From the Jacket Copy:

New Yorker Liza is in desperate need of a fresh start—and libido CPR wouldn’t hurt either. Taking Fate into her own hands, she relocates to Wilder, Texas, on a whim. Her first night in town, she meets a devil in blue jeans named Jack. A sinner who willingly hands over a ticket for the most erotic ride of her life.Jack doesn’t date Wilder women and he certainly doesn’t need another complication in his life. He’s running for City Council and trying to keep the morality crusaders in town from shutting down the last-standing public watering hole in Wilder. But when the sexy New Yorker sways her shapely hips through his door, Jack’s convictions instantly go up in flames, along with his body. Jack antes up and goes after everything he wants, including Liza. But is he the only one playing for keeps?

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The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving by Jonathan Evison. $ Free

From the Jacket Copy:

The weekend of my sister’s sixteenth birthday, she took a road trip with some friends down to Lucerne Valley in the Mojave Desert. For two weeks prior, the trip was a source of debate around our dinner table. My old man reasoned that since she was a responsible kid, got good grades, fed her pets, and honored her curfew, she ought to be allowed to take the trip. My mother reasoned that it was a bad idea. She didn’t trust the other kids. They were a scraggly bunch.

My sister took the trip. She never came home. She was killed in a freak car accident the weekend she turned sixteen years old. The incident, the specifics of which have never been explained satisfactorily by anyone, all but exploded my family. My parents divorced after twenty-five years of marriage. I lost what amounted to my primary caregiver. My oldest brother was deeply depressed for two years afterward and was really never the same in some fundamental way. To this day, my family is still feeling the shockwaves. I’m still walking around with this sister-shaped hole in my heart. After a few beers, my brother will still lament the fact that he owed her seven bucks at the time of the accident. The seven bucks had been a point of contention involving the sale of a ten-speed bike. They argued fiercely about the money up until the day she left. At fifty-seven, my brother is still trying to pay that debt.

There are holes in our lives that can never be filled–not really, not ever. And yet, we have no choice but to try to fill them. We must drive on in the face of debilitating loss, crippling guilt, overwhelming hopelessness. Because to give up is to be dead. I’ve lived with this idea since I was five years old.

Ben Benjamin is a character who has lost virtually everything–his wife, his family, his home, his livelihood. Broken, stripped down, stricken, and without hope, Ben is a shadow of his old self. He has been a stay-at-home dad for nearly a decade, so the job market has all but passed him by. With few options, Ben registers for a twenty-eight-hour night class called The Fundamentals of Caregiving, where, in the sweltering basement of the Abundant Life Foursquare Church, Ben learns how to insert catheters and avoid liability. He learns about professionalism and how to erect and maintain certain boundaries, how to keep physical and emotional distance between the client and the care provider. He learns that caregiving is just a job. But when Ben finds himself assigned to a tyrannical nineteen-year-old named Trev, who is in the advanced stages of Duchenne muscular dystrophy, he discovers that the endless mnemonics and service plan checklists presented in his class have done little to prepare him for the reality of caring for a fiercely stubborn, scared, sexually frustrated adolescent with an ax to grind with the world at large.

When I set out to write this novel, I didn’t envision it as a road novel. I’ve never had a desire to write a road novel–in fact, I was very resistant to the idea. But the characters led me to the road. They left me no choice. They all but dragged me kicking and screaming to the road. It seemed Ben and Trev were always driving around in that van of Trev’s, but they were never getting anywhere. They were both stuck. They needed that van to deliver them somewhere–and I guess I needed it, too. Because that’s where this novel delivered me. The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving is a story of total collapse, and ultimately, reconstruction. Before it is over, this calamitous journey will cover five states, resulting in one birth, two arrests, and one instance of cannibalism and including a dust storm, a hail storm, several shit storms, and a six-hundred-mile cat-and-mouse pursuit by a mysterious Buick Skylark.

Baggage is collected.

Hearts are won and lost.

Mistakes are forgiven.

Futures are realized.

This book represents nothing less than an emotional catharsis for its author. I wrote this book because I needed to. Because my sister went on a road trip thirty-nine years ago and never came back. And my family has yet to heal from this terrible fact. This novel is about the imperative of getting in that van, because you have no choice but to push yourself and drive on, and keep driving in the face of life’s terrible surprises. It’s about the people and the things you gather along that rough road back to humanity. And in the end, for me, The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving is the van in which I finally bring my sister home.

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Always You by Erin Kaye. $ 1.99

From the Jacket Copy:

A warm and highly emotive Irish writer who deals with issues that affect real women.

It’s 1992 and Sarah is in love with Cahal, a boy from the wrong side of the tracks. As they plan to graduate from university, all seems set for their happily ever after…

Fast forward to 2012 and something’s gone wrong. Cahal is out of the picture and Sarah is divorced from Ian by whom she’s had two children. What happened? As Cahal walks back into Sarah’s life, can they overcome past decisions and surrounding prejudice and make it work a second time around?

Perfect for fans of Cathy Kelly and Maeve Binchy.

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Naked Heat by Richard Castle. $ 2.99.

From the Jacket Copy:

When New York’s most vicious gossip columnist, Cassidy Towne, is found dead, Heat uncovers a gallery of high-profile suspects, all with compelling motives for killing the most feared muckraker in Manhattan. But Heat’s murder investigation is complicated by her surprise reunion with superstar magazine journalist Jameson Rook. In the wake of their recent breakup, Nikki would rather not deal with their raw emotional baggage. But the handsome, wise-cracking writer’s personal involvement in the case forces her to team up with Rook anyway. The residue of their unresolved romantic conflict and crackling sexual tension fills the air as Heat and Rook embark on the search for a killer among celebrities and mobsters, singers and hookers, pro athletes and shamed politicians. This new, explosive case brings on the heat in the glittery world of secrets, cover-ups, and scandals.

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They first introduction to work with the self published title, “The Secret of Ella and Micha.”  I found the writing to be a little problematic and thus I didn’t pick up The Coincidence of Callie and Kayden when it was released or when it was purchased by Grand Central for republication. However, Mandi from Smexybooks began reading New Adult and fell in love with this book.  Because of her endorsement, I requested this title from NetGalley.

Callie and Kayden are two high school students who are on the precipice of graduation and none too soon. Kayden with his football scholarship to the University of Wyoming and Callie with admission into the same university are in desperate need of distance from their dysfunctional home lives.  Callie accidentally sees Kayden experiencing something tragic and rushes to help him.  Despite Kayden’s embarrassment at being seen in this predicament, he and Callie form a bond that becomes stronger when they reunite at college.

At college, both characters have a chance to start anew.  Callie was always the weird one in her high school, dressing in weird clothes, cutting her hair really short. Kayden’s best friend and roommate describes her as “It was like one minute she was normal and then the next minute she was fucking weird.”  With the help of a new friend, she makes a list of things that she’s always been afraid to do and it’s not eating bugs or lying in a closed coffin with snakes ala Fear Factor. It’s things like wearing red or allowing her hair to grow out.  It’s not hard to guess Callie’s drama.

From a craft standpoint, the writing, characterization and plot is much better than “The Secret of Ella and Micha” but there is a tendency toward repetition.  I’m not sure how many times I read that Kayden wore hooded henleys and jeans that rode low on his hips but it was several.  Certain words and phrases and descriptions were reused.  There were some obvious editing errors that I hope will get clean up in the final version but I’m not going to reduce the grade because this was an ARC (although previously self published).

The story takes the romance slow as Kayden and Callie each have their issues and even as their relationship progresses, their issues hang over them like Damocles’ Sword. The foreshadowing that whatever small measures of happiness they find with each other will be momentary are sprinkled through nearly every chapter, particularly when a kiss drives Callie to forcibly vomit or a strong feeling leads Kayden to cut himself.  Sometimes their issues seem too vast for any happy outcome so in the intermediate period, when they are happy, its bittersweet.

But the story is not without its humor.  One of the funnier scenes are between Kayden and his best friend, Luke, who are often trying to out testosterone the other.  One night they decide to have a drinking game of “I never” and rather than turning sexual, Luke and Kayden try to out do the other in front of Callie with embarrassing incident after embarrassing incident.

“Okay, I have one,” I say, clearing my throat. “I’ve never walked home wearing just a pink robe and a pair of slippers.”

Callie snorts a laugh as Luke narrows his eyes. “You’re fucking asking for it. I’m going to tell her all your dirty little secrets now, you fucking douche.”

….
“I have one,” Luke declares, shooting a malicious grin in my direction. His eyes are turning red and his speech is a little unbalanced. “I’ve never told a girl I was the lead singer of Chevelle just so I could hook up with her.”

“I’m going to fucking kill you for that one.” I reach over the table to confiscate the bottle from his hand. “You know that, right?”

He grins at me as I take a drink and look at Callie. “I was fifteen. I did a lot of stupid things back then.”

…

I focus on Luke, wanting to beat his ass. “I’ve never stripped teased on a table in front of an entire room full of people.”

His brown eyes are cold as he slams back a shot and then forces the alcohol down his throat with a jerk of his neck. “I’ve never woke up crying in the middle of the night because I had a nightmare after watching Halloween.”

But despite the lighthearted moments, the majority of the story is very grim and it ends on a major cliffhanger. These two have a lot of work to do to make a happy ever after believable, but I’m anxious to read more.  B-

Best regards,

Jane

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They are sponsoring a fun giveaway.

Summertime is right around the corner and we are so excited to soak up some sun, especially because Summer 2013 is the Bella Andre Summer of Love!  Help us celebrate this spectacular summer of hot reads and the release of the first three books in Bella Andre’s sizzling Sullivans series with the Bella Andre Summer of Love Beach Bag Contest!

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Don’t forget to check back on June 1st to find out if you won.

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I suspect you could write your Lucky Harbor books in your sleep. That is as much a testament to their sameness as it is to your skill. Every book in the series–with the exception of the second, The Sweetest Thing–features a young woman either facing a problem or needing to reboot her life, a super-hot guy who struggles to with the marriage and babies are your future thing, good female friends who constantly tell the heroine how great she is, paeans to the beauty of the Northwest Coast, feisty old people, and well-written sexy love scenes. I’ve read all seven and, though I’m tired of Lucky Harbor the town, I’ve been entertained by five of the Lucky Harbor books.

I read your latest Lucky Harbor novel, It Had to Be You, on a lovely Spring afternoon, sitting on my porch, drinking a glass of my favorite rosé. I thoroughly enjoyed myself. Within a week, I’d forgotten the plot, but, while immersed in your prose, I had a good time.

In It Had to Be You, the winning young woman is Ali Winters. She’s having a run of bad luck in Lucky Harbor. Her boyfriend, Teddy the town clerk, dumps her via text, fifty thousand bucks is missing from Teddy’s office and she’s the prime suspect, and Teddy suggests she move out of the house they’d shared, a house whose lease, unbeknownst to Ali, ended yesterday.

The owner of the house is Luke Hanover, a San Francisco cop who has, after years away, come back to Lucky Harbor for a much-needed three-week leave. (His high-profile case of a murderous Senator went terribly wrong.) Luke is expecting the house to be empty and is surprised to see a woman clad only in her undies standing in his kitchen, cussing someone out on her cell phone.

Detective Lieutenant Luke Hanover had been away from the San Francisco Police Department for exactly one day of his three-week leave and already he’d lost his edge, walking into his grandma’s Lucky Harbor beach house to find a B&E perp standing in the kitchen.

She sure as hell was the prettiest petty thief he’d ever come across—at least from the back, since she was wearing nothing but a white lace bra and a tiny scrap of matching white lace panties.

“You have some nerve you…you rat fink bastard,” she said furiously into her cell phone, waving her free hand for emphasis, her long, wildly wavy brown hair flying around her head as she moved.

And that wasn’t all that moved. She was a bombshell, all of her sweet, womanly curves barely contained in her undies.

Once Ali explains why she’s in his house, Luke lets her stay the night, which, of course, turns into lots of nights. (She can’t find a new apartment.) The two are hellaciously attracted to each other and, within the first week of co-habitation are locking lips and wanting more. Luke tells her they shouldn’t get involved.

Her body was still tingling from his kisses, so it wasn’t much of a stretch to believe that he could make sex far more than enjoyable.

“One more thing,” he said.

She looked into his deep blue eyes.

“Not all men will disappoint you,” he said. “I don’t mean me. Because I will absolutely disappoint you. But we’re not all assholes, Ali. I can promise you that.”

Luke’s way of preparing Ali for her inevitable disappointment by him is to, with her help, solve all her problems. He works to find out who really took the money, gives her a place to live, encourages her to pursue her dream of owning the flower shop in which she works, and making sure she doesn’t need to use her vibrator. For her part, Ali feeds Luke, soothes his soul, and, whenever he’ll let her, offers him mind-blowing sex.

Luke and Ali are a good match; their relationship felt balanced to me. Ali needs Luke more initially, but, as he spends time away from his real life, Luke begins to crave the peace and pleasure he finds with Ali. The two have smokin’ hot chemistry and the book has a reasonable balance between lusting and acting on that lust. Ms. Shalvis shows Ali and Luke caring for–taking care of–each other in ways that make their falling in love believable. I liked that the book didn’t end with Luke on bended knee–I was worried when I saw it had an epilogue but, fortunately, it’s proposal, wedding, and baby free.

It’s clear where the novel is going from the moment Ali and Luke meet. (The only surprising thing is the identity of the thief.) Reading It Had to Be You is a lot like rewatching a fun TV show: you already know what’s going to happen, you don’t have to pay much attention, and it’s a pleasant way to while away a few hours.

The weakest part of It Had to Be You is that it’s set in Lucky Harbor. I’ve had it with Lucille and her Facebook page, the chocolate chip cookies at the Eat Me Cafe, the teen-age antics that make Sheriff Sawyer’s days a hassle, and the sun sparkling on the enchanting coast. I’m ready to move on to, oh, Seattle where the lovers could meet cute over coffee in Pike Place Market (there would be spillage involved) and then argue about whether Amazon.com is a force for good or for evil (he says it is, she says it’s the Evil Empire of the world.)

That said, there are at least two more Lucky Harbor books in the works. And I bet I’ll read them, skimming through the descriptions of the too quaint little town and enjoying the romance, just as I did in It Had to Be You. I give it a B.

Occasionally easy to please,

Dabney

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Important! My family and I are doing *things* this next week so I’m taking a mini vacation from Dear Author News. We’ll still have our daily reviews and daily deals (of course) but unless I’m feeling really energetic, there won’t be any news again until Wednesday, May 29. That’s when BEA starts and I suspect there will be important news then.

On June 3 the price fixing case with Apple starts. I will be glued to PACER and will bring you what daily reports I can from the filings. Don’t break Dear Author while I’m gone, you guys!

Also, don’t forget we have the Nalini Singh / Ghost chat on Twitter tonight.

I’m hosting a twitter chat with “The Ghost” on Thursday, May 23rd, from 9:00 to 10:00 pm EDT. Even if you are not on twitter, you can follow along at this link. You may not want to come if you don’t want to know any spoilers about Heart of Obsidian.

Two Thumbs Up I Hated It – Given my Tuesday article on marketing in publishing, I thought this piece by Ron Charles was timely. Charles says to beware of book blurbs because so often they purport to say something that isn’t actually true. Shocker. Sometimes, publishers choose these lines with the selective hearing of doting moms and dads at a parent-teacher conference. Through the magic of creative editing, “This is not a great book” shows up six months later on the paperback as “This is . . . a great book!” The Washington Post

Last to Settle Pays the Most: Penguin Agrees to Pay Over $90 Million to Settle eBook Pricing Suits – Penguin has finally settled the state AG and class action cases. It will put $75 million into the restitution fund and pay another $7 million to the states and $8 to the class action lawyers. I suspected the delay was in wrangling over the amount Penguin would pay. Likely the cash settlement that the State AGs are demanding is what had Penguin initially balking.  Publishers Lunch

Amazon Publishing Introduces “Kindle Worlds,” a New Publishing Model for Authors Inspired to Write Fan Fiction – Remember back in 2010 when I suggested authors of popular books offer up their worlds to fan fiction writers for a fee? Yeah, I bet Stephenie Meyer climbed on top of that train. (Actually, Meyer is probably the last person to do this. She doesn’t seem particularly litigious which makes EL James’s 50 franchise moves to strike down any potentially infringing *thing* all the more ironic).

Nonetheless, Amazon is launching “Kindle Worlds” a “commercial publishing platform that will enable any writer to create fan fiction based on a range of original stories and characters and earn royalties for doing so.

Amazon Publishing has secured licenses from Warner Bros. Television Group’s Alloy Entertainment division for its New York Times best-selling book series Gossip Girl, by Cecily von Ziegesar; Pretty Little Liars, by Sara Shepard; and Vampire Diaries, by L.J. Smith; and plans to announce more licenses soon.

Through these licenses, Kindle Worlds will allow any writer to publish authorized stories inspired by these popular Worlds and make them available for readers to purchase in the Kindle Store.” Amazon Publishing will pay royalties to both the rights holders of the Worlds and the author. The standard author’s royalty rate (for works of at least 10,000 words) will be 35% of net revenue. As with all titles from Amazon Publishing, Kindle Worlds will base net revenue off of sales price—rather than the lower, industry standard of wholesale price—and royalties will be paid monthly.

It is instructive to look at the licenses that Amazon has secured.  Alloy Entertainment is a book packager and all those series are packages to which Alloy (and not the writer who is really just a work for hire) owns. But it’s a movement toward selling actual fan fiction instead of repackaged fan fiction like EL James’ Fifty Shades series.

Authors Guild should set up a licensing agency ala Henry Fox’s music licensing agency but it won’t.

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From the Jacket Copy:

In this short prequel to I’ll Be Seeing You, authors Suzanne Hayes and Loretta Nyhan introduce you to two extraordinary women who are worlds apart–but whose journals reveal they have more in common than they could ever imagine….

Chicago, 1921

Nineteen-year-old waitress Rita Strauss is trying to make it on her own in the big city, spending most of her time alone with her thoughts. The bright spot in her day is the handsome medical student who’s a regular at her diner. Rita fantasizes about what to say to him, wishing she could be more confident–until she decides to take control of her life once and for all.

Rockport, 1940

Socialite Glory Astor thinks it’s the best day of her life when her longtime beau, Robert, finally proposes. But everything gets complicated when her childhood friend Levi asks her to run away with him instead, forcing Glory to choose between the two men she cares about the most.

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Love Wild and Fair by Bertice Small. $ 1.99

From the Jacket Copy:

A Love For All Time
She is Catriona, Countess of Glenkirk, the dazzling green-eyed beauty whose silken sensuality fires the passion of men’s very souls — making her a pawn in a dangerous game of royal intrigue. wife to a count, unwilling mistress to the king, she has the undying live of the most courageous lord in all of scotland. . .

He is Francis, Earl of Bothwell, who defies his king to possess the woman he loves. Theirs is a romance in the grand tradition of bestselling author Beatrice Small — and epic tale of love and betrayal that sweeps from the snowy Scottish highlands through the glittering palaces of Europe and exotic pleasures domes of Constantinople to find its magnificent conclusion inthe exquisite fulfillment of love’s most passionate desires.

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Too Pretty to Die by Susan McBride. $ 1.99

From the Jacket Copy:

They call them “pretty parties,” and they’re the latest rage among Dallas debutantes—get-togethers with light refreshments, heavy gossip, and Dr. Sonja Madhavi and her magic Botox needles. Former socialite Andy Kendricks normally wouldn’t be caught dead at such an event, but she’s attending as a favor to her friend Janet, a society reporter in search of a juicy story. And boy does she find one when aging beauty queen Miranda DuBois bursts into the room—drunk, disorderly, and packing a pistol.

Miranda’s wrinkles have seen better days, and she blames it all on Dr. Madhavi. Luckily, Andy calms her down and gets her home to bed . . . where she’s found dead the next morning. The police suspect suicide, but Andy knows that no former pageant girl would give up that easily. She’s determined to find Miranda’s killer herself, but she’ll have to be careful. After all, Botox can make you look younger, but it can’t bring you back from the grave.

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The Chocolate Rose by Laura Florand. $ .99.

From the Jacket Copy:

Overview
Romantic Times calls Laura Florand’s writing “sensuous and sumptuous”, awarding her their Seal of Excellence, and NPR says it’s “explosive, sensual . . . and utterly sweet”.

Now, in the third book in the Amour et Chocolat series, a book USA Today calls “so romantic and sexy”, Florand takes us from Paris to summer in Provence, for the steamy encounter between top chef Gabriel Delange and the daughter of his worst enemy, Jolie Manon. Hot-tempered Gabriel isn’t above blackmail to get what he wants, but what he wants might very well be Jolie herself. Because in the heat and sun of Provence, where jasmine and roses climb up old colored walls and fountains play in ancient stone villages, even a beast can prove he is a prince at heart . . .

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Thank you for sending Dear Author a review copy of your book. I’m not a frequent reader of Harlequin Intrigues so I wouldn’t ordinarily pick up this book.  Jillian Jones arrives at Sutton Hall posing as a bride to be in order to investigate the death of her best friend. Jillian was certain that if she had been attending to her maid of honor duties, her friend wouldn’t have died.  She also believes that it is highly unlikely that her friend would have fallen off a balcony at Sutton Hall because said friend was afraid of heights.  Instead, Jillian believes that there was foul play afoot.

One of my big problems was that the heroine was a photographer and graphic designer. You had to wonder what the heck she was doing investigating what she deemed to be a murder. Was she going to flash the killer to death with her camera?  Of course, without this leap of faith, though, you cannot have the story.  Thus, you must set aside the ridiculous nature of the setup in order to enjoy the story.

The gothic overtones are done well. There is a foreboding house with secret passage ways, a lost love, and multiple suspects.

• The hero who will do anything to make the Sutton House weddings business come true for his sister.
• The groundskeeper’s son who is beautiful, cocky, shallow and with a secretive past.
• The housekeeper who may have carried a torch for the former owner of Sutton Hall.
• Ed, the handyman who has a contentious relationship with his wife the cook.
• Rosie, the cook whom Meredith Sutton suggests isn’t talented enough to prepare the wedding cakes.

The killer is someone who believes a bride acts in a certain fashion, setting up Jillian as the next victim given that Jillian is having unbridelike thoughts about Adam Sutton.  Adam Sutton is trying to help his sister, Meredith, fulfill her dream of running a wedding boutique/bridal chapel on an inherited family property.  Ominously he tells us at the end of every POV that he’ll do anything to make sure that he doesn’t mess up her dreams…again.

There are appropriately placed scenes suggesting that Jillian’s life might be in peril from Adam such as when he encourages her to step out in the very balcony where her BFF fell to her death or invites her into his car on a dark night after hers has mysteriously broken down.   The problem with Romance gothics is that the hero can’t be a killer (at least not in a Harlequin Intrigue) so some of the tension never fully manifests but the subterfuge is kept up.

Jillian is portrayed as a smart heroine, which isn’t always the norm for a gothic. I also thought the tension between Adam and Jillian had a believable organic evolution between anger -> want.

Suddenly anger wasn’t the only thing he was feeling, and the emotion that had been slowly building deep inside finally burst forth.

Want. Pure, raw want.

There must have been a change in his gaze. He saw the instant she recognized it, her eyes flaring the tiniest bit. With surprise. With awareness.

In the end, while the book tries to juggle the romance and the mystery, the mystery fades a bit as the villain becomes a bit  obvious.  Still, it was a pleasant and, for me, different diversion.  B-

Best regards,

Jane

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I’ve been a fan of your books since I read The Lions of al-Rassan and lamented the fact that it was a standalone. While I haven’t read every GGK book published, I’ve read enough to know that they are part of an impressive and imaginative body of work. When I learned that River of Stars could be read on its own, even though it is set in the same world as its predecessor, Under Heaven, I requested it for review and I’m so glad I did. Not every authorial choice worked for me, but it was absolutely a pleasure to be in the hands of a master stylist and storyteller.

River of Stars is set in a 12th Century country, Kitai, whose characteristics are drawn from the history of the Song Dynasty of China, but it is rightly called a historical fantasy rather than a historical novel. The main characters and the overall story arc are based on real people and events, but the book neither fictionalizes real life individuals nor drops made-up characters into real-life events. This allows the author to create relationships and events that did not exist without pulling the reader who has knowledge of the history out of the story. I wish more authors would think of their historicals this way (when appropriate, obviously), because it frees both the author and the reader to enter the world without thinking about what it does and doesn’t have to contain.

There aren’t many of the standard markers of traditional fantasy. There are events and circumstances that don’t fit into a strictly rational conception of the world, but they seem completely reasonably within the worldview of the actors. I enjoyed this way of situation the book in the fantasy genre, but readers looking for a more traditional “fantasy” read might want to take note.

It’s difficult to say much about the plot without giving away one of the great pleasures of reading an epic novel, which is watching the complicated cast of characters and the events unfold. Over the last couple of centuries, Kitai has become a truncated version of its former, more expansive dynastic self, with uncultured but powerful warriors to the north and a well-meaning emperor who leaves day to day policy making to his advisors. Not surprisingly, this creates both factional conflict and increasing hardship for his people. Simmering discontent bubbles to the surface and leads to open warfare, within and across Kitai’s borders.

For romance readers, there is a slowly developing relationship between two of the main POV characters. At the beginning we meet Ren Daiyan, the younger son of a relatively minor civil servant, who is training to become a warrior even though that is not a high-status occupation in Kitai (only the second or third sons of farmers go into the army). He achieves this goal, but in anything but a predictable way. We also meet Lin Shan, an unusually educated young woman who is a promising poet. Although they eventually develop a romantic relationship, they grow and mature separately and have individual experiences that recall epic romances of old rather than the kinds of stories common in the genre today. And the reader spends long stretches in the POV of other characters, some of whom come and go quickly while others recur regularly throughout the book.

Kay is justly known as much for his stylistic achievements as his plotting and characterizations, and River of Stars is no exception. The writing is lush and elegant, and there is a wealth of description. I tend to prefer spare prose, but when someone writes as well as this I enjoy the change of pace. And the descriptions aren’t superfluous; descriptions about the natural world do more than provide atmosphere, they signal the importance of that world in the lives of the characters and they foreshadow the role nature plays in man’s choices. For example, early in the book we get this description as Daiyan is making a journey from his village to the site of a murder:

There were nightingales in these woods. Daiyan’s brother had come here hunting them. In Hanjin, at the court, they wanted nightingales for some enormous garden the emperor was building. Officials paid considerable sums for them. It was folly, of course. How could a caged bird survive the journey from Szechen? They’d have to go downriver through the gorges, then by imperial courier north. If the couriers rode fast…the very idea of a birdcage bouncing by a saddle was sad and amusing, both. Daiyan liked nightingales. Some complained they kept you awake at night, but he didn’t mind that.

Those nightingales (and the enormous garden) turn out to be a harbinger of conditions that are critical to the story that unfolds.

This is not a book to hurry through, and that is both a strength and a weakness. It is a strength because aren’t we, as romance readers, frequently wishing for books that recall the epic romances we used to read? While the romance is just a part of the story here, River of Stars may well be closer to the epic romances of the 1970s and 1980s than today’s historicals are. On the other hand, there are a lot of POVs and story lines that come and go. A fascinating character pops up, only to vanish a few chapters later. And while Lin Shan is a terrific portrayal of a strong and interesting woman, there are quite a few characterizations of women that are more stereotypical.

Which brings me to my primary caveat about the book. This is a novel of ideas as much as an action drama, and the characterizations suffer somewhat. Even the main POV characters don’t feel as present, as alive, to me as they did in The Lions of al-Rassan or Tigana or Song of Arbonne. The story is about the fall and rise of a society, and the warp and weft of that societal change takes center stage; as a result, the characters sometimes feel primarily like players on that stage. They’re interesting and compelling, but their personal idiosyncrasies and desires feel subordinated to the larger tale.

Nevertheless, this is an engrossing read. It demands your attention, but once you sink into the story, it unfolds in a rich and satisfying way. Grade: B+

~ Sunita

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NASA is funding a 3D food printer, and it’ll start with pizza – Some positive news on the 3D printing front, NASA is funding research and development for a 3D food printer. The idea is that the cartridge will contain food based products that can produce consumable food. The goal is to feed astronauts but also address worldwide food shortages. It is not, I guess, an effort to make everything in Back to the Future a reality.  The Verge

Flickr Announces One Free Terabyte Of Storage Space Per User, Officially Beating Everyone – Flickr is getting a major upgrade in look and feel and it is giving users a major upgrade in space. Starting now, all users will get 1 Terabyte of free storage space. “Yahoo’s Flickr photo-sharing service is now offering one full terabyte for users, enough storage space to hold whole swathes of the world’s photos. The service is offering this benefit in addition to its full resolution photo storage service” TechCrunch

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From the Jacket Copy:

“For the first time in my life, I didn’t feel envy…”

Tess is the exact opposite of her beautiful, athletic sister. And that’s okay. Kristina is the sporty one, Tess is the smart one, and they each have their place. Until Kristina is diagnosed with cancer. Suddenly Tess is the center of the popular crowd, everyone eager for updates. There are senior boys flirting with her. But, the smiles of her picture perfect family are cracking and her sister could be dying. Now Tess has to fill a new role: the strong one. Because if she doesn’t hold it together, who will?

Janet Gurtler tests the bonds of sisterhood in this moving debut that readers of Jodi Picoult and Sarah Dessen will savor.

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Busting Vegas by Ben Mezrich. $ 1.99

From the Jacket Copy:

He played in casinos around the world with a plan to make himself richer than anyone could possibly imagine — but it would nearly cost him his life.

Semyon Dukach was known as the Darling of Las Vegas. A legend at age twenty-one, this cocky hotshot was the biggest high roller to appear in Sin City in decades, a mathematical genius with a system the casinos had never seen before and couldn’t stop — a system that has never been revealed until now; that has nothing to do with card counting, wasn’t illegal, and was more powerful than anything that had been tried before.

Las Vegas. Atlantic City. Aruba. Barcelona. London. And the jewel of the gambling crown — Monte Carlo.

Dukach and his fellow MIT students hit them all and made millions. They came in hard, with stacks of cash; big, seemingly insane bets; women hanging on their arms; and fake identities. Although they were taking classes and studying for exams during the week, over the weekends they stormed the blackjack tables only to be harassed, banned from casinos, threatened at gunpoint, and beaten in Vegas’s notorious back rooms.

The stakes were high, the dangers very real, but the players were up to the challenges, consequences be damned. There was Semyon Dukach himself, bored with school and broke; Victor Cassius, the slick, brilliant MIT grad student who galvanized the team; Owen Keller, with stunning ability but a dark past that would catch up to him; and Allie Simpson, bright, clever, and a feast for the eyes.

In the classroom, they were geeks. On the casino floor, they were unstoppable.

Busting Vega$ is Dukach’s unbelievably true story; a riveting account of monumental greed, excess, hubris, sex, love, violence, fear, and statistics that is high-stakes entertainment at its bes

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The Fame Game by Laura Conrad. $ 1.99

From the Jacket Copy:

In Hollywood, fame can be found on every corner and behind any door. You just have to know where to look for it. Nineteen-year-old Madison Parker made a name for herself as best frenemy of nice-girl-next-door Jane Roberts on the hot reality show L.A. Candy. Now Madison’s ready for her turn in the spotlight and she’ll stop at nothing to get it. Sure, she’s the star of a new show, but with backstabbing friends and suspicious family members trying to bring her down, Madison has her work cut out for her. Plus, there’s a new nice girl in “reality” town—aspiring actress Carmen Price, the daughter of Hollywood royalty—and she’s a lot more experienced at playing the fame game… When the camera’s start rolling, whose star will shine brighter?

Filled with characters both familiar and new, Lauren Conrad’s series about the highs and lows of being famous delivers Hollywood gossip and drama at every turn.

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Loving by Karen Kingsbury. $ 1.99.

From the Jacket Copy:

The answers Bailey Flanigan once longed and prayed for are finally becoming clear.

In Loving, the fourth and final book in the Bailey Flanigan Series by New York Times bestselling author Karen Kingsbury, Bailey is planning a wedding and making decisions that will shape her future. Bailey enjoys the beginning of her new career and time spent with Brandon while Cody faithfully coaches his team on and off the field. Will she spend her life with Brandon Paul in Los Angeles, or will her heart draw her back to Bloomington, Indiana and Cody Coleman, her first love? Bailey has learned much and grown over the years, but the greatest challenges, the richest joys, and the deepest heartaches are still to come.

Featuring members from Karen Kingsbury’s popular Baxter family, Loving completes Bailey and Cody’s story — the finale thousands of fans have been waiting for.

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