The Navy has a recommended reading list. Well, the military in general has recommended reading lists and I imagine they are all, pretty much, the same thing. I just never paid attention to what the Army was recommending to its peeps. A few times during my Navy career I thought about tackling the entire list but I just can’t get my head around reading a book just because it is on someone’s list. Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card is part of the Navy’s Junior Enlisted Collection.

The last couple of years of my career, as my duties were dwindling and I often found myself bored at work, I would wonder to the reading list bookshelf and poke at the books. Almost every time I would pick up Ender’s Game, think that the covers cool, read the back, and immediately put it back on the shelf. I just wasn’t interested. Until complete boredom got me one day and I flipped to the first page and started reading. That was almost two years ago. That’s how riveting I found this book. I would read it for a while, put it down for 50 books or so, read some more, read other books for a year. Whatever. This year I decided that I have far too many unfinished books sitting around and I really need to clear out the “currently reading” shelf.

I understand why the military wants there peeps to read this book. It is knee deep in strategy. Actually, I think I found myself drowning in it. Also, it showcases why it is sometimes best to lie to your people about what the hell is going on. Oh, and kids will do anything if you tell them it’s a game.

Something happened while I was reading this book that really bugs me. I use Goodreads and my book updates post to my personal Facebook account. As I got within 100 pages of finishing, someone commented that Ender’s Game is a really great book and that I would love it. They didn’t notice that it was taking me almost two years to read the damn thing. I had to contain myself from calling my friend names and simply respond with a “not so much.” I’m cool with people telling me that they loved a book but don’t try to tell me how I’m going to feel about a book. Obviously, I don’t love a book that is taking 2 years to read.

I didn’t hate it. Really. I just couldn’t get my head around a 10-year-old being The One to save The World but then they tricked him to do it. I’d like to say that I’m tired of the storyline of The Only One that can do whatever but this book might have been the start of all that. At least, it’s been around much longer than the current trend in YA fiction. Is this YA fiction? I’ve seen it lately on some YA fiction lists and I find that amusing since it’s also on military recommended reading list. That makes me wonder which rank collection The Hunger Games is on.

Every year I try to tackle a romance novel. Mostly just to say that, yes, I’ve read a few and, yes, I don’t like them. I’ve never come across one that I liked. Notice I said I try to read one. Since I don’t like them, I hate trying to pick one out. Sometimes, I forget and just get busy reading other things. I didn’t have that problem this year as I accidentally won six of them early in 2014, so I’m set for a few years.

This year I had no problem picking. I just closed my eyes and grabbed one off the shelf. When I opened my eyes, I found myself holding Season for Scandal by Theresa Romain, which, according to Goodreads, is part of a series. Great.

Anyway, Jane Tindall is a woman that wants her freedom. The story is set sometime in the 1800s so it’s not likely she’ll get much freedom. Currently, she is under the protection of her cousin and she’s pretty good at counting cards. Counting cards doesn’t taken into account others at the table that cheat and because of manners she can’t call him out for it. Enter Edmund Ware, who saves the day and proposes marriage so that Jane can use her dowry to pay back the debt Edmund just agreed to pay. Jane agrees.

Turns out, Jane is secretly in love with Edmund and when she blurts it out during the consummation of the marriage it is not well received. Of course not. And I don’t get the details of why not for another 300 pages. Edmund is entangled in some sort of scandal that, also, takes 300 pages to even explain There is a rouge trying to ruin, well, everyone really, including his own illegitimate family. I’m sure you can guess at how it all ends.

If you like your romance novels on the smutty side, there isn’t much of it here. It does start within 40 pages, then there is another scene over half way through the book. It consists of the standard romance novel dreck. Is romance novel sex even real? Does anyone really have sex like that? Whatever.