Delia Binder > Recent Status Updates

NOTE TO LAURELIN PAIGE OF THE "FIXED" TRILOGY: THIS is how you write a story about two damaged souls "fixing" each other through their love!

I don't even remember this book! Guess I'd better find it and why I stopped reading it if I ever started....

I'm most of the way through I, THE JURY - and to my surprise, Spillane's a far better mystery writer than he'd been given credit for. While Mike Hammer in this book seems kind of blind to what's going on in front of him, that's passed off as his being head-over-heels for a Classy Dame - not what I would have expected.

After months of Goodreads insisting I'm reading this book, I decided I should finally, you know, READ it.

So far it's mostly "We were in love for one enchanted summer while we were teenaged girls, then she went away and broke my heart! Now she's back with her tail between her legs, playing piano at my local LBGT wine bar hangout...."

Maybe it's b/c my long-term relationship ended last year, but - no. Please, no.

If it wasn't for GR Updates reminding me of the books I'm "Currently Reading" (i.e., "I bought it but forgot I had it in the pile of Erotic and Historical Romances I keep picking up cheaply on Bookbub!"), I'd have forgotten I even have this!

So...settling in for a fast, silly read courtesy of Alex Lukeman - or as I like to think of him, "The real-life Richard Castle"!

To be fair, I mostly got this as a reference for a project I'm doing, so I may never "finish" it in the conventional sense - but so far, it's got a lot of stuff I already knew about Conan Doyle, but enough that I didn't to make it worthwhile

I can't figure out if this is a BDSM romance or just one with a pushy male....

I have to say I don't enjoy W.E.B. Griffin's co-writes with his son, William E. Butterworth IV, as much as I do the books he wrote on his own.

I like Bill Keith's writing, and especially the mix of Godlike Alien Beings and Space Marines. This book worries me a bit as, if he keeps proceeding on this path nobody, including the humans, are going to be recognizable as such.

It's got more meat on the bone than "normal" Military SF - I just hope he doesn't write himself right into closer to Arthur C. Clarke than Robert A. Heinlein....

I always thought the idea of pastiches was to get as close as you could to how the original author wrote. I also thought that if you're editing an anthology, you'd lead off with your strongest story -- not some French thing that presents Archie Goodwin as a sexual predator!

So far, I'm not fleeing this book because the cold ruthless lord has a pretty strong reason for being that way, and I want to find out what the truth is.

Cleo tells Adair his family can't decide if they want to be a gaming Hell or a proper gentleman's club, he tells her it can be both, she disputes him.... and, big surprise, they end up spread out on the table trying to kill each other by shoving their tongues down each other's throats!

It's hard to tell WHO's more horrified at realizing they were making out with each other, and LOVING it -- Cleo or Adair.

For Adair's part, he can't help but notice how pleasantly touchable the woman he blames for the fire that burnt down his family's gambling heel is.

When he catches her that night in his private study, with the plans for rebuilding the Black's Hell and Sin Club -- and after a quick exchange of insults, he's sufficiently interested in her criticisms of the design to ask her why... So she tells him, he argues her...

But -- even Broderick admits that Cleopatra has the spine to stand up to even the toffiest of toffs, so he agrees to let her go try.

There's a lot of hissing and spitting between Cleo and Adair -- and a weird inability to keep their hands off each other, either. The first time Adair roughly searched Cleo for hidden weapons (of which she has many), she can't help but notice how much she likes HIS hands on her....

Ryker Black is the consort of Vicountess Penelope, who has the proper breeding to introduce the Killoran family to the Ton, which Broderick desperately desires to protect his family. Cleo wouldn't be his FIRST choice -- she's too smart (both intellect and in expressing it!), too ready with a gun or knife (especially when a man tries to lay hands on her), and her hatred for the Ton burns even more than for the Blacks.

Here's the thing: Adair Thorne, brother to late Regency/early Victorian era Gang Leader-turned-Gambling Hell owner Ryker Black, HATES all Killorans -- and especially the icy, dangerous and SMART Cleopatra Killoran, younger sister to rival Gambling Hell owner Broderick Killoran. That's okay, as the feeling's mutual far as Cleopatra's concerned -- but, her brother wants at least one of his sisters to marry well, so...

...& I haven't a clue WTF kind of story I'm reading! It's like an airport read bestseller series entry -- only it's got pandemics, Ancient Superior Races, a character who was enslaved by a magic gas to build futuristic pyramids in the Amazon and has now returned because she thinks the "Master Builders" want her to retrieve something, Meathead Superior Men Heroes...

All Over the Map so far.

It's not your usual romance -- the two MCs are banging by Chapter 2, which makes Leah's "No Sex While I'm 'Acting' as Your Girlfriend For Your Family" Rule feel kind of...silly, really. I get she's doing it to make it clear she's not an Escort, but given these two can't keep their hands off each other already?

This book went from Hated Asshole Boss to I Love You & Want to Spend Forever With You & Your Daughter in what feels like record time. While I knew the kind of book it was, I didn't expect over half the book making me HATE Hunky but Asshole Boss, only to turn on a dime at about the 59% mark!

DAMN RL! I've had this book since Tuesday, and I'm only 60% done with it!
Quick notes to date:
- Eve's starting to be more caring, while still being utterly Lt. Bitch Cop!
- Peabody ::yay!:: is coming along nicely as a Detective, no longer second-guessing herself
- Eve&Roarke have a pissy fight & make up that evening with no real heavy drama

I haven't said anything because though the book is probably riddled with historical inaccuracies? It doesn't matter because it goes down nicely with a cuppa and a biscuit, Miss...

It's really starting to bother me that Leroy Chang, the guy who attempted to rape Jan in my last update? Is treated as a pathetic fool rather than a predatory scumbag....

Already this guy is some Dude's Idea of White Male Perfection, added to a bigger obsession with telling you about his clothes and his furnishings than Laurel K. Hamilton's Anita Blake! I can already tell Our Hero, Jack Steele

https://youtu.be/RFHlJ2voJHY
Or it is Slab Bulkhead!? Fridge Largemeat!? Punt Speedchunk!? Butch Deadlift!...?

Is going to be super-perfect in Everything He Does...

So the main female scientist character's almost raped by a horny nerd male scientist, the male hero sees it going down...& just shrugs, "She can take care of herself"?!? When she confronts him about it later, it boils down to her being mad he didn't LIKE her enough to intervene...?!?!?!?

A #metoo precursor was the Sexual Harassment scandal that swept through SF Fandom in 2013 -- this mindset's one reason why.

I really know zip about girl jocks, so I have to ask — are they ALL as self-centered & prone to tantrums as these two are?

Imagine what Bruce Wayne would be like if, rather than dressing up like a big rubber bat to fight bad guys, he’d become a Senator. Benjamin, Duke of Silkridge, broods and snarls more than Batman ever’s done ..