January TBR Challenge and a few other things

 

 

 

When I saw that Wendy was doing another TBR Challenge for 2012, I decided that maybe, just maybe, this would be a way to get my butt in gear and this poor neglected blog back in action. A lot has happened in the past few years. I have a kid who’s almost 2 and I also no longer work at a bookstore. I also have found myself reading less and less book blogs and more home/design/family blogs. So I really have changed focus and keep wondering if I should just start over with a new blog, or keep all the old stuff. Who knows? Any ideas? But whoever said that I would stop reading once I had kids obviously was not a true reader. I still read a ton.

On to the TBR Challenge! In honor of Wendy, our fearless leader, I chose…

The Major and the Librarian by Nikki Benjamin!

I’m going to swipe my book description from Amazon.

 

For four years Major Sam Griffin had stayed away from Serenity, Texas, gruffly avoiding the fact that he was still heart-achingly in love with the woman who had almost married his brother.

Now home on leave, the devastatingly handsome pilot had to face beautiful Emma Dalton again. And though there was unmistakable yearning in her eyes, Sam could never put down the roots he knew the shy librarian so strongly craved. When Sam finally had the chance to win the heart of the woman he'd always loved, could he convince Emma that her home would always be where he was?

This blurb doesn’t really do the book justice. Yes, Emma almost married his brother, but the reason she doesn’t, is that he dies the day of the wedding. And so Emma and Sam haven’t spoken since as each has secrets that they haven’t shared. Sam has good reason to believe that it was his fault and Emma also has good reason to have felt guilt. Sam comes home when Emma, who is close to Sam’s mother, sends him a letter telling him his mother has cancer.  So he comes home, and eventually, the truth comes out, as we all knew it would.

I actually quite liked it. Emma and Sam really do have good reasons for their actions (avoiding each other, etc), so the lack of them just hashing things out all at once was reasonable.  The Major and the Librarian isn’t a really deep emotional book, but it was a nice winter afternoon read.  I enjoyed how the .romance played out as they got to know each other again while they cared for Sam’s mother. One thing that did bother me is that although we are shown how Sam’s career as a Naval officer impacts his life, Emma’s librarian job is just wallpaper. She could have been anything. So librarian fail. At least we didn’t have her as an uptight virgin!

If I had to grade this, I’d give it a C+. Glad I read it, but it’s not a keeper or something I feel compelled to have around to reread.