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Janna, at Erotic Romance Reader featured a clip yesterday from Daughters of Persephone, Book One Exile.  Yikes!  I wrote that, eh?  Cool!

Here’s her main link in case you can’t get in the back door – http://erotromreader.blogspot.com/

All next week while Janna’s on vacation, you can read guest posts and win books – I’m giving away a copy of Daughters, Mia Watts and Bronwyn Green are also providing prizes.  Make sure to stop by Janna’s place for some goodies!

Wiping the sweat from my brow!  Whew!  Sixteen hours straight of revising Anytime Darlin’ - my cowboy rancher/farm girl romance with Siren.  I had to get it done…we may be getting a new puppy tomorrow.  This was a major re-write and it took me days as this honey-bunny is a full-length romance/suspense.

I just this minute got a review for my very popular romance/suspense, My Everything, from Happily Ever After Reviews:  http://hea-reviews.blogspot.com/2010/07/review-my-everything-by-julia-barrett.html Ben and Grace seem to be characters readers love.  They are lovers reunited after ten long, heart breaking years apart.  Five Tea Cups!

Drop by tomorrow as author, Anny Cook, gives us her take on fantasy.  She writes very hot, very fantastic books – we’re talking major world-building!

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Janna, over at her site – Erotic Romance Reader – reviewed Captured.

She has been wonderful the past couple weeks as I’ve struggled with the pain of losing my best friend.  She went through the same thing a few months ago.  I sent her Captured because there are cats in it.  Here’s here review:

Genre & Keywords:
SciFi Romance, violence, kidnapping of humans, survival

Why I read it:
The author sent me the book as a present to cheer me up

Storyline:
A woman bonds with one of her male kidnappers who’s from another planet and never knew much about her race before. Mari shows Ekkatt that humans are sentient beings like him. She surprises him in more than one way and she on the other hand learns to see his softer, kind side. Together they run from the authorities of Ekkatt’s planet while they fall softly for each other.

My opinion in short:
I’ve hardly read any SciFi romances, but the ones I read I liked. Captured included. Mari’s and Ekkatt’s story drew me in like a moth to a candle. I was eager to learn more about this other world and Ekkatt’s and Mari’s romance was very addictive. I enjoyed switching from her to his perspective and thoughts from time to time so I could equally sympathize with both protags. All in all, Captured was a surprisingly believable, sweet love story that I adored. When all SciFi romances are written as well and convincingly as Julia Barrett’s Captured, I might have discovered a new love.

~~~~~
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Heat level: 2 out of 3 flames
~~~~~

What’s more to know about this book:
• Characters
Mari is a feisty, smart and witty woman. I like how her survival mode kicks in and brings out her good qualities. She seems delicate and breakable to Ekkatt but she is very strong in fact. On top of that she has a good sense of humor and never complains. No wonder Ekkatt is at first intrigued and later totally smitten with her. She’s almost too perfect, but I loved her. Ekkatt is something else, he’s not human, does look a bit cat-like with his yellow eyes, and is huge. At first he doesn’t seem to be nice at all, but from the moment he risks his own life to save Mari he stole my heart. He’s a fun character because he doesn’t react as expected in a lot of situations and in the conversations with Mari. They make a sweet love couple that I would love to read more about.
I think Ms. Barrett is working on a sequel, but that’ll tell Ekkatt’s brother’s story. I’m hoping we’ll get a glimpse of Mari and Ekkatt as well.
• POV
The story is told in third person, alternated from Mari’s and Ekkatt’s point of view. This suits this story well. It makes both characters three dimensional and easy to empathize with, which is not unimportant when you’re dealing with an alien.
• Plot
The plot is well developed and takes us from a dangerous situation, via some suspenseful moments to a happy ending, in the right pace. There are no annoying time gaps or huge jumps and all is told in chronological order. The world building is done gradually, nothing too overwhelming, but very convincing. And although a few questions remain unanswered, everything is totally credible, within the frame of the story. New developments and little twists and turns keep you reading until you’ve finished the book. The ending was maybe a bit abrupt, but that probably has more to do with the fact that I didn’t want to say goodbye to this couple yet.
• Smexing
M/F. Human female and alien male, with a different but comparable anatomy. I was curious as hell how that would work out. But I had to wait, their attraction wasn’t rushed and anticipation was built. Eventually they had really steamy sex and although Ekkatt turned out to be huge in every department, it did fit! Thank heavens that this difference in anatomy didn’t become cheap or putrid at all, because it easily could have. The smexy scenes were hot as well as tender and showed the H/h growing love.
• Writing style
It’s vivid and a nice variation of descriptions, thoughts and dialogues. It shows a good sense of humor and renders the characters feelings in all depth. Ms. Barrett’s writing kept me cleverly invested in her hero and heroine and produced an enjoyable suspense which kept me reading and reading. Her dialogues are witty and made me laugh out loud more than once.

Favorite scene/quote:
I enjoyed Ekkatt’s process of realizing that the leaders of his planet are not necessarily to be trusted. Their laws mean nothing to him anymore when he discovers they are based on false assumptions of the human kind. The next quote says it all:

“He’d come to enjoy the sensation of her beneath his fingers. He’d found pleasure in the silk of her hair, and he’d taken comfort in the smoothness of her skin. Ekkatt knew his own religious leaders would call such feelings a sin against nature. Their opinion on the subject had come to matter nothing to him. The little human, on the other hand, had come to matter a great deal.”

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You all know that the movie, Meet Joe Black, was a remake of the 1934 romantic classic, Death Takes a Holiday, right?

The critically acclaimed movie starred Frederick March as Death on holiday.  It was based on an original play by Alberto Casella, and if you view the film, it’s actually staged in such a way that you feel as if you are watching a play.

I saw the original movie version when I was a kid.  It both thrilled me and frightened me.  Death was a pretty scary dude, but at the same time, he seemed so lonely.  In order for Death to be with the woman he loved, he had to kill her.  In the end, he couldn’t do it.  Death returned to his eternal task, leaving behind the woman he loved, yet he became a better being after encountering a loving human heart.  What does this have to do with anything?  Well…

A friend, Katalina Leon, asked me to post about my recent book signing.  Oh, it was pretty much all about death and dying and the event followed right on the heels of my own loss.  I headed up to Oregon to read from my nonfiction book for a fund-raising group that represents four hospice organizations.  This was their first anniversary and they’d made enough money in their first year of operation that they were able to provide eight separate grants to help support the extra services a hospice provides, such as music, specialized training, and a massage therapist for dying patients.

I thought I would spend the entire afternoon crying, but I deliberately picked a funny chapter to read – about a woman who returned from the dead for twenty-four hours and described her experiences in great detail – which was a big hit with the crowd, and then I sat for an hour and signed books.  It was pretty cool.  I gave the fund raising organization half of what I earned – it’s a good cause and I know first hand that most hospices operate in the red.  We depend upon donations to provide the many services patients need in their final days, besides, no one is ever turned away from hospice.  Every hospice accepts charity cases.

While I was up in Oregon, I got to be babied by my parents – who showed up at the reading, beaming with pride – they are such great Jewish parents even though I didn’t become a doctor.  I hung out with my young nephew…I’m such a bad influence…I let him watch Risky Business…bad aunt!  Bad!  Bad!  Bad aunt!  I’m his favorite!  He said his mom only lets him watch G-rated crap.  Hey, he’s old enough!  I’m already in trouble for introducing my other nephew to The Simpsons.  Isn’t that my assigned role in life?  To corrupt the youth?

In other news, Janna over at her site, Erotic Romance Reader, has posted a review of Captured.  http://erotromreader.blogspot.com/

Tomorrow:  Either Janna’s review or a blog about my brain on drugs.

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