When I quit a long-held job several years ago, I realized that the one thing I’d miss were my coworkers.  Well, most of them, anyway, and that is the same thing I’m going to miss about doing this blog.  I’m going to miss your company.  When I first started blogging, it was a lonely venture.  I didn’t network, or reach out to fellow bloggers, so I literally acquired each reader one-by-one, and quite by accident.  At the time, I was impatient to have more readers, but looking back I think all that “alone time” was good for me, because it made me treasure every single person who stopped by, and I absolutely adored the kind souls who took the time to comment.  This still holds true today.

I’ve met some pretty amazing bloggers, authors, and publishing professionals through this blog, and I want to thank them all for supporting an impassioned amateur.  I didn’t know jack-shit about books when I started blogging, other than the fact that I loved them so, and I’ve certainly learned a lot along the way.  My thanks go to everyone who had to suffer through one of my mistakes, and then stuck around to get an apology later.  That’s a longer list than you might think.

I’m still reading, of course, and I just finished Blue Diablo by Ann Aguirre and Quicksilver by Amanda Quick.  For over two years now I’ve critiqued every single book I’ve read, and I can’t tell you how much fun it was to finish a book and just walk away without having to review it.  I know this sounds nuts, but it’s a big treat to just be a regular reader again.

It has been a pleasure getting to know many of you, and thank you for making my blog something special.  I’ll miss it, and I’ll miss your company, but it’s time for me to pursue new passions.

Regards,
Rebecca

Plot Summary:  Gin Blanco retired from the assassin racket, but she hasn’t hung up her knives just yet.  Instead of killing for a contract, she’ll kill bad guys for a good cause.  Gin’s not sure what to think about her pro bono work, but it keeps things interesting.  She can no longer deny that Mab Monroe, the defacto head of crime in Ashland, must die, and Gin must get to Mab before Mab gets to her.  Ever since Gin took out one of Mab’s guests in her own house, the fire elemental has been using her considerable resources to discover Gin’s identity.  Gin is determined to lie low and tap into the legendary patience that marks her personal spider rune, but when a plan goes kablooey, she may have to step into the limelight to save a friend.

(Elemental Assassin, Book Three)

I made a big mistake when I tried to read this book in little bites while racing through a hectic day, because I found it nearly impossible it put Venom down when I had no other choice.  I have found each installment in Jennifer Estep’s Elemental Assassin series to be easy-reading, and even though the plots are getting a little repetitive, I’m still having a terrific time following the series.  Gin Blanco is the glue that holds it all together, and with every page I hope to encounter something like this (pg. 86):

“So, what’ll it be?”  I asked, pulling a pad and pen out of the back pocket of my blue jeans.

“I’m not hungry,” Roslyn murmured, tapping her French manicured nails on top of the laminated menu.

“Me either,” Xavier rumbled.

“I don’t care whether you’re hungry or not,” I snapped.  ”You’re in my gin joint now, and you’re damn well going to eat something.  So tell me what you want, or you’ll find yourself at my mercy.”

I might be a stone-cold killer, but no one could ever accuse me of lacking in the hostess department.  Still, I gave them the hard stare to show them I was serious.

I am a fan of Gin’s saucy attitude, and I adore her one-liners.  She is the glue that binds this series together, and that’s usually the case with all of my favorite urban fantasy series–each one revolves around a terrific heroine.

Here’s another thing that Ms. Estep does particularly well–she kicks things off with a bang, and she ends them with an even bigger bang.  The story starts out like a drag racer, and it shifts into high gear so fast that I was immediately sucked in.  Gin’s showdowns at the end of each book are always epic, and I’m impressed how Ms. Estep convinces me again and again that Gin is the underdog, when really she’s supposed to be more powerful than anyone.  I’ve got to wonder though, after Gin knocks off the big bad uber-villain, will the series end?  It seems inevitable, but I’ll enjoy it while it lasts.

The fourth book, Tangled Threads, was released last month.  I plan to read it sometime soon.

Plot Summary:  When her mother dies, Lydia Ketch finds her way to an “introduction house” in order to support herself and her younger sister.  After one-year on the job, Lydia finds being a prostitute tolerable, and she’s starting to build up a bankroll on the side.  She’s never felt desire on the job until she meets young surgeon, Henry Shadwell, who gives Lydia her first orgasm to satisfy a bet with one of his friends.  Henry is also an amateur pornographer, and he hires Lydia as his model.  As Lydia develops feelings for Henry, he shares his other secret with her–Henry teaches anatomy in secret, and he needs a body for his next class.  Meanwhile, Lydia has plans to leave the brothel and set herself up independently as a writer of scandalous stories for men.  

The first problem with Trades of the Flesh is that it has an identity crisis.  It doesn’t know if it wants to be a romance novel or a historical novel, and to further muck things up, my review copy states that the publicity campaign will target mystery aficionados.  What mystery?  There’s absolutely no mystery within this story, so I’m completely baffled as to the target audience for this book.  I suppose it doesn’t really matter, because it doesn’t succeed as either a romance, mystery, or historical novel.  No romance fan will swallow the relationship story between Lydia and Henry, and no historical fan wants to read a story with this much sex.

I picked up Trades of the Flesh because I was intrigued to read a story told from a Victorian-era prostitute’s point of view.  Too many stories set in England focus on the aristocracy, and I appreciated Faye L. Booth’s unique approach.  While her heroine had one of the cushiest setups for a young woman in this position (she wasn’t beaten, drugged, or abused), Lydia still had to deal with all of the mental and physical indignities of loaning her body out for a pound a pop.  In these sexual encounters, Lydia was completely distanced from the act, and it was broken down into a series of mechanical steps.  I have no trouble believing this is how prostitutes approach their work.

I was expecting a strong contrast between the sex Lydia performed on the job, to the sex she had with her love-interest, Henry, and there wasn’t much difference at all.  Furthermore, I can’t even tell if the author was trying to achieve the kind of artistry and sensuality that seasoned romance writers bring to their sex scenes.   The romance itself was weak and uninspiring, and as I said above, the ending won’t satisfy a romance fan anyway.

Lydia’s characterization is the strongest, but she didn’t evoke any sense of pity from me, which is a major failing.  I should have been deeply invested in her fate, but she was never endearing or plucky.  Henry was even worse, because he was a surgeon, a pornographer, and a body-snatcher (the type who dug up graves to teach dissection).  It was just too much, and he turns out to be no better than any of Lydia’s clients.  The reader is left with only one person to admire, and Lydia isn’t inspiring enough to carry that burden.

Note: I received a review copy courtesy of the Amazon Vine Program.

Plot Summary:  Things have always come easily to Lady Vivian Carlyle.  As the daughter of a duke, she’s a sought-after acquaintance within the ton, but she’s going to push her popularity to the limit when she decides to seduce the upright Earl of Stewkesbury.  Oliver finds Vivian exasperating and alluring in equal measure, and when she comes onto him all hot and heavy, he cannot resist their affair.  The funny thing is, neither one believes that the other is suitable for marriage material, so they’re content to be led by their lust, never dreaming that love will grow.

An Affair Without End is a cozy story that slowly grew on me.  It led me through a charming story about a confident heroine who wasn’t afraid to flout convention.  It was certainly enjoyable, but nothing about it is going to stand out in my memory.  I think it’s safe to say that it won’t disappoint regency romance fans, but it didn’t wow me otherwise.  

I’ve been trying to analyze why this one is falling into the “good but not great” category, and I think it’s because it never surprised me.  Like all romance fans, I expect a certain level of predictability when it comes to the relationship, but I still like to have a few surprises thrown in to mix things up.  Unfortunately I was able to predict every single event, almost like I was the stage manager at a theater production.  I was mentally cuing all the characters before they even appeared with uncanny accuracy.  That was a little too cozy for comfort, and it hampered my enjoyment.

Still, it was fun to read a story where the woman chased the man, and she had to wear down his honorable intentions in order to get into his pants.  I’m so used to reading the reverse that An Affair Without End was refreshing as a result.

Note: I received a free review copy courtesy of the publisher, Pocket Star Books.

I have been struggling with my weight and health for over eight years now.  Before my children were born, I wasn’t exactly a health queen, but I wasn’t in terrible shape either.  Over the course of two pregnancies I packed on enough extra weight to qualify as overweight according to my body mass index score.  I’m not going to talk in terms of how much I weighed, not because I’m embarrassed (okay, I’m a little embarrassed), but really it’s to avoid comments from people who say, “Oh honey, you ain’t fat like me!”  I’m sure all of us could find someone else on this planet who is more overweight than us, but really, does that make you feel any better?  That sure doesn’t work for me.

At my worst, my BMI was at 26.4.  Right now I’m at 23.0.  According to the BMI calculator on the National Heart Blood and Lung Institute’s website, ideal weight is between 18.5–24.9, and overweight is 25–29.9.

Those three little points don’t sound like a lot, but they represent 20 pounds that have deviled me for a long time now.  Over the past year, I’ve been able to lose that weight, and I’d like to share how I finally did it.

In the early mommy years, I embraced my soft, curvy body (hello boobs!), but deep down I wasn’t happy.  I wouldn’t take my kids for Mommy and Me swim lessons because I didn’t want to get in a bathing suit in front of other people.  I hated formal portraits because I’d always be in a “fat” phase, and my face looked puffy and bloated.  I finally gave up and boxed up all of my “skinny” clothes from B.K. (before kids), and donated them to charity.  If you’re thinking, gee, Rebecca doesn’t look overweight in her pictures, etc., well, I carry most of my weight on my ass and thighs.  If I were a fruit, I’d be a pear–I’m skinny on top, and heavy at the bottom.

Then last summer I started getting these weird aches and pains in my chest and back.  Oh, I should mention that this happened after sitting still for 4-5 hours at a pop.  It scared me enough to get me off the couch for some much needed exercise, and I started walking regularly, for 2-4 miles a day.  That sounds pretty good, right?  Well, it certainly improved my health, but strangely enough my weight didn’t change at all.  I walked through last summer and fall, and it took a good four months before I saw any pounds drop off.  That was progress, at least, until I hit my personal plateau–that horrible place where your body won’t budge any further.

Then I went through a huge change in January.  I went back to school, I started reading less, I started eating less, I was more active all of the time, and I stopped exercising.  Guess what happened?  I lost weight like gang busters, and blasted through that f’ing plateau.  That seems to go against conventional wisdom.  I mean, the eating less and the reading less stuff kind of makes sense, but how did going from “little activity with bursts of exercise” to “lots of activity with no exercise” help me out?

These two articles explain what happened to me.  When I read Why Exercise Won’t Make You Thin on Times Magazine, it was like a revelation.  It explains how little bursts of exercise cannot make up for hours and hours of sitting still, how most of us feel a huge hunger spike after stressing our bodies for 30 minutes at the gym, and how we “reward” ourselves with a blueberry muffin that packs 350 calories when we’ve only burned off 50.  OMG!  THAT WAS ME!

The second article, Is Sitting a Lethal Activity? on The New York Times, further shows that humans do best when we keep moving.  Sitting still is not good for our health, and all those extra things I do each day, like climbing stairs, and humping in a bunch of equipment to class every day (graphic designers don’t travel light), has been burning calories at a steady clip.

Oh, and what else has helped?  Cutting my reading habit down from 7+ books a week to a mere 2-3.  All that sitting still was sinking my plans to lose weight, but it wasn’t until I really cut down on my reading that I noticed.  Now, for other people, television is their primary ass-plant time, but each person much identify and fight their own demons.  Mine are definitely books.  I won’t cut them out of my life, but one of my New Year’s resolutions was to cut back on my reading, and I think it has paid off in terms of pounds off.

The last article has to do with food, and that’s another area of my life where I’ve been slowly changing things up.  I’ll state up front, I don’t like fad diets.  It’s not that I’m an unbeliever, but I don’t think those sorts of things are sustainable long term, and we all know what happens when someone goes off the diet, right?  The weight comes right back.  Instead, I wanted to change my eating habits to something that I could do for the rest of my life, and this isn’t something I’ve done overnight either.  Big Fat Lies on Bicycling Magazine is full of all kinds of food myths, and I highly recommend it.  Here’s how I’ve been changing how and what I eat:

The first big hurdle is portion size.  I serve the rest of my family on our regular dinner plates, but I use a salad-size plate.  That helps me keep things in visual perspective.

Second, I changed the ratio.  I fill half my plate with vegetables, and I keep the entrée to a quarter.  I used to serve myself in the exact reverse, but my days of thinking of the veggie as a garnish are over.

I always eat breakfast, no matter what.  For years I skipped breakfast, but now I have a low-fat yogurt, one egg, and a grapefruit.  According to the articles above, that’s still not enough, so I’m going to look into adding some oatmeal.  I’m not really a morning person, but I can tell that I feel better when I start the day on a full belly.

I used to sprinkle sugar on top of the grapefruit, but I’ve been working on eliminating sugar from my diet, and now I don’t crave it nearly as much.  I go commando with my grapefruit, and yes, I actually enjoy the taste of the grapefruit by itself.  I’ve also substituted honey for sugar in my tea.  Want to scare yourself about sugar?  Read Is Sugar Toxic? on New York Times Magazine.

I allow myself to eat unlimited fruit, anytime I want it, and I snack on raw nuts (only a little handful goes a long way).  Aside from one cup of milk a day, the only things I’ll drink are unsweetened tea and water.  I don’t do flavored drinks or diet sodas, mainly because 1) they’re full of chemicals (even the brown carmel coloring is bad for us???), and 2) the false sugar flavor just keeps our addiction to sugar going.

Did I start doing all of this stuff overnight?  Hell no!  I probably would have revolted and binged on an entire cheesecake.  All of these changes have been accumulating over the course of a year.  A big key is working on eating less overall.  For example, my family likes to eat sub sandwiches once a week, usually on a Saturday lunch.  Instead of ordering a medium (8″) sandwich, I’ve switched over to a small (5″) sandwich.  Instead of grabbing a bag of chips, I’ll take a pear or apple along (I’m not cheating the sandwich shop–they don’t sell any fruit), or I’ll split a bag of chips with my daughter.  If we share a big brownie or cookie for dessert, I give myself enough for 2-3 bites.  I don’t deny myself, but I don’t eat nearly as much as I once did.  Here’s the good news about smaller portion sizes–if you do it long enough, your tummy will get used to it.

In a way, this post is anti-reading, and it kind of pains me to write it.  On the other hand, I think I was sitting still way too much, and I needed to find a way to make reading fit into my life without making my ass bigger.  Nowadays I only read when I can’t be doing something else.  Right before bedtime is good, and so are times like being on a train or a plane.  I can’t do anything else, so I might as well read.  I used to love reading through an entire afternoon, but I won’t let myself waste the daylight anymore.  If there’s something else I can do, namely, something physical, I will choose that activity over the book.

Here’s where I probably need to add a bunch of disclaimers.  Am I a health expert?  No.  Am I a nutrition expert?  No.  I’m just a regular woman who decided to share what finally worked for me, because I know that there are a whole bunch of us out there.  I’m still hesitant to publish this post, but when I read all of those articles it was kind of like kismet.  I’ve made some changes in my life, and in the process, it has improved my health, my weight, and my overall well being.  It felt right to share this with you, and I hope that this info (especially the articles) will help you too.

Joanne K.

Jacki G.

Linda H.

I’m putting your books in the mail on Monday, ladies.

Thanks again to Kimani Press for sponsoring this contest.

Living under Reese Madaris’s roof makes LaKenna James the envy of every woman in town. But Reese’s offer of a place to stay is strictly platonic—just until Kenna’s new condo is completed. He has no idea that his best friend has been attracted to him since college, and Kenna plans to keep it that way.

Ever since his cousin Blade got married, Reese has become Houston’s most eligible bachelor—and a magnet for gold diggers. Reese turns to his temporary roommate for dating advice, and suddenly sees Kenna for the beautiful, voluptuous woman she is. Though Kenna’s afraid to give her heart to the man who could so easily break it, when her life is in jeopardy, she’ll discover just how far a Madaris man will go when love is at stake…

The rules are simple.  Fill out the form anytime between now and midnight (EST) on Sunday, May 1, 2011.  I’ll use random.org to pull three names out of the hat and announce the winners the following day.  Because I am the one doing the mailing this time, I’m going to open this contest to all residents of planet Earth.  I feel bad that most of my recent contests have been for U.S. residents only, so this one is for everyone.  Come one, come all!

Thank you to Kimani Press for sponsoring this contest.  Also, if you’re curious to read more, there’s a nice long excerpt posted on Inseparable’s Amazon product page.