I’ve been remiss in not reviewing these books. I recommended them in November, but then the end of the semester and the holidays and then the beginning of the semester and and and…caught up with me. But I’ve been dipping into them again and again through the last few months when I needed [...]]]> Dear Ms. Haimowitz.

I’ve been remiss in not reviewing these books. I recommended them in November, but then the end of the semester and the holidays and then the beginning of the semester and and and…caught up with me. But I’ve been dipping into them again and again through the last few months when I needed to cleanse my palate from other books.

Nicky Avery is a TV star who is rehearsing for a Broadway show. He meets Devon Turner, film star and all around amazing actor. They connect instantly, Nicky feeling Devon’s dominance, Devon reacting to Nicky’s submissiveness. But this isn’t a touchy-feely story. This is pure D/s with intense sadomasochistic overtones. Devon doesn’t let Nicky get away with anything, either physically or emotionally. The first book, Master Class, shows Nicky and Devon’s meeting and the start of their relationship. SUBlime (really on that title?! Please trust your readers to Get It without the hokey capitals!) is a serious of short vignettes, mostly (really great) wank material more than anything else, that reveals scenes in their daily life, but that doesn’t really forward their relationship.

Devon and Nicky meet at a dinner with friends. I love this. I love that they don’t meet at a Kinky Klub of Kinkiness. They meet like other normal people do. And they’re drawn to each other through mutual attraction rather than some ridiculous set up. The book definitely has a lot of “All-Knowing All-Seeing Dom Who Knows What’s Right for the Misguided Little Submissive”-itis to go around. Devon recognizes that Nicky’s submissive, that he’s deeply masochistic, that he’s utterly fucked up. And he knows just what Nicky needs. Of course. (Honestly, just once, I’d like to read a book with a fucked up Dom and a has-it-together sub who saves him/her.) But if that’s going to be the point of the book, it’s very well done. Brilliantly done, even.

Devon takes care of Nicky. He knows what Nicky needs and he gives it to him. And as physically excruciating as their play can be, both for them and for the reader, depending on the reader’s squick levels, it’s possible to see Devon’s care for Nicky all the way through the book.

As an example of the physical and emotional intensity of the book:

Devon retrieved his crop. He wasn’t usually such a one-toy man, but he needed precision tonight without too much bite. He thwapped it lightly against Nicky’s testicles. Stretched and weighted as they were, even a light touch was painful; Nicky grunted, stumbled, fell. The rigging caught him, and he scrambled back to his feet and forced his limbs back to their straining stance. Devon rewarded this by striking Nicky’s nuts again, upping the force a bit. Perhaps expecting it this time, Nicky kept his feet.

“Now, I do believe we were having a conversation. Tell me what I’m doing.”

Another strike. Nicky gasped.

“You’re cropping my nuts, sir.” Again, and Nicky lifted one foot but quickly put it back, gasping out, “Fuck, it hurts.”

Devon knelt down to add a second weight to the leather cord, stretching Nicky’s sack a little more. He let it go carefully, stroking one sweat-damp thigh as he released the weight. Nicky’s whimper went straight to Devon’s cock, but he ignored it. Right now, his boy demanded all his focus.

Devon picked up the crop again and rubbed it against the stretched skin of Nicky’s scrotum, then slapped it lightly, several times in succession, until Nicky danced away. “Hold still,” Devon warned, grabbing him by the rigging to keep him in place and resuming his tapping with the crop.

It was impressive that Nicky remembered to speak through this treatment. He gritted out, “Tapping my balls, sir,” through increasingly heavy breaths that became grunts, then cries: Devon’s cue to stop. Devon smoothed over the hot skin with his thumb, gave Nicky’s half-hard cock a few quick pumps.

“And I suppose you know what my next question’s going to be.”

Chest heaving, limbs quaking, Nicky said nothing as Devon worked his erection. Finally, he shook his head, looking contrite and a little frightened. A drop of sweat flew from his chin and plopped to the floor.

Good. Nicky was moving beyond the ability to parse every little thing, moving beyond control and into true subspace. Devon added another weight, and another.

“How do you feel, Nicky?”

“Hurts,” he panted.

“How you feel, Nicky, not how it feels. That’s five.”

This book is not for the faint of heart. It shows an intensely physical and deeply emotional relationship between a sadist and a masochist, between a Dom and a sub, that has some necessary suspension of disbelief (do people REALLY play that hard — especially emotionally — with each other right away?), but is otherwise beautiful, brilliant, and if you like that sort of this, deeply arousing.

Grade: B+

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SUBlime, on the other hand, is a series of vignettes that seems to lose sight of the fact that Devon and Nicky are people. In these stories, ever-in-control Dom and bratty sub are thrown in with various kinks (medical play, knives, cross-dressing, isolation, mummification). And while the individual stories stay true to Devon and Nicky’s personalities, and while the stories are arousing if it hits the reader’s kink buttons, and while they’re very well-written, Devon and Nicky are no longer actors with real lives. They’re just posable kink dolls you brought out whenever some nifty new kink caught your fancy.

Which is not to say they’re not fun, but I doubt very much that an A-list film actor can bring his A-list stage and TV actor boyfriend to a huge party, no matter how “private,” and parade him around in pony-play gear without having to worry about it getting out to the press. No matter how much you trust other people in the lifestyle, stardom is still fraught with blackmailers and paparazzi, and I just missed the real lives of Devon and Nicky amidst the kinkiness.

I feel like I’m hammering these stories for not being something they never tried to be, and I REALLY hate it when people do that. I *think* they were written first, precisely AS wankable shorts, and Master Class was written to show how Devon and Nicky got together. But however they were written, they were published as a stand-alone story and some sequel shorts, so that’s how I read them. And with that in mind, the posable kink doll thing bothered me, as much as I enjoyed the individual stories themselves. They were more erotica than romance. Brilliantly GOOD erotica, with each short having an emotional arc of its own, which is SO important, but erotica, not romance, nonetheless. As erotica, I’d give it another B+. But as romance:

Grade: C+

Best regards,
-Sarah

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I read book one in the series and didn’t love it so I skipped the second, but I think you may have hauled me back into the fold with this one. The two characters are at daggers drawn (to use an old fashioned phrase) because the hero is destined to be a [...]]]> Dear Ms. Wright:

I read book one in the series and didn’t love it so I skipped the second, but I think you may have hauled me back into the fold with this one. The two characters are at daggers drawn (to use an old fashioned phrase) because the hero is destined to be a Breed Male which means he can have no mate. The heroine has no mate either but has faked a mate sign through a tattoo of sorts with another vampire who had lost his true mate.

There is a lot going on here with mutores (shapeshifting vampires), lost mates, Breed Males, veannas, and so forth. Rant on – I think that there are a number of made up words that you use to imbue ambience but seem completely unnecessary. This isn’t a problem unique to your book but an epidemic in paranormal romances. For instance, why virgini for virgin but not principessa instead of princess. Or why use flash to describe vampires moving from one location to another instantly instead of flashini or some made up noun for any other random noun. It’s one thing to use made up terms to describe nouns/verbs that are specific to the world that you are creating. That seems like real worldbuilding. It’s another thing to use special made up terms for random nouns or verbs that you pick and choose. That seems like hokey and ineffective worldbuilding. – Rant off.

Back to the book. Bronwyn Kettler, a genetic scientist studying the Breeding Male phenomenon, accidentally fed from Lucian Roman but that one bite has bound her too him more securely than any human bonds. “In consuming his blood she had consumed his very soul and now—every day, every moment he existed, she moved inside him, her unending hunger deafening as she searched and slithered through his veins, circled his muscles, squeezed until his brain threatened to explode.” Neither of them want this which is what makes this mate book different. Bronwyn intends to proceed with the Veracou, a binding ceremony with another vampire. Lucien has only two choices, to “fuck her or kill her.” Sex with Bronwyn would turn Lucian into a “Breeding Male” which is essentially a vampire who does nothing but rut “a rutting animal with no conscience, no control, only a hunger to claim.” Killing her, well, obviously, that’s not a solution either. Regardless of the Sophie’s Choice presented, Lucian’s blood drives him to essentially stalk Bronwyn.

Brownyn feels Lucian too and has chosen to go through with the Veracou in hopes that the mating ceremony with another vampire will break the compulsion and need she has for Lucian. Yet the Veracou with her good friend, Synjon Wise, does not have the desired effect. Synjon goes into the bonding ceremony willingly because his heart died when his true mate’s life was extinguished.

The stakes are sufficiently high for me from the very opening of the book. When the book focuses on this struggle to not mate, it is at its best. The emotion rings true and is further heightened when Bronwyn and Lucian begin to have tender feelings toward each other and want to consummate their relationship but cannot because of the threat of Lucian turning into a Breeding Male. Knowing that the story ends happily diminishes some of the tension but what keeps the pages turning is guessing what will solve the Breeding Male problem. Sadly, I felt that the answer was a cop out, very Andromeda Strain, if you will.

Where the book falls off the rails is its tendency toward overdramatization, even though that is another hallmark of PNR. I do feel that there is a need to either go big or go home in paranormals, but sometimes it can be taken too far. The description of Synjon is a perfect example.

. Nicknamed the ghost, the only vampire paven to ever serve as both an elite Special Forces officer in his native Britain and as an American Navy SEAL regarded his current existence as a spy, an assassin, and a bounty hunter for the Eternal Order as bloody perfection

It is not enough for Synjon Wise (which somehow changed into Samwise in my head) to excel in country’s elite military arm, but two country’s. Why stop at two? Why not have him be part of every elite military arm? What kind of slacker is he?

Another part of the story focuses on Cruen, a mad vampire scientist who has been creating mutores. (If this reminds people of Lara Adrian’s stories, it did me as well). Cruen abduct Bronwyn in order to lure Lucian to him. The two will breed and Cruen will embark on the next step of his King of the World plan.

Despite the villain, the questionable made up word choice, and unnecessary over the top descriptions, I found the story angsty and compelling with just the right amount of humor. Lucian and Synjon’s testosterone (or testesteroni?) driven fights made me smirk. Don’t we all love a good alpha male throw down? (I always envision them wrestling in jello and accidentally touching each other, don’t you?)

“Blood!” Lucian said the word, rising from his seat and pointing at Synjon.

“What the hell are you doing?” Synjon asked. Shooting his gaze around the room, he demanded, “What the hell is he doing?”

Nicholas shrugged. “It’s not always clear.”

“You and Bronwyn have mated,” Lucian said, his tone threaded with disgust. “Have had your Veracou.”

“Yes. Do you have a point, or are you just reminding yourself that I am Bron’s mate?”

Lucian ignored the barb. “You should be able to find her, track her, know where her blood is. Isn’t that right, Alexander?”

Alexander nodded, his eyes suddenly graying over with thought. “It is.”

“There’s no need for any of this,” Lucian said, his voice rising, his fangs dropping. “Let’s go. Let’s go and get her.”

But Synjon didn’t move. “Stay where you are, Frosty. I haven’t taken her blood. She was nicked from me before we could have our consummation, both in blood and in body.”

Despite the problems, I was engaged the entire time and I certainly want to read more about poor Synjon and the mutores. The story was very sexy and that aspect of the book worked well. New readers likely could start with this entry into the series. I didn’t read book two and I barely recall book one. While “Eternal Captive” doesn’t break new ground, the emotional strength of the story elevated this above other paranormals I’ve read of late. C+

Best regards,

Jane

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Best regards.

One of the first AAR DIK books I ever read was one of yours: “Walking After Midnight.” Now here I am, years later, reading another “walking” book that involves a hero and heroine on the run and trying to stay alive. My questions for myself as I started the book were will [...]]]> Dear Ms. Robards:

One of the first AAR DIK books I ever read was one of yours: “Walking After Midnight.” Now here I am, years later, reading another “walking” book that involves a hero and heroine on the run and trying to stay alive. My questions for myself as I started the book were will the romance work, will the suspense work and how will I feel about the thief hero when all is said and done. The answers are yes, partly, and ultimately it’s a cop out.

“For years after witnessing the murder of her mother, Micayla “Mick” Lange has been forced to relive the horrific events of her dreams, often causing her to sleepwalk. Now a Detroit cop, and stinging from a recent breakup, Mick has arrived early to housesit during the holidays for the wealthy father of her longtime best friend. When she catches Jason Davis in the act of stealing a large sum from the home safe, Mick finds herself embroiled in a crime so explosive it could cost both of them their lives. Although their attraction to each other is palpable, as natural adversaries their only common ground is mutual distrust – and the fact that the same killers are now hunting them both. Sparks fly and passions flare as Mick and Jason run for their lives, knowing that teaming up is the only chance they have to survive.”

The book gets off to a quick start with a throw down that shows Mick and Jason just how evenly matched they are. Mick might be littler but she can put a hurting on anyone stupid enough to discount her in a fight. But when proof of a horrific crime stares her in the face and she realizes that her knowledge is known, she has no choice but to flee with this crook she just caught red handed. This is one of the better set ups that forces the bickering hero and heroine on the road together that I’ve read. In a flash, Mick’s whole world is flipped and it’s she who does the most to get them away from the henchmen – something that I truly enjoyed. She doesn’t want to do this but once she makes up her mind, she’s the one leading the charge. I did wonder how she’d managed to remain in total denial about the true nature of the main villain, though. That must have taken some mental hoop jumping of major proportions.

The race away from the killers is one of the best parts of the book. There’s enough trash talking to keep the tension between Mick and Jason wound tight plus a little sexual frisson which – thank God – doesn’t lead to inappropriately timed boinking. Several thugs are still after them, forcing our lead characters through the bitterly cold, snowy night, just barely missing being caught time and again. But caught I knew they’d eventually have to be and it’s done realistically and due to the fact that Mick is a cop with ingrained instincts. Makes sense. Yet, I also think most people will see the twist coming that brings Mick and Jason into the hands of the baddies.

That entire scene is cool and I sat riveted to see how they’d escape from handcuffs, several men who weren’t going to hesitate to kill them, and through a steel reinforced door. Jason’s calm under pressure is a joy to see and his humor in the setting of a large percentage of the DPD being hot on their tails needles Mick in a way that had me laughing.

Now, this is the point where the suspense stuff begins to go pear shaped. I’m willing to go along with how you get these two out of Detroit. I can also accept the sweet little set up Jason and his cronies have going. And the explosion of Happy Boinking between Jason and Mick is inevitable given the sparks that are being struck between them. I can also trust Jason’s realization of how much Mick means to him and not just because of the hot lovin’. She’s more than that to him and given the life or death situations that they’ve gotten into and out of, I think they know each other and their feelings pretty well by this time. But…but…I did some serious eye rolling from here on out about the suspense.

The baddies had to make a return if only because they hadn’t been dealt with. Suddenly Mick lying to Jason about what she did was alright. And given Jason’s history – he only robs from crooks so that makes it all okay – he still has contacts in a Big Government Agency who are deliriously happy to help them out when it’s discovered that Mick is being blackmailed by the killers to return to Detroit – in a way that makes me wonder why none of these smart people realized it was a given it would happen this way. And everything that could go wrong does go wrong yet – booyah! – it’s Mick who mainly saves the day.

I gotta say that I have serious doubts about the rainbow happy ending. No one is going to discover where Jason lives by following him or – later – Mick back to the Bat Cave? No associates of the villain will make trouble for the rest of Mick’s family? She’s going to be okay living with a thief who, at the end of the day, has no plans to quit? But, that’s right, he’s a Disney thief who only steals from crooks so I guess she can accept that. I suppose she won’t be tied up for ages taking part in the trial of the villain or his minions either. It’s off to Jason’s sunny little hideout to put cracks in the wall plaster and shock the iguana.

After how good lots of the previous parts of the book are I hated to see it all go wonky at the end. Sigh.

~Jayne

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One of the reasons I was excited to read The Whip is that I lived for quite a while in Santa Cruz County, where some of the novel is set. I was also intrigued by the idea of a fact-based story about Charley Parkhurst, a woman who not only lived for most [...]]]> Dear Ms. Kondazian:

One of the reasons I was excited to read The Whip is that I lived for quite a while in Santa Cruz County, where some of the novel is set. I was also intrigued by the idea of a fact-based story about Charley Parkhurst, a woman who not only lived for most of her life as a man, but who was one of the most respected “whips,” aka stagecoach drivers, for Wells Fargo. While not a great deal is known about Parkhurst’s life, especially her early life, what is known provides a lot of rich material for any novelist, and certainly there is a great deal of drama in this fictionalized account of Parkhurst’s life. I found some of that drama moving, and there were significant stretches of the story I felt immersed in as a reader, but I ended up feeling ambivalent about both the kind of drama created around Parkhurst and the amount, which for me too often crossed the line into melodrama.

In 1812, Charlotte Parkhurst was left as an infant on the doorstep of the Boston Society for Destitute Children. Her first days at the orphanage were hardly auspicious, as the overworked, uncaring caretaker sees fit to lock the crying infant in a laundry closet at night so she will not keep the other children awake. Were it not for the immediate interest and devoted protection of a four-year old boy named Lee Colton, who rescued Charlotte from the closet and then kept her under his protection for the first four years of her life, Charlotte may not have made it through that first night alone in the closet. The relationship between Lee and Charlotte is somewhat like brother and sister, but the appearance of a new headmistress and the imposition of new rules, including the separation of male and female orphans, jeopardizes Lee’s authoritative protection of Charlotte, and his open defiance of the rules results in the kind of discipline that brings out the bad in Lee, a darkness that never leaves the bond he shares with her.

As Lee and Charlotte grow, their relationship becomes fraught, both with Lee’s conflicted feelings toward his “sister,” and the perceptions of others about the nature of their closeness. Charlotte is much more innocent than Lee, and while she escapes most of the brutality that Lee suffers under the orphanage’s “improvements,” her persistent efforts to spend time playing games with the boys instead of learning the domestic arts eventually results in her banishment to the stables, where the headmistress is certain she will learn humility and a desire to be a “good” girl. Instead, Charlotte discovers her love of horses, and under the wise tutelage of the stable master, Jonas, she gains both skill and the protections of a father-figure, both of which become necessary once Lee’s mixed feelings become dangerous to her and she needs to fashion a life without social, financial, or family connections.

Charlotte lives as a woman for the first four decades of her life or so. During that time, Lee moves in and out of her life, becoming more and more unstable and belligerent, and Charlotte moves from job to job, each more drab than the last, and the sum total causing her to “disappear” from her own life. Until, quite unexpectedly, she meets the local farrier and blacksmith in Providence, Rhode Island, where she is working and living in a women’s boarding house. Byron Williams, who was born into slavery and sent North through the Underground Railroad at 12 by his mother, who also taught him to read and write so he could support himself as a free man, introduces Charlotte to Emerson, and their mutual passion for the Transcendentalist’s ideals is matched by their physical passion for one another and their eventual love. Although their relationship is shunned in Providence, they eventually find happiness and stability on a farm, and the birth of their daughter brings them fulfillment neither ever thought possible.

So when tragedy comes to the farm donning white sheets and masks, and fueled by racism and a personal anger that is definitely not brotherly, Charlotte heads out West to California, where she hopes she will find the master of her misery and exact well-deserved and long-overdue revenge. Instead what Charlotte finds is a new life as Charley Parkhurst, stagecoach driver and Sacramento resident. Although small and slim, Charley manages to pass as a man, although the parts of the narrative told from Charley’s point of view continue to use female pronouns, suggesting that Charley never thought of herself as male. Whether this was the case in real life is not clear, but for the purpose of the book, Charley’s dual identity is necessary because of the various relationships she has during the second half of her life, one of which is as a woman with a local gambler she periodically trysts with in San Francisco, and another as a man with an actress and her daughter who live with Charley as caretakers of a sort. I will not describe this section of the book in much more detail, because it is difficult not to venture into serious spoiler territory, but I will say that this was the most problematic part of the book for me.

Fictionalized biographies are interesting creations, because the choices the author makes for her “characters” are as significant as the real life history on which she draws. In Parkhurst’s case, there are so many gaps in the story that Kondazian invents the majority of the biographical details, incorporating those that are speculated or known alongside the fictional aspects. For example, it is known that Parkhurst was abandoned and raised at an orphanage, but the content of those years is not known. The invention of Lee Colton is interesting and provocative, because it is Lee’s idea to initially disguise Charlotte as a boy so she can stay with him once the orphanage is divided along gender lines once the new headmistress arrives. He is the one who dubs her Charley, and even though her real gender is discovered almost immediately, the ruse sets the stage for the second half of the book and problematizes the relationship with Lee in a way that creates a lot of dramatic attention throughout the novel. Lee is characterized as possessing “anger” that is often seen “showing off its sexual side.” He feels possessive and protective of Charlotte/Charley, but is also attracted to her, and it baffles and angers him that she does not easily submit to those desires.

Lee’s dark ambivalence is later mirrored in Charley’s dualistic experience of herself as both male and female. She is most at home on the stagecoach driving her beloved horses, but experiences some of her happiest moments dressed as a woman and making love with a man who knows her secret:

Charley could sense Edmunds not only made love to Charlotte, but to Charley as well. The vision of Charley on the driver’s box, sweaty, dirty, whipping the six-team, powerful and brave as any man. She imagined it excited him to feel Charley beneath him or on top. As it excited her . . . the freedom to be a man and a woman in the same body – at the same time.

But that dualism can also be extremely difficult, as when Anna, the woman who lives with Charley, wants to make their relationship sexual and Charley can neither satisfy Anna’s desires nor tell her the truth.

And, indeed, this ambivalence, which can be so interesting when it’s explored in terms of the fluidity of gender identity and issues of power, also becomes problematic and ironically constraining when it comes to the novel’s dramatic structure. For example, why is it that Charley can trust her male lover with the truth of who she is but not the woman who claims to love her? And why is it that Charley necessarily thinks of herself as female when she not simply passes as male but seems so embedded in male culture and so infused with male habits and behavior as to be considered male and to be characterized as relishing the freedom of being male? Is there really a gender duality or is it more about conforming to the varying demands of the fictionalized drama? Also, why is it that some people conveniently see through her disguise but not others? Why does no one who could be dangerous to her see through it? And if, as she is told by her doctor at one point, that she is not the only woman living the way she is, that there is “nothing unusual” about her choice, why doesn’t she run into any of these other women? It feels that her secret is alternately urgently well-hidden or not so necessarily hidden depending on the circumstance, and the differences feel more contrived for plot than realistic consistency.

Realism is not necessary for the success of a fictionalized biography such as this one, but believability is, and there are so many coincidences in the book, especially in the second half, that for me that crucial believability became strained to the point of frustration at several crucial points in the story. In some ways it was fun to see all the artifacts and details packed into the book – the historical speculation that Charley was the only woman to vote in the US during her lifetime; myriad locations from Rhode Island to Sacramento to San Francisco to Soquel to Watsonville; Transcendetalism; saloons and chewing tobacco and sound horse knowledge and relevant social issues and events; even the preserved head of Joaquin Murrieta! But in other ways the novel had a kitchen sink feel, and more importantly, a sense that the book could not decide whether it wanted to be a serious, even heartbreaking, examination of prejudice and social identity or an indulgently pulpy historical melodrama. Even the prose shifted from banal to lyrical to purple:

Byrne had heard that old Charley Parkhurst was one of Wells Fargo’s most adept drivers…that he could get his coach along twisting roads in the dead of night as a dog can follow a trail by his nose.

. . .

It was March of 1812, the month when wagon-ruts were filled with cold, dark puddles – the month of mud and suicide in New England.

. . .

She tried to take all this in. That the woman in her had died in anguish and a vengeful man had been born in her place apparently brooked no notice of the universe. Nor had the universe even blinked in the absorption into itself of her tragedy.

And speaking of tragedy, there is a lot of it in this book. During the first half of the book, I felt that the darkness was effective at engaging my emotions and empathy. But the second half, where the tension between Charley’s tragic past and the almost ebullient indulgence of her masculine identity creates some over-the-top melodrama, I felt like The Whip was drawing on a number of stereotypes of life in 19^th C America more than constructing a believable tale about a complex and provocatively fascinating character. Consequently, my experience of the book was mixed and while I’m glad I read it, I cannot recommend it without reservations. C+

~ Janet

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Players’ Club: Scott

The Players’ Club is an urban legend of men jetting around [...]]]> This post reviews all three Players’ Club books, two of which are available now and one which is set to be released digitally on February 1, 2012. I will say that if you read one, you’ll have to read them all.

Players’ Club: Scott

The Players’ Club is an urban legend of men jetting around the world, throwing amazing parties, playing huge pranks, or so Scott Ferrell  thinks, but when he stumbles upon the monthly meeting he refuses to leave until they reveal the truth to him.  The Player’s Club was formed by two friends named Lincoln and Finn and they ask one question: “When was the last time you did something that made you feel as though your life was worth getting out of bed for? ”

Scott can’t recall. His life is okay but he’s never really asserted himself.   His co workers think he’s dull.  His last girlfriend dumped him for being too nice.  The Player’s Club offers Scott an opportunity to push his boundaries.  The problem is that his cute neighbor, Amanda,  was on the fire escape watching the same shenanigans as he was and when pressed, Scott admits to the existence of the Player’s Club to impress her.  And it does.  Amanda is a planner.  She is never without a list and a clear idea of where she wants to be tomorrow but ristk taker she is not.  Scott and his introduction into the Player’s Club gives her a chance to experience some risk, within boundaries.

The two get swept up in the Player’s Club until they aren’t sure whether their emotion for each other is from this emotional high of risk taking or something deeper.  There was something charming about the lack of smoothness in Scott and Amanda’s interactions.  They both are nice people but their niceness has been perceived as a weakness.  In trying to remake himself, Scott becomes something else: “He’d been so worried about not being a ‘nice guy’—so intent on being the badass he thought Amanda wanted—that he’d become the opposite. Selfish, insensitive. Cruel. ”

Amanda had to find a backbone and Scott had to discover how you could be a nice guy and still get the girl.  It was a fun and sweet story, albeit driven by a hokey concept of a rich man’s frat club.  B-

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Players’ Club: Lincoln

This story read to me about the redemption of socialite, Juliana Mayfield, whose entire worth is wrapped up in being famous. She learns to let go of fame, to be a person of worth based upon her own actions (and not the measurement of others).   Talking with Sarah Wendell about this book in our podcast leads me to believe that how much a reader likes this book depends a lot upon how they view Juliana. I liked Juliana’s redemptive path but Sarah did not. The unhappy socialite is no different to me that the world weary billionaire which is a standard staple of romance.  Juliana decides that she’ll infiltrate The Player’s Club and try to sell the reality tv version of it because Juliana has no money and this is her last ploy to stay relevant.

Part of why I liked this story is because Juliana knows that her search for fame is empty but she doesn’t feel like she has any other options. Of course she does, but at the beginning of the book she can’t see those options.  That’s not the worldview everyone around her, including her dilettante parents, holds.  Over the course of getting to know The Players’ Club, particularly Lincoln and another new initiate, Juliana begins to see how truly empty her quest to remain with the “in” crowd is.

Lincoln I liked less.  Lincoln was wealthy and viewed Juliana with contempt.  He treated her as if she wasn’t worth being the gum under his shoe, yet he couldn’t wait to take her to bed.  I have little appreciation for men like that.  At some point, the tables turn. Juliana becomes sympathetic and Lincoln begins to realize his assumptions about Juliana might be incorrect.  C+

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Players’ Club: Finn

This was my least favorite but mostly because I felt like Finn was a rich guy without a clue. I didn’t understand his unhappiness.  He had it all.  A ton of money.  Great friends. As many women as he could want.  Yet, he was disenchanted with life and began taking increasing risks in his adventures.  His father sends in the family lawyer to rescue Finn from himself.  Diana has spent her adult life trying to repay Finn’s father for the chance that he gave her.  She’s the fixer for the family and this time it is Finn that needs fixing.  Diana is portrayed as the Hard Ass Asian, kind of Tiger Mom wannabe, which I loved.  What I was frustrated by was that the HA Asian portrayal wasn’t internally consistent (maybe this is because Diana is only half Chinese?)  When Diana was having all these soft moments in the middle of the book, I might have yelled, err, raised my voice at the portrayal.  HA Asian wouldn’t be crying all the time. HA Asian’s don’t cry!!

Diana’s early breakdowns diminished the tension and build up that could have been.  If she had held on to her emotions until the penultimate scene (before the denouement) when she would realize that her course of action would lead to loneliness and that her obligation had been fulfilled, then the outpouring would have been so much more powerful.  Instead, I felt that it was a cop out, as if a heroine can’t be hard, cold, and resisting whereas a hero can.  My dislike for this story may be more about how I wanted the story to read rather than a failure of the story to deliver but in the end, I have to give it a C.

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I liked the blurb for this book.  The heroine is the daughter of famous CIA agents who have retired. Janey DeMarco works in the family agency that does everything from surveillance to retrieval of kidnapped victims.  Their agency’s services are wide ranging, almost too wide ranging in my opinion. I had a [...]]]> Dear Ms. Julian:

I liked the blurb for this book.  The heroine is the daughter of famous CIA agents who have retired. Janey DeMarco works in the family agency that does everything from surveillance to retrieval of kidnapped victims.  Their agency’s services are wide ranging, almost too wide ranging in my opinion. I had a hard time getting a handle on exactly the nature of this agency as if it was deliberately opaque so that the agency would have the mutability to change according to the needs of the series.  In this book, it seemed as if there were only but a few operatives to carry off the extensive agency business.

Much is made of the DeMarco parents’ past. They are legendary in the CIA and with other government agencies but their name has appeared in conjunction with gun sales to terrorists.  Malcolm Laughlin is sent in, by himself, undercover to ferret out the DeMarco secrets by posing as a new hiree.  Mal and Janey strike sparks off each other, but given that Mal is lying to her the whole time, their relationship is premised on untruths.  Frankly, the HEA ending didn’t work for me because of the quickness of the resolution given the length and number of lies that Mal told.

I did like the emotional conflicts.  Mal was torn between his growing belief that the DeMarcos could not possibly be guilty and the need to see justice done for his now dead partner who was shot in a botched undercover gun deal. He liked all the DeMarcos, from the parents to the hard ass older brother and the mad genius young brother, not to mention his inappropriate feelings toward Janey.  Janey was frustrated with the mundane roles she played at the agency. Her parents and brothers were over protective and Janey felt stifled by their attitudes and strafed at the familial bonds.  She is being recruited by the NSA to go work in their computer division but she is reluctant to leave the firm, particularly given the recent health scare of her father.

It seems EVERYONE in this book has mad computer/hacking skills  but Janey was portrayed as nothing more than an office administrator. I know good ones are hard to find, but recruited by the NSA:

These days, Janey barely left the office. She sat in front of a computer most days, dealing with clients or various government agencies.

There were some world building details that bothered me.  Why was Janey being recruited by NSA when she was suspected of a serious crime?   I had a hard time believing that the DeMarco’s agency was very good given that Mal could root around the computers, enter a pristine tech lab, and basically steal information from the agency without any one knowing.

The main suspense offered in this story (other than Mal’s snooping) is finding the stalker of a famous movie producer.  The identity of the stalker seemed so obvious or at least the purported agency didn’t seem to do much to discover the stalker except to follow the director around.

Mal and Janey and everyone is likeable and their chemistry seemed genuine.  I’m intrigued by the other romances that are set up and would probably be interested in reading the DeMarco mom and dad’s romance. However, as much as this is a decent read, it didn’t stick with me and I was vaguely unsatisfied by the ending.  C+

Best regards,

Jane

When deciding on a romance novel to read, if there is something out of the ordinary about it, I’m more likely to give it a second glance. It still might not make the cut but it has a better chance. Halifax, Nova Scotia in 1917 with WWI still raging, a heroine hoping [...]]]> Dear Ms. Marsland,

When deciding on a romance novel to read, if there is something out of the ordinary about it, I’m more likely to give it a second glance. It still might not make the cut but it has a better chance. Halifax, Nova Scotia in 1917 with WWI still raging, a heroine hoping for a hero whom she never thought would be interested in her and a looming event which changed the town forever definitely is different.

In the six months since injured Liam Cochrane returned from the battlefields of France, not much makes him want to dream. Instead he prefers to spend his time trying to find a bottle and have a good time. Not so much to get drunk as to avoid making any choices about his future. Though his family doesn’t blame him for coming back when his younger brother didn’t, Liam blames himself and between that, the shell shock he knows he’s still not over, and his badly damaged leg he’s just not ready to move on with his life.

Alice O’Neill has been in love with Liam for years, though she’s never said a word and has tried not to give her secret away. Her family might be socially a bit above his but she knows that a woman who can’t read can’t aspire to much more than being either a housekeeper for her parents or settling as a wife to a man she’ll never love. Her ne’er-do-well, belligerent brother’s unexpected return from France doesn’t help the home life situation either.

As Alice keeps coming into his life, will Liam finally see the woman she is now instead of the girl he barely remembers? And if he can win her love, will it be ruined when a secret from his past appears?

The best thing about this book is how real Liam and Alice are to me. They aren’t perfect people by any means. They make mistakes. But then who doesn’t? Their slowly blossoming love feels realistic and I enjoy that they take their time about it and aren’t about to rush into anything. Perhaps Alice is a bit too forgiving and understanding about Liam’s issues and the blast from his past but then she’s already loved him for years and has realized that nothing has changed her feelings in the months since he returned, even if she didn’t hold out any hope of a relationship with him. What clinched it for me is when Liam thinks that with Alice now he is actually looking forward to the future instead of just looking for a way to get through it.

Not everything works for me though. Alice’s issues with her learning disabilities are mainly told in past tense with only a few nods to how she copes now. Carl O’Neill is obviously being set up for his own book, which I realized before reading the notice about it, but his character never interests me much and during his page time, all I wanted to do was get back to Liam and Alice. The issue facing Liam from his time on leave in England also seemed contrived and merely there for page padding purposes.

As the book progressed, I noticed a lack of foreshadowing of the Halifax explosion. Of course the townspeople wouldn’t have known it was coming but I kind of liked that you didn’t Drop Clues or Point Arrows towards what was in store for the city. Yet when it did – finally! – occur, it also seemed an afterthought to the main issues of the book. Explosion, a little wandering around as the characters tried to find friends and loved ones then – poof – the book jumps past it to the epilogue. Kind of seemed like a let down after I anticipated it for so long.

I enjoyed the realism of not only the main characters but the secondary ones as well. The historical feel of the book is good. And I always like to see a heroine who never thought she would get her happy ending. I just wish that some of the plot threads didn’t seem so superficial and quickly disposed of. C+

~Jayne

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I didn’t pick up the first title in this series. I think I was put off by the concept of the Ministry of Marriage (although that’s probably why the series was bought by the publisher).  The Ministry of Marriage (and the fact that is has a name) is this [...]]]> Dear Ms. Brooke (aka Christine Wells):

I didn’t pick up the first title in this series. I think I was put off by the concept of the Ministry of Marriage (although that’s probably why the series was bought by the publisher).  The Ministry of Marriage (and the fact that is has a name) is this corny idea where the old folks get together and arrange marriages for the young folk. Some of the old folks aren’t all that old.  The Duke of Montford, the central figure in the Ministry of Marriage, is in his 40s. The stories are about the wacky hijinks of getting the kids together and showing how clever the olds are at matching them up.

The Duke of Montford has a collection of five wards.  This was the confusing part of the story to me.  In the first two chapters there are a slew of new characters and many of them were related and had similar titles.  Lord deVere is a Baron and the hero is from the deVere family and he is the Earl of Tregarth.  The heroine’s cousin is the Marquess of Steyne who is also referred to by the name Westruther and then there was his cousin the Viscount of Westruther. And so on and so forth. I eventually went to your website and gleaned some understanding from the minimal family tree information that was provided but I was irritated that it wasn’t better explained in the book itself.  Maybe a family tree would have been helpful or a cast list?

Rosamund Westruther had been betrothed to Griffin deVere in the summer of 1812.  She was thrilled. She gazed at his tiny portrait, an odd and not very attractive compilation of features, often imagining his lovely proposal and his sweet, soft betrothal kiss.  What she hadn’t bargained for was the beast of a man to not want to marry her.  When she overhears deVere’s grandfather speaking with Montford about deVere’s reluctance, she has the choice to flee in tears or fight.  She chooses to fight which completely baffles Griffin.  He cannot believe that Rosamund, a woman so beautiful that men stop in their tracks just to gape at her, would be interested in him.

“Fury burned through him, the same kind of frustrated anger that ultimately crashed in after an encounter with a willing bit of muslin.  Those women never cared what he looked like as long as he paid handsomely for their favors.”

Yes, he wanted her so much, he was near crazed with it.  But he hated the feeling. The hurt and resentment of it tangled inside him until he couldn’t see straight.  And that same impulse that made schoolboys pull pretty girls’ hair made him step toward her, boxing her in between his body and the stone wall behind her.

She didn’t shrink back or cry out or weep.  She simply looked up into his face.

While I enjoyed the sentiment his “want her so much, he was near crazed with it” occurred on page 18 of the book and merely minutes after their first encounter.  This represents the problems I had with much of the book.  Every emotion was troweled on but dealt with superficially.

Griffin thinks of himself as a lout, a brute and that no woman could ever find him desirable.  We never see any one snubbing Griffin nor are we shown why he believes that women would hold him in disgust.  When he bursts onto the London scene every one of Rosamund’s family views him as the stablehand but he’s not dressed appropriately and he had just come from the stable.  Unfortunately for Griffin, he needs something from Rosamund.  In exchange, she wrings an agreement from him to court her.

My main complaint (other than the hook) was that I didn’t feel that the story went deep enough into the emotional conflict.  The resolution was too easy.  Griffin’s big character change was believing that Rosamund loved him but I didn’t feel like Griffin’s insecurity manifested itself in other ways.  Rosamund read as a more static character for me.  While the interactions were lovely between the two, the plot moves along more by external threats to their relationship rather than internal angst.  It’s a sweet and sexy romance but it doesn’t have a stickiness of other stories.  Still, I am a sucker for a beauty and the beast story.  C+

Best regards,

Jane

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I purchased this book on a Kindle Daily Deal, I think. It’s regularly priced at $4.99 and while I felt that $4.99 was a bit too pricey for DA_January’s budget, I could spend two dollars and not hate myself in the morning for buying it. From This Moment On was extremely readable, [...]]]> Dear Ms. Andre,

I purchased this book on a Kindle Daily Deal, I think. It’s regularly priced at $4.99 and while I felt that $4.99 was a bit too pricey for DA_January’s budget, I could spend two dollars and not hate myself in the morning for buying it. From This Moment On was extremely readable, but at the end, I think I respected myself a little less for enjoying it, because I shouldn’t have. The storyline is saccharine sweet and almost unbelievable, and the hero and heroine are very one note.

From This Moment On is the romance of Marcus Sullivan and Nico the pop star. Marcus is part of the Sullivan clan. They are a cross between the Bridgertons and the Village People, in that there are eight siblings of eight varying jobs and each sibling will get their own book. There is the fireman (book three), the world-famous photographer (book one), the rich Vineyard owner (this book), the pro baseball player, the movie star, the automotive whiz who owns a chain of auto stores, and two sisters. The sisters are a choreographer and a librarian. If I am a Sullivan sister, I am thinking I got a raw deal. The Sullivans are the basis of the series, of course, and it feels a bit contrived. Like Romance Pokemon, readers must collect them all.

Nico is a pop star. She goes by Nicola during her downtime. She is very young and likes to lounge around in her pajamas at home when she gets free time. She doesn’t like parties and clubbing because she is a nice girl despite being a sex kitten pop star. In her last relationship, her boyfriend took advantage of her fame and took some risque photos of the two of them in an intimate embrace, and they surfaced on the internet. Now, Nicola doesn’t trust men and she has a scandalous reputation, which makes her even more famous.

Marcus Sullivan is the hero, and he’s 36 and owns a winery. He’s recently gotten out of a two year relationship with a woman that cheated on him. He decides that he’s going to go to a club and pick up a woman. Nicola has also decided that she’s going to live the wild pop star life and go to a club and pick up a man. They of course, pick up each other. After exchanging two or three sentences, they get in a cab and head out to Marcus’s place. And thus the romance begins.

There were so many instances that strained belief in this story that it would take forever for me to go through them. Nicola, who claims to not trust men, is falling asleep in Marcus’s arms moments after she has met him. She has sex with him in public places and lets him tie her hands, even though her last boyfriend abused her trust. This did not seem like the reactions of a woman who had her trust violated, because she blindly obeys every edict Marcus gives her.

Marcus is a bit of a creeper. He’s 11 years older than Nicola, and is very take charge in the bedroom. I couldn’t help but feel that he was going to take over other aspects of Nicola’s life very shortly, like the Jason Trawick to Nicola’s Britney Spears. After they had been together for a week, he was giving Nicola career advice (because vineyard owners know so much about pop music, I suppose) and even worse, she was taking it.

I should have hated this book.  I thought Nico was a cleaned up, unrealistic version of a pop star. I thought Marcus was singular and overbearing. But I read the book in one sitting, and found it enjoyable despite the myriad flaws. You have a compelling, light voice and though your characters do have a sameness to them, I thought it was readable and pleasant. When the characters got together, it was sexy, and I felt the storyline was straightforward. There were no ridiculous, convoluted storylines to keep the characters apart. It was a very simple story about two very different people getting together. And while their jobs made me roll my eyes, I didn’t mind the read. I even bought other books in the series, because I guess I am a fan of Romance Pokemon after all.

C+

All best,

January

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Thank you for sending me “Unraveled” for review. I have enjoyed (but been somewhat critical) of your past works but your novella, “Unlocked,” was one of my best reads of 2011. Smite’s book was hotly anticipated. Part of the problem I had with “Unraveled” was the result of my own expectations and [...]]]> Dear Ms. Milan:

Thank you for sending me “Unraveled” for review. I have enjoyed (but been somewhat critical) of your past works but your novella, “Unlocked,” was one of my best reads of 2011. Smite’s book was hotly anticipated. Part of the problem I had with “Unraveled” was the result of my own expectations and anticipation. I had created my own vision of Smite prior to “Unraveled” through my glimpses of him in “Unclaimed” and “Unveiled.” Smite, to me, was a closed off man who held rigid beliefs and allowed only his younger brother any kind of intimacy, either physical or emotional.

Smite in “Unraveled” met those expectations up until he began to interact with the heroine, Miranda, in chapter 2. From there I felt like I was taking a number of unsupported emotional leaps to get Miranda and Smite together, to get them both past their dark moments, and then into their HEA. I don’t know whether I would have bought into these emotional movements more if I hadn’t had preconceived notions about Smite.

Miranda is wig maker who lives in the Temple Parish, a slum protected by an unknown person named the Patron. If you do favors for the Patron, the Patron provides you with protection. This allows Miranda to live, work, and walk unmolested in this very bad part of town. Miranda is an educated young woman. Her father was the owner of a theater troupe, her mother an actress. Her family fell on hard times when Miranda’s mother died. Bereft of his soul mate, her father goes into decline and the theatre troupe falls apart and the source of the family income dissipates entirely. Miranda has made a meager life for herself and a young boy she adopted from the disbanded troupe. She tries to keep Robbie away from the more unsavory elements in the Temple Parish but as he advances in age (12) it becomes increasingly difficult.

As part of her deal with the Patron, Miranda uses her experience in the theatre to create different personas and she uses those personas to get disadvantaged youth out of trouble with the magistrates. Unfortunately, one of those magistrates is Smite and he recognizes her through her paint, her wigs, her clothes as someone who had appeared before him previously in a different incarnation. Smite takes his job seriously to treat the poor and the rich, the pretty and the misshapen, all with the same measure of justice unlike the other magistrates who either view justice as something to be sold or are too lazy to work at finding the truth. He knows that she is about to perjure herself and prevents her from doing it. He also seeks her out to impress upon her that she must stop or he will enforce justice upon her.

But there is something about Miranda that Smite finds compelling. So compelling that within a short time after meeting her, Smite offers to make her his mistress for a period of thirty days. Smite explains that he will set a time limit because he only allows himself a rationed amount of sentimentality.

Despite the fact that she is a virgin and despite that she slapped Robbie across the face just a few pages back for accusing her of selling herself to Smite, Miranda is delighted by Smite’s offer and moves into his newly purchased house forthwith.

I’m baffled. Why didn’t she sell herself before? Why was she so angry at the suggestion of selling herself but then readily accepts Smite’s offer? At one point, Miranda is described as “happier when your relationships can be framed in terms of commerce.  You never accept help from anyone.”  If that is true, I didn’t understand why Miranda didn’t choose the courtesan/mistress option previously. Was it simply not an option for her?

And what is it about Miranda, this person who does not have the same strict interpretation of the law, that attracts Smite to the point that he acts out of character?  Later I understand that Miranda moves Smite in ways he didn’t expect because she doesn’t try to fix him; because she doesn’t see him as flawed or broken or something to be changed.

“My brother. Mark.” He twined his hand with hers. “There is no former mistress, Miranda Darling. There have been affairs, mind, but they never lasted long. Usually, she decides I’m stoic and cold only because I have been unlucky in love. She thinks she’ll be the one to melt through my defenses. She thinks that she can fix everything that is wrong with me by simply weeping over me. It lasts until she realizes I won’t spend the night, she can’t touch my face, and I despise women who weep for no reason. I have no tolerance for maudlin affection, and less for women who want to fix me.”

“Fix you?” Miranda said. “Why would anyone need to fix you? You’re not broken.”

“That’s precisely what I’ve always said.” He slid down to lie next to her. “Oddly, few people ever believe me.”

“I know what broken is,” Miranda said. “My father was broken, after my mother died. He just stopped working. He wouldn’t sleep. Wouldn’t eat. Wouldn’t even get out of bed. He just lay there and cried.”

“Good heavens. How long did it last?”

“Three years.”

“Three…three years.” He shifted to face her. “Three years.”

“I told you I know what broken is. That is broken—staring at the wall and weeping, while creditors hammer on the door and your troupe slowly slips away, stealing the best costumes in lieu of wages. When your friends leave you and you still cannot move, and nothing your daughter says can break you out of the spell. No man is broken because bad things happen to him. He’s broken because he doesn’t keep going after those things happen. When you told me about your mother, and how it made you resolve to be the person you are… What I thought was, ‘Yes, please, I’ll take him.’ Because you didn’t break.”

There was a pause. He propped himself up on one elbow and then picked up the watch he’d left on the bedside table.

“Would you know,” he said, his tone a bit more businesslike, “this conversation has officially exceeded my daily quota for mawkish sentimentality. That’s it, then.”

“Quota?” she said. “What are you talking about?”

“My sentimentality quota. There’s a limit as to how much sentiment I will tolerate in a day. I’ve just reached it.”

“It’s not—” she glanced at the watch in his hands “—not yet three in the morning. And this is…a special occasion.”

“Nevertheless, we’re done. As much as my pride loves to be puffed up, I’d appreciate it if you could refrain from further compliments. And definitely no protestations of love—that would put me off for a good long while.”

There were portions of the book I loved, including the dialogue exchanges between Smite and Miranda.  Yet, I didn’t understand why Smite was suddenly telling Miranda all his secrets.  Or maybe his past, his night terrors, his fears, weren’t secrets.  They seemed secrets in previous books but maybe they were just secrets in previous books to build suspense for this book?  The speed at which Miranda and Smite fell in love; the speed at which Smite unbent; the speed at which Miranda fell into Smite’s bed, all happened too fast for me.   I felt like I understood where you wanted to go in your book such as awaken a character to how the rigidity of one position could be harmful but I never felt convinced once I got there.  The movements from emotional transition to emotional transition were missing.

I also was taken aback by the numerosity of love scenes.  For a great portion of the middle part of the book I felt like it was one love scene after another and while it was well done, I wasn’t sure why the movement of the book took place in bed for large swaths.

I did like the contrast between the justice handed out by the Patron and that by Smite, that justice done in secret and in the dark was unstable and uncertain and didn’t actually achieve the goals it sought. Justice shouldn’t make someone like Miranda afraid.  That part of the book was well conceived from beginning to end.   The prose is lovely in the book. I loved the dialogue.  I thought that the questioning of the concept of justice and who administers it was well done.  It was the romance that felt rushed. C+

Best regards,

Jane

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I’ve been reading your books since I discovered Beauty and the Spy back in 2006. Beauty and the Spy is still on my keeper shelf, and three others of your books have since joined it: The Secret to Seduction, I Kissed an Earl, and What I Did for a Duke. What’s more, [...]]]> Dear Ms. Long,

I’ve been reading your books since I discovered Beauty and the Spy back in 2006. Beauty and the Spy is still on my keeper shelf, and three others of your books have since joined it: The Secret to Seduction, I Kissed an Earl, and What I Did for a Duke. What’s more, I’ve read every book you’ve published since then. Even those I haven’t kept I have generally enjoyed or appreciated, so I am sad to say that your latest entry in the Pennyroyal Green series, How the Marquess Was Won, did not live up to my hopes.

How the Marquess Was Won opens with a man stumbling into Pennyroyal Green’s pub, the Pig & Thistle. The man has been shot and when Chase and Colin Eversea rush to his aid, he identifies himself as the Marquess Dryden. Julian Spenser, the marquess, appears close to death, and although his reputation as a cool customer, “Lord Ice,” precedes him, he cannot stop talking about a woman who appears to have devastated him in some fashion. Chase sends for the vicar, an Eversea cousin, and the action then shifts six weeks back in time.

Phoebe Vale and “Jules,” as Dryden is called, first meet in Postlethwaite’s Emporium of Lady’s Goods. Phoebe, a schoolteacher, jokes with Mr. Postlethwaite, pretending to be wealthy. The two also gossip about Lord Ice, whose exploits are detailed in the London broadsheets, emulated by many young men and sought after by young women. Though Pheobe has never met the reckless Dryden, she believes she is an expert in that subject.

While at Postlethwaite’s, Phoebe picks up a letter from Lisbeth Redmond, a former pupil now being courted by Dryden. Apparently Lisbeth’s parents are in Italy and her mother wants Phoebe to act as “a suitable friend or chaperone” at a two day house party in the home of her aunt and uncle, Isaiah and Fanchette Redmond.

(I found this puzzling since surely Lisbeth’s aunt would have been a more appropriate chaperone than a twenty-two year old schoolteacher who, as we later learn, spent her early childhood in Seven Dials).

Phoebe is pondering the offer, inclined to accept, when who should arrive at Postlethwaite’s but none other than Dryden himself. He carefully selects a silk fan whose intended recipient is surely Lisbeth Redmond. Waterburn, a viscount with a penchant for wagering, enters the shop shortly afterward, and wagers Dryden that he cannot steal a kiss from the “unkissable” Phoebe.

A hurt Phoebe leaves Postlethwaite’s intending to turn down Lisbeth’s offer, but she runs into Dryden again when he arrives at her place of work, Miss Endicott’s academy for young ladies. Dryden is there on the behalf of a recalcitrant niece, and Miss Endicott asks Phoebe to give him a tour of the academy. There Jules and Phoebe make a connection – each manages to surprise the other – and Phoebe is well on her way to being in love with Jules, so much so that she not only reverses her decision about attending the house party, but also thinking—though she rejects the thought—that he is meant for her.

As for Jules (who is far from being reckless as his reputation suggests and has amassed the fortune his father lost only through very careful planning), he too is smitten, though it takes him a long, long time to recognize it. But he does realize that he wants to impress the startling Miss Vale, and once the house party gets underway, he spends an unseemly amount of time in Phoebe’s company, endangering his plans to marry Lisbeth.

Yet Jules is determined to marry Lisbeth. It so happens that Lisbeth’s dowry is the last piece of land that once belonged to Jules’ family. Because Jules cannot let go of that piece of land, and because there is no other way to obtain it than to marry Lisbeth, he believes that no matter how he feels about Phoebe, he can’t offer her a place in his life except as his mistress. But when Waterburn makes another wager, this one with the potential to damage Phoebe, things become complicated…

Several weaknesses kept me from loving this book. The foremost is the speed with which Phoebe and Jules fell in love (It happens within a day or two of their first meeting). It’s not that I don’t believe in love in first sight. I do. But to sell me on love at practically first sight in a book is exceptionally hard, and in this case I wasn’t sold.

As a consequence, the falling in love part of the book felt rushed, and the result was that the chemistry between Jules and Phoebe seemed forced. While I very much liked Phoebe and very much liked Jules, I just didn’t care all that much about the two of them as a couple. And since I felt detached from the fate of their relationship, I wasn’t all that engaged in the narrative.

Another problem was that despite Phoebe’s thoughts about how people are more complex than surface appearance would indicate, but for two or three exceptions, the side characters came across as flat. There’s not much depth to Lisbeth or such members of the ton as Waterburn, d’Andre, and the Silverton twins. Sophia Licari, who was such a memorable “other woman” in The Secret to Seduction, makes an encore appearance here but shows little of the facets that made her so interesting in the earlier book.

Jonathan Redmond does show a glimmer of depth, and Olivia Eversea is as intense as ever. The most interesting side character to me, even off stage, is Lyon Redmond, but I think that has a lot to do with his terrific portrayal in I Kissed an Earl and the fact that ever since I found out his reasons for staying away from Olivia, I’ve been dying to see more of him. Alas, he does not actually appear in How the Marquess Was Won, nor does his sister Violet.

I don’t recall reading about Lisbeth, a Redmond who is cousin to Lyon, Violet and Jonathan, before this book. It’s possible I did and I just don’t remember. In any case, I think I would have felt more invested in the triangle between Phoebe, Jules and Lisbeth if I had remembered Lisbeth from earlier books or if she’d been a Redmond sibling. It is hard to have much sympathy for her, and while that makes it easier to root for Pheobe and Jules, it also makes the central conflict feel less significant.

For example, a scene in which Jules and Phoebe are nearly caught kissing in the woods dragged instead of riveting me. In addition, Jules’ determination to marry Lisbeth at all costs did not seem in keeping with his perceptiveness. It was easy for me to see through Lisbeth so I felt he should have been able to do so sooner. I understand that Phoebe’s background was unsuitable for a marchioness but surely Jules could have found another well-born girl to engage himself to, one who was more tolerable than Lisbeth. Yes, Lisbeth had the land he wanted, but she was so clearly not a match for him.

Perhaps because I was less engaged in this book than in earlier ones in this series, I found the anachronisms more glaring. I was able to gloss over some of them, but one in particular stood out: a botched waltz between Jules and Lisbeth starts a fad reminiscent of disco. Some readers may find this cute, but I was pulled out of the story each time the fad was mentioned.

It may sound like I didn’t enjoy or appreciate anything about this book, but that would not be true. I appreciated that the prose was as usual, much above average, with many lovely turns of phrase. And I enjoyed, albeit mildly, getting to know Jules and Phoebe. Each was sympathetic and appealing, Jules careful and methodical in his focus on keeping his promise to restore his mother’s dowry to her family, Phoebe at once young and filled with wonder yet clever, crafty, and also careful, in her own way. Both guarded their hearts and had no one to whom to “surrender their cares” which made me want to see them find happiness.

I just wish I could have felt more invested in Phoebe and Jules’ romantic relationship. Because I didn’t, much as it pains me, I cannot grade How the Marquess Was Won higher than a C/C+.

Sincerely,

Janine

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I am a huge fan of your work and there is rarely a book in your bibliography I haven’t responded favorably to.  I’ve even lamented about the fact that your work doesn’t seem to be getting the proper attention.  I am also a fan of the langourous fashion in which some of [...]]]> Dear Ms. Goodman:

I am a huge fan of your work and there is rarely a book in your bibliography I haven’t responded favorably to.  I’ve even lamented about the fact that your work doesn’t seem to be getting the proper attention.  I am also a fan of the langourous fashion in which some of your books unspool, like a beautifully crafted scroll slowly unwinding.

However A Place Called Home takes langourous storytelling to new levels and the unwinding was so slow that I felt like I had only moved a few millimeters after 100 pages.  Mitchell Baker and Thea Wyndham are thrown together when their friends die and leave them the guardians of three children.  Neither Mitch or Thea want to be the parents.  Mitch is close to proposing to his girlfriend and Thea is engaged to a wealthy older man.  Mitch proposes a shared custodial situation whereas Thea wants to visit.  Thea resists heavily and Mitch reluctantly agrees to be the primary care provider.

Mitchell and Thea have been pushed together several times by their friends but neither bit.  However, Thea hasn’t been immune to Mitch.  She’s always been uncomfortable around him because her attraction to him made her uncomfortable.

Mitch’s relationship with his girlfriend, Gina, is strained when he takes on three children. He doesn’t have time to date her or bed her.  Thea begins to reexamine her relationship with her fiance Joel. She doesn’t love him and likely he doesn’t love her but they are comfortable together.

In many ways, I felt that this was more mainstream fiction than romance because the focus isn’t the relationship between Mitch and Thea but their coping with becoming unexpected parents and growing into responsibilities they weren’t prepared for.  For Mitch, there is no longer any sleeping in, there is dealing with a depressed and distraught preteen eleven year old girl and twin boys.  No longer thinking of himself first and everyone else second. No sexy Gina in his bed.  Mitch learns how to be a dad in a matter of days and weeks instead of years.  For Thea it is just coping and coming to terms with her secret (why this was hidden for so long is a mystery to me and I think aided the unreasonably slow unwinding of the story).  Thea perhaps because of her problems is more understanding and more patient than Mitch and thus turns out to be more adept at parenting than Mitch.

The story starts picking up speed around page 100 or so and honestly if I hadn’t been a fan of your work in the past, I doubt I would have made it this far.  The dialogue of the story is smart and the emotions are strong and thoughtful.

“I’m apologizing.  Again.”

Thea smiled. “I’m not keeping score.”

“Good.”

“Not on the number of apologies,” she said. “I like to judge them in terms of form and contrition.”

“How’d I do?”

“Not bad. I give it a seven.”

He laughed. “I hope that’s on a ten scale. I lost points for my late delivery, didn’t I?”

She nodded.  ”You appeared properly abashed but there was a certain lack of responsibility in your language.”

Max and Thea’s respect for each other deepens, bonded by their loss and gain and their new mistakes and triumphs.  The attraction that likely simmered between them for ten years is given full release.

Yet the ending was so conventional, particularly as it relates to the jilted fiances.  How Harlequin, I thought (no offense Harlequin).  Then there was the triteness associated with some of the sexual situations (Thea had never been able to orgasm with someone before Mitch).

Thea is a complicated heroine and one not written about often. I recall a Kathleen Gilles Seidel book featuring a country singer who had a pill problem but female protagonists don’t often have these types of problems.  From the outside Thea may have looked perfect. Gina, Mitch’s girlfriend, envied Thea’s glossy perfection but the Thea that the readers know is a tentative, scared, and uneasy person who is so afraid to love anyone who she thinks she could hurt that she copes by staying away.  Both Thea and Mitch were  portrayed as flawed and vulnerable, both learning to be  better than even their own expectations. In the end, despite my problems in the beginning, it was a charming romance. Too bad about the slow pacing and the triteness of some of the plot points.  C+

Best regards,

Jane

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Steampunk is that subgenre I want to love, that I think has so much potential. Unfortunately, we have a rocky relationship. I’ve attempted to read too many novels in which the steampunk trappings are superficial — put a pair of goggles on someone, mention an airship, and have someone drink some tea seem [...]]]> Dear Authors,

Steampunk is that subgenre I want to love, that I think has so much potential. Unfortunately, we have a rocky relationship. I’ve attempted to read too many novels in which the steampunk trappings are superficial — put a pair of goggles on someone, mention an airship, and have someone drink some tea seem to be all that’s required. It can be disappointing.

This anthology, however, spans the gamut of what steampunk can offer. From the South Pacific or ancient Rome, it takes us to places beyond the traditional Victorian England setting. Some stories take place in the modern day; others in the far-flung future on an outpost-like planet. In total, Steampunk! collects twelve stories and two short comics. For the purposes of this review, I’ll only be covering the included short stories simply because my review copy mangled the comic formatting so badly I could barely follow what was going on.

“Some Fortunate Future Day” by Cassandra Clare
The opening story is surprisingly creepy. The protagonist is a teenage girl who’s been living alone for some time. Her father went off to war, and she has no idea if he’s ever coming back. The only thing keeping her company in that big, empty house are the automatons her father made for her. That is, they did until the day an injured soldier comes crawling out of the forest and into her garden.

I thought this story did a great job showing how the innocent can transform into something menacing. It starts off on a normal, if melancholy, note but as it progresses, the tone becomes increasingly ominous. Things that seem harmless transform into the creepy and macabre. In the end, the protagonist — for all her faults — is a pitiful person, left alone and caught in a self-destructive cycle. B

“The Last Ride of the Glory Girls” by Libba Bray
My favorite story of the entire anthology, “Last Ride” takes place on an outpost planet, proving that even a sci-fi western can embody the heart and soul of steampunk. This tale is about a young woman who left her religious fundamentalist home and sought her fortune as a gifted tinkerer of technology. First, as a watchmaker’s apprentice, then as part of a investigative task force, she later goes undercover with a gang of female outlaws who rob trains courtesy of a gun that can stop time.

This short story reminded me of why I love Libba Bray’s writing and makes me want to give Beauty Queens another try. The strong voice of the narrator combined with the female outlaws and a heroine with a strong technological bent, it features so many of my favorite elements. I also loved how it interwove the present-day plot with the past events that drove the heroine to her present circumstances. A-

“Clockwore Fagin” by Cory Doctorow
I’ve heard a lot about Doctorow’s work so I read this story with interest. It tackles the disabled orphan trope of many a Victorian story, portraying children who’ve sustained injuries (lost limbs, lost extremities) from working on various forms of steampunk technology and are sent to an orphanage under the care and guidance of an abusive monster. The main story gets going, however, when a new orphan arrives and faces their caretaker head on.

I won’t say that this isn’t an interesting story nor will I say this isn’t a well-written story. It’s both of these things. But for all that, it left me feeling ambivalent. B-

“Hand in Glove” by Ysabeau S. Wilce
What’s a steampunk anthology without a mad scientist story? This story features a female detective who struggles not against sexism but against skepticism over her style of investigation — one that utilizes forensics (e.g. fingerprints and evidence) over beating confessions out of suspects (who, past a certain point, would admit to anything to make the pain stop). Her rival, the golden boy of the precinct, has just caught the perpetrator of a series of brutal stranglings. Our heroine, however, thinks he’s gotten the wrong guy because none of the evidence supports it but no one will believe her. Despite this, she won’t stop her own investigation because she refuses to let an innocent man hang.

This story was entertaining and over the top. It treaded just barely on this side of ludicrous and made it work all the more because of it. Overall, I thought it was a good story but the ending left me unsatisfied because it lacked that comeuppance of the golden boy rival for mocking the heroine. I admit I prefer that in my stories, realistic or not. B

“The Ghost of Cwnlech Manor” by Delia Sherman
This is the gothic offering of the anthology, complete with absent-minded heir of an established family, a young local woman who becomes the housekeeper, and a ghost who knows the location of the family treasure. Again, another well-written story but not particularly exciting. While I liked that the story didn’t walk the well-trodden “housekeeper falls for heir” storyline, I wish there’d been a little more life to the narrative. As far as I’m concerned, the best part of the story was the ghost. Poor thing. I’d be annoyed too if the person I’d been trying to reveal the location of the family treasure to completely explained away my existence and wouldn’t acknowledge it because he was a man of science. C

“Gethsemane” by Elizabeth Knox
Chronicling what happens to the denizens of a South Pacific town before a volcanic eruption, this is one of those stories where I knew it was referencing something while reading it. Unfortunately, not knowing the what it was actually referencing, I suspect a lot of the context went right over my head. I never connected with any of the characters nor cared what happened to any of them. Perhaps if I’d been familiar with the reference/event beforehand, my initial experience would have been different. As it is, my reaction can only be described as “meh.”C-

“The Summer People” by Kelly Link
In addition to being what I consider a characteristic Kelly Link story, this is also one that pushes what steampunk can be. More magic realism than outright genre SFF, it’s about a girl whose female ancestors have taken care of the local faeries for generations. The steampunk comes in with the faerie inventions that they bestow on their caretakers and people they like.

I liked “The Summer People” more for the ideas and concepts it introduces than for the feelings it left me. In the end, it’s about escaping the burdens parents leave their children and while that’s something I can understand, I also don’t like that often times in stories it means finding someone else to take your place. Sure, I’d like to think the replacement would be more willing and happy to do so, but there’s a part of me that dislikes a character for doing so. C+

“Peace in Our Time” by Garth Nix
I have a feeling this story is one that only Garth Nix fans would enjoy. While I thought the technology portrayed in the story was great, an example of how versatile steampunk can be, I thought it was depressing and there were parts of it I could not understand. I think it might have been better as a longer story. D

“Nowhere Fast” by Christopher Rowe
In a future where technology has broken down and the U.S. is divided into sectors, a group of teenagers meet a guy with a car. And I use the term “car” very loosely. But given the state of technology, this is a big deal that causes a ruckus among the local people and law enforcement. When I finished this story, I felt like it was an extended set-up that finished just as the main narrative was about to start. Disappointing. C-

“Steam Girl” by Dylan Horrocks
Similar to Kelly Link’s story in which it’s set in the modern day, “Steam Punk” tells the story of a high school outcast who befriends the new girl, another outcast who tells the awesome adventures about a young woman named “Steam Girl.” What I liked best about this story is that it can be read two ways. It can be about a girl telling stories about an alter-ego that lives an amazing, adventurous life to make her real life in high school bearable. At the same time, though, I think the story plants enough hints to make you doubt that and wonder if she is in fact telling the truth and is really from an alternate universe where she used to be Steam Girl. The second option is more outlandish, I’ll give you that, but wouldn’t it be nice to imagine that was true? B

“Everything Amiable and Obliging” by Holly Black
The fantasy of manners offering of the anthology, Black’s story tells the tale of a young woman who’s been recently orphaned and taken in by her aunt. But unlike other stories where the relatives hate her or treat her badly, this aunt actually wants her to marry her son. Now our heroine would like nothing more than this as well. Unfortunately, he doesn’t seem aware of her existence which is a change from their childhood. Things get further complicated when her aunt’s other child, a daughter, falls in love with one of the house robots. Awkward.

This is my second favorite story of the anthology and one I wish could have been longer. Not because it needed to be longer but because I wanted to see more of Amelia and Valerian. That said, I felt horribly sorry for the robot who’s become the object of the sister’s affections. I suspect that fate is not a good one for him. Robot or not, it can’t be a good thing to be wanted solely because you’re incapable of saying no! B+

“The Oracle Engine” by M.T. Anderson
I suspect the final story of the anthology is one that is simply not for me. A reader-story mismatch, if you will. It puts a steampunk spin on ancient Rome, which I like, and portrays a revenge tale, which I normally like even more, but I admit I found it boring. It’s written in a semi-historical voice (it’s meant to be a translation), but it just didn’t work for me. C

While I’m not sure this anthology is worth the price of hardcover, I liked that it contained a variety of stories set in different places and time periods as well as spanned many different genres. When I think of an anthology, this is the sort of variety I expect. I also like that there was good representation of women and minorities. And once again, I do think “Last Ride of the Glory Girls” is not a story to be missed and the anthology is worth checking out for that story alone.

My regards,
Jia

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A few years ago it seems quilting in romance books was all the rage. Now it appears that knitting has taken over. I’ve resisted reading any of these books since I’m not a knitter but in my quest to expand my single title contemporary repertoire, I decided to take the plunge with [...]]]> Dear Ms. Herron,

A few years ago it seems quilting in romance books was all the rage. Now it appears that knitting has taken over. I’ve resisted reading any of these books since I’m not a knitter but in my quest to expand my single title contemporary repertoire, I decided to take the plunge with your book “Wishes and Stitches” since it features an outsider heroine who’s also a doctor. I figured that way, she’s got some other interests besides yarn.

Naomi Fontaine had a great time at a recent medical conference which included a hot night with a handsome fellow attendee. Thinking she’d probably not ever see him again, she let it all loose and both had a night to remember. So when Rig Keller shows up in the small town of Cedar Hollow, CA where Naomi practices Family Medicine (GP), she’s shocked. Her next stunner is when she discovers that her pretty much absentee partner is selling out and that Rig is taking his place in the practice.

Rig, so called because up til now he’s practiced on the Gulf oil rigs, enjoyed the time he spent with Naomi at the conference and has no intention of not pursuing a relationship with her now that they’re living in the same town and seeing each other on a day to day basis. But he can’t seem to figure her out. The warm, confident woman of That Night is not who he’s seeing. Yes, she’s an excellent doctor but outside of work, she keeps a tight rein on her emotions and doesn’t appear to want to let him back into her private life.

Her secret is that Naomi desperately wants to be a part of her new community but a natural reserve keeps her from just jumping into town life. Rig, on the other hand, seems right at home with a long established brother in the community. If he presses for more from her, will Naomi open up personally and professionally? And if she does, is Rig ready and willing to commit to a future together?

Good God the people of this town love to knit. Rig calls it correctly when he says something to the effect that this is the knittingest town he’s ever seen. I wonder if the townsfolk would shun someone because that person – gasp! – crochets or, worse, merely sews or scrapbooks? Is there a roadblock at the edge of town to check for balls of yarn before a person is allowed within the city limits? I like characters with outside interests beyond sex or their jobs but this borders on obsession.

Naomi Fontaine is reserved to the point of almost being an emotional stone wall in the face of others yet she’s got such a deep well of need to fit in and be accepted. That plus the fact that this is a small, blue color town whose townsfolk feel a social gulf between themselves and the doctor don’t help her to fit in and be welcomed with open arms. Rig has an “in” since his brother has lived there for years and is an accepted part of the community. And he’s also a more “open” personality. Meanwhile, Naomi has spent her childhood and most of her adulthood, on getting good grades in order to fulfill her lifelong goal of being a doctor with little time spent socializing outside of those in her profession. Her difficulties in small talk and being part of the crowd might seem exaggerated but they also feel poignant and serve to show the glass wall between Naomi and what she wants – to be accepted.

Naomi’s got some baggage in the persons of her younger and – in Naomi’s mind – favored sister Anna and her mother with whom Naomi has never gotten along. These issues don’t feel made up or too far fetched. A lifetime of this also helps shade in the details on why Naomi would feel as if she’s trying but not getting anywhere with the people of Cedar Hollow. The flashes of anger Naomi shows when Anna appears on her doorstep expecting Naomi to fix the mess Anna has made of her life show that Naomi isn’t a pushover. The fact that Naomi doesn’t just tell Anna to take a hike show that deep down, she does love her sister but this time it’s going to be tough love.

Despite the fact that Rig is apparently more self assured than Naomi doesn’t count for much in their relationship. The book starts off with them already having met and spent a night of hot sexing at a medical conference and it’s Rig who spends the book chasing after Naomi while coaxing her into a repeat of the best sex of his life. This is a neat turn on the usual heroine who is shy of and bumbling at sex with a cool, confident hero. The Big Mis, when it came, arrived out of Naomi and Rig’s profession and seemed relevant to who they are and how they see themselves – plus a healthy dollop of family love. It takes Rig a little while to get over what happens but as he does, he comes to a greater and deeper understanding of this woman he loves.

I loved the humorous scenes scattered throughout the story. The one of Naomi running into Rig’s father Frank – in the condom aisle of the local pharmacy store – when Frank knows Naomi and Rig are about to go out on a date, had me in stitches – sorry bad pun. The men of the Keller clan were fun to read about and such…well, men. Of the two secondary romances, Frank’s worked better for me than the quickie of Rig’s brother Jake. That one is just too fast though the fact that both Keller brothers end the book happily living in sin at the instigation of their ladies is cool with me.

I will admit to a partiality for books with the hero chasing after his heroine so on that score, the romance in this one works for me. What I got tired of is the almost cult like mania for knitting. If this is a reader’s craft of choice then they’ll probably be happier while reading about it but for those uninterested in it – like me – it felt like a cup of Kool Aid along with a pair of knitting needles was being pressed on me by a group eerily smiling people. C+

~Jayne

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With her twenty-first birthday and the announcement of her engagement imminent, Isabel decides it is time for her to face her [...]]]>

“Isabel Hart is afraid of two things, the maze at Trencarrow where she got lost as a young child, and the lake where her brother David saved her from drowning in a boating accident.

With her twenty-first birthday and the announcement of her engagement imminent, Isabel decides it is time for her to face her demons and ventures into the maze. There she sees something which will alter her perceptions of herself and her family forever.

Isabel’s widowed aunt joins the house party, where her cousin confides she is in love with an enigmatic young man who surely cannot be what he pretends, for he is too dashing for homely Laura.

When Henry, Viscount Strachan and his mother arrives, ostensibly to use her ball as an arena for finding a wife, Isabel is determined not to like him.

As more secrets are revealed, Isabel doubts she has chosen the right man, although her future fiancé has more vested in this marriage than Isabel realizes and has no intention of letting her go easily.

Will Isabel be able to put her preconceptions of marriage behind her and take charge of her own life, or is she destined to be controlled by others forever?”

Dear Ms. Davison,

I don’t read too many Victorian set novels but every once in a while, I feel the urge. Your offer of “Trencarrow Secret” coincided with just such a rare urge. At first I was puzzled by the title for beyond it sounding gothic-y, I didn’t notice any secrets – at least not until the end. Still it was nice to not have the usual Rakish Scandal, Picked by the Duke, or Lady Learns to Love. All in all it seems like a very English way to title the story.

Izzy – goodness I want to shake her at times. Lots of times. I can understand Amelia’s genteel rant to Ashton that everyone’s so damned concerned not to upset Izzy. Izzy also willingly buries her head in the sand about a lot of things up til the action starts and then even after when she realizes – from David and Laura! – what she’s doing. But – this is what I might expect from a Victorian woman who has been sheltered by her family in an age that still celebrated helpless women. I kept wanting her to shape up and take control but that might be more 20/21st century stuff and not really what might be expected from most Victorian young women. She’s almost painfully naive about relationships though and is the type of heroine people might hate because she’s lovely but unaware of it.

But Izzy does grow and change. Baby steps at first but then with growing confidence. She has a few set backs with Jared what with feeling sorry for him but by his last betrayal and selfish act, she’s strong enough to cut him out of her life. She also learns and grows to respect other peoples relationships – seeing Laura with new eyes, understanding Melody and Walter’s true love and even being willing to see her father move on and set David free. And to her credit, Izzy gets a lot thrown at her this summer.

Henry – handsome, rich, titled, acts like a gentleman, is already in love with Izzy, supports women’s rights, charges to Izzy’s rescue and is kind to his mother and to animals. Tell me he’s got some kind of flaw beyond his own secret from school. Any kind. Otherwise he’s too perfect. A great guy anyone would love to bring home to mother but too perfect to be real. But then from what we’re told, he shallowly falls for her only because of how he first sees her and only later is this deepened after he actually gets to know her. He’s lucky she didn’t turn out to be a harpy shrew.

I have to be honest and say the romantic near misses about drove me around the bend. Henry is almost to declaring himself and someone interrupts, then he’s close again and Izzy rushes off because she’s confused, then almost there and something else happens. It’s not for lack of opportunity but – damn – just say it! Of course then that would end the book too soon. Still the romantic declaration interruptus did bother me.

A strong point for me is how the family relationships seem real and not faux “everyone’s wonderful.” Izzy and cousin Laura don’t always get along, Aunt Margot still likes to take control when she visits her family home, the servants must be treated delicately and Father is in charge. I do like Lady Boscawen and her sharp sense of humor especially as she teases Henry and then Aunt Margot by telling Margot she tried to piece together Henry’s letter from Evaline. And failed! She’d be great fun to gossip with at parties, I’ll bet.

Ashton and Amelia – the way Marie engineered their relationship was tricky and, as is said, more manipulative than Auntie Margot. It sounds kind of cold at first from Marie’s POV but then if she never had a grand passion for Ashton and had only come to just care for him, I can actually understand her reasoning and hopes that she could find someone for him to love and to take care of him. Oh, poor Amelia – the life of an indigent relation who’s neither fish nor fowl in the household and on top of it all is in love with her employer’s husband. What a load she carried.

I appreciate the fact that you don’t make these characters too PC. Yippee! Aunt Margot uses the lovely term “punka wallah,” most of the people at the house don’t support the vote for women and look askance at the progressive women’s societies who don’t take class into consideration. The view of life without AC makes me so glad it’s been invented. Omg, the sweating – I mean gleaming – and the wish not to be trapped in tight corsets – what a horror. The nod to the Victorian fascination with death in the covering of mirrors was a neat touch.

What’s the deal with the smuggler stuff? It was suddenly introduced then dropped, never to be heard from again. – Oh, and what happened with Ivy the nursery maid? was confused about David for a long time. Then it finally dawned on me that Izzy was the only one in scenes with him until near the end.

The story gets slightly convoluted with tangents appearing and disappearing at times. You’ve invented a large cast of characters but I got to know them and wanted to see how things would work out. There’s growth and acceptance of things as they are instead of how it’s wished they are. I enjoyed seeing a Victorian household, how it runs and how it’s different from now, the differences in class and status even among those received by the family, and the fact that most marriages weren’t love matches in this strata of society. I wish Henry had managed to blurt out his feelings and that Izzy had let him. Oh, and maybe that she’d told off Evaline. C+

~Jayne

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Thank you for sending me a complimentary copy of this short story. Because it is short, I admit I don’t have much to say about it. When I was told that this book was connected to another short, “Silent Blade”, it made sense to read it and review it together. I had [...]]]> Dear Ms. Andrews:

Thank you for sending me a complimentary copy of this short story. Because it is short, I admit I don’t have much to say about it. When I was told that this book was connected to another short, “Silent Blade”, it made sense to read it and review it together. I had no problems reading “Silver Shark” as a stand alone should the readers wonder where to start. However, the couple in “Silent Blade” play a role in “Silver Shark” and thus scenes from “Silver Shark” serve as a kind of epilogue (complete with kids!) to the couple in “Silent Blade”. While both stories are set in New Delphi, Silver Shark takes the world building a different place. It could be argued that absent the New Delphi setting, these were two very different worlds.

One thing I think is wonderful, though, is the examination of the clan idea here. Andrews writes about this topic in all of her books, but most obviously in “On The Edge”, a book I enjoyed tremendously every time I read it. The clan is both powerful and protective, but it can also be stifling and dangerous. It can be a haven or a hell. In these shorts, I think you see both sides of the clan system and within the clan system, the niche that can be carved out for two special people.

Silent Blade

In a world where family meant everything, Meli excised herself from her clan to become their silent blade, an assassin that carries out threats on behalf of her family but because of her excision, the acts don’t reflect poorly on her family. The Galdes clan asks her to do a hit on Celino Carvanna because he is underbidding a project that the Galdes clan needs. The request is sweet because Celino Carvanna once broke Meli’s heart and led her to excision. Meli decides on a course of revenge that was surprising and held quite a bit of suspense. Would she kill him? Is there something worse than killing?

One thing that is remarkable in these shorts was the ease of the world building. I particularly liked the small details. This story and its sequel is a sexier, more romance oriented story than previous Andrews’ works. I thought that the sexuality of the story fit better here than in Silent Blade. The one problem I had Celino. I understood why Meli loved him. She was brought up to love him, trained herself to love him, and believed in her love for him wholeheartedly. I did not find Celino to be worthy of Meli’s love. He was cruel in his initial rejection of her. She forgives him because he was fighting the yoke of obligation and bondage and Meli was persistent in her pursuit. Unfortunately, I found his rejection of her to be telling of his character which was shallow and thoughtless and his later pursuit of her really didn’t change my mind. He pursued her relentlessly but didn’t show any change of character. He was still selfish but maybe less shallow. At least older, he appeared to appreciate different things although much of them still seemed physical. This was a quick and enjoyable read but I did wish that Meli found someone else to love, as her undying devotion seemed wasted on Celino.  B-

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Silver Shark

Claire Shannon is a psycher who can kill people via mind attacks. In a Matrix-like interface, Claire and other psychers enter the technological world by hooking up to a network and then entering the bionet. While both “Silent Blade” and “Silver Shark” take place in the same world, I don’t recall the bionet being mentioned. This story felt a bit more science fiction whereas the first one was more fantasy. Claire lived on the planet Uley and was part Brodwyn retainer, one of the two entities that fought for supremacy on the planet. She was not a Brodwyn retainer by choose, but by circumstance. When Brodwyn falls to Melko, the other competing Uley faction, Claire is shipped off planet to New Delphi. As a Grade A Psycher, Claire would be terminated so she hides her abilities and passes herself off as a secretary. As a refugee, she must find and maintain employment or be deported back to Uley where the Melkos would kill her. She is accepted as a secretary for Venturo Escana, the head of a powerful Escana family. When Claire meets him, she is literally struck dumb by his golden magnificence.

Claire lives in a building with other refugees and they come to her, knowing that she is a high level psycher, when something goes awry and she needs to enter the bionet. Once in the bionet, however, she can be detected and her placid safe life might be destroyed.

Claire has very protective instincts, ones that won’t allow her to turn her back on those that look to her for protection. Veturo is much like that as well. He’s created an empire from which he cares for people and destroys those that work against him. As in “Silent Blade” the small details are used to great effect:

Claire watched it for a few seconds, picked up the knife, and chopped the pepper.

It was Saturday morning and she had woken up with a sudden need to prove to herself that she could cook. Immigration had fully stocked her refrigerator with raw ingredients, so she set them out on the counter and had the AI run a comprehensive analysis finding a combination that would result in a beginner-level recipe.

“One peeled compa, cut into strips.”

“Define compa.”

“Compa: fleshy fruit of Karlovskaya species, rich in Vitamin A. Flavor: sour, with sweet aftertaste. Appearance: red tetrahedron with rounded corners.”

Claire picked out a rough pyramid-looking red fruit. “Demonstrate peeling.”

I found the immediate sexual attraction that Claire had toward Venturo to not be in keeping with her character that is supposed to be totally locked down and numb from her war experience. I understand that she was evolving due to the exposure of color and life at New Delphi, but the immediate lust seemed jarring. The bionet scenes seemed a little strange to me.  Once in the bionet, the characters can shape shift and do all sorts of different things. It also seemed like a humid jungle.  In my head, it looked like a cross between My Pretty Pony and Avatar.  The story tends to jump around a lot, first from the planet, then to New Delphi, and then into the bionet, and then to Meli and Celino’s home.  For a short, we covered a lot of ground that could have been better used in developing the emotional components that seemed to underpin the story.  C+

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It’s hard for me to grade these two shorts because of their length, I found myself wanting more. For existing Andrews fans, it would be a shame to miss these stories. On the other hand, for new Andrews fans, I’d recommend one of her traditionally published books like “Bayou Moon” first because the fuller length story is more satisfying.

Jane

I have been anticipating the release of your novel, In Total Surrender, since I read about the Merrick brothers in your last effort, One Night Is Never Enough. There’s just something about a pair of intellectual thugs that gets my blood pumping.

In Total Surrender is Andreas Merrick’s book. The one in [...]]]> Dear Ms. Mallory,

I have been anticipating the release of your novel, In Total Surrender, since I read about the Merrick brothers in your last effort, One Night Is Never Enough. There’s just something about a pair of intellectual thugs that gets my blood pumping.

In Total Surrender is Andreas Merrick’s book. The one in which the taciturn and deadly Lord of the Criminal Underworld falls in love with the upbeat daughter of a merchant.

Andreas Merrick is once again the object of an assassination plot. A plot he has anticipated, for the assassination attempt is the direct result of his own plan to bring down his arch-nemesis, Lord Garrett. Andreas has been plotting this man’s downfall for ages and he is so close to finally destroying him that he can taste the victory. Unfortunately, things are not going quite as he had intended. There have been . . . set-backs. A warehouse has been burned down and other attacks against the Merricks’ empire have been made, the assassination attempt not the least among them.  More irritatingly still, his brother Roman is on his honeymoon and has left him to deal alone with the various employees, spies, and cogs in the wheels of their empire. So when a cloaked and hooded woman enters his offices after a particularly irritating evening of dealing with various attacks, Andreas is expecting—well, he’s expecting to have someone try to kill him.

What he is not expecting is Phoebe Pace, the daughter of the merchant James Pace. The family Pace has been under his gaze for quite a while now. He’s been watching them, interested in their comings and goings. For the Pace family is a key ingredient in his machinations against Lord Garrett. In fact, one of the set-backs his plot has suffered was the disappearance of the only son, Christopher and the reclusive nature of the father. The only time, it seems, that the family leaves their home is to attend the theater. So Andreas has been writing to James Pace, trying to convince him to meet. But James Pace is strangely reluctant. He keeps refusing, and no one refuses Andreas Merrick.

That Phoebe Pace should come to him in the dead of night is absolutely extraordinary. It doesn’t take him long to figure out that the person who he has been corresponding with has not been James Pace at all, but Phoebe. That this girl has been the one running the company since the disappearance of her brother and the seclusion of her father is astonishing. And not just a little bit irritating.

Phoebe Pace proceeds to become more irksome still for what she wants from Andreas Merrick is information. She seems to believe that he knows or can find out what happened to her brother. Is he dead? Is he missing? Kidnapped? By whom? And for what reason? Phoebe isn’t put off by assassination attempts and ruffians. She begins a campaign to insinuate herself in the Merrick household through baked goods and kind words. But Andreas isn’t fooled. What is she up to? And how much does she know?

Andreas is sure she knows something. He also realizes that her interference in his plans is his own damn fault. After all, his fascination with her has led to this. It was through his doings and schemes that the Paces are involved with him at all. It was his design that entangled them with his vendetta against Lord Garrett.  He was using them like pawns in a chess game. So whatever Phoebe wants and whatever Phoebe is, her optimism and good nature are just a front, a tactic to throw him off and let down his guard, because he knows that what she is after is far more intertwined in the danger that surrounds  them than perhaps either of them are aware.

But more distressingly still, he thinks about her. He goes to the theater to watch her and he hates the theater. She seems to be able to see into him. And he, he is totally unable to see into her. He cannot understand her. This disturbs him, because she, herself, disturbs him. She’s disturbed him from the first moment he saw her at the theater:

It had been immediate. How the hell that could be, he didn’t know. But her eyes had connected with his, somehow, as she’d entered the box on the opposite side of the theater—connected with his even through the dark shadows he surrounded himself with. And her mouth had bestowed a warm smile on a random stranger in the crowd.

Barbed warmth sinking under his skin, biting and clawing.

Her body was cloaked in the color of innocence, but her lips were passion-stained. The warmth of the lamps seemed to converge on her at all times, no matter where she moved, or with whom she spoke—a bright spot pushing back the shadows.

In many ways this novel is playing with and manipulating romance tropes and forms.  On the surface it seems to be the classic tale of the good girl and the rogue. But this is quickly dispelled. Mallory makes a point of adjusting the story just enough that it doesn’t read quite the same as it ought to. I am for this adjustment. I am for the manipulation of tropes and conventions. I think it gives us wonderful romances when romance authors dare to twist, turn and pervert the usual generic standards. Mallory often does this in her books. She tweaks things. Starts at odd points and places in the story. She doesn’t reveal or fully explain the characters past, even at the end of the story. She uses time and perspective in slightly idiosyncratic ways. All of this is very well done. All of this I support.

For instance, In Total Surrender is predominantly told from Andreas’ perspective. Particularly in the first seven chapters when we, the readers, are privy to none of Phoebe Pace’s thoughts. Phoebe is an utter and complete mystery to Andreas. Her motivations, her goals, her desires are totally foreign to him. He knows, quite perfectly well, that she is up to something. He simply cannot figure out what it is. In fact, Mallory makes Phoebe a mystery—in my humble opinion—precisely so that she might play with the trope of sweet, optimistic young women who invades the dark lord’s home and turns it upside-down for the better. Because Phoebe, as we learn, is not exactly sweet, is not exactly optimistic and is invading Andreas’ establishment the way that Catherine the Great invaded Turkey, turning things upside-down in pursuit of her own warm-water port.

Ms. Mallory uses, like most romance novel authors, limited third person perspective as her narrative mode. However, there are many ways to use third person. In most romances, the narrator is invisible. This is in contrast to other books like Middlemarch, where on occasion the narrator offers an opinion about the characters manners and behaviors. Or, as in Jane Austen where there might not be an actual intrusion into the narrative, but there is an ironic distance to the tone in which events are related. Mallory, like her sister romance authors, remains mostly invisible in the text; however, she also does this thing where she closes the distance between herself and the character. She imposes upon her narration a very limited and constrained perspective. Often the reader finds herself in the dark about past events and motivations, even when occupying the space inside a character’s head. Moreover, Mallory has a particular talent for visceral and claustrophobic narrative. Her stories are rather gothic because of this.

The effect of all of these narrative devices is to heighten the tension and the friction in the relationship between the hero and the heroine. By not being able to know what the other is thinking, and by imposing that same limitation on the reader, Mallory ratchets up the sexual tension to quivering levels. We, the readers, feel the effect of this tension. We share it, for neither are we able to understand or to know the object of the hero, Andreas’ desire. Instead, we must wait, like him, to find out about Phoebe; to find out about her secrets, her thoughts, her knowledge and her plans.

The problem with In Total Surrender is that it doesn’t deliver. I think it does work quite well in its manipulation of certain tropes and genre conventions, but it fails in three significant ways, three significant ways which are primarily confined to the end of the book rather than the beginning.

First, the sex scene. When I talked about this with Jane she described it as vague and unsatisfying and I would have to concur with that assessment. The sex scene is vague and unsatisfying. Unsatisfying because the sexual tension is practically thrumming by the time you reach that point in the story. You can feel Andreas’s nerves about to snap. So the fact that the sex scene is so brief really does little to dissipate that tension. This dissatisfaction is exacerbated by the sheer vagueness in which it is related. What, if anything, happens? I wasn’t actually entirely sure they had sex for a minute there. That’s how vague it was.

Now, I’m not all about the sex scene. In fact, there are times I wish there was no sex scene. For example, there are certain authors who rely on the sex scene or the sex scenes to carry the rest of the story to its close. This is both to the detriment of the story and the detriment of the characters. Hero and heroine spend the last third of the book shagging themselves senseless and boring the bejesus out of me. Usually, what remains in these books is some half-arsed mystery plot that I have already solved. Or sometimes the hero just hasn’t said “I love you” but this is not enough to keep me reading another 80 pages.

Mallory has not committed that crime. And if I might be so bold as to presume to know the author’s intentions, I see both the vague and unsatisfying nature of the sex scene in In Total Surrender as endeavoring to do the opposite. I applaud Ms. Mallory for attempting to do something different with sex in a romance novel. It was a bold move. Unfortunately, as if often the case with bold moves, this one didn’t quite work. The tension between Phoebe and Andreas was such that it needed to be consummated more than the sex scene allowed for.

Second, the use of historical personages. Or the historical personage who is the deus ex machina. This one, I don’t understand. It was totally unnecessary to the plot of the novel, to the development of the characters, or to the themes of this book to have a Historical Personage appear. The Historical Personage was inserted with all the deftness and subtlety of a bull in a china shop. Or a toddler with a pair of scissors. Why, dear author, why? In order to explain why this didn’t work I must spoil the surprise, thus:

SPOILER ALERT

[[Visit blog to check out this spoiler]]

END SPOILER ALERT

The appearance of the Historical Personage highlights two things: the hasty ending and the sudden upswing to the saccharine. Prior to the appearance of the Historical Personage, the sex scene—though vague and unsatisfying—was the major weakness in the book. The tension and conflict at the heart of Phoebe and Andreas’ relationship was well-written enough for me to ignore some of the flaws, including the sex scene itself.

But the ending. Oh the ending. It wasn’t that it wasn’t happy. It was. It was too happy. It was too damn happy. The first third of the book—nay! Nearly the entire book is characterized by a tone and atmosphere that could only be described as dark and grim. Lord of the Underworld describes not only Andreas himself, but the feel of the book. One feels as if one is in an underworld, a world without sunshine or light, a world of shadows and twilight. But then, first the Historical Personage shows up and, worse, an abrupt flash into the future that shows how blissfully happy our heroes still are twenty years after the events of the book.

Clearly, my problem isn’t HEA. Clearly, my problem isn’t epilogues. But this wasn’t properly an epilogue. Nor was it properly a resolution to the final conflict between Phoebe and Andreas. It was if I was reading an early draft of the novel. It just went from a declaration to a flash forward to a saccharine ending so sweet that it threatened to give me hyperglycemia.

And he kissed her. Not a farewell kiss, or an evening kiss, or a friendly kiss at all. It was a forever kiss, and it was everything she’d ever wanted.

“And I love you too, Phoebe.”

If only that were the ending! But no. Then we get this:

Twenty years later, Phoebe Merrick still anticipated weekly notes, placed in different spots where she had to hunt to find them. No one had ever said the man was not difficult. But now he always smiled readily and laughed when she chased him down.

The twins were a constant joy.

It isn’t that we have not seen this before. But rather that this flash forward ejects the earlier tension, darkness and gothic atmosphere for an entirely different kind of tone. It is the sort of paragraph I would expect in a Julia Quinn. There’s nothing wrong with that but this is not a comedy. Thus, this last part of the book rang discordant for me. It was like listening to Beethoven’s Fifth and then having the recording suddenly, and without warning switch to the opening strains of The Temptations’ “My Girl.” It jangled.

I like Ms. Mallory’s books very much, generally. But some of her backlist has been hit or miss for me. This one is a miss. And it started out so well, too. I feel like I began in different book than the one I finished. As such, my grade dwindled. With the vague sex scene, this book was probably a B. With the historical personage, may be a B-. With the saccharine ending that resolves nothing and changes the entire tone of the book . . .  C+

Lazaraspaste

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I enjoy romantic suspense but I like a good military romantic suspense primarily because other RS often rely upon serial killers for the suspense but the military setting or paramilitary setting is more action driven, less psychological.  I also like the camaraderie between the soldiers but rarely do we ever read about female soldiers. [...]]]> Dear Ms. Cross:

I enjoy romantic suspense but I like a good military romantic suspense primarily because other RS often rely upon serial killers for the suspense but the military setting or paramilitary setting is more action driven, less psychological.  I also like the camaraderie between the soldiers but rarely do we ever read about female soldiers.  I was excited to see that this series is about a number of females, at least a couple of them pilots, in a combat setting.

I had read an article back in 2006 about a female helicopter pilot in the Army so good that the troops nicknamed her “Saint”.  When I read about “Saint,” I thought she would be an incredible heroine for a romance story.  Five years later, Deadly Descent and its progeny aim to deliver on the female led military romantic suspense.  Hooah.

Captain Devon “Spike” Crawford lost her boyfriend Ty, an Air Force Pararescueman, during a failed mission in Afghanistan.  They hadn’t been dating a long time and Devon was ready to end the inappropriate relationship when Ty was deployed overseas.  She didn’t though and thus was still considered his girlfriend when he died.  Her lack of strong feelings for Ty coupled with his death and her involvement with him, fuels a strong sense of guilt.   Devon had also felt something toward Ty’s best friend Tech Sergeant Cam Munro.   Cam has always returned these feelings, although both never acted on them.  I felt a little uncomfortable at how the two of them reacted so strongly to each other directly after Ty’s funeral, particularly with Cam trying to ferret out the depth of Devon’s feelings for Ty, as if to measure whether he would have a chance later.  Perhaps for soldiers who are constantly in danger, living is done moment by moment.

The story fast forwards and puts us back at Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan where Cam is currently stationed and to where Devon is being deployed.   Devon flies BlackHawks on medevac missions.

The issue of Devon, an officer, having a relationship with an enlisted man, Cam, is addressed but it wasn’t really resolved well and I think individuals with a lot of military knowledge might be put off by this.  When Dev gets to the base in Afghanistan, she learns from one of the other female pilots that a female lieutenant has been brought up on fraternization charges.  For all their attempts to hide their relationship, it was fairly well known amongst their friends and things like that can’t stay secret.  Further, there was some implication that fraternization wasn’t an issue for the two of them when they weren’t deployed. My understanding is that fraternization is verboten regardless of whether the soldiers are deployed.

It may have been less of a problem because Devon was in the Army and Cam was in the Air Force, but that wasn’t addressed in the book so I don’t know.  While the fraternization issue was the basis of conflict for Devon and Cam, it was my least favorite part of the book.  I think it is because I know it is wrong, that it endangers both of their career advancements and even with the overt acknowledgement that they shouldn’t be doing this, it still seemed as if the book ignored the consequences, suggesting that marriage would solve any problem.   What’s possibly worse is that it appears future books in the series deals with the enlisted/officer pairing.

Having said that, while some of the narrative prose was a little rough, particularly in the transitions, the battle scenes were very exciting.  I don’t recall reading a military book that took place on an actual base other than maybe Linda Howard’s MacKenzie book.  The part of the story that took place on the base and in the rescue and war scenes  was vivid and fascinating.  I felt immersed in the action.  I loved how the women were portrayed as completely competent, involved in the rescuing instead of being rescued.  In large part, the prominence and importance of the role of women in this story; their friendships; their portrayal as capable soldiers, are what appealed to me the most and what sets this book apart.

I wasn’t sure if it was intentional messaging or part of the world building but there are several scenes from an Afghani militant’s point of view and through him we hear the opinions of an Afghan warlord.  The warlord expresses the belief that if they kill enough troops the US will withdraw and that will be a victory. The Afghani militant was a man set on revenge for the death of his brother. For romance readers, this story will sound very familiar. How often have we seen the hero have the very same mind set?  I liked that we saw both an extreme and dangerous viewpoint from the Aghanis but also one of a man driven from peace to revenge.  These are universal emotions.

I was a bit surprised at the way in which everyone on base seemed to accept Cam’s feelings for Dev and his near constant concern for her, particularly out in combat. I know that one of the arguments against women in combat is that the men will be overprotective of the women instead of treating her like any other soldier and thus weakening the whole unit. Cam’s actions didn’t put any one in danger as that isn’t how the story was written but it made me feel vaguely uncomfortable, as did Dev’s overt response to Cam being placed in danger. Wouldn’t she, of all people, understood his need and desire to save others?

While I had some problems with it, I did find the story to be very engaging and I am interested in reading more about the men and women at Bagram Airfield. I only hope that there aren’t too many more of the fraternization stories.  C+

Best regards,

Jane

I’m thrilled that you are writing this series and thrilled that Harlequin is publishing it and giving us such in-your-face Asian covers instead headless bodies that hint at its Eastern origins. I am not super familiar with this area of history and I read this story more as if it were a [...]]]> Dear Ms. Lin:

I’m thrilled that you are writing this series and thrilled that Harlequin is publishing it and giving us such in-your-face Asian covers instead headless bodies that hint at its Eastern origins. I am not super familiar with this area of history and I read this story more as if it were a fantasy tale instead of historical romance. Not sure if that affected my reading but that’s my perspective.

What I am less thrilled about are some of the authorial choices that were made.

The Pearl is a beautiful and famed courtesan named Lady Ling Suyin. Her honorific title is Ling Guifei which means “Precious Consort.”  She is considered to be the late emporer’s favored courtesan because after having her in his bed, he never took another. When he died, she was retired to a manor on the land within the Imperial province of Chengdu where she hoped to live out her life in peace. However, with the new emporer in place, loyalties are being tested and war is rumbling across the land. General Gao Shiming is rumored to be in pursuit of Ling Guifui and this leads to her abduction by The Dragon, Governor Li Tao.

Li Tao commands an army and land in the South.  He feels his obligation is to hold the Southern border as commanded by the previous emperor even if this is countermanded by the existing emperor.  He knows war is coming and Emperor Shen has not shown the power to unite the military governors spread across the vast China land. Li Tao had considered it an alliance, had accepted Emperor Shen’s daughter as a peace offering but she married another, and thus no alliance  was struck. Li Tao not sure what is important about this courtesan but whatever it is, he plans to pull it out of her one way or another.

Neither realize their commonalities. Their past is similar, the holds over their lives, threatening whatever peace they may have thought to have achieved, is similar. What is different, perhaps, is that Li Tao is resigned to death. He has always known that dark hand was near him and therefore what is a doomed battle against the new emperor but destiny?

Ling, however, is willing to fight for her survival. Years of palace intrigue taught Ling to school her features, hide her thoughts, and read others like a fortune teller reads the tea leaves.  Her beauty was only one of the tools in her arsenal.  Ling and Li fall in love slowly, coming to appreciate in each other the sacrifices that  made them who they are today and the need they both had for companionship.  They both experienced a very dark time in their life and committed some very bad acts.

In Butterfly Swords, there seemed to be pains taken to show that there were no villians, only people with different perspectives, but in this book there were definitely people who acted villianous and yet the resolution for these people was akin to a stern (or even quiet) talking to. I failed to see the gray in the actions of Gao or the underworld boss, Lao Sou, who used people as if they were things, weapons to be used and discarded when no longer potent.

The defanging of one particular character in the story was troublesome because of how I was asked to see him as some harmless old man in need of loving family when, in fact, he recruited young helpless boys off the street and bound them to him with acts of violence and promises of vengeance.

I felt like some message of peace and tranquility was being delivered, but it was a sermon I didn’t quite understand. I felt cheated in the denouement and while I loved the journey I was taken on, I found the destination disappointing.  It’s tough to grade this book because some of it was beautiful and I loved the setting and the richness of the period.  I thought Ling and Li Tao were well matched.  But there were some big moments of disappointment particularly the as it related to Ling* but mostly how the story was unwound at the end.  C+

Best regards,

Jane

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[[Visit blog to check out this spoiler]]

I was first introduced to your work with Four and Twenty Blackbirds, your Southern gothic debut. I remember liking it but for some reason, I never picked up another book by you again. It happens. So when I saw this book pop up on NetGalley, I glanced at your backlist and was [...]]]> Dear Ms. Priest,

I was first introduced to your work with Four and Twenty Blackbirds, your Southern gothic debut. I remember liking it but for some reason, I never picked up another book by you again. It happens. So when I saw this book pop up on NetGalley, I glanced at your backlist and was shocked to discover how extensive it was! Time passes fast. Upon realizing that Hellbent was the second book in a series, I tracked down the first book Bloodshot (which I talked about briefly here) and liked it enough to give this one a go.

Raylene Pendle is a vampire who makes a living as the thief known as Cheshire Red. She’s lived a long time and is good at what she does — so good that many people think Cheshire Red is actually a man. After the events of Bloodshot, the normally solitary Raylene has picked up some friends: the blind vampire Ian Stott and the ex-Navy SEAL turned drag queen Adrian deJesus.

In Hellbent, Raylene is recruited to steal a very strange set of magical artifacts. Unfortunately, a brilliant but mentally unstable sorceress also wants them for her own purposes. And when she gets them first, Raylene will have to contend with the woman’s greatly amplified powers to get them back.

At the same time, Ian has a political problem on his hands. Vampires normally belong to Houses. Raylene left hers decades ago after a falling out with the head of the Chicago house. (The head wanted Raylene to die for her, and Raylene disagreed.) Ian, however, never actually left. He went into hiding after losing his sight because as one of the potential heirs, such a perceived weakness would put him at a disadvantage and make him a walking target. But now the San Francisco head has died and people are looking for Ian. And because of her feelings for him, Raylene will do anything to dissuade him from leaving, even if that means dealing with the San Francisco vampire house instead.

I’ll be the first person to say that urban fantasy is a crowded subgenre. Adult, young adult, blending with paranormal romance, traditional fantasy with urban fantasy trappings, it’s everywhere despite the fact that I think the subgenre’s heyday is behind us. But despite all that, I found Raylene’s voice very refreshing. Anyone who’s read urban fantasy is used to the tough loner heroine with attitude and a chip on her shoulder.

And while Raylene started out a loner in the previous book, Bloodshot, she’s a different take on that archetype. She’s a loner because of necessity. While she can be tough, it has more to do with living a long time on her own without a vampire house to back her up and being competent at what she does. It’s not a front. In fact, the only lies she tells involve her valuing her solitary life and disliking all these people barging in on it. That’s obviously not true since she collects people and takes them in, just like the valuables and artifacts she steals.

The biggest thing that sets her apart, however, is her personality. Raylene is neurotic and has OCD. I liked that this played on the traditional folklore about vampires where to distract them, you throw rice at them because that makes them stop and have to count each individual grain. (Like how The Count on Sesame Street teaches counting?) It makes for an interesting character because Raylene is simultaneously overprepared and reckless. She likes planning for contingencies but ends up taking risks when faced with the actual situation.

I think it’s this trait of Raylene’s that made her interactions with the sorceress Elizabeth interesting. Once she realized Elizabeth had schizophrenia, she stopped being the rival Raylene needed to eliminate. Instead she became someone Raylene wanted to help. And if there’s something Raylene suffers from, it’s this unacknowledged desire to help.

For me, though, the main flaw of Hellbent is that the plot is divided between the stolen artifact storyline and Ian’s vampire house storyline. A part of me originally thought they would converge and I read on, interested in seeing how they would. Because that didn’t happen, I was left with a scattered impression. I liked the vampire house storyline because plots involving political intrigue are a favorite of mine. But Raylene jumping back and forth between that and the stolen artifact storyline weakened it for me.

I was surprised by the conclusion to the subplot involving Adrian’s missing sister. Maybe neverending series have conditioned me to expect mysteries to be drawn out for several books. That the question was answered in this installment was refreshing. Unfortunately, it also struck me as a little too convenient.

As for the relationship between Raylene and Ian, I still have problems wrapping my mind around it. I think I just never bought it in Bloodshot, so while I can see Raylene doing all this because he’s a friend, I have a harder time thinking of them in a romantic way. I don’t know if that’s intentional but I admit I find their interactions to be emotionally unsatisfying.

Adrian, on the other hand, I can’t get enough of. I don’t care what he does. I just want more of him. I am interested in seeing how his new connection to Raylene will impact their relationship in the future.

Overall, I do think Hellbent was a worthwhile read. Maybe not so much about the events that take up the majority of the book but rather the fallout and what it means for the future. I am curious to see how Raylene proceeds from here. C+

My regards,
Jia

Previous book in this series: Bloodshot

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