Armchair BEA: Exploring Melbourne

Armchair BEA is here! And this is the first day's theme for our posts:

You’ll probably be getting a lot of new visitors to your blog this week, so introduce yourself in a post! And if you specialize in a particular genre, share what it is and why you love it. Also, tell us how you’re doing Armchair BEA - where you are, what you’re excited about, what you hope will happen this week.

G'day. Welcome!

Actually, I don't normally say g'day at all, so how about hello! I am coming to you live from Melbourne, Australia!

What  to tell you? I have been blogging for around five and a half years, and I am still trying to get better at it! I am an avid reader, and blogger, as well as being a single mum and holding down a full time job. I read all sorts of genres, from spec fic to historical fiction, from romance to YA, and a few other genres.

During this week I am planning to respond to each of the writing prompts offered each day, will be interviewed over at the main Armchair BEA site later in the week, and I am also intending to do a post each day where I will imagine that I was actually in New York at BEA, and what I would be doing!

Today I thought that I would share something of Melbourne, the city I have lived in for nearly 10 years now. One of the things that Melbourne is famous for is having a vibrant atmosphere that centres around the many laneways and arcades that are around the city.  To be honest, I never really got what the fuss was until a few weeks ago, on a gorgeous autumn day, I went on a tour of the laneways and arcades in one part of the city. There were certain laneways that I did go down on a semi regular basis, but they always seemed quite commercial and busy, so it was fun to go down some that were less so.One of the things that I learned from the tour is to remember to look up and take the time to see what is around us.

I thought I would share a few pictures and thoughts.

This laneway is about 5 minutes from where I work, and I had no idea it was there! Out of shot there is what is supposed to be one of the oldest buildings in Melbourne, and a cute little pub.

 This shop is called Wunderkammer, and is home to Scientific Curiosities, Artefacts and Ephemera

Some European inspired architecture nestled alongside more modern buildings.

There are a lot of parts of the city where you need to look up to see the various artistic additions that someone has made to the walls. There were so many fun examples of this scattered throughout the walk.

I have no idea what this business is. It is down a relatively hidden laneway, but I loved the sign.

One way to recycle an old tape recorder/radio

Hardware Lane is full of restaurants!

The old GPO, now a swanky shopping destination.

One of the most famous arcades in Melbourne, Block Arcade.

One of Melbourne's favourite celebrities is honoured. There is also an AC/DC Lane.

This couch was just sitting out in a laneway with all these small framed pictures on the wall behind it.

There are several laneways where there are coffee shops/cafes/restaurants etc lining each side. These laneways always seem busy and quite vibrant. We even saw a bride and groom having some of their wedding photos taken in one of these laneways - I guess they wanted a flavour of quintessential Melbourne in their photos.

I couldn't possibly resist taking a photo of this shop window. I did resist actually buying anything....this time!

Sunday Salon: Coming up this week!

As I sit here and write this post on Sunday evening, it feels a bit like the calm before the storm, as it is going to be a very busy blogging week for me, and for a lot of others, this week.

I wanted to start off with a reminder to Melbourne based bloggers about the book blogger meet up which is happening on Thursday night. The full details are here, and it would be fantastic to see lots of people there.

There will be lots of book bloggers headed for New York for BEA this week, and whilst I am not going to be in a position to undertake that adventure for a few years yet, I can do the next best thing, and that is to participate in Armchair BEA!

What is Armchaire BEA? It is a chance for you to participate in an online conference where you will be given various themes to post about, there are blogger interviews, giveaways and so much more! There are more than 350 bloggers signed up to participate so far, so this is also a great opportunity to discover new blogs and have a lot of fun!

That means that this week I will be blogging a bit more than nomral as I am planning to blog in response to the daily writing prompts, and like last year I am planning to also post about what I would be thinking about doing if I was really in New York for BEA. I also have two reviews scheduled and my normal blogging to do!

In addition, I am also going to two author events this week myself. I am going to see Cassandra Clare and Kristin Cashore, and the aforementioned book blogger meetup!

Busy, busy, busy, and I like it that way!

Weekend Cooking: Food and music

If you were on Twitter earlier in the week you may have seen that one of the trending topics was #gleesterchef. What on earth is that? Well, the idea was to combine food (Masterchef which is a really successful TV cooking show here and in the UK. I am not sure but I think it is coming soon to the US) and music (Glee) in a fun way by just by making small changes to the song titles or lyrics. #gleesterchef was started by Australia comedian Adam Hills, and was lots and lots of fun as more and more people got involved (or it was until the spammers got hold of the hashtag).

Here are just a couple of my favourites.

@noxceptions: #gleesterchef 'Cause I'm a crepe. I'm a weird dough. What the hell am I doughing here? I donut belong here

@heath76: #gleesterchef It's A Long Way To The Shop If You Want A Sausage Roll

@pattypoopants #gleesterchef they tried to make me eat a kebab, I said no, no, no!

@AceRimmerAdel: Like a bat out of hell, I'll be gone when the Mornay comes #gleesterchef

If I was going to make an entry it would probably have been Peaches of You by The Last Goodnight, mainly because I always thought that was what they were saying anyway. I knew it wasn't right because it didn't make any sense, but still.



What reading all the #gleesterchef tweets did make me think of for this week's Weekend Cooking post was songs about food or that could be linked to food! Now I am sure that there are hundreds of songs I could pick from but I thought I would start with just a few. I might come back to this topic in future posts.

One of my favourites would have to be Raspberry Beret by Prince, the Artist Formally Known as you know who I mean. I can't embed this song though because he is really strict on not allowing his music on Youtube.

I am possibly showing my age here, because one of the first songs I thought of was Cherry Pie by Warrant:



Move forward a few years into the early 2000s and UK singer Craig David had a hit with Flava



And another song about Peaches, this time by Presidents of the United States. Now I like peaches, and other fruit a lot, but I am not sure I would ever actually write a song about them!



Do you have any fun ideas for #gleesterchef? Do you have some favourite foodie songs?

 Weekend Cooking is hosted by Beth Fish Reads and is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, fabulous quotations, photographs.

Library Loot: May 18 to 24

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire from The Captive Reader and Marg from The Adventures of an Intrepid Reader that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post-feel free to steal the button-and link it using the Mr. Linky any time during the week. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries!

Yay! Time for Library Loot again! After last week's monster haul of library books, this week I borrowed a more reasonable number of items, and none of them are reloot!

Here's my loot for this week:

One of our Thursdays is Missing by Jasper Fforde - love, love, love the Thursday Next books, and this is the newest one!

Awakened by PC Cast and Kristen Cast - next book in the House of Night series.

The Art of the Engine Driver by Steven Carroll - this is the first in a trilogy set in Melbourne. I have been meaning to read it for a while, but was reminded when I was reading Tony's reviews of the last couple of books in the trilogy last week.

White Time by Margo Lanagan - Having read and loved Yellowcake recently, I am not working my way through Margo Lanagan's short story backlist!

What loot did you get this week? Share your link by add it to Mr Linky below:

The Peach Keeper by Sarah Addison Allen

The New York Times bestselling author of The Girl Who Chased the Moon welcomes you to her newest locale: Walls of Water, North Carolina, where the secrets are thicker than the fog from the town’s famous waterfalls, and the stuff of superstition is just as real as you want it to be.

It’s the dubious distinction of thirty-year-old Willa Jackson to hail from a fine old Southern family of means that met with financial ruin generations ago. The Blue Ridge Madam—built by Willa’s great-great-grandfather during Walls of Water’s heyday, and once the town’s grandest home—has stood for years as a lonely monument to misfortune and scandal. And Willa herself has long strived to build a life beyond the brooding Jackson family shadow. No easy task in a town shaped by years of tradition and the well-marked boundaries of the haves and have-nots.

But Willa has lately learned that an old classmate—socialite do-gooder Paxton Osgood—of the very prominent Osgood family, has restored the Blue Ridge Madam to her former glory, with plans to open a top-flight inn. Maybe, at last, the troubled past can be laid to rest while something new and wonderful rises from its ashes. But what rises instead is a skeleton, found buried beneath the property’s lone peach tree, and certain to drag up dire consequences along with it.

For the bones—those of charismatic traveling salesman Tucker Devlin, who worked his dark charms on Walls of Water seventy-five years ago—are not all that lay hidden out of sight and mind. Long-kept secrets surrounding the troubling remains have also come to light, seemingly heralded by a spate of sudden strange occurrences throughout the town.

Now, thrust together in an unlikely friendship, united by a full-blooded mystery, Willa and Paxton must confront the dangerous passions and tragic betrayals that once bound their families—and uncover truths of the long-dead that have transcended time and defied the grave to touch the hearts and souls of the living.

Resonant with insight into the deep and lasting power of friendship, love, and tradition, The Peach Keeper is a portrait of the unshakable bonds that—in good times and bad, from one generation to the next—endure forever.

Like we did for The Girl Who Chased the Moon, Kelly from The Written World and I are reviewing The Peach Keeper together. Kelly's thoughts are in black and mine in green. Enjoy!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This is Sarah Addison Allen’s fourth novel, and I believe you have read all four of them like me. What did you think of this book in comparison? Do you think she has maintained the same aspects of her book that her fans have come to love, or did you find this one different from her previous works?

I have read all four of them. One of the hardest things about reading Sarah Addison Allen is having to wait for each new book!

I liked this book, but I don’t think I liked it as much as I liked the earlier books. The main reason for this was that I felt that it was missing the magical element for a significant part of the book. It appeared eventually, but there was no cantankerous apple tree, or food that influenced the emotions or books that magically appeared.

Having said that, she still has a lightness of touch when it comes to writing friendships, relationships and settings so while it was different, it was also a book that her established fans will like.

How did you find this book compared to her earlier ones?

Well, I was a bit unimpressed in the beginning. I read Allen for the magical realism and I was starting to wonder if there was ever going to be any. Once things started going, though, I was a bit more impressed. I think I enjoyed the earlier books better, but this one was still really good. It just didn’t take off for me like her other books. The magic realism is very understated, which I suppose it is in her other books too, but it is still there more than it was with this one.

What was your favourite part of the book?

****SPOILER WARNING ****

My favourite was definitely the relationship between Paxton and Sebastian. I really felt the confusion as Paxton realised how strong her feelings were and worried about his non reciprocation, and loved the resolution.

***END SPOILER ***

Other than that, the other highlight for me was seeing Claire from Garden Spells again. Just reading that small section had me wanting to reread that book!

What was your favourite part?

Okay, so I missed the Garden Spells reference. I saw a couple people mention it and in retrospect it was obvious, but I think I had other things on my mind when I read this book. Like, maybe actually reading something... I want to reread all of her books, but I read the first two from the library and am keeping my eyes peeled to find them at the second hand store. I own her two newer ones, so I would like to complete the set.

My favourite part of the book was anything to do with the house. Since I was really little, I have always been infatuated with older homes, so I loved reading about the restoration of this one. I could picture it in my mind and now I want to see it for real. This adds into learning the history of the home as we learn the history of the family. That’s something that has always interested me. I also really liked the fact that *blanking on name* thought that you could tell a lot about a person by the coffee that they drank. I am not sure why, but it really interested me. I am not sure if it is a proven science or anything, but Allen made it seem believable. (What was her name? I can’t find my copy of the book. Might have accidentally brought it back to ‘storage’. I know it will come to me, but I am still waking up.)

The name was Rachel. I liked that part too, and it actually inspired a Weekend Cooking post by me a couple of weeks ago.

Head over to Kelly's blog to read the second half of the review.


This book was read for the Once Upon a Time V challenge.

Teaser Tuesday: The Rose Garden by Susanna Kearsley

I am so excited to be finally reading this book! I read the teaser on Susanna's website months ago (or at least it feels that way), and can't wait to find some time to inhale the whole book!

My teaser comes from page 73:

"I've always rather liked the Celtic view of life, that this world and the next one aren't so separate from each other. My grandmother believed that. She was Welsh, you know - true Celt, through and through - and if you'd told her you'd heard whispers in your walls, she would have taken it in her stride,' she said, with certainty. She would have said you'd heard the voices of the people living at Trelowarth, sharing space with us, but in another time.

Teaser Tuesday is hosted by Miz B at Should Be Reading. Head on over to find out  all about it, and how to join in!

The Vampire Dimitri by Colleen Gleason

Regency London loves a Society wedding –

Even if there are vampires on the guest list.

Dimitri, the Earl of Corvindale, should be delighted that the headstrong Maia Woodmore is getting married. His mortal ward and houseguest has annoyed – and bewitched – the Dracule nobleman too long, and denying his animal cravings grows more excruciating by the day.

Miss Woodmore's family has a rather...complicated history with the immortals and she herself possesses a keen sensibility far beyond mere women's intuition. Marriage will give her safety, respectability, and everything else a proper young lady could wish for. Everything, that is, except for passion.

In the looming battle between Dracule factions, all pretenses will shatter as Maia and Dimitri come together in an unholy union of danger, desperation, and fiercest desire.

This book is the second book in the Regency Draculia trilogy, which started with The Vampire Voss. Actually, it is probably fairer to say that the first half of this book is a retelling of many of the events from Vampire Voss from a different perspective. Now, done well, there can be merit in repeating many of the same events, but there wasn't enough difference for me not to be a bit bored.

The strongest aspect of this book is definitely Dimitri. He is your quintessential English earl. If you read historical romances, you have met Dimitri before. He is arrogant, he is remote, he is cold, a man of duty and honor, which has in the past cost him dearly. He is also driven, having been searching for many years for a way to break his deal with the devil that led to him becoming a vampire in the first place. His regimented and peaceful life is turned upside down when he is obligated to honour a promise made to the vampire hunter Chas Woodmore. If anything should happen to him, Woodmore's two sisters Maia and Angelica are to become Dimitri's responsibility, and to ensure that they are kept safe from Dimitri and Chas's mutual enemies.

To Dimitri's immense relief, his responsibilities should be completed in a short period of time. Either Chas will return, or if not, Maia's fiance should be back soon from his travels. The couple can be married, and set up their own home where they can be responsible for Angelica. That means that the interfering Maia will very soon be out of his house and out of his life, hopefully before she drives him to complete distraction by her bossiness, and by her mere presence awaking emotions and feelings that had been long dormant.

At this point I have to say that I love to read about characters like Dimitri, tortured, tormented, and so meticulously remote, but then who come undone when a woman gets under the facade. Unfortunately, I need to like the woman a whole lot more than I liked Maia. She was portrayed as headstrong and independant, but she just annoyed me a lot of the time.

I mentioned previously that there was a lot of rehashing in this book and it was, at times, tedious. I almost cheered with relief when I realised that we were finally going to get to some new story. That is, until I found myself wishing that I could go back to the previous story.

All of this sounds quite negative, but I don't mean it to be. There is nothing intrinsically wrong with the storyline, but there is not a lot new here either. I think that is part of what I am missing with this series. The Gardella Vampires series was fresh, and unusual, but this book is pretty standard paranormal romance fare, albeit in a Regency setting. (I will say that I have read the third book and I did get some of that point of difference that I was looking for in that).

So, if you read Vampire Voss and liked what you saw of Dimitri in that book, read this one. A lot of people didn't necessarily like Voss all that much, but you will need the background before you move on to the third book in the trilogy, which for me at least, was the highlight.

Barbie does The Hunger Games

I've just written the longest blog post ever and yet here I am posting another one, but as soon as I saw these I couldn't resist!

Barbie does The Hunger Games and does them really well.

This stays pretty close to the book, so if you haven't read The Hunger Games, be warned that there are spoilers. And also, what exactly are you waiting for? Go and read it!

Sunday Salon: The Virgin River series by Robyn Carr

I have posted a few times in Sunday Salon about reading series, but today I thought I would talk about the things I don't do when reading a series, and then I am going to tell you about the Virgin River series by Robyn Carr. I have actually been thinking about writing this post for months, but finally, today is the day!

So let's start with the things I don't do.

No. 1 - I don't read contemporary romance, or at least not very often. The only exceptions to this rule were Jennifer Crusie and Nora Roberts.

No. 2 - I never read series books back to back. This means there can often be a break of a month or two between each book when reading which means with long series it will take me years to catch up, and quite a long time to read through long series

No. 3. If my library has a book, I don't get impatient and buy the ebook version so I can read it right now.

And now, let me tell you about reading the Virgin River series by Robyn Carr. This is a contemporary romance set in a fictional small town in the mountains of Northern California. The town revolves around Jack's Bar, the meeting place for food, company and conversation in good times and bad. It is owned by former marine Jack Sheridan, who just may end up on my list of favourite romance heroes, ably assisted by Preacher, who does all the cooking. Jack's former marine buddies come and go from the town, but an amazing number of them end up staying in the town as they meet the women that they will fall in love with.

I would like to stress though that this is probably a bit more to the women's fiction side of contemporary romance, so even if you don't read a lot of romance, these may be novels that you can read an enjoy. There is a happy ever after in every book, there are strong romantic themes, but Carr also takes the time to discuss lots of other issues - loss, infertility, the effect of war on servicemen, abuse, drugs, alcoholism, danger and so much more. One thing that has surprised me a little is that Robyn Carr isn't afraid to kill of some of the peripheral characters in the interest of moving the narrative along.

My no. 2 rule is that I don't read books in a series one after another. There are only a very few times where I have had to ignore this rule and read consecutively, and that is when I absolutely cannot get enough of the books, like the early Outlander books, and the first two Bronze Horseman books by Paullina Simons, and now this one.

I read the first book in this series, Virgin River, back in January 2010, and absolutely loved it. I immediately requested the next book in the series from the library who had Shelter Mountain on order. I waited, and waited, and waited for the book to come in, but when I bought my ereader one of the first things I bought was an bundle of the first four books (as an aside, this book is still on order at my library! I am so glad I bought the bundle). I read Shelter Mountain in October 2010. I picked up the third book at the beginning of December 2010, and then proceeded to read the next 11 books in the next month and just recently read the latest release. I have never, ever read 11 books in a series that closely together. I stayed up late at night, started books at 11 o'clock at night knowing that I wouldn't put it down until I was finished and therefore wouldn't have enough sleep. You could say that I more than read this series - I inhaled it!

So here's a little bit about each of the books. I will try not to give any spoilers away from previous books, but the hero and heroine will have to be named.

Virgin River 

Mel Monroe needs a new start. After her husband is murdered in a robbery gone wrong, and burning out in her busy job as a nurse in a big city hospital, the idea of starting again in a small town as a midwife/nurse practitioner sounds very attractive, especially when you throw in a rent free log cabin as part of the bargain.

When she arrives in Virgin River she finds that the cabin is a dump, the doctor doesn't want help, and when a baby is left on her doorstep life is even more complicated. It gets even more so when she starts having feelings for Jack Sheridan, the handsome ex marine who owns the bar in town.

Shelter Mountain

When Paige Lassister arrives in Virgin River late at night with her three year old son in tow, she is looking for somewhere to hide from her abusive husband. John "Preacher" Middleton is immediately determined to protect Paige, no matter the cost.

The man can seriously cook, and when he fell for Paige, he fell completely. It was fun to watch a man who is so uncomfortable with women struggle with how to approach Paige as his feelings developed.

Whispering Rock

Mike Valenzuela isn't the kind of man that you would trust your sister with. Married twice, but with a long history of broken hearts behind him, Mike comes to Virgin River to recover after he was invalided out of the LA police department after being shot in the line of duty.

Also new to town, Brie Sheridan, Jack's baby sister. Jack knows that Mike is a player, after all he was present for many of Mike's adventures. But Brie is struggling after a brutal crime was committed against her, and she needs a friend more than anything, and Mike is that friend.

A Virgin River Christmas

Former marine Ian Buchanan lives in a remote cabin on a mountain away from civilisation, and away from people, and that's the way he likes it. At least, until Marcie Sullivan turns up on his doorstep. Marcie is the widow of Ian Buchanan, a man that Ian rescued when he was injured in battle. Marcie has spent the last three years looking after her badly injured husband, and now that he has passed on, it is time to find the man who saved him and say thank you. Ian has however chosen not to respond to her, and once she finds out where he is, she is determined once and for all to find him, so that she can move on with her life.  It could be though that through her actions, Ian is going to be forced to face both his past and his future.

Like all Christmas novels, there is a chance of being too sickly sweet, and there were elements of that, but for the most part Carr manages to avoid that.

Second Chance Pass

Paul Haggerty promised his best friend and fellow marine Matt Rutledge that if anything ever happened, he would look after Matt's wife Vanessa and their unborn child, never dreaming that he would be called on to honour that promise. The problem is that he has had feeling for Vanessa for a long time.

Vanessa is both rejoicing at the birth of her child, but grieving for the loss of her husband, but after a while it is time to move on. When she starts to show interest in the new doctor in town, Paul is going to have to either walk away from Vanessa once and for all, or tell her how he feels about her.

This book introduced some great characters that we then follow through the next few books, especially Vanessa's father! The biggest weakness in the book though for me was Vanessa, who I really didn't warm up to that much.

Temptation Ridge

Shelby McIntyre is a young woman who has carried a heavy burden for many years, caring for her terminally ill mother. Now that her mother has passed away, she is determined that she is going to take the chance to live - to travel, to study. First stop, Virgin River. She is coming to town for a short visit with her Uncle Walt and her cousin Vanessa. Virgin River is however just the first stop for her, until she meets Luke Riordan, former helicopter pilot and now co-owner of some cabins along Virgin River that he is renovating with a view to renting out to tourists. Luke is jaded after many years in the military, a checkered romantic historic, and now he is all for a good time. Just don't ask him for a commitment.

Luke and his family, including a whole bunch of very yummy brothers, all start to feature in Virgin River books now. I really loved his mother's storyline too!

Paradise Valley 

We met Rick Sudder in the first Virgin River series. Rick was a young man that Jack and his friends had taken under their wing. He found himself in trouble early on and dealt with issues that many older people never had to deal with. Jack was proud when Rick chose to join the Marines and he served with distinction. However, when he comes home a shattered man, having lost part of his leg, the man who returns is nothing like the boy that went away. He is damaged both physically and emotionally, and he is taking it out on everyone around him, especially his girl who has been waiting at home patiently for him. 

Under the Christmas Tree (novella in That Holiday Feeling anthology)

When a box of puppies are found under the town Christmas tree, Annie McCarty is determined to look after them, with or without the help of the new town vet, Nathaniel Jensen.

Annie is a local girl, and Nathaniel is returning to Virgin River to take over the local veterinary practice after many years away.

This Christmas story was a little more treacly than A Virgin River Christmas but I did like Nathaniel and Annie together, and could have done with seeing more of them as a couple in future books. They do appear a bit in one, but not as much as I would like.

Forbidden Falls

Reverend Noah Kincaid has no idea what he is let himself in for when he buys an abandoned church off of eBay in a small town called Virgin River.

He has even less idea of the upheaval it will cause in his life when he hires Ellie Baldwin as his assistance.

Ellie is a former pole dancer who is desperate for work. She needs to prove that she is a responsible mother so that she has some chance of getting custody of her kids from her creepy ex husband.

Angel's Peak

When Sean Riordan comes to Virgin River to visit his brother Luke, the last thing he expects is to run into his ex. It seems that Franci Duncan has well and truly moved on, but it does appear that she may have chosen to not tell him something very important.

Franci and Sean still have really strong chemistry. Can they move through the issues that drove them apart in the first place, can Sean forgive Franci for her deception, and can they find a way to be together in the future knowing full well that Sean is due to go back to his job in the Air Force soon, and could be posted anywhere in the world?

Another delicious Riordan brother.

Moonlight Road

Erin Foley is the sister of Marcie who we met in Virgin River Christmas. She has been the rock for her brother and sisters for many years, all the while studying towards a career in law. She is a very successful lawyer, but she needs a break, and so she heads to the cabin in Virgin River that belonged to Ian Buchanan, after a significant upgrade of course. Erin is not the kind of girl who enjoys roughing it. She meets Aiden Riordan when he scares her due to his shaggy, mountain man appearance, but once they learn to trust each other there is definitely a strong attraction.

There are a few things that could stand in their way though. They are very different people, and Aiden comes with a history in the form of his crazy ex wife.

Midnight Confession (from the Midnight Kiss anthology)

Jack is throwing his first ever New Year's Bash at Jack's Bar. Amongst the crowd are two lonely hearts. Drew (brother of Erin and Marcie) has come to Virgin River to study in the peace and quiet of the cabin. Sunny has come to visit her uncle Nate, still nursing the humiliation of being jilted at the alter a year before.

This story didn't work for me as well as a lot of the others as there was too much baggage to really be explored without sounding maudlin, and too many other characters showing up in the narrative. The novella felt crowded and rushed.

Promise Canyon

I was very excited when I read the set up for this novel. Both the hero and heroine are Native American and I was interested to see where Carr would take their storyline. Unfortunately it didn't live up to my expectations.

Clay Tahoma is a well known horse whisperer type. He has spent the last few years with his now ex wife in LA, but he is ready to get back to his roots with a much less glamourous and stressful lifestyle by working as an assistant to the town vet. Everyone in town has made him feel very welcome, except for Lily Yahzi who has sworn off good looking native men after having been burned when she was a very young woman.

Wild Man Creek

Yay, another Riordan brother.

Colin has come to Virgin River to recuperate from horrific injuries sustained in a helicopter crash. He loves his family, but he feels suffocated by them. What brings him joy is his art. The area around Virgin River provides him with lots of inspiration, and the solitude is refreshing.

When he meets Jillian Matlock, he knows he is attracted but he does not want to be tied to anyone or any place. Jillian has just bought an old house with a view to renovating. Other than that she doesn't know what she wants. She was a high flying PR exec who got burned as a result of an unwise affair, and she now really needs to find out what it is that she wants to do with her life.

Harvest Moon 

Phew! Made it to the end.

Kelly Matlock is a chef in a famous restaurant. She is driven and passionate, but when she collapses at work she knows she needs to make some changes. She comes to Virgin River to stay with her sister, and to work out what to do next, knowing that she can't go back to the restaurant she left.

She meets Leif Holbrook in town and is interested, but Leif is dealing with his rebellious young stepdaughter. She has been acting out for a while now, after the death of her mother and rejection by her real father, but Lief is losing hope that he will ever be able to break through the rebelliousness to find the daughter that he used to know.

If Lief lets Kelly into his life, will Courtney find even more reason to break away from him?


The books aren't without their issues in terms of quality - some are definitely better than others, and there are characters who miss out on page time, sometimes even in their own books. There were a few books when I was a bit over Mel, but even those books were still incredibly readable. Even with all I have written I haven't commented on the secondary story lines featuring among others Dan Brady, a mysterious man who shows up several times, or the mature age relationships that develop, or so much more.


Now of course, things are very idealistic - all the men are handsome, some with more emotional baggage than others, some with the physical injuries that come from being active service men. All the women are beautiful and do killer things in a pair of jeans because they all look so good. I can't help but think that I do killer things to a pair of jeans to, but not quite in the same way as the women of Virgin River. Once the series starts, there are babies popping out everywhere, but no matter that there is this level of triteness, these books are just oh so satisfying to read, and I can't wait for the next books in the series, which I assume will come out early next year. It's probably a good thing that I do have to wait though, otherwise I would be in danger of overdosing on Virgin River books.

Even just having written what feels like the longest blog post ever, I am inspired to go and have a look at the VR books that I own and maybe do a bit of rereading - another thing I don't normally do!

What series have you overdosed on?

Weekend Cooking: Poached Pears

Back in December last year I went for dinner at 15 which is a Jamie Oliver project (you can read my post about that experience here). For dessert I had a really beautiful poached peach and ever since then I have been waiting until it is a more suitable time for me to try poaching some fruit, in this case, pears. Now, with the cold weather setting in, it seemed like a really good time to try this recipe out, although it does turn out that the recipe suggests eating them cold!

As an aside, I always feel as though I have to add a disclaimer when I talk about it being cold here because the temperature where we think it is cold, is very different to what many of the other parts of the world consider cold!

I do remember trying to make poached pears many years ago now for some dinner guests who never turned up, and they were delicious, but I am not sure if this is the same recipe, but it sounds similar.

The boy and I are planning to make this tomorrow night. I am fully expecting him to help make it, but not try it so I could be eating this for a week.

Photo credit

Spiced Red Wine Poached Pears (recipe from Taste.com.au)

• 500ml (2 cups) dry red wine
• 70g (1/3 cup) caster sugar
• 2 whole star anise
• 2 x 7cm cinnamon sticks
• 1 vanilla bean, split
• 4 just-ripe packham's triumph
• pears, peeled
• 1 x 250g ctn mascarpone
• 2 tbs icing sugar mixture
• 2 tsp rosewater

1. Combine the wine, sugar, star anise, cinnamon and vanilla bean in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Cook, stirring, for 2 minutes or until sugar dissolves. Add the pears and bring to the boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer, turning occasionally, for 1 hour or until pears are tender. Use a slotted spoon to transfer pears to a heatproof bowl.
2. Increase heat to high and bring the syrup to the boil. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes or until syrup thickens slightly. Pour over the pears and set aside for 10 minutes to cool. Cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge for 4 hours to chill.
3. Place the mascarpone, icing sugar and rosewater in a medium bowl and stir to combine.
4. Transfer the pears to a serving dish and drizzle with syrup. Serve with rosewater mascarpone.

**You can use vanilla essence and rosewater essence if you desire.

 Weekend Cooking is hosted by Beth Fish Reads and is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, fabulous quotations, photographs. 

Library Loot: May 11 to 17

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire from The Captive Reader and Marg from The Adventures of an Intrepid Reader that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post-feel free to steal the button-and link it using the Mr. Linky any time during the week. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries!

Claire has the Mr Linky this week, so head on over to share your post.

I did warn you last week that my haul this week was big, and here is the proof.

Dancing Backwards in High Heels by Christine Darcas - Christine was the Queen of Bling at the ARRC Awards dinner and seems like a very interesting person. I sat at the same table as her at the dinner, but couldn't talk to her because I had lost my voice!

Nine Rules to Break when Romancing a Rake by Sarah McLean - I have heard lots of good things about the trilogy that this book starts. Time to find out for myself how good it is!

Manhattan Dreaming by Anita Heiss - Every now and again I interact with this author on Twitter, and recently she has been talking about the release of the follow up book to this one. I have to start at the beginning though, so I borrowed the first book.

The Wilful Eye anthology - This is a collection of six short stories, all fairy tale retellings. I first heard about this book at Book Smugglers, but I knew I had to read it when I saw that it had a new Margo Lanagan story in it.

In the Bleak Midwinter by Julia Spencer-Fleming - I have been hearing a lot of good things about the latter books in this series, so thought I would go back to the beginning!

Lady Antebellum - This was the debut album for this band. I loved the second album, and really enjoyed seeing them perform in concert so now I seeing what their first album is liked.


Reloot: