Julian Griffith > Recent Status Updates

It's about Ham House. I used Ham House (very transparently re-named Maitland House) as Rockingham's house in Love Continuance and Increasing. I looked up all the movies that used it as a location on imdb and watched them. Yes, even Spice World. How could I resist a story that uses the actual history of Ham House? I couldn't. So I'm reading it.

Really enjoying this. Feels like it ought to have been a novel, though.

"Manually add books" is going to be a challenge for scanned Google Books. But that's what I've been reading lately. RESEARCH!

New system: tagging to-read with review blog where I found it, so I can go back & see if anything was misleading, if necessary.

I'm putting this aside for now. Darleston has pushed one of my buttons and if I keep reading now I'm just going to be miserable. Maybe later, when I'm not furious from the last book.

And now it turns out the other guy's special license was a fake? I CAN'T WITH THIS BOOK.

It is telling that I'd rather play with my Twitter background than read this book. Using a picture of Jane Austen's desk.

Now a highwayman, who is patently the hero in disguise, is "rescuing" her from the other hero -- who is eloping with the heroine and SHOWED HER A SPECIAL LICENSE, so he's not trying to ruin her -- and, in the process of the "rescue", she very sensibly knocked a pistol out of his hand, and HE YANKED HER HEAD BACK BY THE HAIR. I hate this book. And I hate SBTB for misleading me.

Now adding ANGRY NOTES all over the Kindle version. The hero who started out a classic beta? Has turned into an asshole who threatens to spank the heroine, and, later on, THROTTLES her and forces a kiss. NOPE. SO done with you, dude. Worse, the heroine is blaming herself for provoking him with her temper. Excuse me? You aren't allowed to be angry but he's allowed to assault you? SO DONE.

I've taken to annotating the anachronisms. One of the heroes SEVERELY annoyed me by threatening to spank the heroine. And I'm even getting tired of the plot. Why didn't Desmond write his memoirs as a roman a clef? It would STILL have fetched money, given the success of Glenarvon. And then he wouldn't have been in danger of prosecution.

Smart Bitches, Trashy Books recommended this, as did a trustworthy friend. Alas, even when the story's good -- and this one is -- little inaccuracies annoy me.

I swear, this book is very interesting when I'm sitting up. It is not suitable for reading lying down.

General note: after the last thing I reviewed, I will NOT be reading or reviewing any self-published work unless I already know your writing. This can include knowing your writing in a blogging context, or from fanfic, but otherwise? The track record's not good.

I keep having to remind myself that this is midcentury and not Napoleonic-era.

lovely stuff! expected no less from Catt. full review to follow when I'm less wiped.

worth staying awake for!

And likely to stay there for a while, as I'm writing in December 1807 and that page is up to 1809. Also, how did I not realize this thing was a free Google Play book? I spent money on hard copy.

Driveway: shoveled. Let's hope it doesn't turn into a sheet of ice overnight. We put salt down...

I've realized I'm a much fussier reader than I'd thought. I'm at the point where if I see the word "ranch" in a review, I don't even keep reading. Same goes for "werewolf". If you want to convince me otherwise, it's going to be a hard, hard job.

this has got to be an AU because finding the heir to the British throne after a bachelor party? Prince Harry maybe. Hardly Prince Charles, the stuffy old thing!

this is the second time "neatly trimmed" chest hair has been mentioned. Is this a thing with gay men? the straight dudes I have known sometimes trim pubes, but if they have chest hair, they leave it the way it grows. I thought it would be wax or nothing.

you said that guy broke his knuckles, how is he doing this now?

that is a foundation wall, no matter how big the battleaxe, you can't pierce to the outside, it's as bad as Gypsum Minas Tirith

"long hard Latino cock" REALLY?

protagonists get a +5 bonus in marksmanship rolls

the snakes would DEFINITELY not be that cooperative.

why did you repeat those adjectives in the NEXT SENTENCE?

this is the third time in very little space you've said how well-dressed the guests were, we get it already

they were in a radio-controlled speedboat? can't figure out what else RC would mean

Jesus Christ you don't take a Ducati off-road