Hello, and welcome back! The end is in sight, for both the school year here, and regular season Little League, though we have playoffs coming immediately after, and then tournaments, so we still have a good month and a half of baseball. At least for the practices, I can get in some reading, though all I have left unread in my review stacks right now are late summer and fall books, which I won't read quite yet. I suppose that means gardening time when we're not running to some baseball field or other, but I've been longing for some more really good reading material, which has been hard to come by the last few months. At least I still have the new Linda Howard to look forward to this month.

Lori Foster is one of my favorite authors, known for her sexy heroes and steamy stories, and this time out, we have her two latest, starting with the anthology
Star Quality (Brava). She leads off a trio of stories with "Once in a Blue Moon," and Stan Tucker's annoying ability to read minds every full moon, though when he finds out what's on Jenna Rowan's mind, he's not so annoyed--he's been interested in her for ages, and it turns out she wants him, too. This was a fun read, perhaps not quite as much steam as in some of her other stories, but still hot enough to please most fans. It was my favorite of the novellas, followed by Lucy Monroe's "Moon Magnetism," which was cute. "Moonstruck" by Dianne Castell, though, I found sorely lacking in believability. But because of the Lori Foster and Lucy Monroe stories, this one gets three and a half arrows. I do have to wonder, though, with the stories centered around the blue moon, where does the title of the anthology come from?

Then we have her final story from Visitation,
Jamie (Zebra). I was reluctant to start reading this one, knowing it was the last of the stories in this series, and knowing it was finally Jamie's turn, because I'll miss the characters very much. They were all engaging and enjoyed their share of steam. And Jamie's story doesn't disappoint, starting with his discovery of a woman on his mountain, a woman seeking him out. Faith Owen has her reasons for tracking down Jamie, despite his obvious reluctance to be found, and she won't give up until her quest is complete. Their interactions are funny and sexy, as you expect in one of Ms. Foster's books, and sweet and sad as well, particularly knowing this is our last visit to these people. I tried to read slowly (no mean feat, if you know how I devour books), but no matter how slowly I read, I couldn't not read through the entire story, couldn't not feel a little weepy when I reached the end. Jamie Creed was worth the wait, and he's earned four arrows. I suspect this is one series in my vast collection of books that will get a few re-reads.

Until next time, happy reading!