This book was not what I expected when I picked it up. In fact, I’d even venture so far as to offer a caption.

Heat is probably the best independently published book I have read, and one of the best books I have read in a long while. It is also [...]]]> Dear Ms. Smith,

This book was not what I expected when I picked it up. In fact, I’d even venture so far as to offer a caption.

Heat is probably the best independently published book I have read, and one of the best books I have read in a long while. It is also one of the most graphic, and most disturbing books I have read in a long while. When I finished this book, I told a friend about it and she said it sounded awful. On paper, it does sound awful, but it was a truly compelling read and I could not put it down. I mainlined this book as if I were a junkie and this was my fix. I debated about reviewing it, since it is not the standard Dear Author sort of book. But the bottom line is that I want to talk about this book with other people, so here’s the review.

Warning – if you are easily triggered, this is most definitely not the book for you. Move along.

I stumbled upon this book on Amazon, but I’m not sure how. Perhaps someone mentioned it on a villainous hero thread. Someone said it was the most unique and different romance they had read in a very long time, and that was all it took for me to purchase despite the hefty cover price. This review will probably end up rather long, so fair warning.

Heat does not fall into my regular reading category. It’s about two sets of alien men. One is an escaped drug dealer and criminal who is hiding out on earth. The other is the stiff and proper interplanetary cop who is chasing him. They are both the heroes, and over the course of this very long book, they both fall in love with their respective females. This is definitely a romance. A bizarre one, but ultimately with a happy ending for both parties.

The book starts out with Kanetus, aka Kane. Kane is a Jotan interplanetary pirate who has been sentenced to life in prison for any number of crimes. He escapes and heads to earth. Earth is full of humans, and the Jotan treat them like pets, sex toys, and slaves. Sometimes all of the above. Another interesting thing about humans is that they produce a chemical called dopamine that can be harvested from their brains. From this chemical, an illegal drug called Vahst can be made. Vahst is in high demand and Kane is broke, so he has a plan. Go to earth, harvest humans to make Vahst, and return to his life of space piracy a rich man. When Kane gets to earth, his plans are quickly turned upside down. It is summer on earth, and heat makes Jotans go into heat – they must have sex on a regular basis or else they are in intense pain and become ill. Kane doesn’t have time for this, so he decides he will steal himself a human. After grabbing and raping the first woman he runs across, he is perplexed when she runs away and kills herself. So he gets another human, and this time reminds himself to be more careful.

The new human female is named Raven, and she’s an eighteen year old street prostitute who loves drugs and living wild. She’s terrified of Kane and how brutally he treats her, as any woman in her right mind would be. What Raven wants isn’t a factor in the first half of the story. She is Kane’s to use as he wishes, and gradually she begins to help him with his harvesting of other humans for the Vahst, which is just as graphic and awful as it sounds.

Tagen is the interplanetary cop who has come to earth to find Kane and bring him back to justice. He’s afflicted by the same situation as Kane – the heat of summer makes him need sex intensely, but he refuses to give in to it. Tagen accidentally kills a human with his blaster and he is horrified that he is so careless with human life. Suffering from the elements, Tagen collapses on the doorstep of Daria, a human woman who is a recluse. Daria takes him in despite his fearsome appearance and his strangeness, and she helps him recover and later assists him in his hunt for Kane.

The story is a very interesting dichotomy about two men who could not be more different, but are both influenced by their late fathers, and you layer this in beautifully. Kane remembers his dead father with fondness, for all that his father was a murderer and pirate who taught Kane to be just like him. Tagen was adopted by a man that served as his father, but he never felt affection or love, merely duty, and this influences the man he has become. It’s a very interesting nuance to a story that on the surface sounds coarse, violent, and a little weird.

Though we are given dueling storylines, the ‘romance’ between Kane and Raven is the more compelling of the two storylines. It’s interesting to note that Kane is a villain, but over the course of the story, he is not reformed from his wicked ways in the slightest. He remains a rebellious killer on the first page and the last. Nor does Raven, his love interest, change from her hedonist ways. Rather, the characters change by being together, and change in how they perceive each other. Raven begins to assist Kane with his Vahst collecting, and Kane begins to appreciate how smart and clever and cautious she is. Raven, for her part, begins to understand Kane’s cues and how he functions, and learns how to show him that she is a worthwhile partner. While their story starts out with a very Stockholm-Syndrome vibe to it, it progresses to something else, and by the end of the book, Raven is very much an equal partner to Kane, and the last scene of the book had me thrilled to my bones at how far Raven had come.

Tagen and Daria have a much sweeter, more traditional romance. Tagen is worried about hurting Daria, who has clearly been damaged in the past. In addition, Jotan women are the ones that are aggressors in the relationship, and since Daria does not make a move on him, he simply waits for her to indicate that she wants him. This takes a very, very long time since Daria has been hurt in the past. Tagen is obsessed with his police-work, and he appreciates Daria’s clever mind as she begins to help him track down Kane. In turn, Daria is attracted to Tagen, but she is afraid of letting someone into her safe, protected life and being hurt all over again. Their relationship is much slower to develop, but is a nice counterpoint to the violence of Kane and Raven’s relationship, and when they finally get together, the reader knows it is because they have come to a genuine understanding and mutual desire.

This is dubbed as ‘erotic horror’ by the author, and while I don’t think it’s really a horror novel, the erotic tag is very key. Kane rapes multiple people throughout the book, including the heroine. Raven herself is passed around and forced to service other men and sometimes other women, all upon Kane’s whim. There is lots of extreme violence and Raven is manhandled for the first section of the book to the point that I was very uncomfortable with some of the scenarios. I’m not a fan of rape in novels. Usually that is the first thing that will make a book hit the wall. Yet I kept reading this, and I found myself still hoping that Kane and Raven would have a happy ending by the end of the book. I’m not sure what that says about me.

Despite the violent storyline, there are some genuinely touching moments between each couple, and some very funny ones. The conclusions that Tagen comes to as he tries to figure out earth culture by watching TV are quite funny, as well as the scene in the sex shop.

I would be remiss without pointing out that this book is very long.  The page count is not listed on the Amazon page, but clicking over to the paper copy shows that it’s over 600 pages long, which sounds about right. Yet the book does not feel dragged out or change plots halfway through (unlike your other book, Olivia, which I bailed out on at 40%) and the story never loses its momentum. I was actually sad to see the book end and immediately looked for other reads similar to Heat, because I wanted to return to that enjoyable intensity your writing brings.

Overall, Heat was an uncomfortable read at times but a riveting one the entire story. I am struggling with the grade to give this book. The writing and intensity that I felt while reading it mark this into A+ territory, and I am stingy with my grades. I haven’t felt quite so caught up in a book in a very long time. Yet if I were taking off marks for awful things depicted in the story, I’d have to mark it right back down to an F grade, because there are a lot of reprehensible things done and committed by one of the heroes. Kane is not nice. He does not become nice. He is not reformed into a kinder, gentler Kane by the end of the story. If you are interested in villain heroes, this is definitely a book to get. If not, you should pass this one on by because you will regret every dollar you spend.

I do feel as if this sort of book was the reason I read indie books. I’m constantly hoping for that one read that will probably never be published by a mainstream publisher, yet is intense and consuming and surpasses all my skeptical misgivings. The happy ending for both couples cinched this for me, since I was worried that it could not possibly end well. And yet, you pulled it off.  I have to give this a very enthusiastic B+/A- and hope that others pick it up so they can tell me if I have lost my mind with my affection for this book.

All best,

January

PS – Your website is awful and your book covers almost as bad.

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A couple of friends of mine have encouraged me to watch Downton Abbey. One of them said it is like watching a very smart historical romance. The Earl of Grantham married Cora, Countess of Grantham when he was poor and titled and she was young and rich. (Sound familiar?) Overtime, they grew to love [...]]]>

A couple of friends of mine have encouraged me to watch Downton Abbey. One of them said it is like watching a very smart historical romance. The Earl of Grantham married Cora, Countess of Grantham when he was poor and titled and she was young and rich. (Sound familiar?) Overtime, they grew to love each other. The show, Downton Abbey, centers around the Earl’s aristocratic family and their help. The show is available on Netflix and free streaming via Amazon Prime.

Susanna Kearsley, author of some of my favorite Harlequin Superromances, polled the members of the Romance Novelists Association (RNA) for suggestions about books like Downton Abbey and members provided the following list:

******

Dauntsey Park/The Last Rake in London, by Nicola Cornick, recently re-issued with the label “Perfect for fans of DowntonAbbey”. Here’s a summary: Sally Bowes is a scandalous figure in Edwardian London. The owner of the outrageously fashionable night club, The Blue Parrot, Sally guards her business and her heart well. But when she meets Jack Kestrel, both come under threat… Jack Kestrel is known as the last rake in London. Descended from the ancestral line of the devastatingly attractive Dukes of Kestrel, Jack is dangerous and dissolute and irresistible. When Jack and Sally start a passionate affair, neither of them think that the last rake in London might finally lose his heart. You can read an excerpt at Nicola’s web site:http://nicolacornick.co.uk

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The three books of Anita Burgh’s The Cresswell Inheritance Trilogy (The Broken Gate, The Heart’s Citadel, The Breached Wall) are set on a great estate in the West of England from Victorian times up to the end of the First World War. The trilogy follows the loves and fortunes of the aristocratic Cresswell family which are inextricably intertwined with those who serve them.

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Anita also sent this summary of one of her standalone novels, The Azure Bowl: The pretty blue bowl is the only possession of value owned by, Ia, a servant girl in a large Victorian mansion in Cornwall. Ia is consumed with anger at the injustice of her life compared with Alice’s who is the daughter of the house. Running away, at risk in the East End of London, Ia, eventually becomes a rich woman as Madam of a whore house, while Alice finds happiness in the US until their roles are reversed. But does it last and do the two ever meet again? You can find more on all Anita’s books at her website,http://www.anitaburgh.com

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Anne Whitfield offered her book The House of Women: As the Victorian Age draws to a close, Grace Woodruff, rejected by her first love and facing a spinster’s future, struggles to hold her broken family together, fighting for her sisters’ rights to happiness while sacrificing any chance for her own. As her disenchanted mother withdraws to her rooms, Grace must act as a buffer between her violent, ambitious father and the sisters who depend on her. But when the fires of her heart are rekindled by another, will the possibility of true love lead Grace to relinquish her responsibilities in the house of women and embrace her own right to happiness? You can read an excerpt at her website, http://www.annewhitfield.com

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Anna Jacobs’s bestselling series about The Gibson Family has been reprinting in paperback since 1994. It’s a rags to riches story. Annie Gibson is a survivor who overcomes huge difficulties to find love, starting life as a maid and ending up the owner of the town’s biggest mill, and mistress of a huge country mansion. It’s set in the mid-Victorian rather than Edwardian era, and Anna warns, ‘It’s not a “pure” romance,” but over the course of the five books—Salem Street, High Street, Ridge Hill, Hallam Square, and Spinners Lake—Annie has three husbands, and two of those are definitely love stories.http://www.annajacobs.com

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The Summer House by Mary Nichols was longlisted for the Romantic Novel of the Year Award in 2010: In 1918, Lady Helen believes her parents when they say she will never find a better husband than Richard, but when he returns to the Front, she realises that she has made a terrible mistake. And when Oliver Donovan enters her life, they begin an affair that leaves Helen pregnant, and she is forced to surrender her precious baby. Two decades later, the second war ravaging Europe is not the only echo of the past that haunts the present. Laura Drummond is caught in a tragic love affair of her own and when she is forced to leave London during the Blitz, she turns to the mother she never knew.

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For a different angle on the time between the wars, Mary also has The Kirilov Star: Four-year-old Lydia is the only survivor of her aristocratic family when the Red Army over-run their home in 1920. She is adopted by a British diplomat and brought up in England, but the pull of her roots is strong…

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In ebook, Mary’s novels A Line Through Chevington (A | BN | S | K ) and Promises and Pie Crusts( A | BN | S | K) both have an “Upstairs, Downstairs” theme. You can find more details on her website: http://www.marynichols.co.uk

And finally, there’s Nora Fountain’s ebook, Blackthorn Child: The much wanted son of Lord Downley is swapped by a vengeful maid for her own dead child and the estate is lost to his line, but the truth emerges and a few generations later it is restored to the rightful heir with a supremely happy ending at the end of WWII. http://www.norafountain.co.uk/

Nora added, “Incidentally, I had to change the family name. When I wrote it many years ago the title was ‘Downton’s Heir’!!”

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I haven’t read any of the books myself, so can’t vouch for the HEA’s beyond the promises of the authors involved.

From the readers here at Dear Author:

Rowen S: For m/m readers, Charlie Cochrane’s series that begins with Lessons in Love is a fabulous look at life in that era. It follows two Cambridge dons as they solve mysteries and fall in love. The last book of the series takes place immediately after WWI, and deals with the fallout from that. I can’t recommend these highly enough–they are beautifully researched, beautifully written, and beautifully sensitive.

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Farmwifetwo: Elswyth Thane wrote a Williamsburg series 70yrs ago or so. Starts just before 1776 and goes to WWII. They are romances with kisses.

Also, Lucy Maud Montgomery’s “Anne” series ends with Rilla of Ingelside during WWI.

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Victoria: More YA romance than romance, but A Countess Below Stairs by Eva Ibbotson! It’s set after the war, and it’s a bit fairytale-ish, but so charming. (Also reviewed here)

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Julie: It’s not strictly romance, but Charlotte Bingham wrote two wonderful stories set during that period: Debutantes and The Season.

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Evangeline Holland: As for Downton Abbey-type romances (and speaking as someone who writes Edwardian/WWI-set historical romances), there aren’t too many out there.

Jane Feather wrote a trilogy set in 1905-08 (The Bachelor List, The Bride Hunt, and The Wedding Game – A | BN), which I do like, but aren’t Feather’s best when compared to her excellent “V” books. Laura Lee Guhrke’s Abandoned at the Altar ( A | BN | K | S) trilogy is set in the early 1900s (Wedding of the Season, Scandal of the Year, and Trouble at the Wedding), and Kristi Astor’s Upon a Midnight Clear (A | BN | K S) is set in 1908–once again decent reads, IMO. Lucia Grahame’s haunting historical romance (A | BN) is set in 1900s France and England I think, and of course you can’t go wrong with Judith Ivory (Beast ( A | BN | K | S), Dance ( A | BN | K| S) and Bliss ( A | BN | K | S) [written as Judy Cuevas]), who gets the zeitgeist of the early 1900s spot on.

Rosalind Laker’s Orchids & Diamonds falls a tad outside of the romance genre spectrum, but it’s set in 1900s and WWI Europe, I really, really loved Sarah Smith’s trilogy set in mid-1900s to 1914 Boston and Europe (The Vanished Child, The Knowledge of Water, and A Citizen of the Country), I really enjoyed Harriet Smart’s Daughters of Blane (a UK release from the 90s now self-pubbed by the author), Gwendoline Butler’s gothic suspense The Red Staircase is set in 1900s England and Russia, and Clare Langley-Hawthorne’s mysteries are set in Edwardian England.

Lada: I think Catherine Cookson wrote some older romances set around the turn of the century. Its been years but The Wingless Bird (I think this is the one) stood out for me at the time from all it’s regency-set cousins. I believe some of her books were made into movies though I have not seen any of them.

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DS: Humor with some romance , I warmly recommend Angela Thirkell, particularly the Barsetshire books. She wrote between 1931 and 1959 so don’t expect a sensual read. They are comfort reads.

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Laura Lee Guhrke: Thanks Dear Author for bringing up Edwardian romance! Those of us writing it sometimes feel like it’s an uphill battle, but we are persevering. Some recommended reads:

• Non-fiction: A Perfect Summer, by Juliet Nicholson (fascinating, packed with juicy info). ( A | BN}
• Bio: Below Stairs, by Margaret Powell ( A | BN)and Testament of Youth, by Vera Brittain ( A | BN)
• Fiction: The Edwardians, by Vita Sackville-West ( A | BN)

But as to romance, there just aren’t many of us doing Edwardian. Evangeline, above, mentioned all the ones I can think of except Connie Brockway. Her new e-book, The Other Guy’s Bride, is set in turn of the century Egypt.

Tina: If anyone likes light mysteries set in Edwardian England, Marion Chesney has written a 4-book (i think) cozy series Snobbery With Violence is the first one. I listened to the series on audio Davina Porter narrating. It was lovely to read something set in Post-Victorian England.

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Kathryn: Can’t think of any romances that haven’t been mentioned but there is Elizabeth Peters’ Amelia Peabody series ( A | BN) which starts in 1880s goes up to 1920s and Mercedes Lackey’s Elemental Masters Series ( A | BN), which is set in parallel-universe late Victorian-Edwardian England. Both series have romantic elements to their stories.

And if you want late Victorian/Edwardian authors that were writing about their times there are writers such as John Galsworthy (whose Forsythe chronicles were also turned into a successful British/PBS series), E.M. Forster (Howard’s End, Room with a view), Rudyard Kipling, G.K. Chesterton, George Bernard Shaw, H.G. Wells, Edgar Rice Burroughs (Tarzan of the Apes), E.M. Hull (The Sheik), and Elinor Glyn (Wikipedia credits her with pioneering women’s erotic fiction).

Ros: Flambards by K M Peyton. I think if it were published today it would be YA. And The Edge of The Cloud. There are two others in the series but I am not a fan of them.

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Bren: LOVE E.M. Forster’s novels. I also really like Elizabeth von Arnim, whose book was actually mentioned in the first episode of Downton Abbey: ELIZABETH AND HER GERMAN GARDEN ( A | BN). Her more famous ENCHANTED APRIL is a delight and takes place at an Italian Villa that four women go in together to rent for a special retreat all their own ( A | BN). Very enjoyable reading and romantic story lines. Love this period. Also suggest renting the DVD “Manor House”… a fascinating PBS reality show where people from our day were retrained to live an Edwardian lifestyle, both above and below stairs. Fascinating stuff. http://www.pbs.org/manorhouse/

Julie: Daisy Goodwin’s The American Heiress ( A | BN) is another novel set in Edwardian England.

You might also want to try Margaret James’ excellent The Silver Locket ( A | BN), set before and during the First World War.

Don’t forget to check out Amy at Harlequin’s list as well.

Samuel [...]]]>

“There was a time when Julia Stanton’s fondest wish was to be Samuel Ward’s wife. But that was before the war. As pro-Confederacy sentiments clash with the Union troops occupying Baltimore, fear and suspicion turn friends to foes. Julia chooses the Confederacy…Samuel does not. And his decision is one she’s sure she’ll never forgive.

Samuel would gladly give his life for Julia. Still, he cannot go against the certainty he feels that slavery is wrong—even after his beliefs cost him Julia’s love. Yet as they work to comfort a city in turmoil, Samuel prays God’s guidance will lead them to common ground. For where there is courage and faith, two divided hearts may come together once more….”

Dear Ms. Farrington,

Since this is the beginning of the sesquicentennial of the US Civil War, I’ve been meaning to read more books which use it as a theme. Yours caught my attention since it’s set at the very start of the conflict and shows a side of the War that I’ve not read about in romance novels yet – that of neutral Maryland which was caught between North and South with Washington, DC on her border. It also shows people forced to decide on their convictions in the conflict as it came home to everyone – not just those in the deep South and slave holders. Even people who didn’t think they had a dog in the race found out that they had to choose on whether they supported ALL states rights or not. At this early point in the war, it’s strange to see Federal troops still enforcing laws about slaves held in Baltimore. I also liked the glimpse of how little the Union troops wanted to be there and that they weren’t the monsters which Julia and the other Baltimore citizens expected.

Most people in Baltimore were more concerned that their city was being invaded and taken over and threatened by Union troops than about slavery. They felt city was under siege. Sam is right in protesting the actions of men in city to tear up railroad lines and impede the travel of troops to the South as the North would never have permitted it. I’d heard of the suspension of habeas corpus but this is a great depiction of how shocked people were when the reality of the suspension was experienced. Life in wartime came to roost here long before many other places.

The book has a good period feel what with the heat they endure and Julia’s bonnets and hooped dresses. The descriptions of Fort McHenry make me want to check out some photos and learn more about it. And I’m so glad I don’t have to worry about chopping wood – though that’s a nice way to show the “guy” way Sam deals with his concern for Julia – he does something for her which he knows needs doing – like a modern hero changing his heroine’s snow tires. The men are so protective of their women though it doesn’t feel as if it’s a smothering concern or condescending one. Since Sam and Julia are already in love, you center the conflict between them on what was going on in their city and throughout the country.

Kudoes for Sam accepting Julia’s initial decision to break off their engagement and for him not to try and strong arm her back into it. He respects her, her opinion and knows that she must make up her own mind. Of course he’s not above using some powerful persuasion in the form of Frederick Douglass’s book and her own experiences with the two young slave boys they encounter, or the plight of the runaway young woman. These are worth years of trying to persuade her on his own. Though they might start out by not liking Federal troops in Baltimore or arbitrary justice, after Sally and Julia read the book their eyes are finally opened to the fact that slavery is wrong and can’t be allowed to continue.

I’d say the story is a 7/10 on the religion scale but that’s to be expected for that day and age when religion and church going were more a part of daily life, there was a war looming and the fact that Federal soldiers were in Baltimore and young men had chosen to join sides in the conflict – religious people would turn more to prayer.

You scattered a few other unresolved relationships throughout the book so I hope that you’ll return to this setting to finish those up. I enjoyed my time with Sam and Julia and of this glimpse of a different angle on the beginning of a war that altered the US forever and for the better. B+

~Jayne

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When I reviewed The Nonesuch a few months ago during Sourcebooks’ summer Heyer sale, I mentioned in passing that I really wanted to review Sprig Muslin, but it hadn’t been digitized yet. Now it is, so as promised, here’s a review.

This book wasn’t in my Top 10 Heyer Regencies during the first decade [...]]]> Dear Readers,

When I reviewed The Nonesuch a few months ago during Sourcebooks’ summer Heyer sale, I mentioned in passing that I really wanted to review Sprig Muslin, but it hadn’t been digitized yet. Now it is, so as promised, here’s a review.

This book wasn’t in my Top 10 Heyer Regencies during the first decade or so that I read her (that would be my teens and early twenties). It was too slow and too rural, and the hero and heroine weren’t exciting enough. I was totally a These Old Shades, Devil’s Cub, and Frederica kind of girl. But as I reread it in later years, I grew to appreciate the quiet humor. I especially came to love Lady Hester, the plain spinster heroine, and it’s become one of my very favorite Heyers.

Sprig Muslin chronicles the romance of Lady Hester Theale, the aging, on-the-shelf daughter of a gaming-mad Earl, and Sir Gareth Ludlow, one of Heyer’s patented top-of-the-trees, Corinthian heroes. Having reached his mid-thirties and lost his only brother at Salamanca, Sir Gareth accepts that he has to marry and produce heirs. But since losing his beautiful and much beloved fiancée in a riding accident a decade agp, he believes he is unable to offer a wife love. He chooses Hester, an old friend, over younger and more beautiful candidates because he thinks that marriage to him will be better for her than her current life as a general dogsbody for her father and her siblings’ families. But Hester shocks everyone, not least Sir Gareth, when she turns him down:

“I can offer you a position of the first consequence. You would be at no one’s beck and call, you would be your own mistress—with a husband who, I promise you, would not make unreasonable demands of you. You may be sure that I should always attend to your wishes, and hold you in respect as well as affection. Would that not mean a happier life than the one you now lead?”

Her face was very white; she pulled her hand away, saying in a stifled voice: “No—anguish!”

This seemed so strange a thing for her to have said that he thought he could not have heard her aright. “I beg your pardon?” he said blankly.

She had moved away from him in some agitation, and said now, with her back turned to him: “I didn’t mean it— don’t heed it! I say such foolish things! Pray forgive me! I am so deeply grateful to you! Your wife will be the happiest of females, unless she is a monster, and I do hope you won’t marry a monster! If only I could find my handkerchief!”

Gareth’s proposal visit to Brancaster is complicated by his meeting with Amanda, a lovely sixteen-year-old who has run away from home in order to compel her grandfather to agree to her marriage to a serving officer who is a younger son. She refuses to tell Gareth her name or address, and he cannot leave her on her own, so he takes her with him, to the consternation of Hester’s family (but not Hester). When Amanda runs away, Gareth must postpone any attempt to persuade Hester to change her mind and go after her. In the meantime Amanda has found a younger and more credulous knight-errant, and an accident occurs when Gareth catches up to them. When they can’t think of anyone else to turn to, the panicked and guilt-stricken pair beseech Hester to come and nurse Gareth until he recovers.

Gareth can’t be moved, so the four wind up in an inn in a tiny village, isolated from their families and friends and with their whereabouts unknown. This suits Amanda perfectly, because her grandfather won’t be able to find her and thus will submit to her ultimatum. Hester has her hands full caring for Gareth, and she isn’t averse to being cut off from her usual life for a while. As Gareth recovers, he sees a different side to Hester, and his feelings of friendship deepen into something else:

Lady Hester emerged from her hiding-place, her cap now wildly askew. Sir Gareth lay back against his pillows, watching her, a question behind the brimming laughter in his eyes.

“Gareth!” said Hester, in an awed voice. “You must own that Amanda is wonderful! I should never have thought of saying I was your natural sister!”

He was shaking with laughter, his hand pressed instinctively to his hurt shoulder. “No? Nor I, my dear!”

Suddenly she began to laugh too. “Oh, dear, of all the absurd situations—! I was just thinking how W—Widmore would l—look if he knew!”

The thought was too much for her. She sat down in the Windsor chair, and laughed till she cried. Mopping her streaming eyes at last, she said: “I don’t think I have ever laughed so much in all my life. But I must say, Gareth, there is one thing about this new story of Amanda’s which I cannot like!”

“Oh, no, is there?” he said unsteadily.

“Yes,” she said, sober again. “It was not well done of Amanda to make up such a tale about your father. For he was a most excellent person, and it seems quite dreadful to be slandering him! Really, Gareth, you should have denied it!”

“I assure you, he would have delighted in the story, for he was blessed with a lively sense of humour,” Sir Gareth replied. He looked at her, a glimmer in his eyes, and a smile quivering on his lips. “Do you know, Hester, in all these years I have held you in esteem and regard, yet I never knew you until we were pitchforked into this fantastic imbroglio? Certainly Amanda is wonderful! I must be eternally grateful to her!”

There’s not a lot of plot to this story. Gareth offers for Hester and is turned down; Amanda runs away to force her grandfather to bend to her will; Gareth is injured and must be nursed back to health. Amanda’s knight-errant, Hildebrand, stays a friend because Amanda is unshakeably devoted to her Brigade-Major.

But what the novel lacks in plot it makes up for in characterizations. Amanda could have been intensely annoying, but her determination and her commitment are admirable. Hildebrand, Hester’s family, and the innkeeper and his sister are portrayed with Heyer’s usual deft touch. The book is chock full of sparkling dialogue, and it is relatively free of the cant that Heyer loved so much.

Best of all, though, is the way the romance unfolds. There is nothing external (apart from Gareth’s injury) that drives the couple together or apart. Hester is truly a plain-Jane, downtrodden spinster when we meet her, but she blossoms away from her family. Heyer shows us her wit, humor, and intelligence, all of which Hester has suppressed during years of living with her unsympathetic, uninterested, unimaginative family. In the end, she gets Gareth on her terms, not his.

Gareth is saved from being unbearably arrogant at the beginning of the novel by his innate decency; his assumption that the best Hester can do is a loveless marriage is harsh but probably true, and he genuinely believes that his ability to fall in love died with his fiancée.

By the end of the story, Heyer convinces us not only that the handsome and sought-after Gareth can fall in love with someone like Hester, but that she is the ideal person for him at this point in his life. And she does this not by turning Hester into a different woman or by demonizing his late fiancée but by revealing to us and to Gareth the wonderful woman who has been trapped under that spinster exterior.

Grade: A-

~ Sunita

Note: this book is currently $1.99 at Amazon

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I’m always happy to find a new novel by you when I’m browsing the Harlequin site, and when the cover (accurately) includes a dog, I’m immediately downloading. This book is the second in your Banksia Bay series, the first of which Jayne reviewed here. While both books are set in the [...]]]> Dear Ms. Lennox,

I’m always happy to find a new novel by you when I’m browsing the Harlequin site, and when the cover (accurately) includes a dog, I’m immediately downloading. This book is the second in your Banksia Bay series, the first of which Jayne reviewed here. While both books are set in the same place and have plots revolving around stray dogs, the stories are independent and stand alone. This is an unusual book in several ways, but I found it a satisfying and enjoyable read.

Nikkita Morrissy is a thirty-year-old professional from Sydney. She’s retreated to the seclusion of Banksia Bay after finding out that her boss and lover of four years had a wife and family half a world away (with any other author I would be out of here now, but it’s you, so I keep going). Nikki rents half of a duplex cottage from the live-in owner, Gabe Carver, a local fisherman who is notoriously unsociable. They manage to avoid each other for three weeks, but then they collide in an attempt to rescue an abandoned dog. This dog is huge, shaggy, malnourished, and desperately missing his owner, who has sailed away and apparently isn’t giving him a second thought.

The local animal shelter has reluctantly decided that he isn’t able to be adopted and so will be put down when he’s captured. But Nikki, who has never had a dog, falls in love with him, matted hair and all, and decides to take him in pending Gabe’s approval. Gabe recently lost his canine best friend of sixteen years and doesn’t want the dog around but has no good reason to refuse Nikki, especially after a couple of the townspeople enthusiastically offer to help her learn about dog care and training. Slowly and reluctantly, Gabe grows closer to both Nikki and the dog, and all three learn to live less in the past and look forward to the future.

One of the things I like most about your stories is that the people feel real and worthy of the reader’s respect. Nikki is an engineer who designs commercial air-conditioning systems and is both successful and highly paid. When she breaks off the relationship with her boss she doesn’t throw up her job but finds a way to do it from Banksia Bay. Over the course of the novel Nikki does change to a different occupation, but her reasons for doing it make sense, and they are motivated by changes within herself. Gabe is genuinely surly and antisocial, and he has good reason to be. And although he is the owner of a fishing business that is crucial to the town’s economy, he is still very much an everyday fisherman. For both of these characters, work is a critical part of their lives, and the story reflects that.

This is definitely a book for animal lovers. There is a lot of time devoted to the rescue and rehabilitation of Horse, the aptly named dog. Parts of the book are heartbreaking for a dog person like me, for example when Horse runs away to find his worthless master. You don’t sugarcoat what it takes to rescue a dog, and it’s clear you know what you’re talking about. I was pretty sure that Horse would also have an HEA, and I’m glad to say he does, or this review would have to come with a trigger warning.

Nikki and Gabe need rescuing as much as Horse does, but as is often the case in your books, they rescue themselves and then commit to a relationship, rather than using insta-love to make their individual problems go away. Nikki is quicker to acknowledge that she’s fallen for Gabe than he is to admit his feelings, but she refuses to become a doormat in the process:

He wanted her–she could see it, she could feel it, she could almost touch it. But he was … afraid?

“You”re not like your father,” she said as evenly as she could. “But I’m not Lisbette, either.”

“I know that.”

“You don’t,” she said. “Otherwise you’d check my pipes for me, right here, right now. Trust me, Gabe.”

“I do.”

“No, you don’t. And whether you can learn … You can’t open yourself a little and protect the rest. That’s what Jonathan did. That’s what I’m used to and I’ve moved on. I think … I think I love you, Gabe, but I’m not going to love a man who spends his life protecting his boundaries.”

She stepped back. Hoping he’d stop her.

He didn’t and she felt sick.

Feeling bad was dumb. She should give him space.

She had to give him space.

Like she’d given space to Jonathan?

“Goodnight, Gabe,” she said as firmly as she could. “Thank you for a wonderful dinner. Horse and I loved it. See you … see you tomorrow. Come on, Horse, bed.”

Gabe eventually comes around, of course. If readers are looking for a good grovel in this book, they won’t find it (and Gabe does a few things that merit a grovel). Instead you give us a dog-in-jeopardy scene and a rescue that fits the tone of the story and lets the community give back to Gabe a bit of what he’s provided to them over the years. And we know he’s finally wised up, because he lets them.

Grade: B

~ Sunita

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Your 88 page post-apocalyptic romance novella, Ghost in the Machine, published by Samhain, was unlike any other romance I’ve read before. As I was reading it, I kept thinking of movies like the original “Terminator” and “28 Days Later” – dark yet ultimately uplifting stories about human beings struggling to survive in [...]]]> Dear Ms. Hancock,

Your 88 page post-apocalyptic romance novella, Ghost in the Machine, published by Samhain, was unlike any other romance I’ve read before. As I was reading it, I kept thinking of movies like the original “Terminator” and “28 Days Later” – dark yet ultimately uplifting stories about human beings struggling to survive in a world gone grim and terrifying.

Ghost in the Machine is narrated largely in the first person POV of Bet, a young woman who was left orphaned in the wake of the invasion of New York City by a biological computer known as the SoulEater.

The SoulEater consumes humans and mutates them into the Shadows, who seek out more humans for its consumption when they aren’t glitching by haunting their own pasts. After being located by Shadows, the humans (known as Warmbloods) are collected by the SoulEater’s other creations, the human/machine hybrids called Sweepers, who bring the Warmbloods to the SoulEater and enable it to make more Sweepers and Shadows.

Since the SoulEater’s invasion, New York has been covered in ashes and inhabited by growing numbers of Shadows. The number of Warmbloods has dwindled. Bet is a survivor but a tired one. Ever since her parents died years before, she has raised and sheltered her younger brother Douglas, foraging in the Shadows’ dangerous terrain to feed him.

Bet is on one such trip, having just found a precious can of peaches with which to feed her brother, when the warren in which she lives with Douglas is invaded by Sweepers. She abandons caution and with it, her pretense of being a Shadow, to race back to the warren. In doing so she draws the Shadows’ attention, but even so, she still arrives at the warren too late: Douglas has been taken by the Sweepers.

The realization is devastating because for years, protecting Douglas was the sole thing that had given Bet’s life purpose. When she makes her decision to pursue the Sweepers who took Douglas, it’s not merely because she is devoted to her brother but also because her own survival isn’t enough to sustain her.

I rise and center my pack between my shoulder blades. The precious can of peaches is my promise. One day Douglas will eat them. One day he’ll enjoy every juicy bite. I won’t give in to my hunger. Not for one single slice.

I don’t look back at the warren as I walk away. Beneath my feet are Sweeper tracks in ash. Shadows are coming. I feel their threat closing in. Logic says I should run in the opposite direction and avoid them at all cost. My heart and soul say otherwise. And until those things are lost or eaten, I’ll follow them.

The Shadows do indeed attempt to track Bet and one, shaped like a spider with a human head, attacks her. It’s at this point that she is rescued by a beautiful man in a soldier’s body armor. But the man has shimmering wings, and eyes hazy with static. He is not really a man, but another Shadow.

Except that unlike other Shadows, he has eyes that indicate he may be capable of independent thought. A different kind of Shadow, and one who has just saved Bet’s life. But Bet, taking no chances, uses her disruptor on him and sends him back to his maker, the SoulEater.

The Shadow, once a soldier named Gabriel Sanchez, is a ghost in the SoulEater’s machine. And he returns, resurrected, an hour later. He tells Bet that each time that happens, it is harder to pull himself free.

Bet finds herself talking to him. It is beyond dangerous to do so, since Gabriel is not just the ghost of a soldier who died years before, but the SoulEater’s creation. Is the SoulEater filing away whatever she tells Gabriel? Is it toying with her? Will it use Gabriel to attack her? Bet isn’t sure if she has a death wish, now that Douglas is gone, but when Gabriel offers to help her save Douglas, she gives in to her weakness and allows him to come along.

She knows he can’t be trusted. She knows that even if he wants to help her, he is still the SoulEater’s creature. And yet she also knows that she can’t save Douglas without Gabriel’s help. Worst of all, she recognizes that she feels desire for this Shadow, and wanting to find the sense of connection that has been missing from her life with him, with a Shadow, is the most frightening thing of all.

All that I have just summarized happens in the first ten percent of the novella. Because the story unfolded in compelling and unexpected ways, I don’t want to spoil more of it for readers.

There are a few flaws to this novella – I didn’t understand how the Shadows worked, technology wise, or always get what was happening on the SoulEater’s end of things. A question rose in my mind about where the food Bet foraged was produced (rice was mentioned to be a staple). And I also questioned whether Bet really would have been able to shelter Douglas to the degree she had in such a world.

But for the most part, I didn’t care. I didn’t care because the atmosphere of the world you created was so haunting, the spare language a perfect match for it, and the characters’ situation wholeheartedly absorbing.

Bet was such a focused survivor, though nearing the end of her emotional and physical rope. Gabriel literally pulled himself together from bits of memory – memory of the humanity of the solider he had once been. Both of them kept going, kept putting one foot in front of the other in a world where bleakness threatened, where little was left but the need to survive.

They took tremendous risks in the attempt to save Douglas, and in the attempt to allow themselves to feel something for one another. More than just a romance, this was also a story about the struggle to hold on to one’s humanity, and about the qualities which make the human race worth saving. It left me filled with hope as only stories that go into the dark places and come out on the other side can do. High B+.

Sincerely,

Janine

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With the exception of The Lion of Kent, which I enjoyed reading last year but which didn’t stick in my mind, I haven’t read your work (even though I’ve heard many good things about it). Your choice of settings and characters aren’t the type I usually seek out, but when I saw [...]]]> Dear Mr. Voinov,

With the exception of The Lion of Kent, which I enjoyed reading last year but which didn’t stick in my mind, I haven’t read your work (even though I’ve heard many good things about it). Your choice of settings and characters aren’t the type I usually seek out, but when I saw that you were publishing a series of contemporary short stories I was intrigued. I don’t generally read genre fiction with criminals as the protagonists, but something in the blurbs resonated with me, and the word-of-mouth and reviews have been stellar. So I bit the bullet and downloaded Dark Soul Vol. 1. And wow, am I glad I did.

The Dark Soul series comprises several short stories, bundled in pairs. They revolve around Stefano Marino, a “made man” (an official member of the Mafia) and Silvio Spadano, the protege, heir and assassin of a retired Mafia executive, Gianbattista Falchi. They meet for the first time in the first story, “Dark Soul,” when Mafia members from Europe and North America are summoned to the home of a powerful, dying Mafioso. Stefano is technically higher in rank but Silvio, as Falchi’s representative and favorite, is treated with greater deference. Stefano is happily married and considers himself straight, but he is immediately attracted to Silvio. When Silvio sneaks into Stefano’s room at night (we don’t find out why) and immobilizes Stefano’s bodyguard, Vince, Stefano turns the tables, ties Silvio up and humiliates him in a way that arouses them both.

The second story, “Dark Secrets,” takes place at Gianbattista Falchi’s Tuscan estate, where Stefano has come to ask Falchi for help with his business, and it explores the relationship between Silvio and his much older boss, who are clearly involved both sexually and emotionally. Stefano continues to be attracted to Silvio and it’s evident the attraction is returned, but Stefano is both resistant and puzzled: resistant because the Mafia is intolerant of homosexuality and he fears for his position and his business, and puzzled because he is genuinely in love with and sexually attracted to his wife, Donata. Through Stefano’s POV, the story gives us insight into the complex and intense nature of Silvio and Falchi’s relationship, a relationship which takes a surprising turn at the end of the story and sets up the second volume of the series.

These stories are not romances; there is no HEA or even HFN at the end of Volume 1, and the reader is left hanging plotwise. If you like cliffhangers it’s a great one, but if you don’t and you like the sound of the first volume, you should go into it prepared to download the next one when you’re done. The stories are also somewhat unusual in their construction. They follow a standard chronological narrative, but there are all kinds of unresolved story and character threads.

For example, we never find out what happens to the dying Mafia Don in the first story. The second story picks up some time after the first, but we don’t know what happens in the interim. Is Vince going to be an important character throughout the series?

The stories have this amazing texture and density, but we only get partial views of basic aspects like plot, motivations, etc. It’s both frustrating and compelling. I had to read the first few pages several times to get my bearings, because I felt thrown in at the deep end. But I kept reading anyway, because the writing was powerful and the characters were irresistible. The writing has a hypermasculine feel to it, which seems appopriate to the hypermasculine environment; it’s not particularly spare, but it’s direct and almost in-your-face:

Spadaro studied him, head tilted. “That’s why I don’t belong to anybody,” he said quietly, but with the force and conviction of a kidney punch. “I’m not following their fucking rules.” He swept the crowd again with his expressionless black eyes, then fixed them on Stefano’s face.

Stefano’s lips tingled. It was still hard to breathe and he had no idea why. He couldn’t let this man intimidate him. Couldn’t be seen as too interested. Barracuda or not—even Gianbattista Falchi’s protetto or not—he could afford zero suspicion. He’d be dead. Fuck Spadaro for flustering him so, and fuck himself for getting flustered, but he’d never show it. “Well, give Falchi my best wishes when you return to him.”

“Will do.” Spadaro sketched an ironic salute and stepped away.

Stefano fought the urge to straighten his tie, fought harder against the urge to watch the Barracuda cut through the assembled groups of men.

He caught Vince’s gaze, and though his bodyguard relaxed a little, he still looked worried. Stefano could see why. A sicario who belonged to a “retired” consigliere, and not just any pensioner, but crafty old Gianbattista Falchi, who’d been more powerful in his own right than many bosses. That was all manner of disturbing. “Paying his respects” by being anything but respectful.

The relationship that develops between the two men is at times brutal (literally so in the first story). And yet, by the end of the second story, I was convinced that more tender feelings could flourish between them as well. Silvio thrives on the combination of pain and pleasure, and Stefano instinctively responds:

Stefano’s own balls tightened in sympathy, but God, Silvio in pain was a sight to behold. It fed the same dark arousal that claimed him when he watched the kind of porn where the actors wore not just lust on their faces, but pain or shame or both. He’d never get shame from Silvio, but the way the young killer embraced his emotions during sex—regardless of what exactly they were—was a huge turn-on. Whatever happened to Silvio, he sank into it without reservation, possibly even without self-awareness.

What would it be like to have a lover like that? Somebody he could do this to, mix the pleasure with pain. Someone who would take it all and more and never consider him a controlling freak.

Although Silvio masks his vulnerable side and his softer emotional needs, by the end of the second story they have been revealed, both to the reader and to Stefano. I very much look forward to seeing how you concurrently explore the relationships and the criminal storyline.

I want to reiterate that this series is not genre romance, nor does it conform to the usual m/m conventions. The protagonists have sex with other people in these stories. The main characters are all part of the criminal underworld, which some readers will find objectionable. So far the sex scenes are anything but vanilla (one involves non-consensual acts). I really appreciate that Stefano’s wife is not portrayed as emotionally incomplete, a shrew, or a ditz, but I can’t imagine things are going to go well for her marriage in the subsequent installments.

I should also note that the book is $3.99 for about 20,000 words (or about 60-70 pdf pages). That is not cheap, and frankly, the price kept me from picking it up a while ago. But I kept thinking about it, and for me the quality is worth the price.

With all these caveats stipulated, I definitely recommend this series. If readers are looking for excellent writing, strong characterizations, sizzling sex, and a fascinating storyline, you won’t want to miss Dark Soul Vol. 1. I’m off to download Volumes 2 and 3.

Grade: A-/B+

~ Sunita

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Red Glove by Holly Black (my review) Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake India Black by Carol K. Carr (Jennie’s and my review) Uncommon Criminals by Ally Carter The Shattering by Karen Healey (my review) Huntress by Malinda Lo (my review) Daughter of Smoke and Bone by [...]]]> In alphabetical order, by author’s last name:

Red Glove by Holly Black (my review)
Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake
India Black by Carol K. Carr (Jennie’s and my review)
Uncommon Criminals by Ally Carter
The Shattering by Karen Healey (my review)
Huntress by Malinda Lo (my review)
Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor (my review)

You’ve done it again. While Bad Boyfriend is perhaps not as perfect (to my mind) as No Souvenirs, I much prefer it to Bad Company. The book focuses on two fascinating men and their relationship with each other and with those that surround them. There’s no intrigue, no mystery. There’s just people trying to [...]]]> Dear Ms. Mitchell.

You’ve done it again. While Bad Boyfriend is perhaps not as perfect (to my mind) as No Souvenirs, I much prefer it to Bad Company. The book focuses on two fascinating men and their relationship with each other and with those that surround them. There’s no intrigue, no mystery. There’s just people trying to live life without getting hurt too much. Eli and Quinn just jump off the page from the first time they touch and they don’t let go until their book is done.

The book opens with Quinn having sex with Peter, his boyfriend of ten years, for the first time in four months. The next day, Peter leaves him because he’s getting married to the woman he got pregnant two months prior. Not only is Quinn in Peter’s wedding to  Chrissy, who has no idea about Quinn’s history with Peter, but she asks Quinn to be the baby’s godfather. So the story really starts the night before the baptism. Quinn’s at the local gay bar with his friend:

“I’m not still in love with him if that’s what you’re saying.”

“So prove it. Put an end to this insanity with a big fuck you.”

“Like how?”

“Show up tomorrow with a drag queen on your arm and ask Peter if he thinks she makes your dick look bigger.” [This is totally one of the reasons I read your books, Ms. Mitchell, for lines like this. Beautiful.]

“I can’t do that.”

“Why not?”

“His family. They’ve always been good to me. I couldn’t—” He hadn’t worried about losing touch with Peter’s brother Dennis. They went back too far for that, had been through too much in the Academy together, but he’d thought losing Peter meant losing the rest of the Laurents too—cracking on pop culture with Peter’s sister Alyssa, war games with Peter’s dad, and worst of all, losing Peter’s mom. Claire had welcomed him, mothered him, from the first time Dennis had brought him home on their break from the Academy. Two weeks after Peter moved out, Claire had called to tell him her son’s business was his own, but as far as she was concerned, Quinn was still a member of her family. He couldn’t humiliate them in church like that. [This is the -- very believable because fully explained -- motivation for much of the story. Peter's family is more important to Quinn than Peter is by this point. They're the only family he has and they love him for who he is, whether or not Peter left him.]

But the idea of showing up with a date, a very obviously gay date, someone who Peter would have to notice, got entrenched in Quinn’s brain.

So Quinn finds Eli. Eli is friends with Nate and Kellan, the heroes of Bad Company (Bad Boyfriend stands alone but it’s a little bit richer if you’ve read Bad Company first). Eli is 22 (Quinn is 35). Eli has never not been out, he’s never been able to hide who he is:

Eli had always been out. He didn’t really know how to make it a question of what he was willing to talk about. People took one look at him and knew he was gay. Not for the first time he thought it was a lot harder to look like Quinn, stupid little ponytail and all.

So he works it instead:

Being fuckable was something Eli aspired to every second of the day.

[Not incidentally, this book is filled with "favorite lines" for me. At one point, Eli is trying to explain to Peter's very straight brother that Peter hit on him (Eli):

"[He's] A man whore. He hit on me.”

Dennis rolled his eyes.

It was Eli’s turn to fold his arms. “I’ll have you know most gay guys find me hot.”

Dennis looked like he was trying to figure out why.

Anyway…]

So Quinn approaches Eli to ask him to go to the baptism in the morning and somehow gets sidetracked into the hottest sex he’s ever had. The hottest sex Eli has ever had to. And something I haven’t read before in a m/m romance (although maybe I’m not looking hard enough):

He slid his hand down the muscle-ridged torso and landed on what he’d already felt rub on his belly. The fat length of Quinn’s dick stretched up to just under the waistband of his jeans. Eli stroked and let the inside of his wrist find the damp head pushing up past the denim.

“Ooo, Daddy,” Eli purred. “Is this all for me?”

Quinn didn’t stop smiling, but he looked like now they were both in on the joke. “Only if you’re a good boy.”

“Oh, I’m always good.”

Yes, Quinn and Eli get each other off with Daddy kink (I can’t find an explanatory link that’s not fanfic related). FWIW, Daddy kink is not in the slightest age-play or incest-play, or at least it’s not in this book. It’s an older, more dominant man with a younger, submissive man, using “Daddy” and “boy” as their sex-related nicknames. And in this book it’s completely fucking hot.

And…that’s really the book. Quinn and Eli have to find their way to each other, despite the hot sex, despite Quinn’s attachment to Peter’s family, despite Eli’s abandonment issues. Quinn has to appreciate the joy and heat Eli brings to his life, while Eli has to trust that Quinn will never let him go.

This book not only has the best one-liners; it also has some of the best, most deeply personal relationship-related lines:

Every game Eli had played, tied spread-eagle, a hand or paddle bruising his ass, a flogger stinging into his crack, nothing had ever forced surrender on him like this deep, gentle fuck from Quinn. Eli had thought he liked to give up control, take a break for awhile and let a man push sensation onto his body. This was different.

Terrifying.

Because this was what it was like to really lose control. To let Quinn inside, to let him make Eli feel so much more than the amazing sensations of bodies together.

And inside that surrender was safety. Quinn around him, voice in his ear whispering, “I’ve got you. Let me make you feel good, honey.”

But really, one of the best expressions of love I’ve ever read is when Quinn desperately tells Eli:

And even if you end up breaking my heart, I won’t mind, if I get to have you in my life for awhile.

::melt::

This review is much more about impressions than a solid narrative of my reading experience because that’s what it feels like to read it. I’ve read this book at least four times, and each time I read it I get a different, deeper impression of how Quinn and Eli fit together so perfectly, how they work perfectly, how they become better people together by becoming more themselves. It’s easy just to remember the kinky sex, but each time I reread it, the lines I go back to again and again are about the relationship, not the sex.

Problems? First, Quinn and Eli have the big scene in which they figure each other out, figure their relationship out, and then…there’s one last scene with Peter and his family. And while it was a necessary scene for finishing up the loose ends of the story, I vaguely wish the emotional climax (hur hur) finished the book instead. I see why it had to happen that way, and I usually love to see characters just being together with a full understanding of their love for each other, but Quinn had already had his “I feel nothing for Peter anymore” scene before the final two scenes, so this seemed a bit too much.

And second, Peter was just…so fucking selfish I don’t understand how Quinn managed to miss it for so long or how Peter managed not to be an asshole for long enough that Quinn stayed with him. I get that it’s stress that really brings out the worst (or best) in people, so we’re seeing him at his worse, but there needed to be some redeeming something to make me understand why Quinn stayed for so long.

But overall, I adore, once again, how you let the reader work things out for ourselves. You don’t force-feed us the characters’ motivations; you don’t even spoon-feed us. You let us figure it out as the characters do. And that helps me know, viscerally, that these characters are utterly made for each other.

Grade: A-

Best regards,
-Sarah

P.S. OMG, that cover’s brilliant. Those two men are perfect for Eli and his attitude and for Quinn and his smile.

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Recently The Famous Heroine and The Plumed Bonnet were rereleased together in a 2-in-1 edition after many years out of print, and I reviewed and recommended The Famous Heroine. That book left me wanting to know more about Alistair, Duke of Bridgewater, one of the hero’s friends.

In The Famous Heroine Alistair, [...]]]> Dear Ms. Balogh,

Recently The Famous Heroine and The Plumed Bonnet were rereleased together in a 2-in-1 edition after many years out of print, and I reviewed and recommended The Famous Heroine. That book left me wanting to know more about Alistair, Duke of Bridgewater, one of the hero’s friends.

In The Famous Heroine Alistair, having seen three of his friends trapped into marriage or married under false pretenses, determines to avoid the parson’s mousetrap. The Plumed Bonnet begins several years later, and Alistair is on his way to London for the season.

Along the road Alistair spies a “bird of paradise” in a fuchsia cloak and a plumed pink bonnet. The lady, who is surely no lady, begs for a ride atop the carriage with the groom and coachman. She is trying to reach Hampshire on foot. Alistair, bored with his mistresses and with his loveless life, decides that she might as well ride inside the carriage and entertain him.

And indeed the tall tale she feeds him is immensely amusing. According to the brightly plumed bird, her name is Stephanie Gray and she is a governess who recently came into a considerable fortune. Sindon Park, the estate that belonged to her grandfather, was left to Stephanie though she and her parents were estranged from the rest of the family. The will stipulates that Stephanie must marry within four months to a man of whom the solicitor and her grandfather’s nephew approve, or lose Sindon Park.

Since her employers were unkind and she could not have borne for them to turn obsequious, Stephanie left her workplace early one morning without giving notice in order to make her way to Hampshire and claim her inheritance. On Stephanie’s way there her valise was stolen, and unfortunately most of her money was in it. Now Stephanie is penniless and at Alistair’s mercy, as well as grateful for his kindness. If only she could repay him!

Alistair, who introduces himself only as Alistair Munro and allows Stephanie to assume he is a mere mister, is thoroughly entertained and strangely attracted to the woman whose tale he cannot swallow. He can think of a way that she can repay him, and resolves to take her all the way to Hampshire, providing her with food and shelter along the way, in order to see her squirm when her lies are disproved. Afterward, he will take her to London and set her up as his mistress.

But Stephanie’s outlandish tale happens to be true. She came by the cloak and bonnet from a troupe of actors traveling in the opposite direction, and took them because she had no other bonnet and cloak – hers had been stolen along with her valise and money. Stephanie has just one coin left and Hampshire is distant. She is hungry, cold, and after spending the night out of doors she knows she will not survive without a ride.

Stephanie is beyond grateful to Alistair, the only person who has treated her with kindness and respect, rather than leering or revulsion. When they reach Hampshire, she tells him that if it comes out that she spent days in his company unchaperoned, she will surely be considered compromised. She asks him to set her down to walk to Sindon Park, so that he will not be trapped into marrying her, but Alistair insists that for her own safety, he must see her to the door.

Of course, once there, Alistair realizes that Stephanie is exactly what she said she was and he has sprung the parson’s mousetrap on himself. He is not required to marry her, but she will likely be ruined unless he does. Honor dictates he offer himself, and reveal that he is really a duke….

The Plumed Bonnet is a story of misleading appearances, personal insecurities, and misunderstandings. Even after the initial misapprehension caused by the plumed bonnet is cleared up, there are others to sort out. Stephanie and Alistair are at first unsure that their betrothal isn’t a mistake, that Stephanie is cut out for the role of duchess, and most importantly, what it is they want from a spouse.

Part of the problem is that Stephanie, who would have died on the road to Hampshire if Alistair hadn’t stopped to pick her up, feels so indebted to Alistair for his generosity and kindness, and for treating her with respect when no one else would. Her indebtedness makes the relationship between them unequal, so it’s not until the truth of Alistair’s motivations comes out that they can begin to forge a partnership.

The book also explores a theme that was prominent in one of your most beloved books, Slightly Dangerous, that of a conflict between propriety and free spirits. In fact, once Alistair’s past was revealed, I saw some similarities between him and Wulfric, Duke of Bewcastle, the hero of Slightly Dangerous.

I was impressed that Alistair was in no way diminished by this comparison, and in fact, he is one of your best heroes IMO. Even when he mistook Stephanie for an actress or a kept woman, he still treated her better than anyone else did, and although he initially told himself he was marrying her for honor’s sake, the truth was more complex. In the last quarter of the book, Alistair makes a couple of very romantic gestures that made me sigh with satisfaction.

As for Stephanie, while I was totally on her side at the beginning of the book, in the middle section I felt she was a bit too prickly. While Alistair made one or two blunders, they didn’t seem like enough to merit Stephanie’s coldness. But I also understood why Stephanie’s feelings of indebtedness and the attempts on Alistair’s mother’s behalf to mold her into a duchess made her feel resentful.

The exploration of the way gratitude can actually create a negative dynamic was unusual and interesting, and I appreciated that there were no true villains in the story, just human beings who made mistakes and came to regret them.

A significant flaw in the book was that while the beginning and ending were riveting, the middle didn’t create the same level of suspense in me. Still, the last quarter (but for a jarring note in the final scene) was so romantic that I closed the book feeling happy and contented. B+.

~Janine

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I know that when I start a Carla Kelly book, I’ll get a certain number of things. An honorable hero, an unflappable heroine, some idiot secondary characters who may bluster and threaten to cause the hero and heroine some problems but who usually are mainly all hot air and dismissed as [...]]]> Dear Mrs. Kelly,

I know that when I start a Carla Kelly book, I’ll get a certain number of things. An honorable hero, an unflappable heroine, some idiot secondary characters who may bluster and threaten to cause the hero and heroine some problems but who usually are mainly all hot air and dismissed as the pompous stuffed shirts they are and a gentle love story of two people finding each other – often where they least expected. As this is a linked anthology, here I get this in triplicate which makes sense since all three stories involve the military and we know how much the military, the world over and throughout time, loves its paperwork.

1812 Alta California and stranded Navy surgeon Thomas Wilkie wishes he were home in Scotland rather than in the Spanish held San Diego. Here by the fortunes of war and left here as a bargaining chip when his remaining shipmates finally head north to where they hope to eventually find passage home to England via the Americans in Oregon, he tends the people of the Presideo and surrounding area since he’s the only medical man between there and Tucson. When lovely Laura Maria Ortize de la Garza finds herself ostracized due to her father’s embezzling, Thomas also finds himself in the unlikely position of savior and new husband. Can this unlikely pair discover lasting love from such a beginning?

In 1855 Crimea, widowed Lillian Wilkie Nicholls trusted what she was told – namely that this war would be over in 6 weeks. Two years later she’s still Doing Good in a hospital in Anatolia as she and wards full of wounded soldiers await their return to England. With her is American military observer Major Trey Wharton who has somehow ended up as the administrator of the hospital and who, along with Lily, doesn’t suffer fools or nitwit English surgeons gladly. Their year long friendship will be ending soon – as quickly as the wheels can turn in a military environment. Or will they find the courage to speak up before it’s too late?

1877 Fort Laramie finds Army surgeon Wilkie Nicholls Wharton far from his parents in Philadelphia but finally headed home for Christmas and his long delayed marriage to a fellow Main Line Philadelphian. His hopes for a quiet journey are dashed when he’s asked to keep an eye on lovely Frannie Coughlin who’s also headed East and then has to take responsibility for transporting Nora Powell home from her 13 years of Indian captivity to whatever relatives she still has left in Iowa. Then, just as he thinks he might still get some of his medical journals read, yet another female joins them on the train and precipitates Wilkie and Frannie’s discovery of what they really want this Christmas season.

Paying homage to Garrison Keillor’s Lake Wobegone denizens, in your novels the women are strong, the men are honorable, and the children are usually cute without being annoying. The “villains” are generally just thickheads and idiots who might have a higher rank but who are usually dismissible from the main action by the hero and heroine who are as incapable of intentionally hurting anyone as they are unable to turn their backs on anyone in need. It’s more fantasy than reality but it’s a lovely fantasy to sit down to and drift into for a while as I forget just how awful the latest blaring news headline is. These are people as I would love us all to be.

I enjoyed the way the stories are varied in time and location with a mix of ages, nationalities and – let’s hear it for – experience. Lily Nicholls, who misses the comforts of marriage, and Frannie Coughlin, who earlier anticipated a marriage that never happened, are frank about their wants which delights their heroes no end. One thing I wish had been expanded was the substory of the young woman being returned to white society despite her wishes. There could be a whole book in this. The delightfully devious Sultan was a fun character and Father Hilario an example of pure compassion.

When I finish reading one of your books, I might feel as if I’d had one too many pieces of sugar sweet sheet cake but I also feel happy. These are people I’d like to meet in real life – real salt of the earth sorts.The time just flew while I read about them. And thank you so much for picking varied backgrounds for the characters and locations in which to set your stories here. I still enjoy reading Regency set anthologies but something different every now and then is a real treat. B for each novella.

~Jayne

| A | BN  Sony | Kobo |HQN ]]> http://dearauthor.com/ebooks/review-coming-home-for-christmas-anthology-by-carla-kelly/feed 7 http://dearauthor.com/need-a-rec/recommended-reads/december-recommendations http://dearauthor.com/need-a-rec/recommended-reads/december-recommendations#comments Mon, 05 Dec 2011 16:00:05 +0000 Jane http://dearauthor.com/?p=36882 Historical

The title of this book is what got my attention. I mean, how could it not? Once I saw it, I knew I had to read it. Who’s the Rat God? Who is his bride? What on earth is going on here?

If not for her actress sister-in-law Chrysandra Flamande taking her [...]]]> Dear Ms. Hambly,

The title of this book is what got my attention. I mean, how could it not? Once I saw it, I knew I had to read it. Who’s the Rat God? Who is his bride? What on earth is going on here?

If not for her actress sister-in-law Chrysandra Flamande taking her in, WWI widowed Norah Blackstone would still be an underpaid, overworked servant to a nasty, older woman in gray Manchester, England. Sometimes Norah still can’t believe how Christine blew into her life and whisked her away to sunny California as a companion to Christine as well as her three Pekinese dogs – Buttercreme, Chang Ming and Black Jasmine.

Though she can’t act to save her life, Christine is in the movie business and the pampered mistress of studio head A.F. Brown who’s given his “mad about all things Chinese” rising star a beautiful, though unusual, necklace reputed to have been looted from the Imperial Palace. On the night of the premiere of her latest movie two things happen – Norah meets camera man Alec Mindelbaum and an older Chinese man desperately tries to warn Christine of a life or death evil that’s been raised by her wearing the necklace. Already used to the lengths that movie fans will go to in order to see their favorites, Norah dismisses the odd old man though she and Alec agree he wasn’t like the usual fans.

But later that same night two more things happen – a stunt double who wore the necklace is brutally murdered and a violent storm blows through the area during which the three Pekes go berserk. The next morning the Chinese man, Shang Ko, appears and almost mystically manages to be hired as Christine’s groundskeeper. Still, no one is willing to believe what he says about the necklace and how it means Christine is now promised to an ancient, evil Manchurian god. But when bizarre things begin to happen on a location shoot followed by a mind blowing event after a star studded party, Christine, Norah and Alec can’t deny that something evil is lurking and maybe the old man is right. Can the four of them thwart the Rat God of his promised bride and keep from destroying half of Los Angeles while they do it?

After I read the glowing review of this book at All About Romance, I immediately ordered a used copy online that then sat on some bookshelves near my computer desk for years, silently urging me to read it. Finally I took it down and slid it into my reading rotation. Now that I finally read it, I wish I’d done so years ago. It’s fascinating, well written, fast paced and packed with tension leading to a dynamite ending. It’s also got a sweet romance between a woman who thought her heart was dead and a fantastic hero who’s probably a good four inches shorter than she is, bearded and who wears glasses. Readers who want to experience an unusual hero need look no further.

A friend of mine has Pekes and the descriptions of Christine’s three furry protectors are so accurate that they come alive for me as individual little people from Buttercreme’s outraged hiding when people visit the house, to Chang’s conviction that everyone is a long lost relative and finally little Jasmine struggling up and down stairs while being extremely vocal about that. They are also fiercely protective of both their mistress and Norah and play important roles in the ultimate take down of the Rat God.

The world of 1920s Hollywood with all its pre Hays Code wildness is vividly brought to life. The film stars of the day might have earned more money than the average American would see in a lifetime but the physical and mental cost of the 18 hour work days and churning out a film a month would need the easily prescribed cocaine to keep them going. And who cared for Prohibition? Free flowing booze, some of it even safely made!, was the order of the day. Sleek Nash roadsters, beaded flapper dresses and elegant cigarette holders add to the visual images that filled my head while reading the book.

As for the fantasy elements of the story, I guess if a reader is willing to buy a book called “Bride of the Rat God,” then he or she will be willing to go along with the plot. Clues are woven into the story from the beginning but one thing I like is how you gently drop them into the narrative without pointing neon arrows at them. Yeah the premise, when examined as a whole, is outrageous but since it’s doled out little by little, I had time to swallow the tiny pieces and buy into the whole shebang. The time frame of the story is also crucial since it draws on actual things which were common then such as powerful studio heads manipulating crime scenes to protect their investments, the simultaneous mania for China with the blatant racism against the Chinese in L.A., the specific locations in and around the city which feature in the book plus the “free for all” film industry of the day.

As well the danger is slowly revealed such as when Norah notices something about the foundation of Christine’s house after the early storm that scares her yet it’s another page or two before what alarms her is finally described. It allows time for my brain to magnify the mystery and terror of what could possibly be there and the implications that arise. Later on all the clues and forshadowing make sense but the whole thing is allowed to build to the thrilling climax.

The wealth of period detail, the pulse pounding ending, the complex characters, the tight narrative and three wonderful little dogs make “Bride of the Rat God” a winner for me. I wish it was currently in print but there are used copies to be found and an ebook version available. For people tired of vampires, were-creatures, Regencies, gazillionaire CEOs and secretly pregnant heroines this is something different to sit down and fall in love with. A

~Jayne

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Who knew you could be this funny?

Cora Downes is the titular heroine of this 1996 book, now being rereleased in a 2-in-1 volume with The Plumed Bonnet, as well as (to borrow a phrase from the back cover copy on my old Signet edition) a fish out of water in London [...]]]> Dear Ms. Balogh,

Who knew you could be this funny?

Cora Downes is the titular heroine of this 1996 book, now being rereleased in a 2-in-1 volume with The Plumed Bonnet, as well as (to borrow a phrase from the back cover copy on my old Signet edition) a fish out of water in London society.

Cora is the daughter of a very wealthy merchant, and when she saves a duke’s young heir from drowning, the child’s grateful grandmother, the Duchess of Bridgewater, asks Cora to allow her to convey her thanks by bringing Cora to London for a season. The duchess wants to help Cora snag a gentleman for a husband, and Cora, excited by the prospect of hobnobbing with the ton, agrees.

Trouble is that farce is Cora’s close companion. The child she “saved” from drowning, for example, was perfectly capable of swimming on his own. At her first London ball, Cora, at the insistence of one of the duchess’s daughters, wears slippers a size too small. Just when she is about to be introduced to Lord Francis Kneller, Cora trips over her pinched feet so that Francis has to catch her in his arms. Thus begins an unlikely friendship.

Lord Francis Kneller was the main reason I wanted to read this book. Francis appeared in the prequel, Lord Carew’s Bride, where he was one of society beauty Samantha Newman’s many male friends. Elegant and dapper, Francis was stunned when Samantha, who had chosen to remain unmarried for years, announced that she was marrying the plain Marquess of Carew. That was the only occasion on which Francis blurted out his feelings for Samantha. But when he realized she loved Carew, he not only pretended to have feigned his upset, but acted as Carew’s second when Carew defended his wife’s honor.

Now Samantha is expecting a child with Carew, and the lovelorn Francis is depressed. When his friend the Duke of Bridgewater asks Francis to dance with Miss Cora Downes in order to aid her acceptance by society, Francis, who is considered a discerning trend-setter for the courting of society beauties, agrees.

But Cora does not realize how sought-after a suitor Francis is. And because he wears a turquoise coat, Cora thinks of him as a peacock. She quickly comes to like Francis, but his love of wearing colors like lavender, lemon, puce and pink, and something that her brother once told her about men who dress this way, cause Cora to jump to the conclusion that Francis must be gay.

This then, is a friends-to-lovers story with a twist. Francis and Cora each delight in the other’s company, but neither of them believes there could ever be anything romantic between them, and not just because Francis’s birth is higher than that of any man whom Cora could hope to marry. Francis believes himself in love with Samantha, and Cora thinks of Francis as a man who doesn’t swing that way.

And yet, even as they believe that they could never do so, they both fall in love. It is a delight to watch their friendship bloom because these two know how to be honest with each other and how to make one another laugh, and because it is clear that they are both good for each other.

Whether Cora is unable to dance any more due to her too-small slippers, whether she’s jumping out of Francis’s phaeton to try and save poodles from being trampled by a horse, or whether she fears she will pass out on being introduced to Prinny, Lord Francis is always there in the nick of time.

And whether Francis is feeling down in the doldrums due to his loss of Samantha or merely bored with the fashionable world, Miss Downes and her latest escapade is always the best medicine for his melancholy or ennui. Whether it’s poodles being saved or a child’s hat being chased, how can Francis resist Cora any better than he can a turquoise coat?

Both characters are charming. Francis is an interesting mixture of cynical and gallant, perceptive and able to laugh at Cora’s foibles. His bright coats signal that he is secure enough in himself to thumb his nose at what others think, which makes him perfect for the quirky Cora.

Cora is klutzy and occasionally clueless, but her impulse toward heroism stems from empathy and she is self-aware and able to laugh at herself. She is terrified of dukes and royalty, but is the kind of person who would not hesitate to throw herself in the path of a carriage to save a kitten. Her bravery and her gallantry, misguided though they are, along with her ability to see the humor in her mistakes, make her loveable and delightful.

The theme that appearances can be deceiving, a central one to many of your books, lends The Famous Heroine both humor and heart. When Cora learns that gay men can just as easily dress in sober colors and be big and brawny, she is embarrassed by her thoughtless stereotyping. But Cora herself is in danger of being stereotyped for her own tall, voluptuous appearance. And Francis, whose first thought on seeing her was that she belongs in a green room, greeting would-be “protectors,” grows genuinely protective of Cora.

There is also an entertaining role-reversal in that Cora is, in her way, just as protective of her friend Francis. If someone wants to impugn the way he dresses, Cora thinks, “just let them” and she will show that person a thing or two. And Francis has much the same thoughts about anyone who would in any way trespass against Cora.

There is a deliberate silliness to this book, with elements of farce, screwball comedy and even a little slapstick. Occasionally the balance tips in the wrong direction and it is hard to take Cora and Francis seriously as a romantic couple, especially since it takes Francis too long to realize that he is over Samantha. And yet, at other times, there is an underlying poignancy to this story of two vulnerable people who shelter each other from harm, and it is easy to see why Cora and Francis charm one another so much.

As I was reading The Famous Heroine, I thought about the nature of bravery and heroism, about the way appearances and quick judgments can mislead, and about the role that loyalty and friendship play in romantic relationships. I also laughed my head off several times. B+ for The Famous Heroine.

Sincerely,

Janine Ballard

Note: The Famous Heroine was reprinted in a duet with The Plumed Bonnet which is not a recommended read. The buy links are for the book that is widely available. The Famous Heroine was originally published by Signet in 1996 and it’s 10 digit ISBN is 0451187733.

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When Hot Head first came out, I heard good buzz about it, read the blurb, and refused to read anymore. I didn’t even read the excerpt because the blurb sounded so ridiculous:

Since 9/11, Brooklyn firefighter Griff Muir has wrestled with impossible feelings for his best friend and partner at Ladder 181, [...]]]> Dear Mr. Suede.

When Hot Head first came out, I heard good buzz about it, read the blurb, and refused to read anymore. I didn’t even read the excerpt because the blurb sounded so ridiculous:

Since 9/11, Brooklyn firefighter Griff Muir has wrestled with impossible feelings for his best friend and partner at Ladder 181, Dante Anastagio. Unfortunately, Dante is strictly a ladies’ man, and the FDNY isn’t exactly gay-friendly. For ten years, Griff has hidden his heart in a half-life of public heroics and private anguish.

Griff’s caution and Dante’s cockiness make them an unbeatable team. To protect his buddy, there’s nothing Griff wouldn’t do…until a nearly bankrupt Dante proposes the worst possible solution: HotHead.com, a gay porn website where uniformed hunks get down and dirty. And Dante wants them to appear there — together. Griff may have to guard his heart and live out his darkest fantasies on camera. Can he rescue the man he loves without wrecking their careers, their families, or their friendship?

Yes, let’s keep our secret…by doing online porn. Because we’ll never get found out that way, right? And FDNY Gay For You? Just…no. Too ridiculous for me.

But I kept hearing about how good it was from people I trusted, whose tastes match up with mine. And then Heidi Cullinan told me to get off my ass and read it. So I did. And OMG, it was so SO good.

While reading it, I kept flashing back to Evangeline Anderson’s The Assignment, in which two ostensibly straight, but really really close, police partners take an assignment to go undercover to a gay vacation resort owned by, I think, a mob boss (drug runner?). There, in order to maintain their cover, they’re forced into doing more and more sexual acts, almost all of them in front of others. Their sexual encounters, of course, just fuel the perspective character’s unrequited love for his partner. While The Assignment was much more utterly ridiculous (and WHY was it set in the early 1980s, I ask you?), Hot Head had a similar feel to it. Griff loves Dante but has no way or hope of ever telling Dante, so he suffers in unrequited silence with a mighty case of blueballs. Dante secretly loves Griff too and figures out a way to feel out whether Griff is interested by working for the HotHead.com website. He pushes them further and further in their sexual encounters in front of other people, finally breaking down the barriers of heteronormativity keeping them apart so that they can admit their love for each other.

The thing that really worked for me about Hot Head, though, is that Griff, from whose perspective the whole story is told, embraces not only his attraction for Dante, but quickly identifies as gay. He’s not gay for Dante. He’s gay and it’s his attraction to and love for Dante that allows him finally to realize it. He even thinks at one point:

Well, maybe that was the real solution. Maybe if Griff didn’t confess his feelings for his friend to his friend. Maybe he could just float the idea that he might like dudes, yes, like-like. But what if that changed things between them? What if Dante laughed and winked and offered to get him a discount on a HotHead membership? What if Dante felt weird around him after that?

He felt trapped.

Right. The thing to do was to try and get over Dante. He needed to find another guy and get used to the gay thing and move on. Fairytales were bullshit. Happy endings were for suckers. People didn’t love each other forever.

The boys find their way to each other through sex — they use it as an excuse to be able to touch each other, feel each other out both literally and metaphorically. But the absolutely hottest scene in the whole book was the first time Griff watched Dante’s jack-off scene at HotHead.com. It was unbelievably sexy to watch one guy watching the object of his unrequited lust and love masturbate.

One niggle I had: do jack-off websites REALLY pay that much for their models, no matter what their models do? Kink.com, for example, doesn’t pay nearly what HotHead.com apparently paid (NSFW link), and that’s much more hardcore than the mutual masturbation and blowjobs Griff and Dante did for HotHead.com. (Why, yes, I know way too much about this, NOT because I’m interested in modeling — like they’d take me, ha! — but because I tend to click on every link at a website from OCD researcher compulsion.) Anyway…

I loved these characters. They’re so different from each other and fit together so well. I loved the writing. It’s very visual and very understated. I know from your bio that you’ve written for TV and film for years and whether knowing that affected my reading of the book, or whether I would have thought that anyway, I don’t know, but it did feel very cinemagraphic in places, very visually focused, allowing facial expressions to set a scene or answer a question, rather than having the characters actually come out and SAY what they needed to say. This cinemagraphic focus, however, was also occasionally a problem in that you used weird sounds a lot. When the characters are having sex, lines like “Ungh. Unghh. Mmmph. Fuck.” and “Ungh. Ungghh. Aww!” are just ridiculous, not sexy. Either have the characters babble in real language or describe the sounds, but this seemed silly to me.

Overall, though, I can’t WAIT for the sequel. I can’t wait to see the fallout of Griff and Dante coming out to the firehouse and to Griff’s father. I can’t wait for the story of secondary character Tommy. I loved the community Griff and Dante gathered around themselves at the end: family and friends, gay and straight. This is a deeply character-driven book with a silly premise that gets worked out brilliantly.

Grade: B+ and a Recommended Read

Best regards,
-Sarah

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When I first ran across this book on Amazon, I couldn’t wait for it to be released. While I have a spotty track record with Young Adult books, the concept was very intriguing for me – a supervolcano eruption that turns the world into chaos. As I read, I couldn’t help but [...]]]> Dear Mr. Mullin,

When I first ran across this book on Amazon, I couldn’t wait for it to be released. While I have a spotty track record with Young Adult books, the concept was very intriguing for me – a supervolcano eruption that turns the world into chaos. As I read, I couldn’t help but compare this novel to the Susan Beth Pfeffer books and I’m pleased to say it held up very well and provided a much needed dose of variety in the dystopian/post-apocalyptic glutted shelves of Young Adult.

Ashfall is the story of Alex, a typical sixteen year old boy.  When his family wants to go away to Illinois for the weekend to visit family, Alex prefers to stay home and spend the weekend by himself. His parents are nervous to leave him, but he’s old enough. They never expected that the supervolcano below Yellowstone would erupt, sending the world into chaos. Alex’s house is hit by a boulder flying through the air and it collapses. No one knows what is going on. He’s rescued by the neighbors just as soon as the next phase of the eruption starts – an endless stream of ear-shattering explosions and ash falling through the sky. A few days later, he is on the run and decides to set off on foot to find his parents in Illinois, even if it means crossing a hundred miles in the aftermath of the volcano.

This book is hard to summarize because so very much happens through the story. We see Alex go from a spoiled, self-centered sixteen year old boy into a thoughtful, resilient young man capable of surviving the worst the apocalypse has to throw at him. When the story starts, the narrative is almost childish in its shallowness and occasional petulant moments, and I wasn’t sure I was going to like the story or Alex. But we see Alex change over time. He starts to realize that with the world in chaos, the old rules don’t apply, and he adapts. Alex becomes more likable the tougher his world gets.

Along the journey, he meets Darla. I loved Darla. She’s a farm girl who doesn’t have time for Alex’s nonsense. She’s tough and hard and by far the most competent character in the book. Slowly, Darla grows to respect Alex and eventually they turn to each other for comfort and even love. I appreciated that their ‘romance’ did not begin instantly and that Darla was smart and resilient on her own without being useless. Too often I feel that female characters are delegated to auxiliary roles in order to show how amazing the male main character is, but I felt that was not the case in Ashfall. Darla is stronger than Alex, more competent, and yet she needs him just as badly as he needs her.

The world in this book was very stark and brutal. I have heard this story compared to The Road for teens, and while I don’t know if I would go that far, I compared it to Susan Beth Pfeffer’s Life As We Knew It  or The Dead and The Gone in that we experience the characters struggling to survive as the world changes around them. Characters are murdered. People starve. There are few places for Alex and Darla to find a safe haven at. No one is spared from the ash, and then the early winter that sets on. There are thugs and cannibals everywhere, trying to scrape out a living. There is brutality and starvation and winter and fighting for food, but there is also a note of hope and Alex and Darla cling to each other. I liked that we got to experience what Alex and Darla were going through as the apocalypse unfolded. I feel as if too often authors prefer to show the post-apocalyptic angle and have the apocalypse happen after the fact. That was not the case here; the characters are thrown head-first into the apocalypse and experience every stage as it happens.

This book has a few flaws: I found it tough to warm up to Alex for the first fifty pages or so. Also, toward the last 70% of the book, there was a plot turn that I was not surprised to see, and I felt it slowed down the story a bit. But that did not mar my overall enjoyment and I enthusiastically recommend this one to anyone who enjoys a good,  dark, grim apocalypse story with a hint of romance, or those looking for more boy books to fill up their libraries. There is a sequel that comes out next year and I am looking forward to it.  A-

All best,

January

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GLBT

YA

After my review of Dangerous Neighbors last year, I became quite a fan of yours.  Quite a fan indeed.  It’s rare that I find a literary YA author that I connect with on a writing level, but your writing sits alongside the likes of Catherine Ryan Hyde and others for me.  You [...]]]> Dear Ms. Kephart,

After my review of Dangerous Neighbors last year, I became quite a fan of yours.  Quite a fan indeed.  It’s rare that I find a literary YA author that I connect with on a writing level, but your writing sits alongside the likes of Catherine Ryan Hyde and others for me.  You have a poetic way with words that I will follow anywhere, and You Are My Only is really a take-off from what I’ve read from you previously.

Dangerous Neighbors is a dramatic historical novel, and House of Dance is a lighter contemporary work with shades of drama.  You Are My Only is a departure from these previous reads of yours, but I have to say it’s a fitting one that should impress many readers looking for a unique experience.

Sophie has been homeschooled since she was very young.  Her mother hasn’t let her go to a public school or go out of the house for long stretches of time.  She hasn’t visited relatives the way other kids have instead she visits houses.    That’s what Sophie and her mother do.  They move so often that it’s all Sophie is familiar with.

This life for Sophie isn’t normal and on some level, Sophie knows it.  She knows that her mother’s overprotective nature isn’t healthy.  She knows that the life she lives inside the various houses they move into isn’t typical.  Her mother may help her learn about the importance of complicated history and sciences, but she can’t help her daughter learn about the outside world.

As dangerous as it has been made to be, Sophie has to take the plunge.  She leaves the confines of the blanketed world her mother has created.  Something so simple leads to a momentous change in Sophie’s life: a friendship with her next-door neighbor, Joey, and his aunts.

Fourteen years before Sophie came into the world, Emmy Rane was married and a mother just coming into her twenties.  Her marriage wasn’t the best, but she got through it with the love of her baby.  Her child.  Her only.

It was no surprise that Emmy lost the threads of her sanity when her baby was stolen away from her.  Emmy falls apart.  What’s left of her joy and her thoughts is as mangled and smokey as the train tracks that seem to attract her in her search for her baby.  Her husband Peter is disappointed her.  A mysterious man named Arlen attempts to pick up the parts of herself that are too broken to touch.

When Emmy is later sent away due to psychiatric reasons, she has to save herself and retain the hope that, one day, Baby will be found again.

The story that you spin is so unique in its construction.  From the beginning, the reader is allowed to witness the lives of two individuals who share a deep connection that is broken through impossible circumstances.  There is no mystery to what this connection entails, but instead to what it brings out in the characters as they live their lives.  You Are My Only is not the usual story of a separated parent and child.  It is something much, much more.

The dual perspectives of the two main characters are the first aspect of the novel that really call for attention.  Despite the fact that your distinct literary style shows quite clearly in both view-points, there is a definitive difference between the main characters and their first person voices.  Sophie’s voice is more sensible and grounded, where-as Emmy’s voice is up in the air and flitting from subject to subject.  The way they play off of each other is intriguing, especially when the essential roles of the characters are reversed from the physical ones.

Making Sophie act like the mother trying to find herself while having her physically be the daughter is why she’s so appealing.  There’s something about her that screams discovery.  The way she slowly defies her mother by simply gaining friendship is also a refreshing change of pace in characterization, and Sophie’s character makes a lot of strong connections that create a great web for the story.

Joey, Sophie’s friend, is equally charming and exuberant as a character.  Together the characters make a strong team.  A hint of romance winds throughout the text, but the strength of their relationship is based in their common friendship which is reinforced throughout the book.  Joey himself is very adventurous and propels Sophie to become more open and risk taking herself. Coupled with his aunts, he provides a creative escape for Sophie into a more warm and welcoming home than she’s ever seen.

The simple beauty of the safety of Joey’s family and how it changes and challenges Sophie is the core of her story.  In living with her mother, Sophie is subject to a life of seclusion.  The ability to open herself up to a life that isn’t cold and leeching is one that readers will cheer at the sight of.  As she gains the courage to analyze the skeletons in her mother’s closet, Sophie becomes a character that the reader wants to succeed.

Joey’s “aunts” are other major highlights of the work.  One thing that I appreciate about Miss Cloris and Miss Helen is the subtle relationship.  They are pictured as two loving aunts who are absolutely darling.  They take in the orphaned Joey and treat him like family and provide him – and soon, Sophie – with an excellent environment.  Their relationship is more than what their title implies, and you portray that beautifully.

Emmy is a more complicated character to work with in narration, and her viewpoint doesn’t work on the same level that Sophie’s does.  I appreciated the overall effect of the narration and how it connected with Sophie’s on a subtly thematic level.    The relationship between Autumn and Emmy is what brings a real light to the overall narration.  Autumn is such a boisterous character that’s wrapped in her own mystery, and she allows Emmy to open up in way that is similar to how Joey allowed Sophie to open up.

As much as I loved this connection, I did feel that Emmy’s narration was the weaker of the two.  At times her wavering sanity is hard to connect to, and the overall story is much more grounded in the magic of reality instead of the complicated musings of Emmy’s brain.  It’s also hard to tell if the treatments Emmy receives are truly accurate enough because of the way her narration takes place.  Sophie is a straightforward narrator that suggests honesty, but Emmy is a tougher nut to crack that is almost too elusive at times.

The use of first person present as the narration tense is also risky.  You do that frequently in your novels, but as a reader it can go very badly if the voice or styling of the narration doesn’t hold up well.  Your prose and its flow works very well for this tense, and you make it so easy to escape into it.  There were many moments that I would find myself diving into the simple joys of the description of the novel.

“We’re Joey’s aunts,” Miss Cloris says.  “But that doesn’t mean we’re sisters.  here.  Let me show you something.”  She pushes back from the table and walks across the room.  She pulls a picture from the wall, a pencil drawing, brings it to me, sits down again.

“That you?” I ask.

“It was.”

“With eyes like that?  That hair?”

“Time washes over, changes the look of things.  But that’s not the point I was making.  My point was, Miss Helen drew this.  Miss Helen is an artist.  Was when I met her and always has been.  I fell for her Wonderland dioramas.”

I nod, confused, and Miss Cloris’s face gets far away – the look in her eyes, the smile not for me.  “You ever been to Wonderland?” she asks me now.

“No, ma’am,” I say.

“Don’t deny yourself, you hear me?”

You Are My Only is a book that could so easily fall into others of its ilk.  It has the makings of a high-end drama that promises teenage angst and romance, but it instead goes the less trodden path.  You use sparse prose, rich characterization, and a simple plot to share a simple connection between two people that may or may not come to fruition.  You end on a note that leaves so much left to be said, yet completes the story in such a timely way.  Minor complaints are just that – minor.  There is a reason I’m a big supporter of your work, and this is why.  My final grade is a solid A-

All the best,

John