Book ADD

Lately I've been having this problem that I never have,where I just can't focus on a book. I can't decide if it's me or the books. I'm going to blame those books though. I've attempted "Master of the Night" by Angela Knight. I can't even find that one now. I think its under the bed. Then I started "Good Girls Do" by Cathie Linz, dropped it for "Mr. Impossible" by Loretta Chase (which I read really fast and wish that I read before I voted in the AAR poll, b/c Rupert Carsington is my new favorite hero. Also awesome heroine and setting. I lurve me some Egypt), picked it up again and now have abandoned it for good. Now I've been working on "Prince of Magic" by Anne Stuart and I may give up on it. Part of me wants to finish, and a large part of me is saying just skip to the end and see what else is in the TBR pile. The sad thing is both of these books seem like they had elements that would make them surefire hits with me, but just didn't do it.

The Linz book, GGD, highlighted why I tend not to read Contemporaries. The contrived reasons for the hero returning to the town where everyone shakes their head and whispers that he's a bad seed, the forced conflict, the cardboard small-town characters, the heroine's annoying new-age-y, free-spirited mother and sister... I loathe this sort of characters, with only the most superficial trappings of individuality--the belly ring, the yoga, the crystals, vegetarianism etc. Their nonconformity comes off as petulance, arrogance and narrow-mindedness. They are sooo above others. Hey, it's kind of like me at 17! According to the excerpt at the end of the book, annoying sister is going to be the heroine of her own book and promises to be even more annoying. Sad thing is, the masochistic part of me wants to check this out to see if its as irritating as it looks, or at least to see if someone will bitch slap the heroine. Anyway I won't comment much more, b/c I did give up on the book, so it's not fair. A librarian and a biker, just like me and my hubby. He even commented on the cover when he noticed it on the counter, where it sat for days. Oh well.

I was looking forward to Anne Stuart's "Prince of Magic" because she's supposed to be wonderful and the Queen of dark, tortured heroes. This looked awesome--the hero is a defrocked priest with an interest in pagan religion (awesome!),and he's a royal bastard (literally! awesome!) the heroine was banished from her home for dancing in the woods at night, in her nightie (awesome!), dark Yorkshire forest, monk ghosts, crazy aristocrats/Druids (awesome, awesome, awesome!). I thought it would be like one of those Barbara Michaels or Victoria Holt books that I used to love, but with sex. But it just didn't do it for me. I think the problem is a lot of telling, not showing. We are told a lot of things about the hero and the heroine, that are not necessarily born out in their words or actions. I'm not feeling their romance. And the hero's a bit of a dick, frankly. I should wait until I finish to make a final judgment though.