Grace's Mosaic Moments: Women's Fiction Update + Travel Pics

MORE ON WOMEN'S FICTION

By complete coincidence, over the last few days I read Nora Robert's latest, Come Sundown. Ordinarily, I absolutely refuse to pay $13 for an e-book, but I was taking a 3-day vacation on the Gulf and decided to treat myself. To my total surprise, the book was the absolute epitome of "Mainstream with Central Romance." And even more surprisingly, it leaned more toward Women's Fiction than any other book I've read by Nora Roberts. Four generations of women, a lot of female talk (a bit more than I actually like, but the females were all smart, competent, and independent. No whining or long-suffering). And the Central Romance was there, right from the git-go, with a strong male hero who got his own Point of View throughout. Also,the heroine's two brothers and a father played strong roles, though without their own POV. And the villain was what might be called overly male and highly menacing. So if you want to read a really good example of Mainstream with Central Romance, Come Sundown is the book for you.

One of my favorite moments in Come Sundown:

The 90-year-old great-grandmother in the family appears wearing a shirt which reads:

WOMEN BELONG IN THE HOUSE

AND THE SENATE

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I lived 25 years in the small city of Venice, Florida, on the Gulf of Mexico. My children were in their early teens when we moved there. It is one of the truly great places to live. Venice stretches across a ten-mile-wide band of civilization that ranges from the Gulf of Mexico to the Myakka River. Beyond the river there is nothing but wilderness (jungle, swamp, and cattle country).

My daughter and I try to indulge our nostalgia for Venice once or twice a year. But never at the height of either winter or summer seasons, as the hotel and motel prices are astronomical. This year, however, Susie found a boutique motel that had just been remodeled - everything new but the basic walls and even those had been painted various shades of pastel! Directly on the beach for an affordable price. Wow! I wish I could claim the photos below, but my phone balked, claiming a full memory and refusing to give up the pics I took. So all photos below are Susie's.

Ah, before I forget . . . here's a list of my books set in the town of "Golden Beach," aka, Venice, Florida. Several feature the jungle area along the Myakka River, one of my most favorite places in all the world. (On this trip I noted with interest that the towering chain link fence mentioned in Paradise Burning has been replaced with a less intimidating 6' fence (though still topped with barbed wire), and the gate to the compound was actually open. Yes, that compound described was real, if not for the purpose I used it!)

Shadowed Paradise

Paradise Burning

Orange Blossoms & Mayhem

Death by Marriage

Florida Knight

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