Hello, and welcome back! I'm hoping our weather guesser here is wrong on his extended forecast; otherwise, it'll feel like early spring here in the next few days, and I still haven't had nearly enough proper winter weather to satisfy me yet. It's still chilly today, though, so the bread machine and the soup pot are getting workouts. So is the tea kettle, actually. And I'm steadily working my way through the stack of January releases here on my desk. Also, as a reminder or an FYI for those of you who haven't been around very long, any books I get that aren't romances, or that I know I will not read and enjoy, I list over in the forum, and generally, there are a couple of those each week.

Anyway, the book this time out is Tara Janzen's latest, Cutting Loose (Dell). Zachary Prade has been CIA for years, most recently in Central America under deep cover, but now he's been called home to the U.S. for a new mission. Lily Robbins has something very valuable to a lot of people, and most of them aren't very nice. Zach has already saved her life once, but she knew him as someone else then. And now he's taken her on the run, cross-country, when she doesn't even know exactly what's going on. But with bullets flying, she does know she's got to trust Zach to keep her safe. If you're looking for plenty of adventure with your romance, this is probably right up your alley. Zach and Lily are on the run for much of the book, with danger around every corner. I imagine fans of Amy Fetzer's books will enjoy this one quite well. But it wasn't really my cup of tea. Perhaps it's a little too much adventure for me. Whatever the reason, however, I didn't find this one a keeper. Perhaps it's that I haven't read her other Steele Street books and don't know all the other characters with their own scenes and sections in their points of view. Perhaps it's really just not for me. Whatever the reason, this one's earned only three of Cupid's five arrows. I'm sure there are plenty of readers out there who'll disagree, and, as always, that's fine. We each have our own reading preferences, and this one just didn't suit mine.

Until next time, happy reading!