Hello, and welcome back! We're warming up again here, though it doesn't appear it'll be a long warm spell. I'm still hoping for a decent snow before the holidays are over. At work, the crazy season is in full swing, along with some of the crazies who only come out once a year to the mall. It's always interesting to see the things we see there this time of year. On the other hand, the extended shopping hours are messing with my schedule of sleep, of reading, of everything. I can hardly wait till it's over and things can settle back into our regular routine.

This time out, I have Sherrill Bodine's Talk of the Town (Grand Central), the first of two books this month with that title. In this one, gossip columnist Rebecca Covington is about to have her life shaken up in a big way. Her new (and very attractive) boss David Sumner is moving her to a completely different section of the paper--food, of all things--and giving her column to some snotty young upstart who hates her guts. The question is, will Rebecca fight back, and win the man, or will she move on to greener pastures? For a woman Rebecca's age, she seems not to have matured quite as far as the number. And David, for a man astute enough to have built a successful business empire, apparently doesn't trust his gut or heart when it comes to personal matters, rather, believing what others tell him, also belying his age. Rebecca didn't make me like her, which disappointed me. I liked some of her quirky cast of friends, but not her. That's a problem, because I want to like both main characters in a good romance. Then again, David didn't really reel me in either. Maybe it's the premise of the gossip column that didn't make me love Rebecca; I'm not a gossip column kind of reader. I believe, however, that it's the combination of all of the above that just didn't work for me. Too bad. This one's only earned two and a half of Cupid's five arrows.

Until next time, happy reading!