Just a post to let you all know that I won't be around the coming two weeks due to a long awaited vacation to Cape Verde. The Islands where my parents were born and grew up. They came to the Netherlands in their early twenties. And their courtship and marriage was one that belongs in a romance novel, but that's for another time because I want to keep this about the vacation.


I was born in the Netherlands but my roots lie on the Cape Verde Islands as both my parents are from there. I have been there a few times, both as a child and as an adult but the last time I went there was 10 years ago. I met my hubby 9 years ago so he's never been there and this vacation is his first encounter with my roots, which both he and I are very much looking forward to. We will be going to 4 of the 9 islands: Boa Vista, S. Vicente, Sto Antao and S. Tiago. And on S. Vicente we will celebrate my mom's 60th birthday, which she wanted to celebrate in her home country.




We'll start and end our trip on Boa Vista in a wonderful hotel hubby found and negotiated a sweet deal for. Below are some pics of it. Can you see me lying in one of the beach chairs, sipping on a cocktail? I can!















The fact that I'm away on vacation doesn't mean the blog won't be updated. I won't participate in the IMM and OMW memes these two weeks but I do have a few nice posts scheduled for your enjoyment:

I start with a ROOB-review on February 4th: TAMING THE BEAST by Heather Grothaus
On February 7th you can read my ARC-review of CROSSROADS by Moira Rogers
On February 12th there will be a reading round-up of 2009 post. A bit belated but better late than never, right?
On February 15th there will be another ROOB-review: THE VIKING'S CAPTIVE PRINCESS by Michelle Styles

And on February 17th I'll be back and ready to catch up on all you have been doing while I was slacking away on vacation.


Well after much debate, picking books, putting them back on the shelves, picking others, putting those back and getting the first again....and after many repeats of this cycle I have the following print books packed to take with me:

• FRAGILE by Shiloh Walker 
• COMING UNDONE by Lauren Dane 

(I wanted to have read these two books before my vacation but didn't have the time to finish them, so I hope to finish them on during the flight)

• BROKEN by Shiloh Walker (a bit of ARC reading on vacation)
• TAKING CARE OF BUSINESS and NO RESERVATIONS by Megan Hart and Lauren Dane
• REESE'S BRIDE by Kat Martin
• SPANISH MAGNATE, RED-HOT REVENGE by Lynn Raye Harris
• SHAKEN AND STIRRED by Kathleen O'Reilly
• PRIME TIME by Hank Phillippi Ryan
• FEEL THE HEAT by Cindy Gerard
• ORIGINAL SIN by Allison Brennan
• MARK OF THE DEMON by Diana Rowland
• PLEASURE UNBOUND by Larissa Ione

So that is 13 books for a 2-week vacation. Want to start placing bets on how many I will have finished by the end of the vacation? Be my guest, I couldn't even dare to tell you. I do know I read a lot more when on vacation than when I'm at home and two 6 hours flights will definitely put a dent in this pile of books. And for the unfortunate event that I might not be in the mood to read these books I'm taking with me I have a spare pile too: a digital one on the iPhone, among those are:

A very special beta-read which will remain unnamed till further notice, BUTTERFLY TATTOO (Deidre Knight), GLORY IN DEATH (J.D. Robb), PACK CHALLENGE (Shelly Laurenston), BLOOD VICE (Keith Melton), TAMING ELIZA JANE (Shannon Stacy), SEDUCING SIMON (Maya Banks), ROCKY MOUNTAIN HEAT (Vivian Arend), DARKFEVER (Karen Marie Moning), PLAYING WITH FIRE (Gena Showalter)...and many more...

Welll I think I have informed you of all the relevant information surrounding my vacation. I hope to see you all again in a few weeks, when I hope to return refreshed and ready to take on the jobhunting world and with a nice dent in my Mt. TBR.