grade: A+
description: A wildly romantic tale of forbidden love set in the turbulent middle ages. A Jewish doctor, Solomon, and Catholic aristocrat, Rica, meet by chance at the herbalist's cottage and fall in love despite the divisions of religion, class, and expectations — but how can they possibly find a happy ending with so many things stacked against them?

( thoughts... )
grade: D
description: Trahern MacEgan—his body is honed for fighting, his soul is black and tortured. Women want to tame him, but he has loved once, and now is lost. Morren Ó Reilly—she has known pain and shame, but holds her head high, even though she shrinks from a man's touch. Can Morren be the light to Trahern's darkness, and can she be made whole again by her surrender?

( thoughts... )

She looked at him, finally.  "You think all women can be bought?"grade: D
description: Infamous for his wild, sensual needs, Lazarus Huntington, Lord Caire, is searching for a savage killer in St. Giles, London's most notorious slum. Widowed Temperance Dews knows St. Giles like the back of her hand-she's spent a lifetime caring for its inhabitants at the foundling home her family established. Now that home is at risk . . .

( thoughts... )
grade: A+
description: chronicles the connecting lives of a disparate clutch of Parisians, among them a snobbish author, a venal banker, a noble priest shepherding churlish orphans, a foppish aesthete and a loving lower-class couple, all fleeing city comforts for the chaotic countryside, mere hours ahead of the advancing Germans; as well as documents life in a small French town, during the German occupation.

( thoughts... )

Currently Reading
Title: Countess of Scandal, Laurel McKee
Description: an Irish countess and an English soldier, on opposites sides of a bloody civil war, find themselves falling in love in 18th century Ireland.
Why: need a happy ending.

Title: The Proud Tower, Barbara Tuchman
Description: a non-fictional overview of the twilight years of "la belle epqoue," the seemingly serene golden years that preceded World War I.
Why: need something substantial, not fluffy.

( month-by-month breakdown... )

Stats & Averages
Average Grade Score: C+ (2.9, rounded up to 3)
Most Prolific Reading Month: August

Best of 2010:
Wicked Becomes You, Meredith Duran ---- A+
Untie My Heart, Judith Ivory ---- A
Bound by Your Touch, Meredith Duran ---- A+
Mr. Impossible, Loretta Chase ---- A
Reckless, Anne Stuart ---- A
Fallen, Celeste Bradley ---- A
A Rake's Guide to Seduction, Caroline Linden ---- A
Skeletons at the Feast, Chris Bohjalian ---- A

Worst of 2010:
Body and Soul, Susan Krinard ---- D
The Perfect Rake, Anne Gracie ---- F
Slowness, Milan Kundera ---- D
Liberating Lacey, Anne Calhoun ---- D+
One Unashamed Night, Sophia James ---- DNF, F
The Dream Thief, Shana Abé ---- D+
Royal Seduction, Jennifer Blake ---- F
Forbidden Magic, Jo Beverley ---- F

Most Disappointing (books that I had high hopes for, ultimately dashed):
Secret Desires of a Gentleman, Laura Lee Guhrke ---- D
The Secret to Seduction, Julie Ann Long ---- D

( month by month breakdown... )