Victoria Holt, Part 3

Victoria Holt, Part 2 can be found here.

The Pool of St. Branok is another Philippa Carr (aka Victoria Holt) book I have now (re)read. Again, I read this book decades ago and had the slightest memory of it, but it was mostly new to me, which was nice. I didn't love it though and gave it only three stars. I am not sure why the author is such a fan of giving us the most complex, convoluted family structures, but I keep finding myself unsure of how characters are related as I go along. It gets a bit tedious to have to go back and look ~ and in this novel I had to do that several times. The protagonists are cousins (not first cousins), which is disturbing, but back then I guess it was OK. Maybe even now in some places it's not frowned upon, but I was squicked out because it's a romance novel, so I knew they would get together at some point. There is also a lot of repetition in the Carr/Holt novels, both in dialog and in narration, which I am not a fan of. I know in real life people repeat themselves, but again... it's tedious to read. One of my favorite things about this author is her creation of strong female characters, yet in this book I didn't find the protagonist Angelet to be as emotionally strong as some of the other heroines in Carr/Holt books. They can't all be the same! Right, right. I just grew annoyed with Angelet's constant obsession with this man or that one. For a while, she found fulfillment via helping at a mission, and I wanted to see her go on with that, but then he came back into the picture. Bleh. And the ending was rather abrupt after the massive buildup. Still, kudos to the author for creating interesting characters that had multiple facets and were unpredictable (in a good way and not just for the sake of drama).

This was a tough week for me; in fact, I haven't felt well since the time change. Maybe that's merely a coincidence. I have been waking with a crushing headache every morning, which I initially assumed was a migraine, but it isn't. Last weekend I didn't take sumatriptan and the headache lessened as the morning wore on. Same thing this week (I took one suma for an actual migraine). So it's good I figured that out before I wasted a whole bunch of meds, which I need to save for real migraines. Anyway, I don't know what this massive head pain upon waking means, but Dr. Google has lots of ideas about it. Dehydration, of course. More water cures everything! Stress. Low blood sugar. Poor sleep. High blood pressure. Blah blah blah. I don't feel like I am stressed, and I have been getting around 7 hours of good sleep a night, which should be fine, especially because I didn't use to sleep that well. My BP isn't great however, so possibly that has something to do with it. It's lower when I get more exercise, but I have been feeling too yucky to exercise. I also have had a lot of neck pain, which is pretty "normal" for me, but maybe that's causing early morning headaches. If I wake up at 2 or 3AM to go potty though, my head is fine. So, something bad is happening right around 5-6AM when I am waking up for the day. Mystery! 

I've also been really cold. The early darkness depresses me. I've spent too much money at Amazon. Wah wah wah.

Good news! I chose only one January book to read for my online book club instead of foolishly saying I would read all three and then the three extras like I did for December. I may read one or more of the extras for January, but I don't know what they are yet. I'm pleased I had the willpower to limit myself to one of the main books though. Six was too much, and one of the extras ended up a DNF because I hated it. I need time to read the book for my in-person book club as well as random other ones that strike my fancy, like the Victoria Holts. Reading is one of my greatest pleasures, and one of these days I might try audiobooks, since my commute is a lot longer now.

Best news! I am visiting my daughter and son-in-law tomorrow/Sunday, and we are going to have fun. We plan to check out a whole bunch of cool art and have dinner at a delicious Mediterranean restaurant. I also bought a box of cupcakes as it is a (slightly) belated birthday celebration for my daughter, and of course I have other gifts for her as well. For Thanksgiving, I will be spending the day with my younger daughter, her hubby, and my grands, which naturally I am greatly looking forward to. I hope all of us will get together at some point in December.

Hope all my (three?) readers have a nice Thanksgiving, or if you don't celebrate that, have a good week regardless. I most likely won't have anything to say here until later in the week.