I Hate Not Being Able to Find What I'm Searching For...

Well, here's a fact about me: I'm a huge reader, especially of romance novels. So long as they're not types that I've (mostly) outgrown *cough*Harlequin*cough,* I'll happily sit down and devour or redevour several of them a day. However, there can be a negative aspect to being so addicted to romances...

The complete down you get when you search for a book only to realize that it's out of print (OOP) and you can't even find a copy of it on Amazon.com or eBay. Well, that's what's happened to me over the last rereading of a book I really enjoyed.

First, the book that I do have, which is also the first book of the two. It is by Michele Lang, who is quite the talented author. The book is "Ms. Pendragon," and tells the story of Gwen, a modern woman who is the reincarnation of the Guinevere of Arthurian legend. She is being haunted by Mordred, the son of Arthur Pendragon and his half-sister Morgana. After putting a holding spell on Mordred (by sheer luck), Gwen runs down to the business of her dearest friend, who is a Wiccan priestess. While there, the one and only fabulous Merlin shows up. Basically, Gwen is sent back in time to prevent something bad from happening. There is a lot of action, and heaps of adventure, but the ending is one that simply satisfies, yet still leaves the reader wanting more. To top it off, the first chapter or two of the sequel is also included.

And THAT, is where my problems begin. I had brought the book to my Sociology 101 class the other day, to quote a line that went along with the topics being discussed that day. When I got home, I searched for the sequel, "Mists of Manhattan," only to discover that Amazon did not have any copies for sale, even used. After that, I went and searched eBay, once again with no luck, and then finally giving up and using google to do yet another search. Yet none of my searches yielded any fruit, and now I'm left hungry for more and unsatisfied. I even went to the length of going on Michele Lang's site and searching for more information, only to discover that the company that had published and owned the rights to the books had gone under, which leaves Michele with the rights to her stories. I wonder why she won't at least be her own publisher, since many authors can now go that route with POD (print on demand). It seems to me that this would be a good way to both satisfy fans and still make a profit off of older books....

But oh man oh man do I want a copy of "Mists of Manhattan!" That first "Ms. Pendragon" just got me hooked, and I'm just going crazy trying to find more about the world that Lang created!