Three more books completed!

Despite having what seems like very little time to myself, I have managed to finish up three books in the last two weeks. I'm not entirely sure how this happened. The three books have pretty much nothing in common, but I'm going to talk about them in the same post or else I'll never do them all.

First was Innocent in Death by JD Robb. This is the 28th(29th? 27th?) book in the series. They are predictable, easy reading. You know how the story is gonna go, you know all the characters, you even know a lot of the dialogue. (Hello, we know. Eve and Summerset do not like each other. Got it. It's getting a little old.) In this one, a woman from Roarke's past shows up and makes Eve jealous. Eve solves the murder of someone no one should have wanted to kill. For a change of pace, Eve does not get beaten up nor does anyone try to kill her. Regardless of all this, the book is good, in that predictable kind of way. By this point in the series you don't really expect something fresh, do you? (3/5)

Then I read Mine Til Midnight, which is Lisa Kleypas' most recent historical. Again, it was what you would expect from a familiar author. I had read online that this one was reminiscent of Dreaming of You, which is my (and everyone else's) favorite Kleypas. I didn't really see that. I was much more interested in the connection between the two Roma than the romance. I did love Cam (first seen in Devil in Winter) and the book wasn't at all bad. It leaves me wanting for the perfect romance though and I have too many other books to read a bunch to find it. Any suggestions? (3/5)

Last night I finished reading Blood Bound by Patricia Briggs. This is the second Mercedes Thompson book. Mercedes is a walker who was raised by werewolves. She does a favor for a vampire at the beginning, which sets of a chain of events that require the cooperation of the vampires, werewolves and fae. This one started slow for me because it has been a while since I read Moon Called, and the details of Brigg's paranormal communities were slow coming back to me. Once the action picked up it was very hard to put the book down, and I stayed up VERY LATE to finish. (OK, I stayed up til 10:30. But I usually go to bed well before 9! Yeah, I'm pathetic, but I am also pregnant and growing a baby is tiring work!) It looks like book three (Iron Kissed) is out in a couple weeks and I might just have to buy it new so I don't forget the details again. I love the Adam/Samuel/Stefan??? problem in this one. I even found myself liking Ben by the end of it! (5/5)

In other news, I'm all shopped out for Christmas. I have a few things left to sew for in town people and then the wrapping and the gifts will be DONE. I want to make one, maybe two, batches of cookies with the monkey this weekend. I can't WAIT to put out cookies for Santa and tuck him in for the night on Christmas Eve. As a child (ok, as a teenager) (ok, as a college student) (ok, ok, up til last year) I could never sleep on Christmas Eve night. I always laid awake waiting for dawn so I could see what Santa brought. I suspect I will not sleep well this year either.

I have a few book related posts in mind for the end of the year, and am having to restrain myself from posting them now, so hopefully it won't be all silence over here until 2008. I hope everyone has a great holiday and gets all the books they could ever read.