Dear Author » Kathleen-OReilly

REVIEW: Just Fooling Around by Kathleen O’Reilly and Julie Kenner

Jane — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 18:00:36 +0000

This one Blaze holds four very short stories which take place on April 1. While the authors take turns telling the slightly interwoven stories and their voices mesh well, O’Reilly’s Devon story was my favorite. Because the stories are so brief, there is very little time to explore true conflicts. The collection is just a fun and quick read but it is

The Franklin’s are cursed. Every April Fool’s Day, they suffer the effects of their curse which usually results in bodily injury. Each one of the siblings have treated the curse differently. Cam chooses to laugh in the face of the curse, resulting in annual treks to the Emergency room. Darby chooses to believe the curse doesn’t exist. Devon hunkers down and hides from the world while Reg seeks to break the curse. None of them have relationships because to be in a relationship means to risk the safety and well being of a loved one. While I enjoyed this collection of shorts, I did ask myself why the cursed siblings just didn’t spend April Fool’s away from said loved ones as the danger presented only around the first day of April.

Much of the conflict is the same. Most of the siblings choose not to get involved because they worry about their own longevity. The O’Reilly stories are marked by fun dialogue but focus primarily on the sexual culmination of the couples. The Kenner books take on a slightly more serious mein and Reg’s story, the ending, has a little additional suspense to it as Reg and his former love, Anne, search for an amulet to break the curse. Interestingly, in all the stories, the woman is really the first to either make a sexual overture or an emotional one. Thematically, I felt that this helped to create a cohesive collection as well. Overall, I would rate the collection a B. This isn’t going to make you ponder life’s questions far into the night but it’s a great way to spend an evening entertaining oneself.

Cam’s Catastrophe by Kathleen O’Reilly

Cam Franklin chooses to address the family curse by engaging the curse. Every April Fool’s Day he is off doing something dangerous like hang gliding, motorcross, boating races. The end of each April Fool’s Day brings Cam to the emergency room of Dr. Jenna Ferrar. Professional ethics aside, Jenna has a hard time not inventing treatment for fake injuries that would require some nudity on the part of Cam. When Cam has problems with paying for his medical treatment, Jenna intercedes.

“I thought a hospital was a place for mercy and charity, a patient-centered haven nurturing the physical well-being of the wounded and infirm.”

“Nah. You’ve got us confused with those hospitals on TV. In real life, it’s all about preventative care. If the customer service is hell, maybe people will stay away. We keep hoping, but no such luck. Speaking of ineffective diagnosis, what are you in for this year?”

“Parkour.”

While Cam has always been attracted to Jenna, she’s not the type for him because his type is the 3 dates and done. He knows that one of these April Fool’s Days, he won’t be coming home at all. One year later, on the eve of April 1st, Jenna takes matters into her own hands and tries to convince Cam that curse or no, they belong together.

The brevity of the story allows for little character development. You rely on the passage of time to create believability in the permanency of the ending.

Darcy’s Dark Day by Julie Kenner

Darcy is the youngest sister. She is in New York City to visit her brother Cam on April 1. She doesn’t believe in curses. Cam is injured consistently on April 1 because he is always engaging in dangerous activities. Darcy is a mathematician. Everything “in the world could be reduced to simple mathematics.”

Superstitions and curses had no place in such an orderly universe, and because Darcy knew that-’even if her siblings didn’t-’she’d decided to study what she already knew was true.

Cam, however, knows the curse exists and asks his best friend, Evan Olsen, to watch over Darcy. Cam is out for the count due to his annual April 1 injury, this time the result of a sprained ankle. Evan and Darcy, unbeknowst to each other, have held secret crushes. Evan won’t make a move on his best friend’s sister but Darcy sees this as an opportunity to take a chance and fulfill her fantasies. When Evan repeatedly saves her from various mishaps, Darcy dubs him her hero, harkening back to a childhood incident when Evan purportedly saved Cam. Evan is no hero though and worries that Darcy’s affections are built upon an illusory creation.

Devon’s Dilemma by Kathleen O’Reilly

Devon Franklin’s method of dealing with the curse lies in precaution and preventative measures. She lives inNorth Dakota, in the flattest part of the state where nothing ever happens. Despite the inactivity in the town of Maxbass, ND, Devon still lives in a sturdy “modified nuclear bunker” with “double-paned, tornado-proofed, hurricane-secure windows” and “a state-of-the-art monitor and surveillance system.”

When a stranger knocks on her door, she is loathe to allow him in. Chance Cooper was out drinking with the boys when one of them took his joke, a ball and chain, for the groom and attached it to Chance. He is far away from anywhere, it’s starting to rain, and he’d just like to use Devon’s phone, ma’am. I thought that you did a great job here of using dialogue to create a big differentiation between Chance and Devon. Chance is a talker and Devon isn’t. Chance has a clear southern aspect to his cadence. Devon’s is more abrupt, clipped.

“Do you have a car?” he asked.

“No,” she lied because she never drove on April 1. Ever. Even if the insurance company allowed it, she wouldn’t.

“What about the Ford that’s parked in the garage?”

“I don’t have a Ford in the garage,” she lied.

Chance pointed to the keys that hung on the hook next to the door, and the big keyring labelled “FORD”.

“That sure does look like car keys to me, hanging right there next to the door, exactly where any person with a lick of brains would put them. My ex-girlfriend, she was always losing her keys, and I told her that she should rig up something like that so she wouldn’t forget. We broke up because I just couldn’t handle dating a bubblehead. You don’t look like a bubblehead. Now, I understand that you wouldn’t want to go out in this weather. Hell, neither would I, but that would leave me here, dripping all over your very clean living room, coating this newly waxed floor with water and muddy ooze, and you don’t look like a woman who’s comfortable with ooze.”

“I wouldn’t have to be comfortable with the ooze if you sat outside all night,” she explained.

“Or alternatively, why don’t you drive me home?” he asked, in that sweetly, coaxing voice as if she were some brainless female that would roll over and play “America’s Next Ho” at his command.

It was a testament to his physical appeal that both possibilities were not out of the question.

I really liked the Devon and Chance dynamic. The hot sex that the two engage in which includes usage of the security cameras, doesn’t hurt either. I really wish this couple had been subject of a longer book. I would have liked to have spent more time with both of them.

Reg’s Rescue by Julie Kenner

The story of Reg and Anne was a bit more poignant than the previous three although Devon’s story is still my favorite. Reg and Anne had fallen in love and looked all over for a way to break the curse. When Reg and Anne had gotten injured on an April 1 event, Reg broke away from Anne. He couldn’t stand to be the cause of her injuries, let alone her possible death. He continued to search for an antidote or cure for the curse but eventually gave up. When Anne heard this, she was devastated. Reg’s abandonment of the search meant that there was truly no more hope for the two of them.

Circumstances bring Reg and Anne together again and Reg has to come to grips with the fact that the curse will never be broken but that not having Anne in his life maybe worse.

Best regards,

Jane

Tuesday Night Links Round Up: Jessica says categories are the Iron Chef of romances

Jane — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 03:14:41 +0000

Harlequin is going to allow us to purchase the vintage cover paper goods. Woot. I am ordering some of those matchbook notepads and some of those little paper booklets and postcards and WHERE IS MY COFFEE MUG??? Seriously, Harlequin heard our voices, you guys!

It’s Western Week in blogland. Kristie J started it off.

First off, I’ll start with why a Western. I’ve always been more a fan of "blue collar" type heroes then the "white collar" type. I just love a hero who works with his hands and isn’t afraid to work up a bit of sweat now and then. I love a hero who is willing to labour for everything he has rather then just inheriting it. And no one works harder then many a Western hero, whether it’s being a marshal, a cowboy, a gambler, a gunslinger or even a reformed outlaw.

And a Western heroine is one I can identify with so much easier. I don’t know if it’s my age or ’cause I’m more average myself, but while the girly girl in me likes reading about all the fabulous balls and dresses and things in Historicals set in Europe, I very much the ‘realness’ of the conflicts a Western heroine goes through.

Dear Author isn’t officially on the tour, but we are butting in because I have to tell you about Jo Goodman’s September release, Never Love a Lawman. I’m posting my review tomorrow along with a 10 ARC giveaway (one is a read copy, mine, but we want as many people as possible to experience this book). It’s MEN! HORSES! WOMEN! PIONEERS! (okay, not pioneers, but survivors nonetheless).

Wyatt stroked his black gelding’s even blacker mane. “You saw her, didn’t you? Was I wrong?” Raider shook his head and snuffled loudly. “That’s right. And if you still had your balls, you would have stood up to her.”

A digital reader is coming to the PSP but it’s aimed toward comic books. That makes marketing sense to me. The PSP has a 4″ screen. Click here for a closeup of what that might look like.

The Publishing Tidbits blog has a piece about Sony’s decision to drop its own proprietary format and go with ePub.

As Carl Shapiro and Hal Varian explain when discussing proprietary versus open standards, a company’s total reward is a product of the size of the platform and its share of that platform. By abandoning its proprietary file format and instead selling only ePub content, the company hopes to increase the size of its new platform by an amount that more than offsets its decrease in share. To do so, Sony must do two things.

Jessica blogs about the category in general and Kathleen O’Reilly’s categories in particular.

My favorite comment was Wendy’s, who said she loves categories because they give you "all of the romance, with none of the bullshit".

I totally agree with her on that. It’s cheeky to call secondary characters, subplots, worldbuilding, suspense, and fur, "bullshit" but I totally know what she means. I’ve already gone on record as saying that to me, the contemporary feels like the purest form of romance. … I have a lot of respect for category romance writers, because they have so much to do in so little time, with so many rules. It’s like the Iron Chef of romance writing.

According to this contribution on slashdot, 88% of consumer electronics exports are recycled and not dumped. I love hearing that. I don’t know how true it is though.

REVIEW: Hot Under Pressure by Kathleen O’Reilly

Jayne — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 21:00:50 +0000

Dear Ms. O’Reilly,

I love what you do with your heroes and heroines. They’re not always totally believable (I mean, stranger sex in a stretch Hummer?) but I like these people. I’d like to have dinner with them on a couples night out and just sit and talk for hours. I feel that comfortable with most of them by the time the story, regrettably, ends.

David McLean (aka “hot man”) and Ashley Larsen meet not-so-cute in the confines of a packed airplane that’s going no where. Trapped beside a kid from hell whose parents are AWOL even though they’re sitting right there, they chat and attempt to while away the time until it’s finally clear that the spare part or spare plane isn’t going to arrive at O’Hare airport in time to get them to their business meetings in LA.

Which is when they decide to give into the heat that’s been smoldering between them for hours and check into an airport hotel. A night of hot, explosive sex results. But Ashley decides that she wants to leave it at a fling. If they plan for a future, then the “bam” of their hot, sorta stranger sex will be gone and things will simply become mundane. After her divorce, she’s still a bit shaky about relationships and after his divorce, David hasn’t dated much so…they come to an agreement. They’ll talk and arrange monthly meetings since both travel so much but that will be it.

Until “it” isn’t enough for David and he starts pressing Ashley for more. She’s agreed to let him help her set up a fashion “reality” thing for her Chicago boutiques but with her complicated family situation, Ashley is reluctant to allow more. Until the moment that “it’ isn’t enough for her either.

So will they be able to work out a long distance relationship? Cause I hope they have unlimited long distance calling with all the horror (Ashley’s choice) movies they’re watching at the same time. Will Ashley be able to finally “cut the cord” with her dependent sister? Cause Val is an alcoholic piece of work. Or will David have to settle for a solo life in NYC, working for the Brooks financial power duo and being best friends with his hand?

Before I forget, I squeed when I realized that Andrew and Jamie were playing bit parts in this story which really makes sense since David works in financial stuff and lives in NYC. But their bit parts are perfectly in keeping with this story and never overshadow the main action. Squee over now.

I also noticed that this book seems a little hotter than your last few. I mean, it is a Blaze but there is a lot more talk of “cocks” and filling Ashley up and stuff like that. Are you taking your books to a higher erotic level? Or am I just delusional?

Ashley and David’s relationship starts with hot sex, and initially, continues with hot sex before they begin to get to know each other. But the pacing works for me since we get roughly 100 pages of heat, 100 pages of reality hitting and them starting to fumble through a longer termed relationship then the final, “yes, we care but we have a few issues to resolve first” 100+ pages.

Hmmm, another few things. Love Ashley’s pink bunny slippers she uses as a crutch to relax her enough to fly. But I got tired of the conversations she’d have in her head with Val. And what’s with Val’s daughter calling her mother and Ashley by name? I kept waiting for this to be explained. Is it because Brianna is more the adult, even at age eight, then her mother?

I love that David is worried about the fact that Ashley might think his initial attempts at love making leave something to be desired since all David can pretty much think is sex, sex, sex!

He tumbled on top of her, completely without finesse, but thankfully, she didn’t seem to mind. Her legs wrapped about him, pelvis surging toward him, and his hands went to his fly. Her breasts pressed against him, soft peaks in white cotton. If his zipper would ever get unstuck, he’d shove the bra aside, because he wanted to see-
Condom. Oh, shit. He needed a condom.
"Wait," he nearly yelled. He needed to get control. He needed to breathe. In the dim light of the single bedside lamp, she looked up at him, clothes ransacked into parts, exposing more skin than covering. Great skin. Gold and rose mixed together like mother-of-pearl. She wore white cotton panties. With a sun-yellow gypsy skirt, she wore white cotton panties, and did he even know he had a thing for white cotton? He definitely had a thing for white cotton. It was sexy as hell. She was sexy as hell.
His hands were still shaking as he shoved her bra aside. Like a total amateur.
Dude, get a hold of yourself. She’s going to think you’ve haven’t done this in like, months.
She’d be right, but he didn’t want to advertise the fact.
The foil packet tore exactly as it was supposed to, and then-
"Let me," she whispered in a husky voice that sent every drop of his blood out of his head. Into his head. There was courage in her eyes. The bunny-slipper woman, who was a trembling coward at ten thousand feet, now seemed mightier than any warrior queen with her clothes askew.
Oh, no. Her capable hands got busy on his cock, sending ten thousand volts to his system. Concentrate on something else. The breasts, for instance.
Didn’t work.
David wasn’t going to last, he was going to explode and this was going to be over. No way.
He pushed her into the bank of pillows, rough, again with the no-finesse thing, and then..
Then-
Yes.
She was tight, perfectly tight, and wet.
He opened his eyes, looked down at those dark, dancing eyes and swallowed.
Had he truly forgotten that sex could be this awesome? Yes, yes, he had.
"Oh," he managed.
Ashley smiled at him, and it was a marvelous smile. A smile for a hot summer’s day, and he was so glad the airplane had had mechanical failure. He was even glad for Hell-boy Junior. Being like this, surrounded by her, was worth it, so worth it. He rocked his hips, going deeper inside her, and her smile turned serious. Again he thrust, just to see if it was as good as the first.
Yes, yes, it was.
Then his mind began to shut down, and biology, desire, and sex took over.
He should be doing more for her, pushing buttons somewhere, but his body was running on auto-pilot, pumping hard and fast, and she didn’t seem to mind. Her hands locked on his shoulders, pulling him, pushing him, and there was no finesse there, either. And he’d never had such great, mindless sex in his entire life.
Stranger sex? Is that what that meant? Shit. They were going to have to do that again.

The dialogue between Ashley and David sparkles at times while at others it’s quiet and serious as they discuss their feelings and the issues still keeping them apart. You didn’t go easy on the issues either. David with his broken family relationship caused when he caught his brother and now ex-wife in bed only to have those two marry after the divorce came through. And Ashley who acts almost as a mother to her 30 year old, champion guilt inducing younger sister who can manipulate with the best of them. The resolutions for both came raggedly yet in their own time. I appreciate the fact that neither is tied in a neat little bow and both appear to be sort of ongoing. Just as real life would be.

And I loved finding all the little indicators that show how much these two are falling – or have fallen – in love. “Then he was kissing her, and she was kissing him back, and she wanted to laugh again. He did that. Made her happy inside.” The story isn’t all sweetness and light, despite the bunny slippers, but it felt like real people stumbling in a real way towards a resolution of the things in their lives that were holding them back. B+

~Jayne

This book can be purchased at Amazon or in ebook format from Sony or other etailers.

Dear Author Recommends for August

Jane — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 09:00:26 +0000

Starting this month, all of the Dear Author recommended reads will be given a discount at digital bookseller, Books on Board. The discount page is here. (In the future, we’ll always try to post this on Tuesday so you can get the discount the day of the release).

Written on Your Skin by Meredith Duran (recommended by Jennie, Janet/Robin and Jan)
Hot Under Pressure by Kathleen O’Reilly (recommended by Smart Bitches, Jayne and Jane)
Mistletoe Mommy by Tanya Michaels (recommended by Jayne who also recommends forgetting what the title is because it has nothing to do with Mommy or Christmas)
One Week As Lovers by Victoria Dahl (recommended by Janet/Robin and no, I don’t know what it will take for Victoria Dahl to get an A here at Dear Author)
Goddess of the Hunt by Tessa Dare (recommended by Jane because I loved the immature, big hearted Lucy who had to have that fearless belief in life in order to bring about the brooding Jeremy).
Beloved Vampire by Joey Hill (recommended by Jane. The review will come at noon. Needless to say its a star crossed lover + vampire + love saves people story with a dark edge).
Since the Surrender by Julie Anne Long (recommended by Jane because even with the plot flaws and the WTFery sex scene, I still loved the characterizations).
Beyond the Rain by Jess Granger (this is a qualified rec by Jane. It was a very good SFR that was accessible but slow in some places. It’s a trade but if it were in mass market, it would be an unqualified rec. This one is not in ebook form and therefore not available under the discount).
Spider Touched by Jory Strong (I’m giving this the same qualified rec. The detail that Jory Strong has brought to her new alternative urban fantasy romance is amazing and I love that she uses the world to provide the basis of the conflict but it’s a trade).

Save the Contemporary, Category Style WINNERS

Jane — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 01:46:16 +0000

Part one of our Save the Contemporary contest is completed. The following winners will receive a copy of each of the winning books, Hot Under Pressure by Kathleen O’Reilly (review by SB Sarah) and The Magnate’s Make Believe Mistress by Bronwyn Jameson (review by Jane):

Kat
Camilla
Sally
SandyW
Ros
Jenny
Kim
Keira
Meghan B
Kate
Carin

Our daily winner for Part 2:

HockeyVampiress via Twitter
Melonie J via email/blog

Part two of our Save the Contemporary contest keeps on chugging though and YOU CAN STILL WIN: Every day this week at 9pm EST, two winners a day will be chosen from those who Twitter about the Save the Contemporary campaign (#stc) and from those who blog about or email the contest entry. To email, simply forward the details to a friend using the "Email This Page" link at Save the Contemporary.com , or or email us at sbj.contests@gmail.com with a link to your blog entry. The more times you forward the details of this giveaway, the greater chance you have of winning. For the Tweet campaign, use the "Share This" button and twitter the contest link, along with whatever you want to say about contemporary category romances — but don’t forget the #stc tag!

WHAT THE ABOUT THE PRIZES

We’ll pick one winner a day at 9pm EST/8pm CST from those who blog/email, and one from that day’s #stc tweets. Each daily winner will receive:

a Harlequin vintage cover art bag with a copy of each book
a bath bomb from LUSH for use while reading the books

Finally, on Friday at 9pm EST, we’ll pick our grand prize winner from all who entered, and the grand prize winner will receive a Harlequin cover art bag, a copy of each book, and the LUSH True Romance gift set, which includes massage bar, bath bombs and other treats.

Jane and Sarah are all about the True Romance, after all.

PLUS, for the duration of the Save the Contemporary campaign this week only, Harlequin’s digital team is offering an additional 15% off the eBooks at eHarlequin, for a total of 25% off the digital list price. The coupon code is BLOGSPECIAL, and you can use it at checkout for purchases storewide at eHarlequin.com.

Special huge thanks to Harlequin for the books and the bags and the coupon-y goodness!

Save the Contemporary, Category Style

Jane — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 10:00:04 +0000

It’s time for another Save the Contemporary campaign, with Dear Author, Smart Bitches, and prizes from Harlequin!

This time, we’re featuring two books – yes, two. Some of the great contemporary stories are found in category romance, so we’ve picked two books that we both really loved.

Hot Under Pressure by Kathleen O’Reilly (review by SB Sarah)
The Magnate’s Make Believe Mistress by Bronwyn Jameson (review by Jane)

Our contest takes its inspiration from Kathleen O’Reilly, who was explaining to Sarah what made category romance so great:

…a category novel will exactly fit the time it takes for me to run a hot tub of water until the water turns too cold to stand, which is the exact amount of peace I have until my family figures out where I’m hiding.

To encourage total indulgence, relaxation, and contemporary romance reading, Jane and Sarah have put together a multi-part contest with daily prizes this week only, plus a grand prize at the end.

HOW TO ENTER

First: at 9pm EST, 8pm CST, today (4 August) Jane and Sarah will select 10 winners from the comments to this entry on each of their sites. Those lucky winners will receive a copy of both Hot Under Pressure by Kathleen O’Reilly and The Magnate’s Make Believe Mistress by Bronwyn Jameson.

Second: every day this week at 9pm EST, two winners a day will be chosen from those who Twitter about the Save the Contemporary campaign (#stc) and from those who blog about or email the contest entry. To email, simply forward the details to a friend using the "Email This Page" link at Save the Contemporary.com , or or email us at sbj.contests@gmail.com with a link to your blog entry. The more times you forward the details of this giveaway, the greater chance you have of winning. For the Tweet campaign, use the "Share This" button and twitter the contest link, along with whatever you want to say about contemporary category romances — but don’t forget the #stc tag!

To sum up, leave a comment to win a copy of the books. Make the contest viral by either going to “savethecontemporary.com” to use the Email This Page / Share This or twittering the contest using #stc. Virality = more prizes!

WHAT THE ABOUT THE PRIZES

We’ll pick one winner a day at 9pm EST/8pm CST from those who blog/email, and one from that day’s #stc tweets. Each daily winner will receive:

a Harlequin vintage cover art bag with a copy of each book
a bath bomb from LUSH for use while reading the books

Jane and Sarah are all about the True Romance, after all.

Special huge thanks to Harlequin for the books and the bags and the coupon-y goodness!

Head over to SaveTheContemporary.com for the details, and help us spread the word about great romance by helping us save the contemporary.

Best of 2008 List: Reviewer Jayne

Jayne — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 17:20:16 +0000

Jayne, one of the founding members of Dear Author, is our resident explorer. She goes out and finds the most unusual settings, the most unknown authors, in all different genres, and brings them to our attention. She’s also one of my dearest reading friends. Without her, this blog probably would have died a slow and uninteresting death a long time ago.

PEOPLE OF THE BOOK by Geraldine Brooks, Grade A
THE END OF THE ALPHABET by C.S. Richardson, Grade A-
THE SPYMASTER’S LADY by Joanna Bourne, Grade A-
THE TENTH GIFT by Jane Johnson, Grade A-
YOUR SCANDALOUS WAYS by Loretta Chase, Grade A-
HIS SECRET PAST by Ellen Hartman, Grade A-
SHAKEN AND STIRRED by Kathleen O’Reilly, Grade A-
A LADY’S SECRET by Jo Beverly, Grade A-
MYSTIC HORSEMAN by Kathleen Eagle, Grade A-

Doc Turtle Reads a Harlequin

Jane — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 16:00:18 +0000

Over at the Smart Bitches website, there is a multi part post featuring a chapter by chapter redux of Kathleen O’Reilly’s Harlequin Blaze, Sex, Straight Up, by Doc Turtle. Doc Turtle was challenged to read a category by SB Sarah after Doc Turtle made some snide comments about Harlequin books.

Sex Straight Up was a lovely book, in my opinion, but the liveblogging by Doc Turtle is hilarious. Beware, though, it’s not for the romance faint of heart. It’s interesting to see the evolution of Doc Turtle’s commentary because while he doesn’t think much of the literary quality of this particular book, but Chapter 7 or so, he is actively cheering for the couple to get together and impatient with their inability to do so.

September Harlequin Lightning Reviews

Jane — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 20:00:25 +0000

Angelo’s Captive Virgin by India Grey. I know that some well known authors like Grey’s voice but the doormat to asshole ratio is very high in this book, leaving me dissatisfied. Anna, or Lady Roseanna Delafield, is forced to sell her family estate. The family has fallen on hard times and while her only good memories of childhood are associated with her home, she can’t afford to keep it. Neither does she want the home to go to Angelo Emiliani and she hooks up with an environmental group who will help to stop the sale.

Angelo is a poor boy who clawed his way to the top as a real estate developer. He has no love for rich spoiled aristocrats nor does he have time for an eco-warrior yet Anna has a curious vulnerability which appeals to him. Anna’s devotion to the eco group is superficial and there is a sort of dream like quality about the book that robs it of the emotional punch that I like when reading these HPs. Anna’s vulnerability is also fairly irritating. She is very passive, as if assertiveness is unladylike. Angelo isn’t entirely an asshole, most unfeeling but capable of cruelty. C-

This book can be purchased in mass market from Amazon or Powells or ebook format.

Courting Disaster by Kathleen O’Reilly. This was a departure from O’Reilly’s normal NY settings. The heroine is a rich and famous country western singer who is also a virgin. The hero is a daredevil Formula 1 racer. The two meet when a mutual friend/family member’s racing stables are in serious financial trouble because the pedigree of one of their racers is under suspicion. I was intrigued by the plot line of the stables that the two were trying to save and was disappointed that this wasn’t resolved.

While I liked this story, I felt that it was too compressed, that if it had been a longer book, I would have been able to appreciate the characters more. Demetri had father issues and Elizabeth Innis had mother issues, both of which seemed unresolved at the end of the story. It wasn’t that I felt the father/mother characters had to come to some conclusion in order for the book to satisfying but I did feel like I was left hanging in that regard.

I accepted the virginity thing. I don’t know if it was the best explanation, but it was sufficient that I bought it for the sake of the story. I liked the tension – Formula 1 racer hooks up with squeaky clean singer but where was the drawback for squeaky clean singer in hooking up with the Formula 1 racer? Again, this was something I felt would have benefited from more development. B-

This book can be purchased in mass market from Amazon or Powells or ebook format.

Winners of the autographed NIGHTCAP books

Jayne — Fri, 02 May 2008 11:48:04 +0000

Okay, the random winners are 11 AB 16 Staci McClellan 27 Lam Email me Jayne @ dearauthor.com with your snail mail addresses. It will probably be mid next week when I get them mailed out. Related posts: Winners of the Caroline Linden ARC Giveaway Winners of the Kresley Cole and Fictionwise GCs REVIEW: Nightcap by [...] Related posts:

REVIEW: Nightcap by Kathleen O’Reilly

Jayne — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 20:00:24 +0000

Dear Mrs. O’Reilly,

You came close to a trifecta. You really did but it’s with sadness that I’m going to have to grade this book down. Don’t worry, it’s not a D grade because so many things are still right about it that were right about the first two books in the series. But a few things missed and that’s enough.

It’s not that Sean O’Sullivan changes radically from the easy talking, female pleasing man we’ve seen already. The guy knows how to talk, kiss and finesse his way through relationships, racketball games and courts of law. Want something fixed? Sean’s the man who can. And he’ll leave most everyone with a smile on their face after he’s gotten his way.

It’s not that I don’t like Cleo Hollings, one of the Deputy Mayors of NYC who’s got a pair and who isn’t afraid to show that she does. This woman gets off on negotiating union contracts, thrives on the pressure of getting a strike bound city moving again, enjoys Town Hall meetings in which she knows she’s going to get yelled at. And she’s sexually aggressive too.

The dialogue is still wonderful. As I read the book, I kept marking scenes that I wanted to put up here until it got to the point that I was in danger of trying to quote 1/3 of the book. And that’s way too much to put in one review!

It’s not that I don’t like the conflict that you set up between Sean and Cleo. Both have high powered jobs that demand a lot of their time. Both have family demands to answer to. Both pencil people in during the spare 2 minutes they might have free. This is real life.

It’s that after setting up this great conflict, there’s not enough time to let it play out. Cleo has issues from a past relationship and it’s one in which she admits that the man wasn’t pond scum. I can see her hesitation since the reason he bailed is still an active concern. But. She and Sean are together for all of three weeks before Cleo is basically tossing the poor man to the curb and insisting that it’s Never Going to Work. Give the man a chance. Give the relationship a chance. Don’t rush him either in or out of it. I realize with a category length story this can be hard but it’s something you managed with the other two books so I know it can be done.

I know there’s a lot to like in this book. And that’s including the epilogue which I’m not a great fan of. I don’t think readers will go wrong trying it on its own or finishing out the trilogy with it. It’s got great characters, hotness and snappy dialogue. But I just wish it’d had more time for the resolution of all the that you included in it. B

~Jayne

This book can be purchased in mass market from Amazon or Powells or ebook format and three signed copies from Kathleen. Woot! Make a comment, be eligible for the drawing. It’s that simple. Sweet.

Dear Author Recommends for April

Jane — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 09:00:33 +0000

Magic Burns by Ilona Andrews. Both Jane and Jia would recommend this sophomore effort by newcomer, Ilona Andrews. The “Magic” series features a smart mouthed, sword wielding Kate Daniels who helps to enforce the law in an alternate universe Atlanta. For the crossover genre reader (i.e., the romance reader that likes to cross the genre aisles), Curran, the Beast Lord of the Pack of Atlanta, plays the alpha male who likes to tweak Kate’s chain. Jia particularly likes “how their relationship is unfolding slowly, developing over the course of what I hope will be several books. It makes things more believable considering the two people involved: the Beast Lord of the Pack and the lifelong loner with a dangerous heritage.”

First You Run by Roxanne St. Claire is recommended by Jane as a fast paced road romance featuring a hot Austrialian bodyguard and a Mayan scholar. The suspense revolves around the end of the world theory that some believe is predicted by the Mayan long calendar. So you get a bit of historical facts, a bit of suspense, a bit of sexy loving. How do you not want to read that?

Sex, Straight Up by Kathleen O’Reilly is recommended by Jayne (and Jane). O’Reilly does the near impossible and makes accountants sexy! Sex Straight Up is the second in a series of books about the O’Sullivan brothers. Daniel O’Sullivan lost his wife in the 9-11 tragedy and hasn’t been able to move past her death until he meets art curator, Catherine. Being with Catherine makes Daniel forget for the first time in years but Catherine isn’t quite sure that she can compete with the specter of Daniel’s former love. O’Reilly’s stories often feature two people who are moving at different speeds in the relationship. The suspense is whether one can wait long enough for the other to come to the realization that the love that they’ve been longing for is here and now. Sex, Straight Up is a sweet and sexy story.

Private Arrangements by Sherry Thomas is an universally recommended book by the Dear Author crew. Thomas’ debut book tells the story of Gigi who connives to get all her heart desires only to lose it for 10 years and Camden who is so full of pride and so fearful of losing control that he waits 10 years to seek out the one woman who makes him crazy. Gigi, after 10 years of amicable separation, decides to petition for divorce. Camden returns to demand an heir. Set in the late Victorian period, Thomas makes wonderful use of the changing mores of society.

Unlawful Contact by Pamela Clare is a more serious action romantic suspense story one that Clare went extra lengths to achieve a very realistic feel to the story. The hero, Marc “Hunt” Hunter, is in prison for killing a federal officer. When reporter, Sophie Alton, comes to see him, he sees an opportunity to escape and does so, taking Sophie as his hostage. In order to gain some empathy for those in the prison system, on both sides of the gated metal prison doors, Clare asked to spend a night in jail. She was booked, searched, and incarcerated. I think that experience paid off because Hunt’s desperate desire for freedom was tangible. I don’t generally like captivity narratives but this one worked for me.

All of the above recommended reads can be bought through Dear Author’s Amazon Store.

Manga Recommendations from Jan.

Ayano Yamane’s A Foreign Love Affair. She’s the author of The Crimson Spell, which I reviewed previously. This book is a lighter one about an Italian cruise-ship captain and a young Japanese gangster on his ship, complete in one volume.
Yaya Sakuragi’s Tea for Two. Her artwork is a little odd, but I love her characters for the depth of their emotions. This story is a comedy about a well brought up young man who is a master at the tea ceremony, and a rather uncouth young man who joins the tea club at school because his sister made him. They’re very sweet together. This is the first volume of a longer series that’s currently at 5 books in Japan.
Cipher Vol 11, from a shoujo series. This series is reviewed here and the Volume 11 is the next to the last volume.

REVIEW: Sex, Straight Up by Kathleen O’Reilly

Jayne — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 10:00:20 +0000

Dear Mrs. O’Reilly,

How do you do it? How do you make accountants sexy? No offense to any number crunchers out there, especially at this time of year, but the profession isn’t up there on the sexy-job-o-meter. Daniel’s brothers, the lawyer and the bartender, have jobs that could be considered babe-magnets but it takes a special woman to appreciate his talent with an audit and, bless his heart, I’m glad he finds her in Catherine.

Catherine’s initial impression of Daniel seems spot on. He’s a lonely Odysseus, longing for his wife. Only in Daniel’s case, his wife is dead and he’ll never see her, hold her or laugh with her again. He knows most people, including his brothers, hope that he’ll get back to normal eventually, especially since it’s now six years after her loss. But as his mother-in-law says, she never expected to bury her daughter nor he his wife and their lives will never be “back to normal” again. All they can do is struggle on.

Catherine realizes none of this at first. All she sees is a sexy man whom she itches to draw. Her talent is good but not great which is fine since her real job is appraising the antiques and priceless treasures sold by her grandfather’s world renowned auction house. There she’s excellent though still reluctant to put herself forward since she’s a quiet type unlike her people oriented mother and grandfather.

Daniel hates making small talk but finds himself at ease with this pretty woman who demands nothing of him except to enjoy the sunny day at the Hamptons. They later find themselves enjoying an encounter of quite a different kind, one which rocks Catherine’s world and begins to make Daniel realize just how much he’s cut himself off from the world and it’s pleasures.

Neither thinks to continue what they started once they’re back in the city but fate intervenes landing Daniel in charge of the audit of the Montefiore auction house. Rumors have turned into an investigation into whether the house has colluded with a rival to match their sales schedule and thus inflate sales prices. An auction house lives or dies by its reputation and if proven, this would ruin Montefiore.

Accountant Man to the rescue! Or maybe not since neither Daniel nor Catherine can find anything, anything at all, to clear her grandfather of the charges. Until Daniel’s methodical nature unearths exactly what’s going on. In the meantime their relationship heats up, his wedding ring comes off and Gabe and Sean start to sniff out the fact that their brother might finally be willing to risk a new love in his life. But will Catherine wait for him to realize it too?

I love how you work Daniel’s profession into the heart of this story. Guns won’t solve the problem, only a sharp eye for numbers and a willingness to sift through pages and pages of data. Catherine’s eyes might cross after ten hours of it but Daniel is in his element. And while her mother might believe in Catherine’s ability to do more in the auction house, it’s her assistance in solving the investigation that helps Catherine realize the abilities she’s always had inside her.

And while Daniel has his moments of anguish, he’s neither drowning in it nor willing to throw it off too quickly once he’s met Catherine. Feelings this deep rooted take time and I’m glad you give that to him as well as to Catherine to believe that he finally has. I love this almost final scene.

It was a typical Manhattan apartment. There were no burning candles, or needlepointed wedding announcements. The couch was brown leather, bacheloresque, but tasteful bacheloresque. It seemed spacious-sanitized, and then she saw the picture hanging in the corner. It wasn’t a wedding picture, or a photograph of Michelle and Daniel together. It was her sketch. Framed, matted and looking as if it belonged there.

She walked over and looked at it, looked at her scrawled signature in the corner, and Catherine started to cry. She didn’t like to cry around people. Crying was something private and personal, and implied ties, but the tears slid unchecked down her cheeks.

He came up close behind, almost touching her, but not quite. He even lifted his hands, but then forced them back down to his sides.

"I didn’t mean to hurt you," he said, and she could tell where this was going. She wiped her face and headed for the door, but he caught her. This time, he did touch her.

"I didn’t want to love you. I didn’t want to love anybody. You didn’t ask for anything, you didn’t demand anything, you never took, only gave and then gave some more, and I was the one who was taking everything, bleeding you dry, and I knew it, too. But you didn’t whine or complain. I think that’s the reason I fell in love with you."

Catherine sniffed once. "You make me sound like a doormat."

He whacked himself on the forehead with his palm, but his eyes were soft. "I’m so bad at words. I think that’s why I’m an accountant. Gabe and Sean, they can talk. Not me. Never could. You’re no doormat, Catherine. You have no idea how strong you are, how talented you are, how special you are. But I do. I didn’t expect it because you hide it so well from everybody, and you kept surprising me."

She took a step back, until there was a safe distance between them. "What are you doing?"

"I don’t know what I’m doing, but I am tired of being alone, and I didn’t know I was tired of being alone until I met you."

"Just me?"

"Yup. Just you. When I saw you on the beach, I knew I didn’t have anything to be scared of. You were so much like me that it was easy. So quiet, so lonely, but you weren’t going to be with just anyone. You had to find the exact right person, and thankfully I think it’s me."

"I don’t know," she said, because Catherine was smart and careful and wasn’t going to be with just anyone.

"I love you, Catherine."

He was waiting for her to share, but these things he was talking about were serious and forever, and Catherine didn’t take serious and forever lightly. She didn’t think Daniel did, either, but she had been through so much with him, for him, because of him. She wasn’t ready. Not yet.

"Why aren’t you saying anything?" he asked, looking nervous.

"I’m not sure."

"About saying something, or about this?"

"About this."

"Will you try? Please, take a chance, Catherine. I deserve a chance. I know that now. I deserve a chance."

It surprised her that he expected her to give in so easily, but she’d learned some things since they’d been together. She was stronger. "Maybe this is temporary."

"Catherine, do you know me?"

"Yes."

"I don’t think temporary is going to be my problem."

Okay, he was probably right there. But the list of bad possibilities went on. "I’m not Michelle."

"I know that."

"What if somebody comes along that’s, you know, more like her?" Catherine asked, which was her polite way of saying that she wasn’t some knockout in a Vera Wang gown, and her skirts would always hang a little off, and she would give up buttercream cupcakes for no man, so if he was going to take her, this was what he got.

"If I meet another woman like Michelle, I’ll smile nicely and then go home and make love to the woman I love, and think how lucky I am to have someone like you who wants to be with someone like me."

And he believed it. He honestly believed that he was the lucky one. At which time, Catherine decided to admit that maybe, possibly, it was worth a try.

She went to him then. "We try," she said, clutching at the teardrop hanging from her neck.

His arms were outstretched. "Good."

Ah, very sweet. Though I have to say that if the woman on the book cover thinks her butt is too big, she needs to take a look at mine. B+

~Jayne

available in ebook (and on sale!) or mmp

And for 3 lucky people, a free autographed (No, not by me. By Kathleen!) copy of Sex, Straight Up. Okay, you know the drill. Add a comment to the review before Wednesday, March 26 at midnight EST for a chance at some sexy goodness.

REVIEW: Shaken and Stirred by Kathleen O’Reilly

Jayne — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 09:00:34 +0000

Dear Ms. O’Reilly,

As with the first book of your last trilogy, this one is a winner for me. Straight from the beginning and all the way through. I enjoyed all the characters in this book, the plot, the setting…in fact everything. At first I was a little leery about the setting. I mean, an Irish American family running a bar in NYC? And then the set up of the hero and heroine being maneuvered into living together? Cliched much? Oh yeah. But you’re Kathleen O’Reilly, and I trust you not to hurt me too bad. So I took a deep breath, flicked on my ebook reader and dove in.

And almost immediately you gave a standard plot new twists, took the story in directions I didn’t anticipate and made it a pleasure to electronically flip pages. The book heads in a different direction than I thought it would. I had expected a story of these two fighting off sexual feelings while living together in small apartment but this gets taken care of fairly early – I lmao at Gabe not liking being a ‘stranger’ to Tess during their hot encounters – instead it’s about Tess finding herself and gaining confidence to stand on her own and of Gabe deciding that love is worth making changes and waiting if you’re sure she’s The One.

I loved the great dialogue – both between Tess and Gabe and Gabe and his two brothers, Sean and Daniel. Wonderful ‘guy’ dialogue and thoughts. Yes, it is impossible for a man to regret any sex!

Gabe met Sean for racquetball on Friday morning. Playing racquetball with Sean was usually a pain in the ass, but in the end, Gabe had agreed because he had to talk to somebody about Tessa. Slowly, quietly, painfully, Gabe was going insane.

The challenge here was that Gabe would have to talk about Tessa in a way that Sean wouldn’t know Gabe was talking about Tessa, but Gabe figured he could handle that. He had to.

All due to this damned need of hers to pretend that Gabe wasn’t Gabe.

Yes, at first he thought it was hot. Every guy likes to think that his girl has an active fantasy life.

But every time? That sad truth wore a man down.

So on Friday morning, he was stuck in Sean’s high-dollar athletic club, which was filled with white-collar alpha males needing to assert their masculine superiority in a twenty by twenty room with no windows.

Gabe dressed in cut-offs and an FDNY Engine 31 t-shirt, which was his token effort to assert masculine superiority. He took in Sean’s tennis whites, and arched a mocking eyebrow. "I think I should call you Mortimer, or Preston, or something equally dweeby."

Sean shook his head, and pointed to the court. "Hello, my name is Sean O’Sullivan. You mock my clothes. Prepare to die."

Gabe followed him inside, slammed the door closed. Next he lifted his racquet, gave a cursory bow to his opponent, and then, the war was on.

Sean took the first game, fifteen to eleven. Gabe came back, perfecting his killer smash, and took the second game, fifteen to seven.

By the third game, they were both sweating like pigs, and the game had regressed to a primitive slog to the death. Never let it be said that an O’Sullivan wasn’t competitive. One long hour later, Sean took the match, fifteen to thirteen. Gabe didn’t mind because this felt good. Relaxed. Powerful. And his mind was completely Tessa-free.

Progress, definitely progress.

Besides, he’d whip his brother’s ass the next time. There was always a next time.

[The game ends and the two brothers start talking]

When the bartender shoved the glass of OJ in Gabe’s direction, Gabe sniffed, and then raised his glass. "To my brother, who has fallen far, far from the esteemed ideals that the O’Sullivan name has stood for through four generations. Juice? Juice? What is this?"

"I think it’s important to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Alcohol can be dangerous," Sean said, pushing back the hair from his eyes, trying to weasel his way into respectability.

"Sean, our family’s fortune was made on the ill-gotten gains of illegal alcohol. O’Sullivan’s started as a speakeasy. You can run to a career in the law, but you can’t hide."

"That doesn’t mean we can’t go straight."

Gabe downed the juice in one gulp. "Are you sure we’re related? You’re the brown eyed kid. Why brown? Did you ever think about that Sean?"

"Why are you here?" asked Sean, sipping demurely at his carrot juice.

Carrot juice? Gabe sighed, wanting to avoid this, but he couldn’t. This was important. And if he had to humiliate himself in front of his lesser-respected brother, then so be it. "I need to talk to you about a woman. You are still interested in women, aren’t you?"

Sean laughed, and appeared relieved by the change of subject, the flicker of humanity coming back into his eyes. "Desperate, aren’t you? Coming to the master."

"Don’t rub it in, this is hard enough. I can’t talk to Daniel, because, I can’t handle talking to Daniel about sex. That’d be cruel. I’m not cruel."

Sean tugged at the cuffs of his Brooks Brother shirt and studied Gabe like a scientist. "So, we’re actually having sex with this female? Are you sure this isn’t a case of "lusting from afar’?"

At that moment, Gabe wished he had a tie. Something silky, probably with a designer label. Preferably long enough that he could loop it around his brother’s neck and then pull. Tightly. He smiled at the thought.

"No, it’s not lusting from afar. But it would be a lot easier."

"That’s just sad, Gabe."

"Yes, yes, it is." He took a deep breath, and pitched his voice low, finally admitting the unsavory truth. "She likes to pretend, Sean."

"Pretend what?"

"Pretend that I’m not me."

Sean stroked his chin. "I see. So, she’s so revolted by you that she has to pretend you’re someone else."

"That’s not it," Gabe snapped, and saw heads turn with curiosity. He scowled back.

"It looks like it. Why else would she need to pretend? Unless you can’t satisfy her, of course."

"Of course I can satisfy her," answered Gabe, through gritted teeth.

"On the basis of the facts as presented before me, I’m thinking that answer is a big "no’."

"Screw you, Sean."

I loved the fact that Gabe is just a nice all around guy who worries about his female employees getting home from working at the bar, about his brother Daniel’s ‘anniversaries’ of his dead wife – I think I’ve seen his heroine already, yes? There’s no angst puppy whining at us throughout the book. He’s got normal family relationships, a normal job, a normal apartment and normal life. Normal guys deserve to fall in love too.

I like that Tess wanted to take charge of her life after her earlier failed relationship. I could see her falling for that jerk at a young stage in her life and it would be a hard lesson in life and one she heeded. It makes the conflict between Gabe and Tess realistic. He doesn’t see the need to wait and she feels she must in order to fulfill her need for independence. Only when she’s done that will she be able to settle down and risk a relationship again. And she finally gets a job that perfectly fits her and which it’s obvious she will excel in. Is all the NYC apartment information correct or did you just make it all up? I’ll admit to goggling at the information that she considers a 8×9 bedroom spacious. Ye Gods. And she wants a cat! I love my kitty.

I had wondered at the subplot of ‘longtime bar regular’ Charlie looking for the woman from his past but you fitted that in nicely as a way of goosing Tess to finally take a chance instead of the usual ‘putting the other lead character in peril’ to get the other to admit true love.

The scenes from the bar are fun without being impossible to believe. I hope Gabe and the brothers don’t drop too many bottles of booze trying bartender tricks – would get way too expensive.

I liked all the characters and was glad there were no villains or baddies. Even though I know you were setting up the next two books in the series, the inclusion of the heroes – and I think at least one heroine – was pertinent to this story and useful in moving it along to its conclusion. It’s also nice to see a book about regular, everyday Joes. In your last trilogy, there were a lot of famous people and rich people and people who were famous and rich while this series seems to be about average New Yorkers.

It’s not often that I jump through the hoops needed to be able to try and read a book electronically at work (and no, I don’t take my ebook reader with me). Usually I just don’t have time but with this book, I made the time. And then I kept pulling it up on my computer every time I had a spare minute and growling when real work pulled me away from it. I hate real work when it keeps me from reading a great book. I was lucky that day and the Work Gods smiled upon me, allowing me to finish my second A read of the year. Bring on Sean and Daniel’s stories!

~Jayne

This book can be purchased in mass market or ebook format.

Dear Author Recommends for March

Jane — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 10:00:05 +0000

Madhouse by Rob Thurman is recommended by Jia. (Thurman is a woman if that matters to you and I have to admit I have a pro-female author bias so I thought I would throw that out there). Madhouse is a continuation of a series about two brothers which started with Nightlife and its sequel, Moonshine. Caliban Leandros, half monster, and his fully human brother Niko run a preternatural detective agency in New York City but their real mission is to put down the AUphe. The Auphe, a group of sadistic monsters from hell, bred Cal as their key to transforming the world into their own personal playground. Jia loves this series because there is great plotting, a fully realized paranormal world and, well, because the Leandros brothers are hot. They wield guns, serrated daggers, swords, and axes. I think if you love the Winchester boys of Supernatural, there’s a good chance you will love the Leandros brothers of Thurman’s books.

Mystic Horseman by Kathleen Eagle is from Jayne. Long time Eagle fans will recognize hero Dillon Black from “Ride a Painted Pony. He’s a struggling single parent who loves his kids and is trying to make a go breeding Indian ponies. His effort is helped when Ella Champion and her transformation reality show comes to town. Ella’s show is like Extreme Home Makeover except it focuses on fixing something that will benefit the community. In this case, it is Dillon’s horse camp which brings horses and the Lakota youth, descendants themselves of one of the Great Plains horse tribes, back together. If you are looking for a romance which provides a tribute to Lakota, you can’t get much better that this one.

Shaken and Stirred by Kathleen O’Reilly is another recommendation from Jayne. O’Reilly writes some of the smartest straight contemporary books on the market and while she’s had some misses, Shaken and Stirred is a bonafide hit. Gabe owns and runs a bar in New York called Prime. It’s been in his family for generations. Four years ago, Gabe gave Tessa a job and saved her life. Since that time, she’s been working toward gaining her independence which is symbolized by Tessa having her own apartment, maybe even owning. Tessa and Gabe know that there is something between them but Tessa is obsessed with the future and Gabe is all about today. As Jayne says, the story is “about Tess finding herself and gaining confidence to stand on her own and of Gabe deciding that love is worth making changes and waiting if you’re sure she’s The One.” edited to add, it is currently 1:09 am on the 3d of March and having just finished the book, I just wanted to say I think this book is awesome. Jane.

As for me, I had a tough month in March. I try to include only high Bs and A books for the recommended read posts because this post is all about encouraging people to spend money and I try to be very careful about that. Having given that caveat, I will include Maya Banks’ Sweet Surrender which I will review later on today. I struggled between giving this book a B or B- but as I tried to read four erotic romances this weekend, I leaned toward the B. Sweet Surrender is a trade paperback but it is a solid erotic romance full of the very hot scenes that you might expect from a Berkley Heat but a decent amount of character development. It was the best of the books I read released in March and therefore, probably qualifies as a recommended read, no?

Please let us know what you think of our picks and give us your own suggestions. There are new readers everyday to DA and I just want you all to know that you can feel free to disagree with our picks. It won’t offend us at all!

REVIEW: Beyond Seduction by Kathleen O’Reilly

Jayne — Mon, 07 May 2007 21:00:34 +0000

Dear Ms. O’Reilly,

Jane and I mentioned in our reviews of “Beyond Daring” that Mercedes (who we knew would be the heroine of your next book) needed some work before we could like her. You promised that she would undergo some growth in the year since the setting of the last book and earn our love. Well, ….she has improved some but I can’t really say you totally redeemed her for me.

Despite the success of her sultry Red Choo sex blog, it would take serious buzz to put Mercedes Brooks’s first book of erotic fantasies on the bestseller list. And that meant agreeing to another showdown with her nemesis, the super-sexy TV pundit Sam Porter.

This time, though, the on-air innuendos were just a dress rehearsal. What happened later between the sheets was actually the main event. If the tabloids got wind of their night together, Sam’s career would self-destruct. But the real shocker was that even with a prime-time scandal hanging over their heads, one night was not enough!

I ended up liking Sam more than Mercedes. I almost liked Max (Sam’s dog) more than Mercedes. I liked Sam’s father as well but not necessarily more than Mercedes. But I thought that Sam’s whole political career thing and his statement that his private life is private is unrealistic. This is modern day American politics when reporters go almost back to a candidate’s prenatal existence to dig up dirt. Sam thinks they won’t find out about Mercedes’ and his relationship? That his private life will remain private while he’s on the campaign trail and afterwards? That the reporters won’t go wild writing about the material that Mercedes writes? That some constituents in New Jersey won’t have a cow about all this? I’m sorry but I can’t see that. I will say that I think Sam’s reasons for going into politics are great and that I laughed at the references to “Mr Smith Goes to Washington.”

Anyone who’s read any of my letters will probably have picked up on the fact that I’m not too fond of characters from past books in a series showing up and hogging too much time in the next books. It can be done well but it takes restraint to make me happy. I think you strike the right balance for me. “Beyond Seduction” shows glimpses of past characters (esp, surprisingly to me, Sheldon) who were all around enough to show off their current happiness without getting cloying or taking over this book. And I gotta say I loved Jamie and Andrew’s getaway car and how Jamie makes Andrew so happy that he’s willing to break out of his comfort zone to be romantic for her (even if she’s also trying to tone that down).

But Mercedes…I don’t think she really paid enough for what she did to her brothers with her blog entries in the past. Sure, she realized when it was her turn that she didn’t like her sex life in front of the masses but did she ever really repent of what she did in the past? Maybe her “noble, I will sacrifice my love for the good of Sam’s political career” was supposed to do this but if so, it didn’t work for me. She regretted putting the thinly disguised “Sam” into a story on the blog and vaguely said, “oh gee now I understand how mad Andrew and Jeff were” but it seemed like lip service to me. Then there was the “I want to be famous in order to show up my dad for leaving me” issue that really wasn’t seen through. We read about Mercedes getting tearful and Sam comforting her but then, poof that subplot is basically gone. While I’m glad that you didn’t put some smaltzy “feel-good” reunion with her long gone father into the book, this wasn’t really explored enough to have even bothered bringing it up.

I thought the sex was hot but tasteful. And Sam’s NJ house (what exit was that?) might tempt me to become a Jersey Girl.

There’s a lot that goes on in this novel but I didn’t feel like some issues were really explored enough or covered in depth enough. I liked the storyline, didn’t hate picking the book back up and read it very quickly but by the end, I just felt I was skimming along on the surface. I know you won’t be happy with my grade but I’m afraid it’s an average C+.

~Jayne

Interview with An Author: Kathleen O’Reilly Tells Us that There is No Secret

Jane — Mon, 07 May 2007 10:00:04 +0000

Kathleen O’Reilly first came to my attention in the anthology, Hell with the Ladies, but it wasn’t until my blogging partner wrote her review of O’Reilly’s Harlequin Blaze, Beyond Breathless, that had me moving O’Reilly from an author I should buy someday to an author I should buy now. Beyond Breathless also got me thinking about category romances. Categories are probably the most read but also the most reviled in the romance industry. “Harlequin” is often used as an insult and not a compliment, but there is a dearth of good straight contemporaries these days. You know, the contemporary without the Navy Seal, cop or PI? The more that I read of Harlequin categories, the more that I find that Harlequin is filling the need for smart heroines, snappy dialogue, and sexy men in straight contemporaries. I thought a closer look at category writers might be in order.

Kathleen O’Reilly’s last book, Beyond Seduction, the last of the Red Choo Diaries, is on the shelves now. In June, there is a sequel to the Hell with the Ladies anthology called Hell On Heels written with Dee Davis and Julie Kenner. Kathleen will be offering her christmas wishes in the form of a Christmas novella coming out in December with Joanna Rock, and Jacquie D’Alessandro entitled A Blazing Little Christmas.

***

You’ve not been publishing long, what did you do before? and what made you start writing?

My writing career has been very checkered. When I was growing up, I never listened to my friends who said I should be a romance writer because I wanted to be rich, and I knew writers were poor. I had a talent for technology (i.e. closet geek-head), so I went into computers. In the early 90s, publishers were looking for OS/2 Programming books, so there were three of us who got together, zipped up an outline, and voila, we wrote an OS/2 programming book, The Art of OS/2 2.1 C Programming. The reviews were fabulous for the book, because it wasn’t a snooze-fest, so we released an updated edition. Alas, Bill Gates killed OS/2, and my area of expertise was kaput.

Shortly thereafter I got a hankering to write another book, but my Visual Basic skills weren’t great, so I decided to write romance because I adore romance novels and had read them my entire life. And okay, yes, after years of being told that I would be a romance writer, perhaps I’d been brainwashed, I don’t know. Anyway, I wrote my first manuscript, a steller historical set in Russia, which I sent out to publishers who said, wow, that’s great, but, uh, Russia doesn’t sell. So, I thought about another historical idea (set in Regency England, I’m no dummy!) and started working on it.

At the same time, Harlequin was looking for Duets, and it sounded like a lot of fun, so I wrote a book for Duets and sent it in. One and a half years later (who says publishing is slow!), I got a call that Harlequin wanted to buy my Duets. And then 28 days after that, my agent told me that Berkley wanted to buy my historical. And the rest, as they say, is history. I’ve now written 10 books for Harlequin, two “lady-lit” books, a couple of paranormal novellas, and one historical (and a partridge in a pear tree). And to do this day, my frends all nod and say, “I told you so.”

Jayne, my blogging partner, found a fascinating article about what some authors do to jump start their creative juices. Any tips you care to share?

I don’t need much help with creativity. I failed physics because I kept making up forces that didn’t exist. But to answer your question, I read the newspaper a lot, I listen carefully when people tell me stories (they never know they’ll end up in a book), and oddities in the world make me go, “what if?”. When I begin a book, the first few chapters are hard until I get a handle on my characters. Once that happens, I’m off to the races. I’ll live and breathe my story until it’s over.

Your heroine in Beyond Seduction is a bit of an unsympathetic character. What particular challenges do you face when writing someone that your readers may not initially like? Do you think the rules are different for a male character v. a female character?

I think the key with unsympathetic characters is to make them understandable, and if that doesn’t work, give them a puppy. My first draft is usually harsher than my second because I can go through and layer things in place. Sometimes only a line or two of internal narrative will turn a character 180 degrees. And yes, the rules are definitely different for male and female characters. We females forgive males EVERYTHING. It’s completely a double-standard. But if you look at some of the alpha males that are popular, they are much harsher than their female equivalents.

Your book, Looking for Mr. Goodbunny, was pointed to by the New York Times as being one of those dreadful chick lit books, but your heroine is older and while it is set in NY, there is very little shoe shopping and no cute millionaire to sweep in and solve everyone’s problems. How would you characterize your writing?

Regarding the Times article, I will say that I get a very nice note from Maureen Dowd (who I think is a closet romance writer wannbe), and she asked me to DC for pink cosmopolitans. Little does she know that I plan on taking her up on it. As for my writing, I don’t know how to characterize it. I love people stories. I like writing about people who learn to either fix their problems or accept them. Self-image, both male and female, seems to be a recurring theme. I don’t think of myself as a comedy writer, but I do like to make people smile. That’s what I love about romance. It always makes me smile.

There was an article last month at Romancing the Blog by agent, Kristin Nelson, about writing a big enough novel. I've read categories that I consider better than a mass market, primarily straight contemporaries. How do you feel about that?

For me, the difference between a character novel and big novel is merely the number of subplots in a book. The bigger the book, the more plot you gotta stick in there. However, I don’t do my characters any different at all. In anything you choose, be it mass market or category, there’s going to be good, and there’s going to be bad. That’s just statistics. One of my favorite romances is STILL Manhunting by Jenny Crusie, which has stuck with me much longer than her big novels, which are not slouchy by any degree. I do know that there are agents and eds who pooh-pooh categories, but if you look at who category has created: Nora, Linda Howard, Suzanne Brockmann, and yes, Jenny Crusie, I would think category would have serious street cred by now.

Do you think that there is a stigma against writing category romances? Or is there an advantage because you are already published and therefore have a proven audience?

I think some people have a bias against category, but within the romance community, I think that bias is fading somewhat because of the above-mentioned names. I mean, what, you’re going to argue that Nora or Suz have a sucky career? Yeah, right. Category provides a tremendous advantage to writers, the ability to get in front of thousands of readers who have never heard of you before. And if you have an established audience, category gets you people that will never pick up a bigger book. I’ve never really paid too much attention to what people thnk, so it doesn’t bother me one way or another.

Do you want to move out of category writing eventually or will you always write categories along with your “bigger–? novels?

They will have to pry my Harlequin contract out of my cold, dead hands… I love writing short, and since I write dialog-heavy stories, it’s a perfect venue for me. Maybe someday that will change, but for now, that’s what I’m thinking…

If you could change one thing about the publishing industry, what would it be?

Only one? Oh, that’s cruel. I suppose I would make it more honest. In NY, a lot of people want to be cheerleaders rather than clueing you in on facts and reality. It’s all very hush-hush, like a secret society. As a closet geek-head, I like facts and reality. I think it’d be fun to have one day (and probably only one) like in Liar, Liar, where everyone has to tell the truth. That would be fun for one day, I think. After one day, it would probably not be so fun.

Is there a secret you can share?

This last weekend I went to a conference, and listened to Nora Roberts speak, and it was a great talk. Probably exactly what most people should hear. So, I’m going to paraphrase and share, because I think it is a great secret. Being an author is one of the most fabulous things in the world, however, it’s hard, a lot of work, and you have be tough, stubborn, optimistic, and committed to succeed. It’s not about promotion, or marketing, or anything, other than putting the words down on paper. There is no secret, it’s all about determination. Whoops. Maybe I shouldn’t say that. Maybe I should tell everyone that there is a secret, and then… I know, I’ll write a book, and I’ll call it “The Secret” and I’ll get on Oprah, and OMG! Yes, forget what Nora said. There is a secret, but I must publish it in cute hard-back form with elaborate fonts first!

If you had one marketing secret, what would that be?

LOL, I have no marketing secrets. It all comes down to the books. So, sadly, the best marketing secret is ‘focus on the book’. I know, it sucks, but there, it’s the truth.

What are the three romance books you read in the last month? and why?

I read A Match Made on Madison by Dee Davis. She’s my critique partner, I love her, and I think it’s a fabulous book. Everyone should buy it and read it, especially the Jane Austen fans. I also read Susan Elizabeth Phillips, Natural Born Charmer. When I grow up, I want to be Susan Elizabeth Phillips. She’s a goddess, and I read everything of hers. I also read Mary Balogh, The Secret Pearl, because I had never read Mary Balogh, and I knew I should read her. I’m glad I did, too. What a heart-wrenching read, but so marvelous in the end. I will be reading Mary Balogh in the future.

REVIEW: Beyond Daring by Kathleen O’Reilly

Jayne — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 10:00:10 +0000

Dear Ms O’Reilly,

Sequels can be a dangerous thing. If I enjoyed the previous book, will the next one live up to it? Or will it bomb for me and somehow taint what I feel for the one (s) I previously liked? Will secondary characters be twisted out of recognition when it’s their turn at bat? Or will the “feel” of the book be totally different? These questions had one more added to them in the case of this book: would you be able to make me like the heroine who clearly is based on Paris Hilton, a celebrity I despise?

Jeff Brooks works for a PR firm. It’s his job to take the unpalatable and make America love it. Right now, he’s losing his mind over his latest assignment, aka how to control the public shenanigans of Sheldon Summerville. Sheldon is the oldest daughter of uber wealthy business man Wayne Summerville and though she’s the apple of her daddy’s eye, even Wayne realizes that her public image can tarnish that of the family firm thereby costing them $$$/ £ £ £/ ¥ ¥ ¥/whatever. And with a proposed merger in the works that could open up the Chinese market, Wayne’s not taking any chances. Jeff’s trying hard, he really is, but Sheldon seems to delight in creating the biggest scenes, being the most photographed celebrity and often baring all in her quest for notority. Jeff likes what he sees, don’t get him wrong, but Sheldon’s got to cover up that delicious bod and behave, damn it!

Sheldon knows she’s thought of as the empty headed blonde who’s got it all. Beautiful body, bountiful bank balance and a life you’d be a fool not to envy. All her life, everything’s been smoothed out for her, covered up for her, fixed and repaired for her — damn, she knows she really does have it all. She got tired of all of it a long time ago but figures that if people don’t know the real you, they can’t hurt you. Show ‘em what they expect to see and they won’t be disappointed in what they do see. It’s worked for 26 years so why stop now? Well, because now Sheldon’s being asked to marry the son of the owner of the company her father wants to aquire. Tax laws being what they are, being married will save a ton of taxes and other nasty costs. It would also give Sheldon a way to help her father and for once do something for the family instead of always being the one who has to be fixed. If only the PR guy her father hired wasn’t making her wish for a relationship that would never work out. Jeff’s hot, nice and totally doable but he’s determined to avoid any personal involvement while doing what her father is paying for despite anything Sheldon tries to shake him up. Sometimes, life does suck.

“Beyond Daring” does live up to “Beyond Breathless” in regards to some of the points I mentioned. It’s funny in a subtle way that did’t get right in my face and demand, “aren’t I FUNNY!?!” The characters who also appeared in “Breathless” stay the same and don’t suffer from the 180 degree turns that are often seen in sequels. The quick pace stays the same and it’s not bogged down with extraneous plot twists. So far so good.

Now as for the heroine. As far as I’m concerned, Paris Hilton needs to shut up, cover up and start to justify the air she breaths daily. So obviously, you had your work cut out for you to make me like Sheldon. I ended up not hating Sheldon and maybe even liked her some but she’s not my favorite heroine. I guess seeing what I feel for the person on whom she’s modeled, you did a good job with her. But could she really have been able to spend six years learning to play violin? In total secret? For a woman with her degree of public recognition, I have my doubts. But do agree with her that Schubert isn’t a fav. Give me Vivaldi any day.

In the previous book, we saw bits and snippets of Jeff in PR action. However in this book, I’m not sure about Jeff’s 5 point plan to dramatically improve Sheldon’s image. An heiress walking a picket line and supporting NYC electricians on strike? Really? Or going to sports events? And this would make me think better of her how? I tend to think most people would view those as empty publicity stunts not public image enhancers. Then there’s something about the sex. Jeff almost seems to be using it sometimes to punish Sheldon. Is this secretly a way he’s punishing himself? Is it his way of coming to grips with the fact that he’s falling in love? The tone of it just seemed “off.” I do like the way he cares for his family and seems willing to do anything to help them (despite what his sister does to him but more on her later).

In my review of “Breathless” I mentioned that Mercedes, Jeff and Andrew’s sister, and Thea, their mother, were two characters who didn’t work as well for me. In this book, Thea has some scenes which flesh her out some and give me a clue as to why she’s so important to her family above and beyond being their mother. She and Jeff share a nice mother and son moment and she ends up giving Jeff the proverbial kick in the pants he needs to jump start his courtship. Mercedes is another matter. This girl is going to need some serious redemption for me. You tell me she loves her brothers. We get to see some sibling ribbing and she does end up helping Jeff but… she still seems to be willing to make hay off their problems first and help them second. She’s very “me first.” And after seeing this for two books and reading the set up for the third, she’s not a character I’m already feeling the love for.

This book has a lot of minor characters. Some like Sheldon’s mother and almost fiance Jason, are barely there. It’s not that they’re badly written, it’s just that we really don’t get to know anything about them. Sheldon’s sister isn’t much better and comes off as a bit of an airhead herself despite being halfway through med school. Well, the worst of it is yet to come for her so maybe she’ll grow up some more. Wayne is a likable father who deep down does seem to care that his daughters are happy while at the same time showing the shrewd business tactics and force of will that built his company. Then there’s Philip, Jeff’s gay receptionist. I liked him but is he too stereotyped? At least you’re not gay bashing.

So, while “Beyond Daring” doesn’t live up to “Breathless” for me, it’s not bad. It’s a fast read, made me laugh out loud numerous times and I’m happy that I read it. Oh, and I came up with the perfect name for Jeff’s future boat, the Sea-Shel. B- for this one.

~Jayne

Dear Ms. Reilly:I didn’t have as positive a response to Beyond Daring as Jayne. I won’t belabor the plot which Jayne articulated above. Beyond Breathless stood out due to the great repartee between the hero and the heroine and the genuineness of their personalities.

The main problem I had was that I was told one thing about the characters and shown another. Jeff, the purported playboy, was never really sold to me. I never saw any of it. If he was a true playboy, he would have sexed Sheldon six ways from Sunday instead of running away from her. I also thought it was odd that while Jeff wanted to make it on his own, he was more than willing to sell out to Sheldon’s dad and make Sheldon miserable than accept help from his brother, Andrew.

Tormenting others for their own gain seems like a trait of the family that only Andrew escaped. As Jayne stated, Meredith will require some major redemption because she acts like a spoiled brat who uses her blog to broadcast sexual fantasies about her brothers and their partners. It seemed rude and exploitative to me.

I didn’t quite get the point of Sheldon rebelling to the point that she was constantly embarassing herself and her family. After all, she was well loved by her family. If it was the case of having too much money and feeling like she wasn’t contributing to her family, then how is falling in love with some guy resolving those feelings of worthlessness?

The best parts of the book were the interaction between Andrew, Jeff and Mercedes. It was the perfect mix of sibling love and sibling rivalry. Those scenes were my favorite and the ones that had me laughing. Beyond Daring didn’t live up to Beyond Breathless but it didn’t tarnish my good feelings for the previous book. It only made me love Beyond Breathless more. C.

Best regards,

Jane

REVIEW: Beyond Breathless by Kathleen O’Reilly

Jayne — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 09:00:42 +0000

Dear Ms. O’Reilly,

When Jane sent me this arc I have to admit that I wasn’t that thrilled. Oh look, another series about three siblings. And my, it’s set in New York City so it’ll read like a “Sex and the City” clone book. It’s a Harlequin Blaze, we’ll get tons of inappropriately timed lust/sex scenes. Whoopee. Not. And even through the beginning of the first chapter, I was thinking, ” ‘eh” but then, when these two started seducing each other with sexy finance talk, I perked up. I started reading closely. I began laughing my ass off. I loved it.

Jamie McNamara knows that being a woman in the financial industry isn’t easy. She’s got to work twice as hard and still has to deal with the good old boy network. So she’s not about to miss her hard won chance to make her most ambitious deal for her company. And if she has to share a ride with an unknown businessman after a power outage shuts down the trains from NYC to Connecticut to make the meeting, then so be it. Even if the vehicle they have to share is a stretch Hummer that looks like it’s straight out of a porn shoot.

Andrew Brooks just thinks he’s being nice to offer a ride to this woman who obviously wants to get to some kind of meeting. But then her cool business manner, tailored suit, long legs and high heel shoes start to get to him. They’re going to be in this Hummer together for a while and he’s got to distract himself so he starts spouting price per earnings and gross receipts for companies he trades in. He figures he’s safe, this will bore her. But it doesn’t. She challenges him for a prediction about next year’s market outlook then argues his analysis. And Andrew realizes that, “Holy Alan Greenspan,” she’s seducing him. With financial talk. And pretty soon they’re riding each other as they ride to CT.

But just as soon, it’s over and, appalled, they go their separate ways. That is until Andrew confides the gist of the event to his brother at a drunken bachelor party, and Jeff tells their sister who, thinking Jeff just made it up, decides to turn the event into a story on her writer’s blog which catches the attention of all of Wall Street. Now how is Andrew, who can’t get Jamie out of his mind and his mind back on business, going to make this up to her? And will competitive Jamie be able to commit to a relationship with a man who above her on the hierarchy of Wall Street? And will their hot nights in bed keep them from keeping up with the Wall Street Journal, Business Week, Forbes and Lou Dobbs?

I loved most of the characters of this book. It’s short so you had to distill them very quickly yet each was distinct and memorable. And you have real guy talk. Brothers who call each other ass and putz, and who do the testosterone competition thing.

I loved the sexy finance talk, the way Andrew seduces Jamie by analyzing pork belly futures, discussing zero coupon bonds and rates of return. This is sex talk for these two. They get hot and wet talking about this stuff. I like how driven they are in their jobs and that they don’t compromise this throughout the entire book.

I was worried for a minute about what you were doing to Jamie near the end of the story. “You can’t do this to her!” I wailed. “You know she needs to succeed on her own. She’ll never be happy if she thinks Andrew has pulled strings for her.” But then I realized that this is a real misunderstanding between them and not a “Romance misunderstanding.” It’s something you’ve set up throughout the whole book and it makes sense that this could happen to, and be a problem for, these two. Yeah! And then you worked them out of it in a believable way. Double yeah!! And better still, the sex is hot yet romantic without being purple or stupid. That men’s room scene is straight out of a guy’s wet dreams.

So now you probably want to know why I didn’t grade this an A+. Well, I’m not too sure what to think about Andrew’s mother or sister. Neither of them worked as well for me as the other characters who all seemed so real. But I love Jeff and am looking forward to his book. See, you’ve got me ready to buy into a series, which is something I’m getting really sick of. Right now I’m giving this a conservative B+ but that might go up on further reflection and rereading.

~Jayne

REVIEW: Hell with the Ladies – Anthology – by Kathleen O’Reilly, Julie Kenner and Dee Davis

Jane — Wed, 06 Dec 2006 22:00:35 +0000

Dear Ladies:

Here’s the sttory behind how this book was chosen for the dueling review and why it’s late (it’s supposed to be a November dueling review). Jayne and I were tossing around ideas. I suggested Drop Dead Gorgeous but Jayne confessed to not having read Linda Howard in years. Billionaires Prefer Blondes came up but Jayne couldn’t make it past the first chapter (or was it two chapters). We agreed upon this Anthology given that Jayne liked Kathleen O’Reilly’s Diva’s Guide to Selling Your Soul.

Alas, while Jayne was prompt and had her review done in November, I could not get into the second story. I emailed Jayne, doing many mea culpas and asking if we could just do away with the belated November dueling review. Jayne suggested our dueling reviews be her review on this book and my review of Billionaire’s Prefer Blondes (which will go up next week), but because of the ending of the second novella and the kick ass third novella, I was glad to participate. Mostly my opinions mirror Jayne’s which seems rare these days.

My overall opinion is that the writing was good in all three stories but I didn’t believe that there was a good match and thus a believable HEA in the first two. The last one, however, has me looking up Dee Davis’ backlist.

Jack by Kathleen O’Reilly

Jack is over 900 years old. He’s seen everything, done everything and everyone. When his father offers him the keys to the kingdom in exchange for a book, Jack is pretty sure that he will have no problem fulfilling his father’s request. Off he goes to New York to the bookstore owned by the D’Angelis family. Only the woman manning the bookstore would rather give her body to Jack than the book. Gabrielle D’Angelis wants to get away from the decaying bookstore and see the world and believes that the best that she can do is to marry out.

Jack is charming, the epitome of the wealthy and charismatic male. Gabrielle can’t help but be seduced by the fancy restaurants and the expensive clothes and gifts. But when it comes down to it, Jack gives nothing of himself and in the end, that just isn’t enough for Gabrielle.

This isn’t a bad storyline and the writing isn’t bad either. The problem that I had with Gabrielle and Jack is that I don’t really know why either of them fell in love for each other. It wasn’t apparent to me what good qualities Jack had and while Gabrielle was lively, she seemed a bit shallow. I wasn’t convinced that the pair of them were a good match. I was even further perturbed by the fact that the ending was very contrived and not really well integrated into what little world building there was. C.

Nick by Julie Kenner

Nick is the middle brother who is charged with stealing the soul of a beautiful young woman. Delilah Burnett left her smalltown to come to New York to be a model. Lila was the real weakness in the story. She wanted to be a model but when faced with the opportunity of sitting for a painting for one of the greatest portrait artists of the time, she just doesn’t know if she should Blah. Lila was further presented as this small town girl with a heart of gold, but within hours of meeting Nick, she seemed willing to do whatever he wanted.

Nick was more compelling. As he spent more time with Lila, painting what he felt would be his greatest painting of all, he begins to fall for her big heart. Unfortunately, Lila changes as he begins stealing bits of her soul and he begins to despise himself. There was a disturbing undercurrent here that only the soulless women would be brash partiers willing to seduce and be seduced. C.

Marcus by Dee Davis

Haven’t read Dee Davis before but I’ll be looking for her at the bookstore now. This story worked so much better because it seemed that there was a certain equality between the two main protagonists. Celeste is the daughter of a who likes to acquire things by illegal means if necessary;Marcus the youngest son of Lucifer has a long history of thievery as well. (I loved that he was a pirate so many years ago. :)). He’s not so interested in the ruling hell as getting one up on his older brothers and to feed acquisitive desire for the elusive Devil’s Delight. Marcus is drawn to Celeste and has been in the past but refuses to give of himself fearing Celeste’s rejection due to Marcus origins.

Celeste and Marcus work together to obtain the Devil’s Delight and in doing so cannot deny their attraction for each other. Even as they are together in bed, they each tell themselves it cannot mean anything more than physical. But the Devil’s Delight is not a stone that has good fortune attached to it.

You were able to sell me an entire love story within the confines of an anthology. Celeste and Marcus were full bodied characters with believable motivations (although Celeste’s was a little unclear). Marcus was not the rapacious rogue that the previous two sons were made out to be and thus his transformation was completely believable as was the HEA. Added to the love story was a neat little adventure plot. In all, it was well done. B.

In the end, I was glad I read the anthology just to discover a new to me author. I guess that is why publishers keep putting out anthologies.

Best regards,

Jane