Wednesday Reads and Merry Christmas

I did it! I reached my goal (and then some). Whoo hoo! Here’s what I read this week:

Dec 16: “The Best Revenge” by Anne R. Allen, # 3 in the Camilla Randall Mystery series, a novel at 257 pages. Blurb from Goodreads: In this prequel to Anne R. Allen's Camilla Randall mysteries, a young debutante loses everything: fortune, love, and eventually even her freedom when a TV star's murder is mistakenly laid at her feet. Through it all, Camilla perseveres, however, and comes to learn that she is made of sterner stuff than anyone might have imagined, herself included. In typical Anne R. Allen fashion, the plot twists and turns from one breathless misadventure to another, leading to a finish sure to catch the reader by surprise. I follow Anne’s blog and never read any of her work before, so when this one came on sale, I decided to give it a try. Not sure what genre it falls under, but it was an enjoyable read and hard to put down. However, I will not read the rest of the series. I see that they’re written in first person (this one was in third) and she’s divorced—not my HEA after all (not that this was a romance, but still, disappointing to discover). I did like this book, though and I’m glad I read it, even if I don’t know what genre it falls under (because this isn’t your typical mystery since Camilla isn’t trying to solve anything—only survive her naiveté).

Dec 20: “Sudden Death” by Allison Brennan, #1 of the FBI Trilogy, a romantic suspense at 424 pages. Blurb from book: When a homeless veteran is found dead in a squalid Sacramento alley, FBI special agent Megan Elliott vows to find the murdered hero’s killer. Her investigation gets complicated fast, for the victim, a former Delta Force soldier, is just one link in a nationwide spree of torture and murder. Straight off a job rescuing medical missionaries, solder-for-hire Jack Kincaid returns to his home base in the Texas border town of Hidalgo only to receive the news that one of his closest colleagues—also ex-military—has been brutally murdered. Faced with an inept local police force, Jack takes matters into his own hands. Now, as part of a national task force to stop the sadistic killings, by-the-book Megan and burn-the-book Jack form a tense alliance, sparked with conflict and temptation. But they struggle against more than passion, for a vicious pair of killers has only just begun a rampage of evil…and the primary target is much closer than Megan suspects. Whooo! Quite a page turner. I loved getting to know Jack better since I only knew him as a minor character in the Lucy Kincaid series (he’s her older brother). I’m such an addict for this type of book. Give me more!

I will not post anything on Friday, so let me wish you a Merry Christmas now.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

I’ll be back here Monday (and I’ll let you know how the new Star Wars movie was—I’ve already got the tickets for Saturday!!).

FYI – Last night we watched “Love, Actually.” “Die Hard” has been selected as the Christmas Eve movie. Guess that leaves “While You Were Sleeping” or “White Christmas” for tonight. Hmmm… Hard to decide. Maybe we can watch both!

So… What do you normally do on Christmas Eve? Watch movies? Play games? Open presents? When the kids were small, I used to give them a gift to open on Christmas Eve (something fun or goofy). It was a good bribe to get them to go to bed early. Don’t need to bribe them anymore. They don’t live here! Haha!

Happy Reading and Merry Christmas! Hope you get LOTS and LOTS of books!

Stacy