So we just found out at our house that fantasy writer Robert Asprin died last month. This was really sucky news... My bff and I read a bunch of his Myth books in our teen years and pretty much formed a Dungeons & Dragons campaign founded on his light-hearted fantastical humor. And the guy was young - only 61! But he left behind a legacy of great writing: the Myth books, the Phule books, and of course Thieves World.
Sad times...
Mooberry Blueberry!! It's very good. And it's purple!
I love Promised Land milk. It's so yummy. And it comes in these lovely little old-fashioned glass milk jugs. Perfect for the chugging.
Also, you can vote for the next seasonal flavor of milk on their website. They'll even send you coupons if you ask for them.
So I was not as enterprising as some folks and didn't smuggle in my camera, but I think the memory of being about TWENTY FEET AWAY FROM ROBERT SMITH will forever be burned in my brain. We were pretty damn close. They played for nearly 3 hours and sounded GREAT. This is the third time I've seen them and it was by far the best show yet! A helpful person posted the set list here. As you can see, they played a LOT of old stuff, which was really cool. And it was just the 4 piece band: two guitars, bass, and drums - no keyboard. So good...
The Charmer is the 5th installment in Celeste Bradley's Liar's Club series of regency spy romances (it is technically the 4th novel in the series, but I included the short story "Wedding Knight" in my reckoning). This novel tells the story of Collis Tremayne and Rose Lacey.
Synopsis: We first met Collis way back in The Pretender, while he was convalescing in the hospital. Since then, he has been in training to be a full-fledged member of the Liar's Club ring of English spies. Rose was a trembling little housemaid (see The Impostor) who has decided to be a victim no more. She, too, is now in training to become the first female Liar. Both are determined to succeed and a strong rivalry has formed between them. When one of their heated sparring matches leaves the Liars' training room in shambles, they are given the ultimate penance: they must work together as partners on a test mission. As they bicker their way through the pretend mission, they stumble onto a real plot against the crown and are forced to work together to solve it.
This is one of my favorite books in the Liar's Club/Royal Four series. Collis is so charming and funny. And while Rose is a strong and determined woman, she still has a believable vulnerability that leaves you cheering for her and Collis to make it as a couple. And there are lots of obstacles in their way: their pride, the fact that they are both spies who need clear heads and unfettered hearts to be effective, and the vast gulf between their stations (he is heir to a title, she is a former servant).
The plot itself in this book is really engaging with fast-paced action. I like the overall story arc that the author uses in this series. It develops a little with each book, even carrying on into the Royal Four series of novels. It was also kind of neat to see a real historical figure (the Prince Regent) playing such a prominent role in the story. Bradley makes him an entertaining character and I enjoyed his interaction with the main characters.
My Favorite Part had to be when the Prince decides to go along with Collis on his break-in of Wadsworth's house. It was hilarious picturing His Paunchy Highness clad all in black (to look cool) sneaking through windows and then on the run from the bad guys.
This was a 5 star book!
"Wedding Knight" is a short story appearing in the anthology, My Scandalous Bride. It is the 4th tale in Celeste Bradley's "Liar's Club" series of regency romances. It tells the story of Kitty Trapp, whom we have met in the first couple of Liar's Club books - most notably in The Impostor - and one Alfred Theodious Knight (aka "Knight").
Synopsis: Knight is in the market for a wife, preferably one who is respectable, obedient, and will not embarrass him in any way. He settles for Bitty Trapp, the spoiled and rather brainless twin sister of our heroine, Kitty. Unfortunately, Bitty doesn't want to marry Knight, so *****SPOILER ALERT***** she convinces her identical twin to pose as Knight's bride to give her "time to adjust" to the idea of being married to him. Loyal Kitty goes through with the charade, only to find that her sister has skipped town during the ceremony and is nowhere to be found. Now Kitty must pose as Knight's wife until her sister can be found. She doesn't like the idea of deceiving the man so unfairly. Add to that the fact that Knight is pretty bossy and controlling, always telling his new bride what she can and cannot do or say or wear... To while away the time until her sister turns up, Kitty decides to set Knight straight on a few things in order to make him a more bearable husband for her sister. Of course, if Knight finds out the truth, it will mean the scandal of the century - which is the last thing he wants.
I really enjoyed this story. I'm usually not too crazy about short stories all that much because either they are too short for the romance to develop believably OR you get really into the story/characters and then it's all over too quickly. This story was the latter. I already liked Kitty's character a lot from when we'd seen her in previous books. She is plucky and has a knack for making lemonade when life hands her lemons. And she gets lots of lemons. Knight is kind of a lemon, but she works pretty hard to bring out his nice qualities from beneath his grumpy exterior. And, to his credit, he's not completely awful. He recognizes his wife's good qualities: her cleverness, her wit, her sense of humor, her fierce bravery. No one else has ever noticed, much less admired, these qualities in her. I thought it was kind of funny how the very things he admires in her are the things that he professes to dislike as qualities in a wife.
I gave this one 5 stars in my catalog
