Don’t you love when you check into a rental house or a vacation spot and you see that people have left paperbacks from their vacations for you to read? I had a grand time in Mexico, the Dominican Republic, and now St. John, partially due to other people’s generosity in leaving paperbacks for me to read.
The house we rented in St. John had paperbacks on shelves – IN THE BATHROOM next to the TOILET. WOW.
And, much to Hubby’s disappointment, there were mostly romances. Including a Stephanie Laurens, which I read, and a Linda Howard.
You should have heard me the first day: “There is a LINDA HOWARD in the BATHROOM.”
Hubby: “Huh?”
Sarah: “Oh my God! … Oh, SHIT.”
Hubby: “What? What’s wrong?”
Sarah: “It’s a TIME TRAVEL Linda Howard!”
It was a few hours before I went back in the bathroom. I was afraid I’d start reading it and end up hurting myself when I pounded my head on the wall – it was a solidly-built house. I think I ultimately moved it to my inlaw’s room and hoped I wouldn’t find my mother-in-law reading it. I figured I shouldn’t take any chances, in case it was like that movie that will kill you, only in paperback form.
Gotta love free reads on vacation, but I’ll never, never, never (add many more nevers here) read a book that I find in a rental’s bathroom.
WARNING—Gross detail below…
DH told me how he’ll never make coffee in those in-room coffee makers that are usually located in hotel bathrooms because other people flush with the lid up & toilet fish go swimming all around the room & you can bet the coffee maker inards never get cleaned.
Well—do you think they actually take the time to do anything with the books?
(Shudders at the image of dried splashlets on my book).
It’s as a bad as when you’re reading a library book & get to page 224 in the story and find that strange unidentifiably blob—is it chocolate? bodily fluids? a dead bug? And of course the book just got to the good part!
Was that the old time-travel Linda Howard that made me want to use an AK47 on the “hero” (Son of the Morning[?]), or the new one that came out last year?
Just curious. I do like some of her books, but I find the quality inconsistent. I thought Cry No More was outstanding and had a cool hero. I enjoyed Mr. Perfect ‘cause it had some laugh-out-loud scenes. But there have been some others that made me long for my money back.
Okay, I’m not saying that Linda Howard always writes an amazing book, but Cry No More. Is. Awesome. Especially if you want your soul torn out and fed to you with hot sauce while your hubby watches you cry the Ugly Cry. Anyone who just had a child (hint, hint) HAS to read it. And I LOVED that I really wasn’t sure the hero was the hero until a quarter of the way thru the book. (Wait, this guy is not Perfect. He’s not even Decent.)
That said, I’ve never read one of her time travels.
Re: Linda Howard. I like most of her books, but her old stuff blows large chunks. Like the really old 70s/80s stuff that’s getting republished because she’s like, you know, Linda Howard. But she has a short story that just reached into my chest and wrenched out my heart the first time I read it about a couple who keep gettin reincarnated but not trusting each other, so she dies and he commits suicide trying to save her and they finally get it right this time. And then I found it and squealed and read it again and went WTF?!? because it was just stupid.
Okay, I have to confess to being a major Linda fan, though her last 2 books haven’t really done it for me. But I LOVED Cry no More. I read it pre-baby, and I don’t know if I could handle it now. I also recently glanced through Dream Man (which is on my keeper shelf, what can I say)and cracked up at the “I put my condom on between dinner and dessert) scene. I remember thinking it was weird the first time I read it, but I think I blocked it out, kind of like the mullet the hero sports in After the Night.
I’m a big fan of Linda Howard’s books. Even liked the old time-travel ones. But, I could not get through the latest “Killing Time.” Boring!
Dream Man does not have the condom scene!!! (Thank God) Dream Man is the physic with the cop the one with the condom was Kill Me Now, Just Kill Me or Kill something – can you tell I didn’t like this book?
Good move on not reading a LH time travel. First one the hero shows up 3/4 way through the book and is an ass and the other was boring.
Dream Man and Duncan’s Bride are my keepers. I liked Cry No More but it wasn’t exactly a romance.
CindyS
LOVE Linda Howard. LOVED Son of the Morning (we sb’s can see how we vary), DISLIKED Killing Time (but I did like the first chapter). It Makes. No. Sense. She sets things up, then never follows through on them. Really.
Didn’t care for Cry No More—LISTENED to it and there’s a chapter that was INTERMINABLE, cry, cry, cry. Cry some more. Did like the hero and heroine, seemed light on the love story til near the end. Hero didn’t figure out the heroine very well. Nora Roberts brought Birthright out the same year and that one was awesome and many layered.
My opinion.
Robin
I’ve read and likes most of Linda Howard’s books *shrug* The controversial condom scene was in Kill and Tell, hero Marc Chastain (can’t remember the heroine’s name). I haven’t read Killing Time, so I can’t comment.