Book Haul! Austen, Dumas, Meyer and more

Yesterday was my library's once-monthly used media sale, which I attend a few times a year (at one time, with my grandma, although she's stopped reading due to health problems - that is, until she indulges herself in an e-reader. I hope she'll do so for her birthday, coming up this weekend. 

But I digress. 

My Haul:

The Books:

1.The Host by Stephenie Meyer. I haven't read it yet. It's the only novel by Stephenie Meyer that I haven't read. Perhaps I'll get to it by the time the movie comes out on DVD and I rent it on Netflix. I understand it's something about aliens. 

2. The unauthorized Twilight companion by Lois H. Gresh, who also wrote The Truth Behind 'A Series of Unfortunate Events'. I wasn't terribly impressed with her SOUE book, but I was willing to give the Twilight one a chance for 25 cents. 

3. An unabridged The Count of Monte Cristo. It's a little rumpled, but at least this time I won't miss out on the lesbian elopement. (I promise I'll never read an abridged classic again. I didn't even do it on purpose this time.) 

4. Darkest Highlander by Donna Grant. Granted, it's the 6th book in the series, I only own 1-3 and I've only read 1 (Dangerous Highlander; review here), but I'll still have a head start when I someday eventually finish the Dark Sword series.  

5. Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey. I've never read it before. I do think that when I took the "Which Jane Austen Character Are You?" quiz, I got Catherine Morland. I did suggest the other day that Joseph Gordon-Levitt should star in a period-piece adaptation by a beloved female author - as Christian Bale did in Little Women and Tom Hardy did in Wuthering Heights - and could play Henry Tilney. 

(That Tom Hardy is an unlikely choice for Heathcliff will be a rant for another day.) 

The Movies: 

1. The Hunger Games. I saw it twice, but I didn't own it until now. 

2. Becoming Jane. I haven't seen it, but Anne Hathaway as a young Jane Austen - how bad could that be? It also has James MacAvoy (Mr. Tumnus the faun), Julie Walters (Molly Weasley) and Maggie Smith (Minerva McGonagal). 

3. The Orlando Bloom Three Musketeers. I haven't seen this one either. To be honest, I don't have very high hopes for it - the previews looked like more special effects than story - but it's a Dumas adaptation and it's been ages since we had a big Hollywood Musketeers movie. (Coincidentally enough, the last one was in 1993, the year I wrote about in yesterday's music post. If we count The Man in the Iron Mask, which came out in 1998, it's still been 15 years.) 

4. Best of all, A Midsummer Night's Dream (1999), with Christian Bale, Stanley Tucci, Rupert Everett and Michelle Pfeiffer, among many other stars. I've seen this one literally dozens of times, starting when it came out in theaters. It's hard to believe I didn't own it, but I didn't until now. 

Mmm, Demetrius No-Pants. http://pinterest.com/pin/46936021088470209/

5 out of 5 stars for Donna Grant's Cross-Genre Romance

I recently finished Dangerous Highlander by Donna Grant, the first novel in her Dark Sword series. The book was published in paperback by St. Martin's Press in 2010.

I don't usually give five stars to romance novels (though I am a big fan of them), but this one earned my respect early on. By chapter three I was completely hooked on this series. The three MacLeod brothers--eldest Fallon, middle brother Lucan, and youngest Quinn--are simply irresistible.

It's not just that they're gorgeous Scottish Highlanders, either. Thanks to the workings of ancient Druid magic, originally used to fend off the Romans, the three brothers share an ancient god trapped inside them. A madwoman seeks to capture them because of this, and because of their secret, their clan was slaughtered. For three hundred years, the immortal brothers lived alone in the ruins of their castle with only their vengeful god for company. When an innocent young nun-in-training, Cara, ventures near their forbidden hold, she senses there's something magical about the place, but she never expects to fall in love with one of the brothers. This book was the perfect blend of romance and sword and sorcery, with moments of action but also a great heart, great chemistry, and an unforgettable band of brothers.

I took Donna Grant's Dark Sword quiz on FaceBook, and the quiz suggested "my" brother is Fallon. Okay, so Fallon does slightly resemble my husband, but so far I think I like Quinn a little better. I won't really know until I get my hands on the next book in the series, Forbidden Highlander. I plan to do that on my next trip to the bookstore.