From the moment I picked up ‘The Bride’s Bodyguard’ by Elizabeth Thornton in 1998, I knew this is going to be one author I will gladly follow.

Over the years that I’ve read her books, I’ve found that she always delivers exciting plots, surprising twists and unlikely villains – a combination that goes a long way in creating the kind of romantic suspense novels that keep her readers hooked on her.

In ‘The Marriage Trap’, she scored yet again with her masterful characterisation, a wickedly brilliant plot and the right dose of suspense.

Just to give you an idea of the fertile ground for imagination she has set, here is a brief synopsis:

Past experiences with women has made Jack Rigg, the newly minted Earl of Raleigh, a cynic when it comes to love and marriage. With his recent inheritance, he is hounded by ambitious marriage-minded mothers and their scheming daughters. He has managed to evade getting trapped in wedlock, but when Miss Elinor Hill, a dowdy lady’s companion he met at a reception at the British embassy, dared to cast aspersions on his honour with claims that she spent the night with him in his rooms at the Palais Royal, he was furious at the suggestion of a wedding to save her reputation.

Belated holiday greetings! Hope you’ve had a lovely time.

Have nothing much to report save that we stayed home for the Christmas weekend as my daughter came down with fever on the eve. Am ashamed to confess that I didn’t manage to do much reading. However, we spent the weekend watching videos, some of which are my favourites.

We had planned to catch the movie The Chronicles of Narnia which is showing in local cinemas, but her illness prevented us from venturing out of the house. Just as well, as it poured the entire evening of the eve, so it was no great loss staying in to watch videos of our Gold Coast holiday. That night, after tucking the kids in, we watched The Two Towers from the Lord of the Rings trilogy, having already seen The Fellowship of the Rings the weekend before.

Received these books as Christmas gifts and am truly pleased with them:

1. ‘Tuesdays with Morrie’, and
2. ‘The Five People You Meet in Heaven’ both by Mitch Albom
3. ‘The Chronicles of Narnia’, an omnibus of all seven books – unabridged – in one heavy tome, by C. S. Lewis.

Finally, I bought two of the Harry Potter novels by J K Rowling - ‘Goblet of Fire’ and ‘Order of the Phoenix’. Am inspired to read the book after watching all four movies, but thought I’d skip the first 3 books, as it is GOF and OOTP that intrigues me. The author was recently named the ‘TIME for Kids Person of the Year’, so I figured it’s also about time I check out her books. If you’ve already read the books, pay a visit to The Leaky Cauldron for more Harry trivia, discussions and interviews related to the book, the author and the movies. It’s one of the most authoritative fan sites on the series.

Friday the 16th being Jane Austen’s birthday, I dedicated the day to her by starting on her most famous novel — the unabridged Pride and Prejudice.

Ended the evening watching the BBC/A&E production of P&P starring Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle. I should mention that the previous weekend, I took off to the cinema to watch P&P2005, the movie starring KK and MM (as the ladies over at Austen Blog would write). Watching the latter after reading all those reviews I mentioned in my post on the movie, I went in with an open mind and found myself quite enjoying it. Just turn a blind eye to the liberties taken with plot, characterisation and the period costumes and you may do just fine. Although I must say that the last bit where KK and MM shared a kiss at the end is totally the imagination of the director’s, and doesn’t sit well with a lot of Janeites and book purists.

Time magazine did a wonderful comparison in their article on Books vs Movies if you’d like a low-down on other movie adaptations of famous novels now showing.

It took me quite a while but I finally finished reading Jane Austen’s Emmajust before I flew off for that family vacation.

Emma Woodhouse may be witty and imaginative, but she’s spoilt and snobbish to a certain extent, and so wasn’t easy to warm up to. There were quite a number of occasions when I felt like smacking her on the head for being so blind, self-centred and impetuous. I was quite disappointed with her for deliberately hurting the garrulous Miss Bates who, although she really annoys with her endless chatter and appears quite without any opinions of her own, is quite a harmless but kind-hearted spinster, with barbed comments about Bates’ talkativeness in a display of wits. Emma redeemed herself in my eyes when she expressed regrets over that uncalled-for attack and tried to make amends for it.

It wasn’t easy trying to guess Emma’s heart too. She’s so busy trying to match her new-found friend, Harriet Smith, with the available local gentry that she hardly knew what was in her heart. She never stopped to examine her feelings for her dear Mr Knightley until Harriet professed her love and admiration for him. Only then did she realise that she had been in love with him for quite a while and that he was the only man she’d marry.

Barely 3 days after the glorious two-week vacation, first in the gorgeous Gold Coast of Australia, then in idyllic Bintan island, and I’m already suffering from withdrawal symptoms.

Took off with the family on the 29th last month to serene Tangalooma Resort on Moreton Island and beautiful Surfers’ Paradise for a much anticipated holiday. We had a lovely time sand tobogganing and getting close to the marine life before heading back to mainland on the evening of the 1st. Of course, we had to visit Movie World, the kids and the overgrown kid in me wouldn’t miss it for the world!! My daughter went twice on the Scooby Doo Spooky Coaster ride and the boy loved the Road Runner Roller Coaster although he admitted that it was a lil’ scary.