I'm a Believer

        I'm a believer,
        I couldn't leave her
        If I tried.

        I will spare you the video of me belting out out the Neil Diamond song. (What is that noise? Did a cat get caught in a car engine?) But the lyrics fit what I'm writing about today.

      I started reading Lisa Ricard Claro's book, Love to Believe, Saturday night. I got through two chapters. Figured it would take me a few days to read it. Maybe by the end of the week I'd be finished. Or so I thought.

       Yesterday--all day--I neglected everything except reading that book. I didn't grade papers. I didn't do any housework. On the way to dinner and a movie * with my husband, I even took the book (because it was a 30-minute trip). All day I did nothing except read and read and read that romance novel... until I finished the last page a little before midnight.

      Yikes!

      If you didn't already know, I am about as far from the typical romance reader as you can get. I love sad books--books with unhappy endings. I don't ever buy books that have women's heaving bosoms or Fabio-looking men on the cover. In fact, Lisa Ricard Claro's first novel in this series--Love Built to Last--was the first romance novel I'd ever read. And I was hooked.

      This second book in the series is no different than the first--again, a compelling read. Again, well-crafted. Again, humor and heat in well-balanced amounts. In this book, you're rooting for Sean and Rebecca to get together for good... But be prepared for some twists and turns on the path to happily ever after. 

      Because of Lisa, I'm a believer in romance novels (but only if they're written by her).



*  The movie we saw was the Coen brothers' "Hail, Caesar. Seven of us went and at the end, we all said, "What was that about?" In my opinion, it was awful.