Thursday Thirteen: Edition # 24

My Best Halloween Memories

1. In elementary all the grade students used to gather around and sing a Halloween songs. The kids would be dress up in their costumes and there was a contest for the best costumes in competition. I never win but it was sure fun to dress up. And I love to sing(off key of course hehe) :)

2. I dressed up as bride, princess, a baby, barbie and few cartoon characters. That all I remember. I always want to have the original costumes. So when I was a princess at age 13, I took my mother old pink curtain with lining and transformed into a dress. And I made my own stars wind with glitter. I recall dress up as bride, and one of the trick or treater kid said "look mom, someone getting married" hehe.

3. Little brother ran all the way home screaming after a man in fake blood jumped and scared us. It was funny because my little brother ran as if there was fired on his butt and didn't stop until he reach home LOL

4. I also remember when one of our neighbor goes around the neighbor-hood in a truck with a big black smoking pot. She dress herself as witch and told each kids that she is brewing something in there. And that if we reach inside the pot there are surprises. I remember getting freak out about it, thinking something scary going to jump out of that pot. eventually it turn there was some candies in the pot. She allowed us to grab a handful of them and put it in our bags.

5. I went to my first fun fair Halloween Haunted House a very long time ago, when I was 18 year old. What I remember about it is that during one of my episodes embarrassment moment, was when I was having fun and laughing so hard that I sorta "slap" a man butt. I didn't realize that I did that until we got home and my cousin point that out to me. I remember my cheeks turn three different shade of red after I realized that I actually did do it. I'm only glad that I wasn't around him when I realized it LOL! I tell ya, it was pure innocence and accident LOL!

6. Carved our very first three pumpkins the same year. One was ghost, the other two was faces each with different expression. We placed it at our front door of the house with glow of the burning candles light. I have pictures but I would have to go through file to find it

7. I remember how there use to be lot of trick or treater kids knocking and ringing our door around my neighbor. Now these days, there aren't lot of kids trick or treating much anymore. Our door would only rung 5 times. It truly sad. But I can understand how parents are now real careful with their kids.

8. Candies now these days were different back than. And even some were unusual goodies in the bag. I remember one neighbor would thrown in every years, some McDonald gift certs or a gift certs to some places. Those were the fun goody to get in my bag. Always looked forward to those. Than there were another who would thrown in some dollars' coins. And another would thrown in some small gift items. Like fingernail polish LOL. And my best friend's mom (who live next door) would make those Caramel apple candy for the kids. It always fun to see what in my goodies bag ;)

9. Favorite candies: Smarties, sugar stinx candy, peppermint candy, nerds candy, sucker/lollipop, Caramel popcorn, anything chocolate..etc.

10. Halloween books: I read most of the books that I consider "Halloween" theme by Nora Roberts a lot. There were few other authors, like Christine Feehan and Katie MacAlster, that I read on Halloween night. I'm always looking for more Halloween themes, so any recommend by you would be appreciated. It could be comedy with humors, romance with paranormal or contemporary romance.

11. Halloween movies: I used to see lot of scary movies when I was younger. Like "Nightmare on Elm Street", "Friday the 13", "April Fool", "Halloween", "Charlie Brown Halloween special", "Beetlejuice", "Rosemary's baby", "The Bird"..etc.

12. The best costumes that I've seen through out my whole life of school years, was the one with a guy who dress himself like a Woman. And WOW he was the most beautiful woman too *grin* Dress really pretty and all. He was the most talked about in the school. I think he won a prizes for that. But he continue to dress up in woman every years. But in different outfit. Also, there was one with a very unusual costume: A woman dress herself as a beat up pregnant woman. It looked real too when she applied the make-up to looked like real bruises. Some thought she really gotten beat up too. Than there was a Zombie Beauty Queen: hair messy and sticking out and there is an ax on her head with a fake blood dripping down on her face. And she worn a ribbon across her shoulder and chest that read "Beauty Queen" and there a slash to the word and underneath it said Zombie ...lol.

13. But the bestest memories of all, is that I spent the Halloween with my two childhood best friends. We had a good time of our lives. There never a time we don't sit in front of the TV to watch Halloween movies together. Another best memory is my family try very hard to let me pick my own choice of costumes. They were always trying to make things fun for me :)

What about you, what is your best Halloween memories? Happy Early Halloween to everyone! Trick or treat! :)

Links to other Thursday Thirteens!

(leave your link in comments, I’ll add you here!)

1. Melody's Booking Through Thursday
2. Jen's Thirteen Halloween Jokes
3. Hootin' Anni's Thirsty' Thirteen
4. Things We Could do with our National Debt
5. Thirteen Things about Juliadamus
6. Darla's Vacation photos
7. Adelle's Favorite Pig Pics
8. Salome's Birth of My First
9. Susan's Thoughts about Fire
10. Puss Reboots' Photos from the Pumpkin Patch
11. Nicholas' That Have Animal Names In Their Titles

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!

The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

Melody's Booking Through Thursday

Read with Abandon?

Booking Through Thursday

Today's suggestion is from Cereal Box Reader

I would enjoy reading a meme about people’s abandoned books. The books that you start but don’t finish say as much about you as the ones you actually read, sometimes because of the books themselves or because of the circumstances that prevent you from finishing. So . . . what books have you abandoned and why?

Normally, I hate to stop reading, abandoned or even put the book down. I would hate to not finish the book that I started on. And would try to force myself to read it. However there will be a time where my brain would say "You must stop reading this if you're not interested in it" That happen to me few times. Even books that are written by my favorite authors. I know how much hard work authors done to make the book become success. So I respect them. But we can't always like all the books they written, right? And I do believe in second chance, so instead of abandoned it quickly I read it a second time, first. Then I will know the book is not for me. It help to read it a second time, since more often it the moods getting in the way.

Books that I have try to read and never pick up again are:

1. Lord of the Rings. Although I did LOVE the movies, I just couldn't get pass some chapters of the book. Too much detailed. Funny thing is, even though the Outlander is detailed too, I can pass the chapters and still continue to read them. Am guessing because the love relationship between the H/H are worthy enough for me to keep reading.

2. Dark Seduction by Brenda Joyce. I have loved her older books that she has written in the past. They're more better books IMO. But I couldn't finish Dark Seduction! I'm not sure if it because I couldn't understand the story or the characters wasn't realistic enough for me to warm up to them. Or maybe it the fact that I've been reading less historical books these days and realized that my love for historicals have changed with times. I still do read historicals but not too much of it now. Unless someone raves about the book, than I just might read it. And yes I still do read Brenda Joyce's books.

If I can remember more, I would have add it here on the list. But these two books (above) are the only things I can think of right at the top of my head. I'm sure when I visit your blog, your answers would might trigger a memory for me :)

What about you? Any books you have abandoned?

Don’t forget to leave a link to your actual response (so people don’t have to go searching for it) in the comments—or if you prefer, leave your answers in the comments themselves!

Monday Morning Meme

I got tagged by Darla.......

The Alternate Name Meme.

1.YOUR ROCK STAR NAME: (first pet & current car)
- Mini-Me Maxima

2. YOUR GANGSTA NAME: (fave ice cream flavor, favorite cookie)
- Chocolate Rocky Road Pecan Cookies

3. YOUR “FLY Guy/Girl” NAME: (first initial of first name, first three letters of your last name)
- J-Pha

4. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite color, favorite animals
- Purple dog

5. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, city where you were born)
- Kim Saigon

6. YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first)
- Pha Ju

7. SUPERHERO NAME: (”The” + 2nd favorite color, favorite drink)
- The deep blue Sprite

8. NASCAR NAME: (the first names of your grandfathers)
Huy

9. STRIPPER NAME: (the name of your favorite perfume/cologne/scent, favorite candy)
Calvin Klein peppermints

10.WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (mother’s & father’s middle names )
Thi Van

11. TV WEATHER ANCHOR NAME: (Your 5th grade teacher’s last name, a major city that starts with the same letter)
Mrs. Black Baton Rouge

12. SPY NAME/BOND GIRL: (your favorite season/holiday, flowers
Christmas Tulips

13. CARTOON NAME: (favorite fruit, article of clothing you’re wearing right now + “ie” or “y”)
- Cherry pantie

14. HIPPY NAME: (What you ate for breakfast, your favorite tree)
Blue Berries Bagel Pine

15. YOUR ROCKSTAR TOUR NAME: (”The” + Your fave hobby/craft, fave weather element + “Tour”)
The Scrapbook Reading Rain Tour

16. Your Porn Name: (First Pet + Name of street you grew up on)
Mini-Me Auburn

Well, that was silly and fun. I hope the world don't think I have gone mad *LOL*......Thanks to Darla for tagging me ;)


So now I'm tagging:

1. Alice of Hi, My Name is Alice
2. Cmate of Mini Bites
3. Kat of Strangely Out of Place

Melody is already tagged. Anyone else want to participate, may go ahead. Just make sure you comments here, to let me know and I come to your blog to check it out :)

Hidden Agendas by Lora Leigh

Erotic Romance/Suspense
Lora Leigh website
4 1/2 stars






I was so excited when Hidden Agendasfinally released. I wanted to read it right away but I waited because I want to join and read along together with my friend,Melody. (please click her name to read her review). It's a pleasure to be able to read with her..as always :) When we finally start reading it, I enjoy every bit of it.

Kell Krieger, a Navy SEALs, has spent his last 15 years of vowing revenge on a drug lords who has tore his family apart. When he learn that the same man is now threatens Emily, the one ray of light in his shadowy existence, he is assigned to be a bodyguard but pose as her lover. He never thought to fall in love with Emily, while he guarding her, but one thing he does know for sure is that he and his SEALs team must go undercover to bring down the drug lords and the government spies with a purpose to keep Emily safe.

Emily Stanton has loved Kell since her father rescue him from a brutal life on the streets. Both were kids, innocence to the world where street life can be dangerous. When Kell rescued her from Diego Fuentes compound, she have thought about him since. Now grown up, she ready to face Kell but he decided he is no good for her. And she knew Kell would lay himself body, soul and with secret to bare in order to protect her from ending up in the hand of their enemy who isn't finish with Emily yet.

Hidden Agendas is the 4th book to the Tempting SEALs series. A team of SEALs who is alpha heroes and tough with a bad boy attitude. And a strong heroine to match. A charismatic couple and sexy intense love scenes. A childhood friend who later became lover. Now this is what I look for in a book *grin*.

However Hidden Agendas was not as great as the previous book Dangerous Games but it is still a good and enjoyable read with good plot. The love scenes were more mild than the previous Tempting Seals' books. Even though there were plenty of hot, erotic pleasures. Characters were likable enough to keep reading. Although Emily does annoyed me, I do understand where she is coming from with her father always being the one to get what he want and not what she want. She tough it out, but she does it in wrong way. I think she is lot different than the other previous heroines that I've read so far. She probably is my least favorite. It really fun to see the previous characters from seals team again.

And the book hint to us that Kira (Emily's friend) and Ian (another seals) will have their story next (yay!) I can't wait to read the next book Killer Secrets

The Tempting Seals series:

1. Honk If You Love Real Men
2. Dangerous Games - click title to read my review
3. Real Men Do It Better (anthology)
4. Hidden Agendas
5. Killer Secrets (coming January 2008)

Typography

Booking Through Thursday

You may or may not have seen my post Post at Punctuality Rules Tuesday, about a book I recently bought that had the actual TITLE misspelled on the spine of the book. A glaring typographical error that really (really!) should have been caught. So, using that as a springboard, today’s question: What’s the worst typographical error you’ve ever found in (or on) a book?

- I'm sure there have been a couple of typographical error that I have seen in the past, but I can't specifics remember what they were. It sad that one can not read the stories and have to stop because of all the typographical errors or even miss phrased sentences. Normally small errors weren't bother me, but if it continue through out the whole book than I would get frustrated. I hate it when it ruin the flow of the writing, making it difficult to read it.

But than I shouldn't be the one to talk. Since I do happen to always have some grammatically errors when am writing my post on this blog or my emails. And I always cringed at myself, while reading my own post and knowing there is some errors. Even after I use spellchecker and use grammars checker. I still don't know if am using the correct one. It made me feel embarrassed ;):)

So I know everyone make mistake. Even editors and authors. So I tried to put myself in their places when I read errors in their books and get frustrated. Sometime it still frustrated me and sometime I try to be understanding.

Don’t forget to leave a link to your actual response (so people don’t have to go searching for it) in the comments—or if you prefer, leave your answers in the comments themselves!

Live and In - Person

Yes, I know that I had this sent 4 days late. The funny thing is, I did posted this on October 12, but somehow it end up in draft. And I never notice it until today October 16...*sigh*..so better late than never *grin*...here goes my answers :)





Booking Through Thursday

I said in August, when we talked about fan mail, that I planned on expanding that to live meetings when the time was right. Well, that time is now!

Have you ever met one of your favorite authors? Gotten their autograph?
How about an author you felt only so-so about, but got their autograph anyway? Like, say, at a book-signing a friend dragged you to? How about stumbling across a book signing or reading and being so captivated, you bought the book?

- I've met two of my favorite authors in the past. Nora Roberts and Suzanne Brockmann. And they personalized signed the books for me. They are a wonderful and sweet ladies, even though I was nervous. The only time that I brought a book that is so-so to me and got it autographed was when I was at TTP (Turn the Pages) in Maryland in July 5 years ago. But that happen only once. I don't think I ever stumble across a book and than buy it when I am captivated. I normally leave that to my friends to tell me if the books are worthy to read or give me suggestion on recommend.

Don’t forget to leave a link to your actual response (so people don’t have to go searching for it) in the comments—or if you prefer, leave your answers in the comments themselves!

I Love Your Blog Award

I have received the I Love Your Blog Award from Alice of Hello My Name is Alice!Thank YOU so much! Even though I enjoy blogging, there be day when I wonder if my blog ever entertain or motivated anyone to come back and visit. Alice is a real gem, and I'm so glad she like my blog :)

I am also going to share this award and pass it on to my friends:

1. Darla of Nichtszusagen - I always love to hear what she think on books. Even books that I also read. It is really interesting to hear her thoughts and comments on it. Sometime she can take me in direction that I just never thought about before. And it make whole lot of sense. She is brilliant and smart! I visit her blog to read book reviews.

2. Kat of Strangely Out of Place - I have really enjoy her friendly and fun side. And we have authors in common too :)

3. Marg of Reading Adventures - I really enjoy reading her thoughts on book reviews. Very interesting too. Just like Darla, I visit her blog for book reviews

Two of my friend Melody and Alice, are already receiving the award. So I will agree with whoever gave them the award. Enjoyed visiting their blog daily *grin*

Monday Morning Meme

I got tagged by Darla, so here I go....


The Library Thing Meme

These are the top 106 books most often marked as 'unread' by LibraryThing's users. The rules: bold what you have read, italicize what you started but couldn't finish, strike through what you couldn't stand and underline those you have no intention of reading.

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (149)
Anna Karenina (132)
Crime and Punishment (121)
Catch-22 (117)
One Hundred Years of Solitude (115)
Wuthering Heights (110)
The Silmarillion (104)
Life of Pi: a Novel (94)
The Name of the Rose (91)
Don Quixote (91)
Moby Dick (86)
Ulysses (84)
Madame Bovary (83)
The Odyssey (83)
Pride and Prejudice (83)
Jane Eyre (80)
A Tale of Two Cities (80)
The Brothers Karamazov (80)
Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies (79)
War and Peace (78)
Vanity Fair (74)
The Time Traveler's Wife (74)
The Iliad (73)
Emma (73)
The Blind Assassin (73)
*The Kite Runner (71)
Mrs. Dalloway (70)
Great Expectations (70)
American Gods (68)
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius (67)
Atlas Shrugged (67)
Reading Lolita in Tehran: a Memoir in Books (66)
Memoirs of a Geisha (66)
Middlesex (66)
Quicksilver (66)
Wicked: the Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West (65)The Canterbury Tales (64)
The Historian: a Novel (63)
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (63)
Love in the Time of Cholera (62)
Brave New World (61)
The Fountainhead (61)
Foucault's Pendulum (61)
Middlemarch (61)
Frankenstein (59)
The Count of Monte Cristo (59)
Dracula (59)
A Clockwork Orange (59)
*Anansi Boys (58)
The Once and Future King (57)
The Grapes of Wrath (57)
The Poisonwood Bible: a Novel (57)
1984 (57)
Angels & Demons (56)
The Inferno (56)
The Satanic Verses (55)
Sense and sensibility (55)
The Picture of Dorian Gray (55)
Mansfield Park (55)
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (54)
To the Lighthouse (54)
Tess of the D'Urbervilles (54)
Oliver Twist (54)
Gulliver's Travels (53)
Les Misérables (53)
The Corrections (53)
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay (52)
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time (52)
**Dune (51)
The Prince (51)
The Sound and the Fury (51)
Angela's Ashes: a Memoir (51)
The God of Small Things (51)
A People's History of the United States: 1492-Present (51)
Cryptonomicon (50)
Neverwhere (50)
A Confederacy of Dunces (50)
A Short History of Nearly Everything (50)
Dubliners (50)
The Unbearable Lightness of Being (49)
*Beloved (49)
Slaughterhouse-Five (49)
The Scarlet Letter (48)
Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation (48)
The Mists of Avalon (47)
Oryx and Crake: a Novel (47)
Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed (47)
Cloud Atlas (47)
The Confusion (46)
Lolita (46)
Persuasion (46)
Northanger Abbey (46)
The Catcher in the Rye (46)
On the Road (46)
The Hunchback of Notre Dame (45)
*Freakonomics : a Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything (45)
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: an Inquiry into Values (45)
The Aeneid (45)
Watership Down (44)
Gravity's Rainbow (44)
The Hobbit (44)
In Cold Blood: a True Account of a Multiple Murder and its Consequences (44)
White Teeth (44)
Treasure Island (44)
David Copperfield (44)
The Three Musketeers (44)


- Okay this is less reading than I thought. But than that is the normal things for me, since I haven't read the most popular books...yet. The funny thing is, most of the books listed here are the one I have seen in movies screen first and haven't read the book, yet.

Beside Melody I'm not going to tag anyone, since most of the people I would have tag are already tagged. But anyone more than welcome to participate :) But please leave me a comment if you are interested in playing so I can come visit!

Julia's Birthday Wish Contest: Winners!

Two things I want to talk about today. First I'm going to tell you what I did on my birthday. And than am going to announce the winners of my give away for "Julia's Birthday Wish Contest". Here the detail....

First I want to apology for posting the winners announcement late. My sister from Seattle, WA came down for a week visit, so I've been busy. I hope to catch up on everything soon, once my sister leave this Friday. And hopefully I will have some reading time too :) I did had a nice birthday. Family got me some a cake with strawberry flavor. Than we went to go play pool. It was fun. Than I got a new TV! Just like I want it. Gotta say, there is good and bad thing about the new edition of TV models. One need a cable box in order for the VCR/DVD combo to work well with the new TV..*sigh*. Than we throw a party to celebrate my mom 60th birthday on Saturday (even though her birthday was on Monday)We invited all her friends and she had a blast. I will be posting less for the next three days until Friday. But I will be checking my blog every now and than. If you post comments, I promise to response as soon as I can. And I be posting book reviews late as well. :)

I want to say thanks to everyone for your participation. It has been a pleasure to run this contest on my birthday. It's such treat to be able to pass on my books and share it with someone who love to read as much as I do :)

It's fun for me to see which books interested you enough to want to read it. I think it said a little bit about you and your reading taste. I came to a hard decision, since both two winners that I drawn want the same book. And I want to play fair. So I took the two names and decided to put it back on the bowl, and have my niece drawn the name out. The name she drawn out, win that book. I decided to let the 2nd place winner to chose another book from the list. I hope that seem fair to both winners

The winners are:

1st place - Alice - Hello, My Name is Alice, You've won Reunion in Death by JDRobb

2nd place - Danika/openchannel - The Accidental Novelist, could you please chose another book from the list that you want

CONGRATULATION!!!!

Would the two winner please email me: "Juliayen2u at gmail dot com" with your home address so that I can sent off your prize books!

P.S. - Another announcement, I want to thanks my very good friend Darla for the surprise birthday present she sent me. It was a book, Slave to Sensation by Nalini Singh. I've been meaning to get me a copy of this book, but been waiting. Thanks to Darla so much for putting lot of thought into getting this book for me. She is one of the nicest and sweetest person I know *smooches* *hugs* :)

I hope everyone have a good day and the weekend ahead!

Thursday Thirteen:Edition # 23

STICKY NOTE..STICKY NOTE..STICKY NOTE..STICKY NOTE! - scroll down to see the most recent posts



JULIA BIRTHDAY WISH

October 4th is my birthday, and I decided to dedicated Thursday Thirteen with a list of 13 things I wish for. Of course some aren't even going to come true, but we can only hope....right? *grin* I hope everyone have a nice day :)

In no particular order:

1. spent more time with friends & family (Very important people in my life)
2. MORE books (A very avid reader)
3. New TV (This might come true..hehehe)
4. New camera (need a new one, love taken pictures of people important in my life)
5. more scrapbook albums (reserve memories for next generation, very important)
6. DVD movies/TV shows (I'm addicted to these stuff *grin)
7. clothes
8. shoes ( yeah suddenly am shoes slut hehe)
9. bed-sheet (mine gotten torn *sigh*)
10. treats (either home-made or store brought)
11. Go see a movie (a movie addicted!)
12. Go to Disney World (Never been to one, of course I know this won't happen hehehe)
13. Go out to my favorite restaurant (King Buffet is favorite)

And I'm thinking of having contest, since it my birthday. All you have to do is just comments on this post and tell me what one thing you wish for and let me know which books (listed below) you want. And your name is enter to the contest. You can win a prize: 1 free book. The contest close on October 8th Monday midnight. I will announced two winners on October 9th Tuesday Here are the list you can chose from :

1. Reunion in Death by JDRobb (Futuristic Romance Suspense)(Berkley)
2. In A Heartbeat by Rita Herron (Romantic Suspense)((HQN)
3. Fatal Error by Colleen Thompson (Romantic Suspense)(Leisure)
4. Dark Seduction by Brenda Joyce (Paranormal Romance)(HQN)
5. Fully Engaged by Catherine Mann (Military Romance Suspense)(Wingmen Warriors)
6. French Kiss by Susan Johnson (Contemporary Romance)(Berkley Sensation)

Links to other Thursday Thirteens!

(leave your link in comments, I’ll add you here!)

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!

The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

Decorum

Booking Through Thursday


Do you have “issues” with too much profanity or overly explicit (ahem) “romantic” scenes in books? Or do you take them in stride? Have issues like these ever caused you to close a book? Or do you go looking for more exactly like them? (grin)

- I never have no issues with both. I guess I read lot of it that it doesn't bother me at all. Of course it would make sense for characters to use profanity when it fit the characters (bad past background, military, cop, their moods..etc). I'm so use to it. As a romance, overly explicit scenes have it limits for me, sometime. I don't mind reading them at all and it doesn't bother me. I have read plenty of them. But sometime the explicit scenes take up most of the whole book and not enough plot. And I always need both. :)

Don’t forget to leave a link to your actual response (so people don’t have to go searching for it) in the comments—or if you prefer, leave your answers in the comments themselves!

American Diva by Julia London

(Contemporary Romance)
Julia London website
* * * 1/2








I was too excited when I got this book. It just seem so long, since I've read the first two book of the Thrillseekers Anonymous trilogy: Wedding Planner and Extreme Bachelor a long time ago. So when I finally find out thatAmerican Diva is coming it made the wait so much better, well almost. The only disappointed thing about this release is that American Diva is released in trade size paperback. I can't understand why, since the first two books was originally released in paperback. It just seem silly to me.

Jack, an ex-military pilot, stunt person and one of the Thrillseekers Anonymous team, met the famous diva "it" girl Audrey LaRue when his team was sent to accomplished a birthday party bash for a fan of Audrey LaRue at private beach island of the coast of Costa Rica. His alone time in the moonlit beach with nothing but bucket of cold beer and his iPod, was ruined when Audrey took his chaise and made herself comfortable with his beer. He soon discover she is a raging diva who is so full of herself. After a couple few of begging to let her drink his beer, he finally given in. Than a few moments of slow dancing to the music from his iPod and kisses sparked between them. It came to interrupted stop, when Audrey found out Jack lied about not knowing who she is. And she avoid him after that.

Not until few days after she was home from the birthday party bash, a famous pop singer Audrey LaRue received a third threat letter wishing her dead. Her "boyfriend", Lucas Bonner hired the Trillseekers Anonymous to bodyguard Audrey. But she wasn't please with the new, since she want to avoid Jack and the kiss from the days before. But Jack, see this is his opportunities to make money for a flight school, one of his dream was to own and operate his own flight school and air hangar, so he agree to be the one to bodyguard her.

He soon realized behind the diva attitude, she not who he thought she seem to be. Behind stage, her personal life with family and her on going relationship with her "boyfriend", Lucas was all asking too much of demand from her. Jack want to show her to be her own self and not let people push her around. Audrey must learn to trust him, not only with her life but her heart.

I have to admit that American Diva is sorta different than the first two of the trilogy. Maybe it because the story focus more on female POV than the male POV. Its shown so many characters that isn't likable with no redeem quality. Many time I want to slap Audrey for her outburst, gosh it drive me crazy! But deep inside I knew she is whole different person, beside her diva attitude. It just take a little patience for Jack and me to get use to her. And it take Jack for her to understand how different she can be if she see herself. And even though the book isn't my favorite book, the ending was emotionally good. I did like the first two books of the series. I really want to like this book, since I like Julia London's books normally. But I couldn't.

I love the interaction friendship between the men. Seeing them again was bonus point, even on few scenes. I love the main hero, Jack. He seem to be the only likable character that I met.

American Dive was a good book. Lot of drama but a little fun. Emotionally dialogues and easy fast pace reading.

Please do try Julia London other works. They're great :)