looking for something to read

Hello, my long-neglected readers. Believe me, I wish I'd had something to write about over the past few months, but I haven't read a good romance novel in months. Months, I tell you. I'm open to suggestions.

I've tried about a dozen recently and not managed to finish any of them. I was driven back to Nora Roberts, which I know makes me sound like an addict, but there it is. I read Whiskey Beach, Midnight Bayou, the aforementioned Circle trilogy, the Sign of Seven trilogy, and the first two of the Cousin O'Dwyer series. They were good enough to read to the end, but I wouldn't recommend any of them (and I can't believe I said that her heroes seemed realistic to me. Oh. my. God. There are no men like that in the universe.) Since I seem to prefer her standalones to the endless trilogies, I had high hopes when I found one from 2000 that I hadn't read-- The Villa, which I read over this past weekend. It had some good moments, but it degenerated into nonsense by the end. Dangit. 

Can I just say for the record that I would pay triple price (and since Nora's books are always sold at a premium, that is quite a bit of money), if she would write a trilogy where just one of the characters said, hell, no, I'm not playing this your way. I'm doing it my way. I really wanted the woman in Key of Valor to do that, but they always just nod their head and go along with whatever they're told to do. I wonder if Nora even remembers what it's like to be rebellious. Maybe she never was.

Anyway. Moving on.

Here are two items to add to the gaffes/mistakes/errors list:

In Lost Lake by Sarah Addison Allen (which was actually not bad but it isn't really a romance novel), there is a "toe-headed" child. *snort* Although I confess I just googled this, and apparently this is one of those errors (it should be "tow-headed") that has become so common that it now pops up that way when you search for it.

In The Villa, the Italian grandmother calls together a meeting of her family and recites their history: "Villa Giambelli has been making wine in the Napa Valley for sixty-four years. MacMillan has been doing so for ninety-two. That is two hundred and fifty six years combined." Really? I mean, I know word people are not supposed to be good at numbers (and vice versa), but that's just basic addition. It didn't occur to anybody that read this pre-publication that they were off by a hundred years?

And twice in the past week I've seen "per se" spelled wrong. Of course, that was in blog posts and not published novels, but still. Look things up, people. Seriously.

And that's all for me. I'm really hoping somebody has a recommendation because I have several plane trips coming up, and nothing makes a plane trip go by quickly like a good romance novel.