Hello, and welcome back! It's hot and sticky here again, so the indoors seems to be the place we'll be spending a lot of time this week. Fortunately, I still have plenty of new reading material to entertain me. And of course, by the end of the week, we'll all have Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows to keep us entertained in between romance novels. I'll be working the midnight party Friday night, then get to start my reading when I get home in the wee hours before trying to get a couple hours of sleep and heading back to work bright and early. I still figure to have the book finished before the weekend is out. I'm very excited, as well, about some of the July romances here on my desk, and I have two to share with you today.

A Warrior's Taking (Avon) by Margo Maguire is up first. Sarah Granger is stunned when she finds a man on the beach, and not just because he's hardly dressed. Brogan MacLochlainn is on a quest to find a magical stone to save his family, and he's traveled into the future to find it. He just can't tell Sarah the truth, no matter how much he'd like to spend more time with her. Evil has also come to Sarah's time and place, looking for the same stone, and Brogan has to protect Sarah, because it isn't long before he knows she's the woman he needs. I'm always on the lookout for a good new time travel, as they've been few and far between for a number of years now. This one was just okay for me, though. Perhaps if I hadn't just read Mayhue's Thirty Nights with a Highland Husband I might have liked this one better. Still, with decent time travels so hard to come by, fans of the genre will probably want to take a look at this one. It just wasn't a keeper for me, earning only three of Cupid's five arrows.

The Unfortunate Miss Fortunes (St. Martin's) by Jennifer Crusie, Anne Stuart, and Eileen Dreyer is next. These three ladies have collaborated on a story that is a lot of fun to read. Mare, Dee and Lizzie O'Brien have spent much of their life hiding. They hide their out of control magical gifts as best they can, and they're hiding from their aunt Xan, who Dee believes killed their parents. And now Xan wants their powers, so she sends them their true loves. Or two of them, anyway, and a guy who got in the way. But the third true love comes through anyway. Still the sisters have to work for their happy endings, and to figure out just how to defeat Aunt Xan. What a lot of fun! It's by turns funny and erotic, and seamlessly told, which I found rather surprising, having read each of these authors on their own previously. A real keeper, here, this one's earned four arrows. I just wish these ladies wrote a little faster individually.

Until next time, happy reading!