I blame it on the illness. There I was, wandering around Wal-mart waiting for my prescription to be filled (yes, it turns out I have strep with a possibility of mono. See, I really AM sick not just malingering. Ha.) I was feeling pretty tired and more than a little sick and I found myself in the book aisle. The Wal-mart I was at has a lame book aisle. So I found myself standing in front of the category romances. I can tell you exactly how my fever-clouded brain decided it would be a good idea to buy some category romances. The conversation went something like this:

Me: I don’t normally read category romances.

Fever: But you haven’t read anything while you’ve been sick.

Me: So I should buy a category romance instead of trying to read one of the 3 million books on my TBR shelf?

Fever: Stop exaggerating. Besides, you’ve looked at those books 20 times a day since you’ve gotten sick and none of them have captured your interest.

Me: Now who’s exagerrating? Fine. Category romance. What should I buy?

Fever: That author from that WriteMinded blog has a book out this month, doesn’t she? She was talking about her booksigning on the blog yesterday.

Me: Oh yeah! Amy…Amy…uh…Amy. It’s a SuperRomance I think. *scanning shelves* There it is!** Oh, the heroine is pregnant. Nope. Can’t do it. No more talk of babies. No more pregnancy. No more no more no more. I’m surrounded. Must. Escape.

Fever: You’re not well.

Me: I KNOW, the doctor said I had strep, remember?

Fever: That’s not…never mind. Hey look, there’s some of those Harlequin Presents books. That’s the same line that Jane Porter book came from. You know, the one you ripped to shreds and then the author read your review. You could give those another chance.

Me: Um…Shieks…Tropical islands…Greek guys…Mistresses…Models…Millionaires. Oh the choices.

Fever: Just choose one, I’m getting tired. I need to sit down.

Me: Okay, okay. Stop being so pushy. Geez, you’d think you were getting a commission off this sale. Wait *suspicious* You haven’t been editing Harlequins on the side have you?

Fever: Clearly I’m clouding your brain and you’re not thinking straight.

Me: Right. Okay, I’ll take this one. Shackled with Diamonds by Julia James. Shieks on a tropical island is just too much of a stretch for me. Even with you clouding my brain. Maybe next time.

Fever: Great. Good. Perfect. One more.

Me: What?! One is fine. I’m going to be all better tomorrow and will need to catch up on editing.

Fever: *snort* Keep your delusions. How about a Blaze? You haven’t read one of them for awhile. You need to keep up with the erotic romance market.

Me: *sullen* Oh fine. Let’s see. Jill Monroe? That name is familiar, do we know her from blogs? Her book looks interesting, a suspense…oh wait! Hey, there’s Tori Carrington. That’s the husband/wife writing team. They brought baklava to Celebrate Romance last year. I love baklava. Oooh look…”have a Cajun-hot love affair”. Sold.

Fever: You’re so easy. You don’t even know what else the book is about. You just saw “Cajun”.

Me: nah nah nah nah I can’t hear you. Are we done?

Fever: For now. But we’ll be back *insert evil laugh*

And that’s my explanation for how I came to own Obsession by Tori Carrington and Shackled in Diamonds by Julia James. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it. Next up: my review of Shackled in Diamonds. I know you can’t wait.

**for those who are wondering, the book I picked up and put aside was Unexpected Complications by Amy Knupp, who blogs on WriteMinded with several other authors. I really wanted to support her and buy the book, but just couldn’t bear the thought of a pregnant heroine, which is no reflection on her story at all, but on my feelings of total inundation of all things baby and pregnancy related.