3 more books

Okay, not really three, but two really short stories and a book. :-) And no, the book was not very long - which is why I'm able to blog about it today after only giving up on that last book yesterday. :-) :-)

So lets start with the two short stories... I downloaded them from Amazon for my Kindle earlier this week and really needed something to get my mind away from that last awful book. I read "Unlucky in Death" by Dan Dillard and "101 Tips for Traveling with a Vampire" by Joleene Naylor. Both were quick, 10 minutes max reads but were funny as heck. :-) :-) I read the Unlucky story on the way to get ice cream at Sonics. :-) The end of the story had me laughing pretty hard and reminded me so much of that comedy movie, "Vampires Suck". :-) :-) I don't want to really talk about the story, because it's not very long, but I have to say again that it is funny. :-) :-) I've been reading a lot of trashy paranormal romance novels - hey, I told you that I'm easily amused - and so many of those books so cannot be taken seriously as actual novels. So this little story kind of takes some of those and totally makes fun of them. :-) *g* I'm still giggling at the ending!!! :-)

Now, 101 tips for Traveling is funny as well. This works in well with a glimpse at a chapter of the actual book. I read the chapter, but I'm not sure if I'll add it to my list of reads... yet. I'm still thinking about it. :-) I think the paranormal romance section is getting just a little too busy with vampire stories trying to become the next Twilight or Interview with a Vampire type of hits. I've read both series and they were okay... well, Twilight is not on my personal recommendations list nor is any Anne Rice stuff (she's the one that started this whole whiny vampire shit!), but if you want to read decent trash, the I'd recommend the Anita Blake series. Though the Mercy Thompson series is not all vampires (werewolves) but it does not have all of the descriptive and graphic sex scenes - so this series may actually fall under actual fantasy instead of paranormal romance - yea for Patricia Briggs! :-) :-) But I digress.... If you're familiar with Joleene Naylor's work, I'd love to hear more about it. I can't base my opinion on a short story and a chapter... but I have to admit that I loved the 101 tips! This writer has an awesome sense of humor. :-) :-)

This leaves me to my last book - which is way different than the two short stories I talked about above. It is called "The Pastor's Wife" by Jennifer Allee and I think it falls under a type of Christian romance book. See? I told you I'm easily amused - because if you knew anything about my own personal religious beliefs, you'd know that this may be the type of stuff that I'd keep away from. But the summary listed on Amazon peeked my interest. I don't always read trashy romance/sci-fi/fantasy paperbacks. :-) :-) The book was not very long because it only took me a day to read it - and no, I was not speed reading through it. I was reading at my slow pace so I could absorb the story a little better. :-) It had a couple little things that irked me - like the carrot dangling thing that drove me nuts in Dark Legacy, but the story did not revolve around this. The story starts with Maura, a former pastor's wife who ran away 6 years before the story picks up and she she finds herself in the town that she ran away from again... she finds out that she has the opportunity to renovate an old theatre and after 6 months, she inherits it to do as she pleases. Only there was a stipulation to the will... she had to move back in with her pastor husband (they never did get a divorce because each one is still in love with the other) for that 6 month period. The story isn't anything new, just the little details are different from any other kind of story like this. It's cute and kind of sweet. At times it has my eyes rolling and the ending was super cheesy and a half and three quarters - though it still brought tears to my eyes. Yeah, I guess I'm a sucker for happy endings. :-) :-) There is some scripture thrown in there, after all, one of the main characters is a pastor! but it's written well and fits into the story well. There was a series that I read a while ago - I think it was called Redemption? - where the characters would dwell on a single sentence of scripture for 5 pages!!! By the time they finally snapped out of it, I'd forgotten where the actual story was going. Anyway, if you like this kind of stuff, you may enjoy this book. It's totally predictable, but still fun to read. I like the writing style for this author - it's really smooth (unlike my own writing! :-) and flows really well. I do not have a degree in English, nor am I all that well read, but when I actually feel relaxed while reading something, like having a mental massage, then I know that the writer is doing her job. :-) And no, not everything I read helps me relax... have you ever read any of the stuff by Laurel K. Hamilton!!!!

Wow, I am so not a writer... after reading back my own blog it makes me realize how often I go off on tangents... then some of those tangents go off on others. :-) Oh well, like I keep saying, I'm not reviewing any books here, just sharing some thoughts - as scatter brained as they are. :-) :-) :-) I hope that some of these thoughts will get you to consider (or stay away from) some of the books that I've shared. I'd love to discuss some of them with you too if you want, so e me! :-) :-) :-)