One thing I really had an issue with was the scene where Russ pulls her out of the nightclub. Ok, he sees a guy drugging her drink and he’s a cop and he just lets the guy go?! With no other follow-up or anything? I mean, if a guy slips something into a girl’s drink once he’ll try it again on some other girl later and Russ is content to just knock the guy down and let him walk away? That just really bugged me. I finally had to tell myself that Russ was just having an overactive imagination because I couldn’t live with him as a hero if he let a potential date-rapist just walk away.

Other than that one scene, though, I thought this was a pretty good, nice little read. I’ve got “Houston” on order at the library now. Can’t wait.

ETA: And in the great cover debate I really like the new one much better. The fish in martini glass is just kind of a WTF?

I’m not deaf, and don’t know anyone who is, so I found the parts about choosing between being a speaking deaf person or a signing deaf person (do I have that right?) and the education involved interesting, as well as the fact that ASL has its own grammer – I had always thought it was just signed English. I found those parts of the story informative, without getting info-dumpy, which was nice.

I read this book when it first came out and loved it. I’m a big fan of Erin McCarthy’s books. My favorite is Heiress for Hire.

Huh. Just goes to show we’re all different. Erin McCarthy was my go-to contemporary author for the longest time. I loved Houston We Have a Problem, liked Smart Mouth and Mouth to Mouth only a tiny bit less, and really enjoyed some of her other books and stories (You Don’t Know Jack, the early Vegas Vampires books). But I picked up Heiress for Hire, couldn’t get into it at all, and haven’t touched her books since. Maybe I need to give her latest two a chance…

(And I preferred the original cover, too)

Count me in as among those annoyed that every deaf heroine has super excellent lipreading/speech skills. Just once I would like to see a heroine who was only so-so at both. Think of all the misunderstandings that could ensue, and the hilarity from same.

If you think about it, we have a lot of slang in our spoken word, that doesn’t translate into sign language… she often has to ask for clarification…

:D Not surprisingly because a sign language isn’t the “signing version” of the English (or whatnot) language. It’s a language in its own right, so there is quite a few signs that one cannot translate into English and vice versa. The only thing that a sign language and a spoken/written language have in common is the alphabet through fingerspelling.

In other words, deaf people who are sign language users and speakers/writers are effectively bilingual.

You’ve made a very good point about TTY (or minicoms/text phones in the UK) and mobile/cell phones. Deaf people are usually among the first to take advantage of technological innovations; anything that could allow them to be as independent as possible.

When pagers went on sale during early 1980s, quite a few deaf people bought them. Mobile phones during mid-1980s? It was a huge hit. There was one I knew who sacrificed his annual family holiday to purchase four brick phones for himself and his deaf family. Nowadays, I don’t know a deaf person who doesn’t own a mobile phone and it’s been like this since early 1990s.

Not surprisingly as, for many, it’s their lifeline. Instant messenging programs, Skype (the most popular form of a video phone), smart phones with email function, mini computers, etc. — almost all of them have those as well.

Sorry for going off-topic.

As to her never missing a word when lip reading, I seem to recall that all the time she thought he was calling her “honey” he was actually calling her “Bunny” and she didn’t figure it out until late in the book.

I am working with a foster right now who has a cochliar ear implant (so she now has some hearing) and the ability to lip read and still there is miscommunication between us because I can’t sign…. she finds signing to be the easiest, but also the most understandable…

If you think about it, we have a lot of slang in our spoken word, that doesn’t translate into sign language… she often has to ask for clarification…

Not a comment on this book, more just some interesting stuff I never knew before this summer…

It wasn’t because of the quality of writing or such, but because I couldn’t accept it was yet another “oh, s/he can lip-read everything and so easily” stereotype/misconception.

When I was reading M2M, I occasionally wondered, “She’s managed to understood that without a frame of reference? And from a stranger, to boot?” (It usually takes some time for a deaf lip-reader to learn a person’s style of speaking before they could lip-read with reasonably ease. Show me a deaf or HOH person who claims that she or he could lip-read anyone under any circumstances, I’ll show you a liar. :D)

I can’t remember why I gave up early, though. I didn’t think M2M was a bad book. I think I just wasn’t patient enough to go for the ‘let’s pretend she could hear a bit’ scenario. I think I’ve learnt to be more patient and flexible now, so I’ll buy a copy.

During the entire build-up to the first sex scene I was anticipating the hotness of his making her look at him so he could talk dirty to her and she didn’t let me down.

Loved the secondary romance, as well. Almost as much as the primary.

And the guys in the candy store cracked me up.