R. Rose's Reading Diary

Finally finished the book club book for the month, Birthright by Nora Roberts. I honestly had a blast with this one. You get a nice little bit who dunnit, a couple of well developed romances, and plenty of soapy twists and turns. This was at a period when Nora Roberts was really coming into her own, and you could feel her getting a better grasp of her pacing. The story follows several characters connected to a controversial archeological dig in a small New England town. While the back of the book would make you think that the dig was the central focus, the true focus is very different. I kind of don't want to spoil it here, as. I liked not really knowing the full plot as I went into it. Made the reveals more fun.  It isn't perfect, with some lag towards the end where things should be ramping up. I had a similar problem with Sanctuary , which was a slightly earlier book. When we are supposed to be getting into the swing of things things would screech to a halt for a misplaced lo...

 The thing I didn't want to have happen of course happened. I hit a reading slump. Something in my brain just clicked off and said, nope. Don't know what it is, or why, but it hit and it hit hard. Hence me not posting a lot on my reading diary.  I am slowly making my way through my office book club book, Birthright  by Nora Roberts. I can tell you that one is good just for that fact that not even my slump has kept me from enjoying it! It was 100% not the book I thought it was going to be, but I am enjoying the heck out of the book it is turning in to. This book feels like it came out when Nora Roberts was really hitting her stride. I think it came out either right before or after Midnight Bayou. I adore that book (and the TV movie), and feel like she was finding a good balance in her writing style there. Especially compared to something like Sanctuary , which was a fun thriller, but lacked the balance between the love scenes and moving the plot along. Birthright  is ...

 This is going to be a much smaller manga batch, as I have been juggling a little more this week so I haven't been able to read as much.   I did read The Strange House  vol. 2, and I am fricken loving this series so far. I'm kind of sad that I can't find the movie in English anywhere, but that also means I won't have the story spoiled for me. The first volume was a lot of the characters speculating about what could have happened. The second volume starts to introduce some solid facts into the story. This is a pretty small story, with really only three main characters, and the books just fly by. I cannot recommend this one enough for someone looking for a decent horror manga!  I also revisited a series I haven't read in years. I checked out Case Closed vol. 23. I binged the first 22 volumes one summer probably ten years ago. Reading that much Case Closed  back to back was a bad idea, as the series can start to feel repetitive. After a long break, though, I w...

 So, I recently took some time off work, and part of relaxing was digging into my TBR pile.  In that TBR pile was a crap ton of manga! Considering how quick most manga reads, I decided to take a chunk out of that portion of my TBR.  Most of these series are new to me, so I was happy to finally get a chance to check some of them out.  Out of the four I am going to be talking about, all of them were pretty solid four star reads.  First up was The Strange House vol. 1 by Uketsu and Kyo Ano.  I was urning for some horror manga, and had kind of tapped out my supply of Junji Ito, so this one hit the spot. Very heavy on the atmosphere, this one sets up a pretty interesting mystery in the first volume. While there is definitely a lot more talk than action here, the well paced dialogue, and interesting art keep things interesting. While there was a bit of gore here and there, creeping dread was the name of the game in The Strange House . I flew through this one...

 I gave this book a real chance. I did, but I just could not force myself to endure this book anymore. I (and several people in the book club, actually) had to call this one as DOA, and I DNF'ed Pride & Prejudice & Zombies .  I think I would have struggled with the original version of Pride & Prejudice as well, but the added material not only didn't add much to the story, it also made several of the characters very unlikable. Elizabeth especially. Her reactions to everything were so outsized that it moved from comical to insufferable very quickly. Any perceived slight to her as a warrior meant that she was going to have to slit someone's throat. It took a character who, in the original, I have been told is just very strong willed and closed off due to a character who is a complete and total impenetrable wall. It doesn't help that almost every conversation in this book forces in a mention of "the deadly arts" and "when training with their maste...

 As gross as the base idea of Wedding Peach initial felt to me, I was surprised at how much I appreciated the simple quest for cuteness that Wedding Peach turned out to be. Yes, the series feels very dated, with a group of boy crazy heroines who have to fight demons looking to remove love from the world. There is no dark twist. Nothing here is aiming to subvert the genre. Wedding Peach is here to give the reader exactly what is says on the tin. This is pure magical girl cuteness. The sacred items that they are sworn to protect are called "The Four Sacred Somethings" for crying out loud. (Something old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue).  And I didn't hate it! This is a solid three (out of 5) star read for me. There is nothing ground breaking here. The art is nice, the story telling well paced, and the characters aren't annoying. In fact, there is something about reading something so wholesome that is kind of refreshing, especially after some of the ...

 While I am listening to Pride & Prejudice & Zombies I thought I would break things up by diving into Seven Seas re-release of the shojo classic Pet Shop of Horrors . This was a series I read back when Tokyopop was originally releasing it, and am insanely overjoyed to get a chance to read it again. Especially since this new edition is very nicely put together.  My first exposure to this series was actual the anime when it was released by Urban Vision many years ago. The anime episodes adapt a few of the early stories from the manga, and manage to get the general tone and feel of the manga down near perfectly.  The manga itself follows a formula. Essentially, it uses the structure of the film Gremlins . A customer comes into Count D's Pet Shop looking for a rare and exotic pet.  Count D will take them to the back and introduce them to the "pet", which usually resembles a human. The person will become entranced with the pet, and purchase it straight away. Of co...

 One of the things that has kept me reading regularly is my office book club. We chose some interesting novels for that group.  Some highlights are The Wasp Factory by Ian Banks, Penance by Kanea Minato, and Flowers in the Attic by VC Andrews. So now a literary classic viewed through a Romero lense has joined those ranks.  I am trying to get this book going, but the act of just reading, getting into the text, is proving difficult. This isn't actually the book's fault. This is a product of my anxiety. For some reason when my anxiety is at its highest I cannot get my brain to latch on to a narrative. Written, filmed, does not matter. I can handle simple talk podcasts, or even true crime, but a fictional narrative proves to be to much. Hopefully I can push through, as I feel like this is a book I will at the very least find entertaining. I'll be giving updates as I make my way through the book.  I know this book has some mixed reviews, so this should be interesting....

I should just state this here. While this particular post involves erotica, I honestly don't read all that much of it. I have nothing against it, and I will obviously write about it if I come across it, but I will be talking about a wide variety of books on this blog.  Just so happens I thought to start this blog while I was reading a dirty book. Lucky me! I am actually reading the book, but this was for sure not written by Savanna Samson. Just to clarify. So I have been wanting to write an erotic thriller recently. Just thought I would try my hand at it, and in working on this I decided it would be a good idea to read some erotica to get an idea of what is out there, and what audience expectations are for the genre. While the story I am working on is M/M, as that is my preferred genre of erotica, I was kind of checking out everything. That was when I spotted Vamp  "by" Savanna Samson. Vamp was a novel published as part the "A Vivid Girls Book" series back in th...