After the Mammoth book I read two more books quickly, then stopped staying up so late so I haven’t done much reading since, until today. :-)

Star Quality
by Lori Foster, Lucy Monroe, and Dianne Castell

The title is a little deceptive. Instead of Star Quality, it should have had something about the moon in it, because all three stories are set during a full moon. In the small town of Delicious, Ohio, strange things happen during the full moon, but none as strange as what takes place under the light of a rare blue moon. Three enchanting tales of the supernatural, and not a werewolf in sight. It was fast-paced, a little spicy, and refreshingly different. Definitely a keeper!

What A Pirate Desires
by Michelle Beattie

I have to admit I’m a sucker for pirates. I started reading this while going through a pile of books from my undecided pile (undecided as to whether I’d keep them or not) and I kept reading because I liked the two main characters. It centers around a woman whose family was murdered by pirates and her quest for revenge. Along the way she enlists the aid of another pirate and of course the two find themselves attracted to each other. While the book was okay, I’m not a big fan of historicals so now that I’ve finished it, it’s going into the to be donated pile.

the Ratcatcher
by Kate Rothwell - free download from author’s site

I must confess, I already downloaded this book months ago when she first offered it on her site, but I never got around to reading it because, as I said, historicals just aren’t my thing. However, this time I started reading just a little bit and before I knew it I was completely sucked in. This one is about a young woman, gently raised, who's fallen on hard times and the man with no past whom she falls in love with. I read the whole think in one sitting. That should speak volumes about how good it was.

The Mammoth Book of Paranormal Romance

edited by Trisha Telep

Ghosties and ghoulies and things that go bump in the night. Twenty-four, never before published, short stories of paranormal romance.

Normally, especially in an anthology of this size, there’d be a few stories that stand out and a few that really . . . don’t. That wasn’t the case with this book. Twenty-four stories and not a bad one in the bunch. Pick a favorite? Not possible!

Two things surprised me about this book. First, that I enjoyed it so much despite being familiar with the work of only a paltry four authors. And second, that I didn’t see the same theme repeated over and over. A lot of books claiming to be paranormal seem to think paranormal is limited to vampires and werewolves. Not so with this book. Yes, there was a couple of werewolf stories and a vampire or two, but they were presented in unique ways and as a whole, this book contained an amazing array of paranormal themes.

Go out and buy a copy right now. You won’t be sorry!

The Silver Lining

No, it's not the name of a book. Although maybe I should write that down somewhere . . .

Last week my lap top got a virus and although I do have a desktop computer, it's been sadly neglected the last couple of years and you really have to want to compute bad to get any satisfaction out of using it.

So I found myself with time on my hands, especially in the evening. And so to fill in the time I, you guessed it, started reading more.

First I finished The Cat Who Came In From the Cold, by Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson. It's listed as a fable, but that doesn't mean it's a mere children's book. It's the story of Billi, an Asian leopard cat, and the internal struggle he goes through as he faces the decision of whether or not to become the first cat to live with humans. Billi travels the countryside in ancient India, talking with other animals who already have been living with humans. This book really makes you stop and think about the way we treat animals, both domestic and otherwise.

Next I read The Mammoth Book of Women's Erotic Fantasies, edited by Sonia Florens. This is a collection of erotic fantasies of real women from all over the world. To be totally honest, after a while I found it to be a bit of a bore. Lots of lesbian fantasies, domination fantasies, and exhibitionist fantasies. After a while they all started sounding the same. I guess that's the problem with fantasies, all fluff and no substance.

After this I needed something with a little more story to it, so I started reading some of the Harlequin's I picked up at the book sale.

First was Navajo Justice by Aimee Thurlo, part of the Sign of the Gray Wolf series in the Harlequin Intrigue line. A hot Navajo operative is given an undercover assignment to protect a romance writer (we should all be so lucky) from a danger she doesn't even realize she's in. I loved the way the characters had to keep reminding themselves that it would be a bad idea for them to get together and I really loved the dog. I think there's more to that dog than meets the eye and I'd like to read more in this series.

Next was from the Temptation line, the Sheriff of Devil's Fork, by Regan Forest. I loved this book. Dana French has a life in Dallas but goes to Devil's Fork to check out the house her Great Aunt Maude left to her when she died. Unfortunately, Maude also left her a hefty tax bill which the sheriff presents her with when she arrives. As if that weren't bad enough, she has six ghosts who are depending on her to keep the house intact, a crooked mayor who wants to tear the house down, and a sizzling attraction to the taciturn sheriff. A really good read!

I'm also about halfway through the Mammoth Book of Paranormal Romance, but that will be a post for another day. ;-)