Sunday, January 10, 2010

Happy 2010!

My first new post of 2010 is not going to be very exciting. But, as part of my New Year's resolution, I am determined to post something at least once a week. So ... here we go.

The last few weeks have been pretty busy. We moved to a new place. Plus family stuff over the holidays. I've barely had time to read. Since I haven't really felt like picking up anything new, I've decided to go back and re-read J.R. Ward's Black Dagger Brotherhood series. I'm finished with Dark Lover (Wrath and Beth), Lover Eternal (Rhage and Mary), Lover Awakened (Zadist and Bella), and I'm half-way through Lover Revealed (Butch and Marissa).

I love re-reading series. Now that I already know what will happen, I can take the time and go back and savor my favorite parts.

I love re-reading Wrath and Beth's story because I remember how excited when I read it for the first time, being introduced to a brand new world and a new twist to the vampire mythology. For me, Rhage and Mary didn't touch me as deeply as some other couples but I do enjoy their story. And the ending is an a good use of duex ex machina (as opposed to the ending in Vishous and Jane's story, which was a total wtf? moment.) And I love love love the ending to Zadist and Bella's story. The part when Z finally tells Bella he loves her always makes me tear up a little. Now I can't wait to finish Butch and Marissa's story. It's sweet torture to watch the two of them finally get together, and to experience the deep bond (potentially sexually ambiguous bond?) between Butch and Vishous.

But then, I'm not entirely looking forward to re-reading Lover Unbound (Vishous and Jane) and Lover Enshrined (Phury and Cormia). I remember I was so disappointed by these two books. Both Vishous and Phury had so much potential and there was so much to explore with the two of them. I remember I felt very let down because I didn't connect with these two characters in their own stories as much as I did when they were secondary characters. In fact, one reason I wanted to re-read the series is because when I was reading the latest book, Lover Avenged (Rhevenge's story), I couldn't remember a lot that happened. It's like I completely blocked out Phury's story and everything that happened. I'm hoping it'll be better the second time around.

After I'm done re-reading this series, I plan to tackle the challenges I joined last year. Unfortunately, I failed the Jane Austen Challenge, which ended already. But I still have time to finish the Harry Potter Challenge and the Sookie Stackhouse Challenge. So I better get to it!

Also, I need to get started organizing my books via Good Reads, another one of my New Year's resolutions.

Lots to do and lots to read!