After Kati D reviewed Knight for Dear Author, I had to read it myself. It was rough but Ruthie Knox, in the comments, suggested I give Sweet Dreams a try and I did. Sweet Dreams is an interesting story and one that I am going to review later but I actually went on to read several of your books and I wanted to start writing reviews with Rock Chick. Rock Chick is the beginning of a series of books that are interrelated. (another author used the word “Daisy Chained” to describe books that are loosely connected by a series of characters). Rock Chick is one of your better works and it also contains nearly every one of your signature writing features so that if readers like Rock Chick, they are likely to enjoy most of your writing. If they don’t like Rock Chick, then it is probably best for readers to pass on your extensive backlist.

Rock Chick reads like Stephanie Plum fan fiction for the Rangerettes (the shippers who wanted a pairing between Stephanie and Ranger). There is the intrepid heroine who rushes into danger.  There is the hot, mysterious security guy.  There are drag queens, irascible older people, people getting shot at and cars exploding.

India Savage, known as Indy, grew up loving Liam Nightingale. The Savage and Nightingale families were close. The parents knew each other. Allie Nightingale was Indy’s best friend. Their mothers, especially, wanted the two families tied together by marriage. Indy pursued Liam relentlessly as a teen until Indy finally got the message at the age of twenty that Lee (as he is known to all) would never want her back. From that point on, Indy made a point to avoid Lee at as much as possible. When Indy’s life is endangered, Lee steps in and declares to all and sundry that Indy is his woman and sets out to convince Indy of this new to her truth.

The storytelling is conversational, as if Indy is sitting next to you in her bookstore, Fortnum’s in Lower Downtown Denver. It’s as if you’ve made a new friend and she is telling you all about her crazy mixed up love life and how she got the man of her dreams.  It works exceptionally well. The best part of all these books is the unapologetic brashness of the characters. Indy, in particular, is a bold.  Indy is a full figured woman with great T&A.  She is comfortable in her skin.  She is independent, has a great group of friends, likes to wear tight clothes and lots of makeup.  Also, she is in danger and every guy, even the bad ones, wants her.  While Indy meets the definition of a Mary Sue squarely, she also represents a complete change (at least for me) from the demure, never been kissed, heroines who shy away from loving their body and appreciating their own personal agency.

Ranger, err, Lee is a more reserved guy who owns a security firm that does things like skip tracing and bodyguard work, amongst other security tasks.  On more than one occasion, he wades in to save Indy from a dangerous scenario arising from some impetuous act.  Indy describes Lee as badass, several times. Despite how bold and independent Indy is, there is a vague tone of msygony that runs through these Rock Chick books. It might be totally unintentional but the men, like Lee, look at the women with benign amusement.  They frequently make demands  that result in female capitulation. All the demands seem to end in an imperative “get me?” either in tone, eye contact, or verbalization. (I.e., do you get what I am telling you?)  Lee cuffs Indy to the bed more than once in order to prevent her from engaging in behavior that he thinks will endanger her (and given her past record, maybe the cuffing is justified).  But just about the moment that I (and Indy) are ready to blow our stacks, you have Lee (and the other men in your books) say something completely endearing, making themselves vulnerable:

“Jesus,” he buried his face in my neck, “there’s nothin’ better in the world than hearin’ you say my name when I’m inside you.” He slid in deep, filling me. “I’ve been waitin’ years to be right here.”

Holy crap.

His mouth was at my ear.

“I could be on assignment, in a desert as hot as an oven, in a jungle as close as fuck and sometimes I’d get through it dreamin’ of you sayin’ my name like that.”

I told a friend of mine that these books read a little like old school Linda Howard.  Lee is full of take charge machismo.  He’s written as if he can do anything including negotiate a detente with a criminal who is after his woman. No lock can keep him out.  No situation is too dangerous for him.   It’s only dangerous for those that oppose him.  The characters drink a lot of beer, curse a lot, watch sports on TV, gossip with their girlfriends, party regularly, and in every aspect seem ordinary and relatable and somehow so very different than many characters I’ve read in contemporary romances of late.

Indy is a good match for Lee.  She stands up for herself and pushes back against Lee. The secondary characters are well drawn even if they are exaggerated eccentrics.   Plus, Indy’s exchanges (especially the ones with Ally) are funny:

“Did you bring me a Sushi Den outfit?” I asked Ally.

You didn’t go to Sushi Den in jeans and cowboy boots. Sushi Den demanded something else entirely. Clothing… black. Shoes… stiletto. I had a full section of my closet devoted to Sushi Den clothes.

“You bet your ass,” Ally replied.

and

“You just hung up on my brother?” Ally asked, sidling into bitch smackdown mode in defense of her sibling.

“Ally,” Kitty Sue said placatingly.

“We’re on a break,” I told Ally.

“You’re on a break? You’ve been together a week!” Ally yelled.

“We’re on a break,” I repeated.

“I don’t believe this,” Ally snapped, her hand at her hip, countdown to bitch smackdown mode hitting critical.

“Ally,” Kitty Sue put in, “it’s none of your business.”

“What do you mean it’s none of my business? Lee’s my brother, she’s my best friend.”

“She means it’s none of your business,” I told Ally, “back off.”

“Back off? Did you just tell me to back off? I’ve been waiting twenty-two years for this!” Ally was back to yelling. “You can’t be on a break. That’s ridiculous! Hank’s never gonna get married, there’s no one perfect for him. You’re perfect for Lee and you won’t sort it out with him. I’m never gonna get a niece named after me.”

“For God’s sake, Ally, make your own babies,” I yelled back.

“No please, don’t do that. Not until you’ve found someone special,” Kitty Sue threw in.

“Um… I don’t mean to interrupt your asinine conversation but, are we gonna let those diamond earrings just sit on the counter?” Tex asked.

I laughed out loud at several points in the story even as I was simultaneously worn down by the non stop description of Indy’s every outfit, of Indy’s every meal, and of every street in Denver.  Your books really need an editor. There are many sentences like this dispersed throughout the book “A body like mine isn’t difficult to maintain, just feed it loads of crap to keep the curves but keep in shape because you’ve got to lug it around everywhere.” I’d often have to read the sentence twice to ascertain its precise meaning. Anytime a reader stops to puzzle out the meaning of a sentence is a break in the mood, the fantasy you are creating.

The stories need a content editor that will help to smooth out some writing tics and to introduce some brevity. Some of the characters make epic long speeches. Speeches so long I wonder at their lung capacities.  The stories need a copy editor and a proofreader to eliminate the typos, misspellings, and grammatical inaccuracies. The blurbs for these books are some of the worst I’ve read. You are a great storyteller and I think you are telling stories that aren’t out there right now. Unfortunately, every time I give a recommendation for one of these books, I have to be up front and tell my reader friends that the writing is really rough, that there are serious periods of momentum lulls, and an unholy amount of repetition.  (And its repetitive from book to book. In nearly every Rock Chick book there is a time when the hero will go through a litany of things that they love about the heroine and end with an “you’d be a pain in the ass.”

“Honey, it’s good you’re gorgeous or you’d be a pain in the ass.”

Here’s one writing tic that I find challenging (and by challenging I mean difficult to follow and thus annoying)

But, twenty minutes ago, my employee, Rosie, told me something I didn’t want to hear. Rosie could be difficult but this was ridiculous.

And he’d involved another employee (and one of my most favorite people in the world), Duke.
* * * * *

Then, five minutes ago, Rosie and I locked up and stood at the front of my bookstore, Fortnum’s, wondering what to do about that something.

Then two guys came up to us, we had a chat that did not go well (and if I’m honest, the reason it didn’t go well is because of me) and then they shot at us.

Shot.
At.
Us.
With guns.
Guns filled with bullets.

Another writing tic is to use the word “after”

After, we had pie.

Then, we had a shower.

What with wet, soapy, naked bodies, especially with one of them being Lee’s, things got out of hand and we tumbled out of the shower onto the bath mat.

After that, I said a silent thank you to the unknown Judy as the bathroom was sparkling clean and the bath mat smelled of fragrant drier sheets.

Later, we were in bed and I was pressed up against his side, his arm around my waist ….

I’ve read all the Rock Chick books. I’m not going to do a full review for each of them, but instead do a summary review of the next 6 in tomorrow’s post.  Obviously I was captivated by your writing, but I can’t give a full throated endorsement. Instead, I feel it necessary to caution readers and hopefully arm them with enough information so that they can make their own decisions. I’d love to grade this book higher but even though the storytelling was engaging, I just can’t.  C

Best regards,

Jane

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Related posts:

1. REVIEW: Knight by Kristen Ashley
2. REVIEW: Rock Star by Roslyn Hardy Holcomb
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I’ve read several of your books and, in general, have found them to be a bit too toothsome for me. I did however enjoy one of your earlier books, The Next Best Thing, so I was interested to read your latest novel, Somebody to Love, whose heroine, Parker Harrington Welles, was introduced in The Next Best Thing. I liked Parker in The Next Best Thing and I liked her in this book as well. I also liked James Cahill, the book’s hero. Nevertheless, I did not particularly enjoy the book itself. Again, I found your story to be so cute, so affable, and so neatly completed it left me disgruntled and slightly cranky.

Parker is thirty-five, worth millions thanks to her stock savvy father, a single mother to Nick (his father is Ethan, the hero from The Next Best Thing), and the writer of a truly dreadful series of children’s books called The Holy Rollers. Parker, a Harvard grad, proposed the series as a sarcastic joke to her editor when her first book, Mickey the Fire Engine—which sounded a lot like one of my favorite children’s classics, Mike Mulligan and the Steam Shovel—was rejected by her editor as being “a little familiar.”

“Got anything else?” George asked, already glancing at his watch.

“Yeah, I do,” Parker said. “How’s this? A band of child angels are sent to earth to teach kids about God. Right? They haven’t earned their wings, though, so they roller-skate everywhere—they’re the Holy Rollers. Do you love it? All they eat is angel food cake, and they live in a tree fort called Eden, and whenever a regular kid is up against a tough moral decision, in come the Holy Rollers and the preaching begins.” She rolled her eyes. “It’s The Crippled Lamb meets The Little Rascals meets The Exorcist.” She sighed and stood up. “Well, thanks for your time, George. Good to see you.”

“Hang on,” he said.

The next week, she’d had an offer and a contract….

The books have sold millions of copies and a 3D movie is being made, but Parker, who loathes the books,  has written her last Holy Rollers best-seller. (She’s never made a penny off them—she donates all her income to a charity called Save the Children.) Then, very suddenly, her father is busted for insider trading and she’s kicked out of the mansion in which she grew up and where she and Nicky, when he’s not with Ethan and his wife Lucy (Parker’s best friend), live. Furthermore, her father has raided hers and her son’s trust funds and she’s got $11,000 to her name.

Parker gets this news from Harry, her father, the day before he’s headed to jail. He tells her to have James, his personal lawyer, help her sort out the mess. Parker and James, whom she rudely calls Thing One, have a history. Unbeknownst to Parker, James, now twenty-nine, fell in love with her five years ago, the very first time he saw her. Parker was in the hospital, having just  given birth to Nicky; her father had sent James to the hospital with paperwork for Parker to sign. (Her father never shows up for anything in Parker’s life.) Parker has almost always treated James like scum—she sees him as a kiss-ass extension of her self-absorbed, greedy father. I say almost because once, two years ago, at her cousin’s wedding, Parker, after one too many vodka martinis, grabbed James, dragged him into a near-by bedroom, and had wonderful, nasty sex with him. (One of my complaints about this book is you keep the reader firmly outside the bedroom door—your characters talk and think about sex a great deal, but when push comes to shove, you don’t let the reader in on any of the action. It’s an odd choice in a book so filled with lust and banter about sex.) Parker blew James off in a big way after their tryst and, since then, whenever she sees him—her father sends James to all of the family events rather than attending them himself—she acts the snotty, frosty rich girl and treats him as the lowest of the low.

James informs Parker she owns a house in a small town in Maine she inherited several years ago from her dead aunt. (Parker ws so wealthy she’d forgotten about it.) Parker gets her affairs in order, sends Nicky on a three-week trip with Ethan and Lucy—which is weirdly enough their honeymoon—and heads to Gideon’s Cove, Maine to see what she can make of the house. The house, a dilapidated shack about to fall into the sea, is a disaster and, even worse, is in arrears for unpaid back taxes. Parker decides to try to spruce up the cottage and flip it—this seemed unlikely to me given the 2011 real estate market, but, hey, it’s fiction, right? She spends her first night in Maine panicked and sleeping in her car after being attacked by a bird in the kitchen, and is stunned, the next morning, to see James appear.

“So what are you doing here, Thing One?”

He sat on the hood next to her. “Since I’m devoting the next few weeks to overhauling this dump, Parker, you think you could call me by my real name?”

“I seem to have forgotten it.” There. She was getting her old vibe back. Good.

He smiled slowly, his dark eyes crinkling. Dangerous, those eyes. “Again?”

“Is it John? Jason?”

“It’s James. James Francis Xavier Cahill.”

Goose bumps broke out along her arms. It was chilly. Or something. “So what are you doing here, James?”

“Your father asked me to come up.”

James’s explanation is only partially true. Her father did ask James to look after Parker, but it is completely James’s idea to come to Maine, move in with Parker, and, gratis, spend his days rebuilding her  shack. James—with good reason—feels somewhat responsible for Parker’s newfound poverty. Furthermore, he grew up in Maine and spent some summers working at his uncle’s bar in Gideon’s Cove. With Harry in jail, James is out of work and sees these few weeks as the opportunity that might finally win him Parker’s love.

James moves in with Parker—she accedes to this so easily it’s unbelievable—and sets about making himself indispensable to her. He cleans, cooks, hammers, paints, shingles, and cajoles his way right past all her defenses. He’s absolutely perfect for her. In fact, in every aspect of his life (including a tragedy in his past), James is absolutely perfect. He’s so perfect, he comes close to being dull. He is saved, as are all the adorable denizens of Gideon’s Cove, by the wit of your writing. I give you credit for taking an archetype and making him engaging. Take this scene where he essentially breaks up with, over the phone, the twenty-two year old he’s been casually dating:

“Hey, Leah, it’s James.”

“Hi there, stranger! How are you doing?” she said, her cheerleader-style exuberance making him hold the phone a little farther away from his ear. She was cute, but best in small doses, which explained why they only saw each other about once a month.

“How are you?” he said.

“I’m awesome! What’s up? You wanna get together this weekend?”

“Well, actually, I’m in Maine right now, and I’ll be here for a while. Six or eight weeks. Figured I’d let you know.”

There was a pause. “Oh,” she finally said.

It was impressive, how much could be packed into a two-letter word. They must teach it at woman school. “Yeah. So, just wanted to say bye and have a nice summer and all.” James pressed his thumb against his eye socket, bracing for the relationship talk.

“What about…you know? Us?”

Ah, mooseshit. Was there an us? Because he’d seen Leah, a very pretty redhead who liked to play pool and flirt, maybe six or seven times since they’d met at a wedding on New Year’s Eve, and if there was an us, it was pretty anemic. There was him, and there was her, and the two of them intersected at a bar once in a while, which generally led to more intersecting in bed, which had always seemed like enough.

I think the trick is everything James does is perfect, but his thoughts and words are wryly human.

Parker is not perfect; in fact, she’s pretty messed up. She’s kept everyone at a distance for years—she was scarred by her childhood. She’s prideful and prickly. She adores her son (who, thank the gods, isn’t perky although he is a wee bit too self-aware for a five-year old), loves  Lucy and Ethan, but, other than those three, she’s a very alone person. (This is one of the reasons it makes no sense she allows James to move into her teeny-tiny house with her at the drop of a tool-belt.) She thrives under James’s care and learns to accept the friendship many in Gideon’s Cove offer her. She rejects James a few too many times for me, but, it’s clear, from the moment James shows up in Maine, she’ll finally fall for him. And why not? He’s gorgeous, effortlessly competent, a stellar kisser, and unwaveringly supportive of her and her son.

As I read this book, I wondered why I didn’t enjoy it more. The writing is mostly first-rate (although calling Parker’s quim Lady Land was not a good plan), often very funny, and the main characters are—once I’d made peace with James’s flawlessness—pretty likable. Part of it is surely me—I’m not a fan of sweet and I think nice is overrated. But, part of it is that the book doesn’t take a single gamble. Every painful problem is smoothly resolved. There’s no real tension in the tale; by its finish, everyone the readers care for is living happily ever after and Parker is again donating the proceeds of her best-selling book—apparently the fire engine plot became less familiar when resubmitted to the publishing world—to Save the Children. Somebody to Love would have been a better book with less sugar and more snark. I give it a C+.

Slightly crankily,

Dabney

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* Book isn’t released digitally until next week but may be in stores this weekend

Related posts:

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3. REVIEW: The Next Best Thing by Kristan Higgins

Like most stories about small communities, this story celebrates the close knit community while still providing Dillon the space to heal from his war experiences. The downsides for Dillon, if there are any, is having too many casseroles from the single ladies but as a refuge, it’s perfect. There are no surprises here and the pairing of a nurse and a doctor who are both interested in providing services for the underserved is convenient. Still, it’s hard to not be moved by Dillon’s grief over the men he couldn’t save and Brenna’s melancholy over the limited time she has left with her aging grandmother. B-

A Rare Gift by Jaci Burton

Calliope Andrews and her partner are ready to expand their day care business and Wyatt Kent of Kent Construction is sent out to bid the job. Wyatt is reluctant to undertake this task because Calliope is the younger sister of his ex-wife. While Wyatt professed to be over his ex wife, even the mention of Cassandra, the ex, could cause Wyatt anxiety. Calliope has had a crush on Wyatt since the first time she saw him in her house, she aged fifteen and he twenty-three.

Wyatt’s lingering unhappiness over his failed marriage and his constant comparisons between Calliope and Cassandra were discomfiting. The emotional character arc for Wyatt included letting go of his animosity toward Cassandra, but the ease at which he later moved beyond this didn’t match the intensity of his anger. I would have liked to have seen more accountability from Wyatt as well in that his marriage failed not so much because Cassandra was horrible but because they were two obviously different people with different dreams (big city v. small town etc) While I liked Calliope’s assertiveness, I couldn’t help but wonder if she wouldn’t be better served by a different Kent brother, one who didn’t have so much baggage that was so intimately tied to Calliope. C

It’s Not Christmas Without You by HelenKay Dimon

In light of the settings of the other three stories, this Washington, D.C. placed story provided a nice respite from the small town. Carrie Anders is thriving in her position as an employee with National Museum of Women in the Arts. Her job is great (she’s in charge of a lecture series surrounding the museum’s Mary Cassatt exhibit), her co workers are fun and if she misses her ex boyfriend, Austin Thomas, the pang of loneliness is chased away by memories of the breakup.

Carrie and Austin were high school sweethearts but their long dating history was no proof against their varying dreams. Austin is intent on continuing his family’s landscaping business that was based in Halloway, two hours away from Georgetwon, while Carrie longs to be steeped in the world of art and artists.

The love isn’t enough theme is a great one for a genre that is built on the healing power of the emotion. While both Carrie and Austin acknowledge their feelings for one another, getting back together means only more pain when they are both faced with the inevitable breakup that results from one party refusing to give up on their own dreams. Both Austin and Carrie make cases as to why their dream is important. Austin’s ties are deep and generational while Carrie’s love for art cannot be slaked in her small town. Sacrificing dreams now leads to bitter recriminations later. The ending has no easy answers but I was satisfied with it. B

Mistletoe and Margaritas by Shannon Stacey. This was my favorite. Stacey has a real knack for short stories. I still remember her adorable electrician story from last Christmas. Justin McCormick had loved Claire for years, from the time he and his best friend, Brendan Rutledge, met her. Whether it was fate or circumstance, Claire spent a few moments alone with Brendan rather than Justin one night and that was all it took. Claire and Brendan became the couple and Justin became the friend. Brendan died in a terrible car accident and his loss brought Claire and Justin closer together but Justin is at the end of his tether. His relationships have all been abbreviated and he knows that his friendship with Claire is what is preventing him from even trying to commit to another woman. He is determined to cut his losses, but wanting to sever his relationship with Claire and actually doing it is proving painful. It’s not just that he loves Claire but that his whole life is entertwined with his. Brendan’s family is his family. Their holiday traditions were his as well.

There was a good balance between Justin being a masochist and trying to do the right thing. It never seemed right to pursue Claire and yet his love for her wouldn’t allow him to be anything but supportive and kind. Claire wasn’t intentionally leading Justin on. She had no idea of his feelings toward her and she had spent the last two years mourning. But she was young and she missed intimacy and companionship and began to awaken to the possibility of a new love. B

The writing in the anthology is very good. All four authors have a good ear for dialogue and the emotions nor the sexual encounters aren’t forced even in the shortened format. My guess is that the favorite story of each reader will depend on which type of romance they are drawn to best. I’m a sucker for the unrequited love and I think that is why I liked Stacey’s story. What I appreciate is that none of these holiday stories are over saccharine.  It’s about two people finding hope and comfort and companionship with one another at a special time of the year. Two years, two good anthologies. The Carina Press holiday anthology is becoming a wonderful tradition.

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Note: Each story can be purchased separately.

Related posts:

1. REVIEW: Naughty and Nice by Jaci Burton, Megan Hart, Lauren Dane, and Shannon Stacey
2. REVIEW: Fall Fury and Holiday Bound by Jaci Burton
3. REVIEW: Infatuation by Alison Kent

Dear Ms. Napier:

I was delighted to see that Harlequin was digitizing your backlist titles. It’s something I’ve longed for since their digitizing efforts began a year or so ago.   I have In Bed with the Boss in its paper form, bought used from an online store.   I happily replaced the print with the digital version.

The book was originally published in 1999 and in the descriptions of the clothing and the era, it is dated.   However, I found the flamboyance of the hero’s dress, in particular, to be so fun to read about that the dated aspect only added charm to the story.

Part of the fun with In Bed with the Boss is that the reader is in on a secret.   That is, we know that Duncan (the boss)   is in love with Kalera (the secretary), but she is willfully or unconsciously blind.   Seeing her awaken to this is part of the pleasure.

Kalera Martin has been secretary to Duncan Royal, the owner of a multi-million dollar tech firm, for three   years.   She tenders her resignation because she is about to marry one of Duncan’s fiercest rivals, Stephen Prior.   Duncan is enraged because he has been waiting until Kalera had recovered from the death of her husband before he made his move on her.   The idea that he missed the window and that she is marrying a hated rival motivates him to ruthlessly pursue Kalera.   Kalera has no idea that Duncan has these feelings although she did share one lonely night with him long ago that she has tried to repress and forget.

Duncan is described in such a way as to plant him firmly in the metrosexual category. He has   ”lean, manicured hands”. At one point he is described as wearing a “velvet jacket cropped like a matador’s, the wide lapels and cuffs stiff with flamboyant gold embroidery.”   He wears an earring, one with an “elongated jet and chased gold teardrop.”   Duncan, in some ways, seems like the dandies of the late 18th Century–all fabulous dress and ferocious masculinity.   You even acknowledge this:

A stud or ring was a fairly ommonplace declaration of modern macho cool, but the wickedly frivolous elegance of that dangling earring made an entirely different statement. It was the sort of exquisite piece of jewellery that a languid Elizabethan fop might have worn-or a modern rock-and-shock star!

The earring scene is brilliant.   It shows Duncan’s anti establishment side, Kalera’s helpless attraction to it, her instinctive resistance, and, of course, the boring staidness of Kalera’s fiance.

Duncan’s force of personality is testosterone laden in spite of his velvet covered body.   Kalera describes him as having a near psychic force of personality.    When Kalera notes that she didn’t know he had his ear pierced, Duncan admits it was recently done:

“For some reason I had this sudden, compelling urge to go out and do something just for the sheer hell of it, something satisfyingly primitive, and preferably masochistic-What prompted urge to go out and do something just for the sheer hell of it, something satisfyingly primitive, and preferably masochistic-What prompted me to feel like that, do think, Kalera?’

Kalera notes that the earring suits him:

The feminine delicacy of the piece presented an exotic contrast to the hard planes of his face and the square jaw shadowed by masculine stubble. But Kalera would die before she admitted it.

Conveniently, the reader then gets Stephen’s opinion and given that Stephen is boring and wrong for Kalera, you instinctively build on the idea that Duncan’s flamboyance is all the more attractive because who the hell wants to agree with Stephen?

“I think it looks freakish,’ said Stephen tightly, the words spilling out from behind his rigid control. “But then it’s typical of you, isn’t it, Duncan? Always some outlandish stunt to draw attention to yourself. You’d better be careful: one day people are going to figure out that you’re more show than substance.’

Duncan pursues Kalera all out, using every weapon at his disposal.   It is all fair to Duncan.   He works Kalera through lunch and late into the night so she cannot see Stephen.   He figures out where Kalera and Stephen might be dining and invites himself to dinner.   At one point, he hijacks Kalera and a part of his staff and takes them to a remote estate with the excuse that his top secret project will be better protected if they work in isolation.

Kalera is no mild mannered miss either.   She pretends to be impervious to his rages, which just feeds Duncan’s temper. The reader knows that Kalera could wind Duncan around her finger if she wished.   There’s signalling from the opening pages of the power that only Kalera has over Duncan (only she isn’t aware of it until later).

What I particularly appreciated was that there is no actual villian in this story. While Stephen might have been boring for Kalera, he was the right man for someone else.   Kalera was a widow and her now deceased husband was honored in every mention, particularly by Duncan. The reveal at the end regarding Duncan and Henry, the former husband, and their relationship was novel and touching.   I can’t remember another like it.

This book is such fun to read and I loved the ending.   I am so glad that it is out in eform so everyone can enjoy it.   B+

Best regards,

Jane

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When I first started this book, I wondered if was a reprint of a formerly published book because I felt like I had read it before.  I double checked and no, it was a self published work and possibly your first one.  Yet, I had read a story very similar to this called In Bed with the Boss by Susan Napier which is one of my favorite Napier books.  The more that I read “Working Arrangements”, the more uncomfortable I began to feel.  This wasn’t plagiarism.  There was no overt copying of text but the story sequence that played out was incredibly familiar.

The hero in both books are owners of multi millionaire dollar tech companies.  The heroine in both books is his personal admin.  The heroine in both suffered the loss of a lover.  In In Bed, the heroine lost her husband; In Working Arrangements, the heroine lost her fiance.  In both books, the hero was good friends with the former lover.

The story opens in both books with the heroine admitting that she just got engaged the night before.  In both books, she is afraid to reveal the truth because she knows her boss will not be happy with the results.  It is apparent, from the setup in both books, that the hero has been waiting until the heroine has recovered from the death of her lover in order to make his move.

In both books, the heroine has only been dating a few months and she has been dating a man with whom the hero has had a past bad experience.  In In Bed, the man owns a rival firm and Working Arrangements, the man is a journalist who wrote an untrue story that endangered their business.

There are passages throughout the book that ring with similarity:

In Bed with the Boss: “…You don’t talk to me about the women that you date!’

‘That’s because—’ He broke off, and his eyes narrowed on her pink face. ‘No, I don’t, but that doesn’t prevent you knowing about them, does it? You field my calls, open my mail and have access to my diary and hard drive, and what you don’t know I’m sure the grapevine provides—this place is a hotbed of internal gossip and the network bulletin board seems to keep well up to date with jokes about my social life. I bet you end up knowing the women in my life better than I do!’

Working Arrangements: It is hard to overlook when I am the one who goes through your bills from the florist and the jeweler, isn’t it?’ Hiding her vulnerability behind sarcasm seemed to work, she decided. She was furious with herself for this unfortunate slip of her tongue. ‘You are very generous to your women, Luke. That should certainly be applauded, I admit.’

Both accuse the heroine of being pregnant:

In Bed With the Boss:  His brain was already fast-forwarding to other possibilities. He was piecing together her unease, her embarrassment and unaccustomed reluctance to get to the point. He blanched. ‘Are you pregnant?’

…That was going too far, even for Duncan. Kalera leapt to her feet, her slight body vibrating like a tuning fork as she matched his outrage. ‘For goodness’ sake, what rush? We haven’t even discussed a wedding date yet!’ she yelled. ‘We’ve only just got engaged. Of course I’m not pregnant. Do you know how insulting you are? Believe it or not Stephen wants to marry me; he’s not doing it out of duty or necessity or because he’s been trapped into retrieving my soiled honour. If you’d stop trying to cram words into my mouth you might have time to listen to what I have to say!’

Working Arrangements: ‘Are you pregnant, Laura?’ His face even more forbidding, he glared at her accusingly, his lips one firm line. ‘Is that what it is all about?’

‘Of course not!’ Her angry outburst surprised them both. Laura gritted her teeth with frustration as she lost her usually unshakable control. ‘How can you even think something like that, Luke?’

Both fiances were obsessive and jealous:

In Bed with the Boss: Duncan’s head turned at last, his expression a volatile mixture of bitterness, anger, resignation and contempt. ‘Yes, he had a reason—his own obsession! He always did have a controlling personality but it pushed him to want absolute control in his marriage. He was always demanding to know where Terri had been, expecting her to account for every moment of time she spent away from him, objecting to anything that took her attention away from him—job, friends—both male and female—shopping, family, hobbies…’

Working Arrangements:  ”There were clouds in paradise, mostly because Eric was obsessively jealous about her past, hating any man that had as much as held her hand. He threw so many scenes where he belittled her and her supposed lovers, she finally had enough and told him to take a break and examine his behavior which he took as a confirmation of his suspicions, following her everywhere and even hired a private detective to make sure he knew her every step.”

Here are some other, chapter by chapter comparisons:

CHAPTER 1

In Bed with the Boss:  Story opens at the office. Heroine hands in her resignation in anticipation of her new marriage arrangements to boss’ business rival.  He accuses of her of being pregnant. Frustrated that she is now taking off her rings.

Working Arrangements:  Story opens at the office. Heroine reluctantly reveals secret engagement to boss’ enemy.  He accuses her of being pregnant.  She had been wearing a “sign” on her forehead to keep away.   Eric, the fiance, is planning a big engagement party. Laura reveals that she is not sleeping with Eric.    (See also Ch 2 of In Bed with the Boss)

CHAPTER 2

In Bed with the Boss:  Stephen, the fiance, takes her out to a fancy restaurant. Is planning a big engagement party.  Fiance is banned from the building.  There is a scene that takes place in the restaurant between hero, heroine, and fiance.

Working Arrangements:  Laura’s car breaks down. Luke and Laura go to her house for dinner. Have a passionate encounter. Eric calls and she feels guilty.  Eric is banned from calling heroine at work.    (See Ch 7 of In Bed with the Boss)

CHAPTER 3

In Bed with the Boss:  Kalera and Duncan are dancing and recalling the first dance they shared three years earlier when Kalera was married.

Working Arrangements:  She tells Luke that she will be resigning and going to work for Eric.    (See Ch 1 and 4 of In Bed with the Boss)

CHAPTER 4

In Bed with the Boss:  They mention, obliquely, a sexual encounter that occurred 18 months previously while Kalera was grieving and lonely. This sexual encounter was initiated by Kalera.  Kalera admits she is not sleeping with Stephen.  The story swings back to the restaurant where Kalera meets Stephen’s ex Terri.

Working Arrangements:  Laura remembers the sexual encounter that she and Luke shared around Christmas approximately three years prior wherein she was the sexual aggressor.

CHAPTER 5

In Bed with the Boss:  The scene opens with Kalera back at work.She is thinking about the end of the evening and how Stephen railed about his break up, making her very uncomfortable.  The rest of the chapter is spent watching Duncan and Kalera banter and then work.  Assistant says that if it was anyone that Kalera was going to hook up with, everyone thought it would be Duncan.

Anna shovelled her make-up back into her shiny black bag. ‘Yeah, well…I think it’s too weird,’ she sighed. ‘I mean, I always thought that, if you got it on with anyone, for sure it would be the chief.’

….

Amazingly Anna seemed to understand her incoherent fumblings. ‘Oh, I know he was happy to, you know, like—worship you from afar with his respect and all that while he thought you were still hung up about losing Harry, but jeez, you must have noticed he behaves differently around you…He doesn’t flirt the way he does with other women, and he’s always sort of gentle—you know, as if he’s trying to slow himself down to your speed…’

Working Arrangements:  The scene opens with Laura back at work.  She thinks back to the dinner she had with Eric where the his ex showed.  Ex confronts Laura in the bathroom.   Several pages are given over contemplating the past and how the ex made heroine ponder some heretofore unknown flaws in the fiance.  Ex is fashionable and gorgeous.  It also swings back to a previous day in which the heroine visited friends.   This is part of a storyline that is much different than In Bed With the Boss.

CHAPTER 6

In Bed with the Boss:  Scene opens at work with Kalera at her desk. Stephen is upset because he can’t get through on the phone.  Kalera contemplates her life without Duncan, without her job and she feels uneasy.  They interview possible replacements with Duncan liking all the hot ones and Kalera liking all the older, married, male, or lesbian candidates.Kalera cuts herself and Duncan comes over and sucks her finger. The assistant walks in on them.

Working Arrangements:  Scene opens at work with Laura at her desk.An assistant wonders as to Laura’s engagement to someone else:

‘I am not so sure he is having so much fun nowadays, Laura… Sometimes I’m almost sorry to see him trying so hard to be on his best behavior all the time. As if he wants to prove to you he isn’t the crazy Casanova you wrote him off as from the moment you joined us at the office, Laura. Too bad you don’t ever notice. Everyone else does, though.’

They make out and the assistant walks in on them.

Luke admits he’s found a replacement for her.    (See Ch 5 of In Bed with the Boss)

CHAPTER 7

In Bed with the Boss:  Kalera and Duncan are at her house after a long day of work. She agrees to cook for him, something simple. (This the scene from Ch. 1 in the other book)  They are having an intimate moment when Stephen calls.

Working Arrangements:  Laura is at work, training her hot new replacement Belinda.Laura is getting ready for her engagement party. An anonymous gift comes with a necklace. It’s modest and perfect. Laura thinks it is from her fiance, Eric.    (See Ch 9 of In Bed with the Boss)

CHAPTER 8

In Bed with the Boss:  Kalera and Duncan go off to Kalera’s parents’ home after she finds her car disabled and must receive assistance from Duncan.  She learns that her fiance ex has a son. Duncan tells her that it is her fiance’s but her fiance is convinced (wrongly) that it is Duncan’s.

Working Arrangements:  The story opens with the very posh engagement party. It is filled with very fashionable people who have responded to the “perfectly designed invitations that Eric ordered to be delivered with his usual attention to detail.”  Eric is upset that she wore such a simplistic necklace and that she thought it was from him. He wanted her to wear something else.Luke arrives at the party with Elaine. Eric challenges their entrance because you can’t come in without an invitation. Luke presents one that Laura had given him.  Eric and Laura are dancing when Eric sees something going on with Elaine. He leaves Laura in the middle of the dance floor and chases after Elaine.

Luke comes and takes Elaine away.  (See Ch 9 of In Bed with the Boss)

CHAPTER 9

In Bed with the Boss:  The scene opens at the very posh engagement party. The party is packed with everyone who has accepted “Stephen’s gilt-edged invitations” Kalera is upset that Duncan has hired a drop dead gorgeous admin by the name of Bettina.  Kalera is wearing a dress that she received with an unsigned note. She believes it is from Stephen.  Stephen denies it is from him and is aghast she would think he would send her such a loud dress.  Duncan arrives at the party with Terri. Stephen challenges him and says they cannot enter without an invitation. Duncan produces one with Stephen calls a forgery.  During the party, tension swirls around Terri and Stephen.   They face off in the middle of the dance floor. Kalera heads over to smooth things over.   Stephen barely notices Kalera and runs after Terri, leaving Kalera standing alone in the middle of the dance floor.

Duncan takes her away.

Working Arrangements:  Laura goes to Luke’s house, where he has his own private beach, and they make love.    (See Ch 10 of In Bed with the Boss)

CHAPTER 10

In Bed with the Boss:  Duncan takes Kalera and his team to a hideaway to finish an important and secret project.   He takes her to the beach because he loves it there.  They make love. He admits his feelings for her. HEA.

Working Arrangements:  Laura finds out that her former fiance cheated on her and had a child. The child was given to the mom who recently died. Guardianship transferred to friends of Laura’s.Chapter Eleven resolves the feelings of uncertainty Laura has due to Luke’s complicity in hiding Joshua’s love child.

****

It’s hard for me to grade this book.  On it’s own, it’s probably a C-.   There are deviations in Working Arrangements but I enjoyed the choices that Napier made better.  Napier has better facility with dialogue and she’s able to eek out strong emotion with a lot less internal monologuing.   Napier’s characters are more vivid and she took greater chances by having the hero not only being good friends with the deceased husband and not diminishing the deceased husband in any fashion.  In fact, in Napier’s book the hero feels that his honor which had been impugned long ago by the fiance was redeemed by being a true friend to the deceased husband.  Working Arrangements also suffered from grammatical problems such as wrong word usage and pronoun misuse.

There was too much internal monologue.  The decision to use only the female POV is challenging because the author has to convey the feelings of the hero fairly obviously while still maintaing a believable fiction of uncertainty of the heroine.  Napier is so much better at this than Wolf.   I settled on a D but frankly, I find this type of book troubling.

Best regards,

Jane

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As an aside, I did send a facebook message to the author asking if she had read the Napier book in question but have not received a response. I would send an email but there is no email address or contact form on her website.  Update:  Ms. Wolf did reply that she has never read In Bed with the Boss by Susan Napier before.

Related posts:

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2. REVIEW: Private Arrangements by Sherry Thomas
3. Best First Book Nominee: Private Arrangements by Sherry Thomas

Most of your writing works well for me so it probably comes as no surprise that this is one of my favorite historicals published this month.  In the foothills of Sierra Nevada, the year 1850, two miners come upon the remains of a wagon train and in amongst a pile of rocks, they find a young girl clutching a tin of Dr. Eli Kennedy’s Comfort Lozenges.  They take her with them and end up keeping her for twenty years. Comfort, as they call her, ends up being the best thing that happened to Newton Prescott and Tucker Jones.  Deciding that mining wasn’t a way to make a living, they begin to offer banking services and miners feel that a father figure must be trustworthy.  Twenty years later, Comfort Kennedy is the heir to a banking fortune and her good friend Bram DeLong decides to take advantage of this by announcing their engagement at his brother’s birthday party.  Bram and Comfort have been long time friends but Bram’s precipitous announcement places that friendship in jeopardy.

Comfort has never received a proposal to Bram.  Comfort has always had strong feelings for Bram but he is flighty and unreliable and no matter how much her romantic heart might yearn for an attachment with Bram this announcement shows how little care Bram has for her and her pragmatic side acknowledges that Bram will never be the partner in life she seeks.

Bode, or Beareguard De Long (Beau DeLong became Bode), is the eldest of the two DeLong brothers. Ostensibly they own a profitable shipping company, but the truth is that the now dead patriarch of the DeLong ran the shipping company aground and the DeLong fortunes rely upon the public appearance of wealth while Bode attempts to save the company.   He loves the shipping company, has strong feelings about his dead father, tolerates his mother, and while he loves his brother, Bram, he recognizes Bram’s faults. Oh, and he’s held a secret torch for Comfort for years.

Comfort is surprised to learn both that Bode has had feelings for her. In fact, both Bram and Comfort are taken aback by Bram. As Bram points out, Comfort always leaves the room when Bode comes in:

“I’m certain I will talk to her, but not about you.  I’m going to throw my hat in the ring, Bram.  I thought it was fair to let you know.”

“Throw your hat in the ring?  Fight me for her, you mean?”  He looked down at himself and then at Bode.  “How is that fair?”

“I hope it won’t come to a fight.  I recognize you’re at a disadvantage, but I know you’re not helpless.  You never are.”

Bram pushed himself as upright as he was able.  “She won’t have you, Bode.  You scare her.  You always have.  It can’t have escaped your notice that when you walk into a room, she walks out.”

“Oh, I’ve noticed.”  Bode dropped his feet to the floor and rose from his chair.  Favoring his brother with a faint but consciously shrewd smile, he buttoned his jacket.  “You’re so used to women showing interest in a particular and obvious way that you don’t know that some of them reveal it in another.”

“Wait!” Bram called after Bode as he started to leave.  “What are you saying?”

Rather than the two characters having distinct character arcs moving the story forward, the romance is the main attraction bolstered by the threat to Comfort’s life as well as the removal of that threat. The story also has a strong family subtext. Comfort’s family was created but solid and loving where as Bode’s family life was outwardly normal but inside the family home doors it was beset with a father throwing their future away on the war for the South, Bode going off to fight for the North, a feckless brother, and a mother more interested in appearances that support. The contrasts were interesting.

Part of the story takes place on one of the ships of Bode’s family and I much preferred the story when it was land locked. I enjoyed the time spent in Comfort’s home and her bank; the shipping offices; and the DeLong home. I felt some of the period feel slipped away on the ship.

There are two main problems with this story.  The first is connected to Comfort’s past.  I thought that the connection of the past to the present stretched believability to the snapping point. I wished that part of the story had actually just been left out.  It was simply too convenient and lacked the polish the rest of the story presented.  Second, I adored Comfort’s dads but I actually wished the two were a gay couple instead of two men who had outside interests.  I struggled to believe that neither man would marry out of respect for Comfort even though one of them had a long time attachment to another woman.  However, these two things did not mar my enjoyment of the romance. I thought both Comfort and Bode were lovely and closed the book with a feeling of satisfaction. B.

Best regards,

Jane

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Related posts:

1. Kensington’s Comfort View
2. The Power of the Comfort Read
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The cheesy title refers to the epilogue, but I’m glad I took the time to dive into The Bride Wore Blue.

JD “Blue” Hazzard fell in love with Maggie “Stretch” Adams when they were teenagers, and his unrequited love has remained for fifteen years. He followed her career (she is an internationally known model), and when he happens to be flying his plane over the  lake where Maggie spent that one summer and spots a bombshell out in a bathing suit he has to land for a better look. What he finds is the woman of his dreams, is back in the Northern lakes remote wilderness and he is determined to win her love.

I didn’t think it was cute that the hero disabled his plane so that he had to stay over at her place after speaking with her for the first time in 15 years. Rather the opposite – much of the characters motivations and reactions bothered me. I did find some of the dialogue and scenes to be both fun and descriptive enough to have me right there in the northern wilderness of Minnesota. One of my favorite moments was when he stole a kiss:

“What?” He moved closer, even though he’d heard every word. “I can’t hear you. The noise,” he yelled, angling a thumb back toward the plane as he lowered his head until his ear was a whisper away from her mouth.

“I said, I think I’ll leave that to you!” she shouted.

“Aw, Stretch.” He cupped her shoulders in his hands and gave her his most soulful look. “I don’t want to leave you either!”

She shook her head vehemently. “No. That’s not what I said!”

“You’d feel bad if I was dead?”

She rolled her eyes. “I don’t believe this.”

“A kiss? Jeez, Stretch. I thought you’d never ask.”

She hadn’t any more than opened her mouth to adamantly correct him when he lowered his head to hers.

There was something to be said for surprise attacks. Something to be said for a shocked, pliant woman and the sneak-up-on-you chill of a slow, creeping sunset that drew heat to heat, heartbeat to heartbeat.

When I read this book I could see glimmers of the Cindy Gerard I know and love as an author. She manages to draw me in, make me care about the characters, and as cliché as this is – has such a way with words.

The heroine drove me absolutely nuts. “Most beautiful woman alive” type characters are hard enough to like without adding in some bonehead moves and an overall poor outlook on life. Maggie was raised in a lot of different foster homes growing up, and eventually found herself in New York (becoming famous) and in a relationship that now haunts her. She has the hunted delicate animal, won’t some big strong man save me and love me, and overall “poor me I’m a victim” attitude down pat. She can’t open up, love isn’t an option… it doesn’t tug at my heartstrings but instead made me want to slap her. When she finally opens up about the details of her hard life it’s too little too late for me. I found myself playing a sad song on a tiny violin for Maggie the rich, beautiful super model.

There was a little bit of plot with her ex (which was wholly unsatisfying) as well as a side plot regarding bear poachers that seemed to be a part of the book to explain why the hero was flying his plane around her cabin and to set us up with more info about the hero who will be featured in the next book (A bride for Abel Greene). Other than that, not much happened and the story was a dud.

Grade: C+

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Book #2:  A Bride for Abel Greene

Mackenzie Kincaid walks herself up to Abel Greene’s cabin in Northern Minnesota in the dead of winter, her fifteen year old trouble making bad boy brother in tow. After attacking him and his dog, she realizes this is the man that she came to see. This giant of a man is in fact the one who advertised for a bride, he is the one she came to marry.

This story is a lot of emotions and conversation, very little action. The bulk takes place inside Abel’s cabin (the one he built himself), and issues of trust and love between Abel, Mackenzie, and the troubled fifteen year old brother she has brought with her to the wilderness. She is very open about the fact that she is broke, desperate, and in want of a man to take care of her and her brother.

 Only the bottom line kept her from giving it up, begging him to forget the whole thing and hightailing it back to L.A. They couldn’t go back. She needed Abel Greene. He didn’t know it yet, but he was going to be their savior. This place was going to be their sanctuary…

Oh yes, this would-be bride who responded to an ad that Abel wished he had never placed is not the most forward thinking female. Never does searching for work, or her helping financially enter the picture she is just going to be his wife. While I admire that she was working and caring for her brother back in Los Angeles, she was so totally unprepared for the wilderness and so lacking in common sense it definitely hurt my enjoyment of the book. When she first walks up to Abel’s cabin she encounters a wolf and decides to fling her bag at it and run. After that brilliant move, she decides to attack Abel (aka hulking stranger on the cabin steps), and even after realizing that this is her potential husband she decides to punch the man:

 She was out of control and she knew it. All her fears, all her failures, erupted as reckless, righteous outrage.

Drawing a deep, ragged breath, she tried to settle herself down. She tried to gather her composure. She even tried to smile—but when his scowl only deepened, she did the one thing she couldn’t have stopped if the earth had tilted and stopped turning.

With all the force of her one hundred five pounds—and emotions tried beyond all limits—she hauled back and slugged Abel Greene in his jutting jaw.

She got a grunt of surprise for her efforts…and possibly a broken knuckle.

Past shock, beyond fear, she stared, as above the thick collar of his wool jacket, the veins on his neck expanded, full and pulsing. Beneath the edge of his black stocking cap, another vein bulged at his temple. And over the roar of blood rushing through her ears, she heard yet one more distinct, crude oath that in English or any other language could never be mistaken for “Glad you could make it.”

 

The woman also screamed when she got up onto a horse, in addition to assaulting Abel for no good reason and making me so very glad for more modern and self-reliant heroines.

Abel has his own secrets and past – including that he is former CIA and freelance mercenary. Abel Greene has so much in common with the heroes that Cindy Gerard has become known for, and everything from his scowls to his tender big marshmallow heart melted this reader. He is so very lonely, and so wants to find love and companionship but is afraid to reach out for it.

Despite the lack of much in the way of a story, and the utter cringe-worthy ness of this shrieking ninny of a heroine, I really liked how the characters and romance progressed and how their conflicts resolved, even if things felt cut short and neatly wrapped up at the end.

Grade: C

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Book #3:  A Bride for Crimson Falls

The third in this trilogy, we go to the Crimson Falls Hotel which is run by Scarlet and her teenage daughter Casey. The hotel is in bad repair, and while her friends (aka the leads of the previous novels) are concerned and want to help she will not accept charity. Instead, she has a raffle that raises $40,000 and gives the winner partial ownership in the hotel. As the story opens Colin Slater (the winner of the raffle) is arriving at the hotel to spend a few relaxing weeks at the insistence of his friends.

I was looking forward to this book because I have liked Scarlet and her daughter when they appeared in the previous books. I was not disappointed – I really liked these characters. I could clearly understand the motivations, and I really liked the supporting cast of characters as much as the leads. Scarlet was no weak miss hoping for a man to swoop in and save her. She’s hard working, independent, smart, and I wish I’d had more time to see her improve her business and get things going the way she wanted.

Her unprecedented reaction to him had done more than rattle her. It had made her forget who she was and what she stood for. She didn’t lie. She didn’t posture. And she sure as the world didn’t call a shovel a teaspoon. It was time for some honesty.

“The bald truth, Mr. Slater, is that I’m preoccupied because of you. I lied when I said it wasn’t a problem for you to be here. I lied when I said I understand that you want to check out your investment. The fact of the matter is—”

“You resent my presence? You don’t want me meddling?” he suggested, walking up beside her.

Her chin went up a notch. She shrugged apologetically. “I’m sorry, but yes. It’s nothing personal. It’s just that—”

Again he supplied the words she hadn’t quite worked up the candor to voice. “You needed my money, not my advice.”

Because his conclusions were so dead-on accurate, she averted her gaze from eyes that had gone soft with understanding. She fussed at a stain on the countertop.

“You know, you’re making it awfully hard to dislike you.”

“Good. Because you’re going to have to trust me on this one. There’s no need. I’m not here because I’m interested in my investment.”

Her head came up. She eyed him with doubt of the hopeful variety. “No?”

“No.”

He sounded sincere.

Our hero is a wealthy businessman who does large scale renovation projects, but he also sees no profit or gain from this particular hotel. In fact, he wants nothing to do with it or nature. While he realizes that his life is nothing but work (and maybe he doesn’t like that) I can appreciate at the same time that he doesn’t decide to see the hotel as a lucrative venture when it’s so clearly not one. It is an old historic building in need of a lot of repair and work.

This novel was by far the strongest of the three, finding a nice balance between a budding romance, characters with a past, a strong supporting cast of characters (including a prostitute’s ghost) and finding a place of happily ever after. My complaint with this one was the way the poor country heroine, rich city hero situation worked out. His motives felt true, but it bothered me never the less.

Grade: B+

From May F., Confessions of a Chocoholic

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If you want to write a guest review of a newly digitized backlist title, please send them to jane @ dearauthor.com

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3. My First Sale by Cindy Gerard

Sometimes I think a reader connects to a writer in ways that can’t quite be articulated.  I’ve felt that way about your work for a while so I don’t know how reliable of a recommender of your books that I am.  What I connect with is the authenticity of the characters, the fresh take on people not only falling in love but figuring out how they fit together.

This is a story about opposites: vivacious Vivienne Jansen and taciturn, wounded soldier Ross Coltrane.

Vivienne Jansen is an identical twin but she and her sister, Merry, have never been close.  Merry has always fit in and Vivienne was just a bit too colorful for the rural New Zealand farming community where she grew up.  In fact, Vivienne hated being a twin.  She sought out her own group of friends and pursued very different activities than her sister.  In her family of three children, she was the least responsible and the most flighty.  Vivienne moved away and became a very well known costumer designer for movies.  Because she’s disconnected with her family, she rarely comes home.  But when Merry calls on her for help, Vivienne flies from New York to New Zealand.  Merry has broken her leg while interviewing for a job in a city an hour south and she is afraid that if Charlie finds out she’s thinking about moving away, he’ll sue for full custody.  Thus begins the twin swap.  Vivienne pretends to be Merry only the swap is only supposed to be for a few days.  Through a set of circumstances, Vivienne is forced to pretend to be Merry for much longer of a period of time, negotiating a reconciliation with Charlie and trying to handle the tasks of being a parent to two kids (the older daughter sussing out the fraud right away).

The only thing that matters in Ross Coltrane’s life is getting back into active service with the SAS, an elite branch of the Australian military and his brother Charlie.  Unintentionally, perhaps, Ross played a big role in Charlie and Merry’s breakup.  After Merry confessed that a man at her work had kissed her, Charlie went straight to Ross who asked him whether the two were in love in anymore and perhaps subtly encouraged Charlie to leave Merry.  You can’t blame Ross.  His father remarried a bitch of a woman who absolutely treated Ross like dirt.  Ross’ view of marriage is a dim one.

Ross susses out the twin swap in fairly short order after experiencing an erotic dream about his supposed sister in law.  He’d never felt that way about Merry before but he had been attracted to her twin.  In fact, they struck sparks off each other eight years ago at Merry and Charlie’s wedding but Ross turned Vivienne’s invitation down.

Throughout the story, Ross and Merry navigate Charlie and Merry’s problems, talking about what makes a marriage work.  They’ve picked sides, of course, but because they are outsiders, they aren’t as defensive as Charlie and Merry would be.  When Ross points out that Merry didn’t allow for any mistakes, Vivienne jumps to Merry’s defense but inwardly agrees. Vivienne, herself, has always felt that Merry has impossibly high standards.  When Vivienne says that Charlie stopped paying attention to Merry, Ross disagreed but also wondered if Charlie shouldn’t try to exert himself more.

As Vivienne and Ross take up the parts of a fueding married couple, the subtext is their mutual fear of commitment.  Ross, in particular, is driven to get revenge for the loss of two of his fellow SAS brothers who died when an IED  exploded under a Dumvee he was driving.

“How do you do it, Ross? How do you make peace with death?”

“I don’t. Grief is fuel to get me where I need to be.”

“Which is Afghanistan?”

The same accident injured Ross’ leg to the point that no one but Ross believes he can ever achieve active duty status again.  Vivienne has always had a hankering for Ross but, in general, Vivienne doesn’t commit.  Primarily because no one has ever expected Vivienne to stick but the twin swap puts Vivienne through a fiery trial of responsibility and commitment.  There is a HEA in this book but it’s not a traditional one.  But it fit the characters.   Plus, these two talk to each other.  They argue.  They disagree.  The way in which they converse is proof to me that their problems won’t be brushed under the carpet.  One  will always call bullshit on the other.

Ross took off the whistle. “Tell Til I’m sorry. Take over. I thought I could put a lid on this, but I can’t. I can’t.”

“Don’t walk away,” she said. “Only you can fix this with Tilly.”

“I can’t even fix myself,” he said harshly.

Viv took a deep breath. “You know your pity party is getting really old.”

“What?”

“Life’s chosen another path for you, so suck it up and quit blaming my brother and the unit for not letting you play out your revenge fantasies,” she said brutally. “Steve’s and Lee’s deaths were tragic, but using anger to fill the void left by their passing won’t solve anything. Deal with your grief, Ross.”

His gaze met hers. “Who am I if I’m not a soldier?”

She had to dig her hands in the pockets of her sweatpants not to touch him. “You’re still a soldier,” she said crisply. “It’s only your mission that’s changed. Quit serving the Iceman’s ego and serve where you’re needed. And right now, that’s here.”

I genuinely enjoyed reading about Ross and Vivienne.  Vivienne was colorful and fun, but she had a big heart and was willing to make herself vulnerable time and again.  Ross was dedicated but he also had  a wicked and perverse sense of humor.   My biggest complaint is that I think there was a little too much going on in this short space.  Like Here Comes the Groom, I felt like the story could have used another 10,000 or so words to give us a little more private Ross and Vivienne time.   Still, maybe that is because I like the characters so much that I am loathe to let them go.  B

Best regards,

Jane

P.S. Harlequin, you have some of the most godawful titles, covers and blurbs in this line.  If there is ever a line that is SCREAMING for a makeover, it is this line.  It really needs some help.  Plus, I wouldn’t be adverse to a little more sexiness to the stories.  After all, these are all adults.

Goodreads | Amazon | BN | nook | Sony | Kobo | Harlequin

Related posts:

1. REVIEW: Here Comes the Groom by Karina Bliss
2. REVIEW: What the Librarian Did by Karina Bliss
3. Karina Bliss’ What the Librarian Did Giveaway

In honor of Edmund Rostand today’s film review is for Cyrano de Bergerac. It’s swashbuckling, it’s funny, it’s romantic and it’s ultimately tragic. It’s perfect for clearing out the tear ducts by either weeping in a hankie or crying in your beer. Whatever works for you.

Hercule Savinien Cyrano de Bergerac (Gerard Depardieu) is a man of many talents. A poet, wit and Cadet in a predominantly Gascon company he’s also got an enormous nose which he thinks will prevent him from ever being loved by the woman he’s loved for years, his distant cousin Roxane (Anne Brochet). Roxane is desired by the Comte de Guiche (Jacques Weber) who schemes to marry her off to a protege in order to then have her as his mistress.

But Roxane loves the handsome young Christian de Neuvillette (Vincent Perez), something she confesses to Cyrano as she begs him to watch out for Christian in the rough and tumble company of Gascons. Unable to deny her anything, Cyrano pledges to help his rival who, though handsome of face, is hopeless with words – something vitally important to Roxane, a preciouse.

Thus Cyrano provides the letters and words for Christian to woo Roxane culminating in a quick marriage to fend off the advances of de Guiche who then takes his revenge by ordering the Cadets to the front lines of the siege of Arras. Cyrano braves enemy lines to continue to send letters to Roxane, presumably written to her by Christian, and as the siege continues she falls in love with the “Christian” of the letters more than the handsome face.

Arriving at the siege just before a momentous battle, Roxane confesses this to Christian, telling him she’d love him even were he ugly. Determined to end the subterfuge, Christian urges Cyrano to tell her the truth to discover whom she would really choose. But just as Cyrano’s about to confess all, Christian is mortally wounded. Giving up the chance to win his love, Cyrano continues the charade even in the fourteen years after Christian’s death when Roxane retreats to a convent and mourns her lost husband.

Cyrano pays her weekly visits to update her on current gossip until one evening when enemies he’s made with his uncompromising opinions ambush and wound him. Staggering to the convent and knowing he’ll die from his wound, he begs Roxane to allow him to read “Christian’s” final letter. As he recites it from memory in the growing dusk, Roxane finally realizes the truth as she recognizes the voice which wooed her so many years before. Far gone in delirium, Cyrano “battles” past enemies then, rejoicing that he’s never lost his panache, he dies in Roxane’s arms.

The title of the film gives away who the most important character is and in Depardieu the film makers found the perfect man. He embodies the definition of the panache so important to Cyrano – someone who has a dashing confidence of style, or shows a certain flamboyance and courage. But he can also portray the reticence and yearning of a man hopelessly in love with a woman he feels he can never win. Depardieu straps this role on and for the duration of it he *is* Cyrano. Watch how he can deliver an impromptu poem even as he fights a duel then later see the heartbreaking look on his face after the famous balcony scene in which he finally wins Roxane for another man.

In the roles of Christian and Roxane, Perez and Brochet play the pretty people. These can be thankless roles since, let’s be honest, Christian is supposed to be a handsome idiot who can’t string three words together while Roxane can’t see the soul deep love that’s right – pardon the pun – under her nose.

Perez manages to convince me that Christian’s a romantic soul burdened by a lack of eloquence and tongue tied in the presence of the beautiful Roxane. He’s also man enough to want to ultimately win Roxane as himself rather than the product of Cyrano’s wordplay. But handsome as Perez is, he seems to shrink when onscreen with the larger than life performance Depardieu delivers.

Brochet is beautiful and luminous in her role. She can also deliver a mean “overcome by the poetry” swoon while reading the letters Cyrano writes. I’ve seen her performance panned but compared to other versions she does adequately present Roxane as an example of the 17th century intelligent, literary women of Paris who delighted in words and demanded wit and conversation from their men.

I’m able to excuse Roxane’s dreadful lack of insight because of a scene she shares with Cyrano during which she recalls their childhood. As Brochet plays it, we can see how she basically takes Cyrano for granted in her life yet still loves and cares for him as evinced by her concern over a wound he suffered while fighting almost a 100 men the night before. When the blinders finally fall from her eyes, I can see the truth of her finally realized love and the depths of her loss as this man leaves her life forever.

The French production is marvelous with costumes and scenery that sweep me to mid 17th century Paris but without too much ick. I don’t want an overabundance of ick clouding my teary eyed watching experience and ruining the moment. The music is simultaneously grand and romantic while also haunting and foreshadowing the tragic ending to come. The film featured thousands of extras and includes some dramatic battle sequences as well as a sequence I particularly like of the Gascon troops marching out of Paris in a torch lit night scene.

But the film isn’t constant pathos and drama. There’s a good bit of humor and comedy in it. Watch for how Cyrano distracts Roxane’s duenna (Josiane Stoléru) with the delicious cream puffs made in Ragueneau’s (Roland Bertin) pâtisserie. Meanwhile, Ragueneau agonizes over his – subpar – poems which his exasperated wife is now using to wrap bakery sales with. There’s also physical comedy from Cyrano and Christian as they duck and dodge Roxane while delivering letters in Paris.

And swashbuckling. Let’s not forget that. Cyrano fights a duel while delivering a poem then takes on a bully brigade single handedly. The swaggering machismo and eagerness of the Gascon cadets to perceive insult in nothing and be ready to fight at the drop of a hat are seen both in Paris and during the siege. I also love the comeuppance Cyrano delivers to de Guiche – also at the siege – when he whips out a scarf dropped by the Comte as he fled during the heat of battle and which Cyrano casually announces he picked up as he charged into it.

This is a vastly entertaining movie from many angles. It also makes me wish I had kept up my French language lessons. The English subtitles use Anthony Burgess’s translation of the text, which preserves the rhyming of the original, but I can only imagine the power of the story in the original French. I’ve watched it a couple of times in the past weeks and can honestly say I think it gets better with each viewing. Check it out if you’ve never seen it and see if you agree. B+

~Jayne

Oh, that’s right, I promised a word or three on another version that might interest some and here we go. It’s the silent 1925 edition which I found holds up remarkably well 86 years later. It’s long for a silent film clocking in at 113 minutes. The title cards might take a little bit of time to get used to as they’re shown in a dual language Spanish/English translation. I like the hand coloring that’s been done and am amazed at the 3 year effort that took.

Cyrano is played by middle aged Pierre Magnier who is stuck with an awful hat and clown mustaches but still manages to show such depth of feeling for Roxane. Linda Moglia is little more than a pretty twit while Angelo Ferrari as Christian is given enough raccoon eye liner to make Johnny Depp jealous.

The crowd and battle scenes are surprisingly extensive for the day. Watch for the great opening sequences of Paris. The musical score is much better than most heard in silent films and conveys not only the emotion and action of the scenes but also serves as sort of early foley sound effects.

It’s certainly not up to the 1990 one but it’s worth looking for just for comparison.

Related posts:

1. Friday Film Review: Latter Days
2. Friday Film Review: Bardelys the Magnificent
3. Friday Film Review: Ever After

They all have the same flaw too. The books are too short for the conflicts that are presented and I didn’t necessarily believe in their “I love yous” even though I wanted to. I would have loved to have read these all in category format rather than novella format.

Heat of the Moment, pubbed June 2008. This is the first book and I wondered if it was the shortest of all. The romance relies heavily on the idea that much of the build up to the romance took place before the story started. Bakery owner Shelby Harper has lusted after John Garrett for over a year but overture after overture has been turned away. John, for his all his reported reputation as a ladies’ man, has not been ignoring these signals. In fact, he’s been sending out some subtle signals of his own but Shelby never responds to him. I guess John thinks that Shelby’s flirting with him has been nothing more than friendly talk. One night, while the team is hanging out at her bakery during a blackout, enjoying her television and the Padres game, she overhears John talking with another teammate about her that perhaps Shelby is too innocent for a guy like John. Shelby decides to prove that she isn’t as vanilla as John suspects and propositions John and his teammate to a threesome.

John and Shelby’s ineptness at getting together is kind of laughably bad. I mean, John makes some comment about wanting to fondle her breasts but Shelby doesn’t see this as coming on to her and Shelby is rubbing an icecube all over her chest and John doesn’t get that she is coming on to him?

I found the threesome a bit strange because John was reluctant because he really didn’t want to share Shelby but figured if this was the only opportunity to have Shelby, he would take it.

And for all Shelby’s desire for John, it is tempered with the fact that her ex was a marine who cheated on her regularly. She’s a bit gun shy on signing up for another relationship with a guy who is a) a well known man whore and b) who is a Navy SEAL. I liked this conflict and wished it would have taken precedence over their mistaken, requited lusts. The menage, while hot, seemed awkward and misplaced and in a short space, that sex scene could have been a catalyst for something more meaningful rather than just a “let’s get dirty” scene for a conflict that had a weak underpinning. C

Book Link | Kindle | nook |
| Sony| KoboBooks

Heat of Passion, pubbed May 2009. This one is my favorite of the series. Carson Scott is the teammate in John’s book that serves as the third in John’s reluctant menage. Carson is another man whore who has come to the realization that he really doesn’t want to live that life anymore, particularly after seeing how happy John and Shelby are. His resolution to start a meaningful relationship is ground to dust though when a sexy brunette invites him to dance and then lures him into a supply closet. Carson has ground shaking sex with the girl named Jessica, but she flees before he can get any information from him. Carson is actually a bit disgusted at himself and wonders when he became “that” guy, the guy that has nameless sex in supply rooms in bars.

He spots the mystery girl waiting tables at his friend’s wedding and tries to strike up a conversation with her. Maybe their great sexual chemistry can be the basis for something more permanent. The problem is that Holly Lawson (aka Jessica) is too busy for a boyfriend. She’s trying to finish cooking school, start a catering business, deal with her family who has come to rely on her after their mother died. All she wants is the anonymous hot sex in a supply room closet at the bar. It’s all she has time for. But when she sees Carson again, the lust neurons fire up and she proposes a casual sex only fling.

For a short this story is replete with fun fun scenes. For instance, at the wedding, Carson is so intrigued by Jessica/Holly sighting that he inadvertently makes a noise right at the point the priest asks if anyone is objecting to the union:

Garrett and Shelby instantly swiveled their heads in his direction, shock clearly etched in their faces.

"What? No," Carson said quickly, keeping his voice low. He turned to the preacher. "No. I'm not speaking. I'm forever holding my peace. These two belong together. Please, just go on."

"I'm going to kick your ass for this," Garrett muttered before turning his attention back to the ceremony.

Shelby just glared at him.

Fuck. Wonderful. Now everyone and their mother would think Carson objected to this union. Damn caterer and her broken bra.

Then there is the mini golf game Carson has with his teammate and superior officer, Will Charleston. LT Charleston has a habit of calling Carson “Ensign” when Charleston was feeling cranky. And speaking of authentic banter:

"Okay, best friend." Carson started the car and reversed out of the parking spot. "So this best friend, what does she do, you know, for a living?"

"She makes jewelry."

"Is she any good?"

To Carson's extreme astonishment, Will let out a long, genuine laugh. "Actually, no. Her jewelry sucks. She knows it, everyone in town knows it, but people humor her because she won't accept money for-’" He halted instantly.

Curiosity trickled through him. "She won't accept money for what? Oh man, is she a hooker?"

"She's not a fucking hooker," Will shot back, his features twisting with fury. "Jesus."

"Then what does she do, aside from making bad jewelry?"

and

Will laughed. Jeez, two laughs in the span of ten minutes.
Maybe he was drunk. "Since when do you date?"

"Since now."

The other man nodded wisely. "Ah, so you realized it's time to grow up."

"Something like that."

"And you like this girl?"

"From what I know so far, yeah," he admitted.

Will gave a careless shrug. "Then have sex with her."

"Did you not just hear a word I said?" Carson said in frustration.

"Sure I did. But the way I see it, it's your in. Call her up, tell her you're up for a fling, and then slowly work on her to try the dating thing."

"She was pretty determined to do the fling thing, man."

"Then change her mind. You're a SEAL, she's a cute little waif. How hard could it be?

For some reason, Will calling Holly a cute little waif had me laughing out loud. Why? I have no idea. Don’t judge me.

and the good natured sex:

"Damn. I won't last long," he admitted in a raspy voice.

"Then come. You know, to take the edge off," she said, mimicking his earlier words. "But next time, I expect at least a full hour of serious thrusting and pumping to make up for this debacle."

So yeah, I enjoyed this one a lot. In fact, Holly and Carson are my favorite couple of the series and they appear in later books, much to my amusement. I thought the conflict was well suited for the length of the story and believably resolved. This was definitely worth the $2.50 I paid for it and then some. B+

Book Link | Kindle |   nook
| Sony| KoboBooks |

Heat of the Storm, pubbed July 2009. This one is about Will and his non hooker psychic childhood friend who he has loved since they were kids. Will has always allowed himself to play the friend role for Mackenzie even though it kind of kills him to see her with other guys. Mackenzie has loved Will since they were kids too, but he’s the one stable thing in her life. She has no one if she doesn’t have Will and so she isn’t about to ruin their friendship with sex and love, neither of which last.

Will has decided he is tired of waiting and catches Mackenzie with her guard down and they proceed to have lights out sex but that isn’t enough to make Mackenzie acknowledge that a relationship could work for them. Let’s face it. Mackenzie is kind of a dimwit. I understand her reluctance to proceed with a meaningless relationship but she’s known Will for years. Either she knows he is a devoted stand up guy or she doesn’t. Her psychic visions which have ominous warnings is a weak excuse for not becoming involved with Will. She is already involved and the portrayal of her as the reluctant makes her appear myopic. Maybe her inward eye is too focused on what was happening in the future than what was right before her face.

What saves the book for me are the shenanigans that Holly pulls to get Mackenzie jealous. Will takes Holly home to his small home town as his girlfriend to see if this will force Mackenzie’s hand. I appreciated that Will finally got a backbone where Mackenzie was concerned but the years that he allowed himself to be categorized as “just friends” was a challenging for me to believe. (I also appreciated that he wasn’t a manwhore like the previous two SEALs). C+

Book Link | Kindle | nook
| Sony| KoboBooks |

Reviews of the following will be posted tomorrow.

• Heat It Up, pubbed June 2010
• Heat of the Night, pubbed November 2010
• The Heat is On, pubbed April 5, 2011

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2. REVIEW: Bodycheck by Elle Kennedy
3. Thursday Afternoon Haiku Moment: Passion by Lisa Valdez

I loved the excerpt for this book: prostitution! angst! unrequited love! m/m romance! It hit many of my not-so-sekrit Buttons of Hottness and Readerly Pleasure. And I very much enjoyed the book, even if I wanted to beat one of the heroes and not in a fun, sexy way.

Jasper Reed, a bastard from the slums, has been working as a (sort of secret) male prostitute at a high-class (mostly heterosexual) brothel for 10 years, since he was 17:

Delacroix insisted the women dress in fine gowns to project the proper image for the house. But as the men never graced the receiving  room, the only requirement when they moved about the main areas of the house was that they were dressed just enough so any guests they came upon would mistake them for another patron wandering the corridor on their way to another of the bedchambers. Delacroix’s was well-known for its beautiful women, but its handful of accommodating men like himself were only known to those who had need of them.

Jasper has been hoarding his money so he can retire to the country, never to be beholden to anyone again. But he’s in love with one of his clients, Nathaniel Travers, who has been coming to see him for five years. Nate, in turn, is in love with his best friend, Peter Edmonton. We meet both Jasper and Nate on the eve of Edmonton’s marriage and Nate is devastated. Jasper listens, commiserates, and eventually distracts Nate with a (long, very hot) game of “Seduce the Shy, Innocent Virgin,” with Jasper playing the part of the virgin.

Nate is…a lot pathetic in his love for his friend, who is completely and utterly straight. Except for one early school incident, Edmonton has never given Nate any hope for any sort of relationship besides that of friendship, so his pining and hope and deep unrequitedness is mostly just annoying. Jasper’s unrequited longing is less annoying, because at least he knows Nate is…well, the word “gay” never comes up, of course, because it’s a historical romance set in 1822, but Jasper at least knows that Nate prefers men. In fact, Jasper’s longing is just the type of angst I enjoy. Nate’s angst made me want to slap him and yell “Snap out of it!”

Jasper tells Nate he has to get over Edmonton, but in telling Nate that, he realizes he needs to do the same. Nate will never see Jasper’s love, will never return it, despite the fantastic sex. So Jasper takes a week off (first time evah!) and goes to find and buy his house in the country. When he comes back, Nate is desperate for him, but it takes Jasper finally retiring and really leaving for Nate to realize what he’s lost and to go and hunt him down and get him back.

I’m fascinated with how m/m historical romance uses the homosexuality of the men to overcome class barriers. Class barriers become much less important in m/m historicals than the shared sexual identity. I’m going to write a paper about that one day. That aside, I don’t know where Nate got off thinking he had the right to go find Jasper and why he assumed Jasper would just fall into his arms. I also don’t like how Jasper threw up a final barrier of “I’m a durty durty hoar!!! How could you love MEEEEE?” when he’d never really worried about that before. I also wonder how a lower class character who has never left London has a perfect accent and knows how to ride a horse.

Writing/editing niggles: “But Jasper didn’t want a dominate Nate tonight.” AARGH!!! Really?! WHAT is it about the adjective “dominant” that people write it as the verb “dominate”? And why didn’t any number of editors and copy-editors catch this? And Ms. March, you overuse the word “flick”: “A flick of his wrist,” “the golden light flickering across his face,” “a flick of his fingers,” “a flick of his head,” “Flicked his tongue,” “flicking it to the floor” and, according to my search feature, twenty other instances of the word. It became noticeable.

Plot holes, motivations, and word usage aside, I really enjoyed this book. It was a quick little read. It was fun with a short chapter of plot and then a longer chapter of really hot, dirty, role-playing sex, then another chapter of plot, then another of hot, dirty sex. It had angst and prostitutes and unrequited love eventually requited. What more could a girl want?

Grade: B-

Best regards,
-Joan/Sarah F.

Book Link | Kindle |   nook |
| Sony| Loose Id

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According to the back of this book, it says that you are an award winning screenplay author of a movie called Gladiator, which I will admit to never seeing.   This explained quite a lot of things that went on in the book, but it does not change the fact that the way you wrote it was just not appealing.   There were some other issues I had with it as well and there were some glimmers of talent and insight in there, but I just had to muck through a lot of ick to get to them.

Rich and Mad is the tale of two teens discovering the joys and pains of love in all its forms.

This tale of unrequited love begins with Maddie, who is working in her parents’ store of odds and ends furniture when she meets The One.   The guy that is her sun and moon.   The peanut butter to her chocolate.   The cheesy metaphor in her love story.     He is Joe.   Maddie cannot get enough of him.   Even though he has no idea that she exists, and has a girlfriend of more than a year that he seems to have no intentions of leaving (even though, as rumor has it, he just uses her for sex.)

The other half of this story is the quiet and slightly philosophical Rich, who has a crush on Maddie’s friend Grace.   She is beautiful and rocks his world, but she is also quite a bitch and stomps on him time after time.   Rich doesn’t have much experience in the area of love or sex but with a guide on the philosophy of love and conviction, he will try to win her heart.

While Rich and Mad essentially follows these two characters separately, its more about their meeting, and the quiet effects of love versus the combination of lust and teenage hormones that make crushes so devastating to the teenage psyche.   Maddie and Rich form a simple friendship that blossoms into something more as they realize that the people they like aren’t really the people they like after all.

Your characters were PAINFULLY obvious in this book.   I really predicted their actions with ease, and it was not a book that made such predictions fun.   Some books can pull off cliches like these characters as cute and quirky.   Yours, however, just didn’t work for me.   I found the instant ‘love’ Maddie and Rich had very, very out of character for this book.   Sexually, you portray these two protagonists as sensible teenagers who know the basics of how to operate things, even if they haven’t actually done it yet.   Then you have them going on a hundred plus pages of wild goose chases involving people they believe they are in love with, but really could care less about.   It would have helped if Grace and Joe had some kind of attraction to them, but they never really did.

Of the two, I did enjoy Rich a little.   He was a decently drawn male character, and his inexperience was adorable and attractive.   I felt he had enough of a personality for me to enjoy reading about him, and his romantic fantasies made his instant attraction to Grace a little more tolerable because he at least knew she didn’t like him, although I questioned his reasons for settling on unrequited love.

Another issue I had was the various amount of subplots that just didn’t flesh out the characters so much as annoy the heck out of me.   One involved a laughably obvious ‘cyber relationship’ between ‘Joe’ and Maddie.   Any reader – experienced or not – will know this plot anywhere, and it was very, very obvious.   The culprit was also rather obvious, but as to avoid spoilers, I will refrain from mentioning that.   Grace and Maddie’s dubious friendship was another thing, as I had no inkling how those two managed to stay friends.   Maddie is really rather dull, and Grace is so bitchy that it would take a saint to stay with her.

The thing that really bothered me was a subplot involving an eccentric male teacher that was rumored to be gay, causing students to say he was doing inappropriate things and have him quit his position to live in solitude.   That really hit a nerve with me.   Said teacher was a great character, and I really enjoyed him and his place in Rich’s story (and to a lesser extent, Maddie’s).   Such accusations are so demeaning to gay people, and the minute support of the student body sickened me.   I would have rather seen a book that explored it either more in depth, or done something a little less insulting (like – gasp – students actually enjoying the eccentric teacher who means well and likes his subject).

Your style of writing was accessible but bare.   A lot of dialogue, not so many descriptions, and a lot of humor in the dialogue as opposed to internal speculation.   It didn’t really appeal to me, but some readers will find this a much easier book to read than usual, especially reluctant ones.   I could tell you were used to scripts.

However, there was one saving grace that kept me mildly interested in this book, and that was the realism of sexual situations.   Subplots ranged from unfaithful parents to being in an abusive relationship.   Neither are surprising, but they are done better than the rest of the plot and are handled with nice emotion and surprise.   What I really loved about the sexual situations in general were that they were REAL.   Early on, Maddie is smart and gets birth control, despite the fact that she isn’t sure she’ll have sex anytime soon.   She could just ignore it, but she chooses to be responsible instead.   Anymore would spoil the final scene, which is a little funny, yet very honest and a great example of how to write realistic teen sex.   A little graphic for my tastes in a young adult novel, but nothing a teenager hasn’t heard before. I also enjoyed the inclusion of a character that is asexual.   Something that is rarely touched upon, but does exist.   Kudos for that.

This book is a hard rating for me.   So many concepts just weren’t to my taste.   I loved the premise and the way you were realistic about sex, but the characters mostly fell flat, the writing wasn’t to my personal taste, and some of the subplots frankly pissed me off on a personal level.   Some readers may enjoy this, but it wasn’t for me.   Better luck next time.   D

John

Book Link | Kindle | Amazon | nook | BN | Borders
| Sony

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I’m a long-time fan of yours. My first exposure to your work was Bitten, the first novel in your Otherworld series about the only female werewolf in existence, several years ago before urban fantasy took off and became the sprawling subgenre it is today. I know I’ve said in the past that I’m weary of urban fantasy but that doesn’t seem to apply to your work at all. Even when I miss a few releases, I find myself glomming the books I skipped and desperately wanting more.

We first met Savannah Levine in Stolen at the ripe old age of 12. The daughter of an infamous witch known for practicing darker magic and a Cabal sorcerer (Cabals are kind of like supernatural mafia masquerading as large corporations in the Otherworld series), Savannah is a perfect illustration of how children often pay for their parents’ mistakes. The legal ward of another witch and sorcerer couple — who this time are well-known in the supernatural world as crusading do-gooders — she has grown up immersed in the paranormal world. She spends summers with a werewolf family. She’s friends with a necromancer who has regular contact with her dead mother. She has a tenuous relationship with her half-brother, who’s heir-apparent to one of those Cabals. And she’s been in love with a firestarting half-demon since forever.

In Waking the Witch, Savannah is now 21. She’s worked with her legal guardians, Paige and Lucas, at their detective agency since she was 16. Eager to prove herself, she jumps at the chance to take on a case involving the potentially ritualistic murders of three young women. Paige and Lucas are on vacation in Hawai’i, which means she’d be working by herself but Savannah sees this as a way to prove her independence.

Over the course of the series, we’ve watched Savannah grow up and one of the things readers familiar with the Otherworld series will know is that she’s made lots of mistakes as teenagers growing up do. With Savannah’s background, that’s not surprising. Her mother was killed when she was young. She never really knew her father and with the exception of her half-brother Sean, her father’s family refuses to acknowledge her despite the fact that she has their clan’s very distinctive blue eyes. Because of her mother’s reputation, Savannah has never been liked amongst other witches and Paige lost her standing within the Coven because of Savannah. To say that Savannah has underlying guilt issues is an understatement. She usually bears it well but it manifests in other ways. One of them is the strong desire to prove herself worthy of the right to exist, let alone deserving of the love and trust other people hold for her.

I’ve always liked Savannah. I’m aware she can be easily construed as that precocious, overpowered child who grows up into a sassy woman who’s all attitude with nothing to back it up. The truth, however, is that Savannah can back it up. Witches and sorcerers are traditional enemies in the Otherworld and can’t stand each other. Someone of her mixed parentage is pretty much unheard of, so her power potential is very high. She’s not all good like Paige and Lucas, but she’s not all bad like her mother either. Her attitude is tempered by a lot of smarts and pragmatic competence.

“…To me it means we have a database access on the road. Of course, I could just walk twenty feet and pull this up on a computer, but that wouldn’t be nearly as impressive. Would you like the list texted to you, e-mailed, or sent to our printer?”

“Okay, now you’re just showing off. Text it.” He handed me a card with his cell number and I punched it in.

“So I’m guessing this is what you need from us — you supply the details and we’ll access our resources to figure out which ritual you’re dealing with. If we’re lucky, what she has in her hand will answer all our questions. Well, except whodunit. That’s your job.”

“See, now this is why I asked to talk to Lucas,” he said. “If I showed him this, he’d be all, ‘Hmm, this bears investigation. I take it you’re on the case?’ And I’d be, like, ‘Well, I will be, right after I finish a job.’ Then he’d ask if I minded if he looked into it himself, and say he’d hate to take a job from me and I’d joke that it’s not a paying one anyway and if he wants to take a look…”

“So you actually brought this to us hoping we’d investigate it for you?”

His cheeks colored. “Shit. Could you just channel Lucas for a minute? Please? Make me feel like a generous colleague?”

“If you were truly generous, you’d be passing us a paying case.”

I like that because if there’s one thing I hate in an urban fantasy heroine, it’s one who talks about how tough she is and then proceeds to lock herself accidentally in a basement with a homicidal maniac. I shouldn’t have been worried about this since none of your previous heroines, as varied as they have been, have ever suffered from TSTL syndrome but because of the way Savannah is, I could easily see her slipping into that role. Plus, I appreciate Savannah’s ruthless bluntness. Do-gooders have bills to pay too.

Another thing I liked was the relationship between Savannah and Kayla, one of the murdered women’s daughters. It was a good parallel because Kayla’s mother has a bad reputation that, sad to say, was deserved. It shadows Kayla wherever she goes, which is a shame because Kayla is very smart and precocious. Sounds like someone else we can name, right?

As for the actual plot, I thought it seemed more like this was a set-up for future books. I don’t have any complaints about that aspect of it since this is such a long-running series with no end in sight, but I was far more interested in the witch hunter angle than I was in the “let’s use Savannah as bait again” angle. I was a little disappointed that we didn’t get more of the witch hunter subplot since that’s definitely a new revelation and something that alters the playing field. (I haven’t read your Otherworld YA series so maybe witch hunters play a role there but this was new to me as someone who’s read all the books in your adult series.)

And speaking of disappointments, what’s up with Savannah and Adam? I have been waiting to see what happens to them since we discovered that Savannah had a massive crush on him. That said, I do realize this relationship will have to take a longer time to develop because of their shared history and the age difference. I liked Savannah’s self-awareness of their relationship’s evolution. First, she knew she needed to be older before he’d take her seriously as a potential love interest. Then, she knew that no decent grown man would look at a teenager that way so she knew she needed to wait longer. She thought hitting 21 would be that magic number but then she realized Adam sees her as a co-worker and friend, and that there was a strong possibility that this was all she’d ever be. But even as she’s resigned herself to this fact, she’s still in love with him. When she goes on a date with another date, even though she likes that man, she still compares him to Adam. She likes sex but she prefers not having the complications of a relationship to go with it… and I can only infer that this is because of Adam. I really hope this gets addressed in future books because even though scenes are like this are great:

I lifted my fingers, making them spark.

“Hey, two can play that game, remember.” He made a fist, then spread his fingers, the tips glowing red. “And mine leave bigger burns.”

I flicked sparks at him, then jumped out of the way. My leg caught on the covers, and I stumbled. Adam yanked and I went down, crashing to the floor.

“Hey!” I said, pushing up.

“Hey yourself.” He plucked his T-shirt, pointing out the pin-sized holes from my sparks.

“It’s an ugly shirt anyway.”

His brows arched. “You bought it for me.”

“Um, yeah. That’s the idea. Give you ugly clothing. Laugh behind your back when you wear it. Been doing it for years. You’re a little slow on the uptake.”

I’ve been waiting a long time to see their relationship change into something more, and I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one.

Readers should be forewarned that Waking the Witch ends with a big change in Savannah’s life, one that can be interpreted as a cliffhanger. Otherwise, I really enjoyed this read and find myself looking forward to the next installment in the series, Spell Bound. This book doesn’t really require much previous knowledge, although some subtle nuances might be missed regarding the politics of the world and Savannah’s backstory, so I think new readers can pick it up with not much problem. I wasn’t as enthused by the plot as I could be, but the personal interactions were ace, as usual. Oh, and great cover by the way. B

My regards,
Jia

Book Link | Kindle | Amazon | nook | BN | Borders
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Each day that the hero spends with the sister in law is sweet torture. Sweet because she is in his house, sleeping in a bed that he bought, caring for her children, and looking happier than ever. Torture because he can’t touch her, can’t love her like his heart longs to.

I adore the brother who loves his sister in law story. That unrequited, unfulfilled love story really tugs at my heartstrings. In Bed with the Boss by Susan Napier has the same sort of vibe only the deceased husband and hero are not related.

However, I know that my love for these stories is not universal. In fact, I think I might even be in the minority. Some feel that the brother + sister in law story is too incestual. Others believe the issue of family strife is too difficult to overcome. The marriage between a man and his deceased wife’s sister was actually outlawed until 1907 in Britain (although I didn’t see a corollary law prohobiting a man from marrying his deceased brother’s wife). This was a list of prohibited marriages I found enacted in 1560 and remaining law until 1907 and beyond.

Biblically, there were conflicting accounts. It seems in Leviticus, God demanded that there be no marriage between a man and his brother’s wife. Yet in Deuteronomy, “the wife of the dead shall not be remarried outside of the family to a stranger; her husband’s brother shall go into her, and take her as his wife, and perform the duty of a husband’s brother to her.” Deuteronomy 25:15. This is called a levirate marriage (or Yibbum) as “levir” means “brother in law”. Apparently some have reconciled this biblical conflict by suggesting that the levirate marriage only take place if the first marriage was without issue.

In googling this concept, I came across the true love story of a woman who married her dead husband’s younger brother. Neither had feelings for the other while the deceased was alive and it was only after his death that the two became close and discovered they had feelings for one another. It was a rather sweet story despite not containing the intense feelings of longing that I enjoy in those unrequited love stories. What about you? Does the brother marrying the sister in law bother you? Does it matter if the former husband is dead? Do you like the stories? Why or why not?

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I remember a number of people raving about your debut in the If You Like Debut books thread. I bought the debut book, Knight of Desire, but by the time I got around to reading it your second book, Knight of Pleasure, was out. So I read that one first. While I felt that I would have appreciated some of the nuances in the character of Stephen, the hero, more had I read the first book in the series, I was not lost.

Lady Isobel Hume was married off the age of 14 to a neighboring lord with quite a bit of money and power. Her father promised her that when Hume died, she would have her independence. No one really thought Hume would live as long as he did. He eventually dies when Isobel is 22 and she finally thinks she is free. But somehow, because she and Hume did not have children, a bastard born to a woman of quality convinced Hume that he was Hume’s son. In Hume’s will, he leaves his entire estate to the purported son, Graham. Isobel is enraged and turns to her father for aid.

Her father turns to Bishop Beaufort, the uncle of King Henry, to have the property given back to Isobel. Bishop Beaufort gives her three choices: marry Graham, marry someone your father picked out (and didn’t he do a good job the first time), or go to Caen and marry someone politically advantageous to the Crown. Isobel chooses to go to the court of Henry and await a marriage to be arranged with a Norman lord.

Once at the court Isobel is reminded that she is to dutifully serve her King, particularly when her father did not. She is instructed to determine whether her new spouse will be loyal to the Crown or is fomenting some insurgency. Sir Stephen Carleton is appointed to be an assistant to the bailli of Caen. Stephen chafes at this because he is a knight.

When Isobel and Stephen first see each other, they are quite taken with one another, but they both know their duty. Further, when Isobel is introduced to her future mate, she is delighted. Philippe de Roche is wealthy, extremely handsome, attentive without being overbearing.

This is not a triangle though for Isobel’s heart is never engaged by Phillipe and he is often gone from Caen while Stephen is there. I liked that the story took place over a period of time. Isobel arrives in Caen in November 1417 and the story culminates in April 1418.

The best and worst part of the story was Stephen’s character arc. Stephen arrives in Caen believing he can never love a woman because the one woman he wants has already been taken. It’s his sister in law, apparently the heroine in the first book. Stephen was a young boy but he seems to believe that he won’t grow out of his “love” for Catherine. While I appreciated that he did, there wasn’t any internal recognition that his feelings for Catherine were simply infatuation. At one point, Isobel watches Stephen with Catherine and even Isobel sees his heart in his eyes, even after Stephen was supposedly in love with Isobel.   I really needed to see this issue dealt with but it never was. We are simply to assume that his feelings for Isobel overrode those longings for Catherine. "For the right woman," he said, meeting his nephew’s eyes, "I would give up all the others without regret."

As for Isobel, I felt like this was a case of making lemonade out of lemons.   A woman of that time period was chattel, to be used to gain money for the father or alliances with the king.   In trying to provide her a measure of independence, you gave her the ability to be a sword fighter and yes, this played a small role in the story, overall I found Isobel to be terribly bland.   The sword fighting thing felt so contrived and not well integrated into Isobel’s overall storyline.

The interaction between Stephen and his nephew were well done and the Isobel’s struggle as a woman, her futility for independence, was also well portrayed. There were definitely high points and I would read your work again. C

Best regards,

Jane

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

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Thank you for sending me a copy of your book. The thing that stuck out most in my mind at the end of the story was how apt the title was. The story really was about the sheikh’s forbidden virgin. This is part of The Royal House of Karedes miniseries.   These series books generally don’t work for me because so much of the story is dependent on the overall arc.   Fortunately, while the miniseries theme and arc was present in this story, it didn’t dominate.

Aarif Al’ Farisi lost a brother when he was young.   He believes himself to be at fault for this and since that time, he has devoted himself to his family, allowing no room for failure.   His brother, King Zakari of Calista, is to be married to his betrothed, Princess Kalila Zadar and Zaraq.   Zakari and Kalila have been betrothed since they were young as the dynastic pairing will bring the richness of Calista to Kalila’s people and the stability of rule from Zaraq to Calista.

On the eve of Zakari’s arrival, Kalila’s father reminds her “Tomorrow is not about you, Kalila. It is not even about your marriage.   It is about tradition and ceremony, an alliance of countries, families.   It has always been this way.”   There could be no more emphatic punctuation than greeting Aarif the next day and not Zakari.   Zakari cannot come to retrieve his bride as his is off chasing down a famous diamond (and I presume falling in love with some other woman).   Instead, Aarif comes to carry out this duty on behalf of his brother because no task is too distasteful for Aarif on behalf of his family and the crown.

Kalila spent too much time in the West to accept these dictates meekly.   She knows what her duty is and she hopes that Zakari and she will come to love each other.   When he can’t even be bothered to meet with her only weeks before the wedding, she feels that such a relationship will be doomed.   Frightened, Kalila runs off into the desert prepared to spend a least one night away from the Palace and her duties.   She wants just a tiny reprieve from entering into this marriage.

Aarif is left to chase her down.   He knows that spending the night with her in caves in the sand will not only jeopardize her reputation, for a King’s bride must be a virgin, but it also tempts him beyond what is appropriate. She is his brother’s wife to be, one that is necessary for political reasons.   In the short time that Kalila and Aarif spend together, a forbidden longing between them develops.

Both Aarif and Kalila are bound by the obligations of their roles although Aarif clings more tightly to his.   He cannot forgive himself for the death of his brother and his devotion is his penance, one that he must keep paying.   Kalila, although mired in duty and family herself, seems ready to toss that all aside for Aarif, if he would but acknowledge their attraction.

Aarif’s forbidden longing for Kalila is very moving as is Kalila’s very real loneliness in the palace of Zakari who is still absent, even the night before the wedding.   This book suffered in its shortness.   I think it could have been even more emotionally gripping if Aarif and Kalila’s torment were more drawn out.   The ending was quite abrupt and didn’t match the overall tone of the story up to that point.   Still, there is no alpha asshole hero or doormat heroine.   Kalila’s actions, at times, seemed impetuous but it was certainly understandable in light of the cavalier treatment of her intended groom.   I love the unrequited love story and while both Kalila and Aarif had feelings for each other, their love was not supposed to be fulfilled.   B

Best regards

Jane

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

This book was provided to the reviewer by either the author or publisher. The reviewer did not pay for this book but received it free. The Harlequin Affiliate link earns us an affiliate fee if you purchase a book through the link and the Sony link is in conjunction with the sponsorship deal we made for the year of 2009. We do not earn an affiliate fee from Sony through the book link.

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I have read you since your debut in 1999 with My False Heart. My False Heart remains high of my favorite romances of all time and it is the book against which I measure all of your other titles. The story was so fresh at the time. The heroine, Evie Artevalde, was not a virgin. The hero, Eliot, the Marquess of Rannoch, was a surly, disreputable lord. He lies to her. She turns him off but ultimately they have a memorable happy ever after. Wicked All Day tells the story of of Eliot’s illegitimate daughter, Zoë. Zoë’s mother was an opera dancer whom Eliot paid off. Eliott was not a good father. He had good intentions, but up until his marriage to Evie, he had left Zoë in the hands of a succession of governesses.

Zoë was incredibly spoiled because Eliott didn’t know how to be a good parent. His response to a governness that treated Zoë badly was to cast her out without a reference and order his servants to make sure that Zoë never had another unhappy day. Zoë grew up to be a flighty young woman who seemed to delight in breaking hearts and living on the edge of ruin (ironically, not unlike her father). Zoë snubs society’s conventions as much as she is able because they refuse to accept her. She’s a bastard, an illegitimate and despite the fact that she is beautiful and moneyed, the only offers she can get is from roues and ne’er do wells.

Rannoch, at his wits end and not wanting to see his daughter an outcast, has laid down an ultimatum to either marry a certain gentleman or to be banished to Scotland. This drives Zoë to engage in a reckless and selfish act with her best friend Robin, Lord Rowland. Robin and Zoë have been friends and instigators of each other’s bad behavior for years. While Robin usually doesn’t think of Zoë in a sexual manner, one night at a ball with a little too much liquor and the temptation of a beautiful woman begging him for physical attention, he can’t seem to resist.

Robin and Zoë are caught in a compromising position by Robin’s older brother, Stuart, the Marquess of Mercer, and his recently cast off mistress who is looking to cause Mercer grief. Robin and Zoë are thus affianced making everyone miserable. Robin realizes that he loves his mistress and begins a downward emotional spiral resulting in drinking, whoring, and arguments with Zoë. Stuart realizes that his constant animosity toward Zoë was tied up with his repressed sexual longing for her and his resentment of Robin and Zoë’s closeness. His emotional anxiety is worsened by the recognition that he now lusts after his brother’s wife to be.

And Zoë? She has to face up to her own demons. Her recklessness and selfish act has resulted in making everyone she loves miserable from her best friend, Robin, to her father, to Stuart, and everyone in their interrelated families.

"Robin, it isn’t just Mrs. Wilfred," she whispered. Zoë gathered her reins in one hand, and tried to reach for him, but he nudged away. "Please, Robin. Don’t shut me out. We are best friends."

He shook his head, and turned his face away, leaving Zoë with the most dreadful suspicion he was blinking back tears. "Listen, Zoë," he rasped when he turned back around, "I don’t care if you were with my brother or not. And this bruise"-’Here, he rammed a finger under his shirt collar and yanked it savagely down-’"for this you can thank Jemima. She got a bit out of hand last night. Not that I took any pleasure in it."

The bruise, Zoë realized, was just a small passion mark. "Robin, I don’t care to hear this," she murmured, cutting an uneasy glance at Jonet.

"Don’t you?" His eyes were dark with pain, his voice rising, causing heads to turn. "Well, you can listen anyway. To say her talents were wasted is an understatement of epic proportion. That’s why I came home early. I thought, you see, that I owed my bride-to-be an apology."

"Keep your voice down," said Zoë quietly. "Yes, you owe me an apology, just as I owe you-’"

What I found so interesting about these characters is that they aren’t so driven by their bad parenting but the constructs of society. In other words, would Zoë have been so capricious and reckless if she hadn’t been stigmatized as not worthy. Would Stuart, who was well loved by his mother, have been more apt to go after his heart’s desire if he wasn’t slotted into the role as older, responsible brother? Would Robin have offered for his mistress if he hadn’t, at some point, thought she wasn’t wife material because of her lower station and her widowhood?

All three have to breakthrough the expectations set upon them. For Stuart, it means abandoning his rigid principles. For Zoë, it is fulfilling obligations. For Robin, it’s coming to grips with responsibility.

There is no suspense plot. This is wholly driven by the characters and the society rules of the time period provide much of the conflict. Zoë’s reputation is still hanging by a thread and Stuart’s former mistress could bring ruin upon her even if Stuart married Zoë.

Family has always played an important role in Carlyle books and this one is no different. The familial interactions of Zoë’s family with Stuart’s provide real drama from the anger of Eliot toward Robin and toward himself to the dismay of Jonet, Robin and Stuart’s mother, over her worry that Zoë is marrying the wrong son.

One thing I loved was when both characters, independently, started changing their perceptions about each other and how what irritated them the most about the other was some of their greatest traits.     It’s a beautifully written and crafted romance and one that I know I’ll revisit again and again. A-

Best regards

Jane

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

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This worked for me on most levels although I know that a non fan of Harlequin Presents would probably be turned off by the manufacturered angst and the constant barrage of distrust and misplaced accusations from the hero. Kate Lancaster, a beautiful young woman, has been unable to get over a kiss she shared with Tiarnan Quinn when she was eighteen. To combat her feelings, she has always acted with hostility toward Tiarnan, treating him with icy disdain but at the christening of her best friend’s baby, Tiarnan’s sister, Kate let down her guard for one moment and he saw it.

-And right then Kate knew that all her flimsy attempts to defend herself against him for years were for naught. He’d just seen through it all in an instant. Seen through her. Her humiliation was now complete.

Tiarnan not only sees it but it provides him an excuse to pursue her. Tiarnan, unlike other HP heroes, suffers some anxiety at being rejected by Kate. He’s always found her to be very cold toward him and at times even felt as if she was mocking him in her dismissiveness.

Tiarnan chafed at her sudden assuredness-’and at her reminder of his clumsy rejection. That feeling of regret spiked uncomfortably again. Her smile was almost mocking-’as if she pitied him! He’d never been an object of pity, and he wasn’t about to start being one now

Kate continues to reject Tiarnan and so Tiarnan pulls out the “my child wants to see you” card and pretty much hijacks Kate at the airport at the end of one of her modeling shoots. He whisks her off to his home in Madrid where Kate reconnects with his daughter, Sorcha Rosie, and loses her battle to resist Tiarnan.

Kate’s repressed longing for Tiarnan was strongly conveyed as was her humiliation at being so attracted to him against her will.   Tiarnan, the product of bad mothers (both his own and then his wife’s), has difficulty trusting women.   While objectively he can see that Kate is NOT LIKE THE OTHERS, his instinctive emotional reaction is to jump to the wrong kinds of assumptions.    Kate carried the story for me so while Tiarnan behaved like a neanderthal, at times, and made awful assumptions, Kate still maintained her dignity.

I don’t know that I would recommend this one to Jayne even though she enjoyed an HP but I couldn’t help but feel for Kate who had a desperate longing for one man, recognized at some point how destructive her love for him was and had the ability to walk away. I’m not sure that I would have been as gratified with the ending had Kate not been able to assert her independence and take control of her own emotional destiny. C+

Best regards

Jane

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

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I took a small break from reading your books, albeit unintentionally, a couple of years ago. I think once a reader falls off the bandwagon of an author, you start hesitating to start reading her again, believing that you must have stopped for a very good reason. My reason for stopping, though, was simply forgetfulness and having read Since the Surrender I am kind of kicking myself for having missed the last couple books. The benefit, of course, is that I can go back and purchase said backlist titles and enjoy a weekend of reading.

Since the Surrender excels at the character portraits of its lead protagonists: Captain Chase Eversea and Rosalind March but stutters at the plot execution. Fortunately, the character portraits and the romance arc is enough to overcome.

Captain Chase Eversea has been banished to London by his exuberant family. They no longer want him moping about the Eversea properties in the country, making them all sad and gloomy. Ever since the war has ended and Chase has returned, he’s not been the same succumbing to his temper more than once at what seems like a nonsensical jest. He has been instructed to check out a cousin for a potential vicarage position at his family home at Pennyroyal Green. What does he know about vicars, though?

His ennui is shaken when he is delivered a note penned by a woman, requesting he attend her at Montmorency museum. Intrigued Chase meets up with the woman only to find that she is Rosalind March, the subject of his “truest and least honorable thing he’d ever done.” To some degree, his post war emotional struggle stemmed more from his encounter with Rosalind because “honor had at one time been the thing that defined him.” Once he stepped past that boundary, Chase lost sense of who he was and where his place in life was.

Rosalind was the wife of Chase’s commanding officer. Captain March was well admired as was his wife. Rosalind was young, beautiful, and in love with her husband but Chase and she had an attraction that they fought up until the time in which they parted because of war and death. Rosalind sent for Chase because her sister, Lucy, has gone missing. Lucy was arrested for petty theft of a bracelet, sent to Newgate to await trial. Lucy never made it out of Newgate, but went missing. Rosalind believes that an intimate of Chase’s, William Kincade, may know what happened to Lucy. Chase refuses to assist Rosalind at first, but she will not be deterred.

To Rosalind, Chase represents all that she ever truly wanted but denied herself because of duty and responsibility for her family. To Chase, Rosalind represents his moment of dishonor. Over the course of the story, this both changes and stays the same. I’m not sure that it fit well for me. Chase has never truly forgiven himself for his lapse of honor. Chase and Rosalind kiss once, a very passionate once, while Rosalind was still married. But the dynamic changes as Chase decides that he wants Rosalind but Rosalind kind of rebuffs him because she wants choices in her life. Frankly, I didn’t understand this conflict particularly when Chapter Three ends with this:

Even cliffs were vulnerable, Captain Eversea, she thought. The sea gets at them, eventually, reshaping them inexorably, giving them no choice at all in the matter.

He hadn’t reckoned on the woman she’d become.

The sea, she thought, had nothing on Rosalind March.

There was another very discordant note in the book that I can’t really well articulate without giving away spoilers but suffice to say that the location and timing of the sex scenes were bizarre to me and drew me out of the story.

Having said that, these complaints really were minor because of how well the characters were drafted. Rosalind and Chase seemed like living, breathing characters. B

Best regards,

Jane

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

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As I began pawing through my many, many tapes, I saw this one – Paperback Hero – which I was fortunate enough to buy years ago. Why fortunate? Because the bloody thing doesn’t appear to be available any more. There are a lot of older movies, and not so older movies, that I am amazed have not been released on DVD yet. This is one of them.

Jack Willis is a roadtrain driver (long haul driver for us in the US). During his trips, he’s written a romance novel which has unexpectedly become a best seller in Australia. Now his publicist has shown up in Lucktown looking for him. Only problem is she thinks his name is Ruby Vale.

The real Ruby Vale, is a friend of Jack’s and he sort of “borrowed” her name because no “man’s man” in Australia would write a romance novel. Jack has to act quickly to get Ruby to go along with the charade which includes a publicity stint in Sydney. The only reason she agrees is that the publisher has agreed to pay the expenses for her wedding to local veterinarian, Hamish.

But as the two travel to Sydney and begin the public engagements, Ruby finds herself looking at Jack in a whole new light. Will she still marry Hamish when the truth comes out? Or does Jack have a chance with the girl he’s secretly loved all along?

I’ll be honest and say that this is another “feel good” type romance. It’s a chick flick all the way. But when I get the chance to watch Hugh Jackman for an entire movie, flick away, baby. It’s also got Claudia Karvan, who really ought to be better known in the US, playing Ruby.

Jackman and Karvan project great chemistry. They’re mates as well as, in the end, lovers. She obviously feels something for him from the beginning or why else would she agree to the trouble and hassle of pretending to be the writer “Ruby Vale” to help Jack out? And Jack, while acting as just a friend, does everything he can to try and ensure that Ruby gets what he thinks she wants in life.

The secondary cast are fabulous. No one comes off as a “character” just for form’s sake but rather as people who will go the mile for each other. I’m afraid I only recognized Jeanie Drynan who played Muriel’s mother in “Muriel’s Wedding,” but I wish I knew more of them. They all do a great job.

I laughed as poor Jack pretends he didn’t write this “girly, schmaltzy stuff” – which turns out to be anything but, as we see during scenes in which Ruby is reading the book on the road to Sydney. It’s also nice to see these two as friends who can kid and joke with each other – as Ruby does when she teases Jack about how he writes the sex scenes in the book. Their karaoke scene is hilarious. Given what’s been said about how Jack hates to fly, his declaration of love to Ruby is funny and touching. I also like that Hamish isn’t turned into a villain in order to break up the engagement. He’s a nice guy who just isn’t right for Ruby.

The Aussie accents are easily understandable and the views of Queensland are amazingly beautiful and I wish this film were more widely available. No, it’s not cinema at its finest, but it’s a fun film which leaves me with a smile on my face.

~Jayne

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