I had heard about your book, The Husband She Couldn’t Forget, back in September and made a mental note to myself to purchase it, partly because I want to encourage more diversity in the genre, and buying a Silhouette Special Edition that features African American protagonists is a good way to do that, and partly because I have a soft spot for amnesia stories.

Unfortunately, like many mental notes I make to myself, this one went astray, and it wasn’t until your book was mentioned again during our recent discussion of cultural appropriation in romance that I bought the book and began to read it.

In the book’s prologue, we are introduced to Melanie Bishop. Melanie is holding a pregnancy test stick bearing negative results when her doorbell rings. She opens the door to be served with divorce papers. Melanie’s husband, Deion, has left her.

Melanie and Deion have been trying for years to have children, without much luck. Deion has done very well in an investment firm, and he and Melanie have all the trappings of success, but the emptiness of their home has made Melanie miserable. Melanie has sacrificed a lot for the marriage, having even cut off her siblings, so she is devastated by Deion’s decision to end their relationship. She tries desperately to get a hold of him so as to plead with him to give her another chance, but when she can’t locate him, she finally signs the divorce papers and leaves their big house in the care of their housekeeper.

When we next meet up with Melanie, some time has passed. She has gone back to using her maiden name, Wysh, and is working as a therapist at the Ryder Rehabilitation and Spinal Center where she is assigned a patient named Rolland Jones.

Rolland suffers from TBI (traumatic brain injury) as a result of a car accident. After twenty days in comatose state, Rolland awakened with a powerful determination to get better. He underwent surgeries and was given a beautiful face, and he worked very hard at his therapy. His condition when Melanie meets him, three months after the accident, is described this way:

His physical recovery had been nothing short of miraculous, except for the resulting symptoms from TBI. He knew how to write alphabetical letters and words, but he couldn’t write numbers anymore. He reversed things, his shoes occasionally, words, which hand to shake with. He had image memories of his past, but not of the past six years. Sometimes things had to be defined for him. He didn’t know his name, his age, but he thought he’d been married. He confused right and left and didn’t have a mental edit button. Whatever he thought came right out of his mouth. He still suffered with balance problems and he sometimes got lost.

It’s not stated exactly what kind of therapist Melanie is, but from what I gathered it seems she is neither a physical therapist nor a psychotherapist. Rather, her job is to prepare Rolland for life in the real world. She is to teach him things like how to use a compass, how to write numbers, and how to cook.

When they meet for the first time, Rolland is quickly smitten. Melanie is the first woman he remembers being attracted to, and he knows that he wants her to be more than his therapist almost from the very beginning. But Melanie, who doesn’t want to lose her job, refuses his advances because he is her patient and because she is afraid to risk her heart a second time.

Gradually it becomes harder and harder for Melanie to resist Rolland’s sweetness and sincerity, and it gets even more difficult when a fire makes the Ryder Center uninhabitable. Most of the patients are transferred to other facilities, but because Rolland is so close to recovering, the Center’s director decides that Rolland and Melanie can stay in his empty summer home while they finish the last three weeks of Rolland’s therapy.

Will Melanie be able to withstand Rolland’s honest and heartfelt declarations of his feelings? What will happen to her if she can’t? And what about Rolland? How will he feel when he discovers his true identity?

Rolland was a wonderful character — caring, trusting, devoted to Melanie, and completely guileless. I loved the way his unedited frankness sometimes made him say embarrassing things, but also revealed how much he cared. Here’s an example, from a scene in which Rolland and Melanie are discussing Melanie’s ex-husband:

“What I should have said is that he didn’t really know you. There’s fire in you. I felt it in your hands the first time you touched me. My arm tingled. I felt it again when we kissed. So if he divorced you, that’s his loss.”

She still looked doubtful and he knew what the other therapists had told him to be true. Only time would make him speak faster and not exhaust him. And only time would make Melanie understand her husband hadn’t been worthy of her love.

I loved Rolland, but I was less keen on Melanie. In most ways she was a nice person, but I feel that the instant she recognized her feelings for Rolland or his for her, she should have asked for Rolland to be assigned to a different therapist. It helped that Melanie at least worried about the ethics of the situation and understood that she was doing something unethical, but I was really uncomfortable when Melanie and Rolland finally had sex, because of the patient/therapist relationship.

In many ways I feel that this is a problem with the book’s premise, but it comes off in a way that makes me less than happy with Melanie’s character, and not entirely sure about Melanie’s happy ending with Rolland. There was also a point in which a neighbor helps Rolland woo Melanie, knowing that the two were patient and therapist, and I wondered what this neighbor was thinking.

Late in the books, there is a discussion of an insider trading investigation and a resulting court case. I’m neither a lawyer nor an SEC investigator so I don’t know if the legal details are accurate, but I was somewhat doubtful when I read the scene.

Some of the dialogue was a bit stilted, but a lot of it was affecting. I really felt for Rolland and sympathized with Melanie’s dilemma, even though I think she should have handled things differently, and I would have liked to see even more fallout from her actions. Had Rolland been any less wonderful, I think I would have been very annoyed with this book, but I liked him enough that I was able to enjoy it despite my problems with Melanie’s ethics.

In the end, my feelings about The Husband She Couldn’t Forget are mixed. C+ for this one.

Sincerely,

Janine

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

Related posts:

1. REVIEW: Night Rising by Chris Green
2. REVIEW: The Spanish Husband by Michelle Reid
3. REVIEW: Mistress to the Merciless Millionaire by Abby Green

This is the first Love Inspired Suspense book I’ve tried. Frankly, I wasn’t certain how a Christian themed book crossed with deadly suspense was going to work. What I found is that it worked surprisingly well and is an area I’ll check monthly when the new Harlequin books are released.

The book is filled with large and small details and descriptions that give a great feel for the setting, namely a small town overtaken by a large yearly festival and a wedding. I knew the Southeast is known for pork barbecue and the Midwest for beef barbecue but honestly I had no idea Kentucky is known for mutton barbecue. I loved the telling touches like the thin towels at the aging hotel, the mud on the rear wheel well of Derrick’s truck and the fact that just about everybody has some trash on the floorboards of their vehicles.

What was Jazzy thinking to get herself roped into judging a kiddy beauty pageant? She must not have ever watched “Little Miss Sunshine.” I have to agree that makeup and high heels on young girls is ridiculous. Brava to Heidi for finally voicing her desires and sticking to her guns. Liz and I are of one mind since I also like children singly and preferably sleeping! Some of these girls need to do a better job with their answers during the question part of the competition.

"And another reason I want to be a doctor is because I think it would be good to go to places where the people are poor, like France. I’d like to go to France." The beribboned girl on the stage dimpled first at the three judges and then at the audience. Her smile wilted, and she stammered, "Uh, I mean like Africa. Or, or, uh, Kansas City."

Fighting hard to school her smile, Jazzy glanced into the audience in time to see a stern-faced woman in the second row give a slight nod of approval. The girl’s dimples returned, and she executed a Shirley Temple curtsy before parading back down the runway to the rear of the stage.

I think the people of France and Kansas City would be surprised to learn that they’re poor and in need of dire assistance!

I laughed out loud at the description of Kentucky burgoo.

Liz wrinkled her nose as she, too, pushed into the room. "What is burgoo?"

Jazzy grinned at her. "Your Oregon roots are showing. Every good Kentuckian knows what burgoo is."

"It’s sort of a stew," Caitlin explained. "It’s made with several different kinds of meat and vegetables and spices. People in Kentucky, especially in mountains and small towns like Waynesboro, are as proud of their secret burgoo recipes as Texans are of their chili recipes."

"I like chili." Liz tossed her suitcase on a bed. "What kind of meat’s in burgoo?"

Jazzy followed them inside, past the closed bathroom door. "Well, here’s what an old guy from eastern Kentucky told me when I asked that question." She affected a hillbilly drawl. "Hit’s got whatever roadkill we pick up ’at day. Coon. Squirrel. Possum burgoo makes good eatin’, long as it ain’t bin layin’ there more’n a day or two."

Liz’s mouth twisted. "That is disgusting."

Jazzy laughed and bumped Liz with her violin case. "I’m kidding, girl. Don’t be so gullible. It’s made from lamb, chicken and pork."

The book is a vindication for all the dog lovers out there. Old Sue proves her worth and maybe, one day, Jazzy won’t flinch when Sue licks her hand. I adore the classical pieces that the Jazzy’s trio played for the wedding, especially from Handel’s “Water Music Suite.” This is one of the first classical pieces I fell in love with. Derrick’s Aunt Myrtle has that right even if her relatives run in fear of her cane.

When it comes to the murder investigation, poor Sheriff Maguire gets a bad rep but he’s a competent man doing the best he can under difficult circumstances. He shows his professionalism by keeping his cool when the worst is happening and working the problem instead of making it worse. And he’d also rather keep his investigation local rather than calling in the State boys.

Jazzy and her friends aren’t cops or investigators so the story worked for me in that they don’t try to turn into pros and solve the case. Derrick would just as soon leave everything to the police and simply enjoy the festival, Jazzy’s company and the fact that he isn’t trapped in his mother’s house smelling nail polish and hair spray as his sister and her bridesmaids get ready for the ceremony. As many of their guesses are wrong as right and in the end, it’s common sense that saves the day. You tell us Jazzy is smart and we see that as she uses the technology at hand and her intelligence to contact help and point them in the right direction. We also know that she isn’t the type to collapse under stress which helps her in the end.

Jazzy is independent and doesn’t listen as much as she should to the voices of authority but at least she’s consistent in this and it is part of the character background you’ve given her instead of just being stubborn because the plot demands she do certain things. Derrick is protective but it’s because it’s been bred into him by his father and honed by taking care of his widowed mother and younger sister. He’s a great alpha hero in that he takes care of those weaker than himself, watches out for others, honors his commitments and has a subtle sense of humor such as when he tells Jazzy that his sister wants a memorable wedding but not because the accompanists hurl due to stage fright. She does do things that get her in trouble but she feels she has a legitimate reason, is in no danger because she is surrounded by tons of people or is close enough to call for help if needed. She doesn’t just wander out into a dark area, alone, knowing a murderer is waiting for her because she wants a breath of fresh air.

The narrative isn’t too “in your face” about characters’ Christian beliefs and since no one needed to be “saved,” I didn’t feel that I was being preached at. Just that characters were expressing their beliefs and living their lives in a quietly Christian way. This is not so much a whodunnit as an “it was done” like the film “Gosford Park.” I had no idea who the killer was and most of the clues were red herrings. In fact, I can’t recall anything that specifically pointed my attention in the direction of the killer but I didn’t care as I was enjoying the rest of the story. There’s no POV from the killer. In fact, I don’t think there are PsOV from anyone but Jazzy and Derrick.

As I said, I was pleasantly surprised by this book. I had my doubts but ended up enjoying it a lot. Sharply drawn characters and setting lead to a story rich in detail and sense of place. It’s not preachy so I think that a wide variety of readers would like it. People who want more emphasis on solving the mystery might best look elsewhere but for me the book gets a strong B grade.

~Jayne

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

Related posts:

1. REVIEW: Just a Taste by Deirdre Martin
2. REVIEW: Sea Witch by Virginia Kantra
3. REVIEW: Gather Ye Rosebuds by Joan Smith

I predict quite a few people will be interested in this book. It’s a straight contemporary with none of the stock characters or situations that appear to predominate in that genre. What? No SEALs, no secret agents, no model glamorous heroines? Amazingly enough, not a single one of those is to be found here. Recover from your shock readers, here’s an author who managed just that.

I used to work with some women from West Virginia. They’re some of the kindest women and hardest workers I’ve ever had the privilege to be around. One’s husband worked the mines for years til he got out due to health problems. They moved from there years ago but still miss the place and the people. So I wasn’t surprised to read about a woman who wants more for her twin sons than a life down in the mines. The other woman met a boy in high school and thought it was love. They married when she was 3 months pregnant and their marriage lasted about two years, leaving her with a son to raise. So this aspect of Annie’s life, about a woman who followed her mother’s footsteps and got pregnant young then dropped out of high school, is something else I’ve seen.

Annie McKee seems so real and down to earth. She’s a decent woman who made some major mistakes in her life but with a mother like hers, it’s not hard to imagine. Some readers might not understand her stubbornness and refusal to touch the money she got from the mines in compensation for her husband’s death but to her, it’s a way out for her boys. A chance for a better future for them and she’s not going to touch one penny of that money now that she’s used it to set up college funds for them. Maybe they won’t want to leave the Hollow. Maybe they’ll want to come back like their Uncle Patrick did after he got his college degree but whatever their choices are, Annie will know they had a choice. Her reluctance to try for a future with Pat was frustrating at times but I can understand how she still has a ways to go to get past her life long view of herself as poor trailer trash.

Pat Kirkpatrick knows he has to step carefully around Annie. He’s lived among stubborn women his whole life and knows the women of the Hollow would rather die than accept charity. He’s also unsure about how Annie’s going to feel if he reveals his long-standing love for her. Since he and her husband were best friends, he feels almost as if he’s betraying Sean. But he’s always known Annie’s the woman for him and he loves her sons as if they were his own. I like that he can understand her burning need to make it on her own. The way they work out their future at the end of the book – with no ultimatums, sudden changes of heart or forced happiness – was a delight to read.

Coming in on a series after it’s started is sometimes problematic. There are lots of characters from past books hanging around who must be explained to new readers. I could tell that this was the case in this book but you managed to give enough backstory about the people and events from those previous stories without overwhelming this one. Well done. Those characters also enriched the flavor of this one.

I think you did a marvelous job of describing the scenery and creating the background for these people. Annie drives a Gremlin – how much more awful a car could you have chosen to give her? Pat gets flustered when Annie starts treating him like a confidant. Guns and hunting he can handle but a woman’s tears send him into a panic. I’ve also known people like Annie’s mother who enjoy their own misery as well as take pleasure in that of others. Thank you for having Annie take control of her sex life and be determined to be the one who steers it where she wants it to go. I think the dialogue sounded realistic though the group meetings of the clan did tend to end up resembling a reunion of the original Clampetts.

To paraphrase what Tommy Lee Jones’ character says in the movie Coal Miner’s Daughter, “There’s nothing for me here except being an old man before I’m forty.” Life in this area of the country is hard and always has been. And yet the land is so beautiful and the people closely bound to each other, it’s easy to see how some long to leave and others couldn’t imagine living anywhere else. You’ve captured both extremes and given us a gentle love story that I hope will be widely read. B-

~Jayne

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

Related posts:

1. REVIEW: Delicious by Sherry Thomas
2. REVIEW: The Diplomat’s Wife by Pam Jenoff
3. REVIEW: Passion and Pleasure in London by Melody Thomas

As promised, here’s my letter for book number two of your Men of Pride County series and it carries on wonderfully from the first one with just enough of the leads from book number one and other secondary characters but without them clogging up the scenery unnecessarily. I’m going to include some spoilers/warnings at the end because there are a few things about this book that I know would be hot buttons for some readers.

This is a series that I think is very important to Read In Order! It takes up where book one left off with Hamilton Dodge, The Yankee Outsider still trying to make a place for himself in Pride County, Kentucky, a place that went with the Southern cause in the recently ended Civil War. Dodge has come down from Michigan to be the town banker and is having a tough time getting the Rebel minded citizens to accept him and the fact that he isn’t out to call in all their loans/mortgages. It’s tough going but Dodge is determined. And this despite the fact that he was injured helping to defend his friend, Reeve, in book one. He’s got a bullet lodged near his spine which makes it hard for him to walk and which makes him fight that much harder to defend his pride as a man and that much more determined to stick it out in this place that hates him.

And one person who doesn’t care much for him is Starla Fairfax, belle of Pride County and breaker of men’s hearts. Starla comes back after a four year absence to meet her best friend’s husband’s Yankee friend. Dodge is immediately intrigued by Starla but knows he’s got his work cut out for him if he hopes to ever have a chance with her. He unexpectedly gets her on a silver platter when he discovers her pregnancy and offers marriage to salvage her reputation. It’s only a business agreement to begin with but Dodge hopes for more and Starla slowly begins to see that this honest, true man might be the one to show her that she is worthy of love and that her past can be accepted. And boy, does she have a past.

Here comes a warning: Starla’s father is a drunken sot who abused both his daughter and his son terribly. Read into that what you will and you’ll probably be right.

I enjoyed this one but it’s not quite A level. I think I liked Dodge slightly better in book one. The brash humor he displayed so charmingly in that one is somehow missing from this book except for flashes here and there. But I did like him overall. He’s a salt of the earth type guy and if his slight faltering towards the end, after Starla’s dark secrets are revealed, makes him more human, I think that is to your credit for not making him a plaster saint. But I did have to wonder, how many times can a hero get the crap beat out of him in one book?

Starla acts like a typical Southern Belle but you know she’s got depths. I thought that her slow realization about her feelings for Dodge was realistic and her struggles against and about her past were on the mark. Others might have more to say about this but I thought you did a good job in her portrayal.

The secondary characters show up when and where they’re needed and I was glad to see several of the ones from book one plus a new one in Noble Banning who gets his own book soon. Also, there are several continuing threads from “The Outcast” that carry through and some from this book that reach into the next one. I’d give this one a B+ because of the snowballing of events that cram too much into the ending too quickly but it’s a great addition to the series.

And I have to agree with those who gnash their teeth that no book was ever published about Starla’s tortured brother Tyler. What a waste. Shoot those Avon publishers! Bastards!

~Jayne

Related posts:

1. REVIEW: The Outcast (Men of Pride County Book I) by Rosalyn West
2. REVIEW: Pride and Petticoats by Shana Galen
3. Victoria Beckham, Who Has Never Read a Book, to Start a Book Club

I actually read this series a few years ago but with the Kentucky Derby coming up, I felt it was the perfect time to pull it out for a refresher. I’ve read tons of books set during the Civil War but precious few set during Reconstruction. This is about how the South began to rebuild after the war. It wasn’t easy or pretty. Lots of pride went into the war and just as much came out. Now people have to regroup and learn to move forward. Mix “Gone with the Wind,” “The Long Hot Summer” (the Woodward/Newman version, please) along with a little “Mississippi Burning” and you have “The Outcast.” Or parts of it.

The hero, Reeve Garrett, has always been on the outside looking in. He’s the bastard son of one of the county’s most powerful men and went against them all by enlisting in the Federal Army when the rest of the county pulled on Confederate Gray. Now he’s come back like a slap in the face and the county isn’t going to make it easy for him.

Especially Patrice Sinclair who’s loved him since she was a child but who agreed to marry his half brother after Reeve rode away. The one the whole county feels Reeve betrayed by allowing him to be shot as a Confederate spy by his Union troop. Patrice’s feelings about Reeve are tied in knots. If he had loved her, he wouldn’t have fought against the South. He would have tried to fight for her love and hand in marriage instead of just leaving. He would have had the tact and good sense to just keep riding after the War was over. But he didn’t and she has to start to face her life after the War and try to figure out how much she’ll sacrifice for love.

There are lots of books about love during the War or about those who fled west but this one is about trying to stay home and drag something out of the ash heap that was left after it ended. Life would never be the same and the values and beliefs that were expected before now had to be tempered by the stark reality of what was. I think you showed that very well. I like Patrice and Reeve and the fact that each has moments of weakness, pettiness, shame and pride just made them more real to me. Each grows even if sometimes they act more like guests on the Oprah or Phil Donahue shows. It’s amazing the insight they can reach before sinking into some misunderstandings.

I liked the secondary characters and had to laugh at the moment when Patrice realized that her mother wasn’t the vapid Southern lady she’d always thought her to be. There is a Yankee banker friend of Reeve’s who gets his own story and as does Patrice’s tormented, older brother Deacon. There were some inconsistencies with dialogue, a fairly predictable if exciting ending and small nitpicks that I won’t go into that lowered the grade a bit to a B but it’s a strong start for this series.

~Jayne

Related posts:

1. REVIEW: Pride and Petticoats by Shana Galen
2. Victoria Beckham, Who Has Never Read a Book, to Start a Book Club
3. REVIEW: E-Book Weekly: Review of Freya’s Bower Site and Bookstore