Book Lag...

I have been lost in thought lately.  I realize that I have to give up knitting.  My carpel tunnel won't cooperate.  I can crochet mostly, but I loved knitting.  So I have had to mourn that a bit.  Then I am growing restless with staying home.  I love the kids, but I'm not challenged.  I miss working.

I've managed to read a few books between then and now.  And I really want to review 2 of them. 

First is Family Ties by Danielle Steel.  Notice there's not a link to amazon here - because I'm telling you to not waste your time.  I feel dirty for the time I wasted on it.  She is literally a Harlequinn romance writer who gets way too much hype and pay.  The plot is thin, the characters are shallow. 

A woman inherits her sisters 3 kids and spends her entire life raising them.  They grow up in about a chapter.  And they all have their own problems.  The oldest is practically anarexic working for Vogue - and her job is to run around like a chicken with it's head cut off and playing with expensive jewelry.  That sums that one up.  Then the boy is in law school until he gets sucked into a stormy affair with a teacher.  The youngest wants to be a tatoo artist and is dating a boy from Iran.  And the aunt is an architecht - and her job is also running around like a chicken with it's head cut off and yelling at contractors.  The characters talk like weirdos, no one talks like that in real life.  Really, really just didn't like it.

Now this one I enjoyed.  It's not some great classic, but it's silly and entertaining.  Diesel is back from the Stephanie Plum Between the Numbers books for his own story.  Also we have a new character - Liz.  She makes great cupcakes.  All she wants out of life is to sell her cookbook so she can pay for her foundation and save the house she inherited from her aunt.

She finds out she is an unmentionable, one of only 2 people that can find enchanted objects.  Diesel and Wolf are after the same stone, and Diesel is using Liz and protecting her from Wolf so they can get it first.  It has to due with the 7 deadly sins, each sin has a stone.  They have to find 4 charms to get the one stone for Gluttony.  Liz is affected by each charm, overeating, wanting to get nasty (punished cause she's a bad girl), collect stuff and have babies.

She keeps the story moving and with the addition of the monkey and one-eyed cat, there is extra entertainment.  Evanovich even keeps a dose of reality in there.  When her father comes to visit she forces Diesel to leave because she can't handle how much it would anger her parents for her to share a bed with a guy - no matter the reason.

Fun read - this one I recomend.