I’ve had a bout of leisurely reading lately: no deluge of library holds, no urgency to read an author’s latest release. In fact, I’ve gone back to re-read some Mary Stewart novels that I first read as a teenager twenty-something years ago. I mentioned The Ivy Tree a few posts back (and my mixed feelings of long-ago), and now I’ve read it as an adult. I do believe it’s my least favorite among Ms. Stewart’s collection of romantic suspense, and now I know why. I don’t want to give anything away for those of you who haven’t yet read the book and plan to one day, but in a nutshell, but it comes down to the fact that I wasn’t enamoured of either the hero or the heroine. She put me a little off and he was a virtual stranger throughout the entire book. Ah well, I have so many other of Ms. Stewart’s collection to choose from and so many exotic locales…

Austria, Corfu, Crete, Greece, Isle of Skye, Lebanon, France…

I don’t typically read romantic suspense because I don’t care much for the sordid underbelly of our society. And yet oddly enough, Mary Stewart manages to keep all inappropriate goings-on somewhat tasteful. (My husband rolled his eyes when I tried to explain this to him.) The Ivy Tree was, in my opinion, about as low as she sunk (and it wasn’t even all that low).

A Stewart heroine is typically relatively young, sharp, witty, and adventurous. The hero, in turn, is dashing and charming and definite hero-material, able to come through swimmingly in a dangerous situation. I try to live up to the stellar example Ms. Stewart sets in my own writing and only hope that I come close. I just finished Nine Coaches Waiting and despite the hero only making the occasional, rare appearance, I fell in love with him! A couple bits of dialogue sent shivers down my spine, and that doesn’t happen often. (Except with my husband of course). The falling-apart 1958 version to the left is the one that I own.

And now I’m on to Touch Not the Cat, of which I remember nothing, and I’ve not yet met the hero yet. I absolutely cannot wait.

My advice? If you like tasteful romantic suspense and very yummy, sexy heroes and likeable, best-friend-type heroines, try a Mary Stewart.

Side note: I’ve just picked up Breaking Dawn from the library! Another 800 page tome to tackle–woo-hoo!

Thanks to everyone who offered kind words–we are almost back to normal here, despite the boys being off school for another whole week! We actually escaped the aftermath a bit this past weekend with a trip up to Little Rock, AR which we’d be planning for a month or so. We squeezed in a trip to Crater of Diamonds State Park, where we dug for diamonds, an apple-picking expedition (we came away with 19 lbs. of apples, so the next several posts are likely to be an Apple-palooza–if you have any recipes, send ’em my way!), and a hike up Pinnacle Mountain just west of L.R. It was nice to be away from home for a bit.

I couldn’t quite justify the purchase of this Jane Austen action figure though…

Well as the sun makes its downward descent on the fourth day after the eye of Ike swept through Galveston and Houston, things are far from back to normal but still considerably better than they’ve been. We did finally get power back last night, which was a relief, but that good news was tempered with the realization that our refrigerator had been fried either in losing power or regaining it. So…today we went shopping for a new one. One of the stores we tried didn’t actually have electricity but they had a veritable crowd of associates on hand to escort people around the dark cavern of a store with flashlights. Little tip: it’s mighty difficult to try and pick out a fridge with the use of only a standard flashlight. It didn’t take us long to abandon that option. We ended up buying a floor model from Best Buy and my husband just brought it home in his truck. Now he needs to corral some neighbors to try to help him move the old one out and the new one in. What I’m missing most is my cold drinks and ice.

Despite the boys’ school not looking too bad from a cursory, drive-by inspection, a recent district website update indicates it requires ‘major renovations’, and school will not be back in session till at least next Tuesday. That will be almost two weeks of missed school. Our house did pretty well, which amazes me, considering that Technicolor swirling mass we watched inching closer to the Galveston coast late Friday night (right before the power went out). A few shingles have detached themselves from our house and we’ve had a bit of water leaking in…and then the refrigerator. But it could have been so much worse. I’m very thankful. We went up to stay with my mom, and they had no damage–just a lawn littered with pinecones. Still, trees are down everywhere and power is still spotty all over the city. Lines for water and ice are long, and grocery stores and gas stations are swarmed. I haven’t even tried to deal with that yet. One day at a time.