The good, the bad, and the beautiful

Read & finished two more Merrily Watkins books over last week & weekend (and this week, finished the second of the two on the #1 bus this morning); I don't know why I keep reading them, exactly.  They're not terribly well written, and, beyond the basic premise, not all that original.  But I've grown fond of the characters, I guess, and they're easy to read without being too easy.  Plus, I was kind of dreading Sunday (helping my mother move out of our family home and into a new place is not exactly the weekend you dream of - and I HATE getting up before 10 on the weekend!), and they were a good distraction. 
A Crown of Lights (which I think is #3 in the series?) was really kind of silly, with a Wicca theme, but it was okay.  Some decent characters, and it does a good job of dealing with the increasing public-ness of Merrily's job.  I think the setting probably could have been played up more, and the local/cultural history, which is clearly important, but not explored as much as I would have liked.  One of the strengths of the series is the settings, so it would be nice to see more of that.  Maybe a little less of Jane, too; she is getting a little annoying, although as soon as I realized the whole white witchery crap was coming, I knew she'd be getting on my nerves.







I enjoyed The Cure of Souls - which dealt with the Roma and hop farming, among other things - more.  Lol comes into his own a bit more, which is a relief, although there's virtually no Gomer, after his being a rather important character in Crown of Lights, and that's a disappointment!  Less Jane was what I was hoping for after the last book, though, and in that, Rickman came through for me.  She figures into the plot, certainly, but it's a less prominent role than in other books, and it's a much less annoying role, thank goodness. 

I had actually started The Long Song after I finished Crown of Lights, but then picked up Cure of Souls, because it was just better suited for my mood on Saturday, and I'm glad I did.  I am eager to get back to Long Song at some point in the near future, maybe tonight, but it just wasn't what I needed to be reading then.  Funny, yes, but more serious and I was down enough to not want to deal with that - thinking, no, escapism, yes.

Was still feeling like hell Sunday night, when I unloaded on poor R when we talked on the phone, and on Monday morning...until the most gorgeous bouquet arrived from Twig, with the most perfect, simple & sweet note from R!!!  I went from being on the verge of tears Sunday night because I was sad, and scared, and stressed, to being all choked up on Monday again, but because I have such an amazing best friend, and I am so grateful to have her love and support and joyful presence in my life.  I put them right on my desk and they looked - and smelled! - absolutely beautiful...and everyone who saw them asked, and agreed that I have the greatest BFF ever :)
Of course, carrying home a vase of flowers made my grocery shopping a little harder (trying to balance the flowers in one hand while I got all the stuff out of my basket and onto the checkout conveyor belt was a challenge), but I managed it - AND then stopped off at cmark on the way home, where yet more people were awed by the lovely flowers.