Catching Up

I can't believe it's been so long since I've checked in here. I've been working alot and things just got really busy and hectic. I have still found time to read though. I'm now on book 6 of the Virgin River series. I'm addicted. I will be catching up on my reviews in the near future. If I can stop reading and baking long enough. I've done 2 cakes in the past couple of weeks and my daughter's birthday is next weekend, and we have the Father/Daughter dance the weekend after that. This is the cake I did for a wedding yesterday. Pretty good. Of course, I see all the flaws, but I'm also a bad photographer so you won't see them. :)

Anyway, hoping to fit in a Girls Night Out in a couple of weeks. So, our schedules are really amping up. Will hope to hear from ya'll soon. Happy Reading.

Talk of the Town

by Karen Hawkins

Readers Choice A-L

rated 4 stars

Back Cover:

Do Blondes have more fun? Newly divorced Roxie Tremayne is dying to find out. After years of being the perfect southern lady, all she ended up with was a cheating husband. So she goes bombshell blond, gets a provocatively placed tatoo and prepared to live it up as a Bad Girl. But then her mother falls ill....and Roxie is forced to return to Glory, North Carolina.

He'd love to know. Once the town Bad Boy, Nick Sheppard is now Glory's highly respected sheriff. When the hot blond he stops for speeding turns out to be formerly prim Homecoming Queen Roxanne Tremayne, Nick doesn't know quite where to look--though he'd like a much closer one at that tattoo peeking from her shorts.

But it takes two to tango. Roxie and Nick had a steamy fling in high school, but a love affair between a Southern Princess and a Boy from the wrong side of the tracks was doomed from the start. Now they have a second chance. Can they get it right? Or will they just end up....The Talk of The Town?

My Thoughts:

So the Good Girl/Bad Boy plot device has been done, and done often. It could have been sooo cliche and predictable. However, Karen Hawkins puts a refreshing spin on it. Roxie finalizes her divorce and does what every "comfortable" red blooded American woman would do. She dyes her hair blonde, gets a belly-button ring, and a tattoo. (Admit it, you would too! I would! Except I think, I'd go fire engine Red, and skip the piercing. If you saw my belly button.....) Aaanyway! So then she gets word from her brother Mark, (who divorced last year and didn't tell his mother either) that Dear Ole Mom has had a heart attack and needs help at home. So he suggests that Roxie go back home to take care of mom, and Roxie won't go without back-up so Mark is along for the ride, and they enlist the help of Tundy, (Roxie's housekeeper). Love Tundy! (as they near home, Mark refers to mom and Mom-en-stein, which Tundy interprets to mean that Mom is Jewish....so she leaves the pork rinds in the car and starts cooking kosher. As it happens Mom-en-Stein is not jewish and is somewhat curious as to why Tundy keeps her Kosher....)

Roxie gets pulled over entering town for speeding, and lo and behold Bad-boy Nick Sheppard is now the Sheriff. She gets a warning, mmmm-hmmmmm! Roxie inherits her mothers volunteering responsibility of the Murder Myster Club at the local Retirement Home. Among the members of the MMC is Nick's great Aunt. Coincidence? One of the Retirement community inhabitants recently passed at an accident at the Piggly Wiggly. Accept the MMC after finding a box full of blackmail notes, they decide that it was not an accident but a Murder!! (murder said slowly very reminiscent of the old mystery movies....)

Nick and Roxie are instantly attracted to each other, and Roxie is feeling a little wild and recklessbut Nick wants to be good and responsible. So he wants nothing of the Wild Child. But boy is the chemistry explosive. He can't seem to stay away. So his trying to be good, and her trying to be Bad, lends itself to some misunderstandings and hurt feelings. Also some fun moments between Nick and his assistant/dispatcher/all around girl friday. She's spunky and tells him where to go when he needs it. Yea! There is a mystery to solve and feelings to discover, and a history to work through. Add in a supporting cast, of chubby Housekeeper, 3 drunk Senior Citizens, and an overweight beagle and you've got a fun book.

I recommend this to you if you like a little fun and a good chuckle with your romance.

This was my first by Karen Hawkins but it won't be the last.

2010 Running Book List

I'm excited to keep a running total of the books I've read this year. I read over 100 last year, and most of them were great! I'm hoping to have a lot of great books to read this year too.

1. Where Dreams Begin by Lisa Kleypas~5 Stars

2. Virgin River by Robyn Carr~ 5stars

3. Shelter Mountain by Robyn Carr~ 5 stars

4. Whispering Rock by Robyn Carr ~5 stars

5. Virgin River Christmas by Robyn Carr~4.5 stars

6. Second Chance Pass by Robyn Carr ~5 stars

7. Temptation Ridge by Robyn Carr ~5 star

8. Paradise Valley byRobyn Carr~5 star

9. Forbidden Falls by Robyn Carr ~4 stars (still pouting abt no Dan and Cheryl)

10 The Rogue Hunter by Lynsay Sands~4 stars

11. The Immortal Hunter by Lynsay Sands ~4 stars

12 Covet by JR Ward~~4 stars

13. Angel's Peak by Robyn Carr~~4.5 Stars

14. Moonlight Road by Robyn Carr ~~4.5 stars

15. Fireside by Susan Wiggs~~4 stars

16. When Bruce met Cyn by Lori Foster~~4 stars

17. Love is a 4 Legged Word by Kandy Shepherd~2.5stars

18. When Strangers Marry by Lisa Kleypas ~~4.5-5 stars

19. Untamed by Elizabeth Lowell ~~4 stars

20 Summer Breeze by Catherine Anderson~~4.5 stars

21. That Certain Spark by Cathy Marie Hake ~~4 stars

22. Under Her Skin by Susan Mallery~~4 stars

23. Lip Service by Susan Mallery ~~4 stars

24. Straight from the Hip by Susan Mallery~~4 stars

25. Hot on Her Heels by Susan Mallery ~~4 stars

26. How to Abduct a Highland Lord by Karen Hawkins~~4 stars

27. Phantom Waltz by Catherine Anderson ~~4.5 stars

28 Only by Your Touch by Catherine Anderson ~~4.5 stars

29. The McKettricks of Texas: Tate by Linda Lael Miller~~4 stars

30. Scandal in Spring by Lisa Kleypas~~4.5 stars

31. It Happened one Autumn by Lisa Kleypas~~4.5 stars

32. Devil in Winter by Lisa Kleypas~~5 stars