"Jane of Austin" by Hillary Manton Lodge (again)

This book is such a joy.  It's a retelling of Sense and Sensibility set in the modern world and... please don't throw things at me, but... I like it better than S&S.  I do.  There are multiple characters in this that I like better than their S&S counterparts.  There are plot points and relationship tangles that work better for me here.  And this one has the sweetest service dog.  

I mean, obviously I do like Sense and Sensibility.  I led a chapter-by-chapter read-along of it, after all.  I just like this better.  

Jane and her older sister Celia make their living selling tea in a trendy tea shop in San Francisco after their father leaves the country.  And then, their landlord dies, and they get turned out of both the apartment and the shopfront they rented from him.  Desperate to find somewhere that they can live and remain guardians of their younger sister Margo, plus find a new space for their shop, they accept an invitation from a cousin they barely know.  He offers they can live in his guest house while they find a new shopfront.  The only problem?  He lives in Austin, Texas.  But moving halfway across the country is not that big a deal, right?  It only means leaving behind their home state, Margo's school, and the man Celia has been dating for years and years.

They move.  Jane falls in love with a handsome country singer.  A friend of their cousin's, a wounded veteran, falls in love with Jane.  Jane falls out of love with the handsome country singer when he turns out to be despicable.  And so on.  I really love that this retelling is told from the Marianne character's point of view because I never feel like I get to know and understand Marianne very well in S&S.  This book also has a lot of chapters from the POV of the Colonel Brandon character, Callum.  He's an absolute sweetheart, gentleman, and hero.  

Also, there are lots of yummy recipes included.  I'm going to make the tea-infused Texas Sheet Cake today to take to a potluck :-9

(From my Instagram)

Particularly Good Bits:

Kissing Callum was like finding a favorite thing I hadn't known I was looking for (p. 295).

"I don't think it's ever wrong," I decided, "to love what you have more than what you had" (p. 299).

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG-13 for a plotline involving an unwed pregnancy, mention of marital infidelity in an off-screen character, quite a few non-steamy kisses, and mention of characters "making out."  Also, Callum deals with a lot of emotional trauma from the combat situation where he lost a leg.  Not a racy book, no bad language, no real violence.  Clean, but not something all younger teens would be ready for.

Top Ten Tuesday: Mine, all mine!

Have you ever borrowed a book from the library or a friend, or read an e-copy, and loved the book so much you just had to buy a physical copy for your shelves?

I definitely have done this!  If I love a book, that means I'll want to reread it, and that means I want a copy on my shelves so I can reread it at any moment.  

So, here are ten books and/or series I've done that with, for this week's Top Ten Tuesday from That Artsy Reader Girl.  All titles are linked to my reviews :-)

(All pictures are mine from my Instagram account)

The Blue Castle by L. M. Montgomery (PG)

Corral Nocturne by Elisabeth Grace Foley (G)

Daddy-Long-Legs by Jean Webster (G)

Girl in Disguise by Greer MacAllister (PG-13)

Laertes by Carly Stevens (PG-16)

The Light of Western Stars by Zane Grey (PG)

The Mycroft and Sherlock books by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Anna Waterhouse 

• Mycroft Holmes (PG-13)
• Mycroft and Sherlock (PG-13)
• Mycroft and Sherlock: The Empty Birdcage (PG-13)

The Reluctant Godfather by Allison Tebo (G)

The Two Blue Doors trilogy by Hillary Manton Lodge 

• A Table by the Window (PG)
• Reservations for Two (PG-13)
• Together at the Table (PG-13)

The Tudor Throne series by Charity Bishop

• The Usurper's Throne (PG-16)
• The Welsh Gambit (PG-13)
• The King's Players (PG-13)
• The Secret in the Tower (PG-16)
• The Queen's Falconer (PG-16)
• The Last Fire-Eater (PG-13)
• Isabella's Daughter (PG-13)

Have you read any of these?  Did you do a TTT this week?  Do share!

Top Ten Tuesday: What Would Belle Read?

This week's Top Ten Tuesday from That Artsy Reader Girl is a freebie!  That means we get to choose our own topic, which is always fun.

A friend recently sent me a reel on Instagram listing books that one bookstagrammer thought Belle from Beauty and the Beast would enjoy.  I didn't know any of the books they listed, so I decided to do my own list, based on these lyrics from her song at the beginning of the movie:

Oh, isn't this amazing?

It's my favorite part because -- you'll see --

Here's where she meets Prince Charming,

But she won't find out it's him 'til chapter three...

Obviously, Belle wants to read books that involve sweet romances where the characters don't fall in love immediately, but take a while to get to know or even to like each other.  So, I made my own list of ten books I think she would like.  All titles are linked to my own reviews if you want to know more about them!

The Blue Castle by L. M. Montgomery -- Doctor tells shy, withdrawn woman she is dying.  Woman sets out to live as much as she can in the time she has left and gradually falls in love with someone she supposedly shouldn't.

Daddy-Long-Legs by Jean Webster -- Young woman is granted scholarship to go to college, with stipulation she must write letters about her progress to unknown benefactor.  Falls in love with man who is more than he seems.

Enchanted by Alethea Kontis -- Girl falls in love with frog who is actually royalty, but also her father's enemy in this fascinating YA fantasy book that combines ever so many fairy tales into one heady mix.

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte -- Young governess falls for employer who has dark secret that might separate them for ever.

Jane of Austin by Hillary Manton Lodge -- Two sisters move to Texas, open tea shop, fall in love in this retelling of Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen.

North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell -- Young woman moves to the city with her impoverished parents, clashes with wealthy man over every subject possible, learns lessons about life.

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen -- Two sisters fall in love with two friends, but it takes the whole book for them to actually get together for good.

A Room with a View by E. M. Forster -- Conventional young woman touring Italy meets an unconventional young man, shares enchanted moment, parts with him, then meets him again back home in England.

Speak Easy, Speak Love by McKelle George -- Determined young woman spends summer at cousin's house, sparring verbally with another house guest in this retelling of Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare.

Yesterday, or Long Ago by Jenni Sauer -- Two friends sneak into royal ball, dance with handsome guys, fall in love, discover handsome guys are actually really important men in this gender-swapped "Aladdin" retelling.

Top Ten Tuesday: Summer Reading, Having a Blast...

This week's prompt from That Artsy Reader Girl is "Books on my summer 2022 reading list."  I have actually already chowed through several books on my summer TBR list, thanks to lots of extra reading time while laid up with my broken arm, but here are ten that are still waiting for me:

1. The Black Swan by Rafael Sabatini
2. Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
3. Laertes by Carly Stevens
4. Moonfleet by J. Meade Falkner
5. Possibilities by Debra White Smith
6. The Prince of Thieves by Alexandre Dumas
7. Robin Hood the Outlaw by Alexandre Dumas
8. Rose Petals and Snowflakes by Kendra E. Ardnek
9. Simply Sara by Hillary Manton Lodge
10. What Katy Did Next by Susan Coolidge

(from my Instagram)

How about you?  Do you have some books you've been saving for this summer?  Or new releases you're looking forward to?

"Plain Jayne" by Hillary Manton Lodge

I have never really read much "Amish fiction," though I remember when it was the hottest thing in Christian fiction.  But Hillary Manton Lodge has become an auto-buy author for me, and that means not only that I will buy her next book whenever it drops, but that I want to read her earlier works too, like Plain Jayne and its follow-up, Simply Sara.  I was able to find copies of both of them recently, which made me so happy.

Jayne Tate is a motorcycle-riding, alt-rock-listening, story-chasing journalist.  But after her estranged father dies, her writing suffers, and so her editor makes her take time off to regroup.  Rather than go hiking or take a lot of naps or take up gardening, Jayne decides to go hang out with Amish people so she can write a newspaper or magazine article about them to sell freelance.  Which is kind of a nosy and aren't-I-superior-to-you attitude to have, but of course, she soon learns that there's a lot more to Amish life than horses and quilts and waking up extremely early in the morning.  

Jayne meets a formerly Amish carpenter named Levi who interests her immediately, even though she has a boyfriend back in the city.  Levi's family allows her to live with them and write about them, even though they have nothing to do with Levi anymore because he left the Amish faith and became a Protestant.  Over the course of the book, Jayne makes steps to reconcile with her estranged mother and sister, learns how to bake pie, and reevaluates her own faith.

I think my favorite part of this book is that Jayne realizes that a simple, Amish life is not for everyone.  She learns how to focus and how to prioritize, but she also understands that you can serve the Lord from a modern life that uses electricity just as well from an old-fashioned one.  Although I've really never read any other Amish Christian fiction, I have gathered from reviews and such that generally such books have an opposite conclusion, which I don't find to be healthy.  After all, Godliness with contentment is great gain -- which means being contented with the life you've been given, not trying to conform to someone else's life.

Particularly Good Bits:

Some people might question the consumption of ice cream in fifty-degree weather, and that's their prerogative.  I'm just not one of them (p. 107).

Living in a small town was like being followed by a Greek chorus who lamented your latest mishap (p. 150).

Just because my life wasn't simple didn't make it insignificant.  Owning a cell phone didn't make me a lesser person (p. 256).

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG-13 for some discussions of whether or not an unmarried couple will spend the night in bed together.  (Spoiler alert: they don't.)

This is my 33rd book read off my TBR shelves for #TheUnreadShelfProject2021.

The Smashing and Dashing 2020 Character Awards

Katie of I'm Charles Baker Harris (And I Can Read) didn't actually tag me with doing this, but she did encourage me to do it, so I'm going to!  You can read her post here.

The idea is to answer these with characters from books you read in that particular year.  If you want to do this too, go right ahead!  I'm not going to tag anyone, but I will provide a copy-able list of the questions at the bottom of the post.

All right.

Most Relatable Character 

I'm taking this to mean the character *I* related to the most.  And that would be Anne Elliot in Persuasion by Jane Austen.  She's quiet, shy, helpful, loyal, and generous, which are all things I either am or strive to be.

(All book photos are mine from my Instagram account.)

Most Pure Animal Companion 

Baloo the bear in All the Mowgli Stories by Rudyard Kipling.  Baloo isn't my favorite -- that's Bagheera -- but Bagheera is too much of a cat to be called pure.  So, Baloo it is.

Fiercest Fighter 

Little Bear in The Indian in the Cupboard by Lynne Reid Banks.  I mean, he stabs a giant.  And bosses a giant around.  And demands things of a giant.  Gutsy as all get-out.

Am Surprised That I Loved You?? 

Am I surprised that I love Barney Snaith, that sarcastic, sardonic, devil-may-care sweetheart of a rogue in The Blue Castle by L. M. Montgomery?  No, I am not.  Are we surprised that I am currently reading it for the fifth time, even though I just read it last January?  No, we are not.

Best Antihero 

I'm not sure at all that Philip Marlowe is exactly an antihero.  A pretends-he's-not-a-hero, maybe?  A doesn't-believe-heroes-exist, maybe?  He certainly gets reluctant about hero-ing from time to time, so I'm putting him here.  He wasn't particularly well-behaved in The Little Sister, which was my Raymond Chandler book this year.

Best Sassmaster 

Elizabeth Bennet from Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen.  Oh, the sauciness!  The sassiness!  The withering scorniness of her casual jabs and jibes!

The Best Friends of All 

The siblings in The Railway Children by E. Nesbit are such jolly chums.  I used to like imagining I was their friend and having little everyday adventures with them.

Best Villain TO HATE 

Prince Humperdinck in The Princess Bride by William Goldman.  He's so easy to hate.  So deserving of it.  Miserable, vomitous mass of a man.

Award for Best vs Worst YA Parents 

It appears I didn't read any YA in 2020 besides my own new book, One Bad Apple, so I will have to answer from it.  Best would be Uncle Drew and Aunt Phoebe Dalton, and worst would obviously be Mrs. Lucretia Mallone.

Ship of All Ships in 2020 

I'm going to take this to mean the couple I love together best of the new ones I encountered in 2020 because otherwise it would just be one of my usual favorite couples (::cough:: Valancy+BarneyOrJane+Edward ::cough::).  But my favorite new-to-me couple was Juliette + Neil in the Two Blue Doors trilogy by Hillary Manton Lodge.  I was very glad they did finally get together for good.  And I loved their small, quiet wedding.

Most Precious 

Jerusha Abbott in Daddy-Long-Legs by Jean Webster is a veritable ray of sprightly sunshine, and I defy anyone to believe otherwise.

Must Be Protected 

Anybody who lays a hand on my girl El from Rook di Goo by Jenni Sauer will have an angry Hamlette to reckon with.

Honestly Surprised You’re Still Alive 

It's really astonishing that Mina and Jonathon Harker survived in Dracula by Bram Stoker.

Award for Making the Worst Decisions 

Mary Yellan in Jamaica Inn by Daphne du Maurier is an utter nincompoop and ought to be slapped.

Most in Need of a Nap 

Thomas Lovell, the king's enforcer/chief spy/master assasin/general handyman in Charity Bishop's novel-like renderings of Tudor history, specifically in the two I read this year: The Secret in the Tower and The King's Falconer.  The poor man is always so dreadfully busy averting disasters.

Want to Read More About You

I would love to read a sequel to Prairie Lotus by Linda Sue Park!  Especially since the ending felt abrupt to me.  I could have used at least one more chapter.

That's it for tonight, friends!  If you want to do this tag yourself, go right ahead!  Here are the questions, for ease of duplication:

Most Relatable Character 

Most Pure Animal Companion 

Fiercest Fighter 

Am Surprised That I Loved You?? 

Best Sassmaster 

Best Antihero 

The Best Friends of All 

Best Villain TO HATE 

Award for Best vs Worst YA Parents 

Ship of All Ships in 2020 

Most Precious 

Must Be Protected 

Honestly Surprised You’re Still Alive 

Award for Making the Worst Decisions 

Most in Need of a Nap 

Want to Read More About You

"Reservations for Two" by Hillary Manton Lodge

Well, that's it.  I'm a firm fan now of Hillary Manton Lodge.  Giving her a label here on my blog and everything.  I'm going to have to buy the last two books in her backlist that I don't already have, and I just might be elevating her to auto-buy status, right under Katherine Reay.

Cuz man, oh man, do I love her storytelling.  Particularly her characters and her dialog.

Yeah.  So, this is book two of the Two Blue Doors series.  I've already read books three and one, in that order, because of reasons.  (Reasons = librarians who cover up series info with barcode stickers.  Because of their own reasons, I'm sure.  But still, kind of low-level evil there.)  I KNEW how this was going to end.  Because of how book three begins.  But it didn't matter because I love these characters and want to spend time with them as much as I can, even if I know how their stories are going to wrap up.  This is a trilogy I look forward to re-reading.

In this middle book, Juliette and her boyfriend Neil spend quite a bit of time hanging out in France and Italy with her extended family.  Juliette is starting to dig into her grandmother's past to learn the truth about her grandfather, and she's also making contact with some suppliers for the restaurant she and her brother Nico are opening back in Portland.

Speaking of back in Portland, Juliette's mother's battle with cancer spirals downward.  Her long-distance relationship with Neil proves difficult.  And the more she learns about her grandmother's life in 1940s France, the more questions she has.  I'm really glad I'd already read book three, to be honest, because otherwise I think this book might have stressed me out some.  Instead, I breezed through it chanting, "It'll be fine!  It'll be fine!" as needed.

If you are looking for some delicious contemporary books with relatable Christian characters (who go to church routinely!!!), a smooth and realistic writing style that is a joy to read, and a smattering of historical romance sprinkled throughout it, you definitely need to read these books.  And did I mention they have lots and lots of recipes included?  I've earmarked several to try.

Particularly Good Bits:

My skills with an oven brush are slow-clap worthy.  Children dream of one day being able to clean an oven like me.  Old men weep (p. 27).

...do keep in mind that this may be your one opportunity to meet Gabriel before our parents have him conveniently murdered (p. 150).

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It:  PG-13 for mentions of "monthly ladylike trials," some veiled references to married people's intimate activities, and sadness relating to a miscarriage.  Also, the illness related to cancer could be distressing to younger readers.  It's clean, but its not aimed at kids, is what I'm saying.

This is my 15th book read for #TheUnreadShelfProject2020

"A Table by the Window" by Hillary Manton Lodge

Have you ever read the last book in a trilogy first? I accidentally read book 3 of the Two Blue Doors series first (Together at the Table).  And I thought I could get the first two books from the library and that would be all okay... but then the library closed up.  Argh.  So I did what any self-respecting bookworm would do, and bought all three from Barnes & Noble's website because even a pandemic is not going to stop me from reading this series!

Turns out it was a good move because I really loved A Table by the Window too.  And now I have Reservations for Two on my TBR pile waiting for me to finish one of the books I'm currently reading so I can start it.  I didn't want to read it back-to-back with this one because sometimes that makes books in a series bleed together in my head, which I dislike.

Anyway.  In A Table by the Window, Juliette D'Alisa is working as a food critic in Portland, trying to process her grief over her grandmother's passing, and supporting her mother in her battle with cancer.  Also, she's tired of being alone and tired of people trying to set her up on dates, so she tries out a dating website and begins exchanging emails with Neil, a bacteriologist (I hope I got that right) from the Carolinas.  They connect.  They meet.  Sparkage ensues.  They can't figure out how to make a long-distance relationship work, but they want to try.

Through all this, Juliette is helping her brother Nico start a new restaurant, Two Blue Doors.  He's a chef, and his sous chef keeps hitting on Juliette, who doesn't told her family about Neil for quite a while.  And Juliette is also trying to figure out who the man is in the photo she found in her grandmother's cookbook and why he looks so much like Nico.

This book make me hungry.  I wanted to eat all the amazing things the characters made and ate.  Happily, Lodge includes a recipe at the end of many chapters for something mentioned in it.  I haven't tried any yet, but... I will :-)

One of the things I appreciated most about this book was that, although Juliette and Neil do meet and are physically attracted to each other, and kiss several times, there was never any question of "are they going to fall into bed with each other."  Neither of them considered that as an option, which was really refreshing, since most of the time single people in contemporary Christian fiction spend lots and lots of time either feeling guilty that they want to get into bed with someone and then doing it anyway and then being remorseful, or mourning the fact that there's just no way they can ever have sex because no one loves them or will ever marry them, etc.  Y'all, this was refreshing, okay?  And, judging by conversations I've had with my unmarried Christian friends, realistic. Very nicely done.

Also, these characters actually go to church.  Regularly.  I'm pretty tired of Christian fiction where no one ever attends church.  Also not realistic, folks!  Christians do go to church. Kind of a thing.  I mean, right now most of us are attending online, but ordinarily... they might not go every Sunday, but many of us do.

(Mine from my Instagram)

Particularly Good Bits:

My world had become unpredictable, but at least I could rely on the goodness of the Lord and the consistency of green vegetables (p. 117).

"Any experience that ends in knowledge is not a waste" (p. 249).

I came from a long line of women who wrote their own stories (p. 295).

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG.  No violence, no cussing, no real innuendo, though there are some scenes where characters enjoy kissing each other.

Because I had to buy this in order to read it, it counts as my 12th book read for #TheUnreadShelfProject2020 right?  I say it does.

"Together at the Table" by Hillary Manton Lodge

I got this from the library not knowing that it was book three in a trilogy.  Oooooooops.  In my defense, the library barcodes and such had totally covered up all but the numeral 3 on the back cover, and that's the only place the cover mentioned it was part of a series, so I thought it was a stand-alone like Jane of Austin. 

But it was totally okay -- I figured out what was going on with no trouble at all.  Lodge is too good a writer to let new readers who stumble into the series midway be confused. 

And y'all... she is a very good writer indeed.  Within a few pages, I wanted to be friends with restaurateur Juliette D'Alisa, hang out at the Two Blue Doors restaurant she runs with her brother, go on genealogy-tracing adventures with her to Chicago and Europe. 

Juliette goes through a lot of relationship upheaval in this book.  Proposals.  Breakups.  Make-ups.  But none of it was... overwrought.  Or rushed.  Or sappy.  It all unfolded in a way that felt very believable to me.  The central romance was refreshingly realistic.  And there's a wedding in the middle of the book, not at the end, which was awesome!  Also, Juliette has two men in her life in a romantic sense, and neither of them is a jerk.  Or a creep.  Or a "bad boy."  They're both nice guys.  I can't remember the last time I ran into that.  Even in Jane Austen one guy ends up being secretly skanky or an opportunistic fortune hunter or whatever.  Lodge sidesteps all the love-triangle tropes so beautifully, and I applaud her.

All during her relationship changes, Juliette is also dealing with a lot of changes at the restaurant, plus she's trying to solve a mystery about her grandmother's experiences during World War II in France.  You know I also love things that involve WWII, so I really enjoyed that aspect of the story.  It's the one part where I really felt like having read the first two books would have been nice, but not to the point where I wanted to put this down and go find the earlier books and read those before finishing this one. 

Eventually, Juliette's grandmother's own words, via letter, fill in a lot of gaps and answer a lot of questions.  We learn her own story of love lost and love found.  Her story doesn't mirror Juliette's too neatly, and yet they are both stories of "lost love and second helpings" as the title puts it.

Also, Juliette's family is awesome.  She and her sisters are my people.  Their conversations are so much like things my brother and I say, dropping stuff like the Kobayashi Maru in very naturally, and just... can I please hang out with them?

I'm going to have to read the first two books now.  Our library is offering curb-side pick-up for materials to minimize contact, and I think the kids and I are going to have to try that this week.  If I end up loving those two as much as I loved this one, I'll have no choice but to buy the whole set so I can have it on my shelf and hug them as much as I want.  And reread them.

(Mine from my Instagram)

Particularly Good Bits:

I didn't answer.  I couldn't.  There were only questions in my head where answers used to be (p. 58).

Was that what it meant to be a grownup?  To finally realize that your parents weren't invincible, but that they had challenges and struggles of their own? (p. 80).

So often I feel worry is a heavy, wet, wool blanket we wear about our shoulders (p. 255).

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG-13 for some discussions of sexual matters in dialog, some frank and some veiled, all tasteful and the sorts of things adult sisters would really say to each other, or wives to their husbands.  There are no descriptive sex scenes, and I would consider this a clean book, but some might not.  There is no cussing or scenes of violence, though the WWII parts involve some dangerous situations.

"Jane of Austin" by Hillary Manton Lodge

This is a refreshing book.  It's sweet, salty, full of likable characters and enough problems to keep things interesting.  It's also a retelling of Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen, set in Austin, Texas, in the present day.

People told me I would love this book.  I got a copy.  Then I resisted reading it for months because I was afraid I wouldn't actually love it.

But I put it specifically on my Autumn To-Do List as something I wanted to read this fall, so I made myself start reading it despite my worries.  After all, the worst that could happen would be that I didn't love it.  Then I'd sell it to the used bookstore and move on with my life, right?

Well, I loved it.  I really did!  It had quite a few surprises to it, not the least being that it's told alternately from the POVs of the Marianne character and the Colonel Brandon character.  They're not named that here, but that's who they are.  And it's really neat to hear the story from a different angle, because in the original, Elinor is pretty down on Marianne, and because I'm more like Elinor than Marianne, I kind of go with that.  But now I think I understand the Mariannes of the world a little better, and that's awesome.

In this, sisters Jane and Celia Woodward must find a way to support themselves and their little sister Margot when their father has to skip the country after getting caught with his hand in the cashbox, so to speak.  They start a tea shop in their native San Francisco.  Celia falls in love.  All goes well.

And then it doesn't go well, and they move to Austin, Texas, to start over again.  There, they meet retired Marine Callum Beckett and charming musician Sean Willis, and they try to find a new place for their tea shop, and of course, one of the new men in their lives turns out to be a skunk, and yeah... it really is Sense and Sensibility in Texas.  No big surprises.  Nothing where they swap up the characters -- and that's my favorite kind of retelling, one where I can connect the dots to the original and have a good idea how the new version is going to wind up, but I thoroughly enjoy the ride to get to the end.

Oh, and this book has a whole bunch of recipes in it that I want to try.  Especially the one for Cranberry Vanilla Scones.  Nom nom nom.

(From my Instagram)

Particularly Good Bits:

"You're weird."
"I'm idiosyncratic," I retorted.  "That's different."  (p. 50).

Celia's mouth eased into a sideways smile.  "Not everyone has your passion for dead leaves" (p. 62).  (I suspect this whole book was born of the idea of a new way to make this line work.  I love it.)

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It:  PG-13 for discussion of a man getting a woman pregnant.  Also, quite a bit of kissing.  Nothing really racy, but not exactly a book I'd hand  my pre-teen to read, either.  No bad language.