Boy, am I excited! I just learned that When Twilight Burns is a Top Pick for Romantic Times BookClub magazine, and the review is wonderful. Yay!

Not only that, but my dear friend Jackie Kessler also claims a Top Pick for August for her third installment in the Hell on Earth Series, Hotter Than Hell! Congrats to Jackie, whose book about His Hotness, the Incubus Daun is one I've been waiting for since first meeting him in Hell's Belles.

Anyway, here's the RT review in its entirety:

Fans of this brilliant series know vampires have met their match in Venator leader Victoria Gardella Grantworth de Lacy and that they're in for a thrilling ride. Gleason draws you into the dark, sensual realm where the lines between good and evil, love and hate blur. Allow yourself to be seduced by the dark side.

It's clear someone has found the formula for a potion that allows vampires to live undetected in the sunlight. Victoria is on the hunt along with her longtime friends and sometimes lovers, Sebastian and Max. Unfortunately, clues point to her as the killer. Other suspects include her deceased husband's American heir, an Italian opera singer and her lover, and even a member of the royal family. Pulled toward an inevitable confrontation with the vampire, Victoria must face her personal demons before the Prince Regent's coronation.

And the best part of all…they didn't give anything away! Yay!

I'll be adding to this list as they come available.

Stainless Steel Droppings (Carl V., who speaks out for men–and women–afraid of reading romance novels.)

I like Steve Carell, and this was billed as a romantic comedy, so I dragged my Music Man for a date-night last Friday.

At first, I was engaged. Carell is nice to look at in an Everyman sort of way, and he plays his role with ease. The three daughters he (a widower) is charged with raising are of various ages, with various issues. The youngest one reminded me so much of my own youngest!

Juliette Binoche, the love interest, looked exactly like a dark-haired Julia Roberts–it was so distracting! Other cast members include the actress who played Ross's ex-wife's lesbian lover (on Friends) and Emily Blunt, the first assistant from The Devil Wears Prada. Dianne Wiest, looking very matronly, and John Mahoney (whom I love) played Carell's parents.

That's the good stuff.

The rest….meh…not so much.

The story line was uber-predictable and pushed the envelope wayyy far. First of all, though, I had a problem with believing in the connection between Carell and Binoche–and for a romantic comedy to work, you've gotta believe in The Connection.

Actually, let me clarify: I believed in his connection to her, but hers to him? No. Not ever. Not until the very end, when an extremely transparent attempt to make a When Harry Met Sally… double-date-switcheroo forced her to respond accordingly. But by then, it was required. So I still didn't believe it.

I mean, the first time they meet, he talks for hours–probably two or three–to her. She does nothing but sit there and smile and listen. And we get panned in with the camera from every angle, near and far, and all we see is him talking. And talking. And talking.

Now that's all fine and well, but I find it hard to buy that she felt a connection to him when he didn't give a rat's behind about her situation and what made her tick–for hours.

I mean, have you ever fallen for a guy (or girl) who blabbed at you for hours? What connection??? 

But, of course, if he had asked her one simple question about her, we wouldn't have had a story.

Anyway, the other scene that bothered the crap out of me, completely destroying me suspension of disbelief is what I'll call the shower scene. If you don't want to have any part of the flick spoiled for you, don't read the next paragraph or so. (It's not a big spoiler, plotwise, anyway.)

So, we've got Carell's oldest daughter, whose 17, who's taken a shine to Binoche's character. Carell and Binoche are pretending they don't know each other as they spend a weekend at Carrell's parent's home, so they're sneaking around–him trying to talk to her, her completely blowing him off.

Anyway, so the oldest daughter comes into the bathroom where this woman she's just met is getting ready to take a shower. Unbeknownst to the daughter, her father is in there also, trying to talk to Binoche. He slips into the tub/shower when the daughter comes in, so he can hide from her.

The daughter proceeds to sit on the pot and tell Binoche to go ahead and shower, she really just needs to talk–someone to listen to her. She's just met this woman, and she's infringing on her shower?

Yeah. I couldn't handle that.

But it gets better.

So Binoche strips and gets into the shower, where Carrell is hidiing, and stands there, naked, under the water with him while his daughter rambles on about teenage angsty shit.

It was at that point that I realized I didn't want to finish the movie. I almost left.

I did end up staying, but it so didn't work for me on many (more) levels. I'm bummed, because I like Carrell and the premise was cute.

But. Ugh. I definitely don't recommend this at $8.50 a ticket. Maybe rent the DVD when it comes out if you can deal with the ridiculous plot. 

Anyone else see this and have a different take?

There's been a lot of buzz about the new drama on TNT, Saving Grace, starring Holly Hunter. I was very intrigued about it, but I missed the premier. Imagine my delight when I learned they were rebroadcasting it last Thursday night….so I set my DVR to watch it.

I wasn't disappointed. The show's taking a lot of risks, and I like it. I love the whole premise, and I'm eager to see how it does ratings-wise.

For those of you who aren't familiar with it (ie, you didn't see The Order of the Phoenix movie [was its trailer shown at all viewings of TOoP, or just the two I saw?]), here's the premise, straight from the TNT site:

In her television series debut, Holly Hunter stars as Grace Hanadarko, a tormented, fast-living Oklahoma City police detective who, despite being at the top of her field, takes self-destruction to new heights. 

After seeing tremendous tragedy in her life, both professionally and personally, Grace lives life hard and fast. She drinks too much, sleeps with the wrong men and defies authority. Grace has a tender side with her 22 nieces and nephews, but that is a side that most of the world doesn’t get to see.

It all catches up with her one night when, as she’s driving too fast after too many drinks, she hits a man who is walking along the road. In an uncharacteristic moment, Grace asks for help, and she gets it – in the form of an unconventional angel named Earl (Leon Rippy, Deadwood). Earl tells Grace that she is in trouble and running out of chances, but he wants to help lead her back to the right path. The journey, for both of them, will not be an easy one. 

The show was edgy and intense, with bits of humor thrown in. It was thought-provoking, too, and I really enjoyed it. I've already got the DVR cued up to record the upcoming episodes.

The next one is on tonight, but never fear…if you missed the premier, you can watch online! 

Did anyone else see it? What did you think? 

So I've been on hiatus for a few days. It was my birthday, then my mom's, plus I had to finish up a project, and today is my son's birthday–how about a gaggle of nine year old boys hanging around your house? Pretty crazy.

Which is why I played hookey this afternoon (in preparation for tonight's craziness) and went to see the new Drew Barrymore movie. 

Lucky You is really Huck Cheever's (Eric Bana) movie more than Billie Offer's (Drew Barrymore). And while it's not the chick-flicky romantic comedy I expected, I really enjoyed it.

Huck Cheever is a professional poker player–following in his estranged father's (Robert Duvall) footsteps. Their relationship and competition is more the focus of the movie than Huck's and Billie's. Billie is never in a scene without Huck, but he's in every scene in the whole movie.

And since Eric Bana's no hardship to look at, well, I'm not complaining. Nice arms, that man has. Very. Nice. Arms.

Annnnywayyyyyy….I liked the movie. I'm not a poker player, and while I do understand the tenets of the game, I didn't really pay that much attention to it–and the movie did a good job of making it clear what cards needed to fall where, so I didn't have to really think. Which I never want to have to do on a Friday afternoon when playing hookey at the movies anyway.

Ya know?

So. I liked the movie. It wasn't action-oriented or cheesy or mooshy. It was a nice story set against the backdrop of the World Series of Poker (and since the father of one of my good friends just played–and did very well–in the World Poker Tourney in Vegas, it was very timely), with a decent story and some good lines. And the ending wasn't nice and pat either.

I recommend it. And besides, Drew is adorable as usual.