Following my heart, one book at a time...
Happy Friday to everyone!! My favorite day of the week, especially today, ’cause…
It’s my birthday today! 😀 And on a Friday, of all days! *squeeee!!* That means I can pretty much shirk my responsibilities, right? Sometimes I wonder if I should scowl at my birthday ’cause, you know… *whipsers* the “getting older” thing. 
But my husband always makes my birthdays so fun and he’s soooo sweet the whole day, so it’s my favorite. And since it’s Friday… I’m making it my birthday weekend.
The Wild Side
HIGHLY recommended by many in our reading crew, including our reading-bud, Michelle:
Michelle: Well, you know what I’m going to say…. WILD SIDE baby…. come on!!!
… and when she found out I chose an older book off of my main TBR list a few days ago, and not this one, she freaked!
Michelle: You picked smut and an age difference and didn’t go for Wild Side? I’m shocked Maryse… so I know you are in a big time smut mood…. you should have picked Dair to scratch that itch…. ha!
Liberating Lacey
This one has been floating on my TBR list for a year or two, and I finally jumped in. I was in the mood for an “adult” romance where the source of the drama has a more… “normal” feel. Nothing too tragic, unimaginable or heartbreaking to overcome. Just… circumstances. And the personal issues that exacerbate them.
And this one came highly recommended when I was looking for that “forbidden romance” angle.
Melissa: Liberating Lacy…whoa. Younger man in uniform meets newly divorced (slightly older) upper class lady. Kind of a “How Stella Got her Groove back” But much better. It pulls you in from the very beginning…and very hot and steamy 
Ugly Love: A Novel
WOW DID I LOVE THIS!!! There is nothing “ugly” about this story. It’s absolutely beautiful. Okay, to be fair, yes… oh YES there are some very heart-wrenching, incredibly moving moments (in bittersweet, sweet and downright painful ways). So I admit, “Ugly Love” was the perfect title. But don’t let that scare you. This book was simply stunning in all of its joy and its pain. Its hope and its occasional silly-sweetness. Its normalcy. Its intensity as two very important relevant stories converge while weaving us in and out of the past and the present to get the whole picture. And what a picture it is!
Six of Hearts
This one teases with an intriguing blurb that had me wondering where this unique-sounding story would take me. A magician bent on revenge. Huh. Could be fun, or could be perplexing. Could be romantic (that was a given, considering what he “says” in the blurb)… or could be a bit dark.
When I read a blurb, I almost seem to get a “handle” on where the story will take me (sparking my reading-need to jump right in). I couldn’t figure this one out. I was imagining all sorts of things and couldn’t quite tell if I was going to be… “into this” you know? But because of so many of your adamant 5-star exclamations, (and the fact that I loved this author’s book Painted Faces) I was very excited to give it a go!
