Once Upon a Marigold...cute!

Read this book for the 2nd time as I prepare for book club. The story is a unique fairytale complete with an unhappy princess, a runaway boy, a cave troll, 5 crazy dogs, a mean queen, a confused king, p-mail and much more. My favorite part of the book is Ed the trolls misuse of idioms. Also, I feel like the book would make a great movie!!!

What an exciting day... thanks to L.A. Meyer!

This is an exciting day because I just finished the 8th book in the Bloody Jack series called The Wake of the Lorelei Lee. At 552 pages, this book was as thrilling as I've come to expect! It was full of twists and turns, but Jacky Faber is as endearing as ever. This book finds Jacky Faber back in action, and with the gold that she, uh, lets say, misplaced and later found during the salvage of the Santa Magdalena, she’s bought herself a new ship, the Lorelei Lee, and is headed for London, where her beloved Jaimy is waiting. Unfortunately, a nasty plot unfolds by some old enemies (Flashby & Bliffel), and no sooner does she arrive in England than she is tried for treason (all that misplaced gold) and sentenced to be transported for life to the penal colony of Australia. And to make matters worse, the Crown has confiscated the Lorelei Lee, and Jacky will be traveling halfway around the world on her very own ship – but as a convict, rather than the captain. As usual, the infamous Jacky Faber is not beaten for long and finds herself happy go lucky in no time at all. In this installment Jacky is a prisoner, a laundress, a scantily dressed coin diver and a wife!!! She rides an elephant, "adopts" a little boy named "Ravi", becomes a famous Chinese female pirate's pet, get another tattoo and inherits a China man called Chi Chi. Yes, Mary Jacky Faber is a very busy 16 year-old-girl! SO, did I like this book? YES, I loved it. I find Jacky entertaining, enthusiastic, altruistic and tad bit confusing at times. I love her zest for life, and I'm sure I could take a few lessons from her in terms of making the best of what life throws you!

I told you this was an exiting day, but it gets even better! About 3 weeks ago I wrote to Mr. L.A. Meyer. I told him about my book club parties and told him how much I admired Jacky Faber. I was so surprised today when UPS delivered a large envelope from L.A. Meyer himself. Inside was a hand written letter, a signed photograph and a print by none other than the artist / author himself. It is so nice that Mr. Meyer took time to write a fan... ME! It got me wondering if I might have any luck at all writing the other authors of the book club books, so that's exactly what I'm going to do! I'll keep you posted. Ahhh, and guess what Mr. Meyer tells me??? Bloody Jack's book #9 is coming in September... "The Mark of the Golden Dragon" --- I'm so excited!

One last note... Although I love Mr. Meyer and his books, I was disappointed in the last 3 books at his introduction to what I consider the ultimate in curse words. I don't know why authors of young adult books insist on taking a perfectly wonderful book and making it flawed with the use of totally unnecessary profanity! I'm hoping Mr. Meyer took my corrective criticism to heart and leaves this word out of his 9th book!