Taste of Kiwi

I really admire the people who review books–it’s a job I couldn’t do. I have to admit that before I wrote, I never read them. These days I read my own, of course, but I’ll usually flick through the other reviews that come through at the same time. A review doesn’t usually sway my purchases, but if I see lots of good reviews, sometimes I do get tempted to buy. I never search for reviews before I buy a book. Do you check out reviews before you purchase a book?

I’ve received reviews recently for House of the Cat and Make That Man Mine.

Megan at Veiled Secret Reviews says, “With an abundance of lovable characters playing against a backdrop of stars and alien worlds House of the Cat is a rollicking thrill ride that will keep you turning page after page…With so many secondary characters steeling your heart and the mystery of Ry’s origins to unravel I can only hope that Ms. Munro plans another visit to the exciting world of House of the Cat.” 4 Dragons. Read the full review here.

Hockeyvamp at Bitten by Books says, “I was totally enthralled with this short novella from start to finish. The erotic play between the two main characters was both flirtatious and arousing. The perceptions of themselves as less than desirable because of the flaws they saw within themselves could be both accepted and desired by the other. I only wish that this had been a full length novel as the sexy and fun banter between the main characters was very entertaining.” 4 1/2 Tombstones. Read the full review here.

In sale news, my story Wild Child has been chosen as one of the stories in All Romance ebooks’s 28 Days of Heart charity campaign to benefit the American Heart Association. The stories will be released in February 2010 and Charlaine Harris, author of the Sookie Stackhouse series is doing the forward. Very exciting!

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The lovely Tempest Knight invited me to guest blog at Midnight Moon Cafe today. My post is about cats and black cats in particular. I’m also giving away a download of Cat and Mouse. I hope you’ll visit me there.

And speaking of my Middlemarch series, I’ve received three reviews today.

At Alternative Reviews.com WitchGiggles said about Assassin: “Ok, this has some of the most interesting shifters, secrets, hot sex, and incredibly interesting characters and premises I’ve read in a bit. I was intrigued by Isabella and the secret borne by her, charmed by Leo and his family and can’t wait to read something else by this talented author.”

At Romance Junkies: : “ASSASSIN has proven to be an erotic as well as sensual read. Ms. Munro continues to satisfy her fans so completely. There is passion, intrigue, mystery, romance and all of them intertwined with the paranormal element. To top it off it has a realistic flare to it that gives you the sense that such could actually be happening behind closed doors so to speak. This story was very well done and I look forward to more in the MIDDLEMARCH MATES line of stories.”

And at Romance Readers Connection, Gloria said: “CAT AND MOUSE is everything you want in a shape shifter story. Shelly Munro gives us strong, independent Lana, and helpful, understanding alpha male, Duncan. The story has adventure, sex, humor, more sex, and romance. CAT AND MOUSE is one you don’t want to miss.”

Running Update: My legs hurt!!

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I have two interesting news items from New Zealand for you today. I know there’s lots of talk on the Internet re authors complaining about reviews and reviewers complaining about authors comments about reviews. It seems we’re quite well-behaved as a group compared to the restaurant owners in Auckland. Several top Auckland restaurants were given bad grades in a recent review by Metro. They struck back in an ad with a recipe for “Preparation of Metro Food Critic Testicles”.

Readers were encouraged to take a “very sharp knife, slice through the sort of skinnie muscley stuff that you find surrounding each of the Metro Food Critic Testicles (there should be two testicles, they can be hard to find)”.

And the Metro Food Critic’s comment – The testicles should be served with a side of “Sour Grapes”. You can read the full article here.

The other item of interest, or at least I found it fascinating, was the thawing out of the 490 kg squid at TePapa museum in Wellington. The colossal squid was caught in the Antarctic waters of the Ross Sea in 2007 and was frozen to preserve it. There’s been all sorts of discussion about defrosting the squid, since it’s not as easy as thawing out a packet of sausages. Here’s the photo gallery showing shots of the squid and you can also check out the webcam showing live action of the defrosting.

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Quite a few years ago when my sister was having a house built she told Mr. Munro and I she intended to get a dishwasher. “What do you need one of those for?” we asked, making definite scoffing sounds. “It’s no problem handwashing the dishes each night. It takes hardly any time at all.”

My sister said maybe that was the case but she still intended getting a dishwasher. It was bad enough cooking dinner when she arrived home from work. Adding dishes to the equation was too much. She duly got her dishwasher, and Mr. Munro and I smugly continued doing our dishes by hand.

Then we moved into a new house, one that came with a brand new dishwasher. Hubby and I looked at each other. “It would be silly not to use it,” Mr. Munro said. I agreed.

“We’ll put it on every couple of days. No point using dishes just for the sake of filling it.” Once again, I agreed.

Wind the clock forward about five years to this week:

Me – “The dishwasher’s broken. It’s the handle. Something has broken off and the dishwasher isn’t closing.”

“It’s full of dishes,” Mr. Munro said glumly. “And it’s a holiday weekend. We’ll have to do the dishes by hand.”

And so it went. The dishwasher broke on Saturday and we’ve handwashed ever since. It’s now Wednesday and the dishwasher repairman arrived to fix it this afternoon. I handed over our check and thanked him very much. I wanted to hug him but I didn’t want to seem too forward. We use the dishwasher just about every day and there’s only the two of us. It was a pain living without it.

On Christmas day, my sister and I laughed when I said how much I love the dishwasher. This week Mr. Munro and I discussed our smugness and had to laugh. It’s kind of ironic really – how the past always manages to come back and bite you in the bum!

~*~

I received a wonderful five star review for Playing to Win. Anne Boling from ReviewYourBook.com said, “Playing to Win has an edge-of –your- seat plot. I was hooked from the first chapter. This book has twists and turns that keep the reader guessing. The characters are well defined with their own voice. Shelley Munro is a talented author. Fans of romance, do not let this one escape your bookshelf.” The full review is available here.

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