Top Pick!

I was having a grumpy day today--monster headache, house that won't sell, stress on the job, first sighting of a giant, hairy spider inside said house over the weekend, deadline for idiotically proposed freelance article looming. I guess Somebody Up There must've known I needed a boost today, because I got my RT Book Reviews magazine ridiculously early and ... I got a 4 1/2-star Top Pick!

For the uninitiated, RT BookReviews is THE magazine for romance and women's fiction reviews, with a selection of book reviews from other genres like young adult and mainstream suspense/mystery. Some indie bookstores use RT's Top Picks to stock their shelves, but like most review sources, RT's opinions probably mean jack to most readers. That said, 4 1/2 Top Picks are their second-highest rating (beneath the very, VERY rare 5-star review), so it's awfully lovely to get their stamp of approval.

And here I was, holding my breath as I flipped through the magazine and just hoping they hadn't given me a two-star. Heh.

Here's the text:

****1/2 Top Pick! Tracy Montoya presents the perfect blend of romance, horror, and suspense in this tightly plotted, character-driven study of a young woman terrorized by a monster and the cop who vows to protect her. Yoga instructor Addy Torres is being stalked by a man the police thought was dead--the man who murdered her cop fiance' years before and has turned her life into a horrifying online game. [TRACY SAYS: Actually, that's an open question in the book--whether it's really the Surgeon returned from 2004's Maximum Security, or a copycat. But I'm not complaining here.] Detective Daniel Cardenas' protective detail becomes personal when he falls hard for the woman who's still grieving for the man she loved and who's afraid to love again. Don't read I'll Be Watching You after dark.

Whoo-hoo!