Isn't family great!

A BIG shout-out and Thank-you to my cousin Maggie for designing my new blog logo.  What do you all think of it?  Is the dog too weird?  I collect scottish terrier memorabilia, so I couldn't resist the cover from Love Stories magazine of the lady with her scottie.

And the winner of my drawing for a copy of Lord and Lady Spy by Shana Galen is Ronlyn!!  Congratulations Ronlyn!!!  And thanks to Random.org for pulling comment #1 from my first book review.

Lord and Lady Spy

My first review!  I hope I do this book justice!

Outward appearances can be deceiving. Sophia Galloway appears to be a mousy, unremarkable woman, but she's hiding a secret identity.  She is also Agent Saint of the Barbican Group.  Her husband Adrian, a gentleman about town, is also hiding a secret identy.  He is Agent Wolf of the same Barbican Group. 

Now that the war with France is over, & Napoleon has been captured, the crown no longer has need of their services.   They both return home to try to pick up the threads of their lives, only to be called in for a special investigation, where they discover each others secret identities.  They need to discover who killed the Prime Minister's brother.  Whoever solves the crime gets their position back with the Barbican Group.

At first, they are each determined to best the other and resume their service with Barbican. Sophia is desperate to escape the pain of 3 miscarriages.  Adrain wants to prove that he is loyal to his country & not a traitor like his father.  They begin their investigations alone, only to keep turning up in the same place at the same time.  They decide it might be beneficial to work together, at least until they close in on the killer.

While working together to solve the murder, and stay one step ahead of the people who want to silence them, they fall in love, and realizing that they are a better as a team, they decide to give themselves and their marriage another chance.

This is a really enjoyable book - lots of witty banter with characters you can like and sympathize with.  While you can understand why the characters act the way they do, you are rooting for them to forget past hurts and get back to being husband and wife.  Shana Galen scores again, with a well written story that is one of many that she has written.  If you enjoy this book, please check out her other books.  She also has a great web site, including a blog.  The link is on my sidebar.

I am giving away a copy of this book to one lucky person who comments on this review.  I hope Shana can stop by to answer any questions you might have for her.

Upcoming book review -- Lord & Lady Spy by Shana Galen - plus a giveaway!!

Blog slug

So, my blog is now a week old, and I've already failed at my goal of posting daily.  Sometimes life gets in the way of fun.... I could claim I've been busy cleaning because that damn girlfriend person never showed up, but that would be a lie.  I'm just lazy.  I've been reading some really good books, and I found out that I can't write posts for the blog from my Kindle Fire...so I just didn't get around to posting.  I also couldn't decide what book to review first... there are so many good ones!!  Then yesterday, I received my first book to give away - Lord & Lady Spy by Shana Galen -- that one got moved to the top of the list right away.  So, I will write a review of the book and post it this weekend - and have a giveaway for all commenters!  Please plan to join me this weekend to discuss this book and enter for a chance to win your own copy!

The "Secret" Baby

Went to a baby shower for a co-worker today at lunch, and it got me thinking about that whole “secret baby” story line that pops up in romance novels.  That’s really a misnomer– because there is no way to keep a baby a secret – unless the father is on another planet, or happens to be pretend dead.

Casey commented that in the last week her husband has made comments regarding her size, shape and mood.  Making elephant noises when she bumps into stuff, or teasing her because she can’t reach her feet.  Telling her that he hopes the baby comes by the due date so he can take a trip to Vegas….for business.  Uh huh.  When she just gave him “the look”, he suggested that maybe she could get the Dr to induce her if she goes late….  Stuff like this is not a good way to get on a hormonal woman’s good side.  She told us in confidence that he’s lucky there isn’t a pair of scissors stuck in his forehead.  I’m positive she wasn’t joking.  I suggested she kick him in the ass, but she said her foot wouldn’t reach that high, so we agreed to do it for her.  Women have to stick together in times like this.

I confess I kinda like that secret baby plot – maybe because I’ve never had kids.  It’s a lot easier to have a secret dog than it is a secret baby.

What do you think – like it or hate it??

Outside of a book...

How important is the "outside" of a book? Do you pick up a new book based strictly on the looks of the cover? Is it the color or the photo that catches your eye first?

That's a hard one for me to answer. When I'm standing in front of a rack of romance novels, scanning the covers, most of the time its the color that catches my eye first. Any cover that is predominately purple screams at me "check me out!!"

The next thing that catches my eye are some spectacular abs... the more room they take up on the cover the better. If there happens to be a kilt below those abs, that cover gets bonus points. Of course, not too many modern men wear kilts.... unless you happen to live in Scotland or Ireland...

Once I have picked up a book, the back cover has got to have some intriguing info about the story, or the book goes immediately back on the shelf. If the back cover gets me interested, the next thing I do is check out page 90-100 inside the book. If that looks interesting, the book goes in my shopping cart. If not, back on the shelf.

What are the criteria that you use when judging a book by it's cover??