A rainy gloomy day in St. Thomas - yahoo!! Maybe I can take a shower and get all the conditioner out of my hair for a change. Right now we are doing "boat showers" and taking in the laundry to be done due to the cistern going dry and having water trucked in. So when it poured down rain this a.m. I lay in bed relishing the sound of it. Especially after the power went out, but the wonderful sound of rain was disturbed by "BEEP!! BEEP!! - the surge protector box. I rolled over, "knowing" Steve would shut down the computer and turn off the beeping. BEEP!! BEEP!! BEEP, BEEP, BEEP!!! and then @$^%*&^^^^###!!!! from me as I came out of the bedroom to find Steve sitting out on the porch with a diet coke and the cat in his lap, saying he hadn't heard the beeping. Innocently he asked me if the power went out. ARGHH!! I went back to bed - no point in staying up, too dark and gloomy to read. But, when I got up later Steve was gone so I curled up and read. When he got home later he quietly came in and said he brought me a "peace offering" to improve my morning mood - a sticky bun from Frank's bakery. Oh my! It was huge and I haven't eaten one of these since my kids were little. I had to have it with a cup of tea. I savored every sugary gooey bite even though I knew my fat cells were expanding with every bite. Oh well - I'm too old for a bikini anyway. :-)

My a.m. reading was Magic in the Wind by Christine Feehan. I am hooked on her paranormal romances about the seven Drake sisters. This slim volume is about Sarah, the eldest sister, and the beginning of the prophecy as the gate open to Damon, the death pursued government/defense system think tank scientist who has retreated to her small coastal town to get away from people. Neither one of them expected to fall in love, but the Drake magic didn't give them much option. Unbeknownst to him, Sarah has returned home to protect Damon from mercenaries out to kidnap him again and further torture him for the information they want. What a great beach read, but be very careful about giving this one to teens. The sex scenes are very erotic - no vulgar terms, but Feehan can set the pages on fire!

On the YA front I loved Sharon M Draper's latest, Copper Sun. I have liked, if not loved, all of her books and was very glad to see the Hazelwood High trilogy back in print. My copy of Tears of a Tiger has seen better days. The cover art for Copper Sun is stunning with the shades of orange (setting sun) background with the silhouette of Amari, the 15-year-old African who is stolen from her village and finds herself a slave on a plantation in the Carolinas. She is a gift to a sadistic spoiled 16 year old plantation owner's son. I found myself gasping at the viciousness of the slave traders and the plantation owner and his son. Clay, the son, uses the cook's 4 year old as gator bait - tying Tidbit with a rope and throwing him into the river to lure the gators so he and his buddies can shoot them. Draper slowly builds a solid friendship between the indentured teen, Polly, and Amari as they work for Teenie, the cook. This is essential as they must keep each other alive when they escape, headed South to freedom, instead of North. The extent of Draper's research, and her own personal interest in the slave trade as the granddaughter of a slave herself, are evident in the depth of historical information that is deftly woven in this heart breaking story. Historical fiction is a hard sell with many teens, but booktalking this one will keep it on the reserve list in your library for many months. Amari and Polly are teenage girls, best friends in the worst of circumstances, who today's teens will want to read about.

Enough for today. I need to go break down the boxes I am collecting for the move to North Carolina so I can get the second bedroom ready for Annika and Nicke. My foreign exchange daughter from close to 20 years ago is coming from Finland to be married down here. I wonder if she will recognize me at the airport?