Mr. Cavendish, I Presume

Here’s another book that I’ve been waiting to read. Not because I didn’t want to, but I was saving it for the right moment.

Here’s the blurb for Mr. Cavendish, I Presume by Julia Quinn:

There went the bride...

Amelia Willoughby has been engaged to the Duke of Wyndham for as long as she can remember. Literally. A mere six months old when the contracts were signed, she has spent the rest of her life waiting. And waiting. And waiting...for Thomas Cavendish, the oh-so-lofty duke, to finally get around to marrying her. But as she watches him from afar, she has a sneaking suspicion that he never thinks about her at all...

It's true. He doesn't. Thomas rather likes having a fiancée—all the better to keep the husband-hunters at bay—and he does intend to marry her...eventually. But just when he begins to realize that his bride might be something more than convenient, Thomas’s world is rocked by the arrival of his long-lost cousin, who may or may not be the true Duke of Wyndham. And if Thomas is not the duke, then he’s not engaged to Amelia. Which is the cruelest joke of all, because this arrogant and illustrious duke has made the mistake of falling in love...with his own fiancée!

Is it just me, or did I just stumble on a book that was a waste of my time. I knew before I started that this book was Thomas’s version of what happened, Jack‘s version is here. But I didn’t realize it would have been so repetitive. And I wanted more interaction between the hero and heroine. It just seemed to be lacking. I wanted to know more of what happened after the fact, of Thomas adjusting to his new status with Amelia’s help. But we didn’t get much of anything beyond that… oh well…

Mr. Cavendish, I Presume by Julia Quinn (3/5) Historical Romance; Published: Avon (10/08); Series: # 2, The Two Dukes of Wyndham; 100 + reading Challenge (81); Keeper shelf (It’s here because, I can’t seem to get rid of any of the authors books, just on principle).

Carrot Cake Murder

Once upon a time, one of my favourite sleuths, Hannah Swenson made me run to the bookstore to buy her books as soon as possible. But after several books where she cannot make up her mind between her two male suitors, I got tired. She doesn’t deserve neither one of them. They should move on, yes I think Norman and Mike need new love interests, and then Hannah will just learn from her mistakes and not take them for granted. Ok, got that off my chest!

When I found this book at the library, I wasn’t all too sure if I should pick it up, but I do enjoy the Swensen sisters, and I thought about giving Hannah another chance. So Carrot Cake Murder by Joanne Fluke found a place in my tote bag.

Here’s the blurb:

Summertime has finally arrived in Lake Eden, Minnesota, and Hannah Swensen, owner of The Cookie Jar bakery, is looking forward to warm, lazy days, eating ice cream, and sharing picnics with friends. But when a family reunion takes a deadly turn, it's up to Hannah to find a killer...

Hannah Swensen has a lot on her plate, baking up a storm for The Cookie Jar. But she'll always make time for her business partner, Lisa, who's preparing for a big family reunion. Everyone is delighted when Lisa's long-lost uncle makes a surprise appearance. No one has heard from Gus in twenty-five years. Uncle Gus is immediately the hit of the reunion. He's almost as popular as Hannah's scrumptious carrot cake. But the next morning, as the whole family gathers for the group photo, one person is missing. Hannah offers to track down Uncle Gus, but her search leads to a shocking find. Over by the bar at the pavilion, she spots two slices of her infamous carrot cake, frosting side down on the floor -- and Gus's corpse with an ice pick jutting out of his chest!

A little snooping reveals that not everyone was celebrating Gus's return. And when Hannah unearths secrets from Gus's past, she discovers many more people with an axe to grind. Now Hannah's got to sift through a long list of suspects to find a killer -- even if it could be a recipe for her own demise...

I don’t know why I even bothered! I thought maybe, just maybe, that this book would be the one to bring Hannah out of her slump. I don’t mean just Norman/Mike triangle, but the way she just commandeers the whole population of Lake Eden. It seems to me that Hannah is the only person able to figure out or resolve problems in town, they’ve lost all confidence in the police. It seems that even the police think the same, because they ask for her help! Is that realistic?! Please!

Carrot Cake Murder by Joanne Fluke (2.5/5) Mystery; Published: Kensington (2008); Series: # 10, Hannah Swenson; Waste of Time; 100 + Reading Challenge (79); Library book;

Sweet Trouble

Jesse Keyes has done some serious growing up. With a steady job and a vibrant four-year-old son, Gabe, she's in a far better place than when she left Seattle five years ago…pregnant and misunderstood by almost everyone in her life.

Now it's time to go home and face her demons. But her sisters, Claire and Nicole, aren't exactly impressed with the new and improved Jesse. And then there's Matt, Gabe's father, who makes it clear that he never wants to see her again despite the lust that still smolders between them.

Jesse doesn't know if she can make up for all the mistakes of her past. But the promise of sweet nights with Matt might just give her the extra incentive she needs to make it worth the trouble.…

Throughout the series, Jesse was made to be the “bad” sister, and everything lead on to that thoughts. But she never had her chance to explain, in my opinion she had plenty of chances she was just hurt. It was all a misunderstanding, one that took almost five years to resolve. In the process the people that were involved moved on, some better than others. Matt didn’t deal very well with “Jesse’s infidelity”, and he’s been taking his anger to the next level.

Of the Bakery Sisters’ series this one is my least favorite. In all honestly I really didn’t care for it. Matt and Jesse got on my nerves, the only good character in this book was Gabe.

I never thought I would say this about a Susan Mallery book, but it was a waste of my time. I should have been reading something else

Sweet Trouble by Susan Mallery (2.5/5) Romance; Published: HQN (08/08); Series: # 3, Bakery Sisters; 100 + Reading Challenge (64); Waste of Time;

That's Amore

I haven’t read too many of Wendy Markham’s books, I’ve enjoyed one and the other wasn’t that great. But when I found That’s Amore on the new releases shelf at the library, I decided to give the author another chance.

Here’s the blurb:

Daria Marshall is a psychic who sees dead people, but she learned the hard way not to interpret their messages. Now the spirit of an old man keeps popping up wherever she goes, and so does the very much alive -- and charismatic -- Ralph Chickalini. What’s a reluctant medium to do?

The youngest sibling in a large, fun-loving Italian family, Ralph has just lost his beloved father. Everything in his life is changing from the menu at the family pizzeria to plans to preserve his childhood home. Only nomadic newcomer Daria seems to understand Ralph, but she with her own complications. Ralph doesn’t believe in ghosts, or in opposites attracting. And footloose Daria doesn’t want to put down roots. But even as they keep trying to go their separate ways, it seems the Other Side has Other ideas…

I struggled reading this book. The premise of it was promising but the execution was not my cup of tea. Let’s begin with the author writing in the present tense. It really bothered me, I usually don’t nick pick on things like that, but it was really distracting. I can deal with first person, but the present tense bothers me… Go figure!

I found the main characters boring. Yes, boring. Daria is a gypsy by choice, she cannot feel comfortable with staying in one place for too long. And I found Ralphie (yes, Ralphie!) childish. Trust me, I have a child that doesn’t do well with change, and Ralphie behaved the way my six year old would have. What’s the deal with that?!

Another question: What's the deal with dog on the cover? There isn't a dog in the story.

I mentioned numerous times before I’m a moody reader, and I can honestly say it was NOT my mood. I really didn’t like it. Yep, this book has my Waste of Time stamp.

That’s Amore by Wendy Markham (2/5) Romance Contemporary; Paranormal: Psychic; Published: Grand Central Publishing (7/08); Series: # 2, Chickalini Family; 100 + Reading Challenge (58); Library book; Waste of Time;

Girls In Trucks

This book was recommended to me by a friend. She read it and loved it, and usually our tastes in books are similar, so I didn’t think twice about picking this book up at the library.

Here’s the blurb:

Meet Sarah Walters, a Charleston debutante with questionable manners and an inherited weakness for bad ideas. Sarah’s brilliant older sister just dropped out of Yale to run off with an unstable graduate student from Africa. Her beautiful mother lectures her incessantly on the importance of good etiquette but tends to act cold and mysterious after she’s had her nightly gin. Still, Sarah tries to follow the rules set by the Camellia Society, the creators of the debutante code. After all, this is Charleston. Decorum means everything.

But it’s not easy to be good, particularly in those summers when she and her friend run into wild Island boys in pickup trucks. When Sarah heads north to college and New York, she finds a world very different from the one promised to her by the Camellias. The girls don’t say “ma’am”; the boys don’t act like gentlemen. And then there’s love, which comes to Sarah in the form of Max, a passionate yet emotionally closed older man who leads Sarah to her dark side and then leaves her alone to find her way back.

Events bring Sarah home to Charleston and give her a good, fresh look at her beginnings. The revelation of her mother’s secret - one of many sights now plain to Sarah’s eyes - shows her that the motto of her girlhood, “Once a Camellia, always a Camellia,” has more truth to it than she had ever guessed.

I was expecting this book to have the Southern charm that I love so much, and I got something completely different. I enjoyed the first part of the book, and slowly the story just got so complicated. It felt like the author just jammed numerous sub-plots as fillers, and to me it took away from the main story. As for Sarah, the main character, I thought as a child she had potential, and her character as a teen was strong but somehow she loses all her self esteem and self respect as a adult. Argh! She's one of those heroines that you want slap across the head and say "Snap out of it!".

Bottom line, I thought the book was a waste of my time. I should have been reading something else.

Girls In Trucks by Katie Crouch (2/5) General Fiction; Published: Little, Brown & Company 3/2008; New Author; 100 + Reading Challenge(55); Library book;