Ah ha! Found them. Here are the two covers that Liz Carlyle’s The Devil You Know reminded me of:

Sometime early last month, Fog City Diva and author of In the Thrill of The Night (which is on my ‘To Buy’ list), Candice Hern pondered over historical cover designs and illustrated the evolution of cover designs with many good examples. She also asked …

Do these cover types influence your perception of a book? Do certain covers intrigue you enough to pick up a book even by an unknown author? And how do you feel about the fact that even though we’ve returned to pictures of people, they don’t give you a full image with face etc? What does that say to you, as a reader, about the book?

Heck, I was going to tell all … how the plot in Love Beyond Reason didn’t really impress, and the H/H didn’t get me excited. But when I sat down to post, my mind drew a blank … and this considering that I only just read this book 2 weeks ago!

That’s how deep an impression it left me. Which is not good. If I can’t even remember what the story was about (now that I’ve surfed over to the author’s website for the synopsis, I can recall bits and pieces), it’s a sure sign that the book didn’t score with me.  

I picked up a Sandra Brown because I was searching for a category romance book for September’s TBR challenge … nothing like preparing ahead, heh? She’s highly acclaimed, but somehow LBR failed to produce sparks or even a slight tingle in me. The heroine, (I have to refer to her site for the name) Katherine, didn’t live up to her initial tough fighter image.

I’m very happy that I managed to stick to my plans for the challenge this month. Lucky me got to read Empress Orchid by Anchee Min …. AND The Devil You Know by Liz Carlyle.  

So, without further ado, here are the reviews:

Title: Empress Orchid

Author: Anchee Min

Year published: First published in 2004, the paperback edition I read was published in 2005

Why did you get this book?
A friend from work passed me this book last year as she knew I love reading.

Do you like the cover?
The red cover design is rather striking. It features a Chinese face with the head-dress of a Qing dynasty royal, such that I’m instantly clued in as to which historical figure the story is about. There are only two prominent empresses in China’s history, so it wasn’t difficult to guess who this story is based on.

Saw this on Cindy’s and Nicole’s blogs and thought it looks fun, and decided to give it a crack. And what do you know? This is the very humble result:

My blog is worth $1,693.62.
How much is your blog worth?

Hmmm, wonder if there’s another way of measuring the camarederie and friendship I’ve gained. It would say:

Frienship and Goodwill (or something else catchy like Blog Clout, maybe?): Priceless
(shamelessly borrowing MasterCard’s tagline)

Edited: Or should it be a figure with many zeros?

Now, that would be something worth treasuring.

Ok, I’ve got to face it. I’m a glutton when it comes to books.

How else would you explain the Borders shopping spree I just went on this evening? And this was right after splurging more than $150 last weekend on CDs, videos and … you’ve guessed it … Books!

I really should have gotten a grip on my spending this month, but I simply couldn’t resist picking up these goodies:

Kiss Me Annabel by Eloisa James
50 Harbor Street by Debbie Macomber
The Barefoot Princess by Christina Dodd
One Little Sin and
Two Little Lies by Liz Carlyle
Sex, Lies and Online Dating by Rachel Gibson
Blow Me Down by Katie MacAlister (visit her blog too!)
Heiress for Hire by Erin McCarthy
Reckless by Amanda Quick
and (drum roll please …)
DREAMING OF YOU by Lisa Kleypas!!

I’ve brought my Harry Potter collection up todate. But as to when I’ll get round to reading all these books … I’m hoping it’ll be soon. Because I’ve got about 35 books in my TBR pile and I still haven’t got any books for May’s and November’s challenge.

Someone please lock up my cards and chain me to my room, at least until the end of the month!!!

Amanda’s comments on my last post: 

I used to adore the older Julie Garwoods, but recently I’ve reread a few & discovered they aren’t as fantastic as I thought they were. Perhaps I’ve evolved?

got me thinking … have I evolved, as a reader, over the years? Have my reading habits really altered? What has happened to make me change my mind about an old favourite?

Taking a page off Cindy, I cast my memory back to my childhood. Back then, I lived in a world of knights, fairies, pixies and magic. It was Greek myths, Enid Blyton and lots of fairy tales for me. Then I progress on to Marion Zimmer Bradley and sci-fi/ fantasy, mysteries and medical thrillers in my teens. My first brush with romance came in the form of a (I think it was called) Sweet Sixteen book during my mid-teens. Naturally, it didn’t leave that much of an impression (I couldn’t even remember its title, let alone the author!) because I went right back to my Robin Cook and MZB.