Lines I liked, “In this short intermission between twilight and darkness, a mysterious transformation had occured” (p 106) and “How many lives does a man have to live before he can finally be at peace?” (p 131). A little Bob Dylan, anyone?

Author fact: which came first, Roma Tearne the artist or the author?

Book trivia: Mosquito was shortlisted fothe 2007 Costa First Novel Award.

Nancy said: Pearl didn’t say anything specific about Mosquito other than to explain the plot.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “Scenes From Sri Lanka” (p 196).

Face the Fire

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Roberts, Nora. Face the Fire. Jove Books, 2002.

Reason read: to finished the trilogy started in February in honor of Valentine’s Day and love and romance and cheesy chick lit.

To recap the trilogy: Nell came to Three Sisters Island, off the coast of Massachusetts, looking to escape an abusive husband (a la Sleeping with the Enemy). She found a sisterhood of witches with Ripley and Mia and true love with Ripley’s brother. In the second installment, Ripley, the witch with the biggest chip on her shoulder needed to chill out. She found true love with a witch researcher. In Face the Fire, it is Mia’s turn to find her true love. The only problem is, her true love is someone who walked away from her many years ago, leaving deep scars and a toughened exterior. While I appreciated the fact Mia’s story ran through the earlier installments, I was disappointment when she decided she could have a sexual relationship with long lost love, Sam. Like the other plots in the Three Sisters Island trilogy, there is an element of evil that must be vanquished before anyone can live happily ever after.

Book trivia: Face the Fire is the last book in the trilogy.

Playlist: “Sea of Love” and Pink Floyd’s “The Wall.”

Nancy said: Pearl didn’t say much about Face the Fire except it was out of chronological order in Book Lust.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Romance Novels: Our Love is Here to Stay” (p 203).

Heaven and Earth

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Roberts, Nora. Heaven and Earth. Jove Books, 2001.

Reason read: to continue the series started in honor of love (February 14th). All you need is love, love, love. Right?

In the Three Sisters Island trilogy, the plot of Heaven and Earth turns away from Nell and directs its focus onto Sheriff’s Deputy, Ripley Karen Todd. Before I go any further with the plot, I have to say there is always a popular formula to love and romance in bodice rippers: stubborn character refuses to accept second character’s heartthrob’s advances. However, handsome or beautiful second character is persistent. Very persistent with a charming veneer. Heaven and Earth is no different. Ripley is the stubborn one and newly arrived MacAllister Booke is persistent and charming. Be warned ladies, he also has a strong jaw. The problem lies in the fact MacAllister’s life work is researching people of the strange ilk: shaman, vampire, ghost, brujo, necromancer, witch, lycanthrope, alien, psychic, and neo-druid all interest him. Ripley doesn’t want to be researched. She doesn’t even like being associated with weird. There were more than a few times I resisted the urge to roll my eyes after reading lines like this, “She caught the unmistakable scent of Nell’s beef-and-barley soup and quickly decided it was that, and that alone, that was making her mouth water” (p 50). Yes, the hunky and irresistible MacAllister Booke was in Ripley’s presence.
Having said all that, I appreciated the consistency from one novel to the next. Ripley is still locked in a battle of wills with Mia Devlin. Ripley still resents the fact that she, at heart, is a witch. She’ll need to come to terms with this when Nell’s ex-husband convinces a shady reporter to pay the residents of Three Sisters Island a visit. It takes an ominous turn from there.
A word of obvious warning: Heaven and Earth is a little dated. A $20 spot as a bribe wouldn’t get you boo. These days a Benjamin is a good place to start.

As an aside, what brother calls his sister, “baby”? It kind of made my skin crawl.

Quotes to quote (aside from the eye-roll inducing ones), “He always liked the sound of the sea, especially at night when it seemed to fill the world” (p 37). Amen to that. Another one I wish could have been reworked, “A headache blasted his temples” (p 250).

Author fact: Did you know there is a Romance Writers Hall of Fame and Roberts was the first one to be inducted?

Book trivia: Heaven and Earth is the second installment of the trilogy.

Nancy said: Pearl didn’t say anything specific about Heaven and Earth except to list it out of chronological order.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Romance Novels: Our Love is Here to Stay” (p 203).