I read this book for one reason only. Lydia H, your publicist at Putnam, said I would love it. Lydia H, though, is not a romance reader (but we do share a love for the PJ Tracy series, Monkeewrench) and I’m always a bit leery of non romance reader recommendations. Plus, this book was a time travel and anyone who knows me knows I am not a fan of time travel books. But Lydia was so excited about this book and she never recommends anything to me that I had to give it a try. I promised myself I would only have to read the first chapter but by the end of the first chapter, I knew that this book was for me.

I’m going to write a somewhat spoiler-y book review because I feel that is the only way I can convince my die hard romance reader followers that this book is going to hit their sweet spots. For those readers who don’t want spoilers and are going to give this book a try, let me give you a two sentence summary (or you can read Ms. Williams’ debut questionnaire here).

This is kind of a “what if Time Travelers Wife wasn’t so tragic and unhappy” sort of book. Julian, a billionaire hedge fund manager, and Kate, a low level analyst at an investment bank, share a past and depending on the time period (WWI or modern day) only one of them is aware of it.

Slight spoilers ahoy:

Make no mistake. Despite the vague title and the strange and meaningless cover, this is a romance book through and through. Julian is helplessly and devotedly in love with Kate. Kate is helplessly and devotedly in love with Julian but she is afraid. She’s afraid of being seduced by Julian’s money; she is afraid of losing herself in him; but mostly she is afraid that their time together is imperiled by Julian’s secretiveness.

The story begins with a young American woman, standing in the rain outside the Amiens cathedral where the Honorable Julian Laurence Spencer Ashford is saying his prayers. Captain Ashford is a religious man and he is to be sent on another tour in a little over forty eight hours. It is all the time that Kate has to convince Ashford of a wild and improbable truth and to hopefully save his life. When the young woman faints, we fast forward to New York City, December 2007. Most of the book will take place in modern day New York and Connecticut.

In chapter one, we meet Kate Wilson, a low level investment analyst working at an investment bank. She is charged with preparing projections for an investment that the bank wants to sell to a hedge fund owned by billionaire Julian Laurence. (I may be getting some of these terms wrong) Unfortunately, despite all her hard work, Kate is dismissed before the meeting starts by her boss but not before Julian sees her and subsequently seeks her out.

I picked up my silent BlackBerry from the counter and made my way back through the maze of identical heather-gray cubicles to my own, where I stopped short.

A tall lean man stood there in perfect stillness, resting one hand on the back of my chair. His curling hair gleamed dark gold in the remorseless office lighting; his back, broad and immaculate, bent forward a degree or two toward my desktop.

“I’m sorry,” I snapped. “Can I help you with something?”

He straightened and turned to me. “Kate,” he whispered.

I flinched in shock.

Kate and Julian form a tentative bond, exchanging cute texts over the holidays until Julian sends her an abrupt message which signals the end of a flirtation. Kate is reeling, unsure of what happened and what it means other than she is somewhat broken hearted even though their relationship, if she could call it that, consisted of one evening of intense discussion and a flurry of holiday texts. Julian re-enters her life a short time later, apparently because even though he thinks separation is for their own good, he simply cannot stay away.

There are two things that bothered me in this book. First, Julian lies to Kate from time to time to “protect” her. I understood his justification at the end but it made me wonder how often he would be willing to intentionally mislead her. Second, Kate begins the book as a business analyst. Part of her objection to Julian’s great wealth and his willingness and desire to buy the world for her is that if she accepts that, she becomes simply an appendage of Julian’s empire but when she loses her job, she does little to seek out a new one even though she was saving for B school. Granted, much of the story does not involve her working, but she is supposed to have some kind of ambition but it’s not evident from the text. She spends much of her time waiting for Julian.

But those problems were overcome by a few things. The book is very romantic. Julian is of the big gesture school.

“Yes,” I said. “I just can’t quite believe this is happening.” “This?”

“You. Me. This. I’ve never felt this way. As though I know you perfectly, but not at all. And then you say ridiculous things like that, when we haven’t even . . .”

“Haven’t what?”

“You know.” I felt the blush climb relentlessly in my cheeks. “Even kissed.”

A chuckle. “Well, and whose bloody fault is that? Coffee breath, for God’s sake. Little minx. Anyway, I did kiss you last night. And this morning.”

“That’s not what I mean.”

He fell silent for a few seconds, and then the car swerved across three lines of traffic into the exit lane and slammed to a halt. “What are you doing?” I yelled, gripping my seat. SUVs and delivery trucks zoomed past us, horns howling in outrage.

“Kissing you,” he replied, and he took my face in his large long-fingered hands and bent his lips into mine.

And, (and this is a big spoiler)

[[Visit blog to check out this spoiler]]

While there are separations, they largely take place off page so most of the book is spent with Kate and Julian together. Julian is quintessentially British and the patterns of speech evidenced by Kate and Julian were so different and distinct that there was no need for dialogue tags. I was impressed by how “in character” every one stayed during the duration of the book.

I struggled with the time travel aspect, even breaking down to write you for clarification. That said, I kind of had an epiphany the other day explaining the book to Robin so I believe I finally get it. I’m thinking I might like time travel after all because what is more romantic than a love that transcends time.  Oh, and of course, ends happily.

Best regards,

Jane

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The book has a very original opening. Rachel Frye is trying to convince her stick in the mud boyfriend not to break up with her. The breakup is bringing out her least favorite trait, shrillness, and is being done in front of her biggest rival, Garret Calder. Garrett is a fellow creative director at one of NY’s largest independent ad agency.

Rachel is not in love with her boyfriend but she thinks, given time and enough personal investment, this relationship could work out. Garret’s vocal observations about Rachel and her desperation drive the man away leaving Rachel frustrated and alone.

I admit that I disliked Garret from that point. No one likes a know-it-all and even worse, no one likes a guy who professes to know-it-all in public which results in a personal humiliation. The scene is set for Rachel and Garret to be professional and personal rivals when they are both offered the opportunity to fill the one open partner position.

These battle of the sexes books always walk a fine line. Often the females are portrayed at being less career driven by the end of the story while the male ends up with the partnership.  There is not enough balance, as if the heroine outshone the hero in the workplace, the hero would be emasculated and thus not worthy of the hero position. Unfortunately that pattern is followed in this story.  Rachel is uptight and her ideas are stale. Garret is freewheeling and is always coming up with great pitches, not to mention that he’s the past winner of the top industry awards.

Initially, the two play a game of one-upmanship with each party using some questionable methods to portray the other in a negative light.  I think these were meant to be funny but came off as uncomfortable maybe because neither were fully committed.  In one scene, Rachel suggests that Garret’s comment about her legs made her feel uncomfortable and exemplified Garret’s problem with women.  Instead of leaving that to foment in her superior’s mind, she offers to provide him counseling on the subject.  I didn’t really get that.  Nonetheless, at least she was attempting to play the same game Garret was.

An effort to show the softer side of both characters was done through the use of their personal lives. Rachel was straight laced and uptight because her parents were not. Garret was more freewheeling because he had grown up an Admiral’s son. They both have to deal with members of their family not acting in the way that they want them to. Garret’s stepmother leaves his father and takes refuge in Garret’s New York apartment. Rachel’s sister is contemplating moving once again to be with Rachel’s parents, something that Rachel is strongly against.

This was the best parts of both the stories. The characters were vulnerable. They weren’t trying to score points off each other. It showed them in a humane light instead of individuals trying to constantly score points off one another.  I think what disappointed me the most, however, was that despite the early efforts to show Rachel as a competitor, an equal in the boardroom as well as the bedroom, the standard archetypes remained. Rachel was better suited in a different direction, realizing that  not everyone defined success  in the same manner whereas Garret’s character arc was about him settling down in one spot and committing to something, whether it is a job or a person.  Competently written and even amusing in some places, ultimately the hewing to a more traditional theme disappointed.  C

Best regards,

Jane

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In a way I wish I had read Trouble at the Wedding before the first two books in the Abandoned at the Altar series. The Edwardian setting, pairing of the bourgeois heroine from the American South and the titled but impoverished English duke, and mixed cocktail of the marriage for money and the reformed rake plots add up to an ambitious vision. But I’m not sure whether my expectations were set higher after the first two books, or if what struck me as fresh earlier now seems a bit worn, but whatever the reason, I found this third installment to be a bit of a kitchen sink of tropes and clichés, more interesting and successful in the concept than the execution.

Annabel Wheaton may have catapulted from near poverty to great wealth, and from Gooseneck Bend, Mississippi to New York City, following the death of her father, but she still feels like the “poor white trash” she’s been called most of her life. A smart, independent, business-minded young woman who has already been burned by what she thought was true love, Annabel is determined to marry into the British aristocracy, trading her money for a respected title and a sedate and secure life overseeing her husband’s English estate and raising their children. The man she has chosen, Bernard Alistair, Earl of Rumsford, is not particularly exciting, but then that’s the point. Annabel has had her fill of exciting men, and she frankly doesn’t trust them. Instead, she’s looking forward to a life of security, which she is certain will more than compensate for a lack of passionate romantic love.

Not everyone is on board with Annabel and Bernard’s upcoming wedding, however, which is set for six short days away on the ocean liner Atlantic, a compromise solution to the problem of whether to hold the ceremony in New York or London. One of the dissenters is one of Annabel’s trustees, her uncle Arthur, who believes that Annabel deserves a better match and is determined to get Annabel to see how ill-advised her choice of husband is. Which brings Christian Du Quesne, the handsome, rakish, and nearly broke Duke of Scarborough into the mix, hired by Arthur to talk Annabel out of the wedding in exchange for a half a million American dollars, a sum that will substantially rehabilitate the family estate, which fell into deep debt under the control of his older brother Andrew, whose death has brought the ignominious and unenthusiastic second son into the title.

Christian does not have to stretch the truth in articulating his disdainful view of life in England, especially for the dissolute aristocracy, and once he makes the acquaintance of the lushly beautiful Annabel, his attraction to her, combined with his dislike of Rumsford, generates an urgent personal interest for Christian in convincing Annabel that she doesn’t want what she thinks she wants. Annabel, who is well aware of her tendency to fall for the bad boy, doesn’t want to believe the things Christian is telling her about the unsuitability of life as an English countess, and especially as the Countess of Rumsford, but because Christian promises her he will tell her all the unwritten rules of the life she is choosing, she cannot stay away from him long enough to remain immune to either his charms or his admonitions.

As is the case in many Romances featuring two outsiders, Christian and Annabel have a rapport that is evident to both of them, despite their mutual insistence that they would never suit as a couple. Still, that rapport creates a kind of fast friendship, which tolerates a great deal of mutual honesty and fosters a powerful mutual attraction. Christian tells Annabel of his own past, married to a young heiress who killed herself after miscarrying their baby, while Christian was traveling and partying with friends. Annabel tells Christian of her own humiliation at the hands of the town rich boy, who took Annabel’s virginity and then unceremoniously dumped her.  Which makes Annabel even more determined to go through with the wedding and take the life she wants, and even as Christian admits defeat and drinks himself into a stupor, he inexplicably finds himself standing up at the wedding and calling it a “farce and a lie,” humiliating Annabel a second, devastating time and necessitating, in Christian’s mind, a proposal to save Annabel’s reputation.

But Annabel isn’t going to meekly accept Christian’s loveless sacrifice, and instead she engineers a strategy by which Christian will retroactively become one of Annabel’s trustees, thus making his wedding protest one of avuncular protection rather than scandalous insinuation. And in the meantime, Christian’s sister Sylvia volunteers to bring Annabel more fully into London society, where she can make an appropriate match and ultimately resuscitate her original ambition.

In many Romances, all of this set-up would have occurred in the first quarter or third of the novel, with the remainder of the story dedicated to unraveling Annabel and Christian’s true feelings for each other. Actually, many novels would likely turn the plot into one of marriage of convenience between the protagonists. That this particular plot occurs at the halfway point of the novel is indicative of its ambition, as does Annabel’s incredibly independent focus and resolve:

“First of all, let me say I owe you my most sincere apologies. My conduct was reprehensible”

“Which part?” she asked in a tart voice. “The part where you agreed to take money for talking me out of marrying Bernard? Or –“

“You know about that?”

“Uncle Arthur told me. Needless to say, he’s not feeling inclined to pay you that money now, so is that what you’re apologizing for? Hoping he’ll give it to you anyway? Or maybe it’s breaking up my wedding that you’re sorry about? Or maybe it’s because you called it a farce and a lie, and hurt my reputation? Or maybe it was the fact that you hauled off and kissed me last night? Which of those reprehensible things is the one you’re apologizing for?”

. . .

“We should become engaged.”

. . .

“Thank you for your gallant effort to save the day,” and the sweet drawling sarcasm in her voice told him his hope of an easy solution was rather out the window. “I appreciate it so very much, Your Grace. But I think I’ll pass.”

“You’re saying no?” He supposed he shouldn’t be surprised. No doubt she felt a bit let down by the idea, for he knew he hadn’t made any effort to put a romantic gloss on it. Nonetheless, she couldn’t really refuse. “But we have to become engaged. It’s the only way to avert a scandal.”

“It’s not the only way. It’s the simplest way, and the easiest way for you because it doesn’t affect your life at all.”

I really liked this Annabel. I was even willing to overlook the sitcom sorghum character of her Southern accent and idioms, as well as the cliché-ridden prose and conversation. I liked the fact that the book took a somewhat unexpected turn at this point and that Annabel seemed to be the engineer of her own rescue.

Then it all fell apart for me. Annabel and Christian find themselves in that push-pull of attraction and resistance, with Annabel literally begging Christian to stay away and then feeling disappointed when he complies. Christian is torn between doing “the right thing” and pursuing his own desires, even as he knows he doesn’t want another marriage to a woman who supposedly deserves better than a rake like him. Rinse and repeat.

I have recently been thinking about certain Romance character pairings where you have an almost unresolveable conflict. For example, a heroine who deserves to be loved for who she is and a hero who is destined to let any woman who loves him down. As often as we see these kinds of conflicts, I’m not sure they’re usually resolved by means that don’t seem almost supernatural, often in the form of a crisis that clues the hero in to how much he loves the heroine and wants to be the man she deserves. I have, of late, been pining for more realistic resolutions to these complex conflicts, and one of the things that frustrated me about Trouble at the Wedding was the way in which the dramatic tension in the second half of the novel is generated in part by Annabel’s increasing desolation over the depth of her feelings for Christian and his inability to love her in return.

Not only does this dynamic weaken Annabel’s character and undermine her independent resolve, it accomplishes this by manipulating the reader into desperately hoping that Christian will come to his senses and accept his own feelings are more than simple lust. It became a problematic dynamic for me in this novel because I kept feeling like I was put in a position where I had to depend on Christian for Annabel’s happy ending, which contravened so much of what appealed to me about her character. While that is typical Romance form, it was constructed at the expensive of a character who, for me, at least, was appealing to Christian for that precise independence that the romantic trajectory of the novel undermined.

Part of the issue may have been the relatively short time and page frame in which the second half of the novel proceeds. But I also think there was a difficult pairing of plot and character ambition and genre mimesis that went too far out of balance in the second half of the book. I also felt that there was more infodump in this novel than in the previous two, with passages that sounded almost like they were powered by cinematic adaptations of Edith Wharton novels or Wikipedia:

The door banged again and the young woman below looked back over her shoulder. “There you are at last!” she exclaimed as a girl about ten years old came into view, her age evidenced not only by her more diminutive stature, but also by the shorter length of her skirt, the sailor motif of her dress, and the fact that her dark hair was not put up.

As much as I appreciated the details provided, their integration didn’t feel as easy as in previous novels set during this same time, and that added to the kitchen sink feel of the novel for me. Still, had Annabel’s happiness not depended so very much on Christian’s change, I think I would have overlooked so much else in the novel. But that substantial disappointment made other elements seem more pronounced, undermining my appreciation and enjoyment of the more unexpected and ambitious elements of the novel. C

~ Janet

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I am always on the lookout for India-set and India-related historical and contemporary romances, so when I saw your new contemporary was forthcoming from Entangled Publishing, I was intrigued. You’ve written a number of well-received category romances at Harlequin, so although Entangled is a new press, you are a proven author. But while there were aspects of the book I really enjoyed, in the end this was a frustrating read for me.

The story revolves around two Indian-American women, Shari and Amrita, who live in New York and are close friends. Amrita’s parents have arranged a marriage for her with an Indian man who lives in Mumbai, and since she wants no part of it, Amrita seeks Shari’s help in sabotaging their plans. Shari is unemployed after ending a yearlong affair with her married boss at the law firm where she worked. Amrita talks Shari into impersonating her in Mumbai, hoping that Shari’s behavior will convince the groom-to-be and his family that Amrita is unsuitable and therefore back out of the agreement. Shari is reluctant, but she allows herself to be talked into the scheme and flies to Mumbai, where Amrita’s Aunt Anjali, who is in on the deception, takes her under her wing. Shari’s impersonation is just the beginning of a series of events involving Amrita, her putative fiancé Rakesh Rama, and Rakesh’s handsome and sexy British business partner, Drew Lansford. The setting moves from New York to Mumbai (including scenes at a Bollywood film studio) and back to New York again, and the plot cycles from Amrita and Shari to Shari in Mumbai, back to Shari, Amrita and various other characters in New York, with short stops elsewhere.

The novel straddles the line between chick-lit and contemporary romance. Amrita and Shari’s close friendship is front and center, and many of their scenes involve drinking pitchers of mojitos and talking about their love lives. While Shari’s romance with Drew is the main relationship, Amrita has a pleasant if predictable secondary romantic storyline. The fact that Shari has just ended a year-long affair with a married man who lavished gifts and money on her contributes to the Sex and the City vibe, which some readers may enjoy but I find a bit played out. Shari knows she made a big mistake, but it was never clear to me why she fell for the snake in the first place. Drew is requisite hero material, though, and that relationship is sweeter and more characteristic of a standard romance novel. The major external impediments to the HEA are resolved relatively straightforwardly, and the final hurdle has more to do with Shari’s personal growth, which contributes to the chick lit feel of the book.

The setting is quite well depicted, and there is plenty of local flavor to make New York and Mumbai come alive. The heat, color, and dynamism of Mumbai are nicely portrayed. There are some false notes that will probably only resonate for readers who are extremely familiar with Mumbai, with a couple of exceptions. For example, two of the places Aunt Anjali points out to Shari are the Taj Mahal Hotel and Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (formerly Victoria Terminus). These are major landmarks, but they are also two of the main sites of the 2008 Mumbai bombings. It was strange to read a book set in 2010/11 that talked about them as if nothing had happened, especially since the repairs to the Taj were only recently completed. I can’t imagine a Mumbaikar (not Mumbaians as the book has them) introducing someone to them without the subject coming up. I understand why there are no references in the book (talk about ruining the mood), but then maybe other tourist sites would have been better choices.

Two other issues I had, though, are more general annoyances. First, everyone, and I mean everyone, in this book gets a nickname. At first it fits the breezy style, but then it becomes wearying and finally it got to the fingernails-on-a-blackboard level of irritation. When Shari meets Rakesh for the first time at his family’s home, she is introduced to his mother and sisters:

“Hi, I’m Pooja.” The eldest, a miniature rotund Anu, had a shy smile and my predilection for nicknames instantly dubbed her Pooh: round, soft-spoken, cuddly.

“Divya.” The middle one flicked a dismissive glance over me and gave an imperceptible shrug, more intent on patting her sleek hair and studying her nails. Definitely Diva.

The youngest enveloped me in a brief hug. “I’m so thrilled to meet you, Sister. I’m Shruti and if there’s anything you need during your stay here, don’t hesitate to ask.”

I might’ve been impressed by such an effusive welcome if I hadn’t caught the furtive glance she shot her mother, seeking approval. Her expression begged ‘have I done well, Mommy?’ Shrewd Shruti, knowing who controlled the family and how to stay on her good side: she became Shrew.

I’d met the three stepsisters and the fairy godmother—of my nightmares.

Why? What have these poor women done? Nothing, really at this point in the novel. But they remain Pooh, Diva and Shrew to the end. And the mother, Anu, is always a cow. In fact, and this is my second major complaint, all the women are portrayed in unflattering ways. Aunt Anjali is vulgar and gobbles ladoos (Indian sweets). Drew’s mother behaves badly to Shari and is given a nasty nickname for the duration. I’m not looking for perfection or role models in my romance reading, but the drumbeat of insults became really depressing.

The men don’t escape the nickname fairy either: Shari’s ex is the Toad, and the hero, most unfortunately, is Bollywood Boy. For me, at least, it didn’t do much for his appeal.

These shortcomings are really a shame, because there is much to like in the novel. The relationship between Amrita and Shari was well developed and believable (if excessively rum-drenched). Rakesh and Drew were both really decent men. And while Shari’s path to independence and maturity strained credulity and screwed up the pacing of the last quarter of the book, it was well within the bounds of the genre. Shari and Drew’s relationship could have used more on-page time, but what was there was very enjoyable.

For readers who like books that straddle the chick-lit/romance boundary, this could be a fun read. For me, the fun was undercut by the depiction of some of the women. I’m sure the intent was to write clever and witty, albeit caricatured, supporting characters, and I tried to read them that way, but I failed. Dial down the descriptions of women as waddling cows, and the underlying sweetness is more likely to shine through.

Grade: C

~ Sunita

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Is there a genre of movie that Woody Allen hasn’t tried? Since I’m not his biggest fan, I can’t say for sure but he certainly has turned his hand to most of them by this time. “Everyone Says I Love You” is another one of those fortuitous Netflix recommendations that’s worked out for me.

Recently I decided to rent it again to see if it would work for a Friday Film Review and discovered that it’s no longer in print and can’t be rented. Major bummer. But once again it was Half.com to the rescue though I did wait a few months to see if the prices would come down a bit. When someone posted it for a more reasonable price, I pounced.

The story revolves around a wealthy New York family. Bob (Alan Alda) and Steffi (Goldie Hawn) have two daughters and a son between them while Steffi and her first husband Joe, have two daughters: Skylar (Drew Barrymore), DJ (Natasha Lyonne) who acts as the narrator, Lane (Gabby Hoffman), Laura (Natalie Portman) and Scott (Lukas Haas). Skylar is engaged to Holden (Edward Norton) and Joe has terrible luck with women.

DJ attempts to help her dad by telling him all about a beautiful woman, Von (Julia Roberts), who’s caught his eye while they are in Venice. Meanwhile back in New York hilarity and mayhem erupt as Skylar breaks off her engagement to Holden once she meets an ex-con, Charles Ferry (Tim Roth) whose cause has been championed by her socially conscious, rich mother Steffi.

There are a few other subplots such as DJ’s man of the week and Scott’s sudden turn towards conservative Republicanism but the main questions are: will Joe finally find the relationship of his dreams and who will Skylar end up with?

After watching the movie and beginning to look back on it, the plot seems to be mainly cobbled together as a framework to hang the songs on. Allen has picked some great ones – My Baby Just Cares for Me, Makin’ Whoopie, Everyone Says I Love You, I’m Through with Love, Enjoy Yourself, Cuddle Up a Little Closer and many more. The dance numbers are fun from the salesmen in Harry Winston’s to the medical staff and patients at the hospital Skylar and Holden have to go to after she accidentally swallows the engagement ring Holden put in her dessert.

The Fifth Avenue penthouse apartment is to die for as are the locations in Venice and Paris. It must be nice to have that kind of money. Sigh…Everyone looks lovely, dresses divinely and, amazingly, sings rather well. Well, maybe except for Woody Allen in one number you can barely hear him in and apparently Drew Barrymore who’s so tone deaf she had to be dubbed. There’s also a neat dance between Goldie Hawn and Woody Allen with Goldie on a wire harness that floats her around the stage.

Since it’s basically an all star cast and the secondary characters are only on screen very briefly, I can’t say much about them except that they seem to do a good job in their small parts. One thing I have to say is that I hope Woody Allen is now over casting himself as the love interest of beautiful women.

For anyone interested in the movie, I’d say try (if you can) to try it first before unloading any money on it. The DVD (from 1998) is just the basic nuts and bolts with no extras beyond subtitles. It’s funny, frothy and enjoyable – just what a musical should be.

~Jayne

FTC discloser – I bought this with my own money.

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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.

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My friend Keishon has been telling me for years to read this book. She’s a huge fan of your series featuring Episcopalian priest Clare Fergusson and police chief Russ Van Alstyne. Now that I’ve read In the Bleak Midwinter, the first book in the series, I can see why.

The mystery at the heart of In the Bleak Midwinter begins with a baby left on the steps of St. Alban’s Church on a cold December night. The baby is found by Reverend Clare Fergusson, St. Alban’s new priest, who has recently relocated from the South to Miller’s Kill, a town in upstate New York near the Adiorndack mountains and the Vermont border.

The box that contained the baby and his blankets also had a note asking that the baby be named Cody and given to a pair of childless lawyers, Geoff and Karen Burns, parishioners at St. Alban’s who have been desperate to adopt a child. But the baby is placed with a foster family instead, while the police attempt to locate the birth parents and ensure their wishes are followed.

Russ Van Alstyne, the police chief of Miller’s Kill, is an atheist and therefore not especially keen to talk to a priest. But in the course of questioning Clare about how she found the baby, he finds she’s not what he expected, and later, while giving her a ride back to the church, he discovers they share common ground — Clare, like him, is ex-army.

When Clare asks Russ if she can accompany him on patrol the following Friday in order to learn more about Miller’s Kill and see what kind of ministry outreach could alleviate the town’s problems, Russ sees no reason to refuse. Friday’ patrol starts out normal enough. But when Russ stops at a trail near the river, where people sometimes come to drink, Clare stumbles on the body of a young woman.

Russ theorizes that the woman must be the mother of the abandoned baby, and an autopsy soon bears him out. Since St. Alban’s church and the note specifying that the baby be adopted by two of its parishioners are the only clues to the dead woman’s identity, Russ has to turn to Clare for help in solving the crime.

Working together to learn more about the dead woman and investigate brings Russ and Clare closer. The process by which warmth develops between them is so gradual and subtle that for a long time neither of them sees the danger it presents to Clare’s relationship with her parishioners or to Russ’s marriage to his wife Linda, who is away on a business trip. Nor do they see how their feelings will crystallize when the killer threatens one of them.

In the Bleak Midwinter is both thoughtful and entertaining. Clare and Russ are sympathetic people who feel real at almost all times. I liked the way they could each see past the roles of priest and police chief to the person holding that role, who sometimes had to struggle with the weight of that responsibility. Both are dedicated to their jobs, and can also be a bit impulsive. The latter is especially true of Clare, who, as Russ puts it, sometimes jumps in “feet first without thinking.” But since this stems from her need to help other people, most of the time it didn’t bother me.

You capture winter in upstate New York beautifully; I could almost feel the December snow melting on my skin. The descriptions are matter-of-fact most of the time, yet they achieve several moments of spare poetry, like this one, in which the body of the young mother is discovered, and Russ asks Clare to go to the car and radio the dispatcher:

Clare couldn’t stop herself from looking at that hand once more, so pale and still it might have been carved out of snow. Snow on snow, the old hymn went. Snow on snow. She could make out some kind of sleeve, disappearing into the tangled brush. Whoever it was must be half in the water. Did she jump? Had she changed her mind and tried to crawl out? Clare blinked the blurriness out of her eyes and filled her lungs with sharp, dry air. She headed up the trail, jogging as quickly as she could in the snow. The trees crowded in against the path. She slipped and slid, trying to keep her footing and not break her pace. There was an explosion of snow from her left. She yelped and almost dropped her flashlight. A doe leaped into the beam of light and vanished in another shower of snow. Clare staggered, her heart about to hammer its way out of her chest.

Except for two scenes toward the end — one in which Russ explains a suspect’s motives and possible actions, and another in which Clare offers a suspect spiritual counsel but then questions that suspect in a way that seemed to have more to do with gathering information, the dialogue flows well and sounds very real. I loved this scene, in which Russ informs the dead woman’s sister of the death:

“Kristen McWhorter?” Russ asked. The branch manager silently shut the door behind herself on the way out.

“Yes… ” Kristen said, frowning. She was pretty, in a milkmaid sort of way that even her ink-dark punk hairstyle and thick black eyeliner couldn’t conceal. “Did my father do something?” she asked.

“Your father? No. I have some very bad news for you, Kristen. This past Friday we discovered your sister Katie’s body near the kill, about a quarter-mile upstream from Payson’s Park. She had been murdered.”

Kristen stood perfectly still, blinking. “No,” she said. “You’re mistaken. Katie’s in Albany. She’s a freshman at SUNY- Albany, and she hasn’t been home since school started. She’s in Albany.”

“She was identified in a photograph by someone who knew her in high school. We’d like you or your parents to view the body to make a positive identification.”

“I’ll go. I’ll go right now. It’s not Katie. She’s in Albany. I’ll get my coat right now. You have the wrong person. Oh, no, I’m starting my shift right now. I have to talk with Rosaline about getting off.”

Russ gestured through the glass walls at the manager. “I’ve already spoken with your boss, Kristen. Everything’s set.”

In addition to the strong writing and characterization, I was glad that I did not figure out the identity of the killer much in advance of when it was revealed. In addition, I really appreciated that unlike some mysteries, where the dead pile up as little more than an excuse for the sleuth to find out to who killed them, there was a sense in In the Bleak Midwinter that the victim’s life and her death mattered to those she left behind and to Russ and Clare.

I was also glad of Russ and Clare’s maturity. I think the book takes place in the mid-1990s, and Clare is 35 years old while Russ is 43 or so. Since this is the first in a series, I’m interested in what the future holds for them.

In the Bleak Midwinter is not without some minor flaws. I think that almost anyone in Clare’s position would be more conscious of town gossip than she is. Toward the end I did get a bit frustrated with one of Clare’s impulsive actions, and I thought the villain’s actions during the book’s final scenes were somewhat over the top. But on the whole, I enjoyed this well-written mystery, and I recommend it to our readers. B+.

Sincerely,

Janine

This book can be purchased in mass market from Amazon or Powells. No ebook format.

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This is the third in the Queen of Babble series featuring Lizzie Nichols, a wedding dress restorer and designer. I’ve read the first one but not the second (I have no explanation for not reading the second). The book begins with Lizzie confused about an encounter with her good friend, Chaz, and about the end of her relationship with French dreamboat, Jean Luc. (Is French dreamboat redundant?) Jean-Luc shows up unexpectedly in New York and brings with him a huge engagement ring and before she can say yes (or no), she finds herself engaged to Jean-Luc.

As Jean-Luc’s fiancée, though, certain things aren’t quite up to snuff like her Midwestern background and her dreams of a backyard wedding. Jean-Luc expects her to conform herself to fit in with his aristocratic family and then there is his reluctance to live in New York and his affinity for a job in Paris.

Lizzie doesn’t understand why everyone including Chaz and the maid of honor isn’t thrilled with her. She’s even taking flak at work from her co-workers (who kind of hired themselves) and her socialite client who is trying to procure a fabulous dress while possibly getting rid of the not so fabulous fiancée.

Lizzie is totally endearing in her cluelessness and her struggle to find herself and what she really wants out of life including who she wants to marry and what she wants to do as a career. I also think that few authors write the good guy character as well.

Maybe it’s a spoiler, but the hero is Chaz. Chaz is a man whose lover spurned him for another woman. Someone whose best look is casual-schlubby. Even as a good guy, though, I rooted for him over the uber sexy Frenchman Jean-Luc because he really was a bad boy. You made having someone there for you, to understand you, support you, and be your friend absolutely sexy.

The drawbacks of this book include the very youthful tone. Lizzie sounds and acts, many times, as a very young woman. It’s not a story with a lot of gravity even though at times there were serious subjects that were addressed. But for any Meg Cabot fan, I think this will please them. It did me. B

Best regards,

Jane

This book can be purchased in hardcover on June 24, 2008, from Amazon or Powells . Ebook format coming.

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As I blogged a couple of days ago, this series has been a long time favorite of friend and fellow reader, Keishon. I trust Keishon’s judgment quite a bit. She’s led me to read some wonderful mystery authors. However, I long held back from reading this series because of the relationship dynamic between the married Sheriff Russ Van Alstyne and the Episcopalian priest, Clare Fergusson. I received an email from the publicity department asking if I was interested in this new book because the publicist felt that the story would have strong romance appeal. It seemed like the right moment to start, even though it is book 6.

It’s kind of complicated book to summarize without making the story appear super complicated, which it really isn’t. The story takes place over one year. Sheriff Russ Van Alstyne is grieving over the loss of his wife, a senseless and preventable loss. Reverend Clare is suffering the after effects of killing a man to save Russ’ life, her love for a man who can’t seem to return it, and the issues with the leaders of her diocese.

Bodies of hispanic men are soon discovered on abandoned properties around Millers Kill; illegals are working as farm hands on Russ’ sisters’ farm, and the Millers Kill PD has $10 million worth of marijuana to deal with.

Hadley Knox has come to Millers Kill, a small town in upstate New York to start a new life with her two children. Knox is a beautiful woman who found "that gorgeous girls are literally a dime a dozen" in California. In Millers Kill, the best paying available job is one with the police department. Kevin Flynn is smitten in an instant of seeing Hadley but she’s got no time for men anymore.

The story is really three romances that revolve around the mystery of the hispanic men and the marijuana. The mystery isn’t really hidden very well but I felt that was intentional. The suspense is driven both whether the police will be able to solve the mystery of the killings before more happen and by the emotional mystery surrounding Russ and Clare.

I could see almost immediately why Keishon liked the Russ/Clare books so much. The writing is smart, incisive in its characterizations, and descriptive.

"You cling to your faults like a woman clinging to her lover" says Clare’s own confessor, Father Aberforth. or "As always these days, the thought of her brought with it a wave of longing and loss and guilt and self-loathing. For once, he welcomed the acidic brew." Russ thinks to himself at one point when contemplating Clare.

There is no time wasted on extraneous details. The secondary characters that move in and out provide background color such as the church secretary who knows everything, eventually, or Sister Lucille who declares that celibacy makes one fearless. The small town nature is evident in the gossip that rages from one end of the town to the other faster than a lightning bug flickers.

There are so many quotable parts of the book that show a real elegance and mastery, ranging from poignant to funny and back again.

Clare would have killed Hugh, except that she was caught, stomach clenched, wondering what Russ would say. Loathing herself for hoping like a girl at a middle-school dance.

He stood very still. Finally he said, “I’m on duty,” He nodded to her. “Enjoy yourself.” There he walked away, leaving Hugh looking triumphant and Clare wishing she were a lesbian. Maybe then she’d never have to deal with male id iocy again.

Also

“Stop looking at me like that.”
“Like what?”
“Like you want to eat me or something.”
He smiled slowly. “I do.”
She stumbled. He caught her and steadied her until she regained the rhythm.
“You make me think of those great glazed doughnuts they have over at the Kreemie Kakes diner,” he went on.
“I make you think of a doughnut?”
He shrugged. “I am a cop.”

I particularly loved this line:

He could have resisted her bare skin, but her naked faith broke him.

The sentence has a duality that is obvious much like the title "I Shall Not Want". The phrase could be blessing, describing someone who is richly rewarded, wanting for nothing. It could also be an admonishment, reminding someone of what they should forego.

I felt the title most richly described Russ who I sometimes saw as a Tragedy Andy, a martyr whose guilt wouldn’t let him move forward. His life was empty at times, yet what would fulfill it, he would not allow himself to have. Part of this, I attributed to the fact that if this was a romance, I wanted the two together already dammit. Obviously, they’ve suffered 5 books apart for any number of reasons that I wasn’t full cognizant of. Like Clare, Russ clings to his faults, to his "could have and should have’ done self arguments. However, the point at which he decides to put these aside are really delightful.

What was problematic wasn’t so much this book in particular but where it stood in the phalanx of books. As I wrote to Keishon in an email, it wasn’t so much that I didn’t like this book. I did. How could I not. It’s that I felt like I had missed out on a lot not having read the previous five books. I wonder if I’ll get a chance to read the previous five and if I’ve ruined that by reading "the ending." It’s not to say that this is the end of the Russ/Clare stories. I think you must have more to write, but it’s some kind of closure and some kind of end that I think would have been more meaningful and more emotional had I followed along since the start. So I don’t regret reading this story. I regret I don’t have more time to have read all six of the stories of Russ/Clare. I’ll be in line for the next installment. B+

Best regards

Jane

This book can be purchased in hardcover from Amazon or Powells . No ebook format.

NOTE: The first two books in this series can be downloaded for free up until the end of today, June 12, 2008, 11:59 EST.

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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.

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.

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I’d seen your name while browsing through ebook sites but since most of the books appeared to be paranormals I usually kept right on scrolling. Then Jane sent me a batch of arcs and review books and I saw one was yours. “Oh,” I thought, “I wonder why Jane sent me a paranormal?” Then I checked the back blurb and saw it was about a cop and a photographer. I kept looking for the clue about which one was going to turn into a werewolf or was a secret vampire. And didn’t find one. Well what the heck, why not, I decided. If I hate it, it’s only 236 pages long. Happy days. I didn’t hate it.

Instead I found an intriguing gender switch. The heroine is the strong, alpha, work driven one. Her identity is work. Her life is work. She’s good at what she does however she doesn’t know how to really function outside of it. But you still managed to give her some vulnerability and not make her a one note character. Nor is she a door busting-in, kick-ass type.

I like that you give her a real and understandable reason to dislike the hero. His photograph of her during the arrest of a serial killer got splashed over front pages of every NYC paper. Not something that an undercover cop can afford to have happen and still function in her job. This plus her natural reticence about relationships gives her ample cause to want to avoid Ryan at best and snarl at him at worst.

After her more than slightly interfering family forces a relationship, she does hurt Ryan with her comments and how she views their sexual interactions. The first time is extremely dirty and sordid. It’s a quick wham, bam thank you sir experience which is miles away from any hint of romance. Megan’s emotionally lowered by it as much as the hero is.

Ryan is the thoughtful, introspective one. He might not tote a gun for a living but he’s got the balls to go after Megan and keep trying even after she ignores him. Thank you for not making him go all fumbly and screw up professionally around Megan. I love that he gets nervous and tries to impress her with his brains (blabbing facts about Montana wildlife during the family vacation).

One thing did bother me slightly about him. Early in the book while you were staging his apartment, he focuses on the many pictures he has of Megan there. This came across as more than a little creepy to me. I guess I’ve seen too many movies and shows in which the psycho killer wallpapers his lair with photos of his victims. Major thanks for not dragging his past into the book at every moment when you want to heighten the emotion and tug at our heart strings. The revelation about him, when it came, was all the more powerful for being unexpected.

Megan and Ryan both have families who care for them. The short length of the story didn’t allow for much time to explore Ryan’s group and the denizens of his apartment house seem a little too much like “characters” instead of real people. Though I did like how much they care for him and try to help him in their own way, they came off as being as interfering as Meg’s family.

Megan’s family is so loud and large that I can see how they have to be a little larger than life in order to get attention. I haven’t read first book in this series so can only base my feelings for Kat on this book. At first, I really didn’t like her much. She encourages Ryan to invade Meg’s life which seemed to me to be taking a big risk with his feelings and life as much as it was with Meg’s. What right does she have to force this relationship? Only later does she show how much she wants it to work and that she acknowledges her meddling. I was also glad when Meg finally calls her on this. Kat does stick up for Ryan and tries to warn Meg off of hurting him any more. I think she, Kat, finally learned her lesson as did Meg.

I like that her feelings slowly dawn on Meg. Yes, there is the ultimate realization and admitting to herself once she gets home but we see little signs along the way. Like ice cracking and thawing, Meg comes to life but she doesn’t go all mushy and have a total character change. I found this more believable than the 180 degree turns seen in some books. Oh and I like that most of Meg’s family knows the engagement is phony. I would have thought them all fools if everyone had bought it. B-

~Jayne

This book can be purchased in trade paperback. No ebook format can be found.

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One thing that seems a lost art in the new crop of romances is its failure to focus on the development of the actual relationship. Romance, at its best, is character driven with the central plot being the intersecting of two individuals to mesh into one stronger, better unit. A great category novel does this better than any book out there because the focus is solely on the relationship and nothing else. But category novels are so plentiful and the quality so varied that you never know whether you will be getting a rare orchid or common weed.

In this book, I had some trepidation but the quality of the story, the focus on the two individuals reminded me of what makes romance so great.

Sean O’Banyon is a self made billionaire. He put himself through college at Harvard, then an MBA, to become one of the top financiers in New York. Unfortunately, being rich generally means being a target. Women generally only want him for the prestige or the money so he’s made a practice of requiring all the women he dates go dutch. It scares off the gold diggers and saves himself personal hurt but it also prevents emotional attachments.

There are definitely genre cliches in this book but what makes it so brilliant is that the story transcends the cliches or perhaps shows why the cliches are so appealing. Sean O’Banyon might be made of money but inside he’s terrorized by his childhood. You show how vulnerable he is which makes his knee jerk reactions palatable. He’s not healthy emotionally and thus his intimate interactions will be unhealthy as well.

Elizabeth Bond, on the other hand, while low in funds is rich in friends and spirit. Lizzie is a nurse and works more than one job to help care for her mother who is needs financial assistance from time to time. Lizzie rented one half of Eddie O’Banyon’s duplex and in the past two years became close to them with Eddie serving as a kind of surrogate father. When he dies, Lizzie calls the contact number in Eddie’s papers which happens to be Sean, his son. Only Sean has different memories of Eddie and his emotional unrest reaches out to Lizzie. The two begin to forge a relationship but Sean’s unhealthy distrust of females, his fear of intimacy, his fears overall, cause him to sabotage their budding love affair. Lizzie, however, is no doormat. She doesn’t hesitate to show him the door.

It is Lizzie’s emotional state that allows her a position of power within the relationship. She makes Sean work for everything and doesn’t hesitate to send him packing when he can’t treat her right. This isn’t to say that she doesn’t long for him, but she doesn’t rely on him to make her a better person.

When I first read this book, I thought it was a keeper but in a second perusal, I felt that the tone was too flat. There is very little movement in the mood which sometimes feels oppressive. There is also the non stop use of brand names from the clothes, to the cars, to the restaurants. At one point, Lizzie and Sean are having a picnic and Sean reaches into the “Deluca's paper bag and took out a Poland Spring bottle.” Poland Spring? Is it really important I know the type of water that they are drinking? Regardless, this is still a very good book which focuses on the development of the relationship and had an unexpected twist to the happy ever after ending. B.

Best regards

Jane

This book can be purchased in eform from Harlequin or mass market from Amazon.com.

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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

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I adore a good chick lit book but it’s got to have more than just a series of funny events linked together. It also needs to make me laugh and not cringe at the heroine making a prat of herself, some depth to the characters, enough grounding in reality that I can believe the plot and I prefer a hero who isn’t a mystery up until the end of the book. “Fate and Ms. Fortune” satisfies all my requirements. Robyn Fortune is only looking to polish her stand up act when she agrees to perform at a younger cousin’s Bar Mitzvah. What she doesn’t expect is that her life will be turned even more upside down than it already is or that she’ll be hooked up with the love of her life. But before she gets her HEA, she and her family will discover some truths about themselves, uncover some family secrets, meet up with old friends and find out just how much of a role fate plays in their lives.

Robyn’s got a quintessential Chick Lit job, good enough but she still gets flack from her boss. As a make up artist for an early morning news anchor, she gets up in the wee hours of the morning, is on call for major news events (like when the Pope dies and the station goes into full court press for an entire weekend) and has to grab time and opportunities to hone her comedic talents. Hence the Bar Mitzvah performance. What she doesn’t need is her mother moving in with her after leaving her husband of 40+ years, her boss saddling her with his spoiled stepdaughter who wants to be a make up artist, or strangers trying to set her up with a man who’s just perfect for her.

Robyn’s still getting over her first husband, a gambling addict who left her with a mountain of debts before getting hauled off to prison, and when she discovers that Ken comes with his own set of problems, she has to be bribed to even call him. Their first “date” is a disaster that ends with Ken in the hospital and Robyn dog sitting for him before hauling him to a funeral. She also discovers that she and Ken share a past, of sorts, and that there are a lot of people who are trying and have been trying to get them together for years. Will they be able to overcome the events of their past that still haunt them and their families? Can Ken get over a celebrity ex-girlfriend and realize who his true love is? And is Robyn willing to wait for him to come to his senses?

I like that Robyn isn’t soured on all future relationships because of her ex-husband. He hurt her and left her with a mess but a part of her still loves him even while she hates him (and I know people in real life who are like this). She loves Ken and wants a future with him but is wise enough to realize that she can’t force him to love her and that he has to sort through his feelings himself. And while her family may exasperate her, they’re still family and she’ll always be there for them. The fact that Robyn’s family history is shown to have formed her character is a nice bonus.

I like that we learn more about Ken than a lot of the heroes in Chick Lit books. Ken is one messed up camper. His backstory includes the first use of the WTC events of 9/11 that I remember seeing in a romance book as well as the all to real mix of teenagers and alcohol. Thanks for giving him some things to be truly angsty about and for not overplaying the melodrama. The subtlety works to make the events have even greater impact.

Since it’s no secret who the hero would be and since he was the one with the issues keeping the romance apart, I knew that a lot of my grade would depend on how you brought them together. I do appreciate that Robyn has the strength to let him go and try to get on with her life. Where the book loses some points is how he comes to the realization that he loves Robyn enough to commit to her. It felt too fast. Yes, they’d been interacting for a few weeks but he goes from “we have no romantic future” to “you’re the one for me” overnight.

As to the complex machinations of fate and family in the story, I found them believable mainly due to the fact that their backgrounds are so tightly knit and that there was a real reason for their families to have lost touch with each other. In another setting, this would not have worked as well as it did here. It must be hard to write a humorous book and even more difficult when the main character is a comedienne. Then to balance that with enough drama to make the characters well rounded is a tough act. You’ve done it well and I give this one a B.

~Jayne

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