The Morganville Vampire series by Rachel Caine (thru book 6)

Okay, let me say this straight up. I LOVE Rachel Caine. I came across her Weather Warden series completely by accident and fell in love with it. I have NO idea why it took me so long to read her YA series. *headdesk*

I was at B&N on Saturday with my friend V and we went into the YA section. They had the whole series sitting on display, so I picked them all up and quite literally inhaled them. So, so good.

Claire is the main protaganist, a 16 year old (almost 17) girl who is in college. She's a bit of a brainiac and she finds herself on the bad side of the most popular girl in school. Now, the book could've gone in the expected direction where Claire becomes a bully back, but this series has some pretty crazy twists and turns.

Romance, betrayal, love, loss, expectation, devastation, etc. etc. It's like a giant soap opera, but with FUN! :)

I love the way that Ms. Caine tweaks things. You expect one thing and something else happens. Each book is full of action and intensity; sometimes not even allowing you to take a breath until the end (and sometimes not even then). I could not put these books down. I read the first 5 on Saturday night and read book 6 yesterday. I cannot recommend them enough.


Overall Rating: A-

Beyond Heaving Bosoms: The Smart Bitches Guide to Romance Novels by Sarah Wendell & Candy Tan

This is not going to be a review, so much as a commentary on the book. No grade or anything, just wanted to go over my thoughts after reading this book.

I'm a big fan of the Smart Bitches. I love their site and comment once & awhile. They are both extremely intelligent, witty women and this book showcased that to the nth degree.

I'd say 99% of it reads like Sarah. Since she's the one who's on SBTB's the most often, her voice is very distinctive. Snarky, intelligent & LOL funny, most of the book just made me giggle outloud. Some of the observations they made had me laughing because they are so true! :) Candy threw in some pretty random, but hysterically funny tidbits throughout.

I think the thing that really caught my attention more than anything was just how true to themselves they stayed. So often you'll have a witty blog or a witty book, but when the witty blogger or writer has to do the other, they fail. This book was like reading an extremely long blog entry.

There were some areas where I admit I skimmed. They didn't really keep my attention. The areas like the kerfuffle with Cassie Edwards & the plagiarism which I remember when it first came out. And the game & the choose-your-own-adventure-like Choose Your Own Man Titty made me laugh so hard I was crying.

I think fans of the Smart Bitches will really like this book. People who have a hard time articulating why they like romance will also like this book, because they really delve into romance and why we all love it so.

I've been reading romance all my life and when people make fun of me or make stupid comments I'm not afraid to step up and defend the genre I love so much. I think if more people did that than making apologies for it, romance wouldn't be so maligned. Just my two cents.

So, go buy the book. You'll thank me. :)