Miranda Phipps

Miss P has a reading problem.  Namely, she doesn’t like to read.

This greatly distresses her Mama, a veritable reading freak. 

Luckily, Miss P has an excellent first grade teacher who recommended books on CD!  (Part of our theory is that Miss P likes to be Very Good at the things she does, and so she abandons reading whenever it begins to feel daunting.  Reading the book along with the CD helps her to get through those tough words that would otherwise hang her up.)

This recommendation has been sheer genius–not just because Miss P now likes to read, but because it has brought about an introduction to Skippyjon Jones, the Siamese cat who thinks he’s a chihuahua.  Yes, really.

Judy Schachner’s Skippjon books are just fantastic, and her readings are excellent.  (They rival Neil Gaiman’s recordings in my mind.)

Her love of (and dexterity with) wordplay and rhythm are really exceptional, and I would recommend checking these out if there are any little people in your life.  She’s also, and this part really makes me jealous, a brilliant illustrator.

I’ve been saving the best for last in this little blog post and that is an excerpt from the book.  Don’t you just love these opening lines?  (BTW, the reference to “box” is a reference to Skippyjon’s litter box.)

Skippyjon Jones did his very best thinking outside the box.  And this twisted his mamma’s whiskers tighter than a Texas tornado.

Enjoy!

“Now I know why women wear such large panniers,” she said.

“To repel their admirers?”

“Precisely . . . .”

As You Desire is one of my all-time favorite romances, and I’ve pretty much gobbled up every one of Connie Brockway’s historicals since that time.  (I read her first contemp, Hot Dish, and I liked that too, but it turns out I’m just not much of a contemporary reader.)

I’ve been looking forward to So Enchanting for a few months and it didn’t disappoint–I love her voice in which she manages to be just a little bit snarky without taking me out of the historical moment.

Here are my favorite lines, brimming with classic Brockway:

Grey stared broodingly at the ceiling while at his side Hayden and Amelie began yet another long-winded conversation wherein they yet again discovered they enjoyed absolutely everything the other enjoyed, including, but not limited to, Gilber and Sullivan, music, American penny dreadfuls, long walks on misty mornings, quince jelly, badminton and Jack Russell terriers.  The only interruptions to this inanity were the breathless silences during which, Grey imagined, the pair stood gazing raptly into each other’s eyes.  Rather like poleaxed beef.

Poleaxed beef!? Poleaxed beef!?  I couldn’t get enough of that line.

My complaint about the entire thing was that I ordered the book off of Fictionwise and read it on Stanza.  There’s some problem with the translation of quotation marks and accents such that I get a stream of symbols instead of the appropriate symbol.  Although I definitely got used to it, it did pull me out of the story some.  I’m trying to weigh the benefits of having the books on my phone against the being able to read the thing seamlessly, and I have to admit it’s a toss-up right now.

I knew that the total eBook lovefest would have to end sometime.

So I admit to being a complete Wuthering Heights girl, so I can’t help but believe that Ms. Kleypas was channeling Heathcliff via Kev Merripen. What a great, great hero.

Kleypas is also so good at anticipating the kind of connections and outcomes readers want and then delivering in unexpected ways.  I would say more, but there’s far too great a risk of spoilers.

As someone who’s interested in writing series, though, I have to give Kleypas real kudos for peppering wonderful tidbits throughout of the books to come. And who wouldn’t be after reading this line ?– “Yes, that was it. [Leo] wanted to bother her. Repeatedly.”