All About Romance has given Room Service a B+!

Here are a few of the snippets that made me preen:

“I really enjoyed this book; it was fun, had an interesting plot, and featured likable characters. My mouth watered reading about Rhys’ cooking and his food descriptions. Rhys and Olivia were interesting people.”

“This sweet and entertaining novel is lots of fun. I recommend it highly.”

Want to read the whole review? Look here.

One last note: AAR has come under fire in the past for being too brutal. I disagree. One of the reasons I love the site and love their honesty is because books cost money. I don’t want to buy something that’s going to turn out to be a waste of my time *or* my hard-earned dollars.

And in this review, of my book? Every nit they pick is something I can nod at and say, “Yup, I should have done that, I should have developed that plot point or that character.” The AAR reviewers are smart women (and men), and I appreciate their frank reviews, especially when romance is so often accused of being a rainbows and kittens girls club.

Room Service hits stores today (although I hear it was available in some places over the weekend).

Here’s the back cover copy:

WELCOME TO CALLENDER HOUSE

Olivia Callender needs a wake-up call. With a hundred-year-old hotel to rehabilitate, a staff of lovable eccentrics to marshal, and guests to keep happy, she has no one but herself to blame for daydreaming through the past few years–or her uncle’s threat to take over the hotel.

And Rhys Spencer isn’t helping. When the sexy British chef checked in, Olivia’s common sense checked out. She doesn’t have time to let him distract her, even if he is feeding her hottest fantasies. But the heat they create together is too much to resist, and when they spend a luscious night in bed, Olivia truly wakes up for the first time–only to realize just what a mess her beloved hotel is. Throw in a pair of bumbling saboteurs, a cranky ex-ballerina, a gorilla costume, a lovesick writer, and tofurkey for fifty, and Olivia has her work cut out for her. All of which might be easier than convincing a certain brash Brit that he needs to wake up, too–and realize that he’s hungry for her love.

Sound good? You can find the book in stores or online, through Amazon or B&N.com! If you read it and like it, let me know! If you read it and hate it, well…you can let me know that, too, but I won’t be as happy about it.

This looks like fun. I haven’t thought about high school in a while.

Fill this out about your SENIOR year of high school! The longer ago it was, the more fun the answers will be.

1. Who was your best friend?
We were a group — me, C, L, S, D, and M, more or less.

2.What sports did you play?
None. Unless required in that bastion of torture, PE.

3. What kind of car did you drive?
A Pontiac T-1000, a close cousin of the Chevette. Little, silver, manual steering and windows, but it did have a tape deck.

4. It’s Friday night, where were you?
Either hanging at someone’s house, drinking beer and smoking, or at a movie, or possibly at work.

5. Were you a party animal?:
We weren’t a “party” crowd in the usual sense of the word — usually, if someone’s parents were going to be out, it was the six of us mentioned above, plus boyfriends and a few other friends. Same group, more or less, with beer and cigarettes and music, and very little drama.

6. Were you considered a flirt?
Not really. I had two long-term boyfriends, so except for a period in between them I was attached to someone.

7. Were you in band, orchestra, or choir?
Not after ninth grade.

8. Were you a nerd?
Hard to say. I was on the paper, and a good student, in terms of grades, but I cut as often as I could get away with, which was a lot since my teachers all thought I was an angel, and the crowd I ran with drank and smoked and had sex (not all at the same time. Usually.).

9. Did you get suspended/expelled?
Nope.

10. Can you sing the fight song?
I don’t know if we had one. I’m sure we did, but I couldn’t tell you what it is.

11. Who was your favorite teacher?
Paula Roy, AP English.

12.What was your school’s full name?
Westfield Senior High School

13. School mascot?
Blue devil.

14. Did you go to prom?
Yup. We spent the day preparing by sitting on L’s deck, mourning the fact that Bruce Springsteen had gotten married (the first time) that week, and making strawberry dacquiris.

15. If you could go back and do it over, would you?
Maybe not by choice, but if I had to, I would. I enjoyed senior year, and actually most of high school.

16. What do you remember most about graduation?
That it rained that morning, which meant the ceremony would be held across the street in the (damp, humid, gray) armory.

17. Where were you on senior skip day?
My friends and I had so many unofficial skip days (we considered the fourth marking period a four-day-week thing), we were probably in class that day.

18. Did you have a job your senior year?
An outside job? Yup. I worked at the mall in Short Hills, in the juniors department of Bloomingdale’s.

19. Where did you go most often for lunch?
There was a place a few blocks away called Roots, a true corner coffee shop place, that made the best Taylor ham and cheese sandwiches. We were there a lot, or outside in the smoking section (which is long gone now). After I met Stephen in late December, I was at his house a lot at lunchtime — he went to the community college and his parents both worked at the time. Good times.

20. Have you gained weight since then?
Uh, yeah.

21. What did you do after graduation?
We party-hopped a little bit, and ended up at L’s boyfriend’s house — his parents owned a restaurant in town so they were always out late on weekend nights. (We spent many a night there.) I cried (shocker) and a few days later the six of us mentioned above left for a week at the beach together, crammed into a tiny little two-bedroom upstairs place just a block from the beach.

22. When did you graduate?
1985.

23. Who was your senior prom date?
Stephen! We didn’t stay long, though.

24. Are you going to your ten-year reunion?
I went. It sort of sucked. Stephen had pneumonia and couldn’t go with me, but almost all six of us went together. A lot of people stayed in Westfield or the area after college, so it wasn’t much of a revelation — a lot of people I bumped into on a regular basis.

25. Who was your home room teacher?
Walter Jackson, RIP, who was the journalism teacher. Once you were on the paper, that was your homeroom for the rest of high school (unless you quit the paper, obviously).