Turn It Up

Turn It Up by Inez Kelley
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Dr. Bastian Talbot and self-proclaimed sex goddess Charlie Pierce heat up the air waves with their flirty banter as radio hosts Dr. Hot and the Honeypot. Off the air, they’re best friends…but Bastian wants to be so much more. He wants Charlie—in bed, and forever.

Problem is, Charlie doesn’t do commitment. Sure, she’s had X-rated fantasies of Bastian, but he was always just a friend—until he impulsively proposes and unleashes the lust they’ve been denying for years. Charlie’s willing to explore where their wild chemistry leads, but she won’t marry him. And he won’t have sex with her until she accepts his proposal, despite her seductive schemes.

What are Dr. Hot and the Honeypot to do? Ask their listeners for advice on how to tame a sex kitten and turn a perfect gentleman into a shameless lover. The Race to Wed or Bed is on…who will turn up on top?

Turn It Up is far from a literary masterpiece. It reminded me fanfic. The good news is that I have read some fanfic that I quite enjoyed. And I quite enjoyed Turn It Up. I can’t say it enriched my life in any way, but it was a fun few hours I spent with it. It was sexy, occasionally funny, and some (though not all) of the banter was entertaining.

Predictable? Yep. Contrived? You betcha. Worth my time? Indeed.

No, this isn’t exactly a rave review, but I think three stars is a pretty impressive feat for a book with a male love interest named Bastian.

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Perfect Chemistry

Perfect Chemistry by Simone Elkeles
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I kept seeing this recommended, but I resisted, because I wasn’t sure I would like it. It’s not the best thing I’ve ever read, but it’s an enjoyable, quick read, and has a bit more of an edge compared to most YA romance.

There did seem to be something missing, though I can’t pinpoint exactly what it was. Maybe just… more. There were times when a section or chapter ended and jumped ahead a bit where I just wanted more.

Will I read the sequel/companion novels, Rules of Attraction and Chain Reaction? Definitely. I’m just not going to rush to them.

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What to watch?

The problem with getting so far behind on TV shows is that when Friday comes around and you bag your friends for a little tube time, there’s so much to watch that it’s very difficult to decide where to begin. Couple that with the fact that I’m enjoying a nice book, and it seems unlikely this will be anything close to the Night of Much TV that I had envisioned.

If it weren’t for my nook battery needing a recharge, I would still be reading. Instead, I looked through all the shows I had to catch up on, got overwhelmed, and opened up my laptop instead. Thus, a post is born.

I’ll probably go through my google reader for a bit, then finish my book. I will watch something before turning in. Oh, my exciting life.

Mouth disease

OK, it’s not so much a mouth disease as it is a skin disease around the area of my lips. I don’t know that it’s an actual disease. It is a condition of some sort that is driving me absolutely crazy.

A couple months ago, I had a weird allergic reaction after taking a bite of a quiche thingy I make all the time. My lips got really itchy, I rubbed them to try to make the itch go away, then they puffed up to about three times their normal size. The skin around my lips hasn’t been the same since then.

It’s dry, itchy, sometimes it burns, the skin flakes off, they crack. Occasionally I think it’s going to clear up, then out of the blue, it flares up again.

I’ve tried balms, Vaseline, lotions, creams for sensitive skin, and when I get pusy, itchy hives, I try to temper it with hydrocortisone. Nothing has been anything more than a temporary relief.

I still have almost a month before my health insurance kicks in and I can go to a dermatologist. Ugh. I just want it to go away. Aside from the major problem, which is the almost constant discomfort– and sometimes outright pain– it really sucks to walk around with a big red blotch circling my mouth. I look like a sock monkey.

Wet rain

More often than not, when it rains here, it’s a dry rain. You can stand out in the rain for 15 minutes and feel nothing more than a mist in your hair. Tonight? It is wet raining. Wipers on comically high, still can’t see anything wet rain. Puddles turning into lakes wet rain. Drenched just walking from the car to the house wet rain.

None of this would be too bad if the motor on one of my car windows hadn’t died while it was down yesterday. Nor would it be bad if I had time to go get it fixed. Alas, I do not. And so I must drive around in a damp car until… whenever. I really don’t know. Next Friday, maybe?

Just in case I want to do this thing

I better post while it’s still November 1st.

Just now, my cat jumped up on the couch, walked over the back of it to me, climbed over obstacles to get right in my face, sneezed at me, and left.

Also:  It’s been a really long time since I’ve written anything here.  It looks a lot different, and I can’t find stuff.  It’ll take some time before I have it the way I want it.  Ah well.  I have all month.

Another success story!

A second close friend started reading twilight last night (hi, aurabee!) and she’s loving it too!  Oh, how I love having people to talk to about it now.  Of course, I have to be careful not to say too much, but I’m perfectly fine with that.  Mostly I love hearing about their reactions, so I can relive my first read vicariously.

Too far ahead

This is all New Moon spoilery!!!

Just a couple days ago, I was behind on my reading schedule.  Now I’m too far ahead.  But only because I cheated.  The thing is, I don’t have the patience to once again read through the 300-ish pages between Edward leaving and Alice returning. 

I enjoy the Jacob/werewolves storyline, but it worked much better for me when it was interspersed with stories of Edward and the rest of the Cullens/Hales in Eclipse.  I find myself flipping through pages or even chapters at a time going “blah blah blah, I know this already.”  And it’s true that I know all the vampire stuff, too, but… it’s why I read the series.  Repeatedly.  I’m all about the love story.  The love story of Edward and Bella. 

I’m not a Jacob hater, and the budding friendship between Bella and Jacob is important to the series, but I don’t want to spend too much time reading about it again.  At least not in the context of New Moon.   When I move on to Eclipse, I’ll start paying attention again, except for the parts that piss me off.

Anyway, I skipped through a lot of those chapters, and started reading in earnest again when Bella jumped off the cliff, which is why I’m way ahead of schedule.  I’m reading the Volterra chapters now, and I just had to share that I can’t help but to love Aro.  His enthusiasm is delightful!  Mostly, I think I find him so amusing because I hear his lines read in the voice of Killface. 

Back on track

I fell behind on my chapters during the week, but I’m pretty sure I’m caught up now.  Or at least I’m close.  I read the last two chapters of Twilight this morning and have moved on to New Moon.   The next two paragraphs could be considered New Moon spoilery, so proceed with caution.  I’m not going to give specific details, but I will talk about my reaction to certain chapters.  Actually, it’s maybe a little more spoilery than I first planned, so don’t read the next two paragraphs if you haven’t read New Moon.

I’ve made it through just the first two chapters so far, and I’m already a mess.  Chapter three is so much worse.  It makes me sob like a bitch.  I thought maybe this time it wouldn’t be so bad, because I’ve already read it a couple times, so I know what’s coming.  Not so much.  Instead, knowing what is coming makes the preceding chapters that much worse. 

I started tearing up as soon as Carlisle started telling the story about changing Edward, and it kept up through the rest of the chapter.  I had to stop reading because I couldn’t see through the damn tears, and the worst is still to come.  Seriously, chapter three freakin’ kills me.  Plus, once I’m done with chapter three, I have 300-ish pages of Cullen-less story, and that makes me so sad. 

I’m taking a break now, and catching up on the past few weeks of the Savage Love podcast instead.  From a virginal vampire to a sex-advice columnist who is encouraging rape fantasies and the use of butt plugs.  Clearly I have varying interests.

As I was typing that, I friend of mine called to yell at me because she has a bunch of things she’s supposed to be doing, but instead she can’t stop reading Twilight.  Yay!  A successful conversion!  She’s just about to read chapter 13, which, as I’ve already mentioned a couple posts back, is one of my favorite chapters of the entire series.  She’ll be even more conversionier after this!

Vampire virtue

I was only able to get two chapters read tonight, so I’m officially a day behind where my formula dictated I be.  Wow, that was a bad sentence.  Whatever.

I’m having issues today with my wrist.  It hurts, Mom.  I’m not sure what’s up with it, but I can’t find a comfortable way to hold my book, and it effing kills when I have to type anything from the qwerty row or above. 

Today’s quote is representative of the frustration encountered by a smut-lover when reading a YA novel about a sexy, sexy vampire who is also a 100-something year old virgin who just will not give it up.

“Just because I’m resisting the wine doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate the bouquet,” he whispered.

Because even though he wasn’t really talking about that when he said it, he really was talking about that when he said it… at least a little bit.