New week! I finished reading the sweet notes my son taped around the house for me and am now back to Scandalous Love. :-)

Just finished Shadow Walker (Stormwalker, Bk 3) by Allyson James and it was awesome! Lots of action but these books are more like urban fantasy than romance. Really good series though.

Next up is Eternal Hunter (Night Watch, Bk 1) by Cynthia Eden.

I just started back wtih Northern Fires, a blaze in Lebrecque's alaskan heat series. meh so far but since it fits a RT challenge I'm doing I'll get through it.

yesterday otu of the blue I picked up a love inspired I've had a while and finally read it and enjoyed it! woman owned a soap shop in kentucky - Bluegress Hero by Allie Pleiter - some cutesy scenes here and there and of course scripture quoted!

Awww....thats so cute Willa!

I finished Darker After Midnight last night. Loved it!  I was under the impression when this book came out that it would be the last. And i do love the way it ended. But does anyone know whats up with the new one that comes out in 2013, Edge of Dawn? It says its a Midnight Breed novel, so i guess she's just going with a different story arch or something? I dunno. Either way, im excited for it!

I read a horror novel today, Depraved. Very creepy, but good.

Starting Lothaire tonight. Another one ive put off for way too long.

Finished up Worth Fighting For by Sondrae Bennett.  Also read a REALLY short story I got on Amazon called Brief Encounter by Alice Gaines. (wasn't impressed) and now I'm reading Ragnar the Murderer by Lily Byrne.  It's a viking freebie romance I found on Amazon.  On the fence about it so far.

Melissa - thanks for the reminder.  I have Lothaire on my Nook and haven't started it yet!

I'm reading Sweet Possession by Maya Banks. 

I just checked for Lothaire and the library finally has it! Yay!

They changed their system a while back and it is so freakin' ridiculous to find the new books now.

I stuck it out with another contemporary - just finished Playing Dirty by Susan Andersen. It  wasn't as good as the Jennifer Cruise that I just finished, but not bad. There's a background mini-mystery that I didn't really think it needed, but whatever. This was the first book I'd read by her and I just added another one to my reminder list, so it wasn't bad. I have a Victoria Dahl contemporary I think is up next. One of her newer ones, but I don't remember which one.

I finished Ward's Crave and I LOVE this series, just as much as BDB, but in a different way. Love Jim! My 9 year old made me breakfast this morning ot toast, cerel and a poptart! Breakfast of champions!

Aaaaaannnndddd with one scene straight out of a 70s porn flick, Ragnar the Murderer by Lily Byrne goes to the DNF pile.  Glad it was a freebie.  Yuck.

Going to read a book Willa lent me on my Nook now.  Thanks girl!  The English Witch by Loretta Chase

Dahl is one of my fav contemporary writers, her new series is good. (Esp. 2nd and 3rd.) Has a lot of depth. I don't do well with fluffy.

I started Bespelling Jane Austen.

I love Dahl's contemporaries as well, some more than others. Her early historicals shine as well.

Well, since the reviews are good (lol) I'll probably pick that up next. I wound up starting Lori Forster's Havoc. A NTM author as well. I'm only about 20 pages in, and I'm not sure yet. He seems a bit over-the-top to me. He is a professional fighter, but still. Idk, we shall see...

You know, one of the things I love about this thread is that you guys (or gals) have lead me to some great books / authors! And saved me some precious time by steering me away from some train wrecks too!

Tonya, Susan Andersen is really hit or miss for me, and I think I found Playing Dirty to be just OK.  And ditto to everyone else on Dahl- one of my favorites these days.  I have to say I was very annoyed with her last series though- the first story started in The Guy Next Door anthology, and then didn't continue with that storline until the THIRD book of the series.  But it was a good series, so I guess I got over that.  (sort of.)

I am nearly done now with  Higgins' Somebody to Love, and I have liked it quite a bit.  Even with the annoying nicknmes, which are not as bad as some of the ones in other books of hers.  I didn't realize it was a spin-off of The Next Best Thing, and when I figured that out, I recoiled just a bit...that was not one of my favorite Higgins' books.  And I was a bit luke-warm about her last book- liked the heroine but had issues with the hero.  But I have liked this one.

Lord of the Abyss by Nalini Singh was an amazing end to the four-author Lords series (although I was very disappointed that we didn't get a brothers/sister reunion scene...that left a HUGE hole in the series). I'm now reading Enticing by Lori Foster, finishing up the Buckhorn Brothers series with the Casey story. So far, it's excellent. 

I'll probably finish up Northern Fires tongiht by LeBrecque - harlequin blaze - and yeah it fits a reading challenge! I have one more book left to go for the spring challenge - something by JAK or one of her pseudonyms since 3 of the challenges are 3 books by the same author - I started to read Nora Roberts but decided JAK was easy - just hard deciding which ones ot read so I went back and read some of her category reprints - may end up tossing one of her books for the first time - couldn't stand it and can't see ever reading it again!

Well, because of that thread here I read Slow Heat in Heaven by Sandra Brown and I can't say I see what the big deal about it is lol I felt like I was reading a V.C. Andrews book. Now I read re-reading City of Bones so I can read the rest of the books.

Btw, I love Lothaire! I plain to reread that one again too. He went into my keeper pile.

 read Slow Heat in Heaven by Sandra Brown and I can't say I see what the big deal about it is lol I felt like I was reading a V.C. Andrews book 

I can't comment on the V. C. Andrews part of your post (never read an Andrews, thought they were more on the horror side ? ? ? ) but re SLOW HEAT, I think it's more of a time and place thing. When it first came out, when she started writing contemporary romance instead of the category romances she'd been doing for years, it was a big thing. I don't know how I'd feel about it if I were to read it today. But back then.......

Now that she's writing popular fiction, she's still good - one author who has transitioned through various genres and done it well.

Now, to find my SLOW HEAT . . . . it's been a very long time since I read it. There's a good chance the impact will be lessened after 20 years.

GAil

LOL - I'm glad you posted that about Slow Heat Ashley, I had put that on my reminder list after reading all the posts. I guess I'm in no hurry then.

As to what Gail said about it being good for the time it was written.... I had read a Harlequin back when I was about 18 (I'll be 40 this month), and the book had stuck with me throughout the years. I did a little research to find out what it was called and who had written it. I ordered it off of PBS, and was just sooo excited when it came in the mail!! After I finished it, I could only shake my head. It was just soooo terrible!!! LOL and such a let-down!

Lesley, I couldn't finish The Next Best Thing. It just bothered me too much.

Tonya, I identified an old HP from when I was 12 and ordered it 3 or 4 years ago... I still haven't read it! I guess I don't wanna know...

I have my first Harlequin that I ever read. I keep it in plastic and had reread it several times growing up. I was 12 and I turned 47 this year. It was The Hills of Kalamata by Anne Hampson. It belonged to my great-grandmother and I snuck it out of her room to read it. I was hooked! 

ETA: Started Marsha Canham's The Last Arrow and so far it has been pretty good.

Ani did an "oldie but goodie" swap last year that I played in.  My initial thought was to use one of the first romance books I ever read, which was this: http://www.paperbackswap.com/Paint-Rainbows-Silhouette-Fern-Michaels/book/0671571141/ 

My mom belonged to that Silhouette book club where she got a book every month, and this was the first one to arrive.  I read it over and over- I think I was in middle school at the time.  Loved it.  Anyway, off to the UBS I went and located a copy.  I read it again..and holy crap, was it bad!  I ended up digging The Stardust of Yesterday out of my TBR and using it instead.  Funny how much writing standards have changed since the early 80s!

I finished Somebody to Love, and liked it.  Not my favorite Higgins, but not the worst either.  I started Taking a Shot by Jaci Burton, and am wondering how well I am going to relate to a heroine who has black spiked hair and multiple piercings.