A dreadful man, all intemperate appetites and no decorum to speak of.

A Lady Awakened by Cecilia Grant
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Happiness is ... finding more books by a wonderfully enjoyable author at the rental book store.

Ms. Grant's debut heralded all the delicious things one can expect from her books: sensuality married with subtle humour and period-specific banter that truly enhances the characters' growth over the story arc.

She is excellent at writing characters who tread the fine line of acceptability or even jumped across it with glee. I also love that her characters are of the gentry and not nobility, with different sets of challenges to overcome and expectations of role in society.

She has a way of exploring her characters' inner landscapes to flesh them out with wit and thought. In this book, she pitted a conniving widow against a ne'er do well wastrel. I love how they transformed each other, by learning about one another so thoroughly, before they actually identified the affection and esteem each held for the other as love.


Some of my favourite passages:

Whose idea of good design was this? Why those awkward angles, and what could be the necessity for all that hair? If one believed, as the Bible and the Greek myths had it, that man had been created first and woman after, then one must conclude there had been some dramatic improvement in the process following that amateurish first attempt.

Oh how her disdain has changed over the course of the book.

"And are you my king?" Her eyes, in the mirror, stayed trained to his.

He shook his head. "Stablehand." She didn't resist as he brought her knee up; draped her leg over the chair's arm. "Great strapping stablehand who's caught the queen's eye and been summoned to service her in her chambers."

Role play can be so hot.

Mellifluous and thoroughly enjoyable.

Male protagonist: 4/5 stars
Female protagonist: 4/5 stars
Storyline: 4/5 stars
Pacing: 4/5 stars
Fun Factor: 4/5 stars
Repeat Reading Factor: 4/5 stars


View all my reviews

Eating crap

Diet is d-i-e with a t

Your body is a temple; worship it. So you take good care of what goes into it.

Paleo diet.

Atkins diet.

Gluten free.

Dairy free.

Vegan.

Organic.

The list goes on.

All this is because we believe that we are what we eat. Garbage in, garbage out. Right?

Well, consider yourself lucky that you are not part of the African aquatic and terrestrial ecosystem that are dependent upon tonnes of hippo faeces for a nutritious diet.

Invisible fine print

Deep in the hearts of sleep deprived parents of young children, babies and toddlers is Samuel L Jackson reading this.



Parents who are at wits end to feed their kids anything (forget nutritious stuff that are actually good for them), will nod along to this ...



Things they don't tell you when you are told to go forth and multiply.

I want a perfect soul

When I first heard this on the radio, my first thought was: YES.



This song is my personal anthem; it resonates with my psyche, illuminates the darkest corners of my soul, voices the dreams I left unsaid. It has been many years, but my Pavlovian response to the opening chord remains the same.

This version by Scott Bradlee and co may not have the same shadowy depths but it's still delicious and hits the gut with a punch.



Happy Monday, y'all.