Post-Holiday Reading Report

I had a lovely Christmas, and I hope you had one, too.

I've done so much reading lately that I'll never get caught up if I write long analyses, so I'm going for short and sweet:

While Others Sleep by Helen R. Myers: 3 out of 5.
Myers was one of my favorite series writers--I simply adored her Silhouette Shadows books: Night Mist, Watching for Willa, and Whispers in the Woods (my favorite of the three, which made my top 100 list). She also wrote some wonderful Silhouette Romances and Desires, such as Invitation to a Wedding and Just a Memory Away.

After reading four of her single titles, however, I'm forced to admit that I don't enjoy them as much as I did her series books. While Others Sleep is an interesting story with strong characters, but they have only one meeting by page 150. After that point, things speed up. Myers has a gift for dialogue and for creating memorable characters, and these qualities are evident in While Others Sleep. It just takes much too long to get there.

Sadly, I think I'll look for her future books in the library instead of buying them new.

The Husband She Couldn't Remember by Maggie Shayne: 3 out of 5.
After reading Shayne's short story in Night's Edge, I wanted to try one of her longer books. I actually enjoy amnesia stories as long as they are done well. I've read quite a few bad ones. The Husband She Couldn't Remember was enjoyable, but nothing about it stood out. I'm still planning to try another of her longer books. Feel free to make suggestions.

Unforgettable by Meryl Sawyer: 2 out of 5.
Another amnesia story. The hero in this one drove me crazy. He couldn't decide whether she was a "floozy" or not, so he kept making 180-degree turns in his treatment of her. The reading experience nearly gave me whiplash because of it.

Again the Magic by Lisa Kleypas: 4 out of 5.
On rare occasions, I will read a book or watch a movie that I enjoy as I'm reading or watching, but afterward I find that I don't like it as much as I thought I did. I'm not sure if that makes sense or not, but this was the case for me when I saw Shakespeare in Love. Likewise, Again the Magic was a book I enjoyed more while I was reading it than I did after I finished.

Kleypas is a strong writer with a talent for writing passionate love scenes. I have to admit that I'm a bit tired of reading the seduction-as-revenge plot. The most frustrating thing about this book, however, is something the heroine does to the hero toward the end of the story. I understand the fear that led her to the decision, but I can only describe her behavior as cold. I thought McKenna forgave her much too quickly.

I'll stop for now, but I'll write again soon about more of the books I've read.

Alyssa