dear isobel

Doesn’t it feel like there is never enough time for the things you want to do? I really need to prioritize my projects better. It’s not even my real life that’s annoying me (I try not to think about the mess my financial aid office has created with my student loans, it helps with the homicidal tendencies). I have a habit of taking on way too much at any given time. For example, here’s what I’m attempting to do this week:

1. Convert Megan Ward and Rebecca Herbst to Wordpress.
2. Add transcripts & press archives to Megan Ward, Rebecca Herbst and Claire Coffee.
3. Finish new layouts for the Pepsi and North & South fanlistings so they can be moved to new collective and dying-dreams.net can be officially off my radar and ready to expire in two months.
4. Finish cleaning out my computer files so that everything is neatly organized in its own folders and that I only have what I actually use.
5. Move the rest of my pictures and videos to the external hard drive.
6. Defragment both external and internal hard drive, run a registry cleaner.
7. Work on fanlistings for John Adams and US Presidents.
8. Attempt really hard not to open a Kimberly McCullough fan site. (Bri, you will not tempt me!)

*sighs* Such issues. At least my last summer class is over Tuesday and I’ll have a month off before next semester starts (as long as the financial office stops screwing with me.)

So prioritizing right? I should do all the computer maintenance first because if I don’t keep my computer running in top shape, then I won’t have to worry about the rest of it anyway. Then I should do anything with a deadline — namely my two history fanlistings and then my last two d-d.net fanlistings so that I’m not forced to renew the domain again (I opened the new collective in 2006, and I’ve already wasted two renewals, grr). After that, I can focus on the fan sites. Right now, most of the updates are gallery related anyway so it’s not a big deal if I put off the WP conversion another week or so.

It makes sense when I type it out like that but working on the fan sites is always more fun than computer maintenance right? *sighs* I’m too good at procrastination.

I spent most of the day converting my Claire Coffee fan site to Wordpress, including customizing the theme. I am so tired of looking at the computer screen. Gah.

But it turned out pretty well. I didn’t do all that much to the theme except change colors and images and a few things stylistically. I’m working my way up to my own themes, I promise.

I plan on converting both the Megan Ward and the Rebecca Herbst fan sites to WP eventually, though my Becky site will absolutely be last because it is huge and will take quite some time.

Title: The Lost Duke of Wyndham Author(s): Julia Quinn Purchase: Amazon Grade: B +

There’s a problem with great secondary characters. Sometimes, they take over. I enjoyed Grace and Jack’s story to be sure, but I kept hoping there’d be more about Thomas and Amelia. Which is good, because coming out in two months rather than next summer.

The Lost Duke opens with Grace Eversleigh traveling with her employee, the Dowager Duchess of Wyndham. I’ve read the companion with an annoying noble employer before, but I have to say the Dowager was on a whole other level of pain in the ass. The fact that Grace not only puts up with it, but lets it slide over her most of the time is both a testament to her character and shows that she clearly doesn’t feel like she has much choice in the world. She has to put up with the Dowager because there’s no other place for her.

Grace and the Dowager are accosted by a highwayman who is, naturally, charming and probably handsome (it’s dark, there’s a mask). Something about this man makes the Dowager sit up and look closer — his bottom features are almost an exact match for her long dead son. And so begins the story.

Jack Audrey (born Cavendish) is indeed the son of the Dowager’s middle son. His father perished at sea, and his mother died shortly after his birth. The reader is let in on this very early in the book so the suspense of that moment is done with. Will he take his place as the Duke or will he allow the current duke, Thomas, to continue as he has so ably?

I liked this book. I’m not surprised by that fact, of course. JQ’s one of my favorite authors and I don’t believe I’ve come across anything by her that I don’t love to pieces. (I even thoroughly enjoyed the last Bridgerton book, though some of my friends felt the series had run its course a few books earlier. Crazy people.) The characterizations were great, though yes, sometimes Jack was just a bit too charming. If only the men in my life had that problem, right?

I think that this book could have easily been an A grade, except I think Amelia and Thomas stole the story in a lot of places. Where I should have focused on Grace and Jack, I was more interested in what could come out of Thomas’s mouth or how Amelia might react. That’s the problem with some characters. You bring them onto the stage but then they kind of direct the action from there.

Another excellent addition to my bookshelf, of course, and I’ve already marked my calendar for September 30 and the next book, Mr. Cavendish, I Presume.

I’ve had this idea in my head for ages but I finally decided to give it ago. I’m really pleased with how this blog worked out as I’ve never customized a Wordpress theme to this extent. I took the basic coding and css and rewrote it so it worked a little more. I still have to get it to validate but that’s another project for another day. But the layout used to be in a table, so I took it and put it into divs and then I played with it to make it widget ready. I’m so happy I was able to make that work.

It’s a blog for romance novels — for release dates, fanlistings, and reviews and whatever else I can think of to add to the site. There isn’t a lot there yet, it’s a work in progress but I’ll continue to add entries over the next few days.

RomanceFan.Org

Title: Agnes and the Hitman Author(s): Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer Purchase: Amazon Grade: A+

I wasn’t sure what to expect when I bought this. I love everything that Jennifer Crusie has ever written, no matter how long ago it was but I didn’t enjoy Don’t Look Down very much. A little too much action, underdeveloped secondary characters and a plot that just didn’t feel right. Plus a couple that didn’t really inspire me to root for them. The writing was good and I certainly enjoyed portions of it as it’s still lightyears ahead of some of the things I’ve read in the past.

But about a page into Agnes and I was sold. This is a heroine that I thoroughly enjoyed. She’s not perfect, she’s not sweet and special and considerate. This is a woman who has a temper and loses it on occasion. She’s got some rage and the portions where it comes out…that’s just god damn funny to read. Agnes does the things we only dream about. For example, if you came in and found your boyfriend having sex on your table, you’d certainly want to hit him with a frying pain or threaten him with a meat fork, right?

The hero was a little harder to pin down much but it’s refreshing to read about a hero that’s written by a guy. I’m not saying women authors don’t generally hit the nail on the head with their guys, but sometimes there are just things even we can’t explain and that’s when it’s nice to have a guy involved. Shane was definitely a little mysterious but it was a pleasure to watch him to try to keep up with Agnes all week. By the book’s end, he knew her better than anyone else and it’s mostly because he paid attention. Something we can dream about right?

The romance might have felt like it was all about sex to other readers, but I liked when Shane grabbed Agnes’ To Do List so he could help her with it and that he was pretty laid back about her violent tendencies (well, he is a hitman). There were no huge moments, no misunderstandings. With Shane and Agnes, it was all in the details and they were some great details.

The secondary characters were there this time around. Lisa Livia, who is f*cking fabulous. I don’t know if I could handle her as the lead in any book, but she was an outstanding supporting character as were Carpenter, Maria, Garth, Doyle and Joey.

Brenda Fortunato has to be, hands down, the most enjoyable bad guy I’ve read in a romance novel. I’ve liked the villains before. I’ve indentified with them, sympathized and loved to hate them. (Sometimes, I’ve just hated them), but I don’t think I’ve laughed as hard as I have with Brenda. She was a tour de force and just fabulous. I enjoyed every single moment she was on the page. I don’t think this book would have been as marvelous without her.

I liked that the plot didn’t feel like it was wrapped up tightly. At first, there felt like there were a lot of coincidences and catastrophes happening the same week, but when they finally realize that not only are they all connected but they lead back to the same person, I never felt like it was the convienent ending. I could only think Of course! It makes sense now! It felt right and that’s always an accomplishment when you have a complicated plot with many little threads that wraps up tightly, but not too neatly.

A fabulous effort by my favorite author and I look forward to their next project.