Belated TBR Challenge for February

The date for posting about your February read for Avid Reader's TBR Challenge was last Wednesday, but I missed it.   Better late than never, right?

The proposed theme for February was virgin heroes, but I couldn't find one on my TBR shelves.  It's possible that he could've been hiding there, but I didn't feel like making a huge effort to find one.  Instead, I pulled Kathleen O'Reilly's August 2009 Harlequin Blaze Hot Under Pressure from the shelf.

She hates flying... Until he gives her a reason not to!

Boutique owner Ashley Taylor hates flying.  Especially when there's a sugar-fueled little hellion on board.  But then David McLean (sexy!) sits next to her, and suddenly Ashley finds herself hoping the delay will last forever -- and that 

David won't notice her comfy pink bunny slippers (sadly, the opposite of sexy).

David does notice Ashley, and when the flight is delayed overnight, they can't get to the airport hotel fast enough.  Off with the slippers and in with the zing!  Fortunately, America is filled with cities -- L.A., New York, Miami -- and nothing says "smoking-hot passion" like an intercontinental affair.

Why this book?  Because I have read and enjoyed a couple of O'Reilly's earlier Blazes.

What did I think of this book?  Only the fact that I was reading it while on a plane kept it from being a wallbanger.  Seriously, if the entertainment choices offered by the airline had been better, I would've abandoned this book.  But I was a captive audience.  The problem wasn't the writing, it was the characters and the set up.  I thought the heroine was a spineless enabler, and long before I knew what her sister's problem was I despised them both.  The hero...I liked him only marginally better. 

Also, in what world do khakis and a white shirt equal copier repair guy?  I've spent my entire adult life working in offices and I have NEVER seen a copier repair guy in khakis and a white shirt.  Ever.

SPOILER:  

And for the love all of all things fraternal, would contemporary authors PLEASE stop having characters hook up with the siblings of their partners!?!  Dumping your fiancee for her sister?  Not on.  Being friends with benefits with your dead husband's brother?  Also not on.  Sleeping with your husband's brother and then divorcing him to marry the brother?  That's family wrecking, and it belongs in lit fiction, not category genre romance, please.

Three times in the span of a month just pushes all of my squick buttons.  

The only thing I really appreciated about the book was the easter egg of seeing Jamie and Andrew Brooks from an earlier book.


 

Random observations: book vending machines, floor space, and cover art

Book vending machines:

I was tempted by the Novel Idea book vending machines at Gatwick yesterday.  Probably I wouldn't have bothered, having enough to occupy my attention on the flight already, but there was a book by Jo Nesbo displayed.  And Avid Reader LOVES Nesbo's books, reviewing and recommending them.  So I figured out if I had enough change left in my pockets left after my spree at WHSmith (fruit gums! water! magazines to read!) to pay the 4GBP.  Yes!  So I went over to inspect the vending machine only to see that Every Single Book was sold out!  All of them!

Clearly some people like the idea of book vending machines at departure gates :)

The use of floor space:

Waterstone's in Piccadilly seems to have a HUGE amount of open floor space.  As I wandered from floor to floor, I mentally compared it to the Borders at Penn Plaza.  Not an entirely apt comparison, I know.  But both must be outrageously expensive in terms of rental cost per square foot.  The Borders is wedged full of shelves and displays, admittedly only on two floors rather than the seven (?) or more that Waterstone's enjoys.  Do they have better inventory and sales tracking, I wonder, that they can leave so much floor space...empty?

The display windows (on the Piccadilly Street side) were rather sparse, especially in comparison to the cram-packed windows of Hatchard's up the street, which I noticed at the time.  Intentional mirroring, I suppose?

Cover art:

The cover art to the UK editions of Naomi Novik's Temeraire series is gorgeous.  Was tempted to buy copies for the art alone.  Was also intrigued to see that the back blurbs were different from the American editions.

Patricia Briggs' Alpha & Omega books were/are distributed by Ace and have the same cover art as the US editions, but the Mercedes Thompson books are distributed by Orbit and have very cool black and white art that I find much more appealing than the US editions, which I find to be...a little garish and heavy on the boob and belly emphasis.