We Can Blog If We Want To

Lately I’ve been having a “Safety Dance” earworm, and it seemed appropriate for this post, after over a week of silence. It’s not that I forgot to blog; I simply didn’t feel like it. In the olden days, that would not have stopped me, and I would have churned out writing regardless. But I don’t have to do that now!

 

I can blog when I want to

I can leave my friends behind 

Cuz my friends don’t blog

And if they don’t blog

Well they’re no friends of mine 

I had a very nice Mother’s Day up in Los Angeles with my daughter, SIL, and grands. Saw my daughter’s in-laws too. Also had a fun social event Saturday with my in-person book club at Classic Cafe in Fullerton ~ though I was not impressed with the coffee shop. Super ridiculous long line to order combined with an insanely long wait for the food. I only had iced tea and a cookie since I didn’t want to wait another hour for a sandwich. What the heck? LOL. It was good to chat with book friends though. The pecan pie cookie was tasty, but I wouldn’t return due to the annoying drive and crazy wait time.

Speaking of books, I read another Victoria Holt novel: Lord of the Far Island. Gave this one four stars for excellent plotting, great characters, and a clever twist. More than one actually. I’m calling this one a mystery for the 2025 Reading Challenge category ~ LOTFI contained several mysteries, so that’s fair. Overall, however, it is probably more accurate to put this book in the romance genre.

I reread Verity by Colleen Hoover for my in-person book club meeting on June 8, but now I'm not sure I can go that day because there might be a grandkid birthday party. We shall see. Anyway, I read Verity a couple years ago and didn't like it, though I don't remember why. I do know I didn't like the beginning, and that opinion remains unchanged. There was simply no need for Lowen to meet Jeremy prior to their meeting at the publisher's office. Why introduce an unnecessary coincidence? After that though, I thought the writing was solid and the story exciting. I truly had a hard time putting down the book! One of the things I loved this go-round is that we really don't know what was true even at the end (and the additional chapter added to the mystery). We have to draw our own conclusions about Jeremy and his wife's behavior before Lowen met them. I am not a fan of multiple "weird" names in a story however ~ Verity is an odd name, so hers should be the only one of that kind. We don't need her kids to also have unusual names, and uhhhh "Lowen?" Too distracting. Nevertheless, I gave it four stars for being such a compelling read. Wish I could remember why I didn't like it the first time.

For my online book club, I read two books so far for May. The first was Those Girls by Chevy Stevens, a psychological thriller. I gave it only two stars. The story was relentlessly violent, and I couldn't relate to the main character, who was a teenager, and later the POV changed to another MC, the first one's daughter, who was also a teen. I dislike reading a teen protagonist unless they're interesting, mature teens, such as those portrayed in Victoria Holt's novels. The contemporary psycho thriller teens act even stupider with respect to men than grown women do in psycho thrillers. I don't want to cringe through an entire book saying "don't do that!" Blech. At least it fit a Reading Challenge category (takes place in summer), so it wasn't a total waste.

Unfortunately, the second book wasn't much better and also received a two-star rating. It was Credence by Penelope Douglas and had a genre-identity crisis throughout. Seems like the author could not decide whether she was writing erotica or a psychological study of a daughter emotionally neglected by her narcissistic parents. Due to this, the book was overlong and repetitive. Again, the MC was a teenager, a sad, spoiled, extremely rich Hollywood girl who immediately takes to life on a ranch and figures out how to fix refrigerators and create clever contraptions for animal feed. Sure, that's all believable. Then there's the fact that this virginal introvert has to seduce the dad and his two sons in extremely vivid and explicit ways because she is so hungry for love. All this seducing takes many pages of narration for each thought and sigh and touch and regret, from multiple POVs. The worst thing is that this book did not fall into any of my Reading Challenge categories, so after slogging through the whole thing, I didn't even get to cross off a box. Tragic!

I have two more books to read for May, plus two "extras" for June ~ that's not counting the actual June reads, which haven't been announced yet. Also, I am happily devouring all the rest of the Victoria Holt books that I can find as I have time in between the book club reads. Needless to say, I haven't been watching much TV or doing any crafts these past couple weeks. Oh, I did paint a sunflower when I was trapped at home last Thursday due to the water guys digging a massive hole behind my car to fix a leak, but it was terrible, so I tossed it immediately.

Gatsby isn't doing well, and I am very sad about that. I'm just trying to keep him as happy and comfy as I can. I know I will miss him so much when the time comes to say our final goodbye, which I think will be soon.