Out of the Past by Dana Roquet

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Synopsis (written by me): Torie Mills is a successful author and genealogy buff who buys her family's 150-year-old ancestral home in small-town Iowa as a quiet retreat from her hectic life. She hires Dave Cameron, a local renovation expert to help her make the house livable again while respecting the original design of the house. Once the renovation is complete and Torie moves in, she discovers a portal to the past. Soon she is taking Dave along with her and they discover a dark side to their trips into the town's history.

This is one of those books that has been hanging out on my Kindle for a little while, although not as long as some others; I think I found it for free on Amazon about a year ago. Since I'm always on the lookout for a good time travel story, I'm sure that is why I picked it up. Anyway . . .

I made it to the 29% mark before I gave up. The style of writing was uneven to me, what with the heroine's chapters being written in the first person and the hero's chapters being written in the third person. There was a lot of unnecessary details that dragged the book down. The history and genealogy parts, in particular, droned on, a bit like the "begats" in the book of Matthew in the Bible.

The scenes where the author describes the attraction between the hero and the heroine were just good enough to feel like they were written by someone else, especially in comparison to the other scenes. Several reviewers on Goodreads said that the sex scenes in this book made them blush, but the few scenes in the part of the book I read weren't that graphic to me. I later learned that this book has an original version and a PG-13 version where all the sex is toned down. Either I have the clean version or I'm just too accustomed to steamy books!

However, the part that made me abandon the book was the time travel. My favorite style of time travel story is when a person gets dumped into a different time and doesn't know what is going on, so there is a "fish out of water" aspect to it. In this book, the heroine actually inhabits the bodies of different people in her family, so there was definitely the potential for that but the way it was written didn't allow for it. Instead of letting the reader watch the time travel scenes unfold, the author has the heroine give us a synopsis of a few of her trips. It was like a coworker telling you about her latest vacation.

This is the first book of a trilogy and I was really hoping to immerse myself in this world, but I can't do it. As of this writing, the first book is still free on Amazon if you want to give it a try yourself, but I wouldn't recommend it.

Sunday Salon: Finding the cozy mystery for me

This past week was Mystery & Thrillers Week at Goodreads, and I took the opportunity to read one of the cozy mysteries from my Overdrive wish list, Hooked on Murder. My overall reaction to it was, "Meh." I could picture my husband's aunts enjoying it, though.

I was ready to say that cozy mysteries aren't for me but after some thought, I'm going to keep looking for just the right series. Although I didn't realize it at the time, Her Royal Spyness by Rhys Bowen is considered a cozy mystery series and I read and enjoyed five of those in rapid succession. I also read and enjoyed a couple of Barbara Bretton's books from her Sugar Maple series. Those are considered paranormal romance but the small town setting gave me a cozy mystery vibe. Perhaps the key to enjoying cozy mysteries for me is to circumvent all the books with punny titles that are set in bakeries and have recipes in the back in order to find a mystery that is historical and/or has a bit of magic in it. Any suggestions?

ABANDONED: I think it is time to admit that I am not going to read Jane Austen's Persuasion. I wanted to try the Serial Reader app and thought that starting with an Austen book would be a good way to ease myself into reading classics. There was also a retelling of this book that I was interested in reading (can't even remember the title now!). I've enjoyed many retellings of Pride and Prejudice without ever having read it but I'm starting to feel a little guilty about that, so I thought I should read the original first this time. That was a month ago and I'm still only 12% done. The language is more twisty than I expected. I realize now that the only other time I attempted Austen was in audio form and I understood it just fine. It sounds like I need to see if my library has Persuasion on audio or give Librovox a try.

CURRENTLY READING: I'm almost done with the Seven Brides for Seven Mail-Order Husbands Romance Collection, which I received as a digital ARC through NetGalley. To be honest, I have read better novella collections from Barbour Publishing, but it is a good book for me to have on the go. Even though I am trying to break out of my historical romance rut, I find myself craving it after I read one or two books from another genre. Novella collections like this are good to keep handy so I can get my fix and then move on.

UPCOMING: I took a detour for Mystery & Thrillers Week, but now it is time to get back to my ARCs. As I've written before, it weighs on me to have them sitting here unread. In addition to the one mentioned above, I have a graphic novel interpretation of The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck and The Little French Bistro by Nina George. I will probably read The Good Earth last because I'm hoping that it will put me in the mood to read the other four graphic novels that have been gathering dust on my bedside table for nearly a year.

So, what are you reading next?

Abandoned: "Have a New Husband by Friday" by Dr. Kevin Leman

Have a New Husband by Friday: How to Change His Attitude, Behavior & Communication in 5 Days by Kevin Leman

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Genre: nonfiction, self-help
On my TBR list?: no


Perhaps if you are young or somehow managed to live your life avoiding daytime talk shows and self-help books, then Have a New Husband by Friday might have something to offer you. It isn't a bad book, but it does travel well-worn roads in the city of male and female relationships. The advice falls under the umbrella of  "men are from Mars, women are from Venus". There was a lot about how women are better at planning and taking care of the children and the household than men, so women need to massage men's egos by finding ways to make them feel needed. The author reminded me of a male comedian who tries to get the women in the audience on his side by starting off with how dumb men are. On top of that, as I was reading I kept saying to myself, "I'm the one who acts like that, not my husband." The picture of the wife as Wonder Woman who can take care of the house, tend to the kids, and manage the accounts while the husband is standing in the middle of it all grumbling, "Where is my clean shirt?" has never been an accurate picture of my marriage. About halfway through the book I realized that it had nothing to offer me, so I ditched it.

In general, I suppose this advice could apply to a lot of relationships. I might consider handing it to one of my daughters after she gets married. The overall theme of the book is to change how you are treating your husband and it will change how he reacts to you, and I think that is good advice.  However, I would also make sure to follow up with her and help tailor some of the advice to her particular situation because everyone's marriage doesn't fall into the stereotypical male/female dynamic as the book suggests.

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