Special thanks to Leontine from Leontine's Book Realm for the super header.


Sunday, July 18, 2010

The Long and Short of It

So after reading All or Nothing, I took a break and read a short book then went back and tackled my next longest book. Maybe if I hop back and forth between longer and shorter I won't feel so overwhelmed. So I tell myself.

Moor Love by Carol Lynn (61 pages)
Total-e-Bound Publishing

Caleb is studying agriculture in college and gets the chance to do a work term of a year on a sheep farm in Yorkshire. Jon is mute and has aggravated and old injury and does not WANT help but accepts it grudgingly. Eventually Caleb and Jon admit their attraction and start a relationship. Caleb's mother comes and stirs things up a bit but it all works out in the end. I find many Carol Lynn books have insta-love which doesn't work for me but this is not the case here, the relationship develops over time, although I'm not sure I liked how it jumped from "hi, nice to meet you" to "two months later" to "four months later". I didn't love how Jon's muteness was dealt with, without giving it away I can't say more. However on the whole for 60 pages I enjoyed it, I liked Caleb and Jon together and I thought the descriptions of Yorkshire were lovely and gave you a feel for the place. (I assume, not having been there it could be all my imagination.)

Keeping Promise Rock by Amy Lane (328 pages)
Dreamspinner Press

Look at me go. Two long books in a week. :-) You know why I don't like long books? Because I was up until 1:44 to finish this Saturday night. Sigh.

This book is probably too long and complex for me to summarize in my format, but Crick who has a rough life as a kid with his step-Dad meets older boy Deacon and Deacon and his Dad take Crick on as a surrogate family. Deacon is much older but Crick falls in love. When Deacon's Dad dies they live together as brothers running the ranch. Deacon is always trying to push Crick to go to college for art and get out of town. Finally they manage to get together and Crick misunderstands something Deacon says and does something totally stupid, like join the army. Sigh. Boys. The rest of the books is their story while Crick is in Iraq and Deacon is dealing with lots of shit back home including Cricks 15 year old pregnant half-sister and floods and illness and Crick is dealing with, well, war stuff in Iraq. Why didn't I read this before? Well, everyone told me I'd need tissues. I did. Sigh. But it was so good I couldn't stop reading it. I had to finish. I loved how Deacon who had always been the capable one Crick looked up to ended up being not quite such a strong guy after all and needed help and in some ways Crick was the one who was stronger. An excellent excellent book and I see Shane and Mikhail are getting a book and Jeff better get a HEA too. *squinty eyed glare at Amy* All of the secondary characters were great, Deacon's best friend Jon and his wife Amy, Lisa, Crick's friend in Iraq, Jeff, Andrew, Benny the sister. I can't say enough good things. Warning though: Start reading it early in the day so you don't have to stay up so late and do keep a couple of tissues handy. :-)

12 comments:

Chris said...

I'm so glad you finally read this! Isn't it amazing?! I actually had to keep taking little breaks because I was so anxious on behalf of the characters.

I've been trying to work on reading some of the things that I've had for a while, too, instead of just the fresh shiny new ebooks.

Tam said...

I didn't take many breaks or I would have been up until 3:00. LOL It was a super read.

Yeah, I'm trying to do that too. Not going so well. LOL But I am at least thinking about it. That's a start. :-)

Lily said...

Moor Love was nice. I read it when it first came out.

So glad you loved Keeping Promise Rock. I did too. It's a great story.

Tam said...

It was a nice read Lily and I liked that there was no insta-love.

KPR was a great story. Looking forward to the next installment.

Amy Lane said...

Oh noes! Not the squinty-eyed glare! (Yes-I promise that Jeff will get his HEA!!! His story is up soon in the queue... and I have missed Promise Rock:-) I'm so glad you liked it--always good to know it's worth the tissues:-)

Tam said...

Yay. Love you Amy. :-) Definitely worth the tissues. I'll look forward to both of the coming editions.

Jenre said...

I think I need a pin to burst that rubber ring you're hottie is wearing :).

Yay and yay! The North Yorkshire Moors setting is very accurate in the Moor Love story. Loved the gruff sheep farmer paired with the perky American - and the fact that the relationship developed slowly.

Glad you've finally taken everyone's advice and read Keeping Promise Rock. It was super-special and still one of my top books for 2010.

Tam said...

You are a naughty girl Jen. :-D I like it.

At the risk of being spoilerish, I wished he'd stayed mute though, just because it was a nice twist on the usual love story. But it was still good.

And yes, I may be slow to get my act together in reading KPR, but I do listen to you guys from time to time. :-)

Anonymous said...

I liked the Lynne book, but I loved KPR. I'm so glad you liked it, too, Tam.

"I wished he'd stayed mute though" I'm sure there are lots of significant others out there who pray for their S.O.'s to be stricken with muteness every day.

Tam said...

LOL Too true Eyre, too true.

KPR was a great read. Looking forward to the next ones in the series.

Tracy said...

I keep meaning to read KPR and I don't. I obviously need to rectify that immediately. I'll buy extra tissues.

Tam said...

LOL I said that for months and I'm so glad I finally bucked up and did it. It's not a book where you are bawling buckets, but your heart hurts a few times and you end up with leakage. :-)