Let's Talk Obssession

one amazing book, one incendiary comment, anddd book news!

Apr 08, 2025

Hi, hello, hey!

It’s April here (perhaps for you, too?) and it’s coming in with Big Spring energy, jumping out of bed in thick socks and layers then kicking down the door with a spritz of sunscreen and flip-flops.

And I’m here for it. Gentle chaos sounds manageable, if we can just keep the intense pollen/germs and sickness/natural disaster to a dull roar.

I’m in the middle of a book called Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism and I’m only mentioning it because I’m consumed. It’s consuming. Consumptive? Something intense and I can’t be bothered to find the right words because Ihavetogetbacktomybook.

There’s some, er, drama around this book and I won’t dig into that here, but it’s worth a little internet search if you haven’t heard about it, have a few minutes to fritter away, and love some intense memoir-adjacent turmoil.

Which I do.

(sidenote: if you’re pregnant, just had a baby, or are tender around the subject of childbirth there is an intense post-labor story mid-book, so maybe skip it now and circle back when your kids are all safely ensconced in kindergarten.)

That Incendiary Comment

When I say I have loved The Princess Bride all my life, that’s not much of an exaggeration. It released in fall of 1987 and it used to take movies about a year to go to VHS. (Remember VHS??) Applying some deductive reasoning, I would have seen this movie probably in late 1988 and or early 1989. I can recall sitting in front of the television, in our cute little condo, glued to the screen.

A few years later, I got the book The Princess Bride and, to my surprise, I loved it as much as the movie. It was close to the movie, but with a real mind twist of storytelling and I ate it up with a spoon. That tattered mass market paperback still sits on my bookshelves today.

It’s a movie I quote almost daily, even just to myself. It’s an immediate icebreaker: Have you seen The Princess Bride? And the two answers are either “no” or “my name is Inigo Montoyo….” It’s a culture in its own right.

And then, casually, a friend mentioned, she doesn’t like The Princess Bride. Nope, what she said is, she hates it.

Honestly, I’m not sure how to bounce back.

For the last few decades, I believed a universally acknowledged truth is everyone who’s seen The Princess Bride loves The Princess Bride. But after my friend so casually shared her deep dislike over a Zoom chat, I was shook. SHOOK.

So, before I start composing strongly worded letters to this darling (truly), let me ask you:

And, as Count Rugen says, “this is for posterity, so be honest — how do you feel?”

Because what I want to remember here is, not everyone loves the same thing. It’s easy to forget that, isn’t it? If something is good to us, everyone else must find it good as well!

As someone who creates stories and puts them into the world, a moment like this with my beloved TPB, is the best reminder, we don’t all love the same entertainment and that’s OK. The art’s not bad, it’s the person who’s bad…no, no, just kidding.

The art’s not bad, it’s just not for that person. That’s the morality in this tale for me.

BOOK NEWS

Book 4 now sits in the hands of a few precious beta readers and I’m…relieved. It’s a respite, having my book away, with some kind-hearted individuals, ready to read through my still messy manuscript and answer my questionnaire. I’m eagerly anticipating their feedback and seeing how this book plays out to them. I’m too close to it to have any perspective.

me desperate for beta readers to hustle up and read faster

The book itself is coming together, the cover is in the works, manuscript being read, and I think I’ll be announcing a publication date…quite soon.

In the meantime, here’s a teaser for my two beloved leads in this book:

Could I introduce you to…

Indy Bird Sullivan and Cillian “Sully” Sullivan, the second chance romance, enemies to lovers leads in my new book, The One You Fall For. I get a little swoony typing that out. I might be too close to the book, but if I am it’s only because I love it too much.

I can’t wait to talk more about this book. The blurb, the cover, the characters, they’re so sparkly with a dose of saltiness and heartfelt and funny and I love them!

That’s a Wrap

You can always grab a light-hearted, heartfelt romance with any of my three books in my Kissing Series.

And, if you’re a Pinterest buff come follow me there. Click here or the pretty graphic below that I made myself, thankyousomuch.

Stay safe in these wild, spring days. Any Princess Bride thoughts are welcome in the comments as long as they’re positive. As always, I’m so thankful you’re here and if I could send Wesley the farm-boy into your home to fetch you that pitcher, you better believe I would.