Captives, Dates, Ghosts, and Scammers

Yep, that’s a lot! But it’s the season of abundance, or so they say. It’s weird how there will be long stretches of nothingness, then suddenly hello everythingness, and no matter how bored/lonely I get, I am reminded that I vastly prefer the silence. It’s never really silent anyway because Gatsby always has lots of opinions.

I read The Captive by Victoria Holt this week and gave it four stars. Just when I was getting bored with this author, she came up with something new. Neither the plot nor the romance is predictable, and I love that. I particularly appreciate the heroine Rosetta, who is a very strong and interesting character. (The weirdly abrupt ending prevented me from giving this novel a full five-star rating however.) Now I am re-inspired to continue my Holt marathon.

I also read The Twelve Dates of Christmas by Jenny Bayliss and awarded it four stars as well. Guess I must be in a generous mood! Actually, this novel was a very entertaining read, though the conclusion was inevitable from the first page, which is par for the course in a contemporary romance. Part of what made the book so enjoyable was the vivid description: art, food, holiday decor, etc., were all lovingly served up to the reader (including recipes at the end!), and the snow was an important character too. I thought the “twelve dates” was a cool concept, and it was great fun to meet the same fictional aholes you find in real life dating. 

Speaking of. One of the ghosts from my dating past came floating back in this week… and you will never guess why (or ostensibly why). After almost eight years of dead silence this guy emails me to complain that I deleted my WordPress blog. Apparently he was a devoted fan! Yeah, so devoted that he didn’t notice my blog had been gone since August 2023. Whatever. I have long given up trying to understand any man, and my life is much more peaceful because of that.

It seems that this blogspot blog hides in plain sight, as neither a Google search nor a Safari search brings it up using any kind of obvious keyword or phrase. I told Google not to index it, so I guess that does work. I am content with my handful of readers ~ only those to whom I specifically gave the blog addy are reading, if even them, lol. Regardless, these words are still public, and I am not forgetting that.

Finally, some aholes posing as bank reps tried to scam me this morning, and even though I didn’t fall for it, I am still upset about getting targeted. That’s modern life now: being on high alert for ID theft and fraud every fucking minute of the day. I guess it beats watching out for highwaymen and pirates. Though as we know, some highwaymen and pirates are really dukes in disguise, posing as criminals to catch the real criminals…

Odd that bank fraud and this particular ghost appear around the same time, isn’t it? Good thing I’m not a kooky conspiracy theorist.

There, then that’s my week, culminating in Friday the 13th. Have a good weekend!