Stuff

So, last night we were playing videogames on our Gamecube. We decided to play the very first game we ever had, which is two years old at this point - Wave Race: Blue Storm. Players ride jet skis in a variety of watery settings. Since it's been a while since we played, each of us was pretty rusty, althought I must say I was very happy to have remembered how to turn a back flip off the jump ramps, and to have taught my husband how to do so too.

But before the hour ended and we moved on to The Simpsons Road Rage, it was our daughter's last turn and she was simply going around in circles on her jet ski. When I asked what she was doing, she answered, "I just like going around in circles." Which caused me to LOL and to respond, "That could be your epitaph." Then she asked, "What's yours, mom?"

I answered, "She never bought a lottery ticket," then turned to my husband and asked him what his would be. With a totally deadpan expression save a devilish glint in his eyes, he answered, "I told you I was sick." With that all three of us collapsed into laughter.

That anecdote aside, it's time to start catching up on my reading. First up is my sole romance DIK for 2003 - The Ideal Bride by Nonnie St. George. AAR's Ellen Micheletti raved about this book a few weeks ago so strongly that I immediately ordered it from Amazon, and when it arrived, I dove right in. I knew it was something special when I started to bookmark nearly every page because of something so funny that I wanted to re-read it. By the time the book had practically doubled in size because of papers shoved into it, I realized I had a winner on my hands.

What's particularly exciting about The Ideal Bride is that it's a debut romance, and a debut Regency to boot, which means there should be at least a few years for this author to be writing Regencies before she moves on to single title historicals, although, frankly, with a voice this crisp and fresh, I hope she writes trads for a very long time.

Gabriel Carr is one of my favorite type of heroes - he believes he wants nothing but order and peace in his life, but underneath, he's just waiting for someone to help him cut loose. And that would be Lady Nola Grenvale, known as Saint Nola for her work on behalf of London's war widows. The Lady would like to transform one of Gabriel's warehouses into a bazaar for the widows' goods. Gabriel is certain this would be folly and refuses. But that's not the end of their association, because there are matchmakers afoot, and a chemistry between the two that cannot be denied. It is revealed through double entendres, feelings of longing, and thoroughly hilarious discussions between various parties in the book, including Gabriel's mother, two elderly French women, Nola's odd aunts, and Gabriel's best friend. Add in a butler and a chef whose food serve as homages to various battles, and you've got one funny book.

But it's Gabriel and Nola who truly make the book sing; the tension between the idea of marriage and/or the warehouse get mixed up whenever the two talk to one another, with such funny results I can't remember the last time I had such fun reading. While Gabriel dresses drably to hide his impossibly good looks, he's at the same time incredibly vain and altogether aware of his appearance, his dimples, and which is his "best side." As for Nola, she's a wonderful heroine. Her temper is wonderful to watch, her suffering when she can't figure out what she feels for Gabriel and what he feels for her is believable, and isn't it nice to know that her bosom will do, after all?

I'm a tremendous fan of Bob Newhart. One of the reasons both The Bob Newhart Show and Newhart aired for so long - and continue in re-runs somewhere in the U.S. to this day - is because he's a relatively sane man who must cope with the insanity that surrounds him. Gabriel isn't a deadpan Bob Newhart, but I draw a parallel nonetheless. Nola's aunts aren't exactly Larry, Daryl, and Daryl, but I've no doubt they'll make you laugh just as much.

TTFN, Laurie Likes Books

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