Hello, and welcome back! Hope you´ve had a great reading week. It seems as if Mother Nature´s undecided here on what season it is, so we´ve spent a great deal of time inside, letting me get even more reading done than I´d planned, for Bella, for research, and simply for pleasure. All in all, a wonderful week for books in my household.

We all have keepers--books we simply can´t bear to part with once we´ve read them and fallen in love with the characters and story. Some of these books we even go back and reread periodically, simply for the pure enjoyment of reading a wonderful book. It doesn´t seem to matter if we already know the story from beginning to end, just that we´re able to revisit the ones we love. I had the chance to do that with one of the books I´m going to share with you this week.

The book I was able to revisit this week is a truly lovely story--Stephanie Gertler´s
Jimmy's Girl (Signet). I reviewed this book last year, and though it´s not really a romance but a love story, I fell in love with the story and the characters. I was quite happy to revisit Jim and Emily this winter--two people who weren´t exactly happy in the present and when Emily decided to look for Jimmy, things change for both of them, drastically. Ms. Gertler´s writing was superb, touching and realistic, and she gives each of us a hint of what might happen were we to find our own first loves after many years. I gave the book four of Cupid´s five arrows last year, and after reading the book a second time, that rating still holds true for me. For any of you who didn´t read it last year, rush out and grab up the paperback copy now. You won´t regret it. But one warning--have some tissues handy.

The other book I want to share with you this week is by an author whose work we´ve seen here previously: Rebecca Hagan Lee´s
Ever a Princess (Jove Historical). Princess Georgiana Victoria Elizabeth May of Saxe-Wallerstein-Karolya is a woman on the run. Her parents have been murdered by her greedy cousin, and her family´s loyal retainers take her out of the country to hide. American Adam McKendrick is in Britain to make money. He doesn´t expect to meet the woman of his dreams--a housemaid to all appearances--bumbling every household chore she sets out to do in the hunting lodge. Very engaging story and characters in this one, and not without its humorous moments. It´s earned three and a half arrows.