Run the Risk

Run the Risk  
by Lori Foster is another exciting  addition to her wonderful collection of suspenseful romances.  This first book in her ‘Love Undercover’ series showcases Detective Logan Riske who is undercover and attempting to get to know his reticent neighbor in an effort to discover the whereabouts of her brother.  Logan is determined to catch a murderer but gradually gives in to the attraction that he feels for the dowdy and self-effacing woman even as he plans to use her to catch her brother.  Logan is not the only one trying to get to know an elusive woman, his partner Reese is also puzzled about the aloof woman living in his apartment building.  Each man has quite a few obstacles to get past, not least of which is determining who can be truly trusted during their dangerous investigation. The problem is, the women also will have to deal with their own trust issues before any progress in the relationships can progress.

This was a fun read by Ms Foster who invariably creates strong male characters who are wonderfully protective and action-oriented and Logan Riske is no exception to this rule.  He is a bit of a jerk at first in that he is willing to use (and be used) by someone to achieve his goal but he eventually develops a rapport with the quirky woman that he enters into a rather unusual intimate relationship with.  Their passionate encounters are unique and somewhat of a role reversal but there is definitely chemistry that blossoms between the two as they both hide their true identities.  There are several different mysteries involving various secondary characters that are alluded to which will undoubtedly be addressed in future novels and delightful glimpses of a cute canine who has bounced into Reese’s life on all four paws.  The suspense is nicely balanced with the spice and makes this a nice start to the new series.  This title will be released on September 25, 2012 and subsequent titles featuring the other yummy males will hopefully make their appearance in 2013.

I was provided an ARC of this title in exchange for an honest review.

Squid color change and music

Ok, I admit it, I can get easily distracted when I am writing a review and at a temporary loss for words.  That is happening a lot lately since I have written reviews for Night Owl Reviews for the past three years according to a particular template and last month the specifications changed abruptly.  It's amazing how one gets into a rut and makes a commonplace task difficult but it has been really difficult for me to switch to the new format and I fear that my writing is even more stilted than ever before.  Anyway, that means I get stuck frequently and start wandering around and doing other things like looking at e-mails and visiting blogs and getting my 10 second news inputs at various homepages.  I was really intrigued by the article stating that some scientists hooked up a squid to an iPod nano and recorded video of the color changes (squids have something called chromatophores in their skin that allows them to release color...brown, red or yellow).  The video shows their response to Cypress Hill's Insane in the Brain.  It's fascinating to watch (and yes, I turned up the volume since I usually have my computer on mute).  The link to the article is here and directly to the video is here.  And no, I don't get hungry when looking at squid since I don't like calimari but I do admit that visiting another blog which gave a picture and a recipe for lobster roll (yum) did make me hungry!

Back to the reviews.  Don't get me wrong, most of the reviews on tap are for excellent reads, I have been fortunate to have been reading some great review books (although there were a couple of titles I am still struggling about what to say since I had trouble finishing them) and will be posting over the next few days about Lori Foster's Run the Risk, Jeri Smith-Ready's Shade, Shift and Shine trilogy (yes, there is a story about this since I have already posted about Shine) and Corrina Lawson's Luminous.  I also was fortunate enough to receive Laura Griffin's upcoming novel, Scorched so that is toward the top of my TBR pile!  Back to being productive...



   

Lovely surprises

I don't mind eating fruit...but I like it to be sweet!  Pineapple is my favorite fruit (yes, I turned my tongue numb when my mom took me to the Dole plant on our first trip to Hawaii...but part of that was from the long pineapple spears that they served back then on the airplane trip over) but I actually like grapes and pears and mandarin oranges as well and I will tolerate most others as long as they are sweet.  My problem is that I don't know how to pick sweet fruit, and I have failed miserably at keeping it around and trying to let it ripen enough to sweeten BEFORE it rots.  I have some idiosyncrasy wherein I start choking if I bite into an apple that still has its skin (so, I had a brief moment of panic when a friend asked me to pick up a bag of apples since I don't know what to look for to choose sweet ones) and we actually never eat the apples that grow on the tree in our backyard (bugs eat them first) whereas the resident squirrel is very efficient at picking our apricots, extracting the pits and throwing the fruit onto the ground.  Yes, I have been tempted to find a lethal solution for the canny mammal but instead elected to wait until he died of old age (and I am still waiting!).  Anyway...we received the most excellent surprise today from friends...an Edible Arrangement©.  Now, if you have never seen one of those, it is an arrangement of fruit that is shaped into flowers.  If I ever figure out how to shrink my camera pictures, I will post one but until then, picture pineapple cut into a flower shape (and dipped in chocolate on one side, mmm-mmm) with a cantaloupe ball as the center, chocolate dipped strawberries, orange sections dipped in chocolate and regular strawberries and grapes...wow!  Beautiful, tasty and good for you, what more can you ask?  And yes, the chocolate takes care of the sweetness (and my friend reminds me that there are lots of lovely antioxidants in it).  Diet?  What diet?

Another lovely surprise is Lori Foster's upcoming Run the Risk.  Wow!  Great addition to her pantheon of lovely romantic suspense books.  I am REALLY behind at writing reviews and had no business stopping to read this one but it grabbed my attention and I wasn't able to put it down until I finished (well, I fell asleep but I finished it this morning, lol).  Great story, hopefully I will get the review up in a few days, but if you like romantic suspense, put this on your must buy list!



Ok...off to eat more fruit (0: