Stuart Weitzman "Zwick" in carrot-glazed croc and Blowfish "Seize" in red patent

plebefic headers: However, Pi did not mention that this acquaintance is in a box?!

1. Summary: Jin heard from Ryo that he's dating Tatsuya and they like to have matching clothes... or did he?



2. "Gerard never told anyone. He would maybe silently admit that he enjoyed listening to t.A.T.u.; but he never spoke about his deepest and darkest guilty pleasure -"



3. Summary: It’s just the two of them, and the purple...



4. Summary: Gerard has always thought of his necromancy abilities as a curse, and for years he’s had nothing to do with them. That changed however, after his brother was violently murdered a year ago. Now, Gerard has to convince a witch named Frank to help him find the killer, and save his brother’s soul.



5. Summary:Top model, Akanishi Jin, is not your typical celebrity; he is a loner despite his popularity. His manager, YamaPi, wants him to go out to have some fun, but Jin refuses every time. To make the top model gets rid of his loneliness, YamaPi decides to find Jin an acquaintance. However, Pi did not mention that this acquaintance is in a box?!

Georgette Heyer - The Toll Gate

I was thinking I had quite a few more Heyers to collect, but when I ordered this last one and went through the list of reprints on the inside front cover, I discovered that the several rare ones I was thinking of haven't been reprinted, and most of the others are (a) ~historical novelizations~ (like The Royal Escape and Simon the Coldheart) instead of historical romances, (b) largely concerned with the Napoleonic wars, like False Colours An Infamous Army (and there's no way I'm reading that), or (c) about Spanish brides (a subgenre to which I have an incredibly strong aversion so I won't be buying those either). So in fact, the only books remaining to buy are:

• Powder and Patch (one of the Georgian ones, which I generally like less, but I will be buying it);


• These Old Shades (I remember it well and don't like it, so I'll be delaying that a bit);


• Pistols for Two (short stories, so I can take it or leave it); and


• The Grand Sophy (I have a very amusing-looking and semi-battered 1984 US edition, but as my wife agrees that its non-matchiness is an eyesore I'll be getting the new one anyway.)
  
  

I did notice that I failed to post reviews of some of the novels as I read them, though, which caused a lot of trouble for me before Yuletide when I was trying to untangle in my brain which one was which - the result of all this being that it took me about 10 skimming rereads and nearly a week to pick Felix Hethersett from April Lady as the other half of my pairing. My poor memory. :(

Anyway, back to The Toll Gate. The male protagonist, an ex-Army younger son full of heroism, thrill-seeking and whimsy, is the almost-exclusive POV character in a mystery plot that in fact falls short of the rollicking adventure to be found in many of her road trip novels (like Charity Girl or The Foundling). The romance subplot doesn't present much of a conflict, if any, although the emotional reality of the scenes between the hero and heroine is probably the firmest point of the book, and in itself well worth reading. ( But back to the mystery - and the ending... )

recipe rec

This "Curried Lentil 'Risotto'" is incredibly, incredibly DELICIOUS and easy to make, albeit rather time-consuming, and cheap (apparently she calls it a 'risotto', quotation marks original, simply because a lot of water is slowly cooked into it, but since that quality is hardly unique to risottos, and risottos are known for containing rice which this, being a lentil-only dish, does not, it seems odd to me). I mean, you can look at the recipe yourself, but you basically roast some dried lentils and then dump in a bunch of spices and some water and stand there stirring them for like half an hour. I didn't time it exactly.