I took a photography class in high school and my teacher always said that if you’re going to take a picture where there isn’t sufficient light, then you need a faster film. Or something. Anyway, low light + slow film=blurry pictures. But maybe the photographer is trying to be dramatic or something. Because he’s trying to show that since the affair between our two protagonists is “forbidden”, they don’t have a “clear” future together, so that’s why the photo is blurry. Or maybe I’m talking out of my ass here because I’m low on caffeine, but can’t go to Starbucks ’cause I’m stuck at the office.

Also, I’m usually very fond of cover models with no heads, but this one freaks me out for some reason. It doesn’t look like it’s intentional… it just looks like the cover models DON’T HAVE THE UPPER PART OF THEIR HEADS!

I’m not the smartest person in the world and I’m cool with that. To compensate for my lack of intellect, the Creator gave me a really nice rack (for a small Asian chick) and it makes my sweaters look nice. Anyway, that might explain why I don’t understand what’s going on here (my stupidity, not my boobies). I think the guy is laying on his stomach and someone–the one with the smaller hand–is straddling his back… or his but– wait a minute. Is that what’s going on here? Is the man’s sexual partner pleasuring him with a little strap-on toy? Nice! Or maybe she’s giving him a massage or something. Whatever. Shut up and leave me to my fantasies.

Grade: B-

“In this place I will dwell, destroying the surface dwellers who pass through the mist. This I vow upon my life. This I vow upon my death… I exist for no other purpose. I am the Guardian of the Mist.”

I procrastinated about reading this book because I was put off the by this author’s previous effort, the Stone Prince. I am not a big fan of the Me-Tarzan-You-Jane kind of hero and from the back blurb of this book, it was obvious that Darius en Kragin is a he-man type that would annoy me to no end. What convinced me to read this book was the cover. I dug the dragon tattoo and the navel piercing on the heroine and before I knew it, I was plunking down $6.99 plus shipping on Amazon for this thing. As soon as I got it, I put it on the TBR pile on my bedside table (I usually keep about five there), but completely forgot all about it. Two weeks ago, while I was packing up my books, the cover caught my eye again and I decided to read it once and for all. I read the prologue, was sufficiently intrigued, read a couple of chapters, then set it down again. I read a couple of books on my TBR pile, including Sunshine by Robin McKinney and Duncan Delaney and the Cadillac of Doom by A.L. Haskett, re-read Perfect Partners by Jayne Ann Krentz for the fiftieth time, then ordered myself to pick up this book again. This morning, I finally finished it. It wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be and found that I even enjoyed it a little. It wasn’t an amazing book or anything, but it’s not bad.
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From my homeslice Spikedru (who’s rapidly becoming my, like, co-anchor and stuff):

She’s out to get him because he’s taken her right calf away, obviously, and made her wear some nasty nasty white court shoes. Courts are fugly anyway, but white? And she hasn’t even matched them to her briefcase. I reckon they are role-playing. Really, he’s a timid academic and she’s a biker bird. He’s playing it all braggadocio, with his ’smell my ‘pits’ and ‘look at my package’ pose, just so that she will stand on him in her fugly court shoes.

I had to look up how to spell braggadocio.

Man, those Brits talk funny. What the heck are ‘court shoes’?

From Spikedru:

Someone loved it so much they snipped the corner off it. My granny used to do that, so she knew which ones she’d read. Why “the one with lots of suggestive white spume on the cover” isn’t enough, I don’t know. According to the back, the woman goes on a yachting holiday with two men in the tropics. Which makes you wonder where the second one is in this cover…under the water? Is that why she’s pulling that face? Or is that related to whatever the blond guy is doing with his right arm? Lady, there are health warnings about doing that kind of thing. Then, get this, they’re shipwrecked on a tiny island! I’m betting they don’t do things like shoot polar bears, go cold turkey or be hunted by invisible monsters. Also, I bet neither dude looks like the hobbity actor in Lost.

Now that school has started and I don’t have as much time to update as often, maybe I should get my buddy Spikedru to sub for me once in a while.