A couple of weeks ago the Brookings Register ran an article titled “Not your mother’s romance novel.” The article spoke to two women who have recently become interested in romances. Two women who had not read older romances, but had formed negative opinions regarding those older romances:

Gill said she believes the romance genre of years ago earned its reputation, though she hasn’t read many of the older books. They seemed to feature weak heroines and dominant heroes.

Entangled Pub* announced on October 24, 2011, that it was launching Lori Wildes’ Present:

What sets Lori Wilde Presents: Indulgence apart, however, are the fresh and hip voices. “These aren’t your mother’s category romances,” says Lori Wilde. “They’re quick paced, exciting contemporary stories, whether funny, sexy, mysterious, edgy, or emotional, that showcase what it’s really like to fall in love in the twenty-first century.”

Allie Boniface writes:

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, publishing houses like Avon, Harlequin, and Mills and Boon were the kings of the industry. They released books with titles like A Pirate’s Love, Kept Woman, and Rebel Vixen. These stories, mostly historical romances, were pretty formulaic.

There is an implied insult that the mother’s romances were some how terrible. It’s true that the 70s, 80s, and some of the 90s, book covers show a nearly naked woman with a long haired man looming over her. Who can forget these iconic Johanna Lindsey books with the heroine placed at the foot of the hero, like a supplicant. These days, we just get the nearly naked woman. It is also true that there were rapetastic books publishing in the early period of mass market romances and probably a greater number of them that are generally published today (although it seems like we will never completely escape them).

Laura Vivanco writes in her scholarly analysis of Harlequin Mills & Boon books that “every romance novel thus combines elements of the old, the new, the borrowed, and the blue.”  Vivanco, Laura. For Love and Money. Penrith:  Humanities-Ebooks LLP.  2012, p. 21)   This was true in 1981 and it is true in 2011.  The way in which authors have mixed those elements are due, in part, to the author’s own sensibility as well as the time period in which they lived.

Books published in the 80s and 90s were rich in diversity of characters and tropes. I think of the late 80s to mid 90s as one of the golden periods of romance. Harlequin Temptation was one of my favorite lines and it featured heroines that were business owners, professors, lawyers. They were women with agency.

However, I don’t know many long term readers who don’t have a love for books published in the 80s. From category books to full length historicals there were women who were strong. Take the wretchedly politically incorrect Savage Thunder (p. 1989) featuring the native American hero who falls in love with a wealthy (virgin) widow traveling around the West looking for fun, adventure and a good roll in the hay. Lady’s Choice (p. 1989) featured a nearly six foot redhead who owned her own tea house and had plans to build a tea empire. Teller of Tales (p. 1993) had a cross dressing heroine who had adopted a mannish persona and the man who loved her and was willing to flaunt his supposed sodomy to all of society. A London Season (p. 1981) had a strong, young woman whose strength of will determined not only her course, but that of a young stablehand and all those around her. Blaze (p. 1986) isn’t my favorite Susan Johnson but she wrote about the Absarokee clan in a way I’ve rarely seen others do since. Proud, wealthy, powerful.

While it’s an easy slogan, it suggests that whatever was old was bad and our mother’s had bad taste. In many cases, the readers are the mothers. I doubt I am the only one on this blog that could have a child old enough to be reading these books.

I started reading romance the middle 1980s which is over twenty years ago. I have fond memories of books I read in my early years and many of them included the same themes and tropes and archetypes that I read today. One author I find fascinating is Charlotte Lamb. I’ve read about 60 of her books. I think that her bibliography would make an interesting academic study. Lamb published from 1973 through 2001. She clearly struggles with the male and female dynamic in her books wavering the all too forgiving wife in The Marriage War (p. 1997) to the dedicated film director heroine (and sister of the heroine in the former book) in the sequel Hot Surrender (p. 1999). There is the unforgettable Vampire Lover (p 1995) wherein the heroine ties up the hero, uses him, and then leaves him unsatisfied.

There’s no question that romance as a genre has evolved and changed. I think the growing interest by readers in other genres has led to greater cross genre hybridization and more fully developed fantasy worlds that are focused on romantic development of its leads.  There are fewer secretaries and more female business owners, although not enough.  In fact, you could argue that the limited way in which the genre has changed in terms of writing females with agency is more of a criticism of the current state of the genre rather than a derision of the old school romance books.

Romances were not one monolithic genre where every book written was in lock step with its sister publication.  Books that predate the current release list aren’t automatically filled with rape and oppression.  By using the saying “not your mother’s romances”, the person insults both the mother and any one that enjoyed a book that the undefined mother may have liked.  The slogan is old and should be retired unlike the books of the 80s and 90s, some of which are classics that will endure.

I’d love to hear your old favorites. I’d like to compile a “Must Read” list of books from the 80s and 90s.  Please include a snippet about the book you recommend so I can put it in the list.  Long live my mama’s romance books.

*Weirdly on November 14, 2011, Entangled introduced a new editor who wanted “bodice rippers.”

Robin used the word affability to describe Jill Shalvis’ writing and for me,  I would apply the same descriptor to your books.  They are generally affable with likeable characters and likeable settings, however, they’ve often felt truncated to me and this one more so than previous ones that I have read.

I understand that many of these stories have been reworked from their original novella forms but perhaps this one was never meant to be elongated because I sat down for a full length meal and only had an appetizer.  No matter how good the appetizer was, it wasn’t going to be fulfilling for someone who was looking for a complete dinner.

Luc Macanaw is directed by his Queen to leave the land of the fae and retrieve the Queen’s wayward nephew in  the human world. Reporter Corinne D’Allesandro is assigned a paranormal story by her editor, a story that leads her directly to the Queen’s nephew. Luc isn’t a big fan of the Queen but he’d never allow any harm to come to her and her word is law. When she sends him into the mortal world to smooth over any “ripples” caused by her nephew, Seoc’s, indiscretions, Luc goes without murmur. It is his duty.

Corinne knows all about faeries, vampires, and werewolves. Her three best friends have hooked up, married, and even been turned into an “Other” but she must keep their secret while still trying to maintain her distance from the Others. This becomes much more difficult when her newspaper editor wants her to check out a pixie or faerie sighting. Corinne wants to laugh this off as nonsense, even knowing the truth, but her editor is insistent.

Corinne doesn’t really care about most of the Others but she does worry what would happen to her friends like her Missy, a kindergarten teacher who married a werewolf, if knowledge of the Others was revealed to all humans.

Upon meeting Corinne, Luc was shocked at the surge of lust he felt. After all, he was surrounded by women who were more beautiful than any mortal woman could achieve. She was shorter, rounder, but none of that seemed to matter as Luc feels a compulsion toward Corinne. What’s this? Why yes, Corinne, the human, is his heart mate. Faeries have heart mates. OF COURSE THEY DO.

The best part of the book comes in the form of a few funny exchanges between Corinne and Luc.

“I’m Fae,” Luc repeated, then sighed. “As in Faerie.”

The blankness dissolved beneath a surprised laugh. “You’re a fairy? Sure, Tinker Bell. Pull the other leg while you’re at it.”

Luc scowled at Rafe. “You see? That’s the problem with mortals. We leave your world for a couple of thousand years and everyone either forgets all about us, or they reduce us to little glowing balls of tutu-clad good cheer.”

But while Luc might speak Ye Olde English in Fae land (“I’m sure I could find a garderobe for you to clean if you so long for variety in your work.), he drops the formal dialect upon crossing over. Maybe that’s part of the magical process?

Corinne and Luc involve themselves in a little investigating, a lot of lusting, and thinking about the urgency of their situation (find the faerie before he does more crazy things in the mortal world). However, it’s just too little of everything.  Too little of the good natured humor, too little investigating and action on their designated task, too little worldbuilding.  It just lacked in substance.  The lust and sex the two pursued with one another seemed the primary focus and while I liked Corinne’s sex positive attitude, the story telling felt unbalanced. I never felt like I knew Corinne and Luc. Luc, in particular, seemed like a standard romance hero. Manly, attractive, good in bed, and filled with the protectorate instinct.

I wanted more than just the heart mate bond to draw the two together and other than sharing good sex, I wasn’t convinced that there were deeper feelings between the two.  The affability of the story helps maintain the reader’s interest, but it’s easily forgotten and not very fulfilling.  C

Best regards,

Jane

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This is the latest entry into the “Emma” canon, released in 2009 by the BBC. I guess it would be more accurate to call it a miniseries rather than a movie as it’s told in four roughly one hour parts. And while I didn’t think it would take over the place of my favorite adaptation, I was pleasantly surprised to discover how much I enjoyed it.

Young, rich and more than slightly snobbish, Miss Emma Woodhouse (Ramola Garai) is the social center of the village of Highbury and convinced that she is a brilliant matchmaker. Though determined never to marry, she happily pairs everyone else off, much to the frustration of Mr. Knightley (Jonny Lee Miller) who watches her machinations and offers sage advice, which Emma rarely takes. After the marriage of her long time governess and companion (Jodhi May), Emma takes young Harriet Smith (Louise Dylan) under her wing and begins to scheme. She persuades Harriet to decline the offer of marriage from a local farmer and sets Harriet’s sights higher – first on the stuffy vicar Mr. Elton (Blake Ritson) – who secretly admires Emma instead. Then, when that falls through, on Frank Churchill (Rupert Evans), recently returned to the neighborhood after a childhood away with his aunt.

Another recent addition to the scene is Jane Fairfax (Laura Pyper), niece of the silly Miss Bates (Tamsin Greig) who has extolled Jane’s virtues to Emma until Emma is heartily sick of them. Emma carelessly flirts with Frank who flirts right back. Meanwhile, the little community is ruffled by the further addition of Mr. Elton’s new, and snobby, wife (Christina Cole) who seeks to take over as the social leader. Mr. Knightley tries to warn Emma that Frank and Jane seem to have a secret attachment but Emma laughs at his warnings – that is until the two reveal their hidden engagement. It’s only now that Emma discovers that Harriet aspires not to Frank Churchill but to Mr. Knightley himself. And it’s this revelation which gets Emma to finally examine her own feelings for the man. Is there a chance for her to recover what she’s afraid she’s lost or will her actions cost her the man she now knows she loves?

There is much to love about this “Emma.” The costumes and music are wonderful and both are the subjects of special features on the discs. Instead of pale pastels, the hues are rich and vibrant for the leading characters and subdued and faded for Miss Bates as would befit clothes washed and faded out over the years. The locations are also a treat with attention paid to the estate of the wealthy Woodhouses as well as the cramped, low ceilinged rooms inhabited by the Bates ladies.

Garai, as Emma, has to carry much of the story and manages well, except for her tendency to odd facial grimaces. She’s suitably self centered and unthinking but can still convey Emma’s basic goodness and ultimate realization of what’s at stake for her heart. I didn’t think I’d care for Miller as Mr. Knightley but he won me over – for the most part. I do think that these two play their early relationship more as equals in age rather than as the 16 year difference between them should dictate.

The longer 4 hour length allows for much more exploration of the secondary characters and I understood far more about the backgrounds of Frank and Jane and why that piano should cause so much fuss. There’s more time allowed for Frank to demonstrate why Mr. Knightley should take Frank into suspicion and why he is ultimately the inferior man to Knightley. Tamsin Greig plays a wonderful Miss Bates – annoying yet obviously proud of her niece Jane then finally hurt by Emma’s thoughtless comment at the picnic. Sir Michael Gambon who plays Mr. Woodhouse is also given a great deal of screen time and I love the father/daughter relationship he has going with Garai. Look for an interview with him on the second disc.

Louise Dylan does a good job as the young and artless Harriet Smith who is more untutored rather than silly. However I find I don’t care for Christina Coles as Mrs. Elton as she seems to try too hard in the snobbery department. Evans is a good social climbing Mr. Elton and is obviously made smaller by his poor choice in a wife. Sadly I find Jodhi May thoroughly forgettable as Mrs. Weston while Robert Bathhurst is wasted as her husband since he has so little to do. A welcome change here is the larger roles for Dan Fredenburgh as John Knightley.

The longer length of the miniseries doesn’t drag as I was afraid it would. Instead it allows ample opportunity to see just how tightly knit the community would have been and how bound up the characters are in business not their own. We can see how it would be almost impossible not to meddle in the lives of those around you for sheer lack of anything else to do. At the same time, the easy ‘come and go’ relationship between Knightley, the Westons and the Woodhouses depicts long time neighbors and friends.

This is supposed to be a modernization of the novel and it’s here that I have the most problems. The courtesies that should be inbred in Emma and others are sometimes sloppily done, the deportment at the Box Hill picnic leaves much to be desired and Emma’s hysterical refusal of Mr. Knightley’s proposal is far too waterworks-y. I finished the viewing with the impression of people merely playing at the manners which would have been an unthinking part of these people.

I am by no means a Jane Austen expert and as such will sit back and await the opinions of those who have spent far more time dissecting the novel and the various filmed adaptations. I find much to recommend in this version along with a little that left me dissatisfied. But overall I am pleased with the addition. B

~Jayne

I confess that I read this book because I just loved the cover.  The positioning of the characters, the color of the dress, the frills at the cuff of the man’s outfit. It was very evocative.  The soft against the hard.  It’s a clinch but an evocative, sophisticated clinch.   This is the second book in the Brethren Guardian series and I have not read the first one.

Lucy Ashton seeks passion.  She thought she had found it in the arms of an impoverished artist, Thomas.    The night that she offered herself to this artist she had given him a lace handkerchief with her initials embroidered on it.  Lucy believed that this handkerchief was lost to her when a fire consumed her beloved’s rented rooms.  She seeks his presence  through seances and soothsayers, exploring the occult for answers.

Lucy’s father, however, wants her to marry the “passionless and priggish Duke of Sussex.”  What is worse is that the Duke of Sussex has returned Lucy’s handkerchief but while the Duke of Sussex wants answers about where Lucy’s handkerchief was found, Lucy begins to weave fantasies of reuniting with her artist beloved.

Sussex is part of a group known as the Brethren and they guard some artifact, as far as Lucy  knows.  ”Their business was mysterious and secretive, and dangerous.  From what she knew of their secrets, there existed  an onyx pendant, which was the very essence of evil,  and some sort of chalice they protected.”  Lucy took the necklace and swallowed one of the seeds inside the pendant in hopes that it would connect her with her dead lover.  Now Lucy is being told that Thomas is an enemy of the Brethren, a rogue Freemason, and thus an enemy of good.

Lucy’s portrayal is one of a hapless but privileged young woman who had no control over her life.  Her taking the lover, her seeking out the occult is her way of taking control.  Accepting her father’s choice would be an acquiescence that she is powerless.  I think that is an interesting concept but I couldn’t really understand Lucy’s thought process here.  Could a passionless and priggish man be part of a secret and mysterious and dangerous society?

Lucy’s constant reference to Adrian York, the Duke of Sussex, as passionless isn’t effectively carried off because the reader sees Adrian’s point of view and thus we know he is full of passion.  Repeated protestations by Lucy ring hollow.  This is likely a more effective technique if the story is told primarily from Lucy’s point of view, either in limited third or first person.

Instead the alternating point of view made it hard to drum up sympathy for Lucy’s position.  The reader knows her artist is the bad guy.  The reader knows that Adrian totally loves her.  The reader knows that he burns to get her into bed.  I objectively understood what was supposed to be portrayed here but it wasn’t convincing.

Adrian is not passionless and priggish.  He’s in love with Lucy and torn up that she appears to be in love with a man who killed a friend of his in cold blood, a man who is an enemy of the Brethren Guardians.  Fortunately, Adrian’s quest to win Lucy’s hand is aided in part by his sister and Lucy’s own cousin.  Adrian has enjoyed what Lucy seeks and that is rigid control over his life and his emotions (because of a secret!) but he seeks to lose himself in Lucy.

The secret society, the grail artifacts, and the rogue freemasons were probably there to provide suspense but the it seemed more like a game amongst men than a true and riveting danger.  I also felt that it took away from the romance even though part of the conflict arose from the secrets and artifacts.

I did enjoy the close friendship that Lucy enjoyed with her cousin and Adrian’s sister and once the romance got rolling, I enjoyed Adrian and Lucy together.  The secondary romance between Adrian’s sister who is blind and the supposedly philandering Marquis of Alynwick is heartwrenching and ends in a cliffhanger.

There were a couple moments of in the book that had my eyebrows raised including one love scene which took place when both were supposed to be in imminent danger and may have been brought about by slightly drugging both of them.  And there was a huge coincidence that brings the story full circle.   Suffice to say I liked the cover much more than I enjoyed the book. Finally, I wasn’t sure whether this was supposed to be a play on Pride and Prejudice with the Duke of Sussex playing the part of Darcy. C

Best regards,

Jane

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I’m always on the lookout for a good fantasy story. They are rare in romance, perhaps because those writers that are devoted to this sub genre are more interested in exploring heroic tropes that are common in fantasy rather than romantic tropes.

The setting is in some fantasy old world country and there are two basic types of beings: humans and Svistra.  The Svistra are fed by blood and are known to be great fighters.  There numbers are small.  The Svistra were hired by human kings to fight in battles but because of the Svistra’s predilection for blood, the humans cast the Svistra out and drove them to a northern, inhospitable climate.  Unbeknowst to the humans, the thirteen different tribes of the Svistra have united under one leader, Torin, and they are going to war to claim land in the South. This was land that was promised to the Svistra in payment for fighting for the human kings.

Jaden, Torin’s son, believes that fighting will be disastrous to the Svistra because so many of the small numbers will die and war increase the humans’ distrust and hatred against the Svistra.  Jaden leaves his people, a voluntary outcast.  Keldar, Torin’s other son and Jaden’s half brother, is war hungry and when his father doesn’t move fast enough toward war, Keldar kills the father and begins to mobilize the Svistra.  The only challenge to his rule is Jaden, considered to be the legitimate heir and held in esteem by those who seek peace. Keldar attempts to kill Jaden several times.

It is after an attack that Jaden seeks refuge in the stable of a tavern owned by Selia and her friend Oren.  Oren is a bit slow but he is muscle to Selia’s swift thinking and they view each other as family.  Despite their fear of Svistra, Selia and Oren nurse Jaden back to health.  Unfortunatley, Oren is then conscripted to fight in the impending war between the humans and the Svistra.  Oren is not a fighter and Selia knows Oren will not be safe.  She decies to travel north to get him back.  Jaden helps her as the journey is perilous.  Selia is a capable fighter but she’s unfamiliar with the secrets of the land.

There are a couple of things I thought were particularly well done. One was the building of Jaden’s character.  In the beginning I had doubts that Jaden could be a leader.  He seemed very soft spoken and his abandonment of his people, without even seeking to pursue peace, made me wonder how his people would truly embrace him if he returned home.  But the journey with Selia combined with the news of the impending war weighs on Jaden and you can see his transformation driven by guilt and love. Second,  Selia is a great heroine.  She wielded her brain and her knives with equal thoughtfulness and skill.  I appreciated that the story was written in such a way that Selia is presented as an equal to Jaden

While the romance between Jaden and Selia builds as they are forced to rely upon each other during their journey, it builds a bit too slow for me.  I would have liked more time with the two spent together.  This is actually related to my second complaint.

Like many fantasy stories, this story involves political manueverings, threats of war, unexpected heroes, and a large landscape.  Unlike many fantasy stories the entirety of the war is encompassed in this one  story.  Because of that, I felt that the book lost steam toward the end because all of the problems that arose throughout the story including the difficult political issues are resolved in the last couple of chapters.   Further, I felt like key confrontation scenes were totally skipped. Obviously the racial tensions on an individual basis still exists and any peace that is struck is tentative and therefore there is plenty left to write about, but I did think that the resolution didn’t match the intensity of the build up nor the pacing. Either the first three parts needed to move faster or there should have been more than one book to tease out the resolutions to the weighty issues.  B-

Best regards,

Jane

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Are angels the new vampires in romance novels? It seems like the number of books starring angels continues to expand exponentially. When choosing to write about angels (or winged beings, in the case of the Guardians), authors invite introspection from readers about the nature of good and evil and the balance of power.

 Vampires are predators and humans their prey. When pairing a vampire and human in a romance the power imbalance that writes must address is one of prey and predator. With angels the power imbalance is fundamentally different. Angels inspire awe but their otherness isn’t necessarily predatory so much as inhuman and powerful. An angel-human relationship isn’t about resolving the prey-predator dynamic but rather about protector and powerless. Angels are a like Knight-protectors (though without the horse and armor) and they are often portrayed as protectors of humanity (think guardian angel, the arch angel protector of women and children, etc.). How does this affect how we approach books starring these mysterious not-human beings?

These were the thoughts swirling in my head as I picked up the ARC of Angels of Darkness. I had read books and short stories by Ilona Andrews, Meljean Brook, and Nalini Singh; Sharon Shinn was a new-to-me writer.

Angel’s Wolf by Nalini Singh

The anthology opens with Nalini Singh’s story, Angel’s Wolf set the world of Raphael and Elena where all-powerful angels rule the world, create vampires to serve them, and humans live their brief lives much like we do. The angel Nimra serves Raphael and oversees New Orleans and its environs. Noel, a vampire recently healed from vicious attack that left him as little more than pulped flesh, is sent by Raphael to work for her. In Singh’s world angels are cold, uncanny beings of power beyond the comprehension of most humans.

Nimra is the most interesting angel I’ve encountered in Singh’s world. She has a horrific power that can take the violence and badness inside of a person and morph it into that individual’s own suffering and anguish. The meaner you are, the more Nimra can hurt you, which means the most powerful angels—all of whom commit acts of violence, have the most to fear from her. But Nimra herself isn’t mean-spirited or vengeful. Underneath her powerful crust she has a deep compassion which is seen through her love of her pet cats and her affection for her elderly human steward, Fen.

Throughout the story Nimra and Noel are on opposite trajectories. Nimra is slowly revealed to the reader as kinder and more compassionate than her merciless reputation and Noel is revealed as more powerful and capable than his broken victim status. They arrive at an equilibrium where Nimra remains the feared ruler of this territory and Noel rises to become her fear-inducing enforcer.

Alphas: Origins by Ilona Andrews

Ilona Andrews’ story, Alphas: Origins is set in the world of the Alphas. This was my first foray into this world that feels post-apocalyptic though it’s not. This is an alien story. Or more accurately, we are all subspecies created by aliens and left to battle until only one remains. At least I think that’s what going on. Most of the story is set in a parallel dimension that has portals into our dimension. I read this Alphas slowly and closely because the world is very complex and I kept trying sort out if I’d missed something. A lot of the time I did not understand what was going on. I was at least as clue-less as the heroine and this confusion created an empathy with her character. (Since finishing the story I’ve wondered if this was a deliberate construct by Ms. Andrews.)

So here’s what I think I know about the story: there is a battle between two factions of mixed subspecies. The “good” side—the one with our hero and heroine—are fighting to get to another dimension in their world while the other faction is trying to kill them. Some beings have more power than others, and fighting, pain, and death are commonplace.

I wouldn’t really call this story a romance. The “hero”, Lucas, is a shifter who turns into a fur covered monster that needs to drink Karina’s blood. Karina is a human who has some genetic link to the original subspecies making her blood food to fuel the hero

I find Ms. Andrews’ world building intriguing, but this such a complex world to introduce in a short story and I became focused on trying to piece together the world-building which distracted me from the character development. The romance, such as it is between Lucas and Katrina isn’t very romantic. They come together out of mutual need—he for her blood, she for her life—and an emotional bond begins to develop. But it the bond stems from the Katrina’s lack of other options—did I mention the leader of Lucas’ faction is holding Katrina’s daughter hostage? I would like to read more about this Alpha world, but as a stand-alone story this one was a tough read.

I should add that when I first saw this anthology was coming and that it was about angels, I hoped that Ms. Andrews was going to write a story about Thanatos, the angel in the Kate Daniels series. I was a disappointed when I found out this wasn’t a story about him and this may have contributed to my dissatisfaction with this story—I wanted one thing and got another.

Nocturne by Sharon Shinn

Sharon Shinn’s story, Nocturne, is set in the world of the Samaria series. This is a story of redemption, forgiveness and hope. Moriah has been running from events in her past and the angel Corban is mired in depression and refuses to face his future after an accident blinded him.

Moriah is abrasive and canny, hardened by a tough life and hiding from events in her past. It’s her skeptical attitude and lack of awe for angels that are what Corban needs to shake off the mantel of depression and hopelessness that cling to him two years after his accident. In each other they each find their paths to redemption and the hope for a happy future.

This story is told in the first person and it took me a while to begin to appreciate Moriah; during the first half of Nocturne I had to force myself to keep reading. Shinn peaked my curiosity about the monster (Corban) in the forbidden house, but that was the only thing that kept me reading. I wonder if readers of the Samaria series will feel differently. Would knowing this world have made the story more compelling to me from the start? I’m glad I finished it, but I don’t know if I’ll seek out the other Samaria books.

Ascension by Meljean Brook

Meljean Brook’s story, Ascension, is set in her Guardian world. Marc is a Guardian trying to identify and remove a demon who is spreading malice and discontent in his territory. Radha a fellow Guardian and Marc’s former lover, has arrived under the pretense of taking a vacation and offers to help Marc in his search.

As they investigate several murders and follow the trail of clues they rehash their past. More than 100 years ago, while in Guardian training, Marc took a vow of celibacy, but he couldn’t resist his powerful attraction to Radha and he broke that vow. She heard him beg God for forgiveness for sleeping with an unclean woman and took offense (Imagine getting out of bed after a hot and steamy night and finding your partner praying for fornicating with your slutty self. Ugh.).

I think Ms. Brook is a particularly fine short story writer. She deftly delivers subtle character development and emotional arc while weaving the investigative elements that reveal, layer by layer, information about the town and its inhabitants. The evil in this story was sown by a demon, but it was enacted by humans. I found the happy ending to the romance was more poignant after learning the identity of the murderer. The years lost between Marc and Radha as they each battled their inner demons were reflected in the choices of the murder. All of them made choices that led to unhappiness. Marc and Radha got a chance at redemption (and love) all these years later. Who knows, maybe the murder will receive the same, in time.

Each story in this anthology complicated my ideas about angels and reinforced my belief that good and evil are on a continuum with no clear lines demarking where you are on that continuum. As philosophical ideas I found each story offered something compelling; as entertainment I found the stories uneven and on that basis I give the collection a B-.

Cheers,

Jaclyn

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Thank you for sending me a complimentary copy of this short story. Because it is short, I admit I don’t have much to say about it. When I was told that this book was connected to another short, “Silent Blade”, it made sense to read it and review it together. I had no problems reading “Silver Shark” as a stand alone should the readers wonder where to start. However, the couple in “Silent Blade” play a role in “Silver Shark” and thus scenes from “Silver Shark” serve as a kind of epilogue (complete with kids!) to the couple in “Silent Blade”. While both stories are set in New Delphi, Silver Shark takes the world building a different place. It could be argued that absent the New Delphi setting, these were two very different worlds.

One thing I think is wonderful, though, is the examination of the clan idea here. Andrews writes about this topic in all of her books, but most obviously in “On The Edge”, a book I enjoyed tremendously every time I read it. The clan is both powerful and protective, but it can also be stifling and dangerous. It can be a haven or a hell. In these shorts, I think you see both sides of the clan system and within the clan system, the niche that can be carved out for two special people.

Silent Blade

In a world where family meant everything, Meli excised herself from her clan to become their silent blade, an assassin that carries out threats on behalf of her family but because of her excision, the acts don’t reflect poorly on her family. The Galdes clan asks her to do a hit on Celino Carvanna because he is underbidding a project that the Galdes clan needs. The request is sweet because Celino Carvanna once broke Meli’s heart and led her to excision. Meli decides on a course of revenge that was surprising and held quite a bit of suspense. Would she kill him? Is there something worse than killing?

One thing that is remarkable in these shorts was the ease of the world building. I particularly liked the small details. This story and its sequel is a sexier, more romance oriented story than previous Andrews’ works. I thought that the sexuality of the story fit better here than in Silent Blade. The one problem I had Celino. I understood why Meli loved him. She was brought up to love him, trained herself to love him, and believed in her love for him wholeheartedly. I did not find Celino to be worthy of Meli’s love. He was cruel in his initial rejection of her. She forgives him because he was fighting the yoke of obligation and bondage and Meli was persistent in her pursuit. Unfortunately, I found his rejection of her to be telling of his character which was shallow and thoughtless and his later pursuit of her really didn’t change my mind. He pursued her relentlessly but didn’t show any change of character. He was still selfish but maybe less shallow. At least older, he appeared to appreciate different things although much of them still seemed physical. This was a quick and enjoyable read but I did wish that Meli found someone else to love, as her undying devotion seemed wasted on Celino.  B-

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Silver Shark

Claire Shannon is a psycher who can kill people via mind attacks. In a Matrix-like interface, Claire and other psychers enter the technological world by hooking up to a network and then entering the bionet. While both “Silent Blade” and “Silver Shark” take place in the same world, I don’t recall the bionet being mentioned. This story felt a bit more science fiction whereas the first one was more fantasy. Claire lived on the planet Uley and was part Brodwyn retainer, one of the two entities that fought for supremacy on the planet. She was not a Brodwyn retainer by choose, but by circumstance. When Brodwyn falls to Melko, the other competing Uley faction, Claire is shipped off planet to New Delphi. As a Grade A Psycher, Claire would be terminated so she hides her abilities and passes herself off as a secretary. As a refugee, she must find and maintain employment or be deported back to Uley where the Melkos would kill her. She is accepted as a secretary for Venturo Escana, the head of a powerful Escana family. When Claire meets him, she is literally struck dumb by his golden magnificence.

Claire lives in a building with other refugees and they come to her, knowing that she is a high level psycher, when something goes awry and she needs to enter the bionet. Once in the bionet, however, she can be detected and her placid safe life might be destroyed.

Claire has very protective instincts, ones that won’t allow her to turn her back on those that look to her for protection. Veturo is much like that as well. He’s created an empire from which he cares for people and destroys those that work against him. As in “Silent Blade” the small details are used to great effect:

Claire watched it for a few seconds, picked up the knife, and chopped the pepper.

It was Saturday morning and she had woken up with a sudden need to prove to herself that she could cook. Immigration had fully stocked her refrigerator with raw ingredients, so she set them out on the counter and had the AI run a comprehensive analysis finding a combination that would result in a beginner-level recipe.

“One peeled compa, cut into strips.”

“Define compa.”

“Compa: fleshy fruit of Karlovskaya species, rich in Vitamin A. Flavor: sour, with sweet aftertaste. Appearance: red tetrahedron with rounded corners.”

Claire picked out a rough pyramid-looking red fruit. “Demonstrate peeling.”

I found the immediate sexual attraction that Claire had toward Venturo to not be in keeping with her character that is supposed to be totally locked down and numb from her war experience. I understand that she was evolving due to the exposure of color and life at New Delphi, but the immediate lust seemed jarring. The bionet scenes seemed a little strange to me.  Once in the bionet, the characters can shape shift and do all sorts of different things. It also seemed like a humid jungle.  In my head, it looked like a cross between My Pretty Pony and Avatar.  The story tends to jump around a lot, first from the planet, then to New Delphi, and then into the bionet, and then to Meli and Celino’s home.  For a short, we covered a lot of ground that could have been better used in developing the emotional components that seemed to underpin the story.  C+

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It’s hard for me to grade these two shorts because of their length, I found myself wanting more. For existing Andrews fans, it would be a shame to miss these stories. On the other hand, for new Andrews fans, I’d recommend one of her traditionally published books like “Bayou Moon” first because the fuller length story is more satisfying.

Jane

I’m thrilled that you are writing this series and thrilled that Harlequin is publishing it and giving us such in-your-face Asian covers instead headless bodies that hint at its Eastern origins. I am not super familiar with this area of history and I read this story more as if it were a fantasy tale instead of historical romance. Not sure if that affected my reading but that’s my perspective.

What I am less thrilled about are some of the authorial choices that were made.

The Pearl is a beautiful and famed courtesan named Lady Ling Suyin. Her honorific title is Ling Guifei which means “Precious Consort.”  She is considered to be the late emporer’s favored courtesan because after having her in his bed, he never took another. When he died, she was retired to a manor on the land within the Imperial province of Chengdu where she hoped to live out her life in peace. However, with the new emporer in place, loyalties are being tested and war is rumbling across the land. General Gao Shiming is rumored to be in pursuit of Ling Guifui and this leads to her abduction by The Dragon, Governor Li Tao.

Li Tao commands an army and land in the South.  He feels his obligation is to hold the Southern border as commanded by the previous emperor even if this is countermanded by the existing emperor.  He knows war is coming and Emperor Shen has not shown the power to unite the military governors spread across the vast China land. Li Tao had considered it an alliance, had accepted Emperor Shen’s daughter as a peace offering but she married another, and thus no alliance  was struck. Li Tao not sure what is important about this courtesan but whatever it is, he plans to pull it out of her one way or another.

Neither realize their commonalities. Their past is similar, the holds over their lives, threatening whatever peace they may have thought to have achieved, is similar. What is different, perhaps, is that Li Tao is resigned to death. He has always known that dark hand was near him and therefore what is a doomed battle against the new emperor but destiny?

Ling, however, is willing to fight for her survival. Years of palace intrigue taught Ling to school her features, hide her thoughts, and read others like a fortune teller reads the tea leaves.  Her beauty was only one of the tools in her arsenal.  Ling and Li fall in love slowly, coming to appreciate in each other the sacrifices that  made them who they are today and the need they both had for companionship.  They both experienced a very dark time in their life and committed some very bad acts.

In Butterfly Swords, there seemed to be pains taken to show that there were no villians, only people with different perspectives, but in this book there were definitely people who acted villianous and yet the resolution for these people was akin to a stern (or even quiet) talking to. I failed to see the gray in the actions of Gao or the underworld boss, Lao Sou, who used people as if they were things, weapons to be used and discarded when no longer potent.

The defanging of one particular character in the story was troublesome because of how I was asked to see him as some harmless old man in need of loving family when, in fact, he recruited young helpless boys off the street and bound them to him with acts of violence and promises of vengeance.

I felt like some message of peace and tranquility was being delivered, but it was a sermon I didn’t quite understand. I felt cheated in the denouement and while I loved the journey I was taken on, I found the destination disappointing.  It’s tough to grade this book because some of it was beautiful and I loved the setting and the richness of the period.  I thought Ling and Li Tao were well matched.  But there were some big moments of disappointment particularly the as it related to Ling* but mostly how the story was unwound at the end.  C+

Best regards,

Jane

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Archangel’s Blade opens with a flashback in the vampire Dmitri’s POV, one that takes us back to Dmitri’s human life. In the flashback, dark, ruthless Dmitri is revealed to have once, a thousand years ago, been a loving and tender hearted man devoted to his two children and to his wife.

Smiling at his son’s joy, he looked up and saw her in the doorway. His wife. With their new daughter in her arms. His heart twisted into a knot that was almost painful.

Sometimes, he thought he should be ashamed to love his wife and children so much, until the days when he went away to the markets were a rare anguish…but he could not bring himself to believe it.

This picture of domestic bliss is almost shocking in contrast with the Dmitri we know from the three previous Guild Hunter books. As the Archangel Raphael’s second-in-command, Dmitri could not be more loyal – and ruthlessly cold. He is said to love no one, and to like his pleasure twined with pain.

Though she has never met Dmitri, Guild Hunter and ancient languages expert Honor St. Nicholas is well aware of his reputation. She has spent years observing him on television and from afar due to an inexplicable obsession, but the thought of a close encounter with him or any other vampire now terrifies her.

Ten months ago Honor was kidnapped by vampires and raped and tortured for eight weeks. While two of her attackers were killed during her rescue and two more captured alive, no information about the rest of her tormentors has been uncovered. Honor has been hiding in one of the Guild Academy buildings since the assault, so when Sara, the Guild director, calls her and informs her that she is needed to consult with Dmitri on a case, Honor feels shattered.

Nevertheless, she manages to scrape enough strength to pull herself together and meet with Dmitri at The Tower where he oversees Raphael’s empire. The encounter is anything but soothing – Dmitri presents Honor with a young vampire’s severed head whose tattoo he wants her to decipher.

Moreover, Dmitri is attracted to Honor, though she is far from his usual type. When he puts his hands on the back of her neck and she slices his face in instinctive self-defense, he promises her private, intimate retribution at his hands. But things begin to change when Dmitri learns what Honor suffered, and vows to bring all the remaining perpetrators to justice.

As he takes Honor along on his excursions to find her attackers and to mete out punishment to them, a bond develops between Honor, who slowly gains confidence and begins to trust this one vampire, and Dmitri, who persistently denies that he can have a lasting or meaningful relationship with any woman – but finds it difficult to deny Honor whatever she needs.

Archangel’s Blade is a melding of more than one genre, with elements of mystery, thriller, horror, urban fantasy and romance. From these disparate genres you craft a nearly seamless, powerful, riveting novel. I found myself wholly absorbed in Dmitri and Honor’s story as I watched both characters transform – Honor into a courageous survivor, Dmitri into a more human, tender, loving badass than he’d been before.

Archangel’s Blade reminded me of a bit of Time Without End by Linda Lael Miller, a book I remember loving back in the 1990s, and one that had a very similar premise. I thought Time Without End was pretty dark but Archangel’s Blade makes it look like a sweet and gentle story.

I appreciated that it was acknowledged multiple times how thin is the line that separates Dmitri from the villains he takes down. There’s a cruel streak in him at times (especially in the beginning of this book), and in the earlier books, I hated the way he forced his seductive scent on Elena.

One of the reasons I was able to love Dmitri despite this is that the vampire Dmitri was contrasted with the human he had once been, sweet, caring and loyal above all to his beloved wife and children. You do a great job of showing what a lovely person that human Dmitri had been, how much he had lost, and showing also, that some remnants of that man were still in Dmitri.

Honor is also haunted, not just by the events of her recent past and her foster home upbringing, but also by an inexplicable sense of loss she has always lived with. I felt that past and present weren’t quite as well-integrated in her as they had been in Dmitri’s character. Surprisingly, it was easier to see the human Dmitri in him than it was to see the woman she’d once been in Honor.

But despite this, Dmitri and Honor’s journey gripped my guts and my heart. Seeing these two lost souls find love and acceptance with one another wasn’t just compelling, but also deeply moving.

Each time I read one of your books, I’m of two minds about the prose style. On the one hand, it feels a little choppy and repetitive at times, but on the other hand it’s also vivid, powerful and distinctive, and when I enjoy a book this much, it is difficult to complain.

A bigger problem for me, especially with this series, is the violence. This book is not for the squeamish or the faint of heart. Still, although the violence disturbed me, it also worked better for me than it has in the previous Guild Hunter books. I was quickly plunged into the dark places Dmitri and Honor inhabited and from there, followed their struggle toward a ray of light.

It was brave of you to tackle this much darkness and emotional baggage in one book. I was so touched when, at the end of the book, Honor and Dmitri fully understood and embraced the love they had found in each other, and yet, they had both lived through so much heartbreak and pain that the book left me a bit melancholy despite the happy ending.

Nonetheless, for its intense emotional quality and its romantic and redemptive feel, this is my favorite installment of the Guild Hunter series so far. B+/A-.

~Janine

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When I reviewed “Cyrano de Bergerac,” some of you said you couldn’t watch or didn’t want to watch it or hated it because of the tragic ending. I can understand that. More often I’m in the mood for a HEA too. So here one is in the form of an updated version of Edmond Rostand’s famous story. And this time, the right guy gets the girl.

Fire department chief C.D. “Charlie” Bales (Steve Martin) is a great guy. He’s charming, witty, friendly, kind, intelligent and caring. He’s also got an incredibly huge nose. When he meets summer resident and astronomy student Roxanne (Daryl Hannah) he’s smitten but she’s only got eyes for new handsome fire fighter Chris (Rick Rossovich). Chris is also hopeless when it comes to interacting with women and frustrates Roxanne by refusing to talk to her. So she asks C.D. to help them, not knowing of his feelings for her. Will C.D. ever work up enough courage to tell Roxanne what he feels even as he vicariously woos her for his friend?

If you know anything about the original story, you’ll notice how cleverly this remake/update works those details into the plot. C.D. is great with words as shown in the “20 insults” scene at the bar when he chastises someone who insults his nose then goes on to spontaneously come up with 20 much more clever things the man could have said. They aren’t delivered as a poem but still show C.D.’s superior intellect. Roxanne is an astronomer which was a hobby of the original Cyrano. C.D. shows his fencing skill not with a sword but a tennis racket – the scene is hilarious. Instead of whispering the words to Chris to woo Roxanne with, C.D. initially uses a short wave radio with a transmitter hidden under a cap Chris wears then finally resorts to charades and pantomimes.

There are several people in town who act the part of C.D.’s friends as well as the other fire fighters who stand in for the Gascogne cadets. There’s a funny scene of C.D. falling out of a tree as he spies on Roxanne only to almost land on top of four older ladies. He spins a story about having almost been abducted by aliens which resembles the “man falling from the moon” tale told by Cyrano to the jealous Comte – which is one subplot that is otherwise dropped in this version of the story. But never fear, if you haven’t read the play or seen other Cyrano movies, you won’t feel like you’re missing things or are being left out of the inside jokes.

As with any telling of the Cyrano story, the main emphasis is on the man himself and thus this is really Steve Martin’s movie. He does great physical as well as verbal comedy. I don’t think he did all the gymnastic entries into Roxanne’s rental house but he does fence with the tennis racket, act out the aliens, and leads his volunteer fire fighters in proper hose technique then waltzes to their efforts – you have to see that part to appreciate it. Martin tones down his wackiness – often it’s the other characters who take this up – and instead gives a charming, sensitive performance.

Daryl Hannah is lovely as Roxanne is supposed to be but also pulls off the job of being as intelligent as this character is portrayed. She’s still dazzled by a pretty face but now gets a scene of anger at the realization of the scam pulled on her and finally – for this character – sees beyond the physical to the true worth of the man who has loved her from afar. As for the pretty face, Rossovich is more than cute as the tongue tied, airhead Chris and I ended up still liking him despite the shallowness – he had to be gotten out of the way – of his character here.

Shelley Duvall, Fred Willard, an early Damon Wayans, and – my favorite – Michael J. Pollard are some of the secondary actors who all do good jobs. Oh, and there’s Flossie the cow and Grover the cat who is the one responsible for Roxanne and C.D. meeting in the first place.

Lots of historical stories which are updated and presented as contemporaries fail to work for me. Many of the plot details just don’t fit in the modern world or the work arounds are so cumbersome that it makes the whole thing to clunky and unbelievable. Here I think the filmmakers have done a great job of keeping the basics, updating some of the details and jettisoning what would have ground the story to a halt. And even though the film is almost 25 years old, it doesn’t feel 80s dated either. Wooh – twofer! For those who don’t like Cyrano due to the unhappy ending – here ya go. B

~Jayne

I just finished watching this and TBH am not totally sure what the fuck I just saw. But it sure was entertaining. It looks like a graphic novel x comic book x video game. It’s got great dialogue, great visuals and I know I’m gonna want to see it again. Especially since I saw one of the new rental discs that come with no stinking extras! I hate that.

Scott Pilgrim (Michael Cera) who is the bassist for the struggling rock band Sex Bob-Ombs, has a pretend new girlfriend Knives Chau (Ellen Wong) a seventeen year old high school student. But he keeps having dreams featuring a woman he doesn’t know who he then meets at a local party. Feeling that Ramona (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) is the one for him, he sort of cheats on Knives before finally breaking up with her to date Ramona. But Ramona has baggage – who’s dated and broken up doesn’t? – and Scott will have to defeat her exes – actually the League of Seven Evil Exes – if they are going to continue to date. Has Scott got it in him? Will the Sex Bob-Ombs finally get their record deal? Will Scott come clean with Knives and deal with his own exes? And will Scott’s gay roommate Wallace (Kieran Culkin) kick Scott out in order to have the apartment?

I think this is a movie to love or hate. I came to it with no background and never having seen the graphic novels upon which it’s based so for me, it’s love. Though I still don’t totally know WTF I just saw. It’s directed by Edgar Wright and even beyond the graphic visuals I can still tell his style which works great here. It’s loaded with fantastic LOL dialogue – one of my favs is when Scott says he “kicked him so hard he saw the curvature of the Earth” – comic panel flashback sequences, an Announcer and Game Score.

There’s fighting galore, complete with POW! AAAAAA, K.0.!, and other comic book depictions of hits, but no matter how many walls or ceilings he’s WHUMPED! through, Scott never appears to get hurt. The Evil Exes are, of course, another matter and I loved the ways that Scott defeats them from a Bollywood dance fight, to a skateboard grindy thingy, to half-and-half, to a knee tickle during the girlongirl action, to amp vs amp – which counts for two Exes as Ramona was dating twins, to a video game take down complete with a 2XBonus round and Knives joining in the fight.

The visuals are also great. Watch for the roulette wheel possible answers to a question: “She’s Nobody”, “She’s Forty!”, “Idiot!”, “No Speaka English”, “When’s Dinner”, “Uhh…”, “Tell Pac Man Story”, “No, You Are”, “Pass Out”, “It Was Nothing”, “Who Her?” and “I Gotta Pee”. And the meter which goes from “No Clue” through “Gets It.” The real DVD, as opposed to the rental, also seems to have tons of extras including lots of commentaries, deleted scenes, bloopers and a trivia track among others. Did I mention how pissed I am about the new rentals without these? Oh, and listen out for the Seinfield and Universal Studios themes. Oh, oh and the [Bleeping] that kept the rating to PG-13. Fucking hilarious. And I can write that since we don’t have a rating here.

The film is not just about cool visuals, fights! and laughs though. Scott does learn something at the end and it’s only then that he’s free to move on in his life and hopefully enjoy what he’s gained. Or you can just ignore that bit if you want ’cause it’s only at the very end. I haven’t seen too many graphic novel –> movie adaptations (300 was a bomb for me) but this movie reverses my “nevah gonna watch any of these things again” stance. Now I must go out and locate a DVD copy with the damn extras!

~Jayne – so who’s your favorite Evil Ex?

Over at Faster Times, Joshua M Brown ridicules Amazon’s move into publishing “They are starting with romance novels, we are told, because they are cheap and the nitwits buyers of them consume product constantly”; and then there was this supremely insulting article written by Claudia Cornell for the Daily Mail that says all romance authors are old ladies with blue rinses, “All around me are middle-aged and elderly women in their pearls and support tights.”

The more that these articles pop up, the less interested I am in proliferating their messages by blogging and tweeting about them.  Sure, the romance as pornography gave rise to a funny #hashtag on twitter titled #romancekills but why be defensive about articles that are so stupidly written? Doesn’t acknowledging them and defending them actually give them credence and power?  Because does any rational person think that reading about a couple that is praying together is going to ruin someone’s marriage? Does any rational person think that the readers of this blog and other romance readers out there are mindless nitwits?  No, of course not.  These are such huge and stupid overreaches that I just shake my head at their banality, lack of originality and thought.  These people will never be convinced of the value of romance novels or romance readers.

Or at least this is my excuse for not blogging about these articles. I’d rather point out things like this sent to me by reader Sandy. Nora Roberts donates $100,000 to McDaniel College where they will start a romance writing minor.

In addition, the college plans to use the funds to help build a core American romance library collection, including the complete works of Roberts, as well as to establish an endowed fund to support the collection.

The collection’s titles will be available online.

The college will hold an international conference on romance novels in November, with keynote speaker Mary Bly, a Shakespearean scholar at Fordham University who also writes as Eloisa James, a best-selling author of historical romance novels.

*****

Which brings me to this Salon article that asks whether reading great books makes you a better person.  Um, no. Everyone has the capacity to better themselves and some will find lessons through books and others through different mediums.  However, it’s an interesting theory:

There’s a theory, vaguely associated with evolutionary psychology, maintaining that fiction builds empathy, and therefore morality, by inviting us into the minds, hearts and experiences of others. This is what the British children’s book author Michael Morpurgo implied recently in the Observer newspaper, when he claimed that “developing in young children a love of poems and stories” might someday render the human-rights organization Amnesty International obsolete.

******

Some of the romance bloggers in our community were plagiarized by another well known member of the romance blogging community.  Wicked L Pixie and others found pieces of their reviews in this other blogger’s reviews.  The blogger had been notified several weeks ago but it wasn’t until Wicked Pixie went public that the blogger apologized and began to take down the offending reviews. It appears that there are so many of them that may contain plagiarized material that it is taking the blogger some time to rectify the situation.

******

In a tech headscratcher, 3M is investing heavily in digital books.  Last week they announced 3M Cloud Library, a software and delivery system for digital library books.  Now comes the news that they have bought a 25% share in Txtr, an ebook device manufacturer and the programmers behind the epub reading app, Txtr.  Nate thinks they are going to be a competitor to Overdrive. I would not have guessed that 3M, of all companies, would have entered the market of digital books.  I’m fascinated by this move and what it could mean, if anything.

*****

Kristen Nelson is accusing publishers of underreporting ebook sales. I hope she has some evidence to back that up.

2. Publishers are under-reporting electronic book sales in any given period on the royalty statements we are seeing.

That’s a fact.

I would hope that Nelson starts auditing those publishers, then, on behalf of her authors.  Another author is suggesting that her ebook sales and that of others are also being underreported.

* Carolyn Jewel found this letter to the editor which is pretty close to the KLS article. See analysis by Sunita

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.

Since I’ve started doing these Friday Film Reviews, I’ve been trying to expand my film horizons. Netflix has helped since it makes it relatively easy to try new-to-me films and actors and “Brown Sugar” is a case in point. I’d seen Sanaa Lathan and Taye Diggs in other films (some of which will be featured in coming reviews) but together in this film, they’re magic.

“Sidney (Sanaa Lathan) and Dre (Taye Diggs) trace their friendship and the launch of their careers to a single childhood instant: the day they discovered hip-hop on a New York street corner. Now, 15 years later, both have successful music industry careers. As Sidney, a revered music critic, and Dre, a successful but unfulfilled music executive, lay down tracks toward their futures, something keeps them coming back to that moment on the street corner.”

You don’t have to love, or even like, hip-hop music to appreciate this film. However if you do enjoy it, the soundtrack should do wonders for you. Also look for cameo appearances by several hip-hop stars. The characters’ love of the music serves as the backbone of the film and the motivation for many of their actions so it discussed often – almost like the love for a boyfriend or girlfriend.

Sanaa Lathan is an actress who I think is fabulous and one who throws herself into her roles. Here she stars with Taye Diggs who is reason enough to spend time watching the film. Now, now, I know I’ve mentioned how shallow I am about handsome men before. Anyway, they make it easy to believe the long relationship their characters have had and why everyone around them knows that they’re The Ones for each other – even if they stubbornly refuse to see it themselves. They laugh together, tease each other and confide their deepest hopes and wishes to each other in a way that shows they won’t just be lovers but also best friends.

But they have a long road to travel before their final hookup and it’s nice to see realistic, believable characters in a romantic movie that avoids silly setups and outlandish plot twists. The significant others in their lives, Dre’s wife Reese (Nicole Ari Parker) and Sid’s fiance Kelby (Boris Kodjoe), don’t turn into shrews or asshats to further the plot and bring the main characters together. Instead, they are nice people who simply aren’t right for HEAs with Dre and Sid.

Another of my favorite actors, Queen Latifah plays Sid’s cousin Francine and is given some great scenes such as when she helps Sid unpack and finds Sid’s massager from Brookstone and also when she loudly urges Sid to protest during Dre’s wedding, much to Sid’s embarrassment. Scene stealing Mos Def is a young hip-hop artist Dre is hot to sign to his new record label and I couldn’t help but watch him every time he was on screen. He and Queen Latifah also have a sort-of secondary romance going on which I would love to have seen expanded.

While the ending is formulaic, it’s still satisfying and I laughed to see the note Dre holds up when he asks Sid to go out with him when she’s in the middle of a radio interview. “Brown Sugar” has adult characters acting like adults. They might not always be perfect and they do make mistakes but I never groaned with disbelief at their actions and I did feel the emotions they were trying to convey. The film has an average rating at Netflix and IMDB but don’t let that dissuade you from trying it. It’s an understated charmer which exceeded my expectations as I hope it will yours.

~Jayne

I feel like I am being a bit disloyal to the Psy/Changeling series by admitting that right now I am enjoying the Angel series more but it’s true.   Even though we only get one book a year in this series (or maybe because we only get one book a year), I always wait impatiently for the next installment. There are a couple things I like about this series.

The worldbuilding is so intriguing.   For those unfamiliar with this series, the world is comprised of angels, vampires and humans.   There may be other stray beings around but those are the primary genetic beings.   Angels are at the top of the hierarchy and they make the vampires, both willingly and unwillingly.   Not every person is suited to be an immortal vampire and those that are psychologically incapable are rejected.   This can lead to human pairings that result in one member being made a vampire and another not. Of course, there are other vampires that are made indiscriminately.

The angels are ruled by a number of Archangels, beings old and powerful.   This conclave is known as the Cadre of Ten and they rule by geographic region.   It is the only way that they can come to a peaceable resolution, knowing that if they did not have their own territory to rule, they would be in constant combat.   Angels are born but births are rare.   Raphael, the male protagonist of this series and ruler of North America, is the only progeny of two archangels.   These angels, as many do, slowly went mad as they became older.   His father killed many people.   His mother actually intentionally dropped Raphael from a great height resulting in every bone of his body breaking. Raphael knows is that his mother is powerful, dangerous, and very likely insane.   She is in a deep sleep and has been for centuries but recent events seem to indicate that she may be awakening. The purpose of her awakening is unclear as is her sanity and the threat she poses to Raphael and, more importantly, to his love, Elena.

Having read three Angel books from you, I can safely say that old angels are scary, dangerous angels.   And this is where your attention to detail and plotting make such a difference.   (And for those who haven’t read the first two books, you may want to look away as this is kind of spoilerish for the first two).   The series is centered around Elena Deveraux, a former member of the Guild who police the vampires, either on their own but primarily at the request of the the vampires’ makers.   Elena was particularly good at this because she is like a scent hound, able to pick up the scent of a vampire and track him via the scent.   When Elena becomes near death as a result of attempting to carry out a task forced upon her by Raphael in book 1, Angel’s Blood, Raphael’s body unexpectedly produces ambrosia which transforms   Elena from human to angel.   But making Elena has created weakness in Raphael.   The two are tied somehow and while Raphael’s power has strengthened Elena, her humanity has weakened Raphael. He takes longer to heal.   He is more easily affected by attacks from others.   Yet, her humanity might be the very thing that will keep Raphael from the path his father and possibly his mother has taken.

Archangel’s Consort opens with Elena still learning to be an angel, still weak.   Her affinity as a tracker, however, hasn’t changed and she’s called in to investigate a killing of a child at a local private school, a school that her half sisters attend.   As more vampires appear to go rogue and Raphael’s holding over Manhattan is challenged, Elena learns more about her family, an affinity that her step sister and she may share, and secrets her father has hidden deep.

If there is a theme to the book, it appears to be one about parents and their complicated love and jealousy for their children.   Jeffrey, Elena’s despised father, had at one time shown genuine caring for her.   Caliane, Raphael’s mother, tries to kill Raphael but does she do it out of love or jealousy? And for Elena and Raphael, they have to deal with what they are in relation to who their parents are. How much are the children the product of the parent or do they, as Raphael says at one point, make themselves.

As Elena grows as an angel, she has to learn some painful lessons.   Her Guild is no longer her family. She has information, secret information regarding angels and vampires that she cannot share with them.   She feels isolated even though she has found a true love with Raphael.

As with the other books, this is one part mystery, one part romance, one part urban fantasy.   While I think the world is rich and the romance is satisfying, I did feel that there is a tendency to overdwell on some issues.   There was a certain repetitiveness in passages that I could have done without.   I do, however, like that themes and motifs brought out in Book 1 are carried forth in this book, indicating to me that you have a plan for this series which I appreciate as a reader.   B.

Best regards,

Jane

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

A few weeks ago when I reviewed the Rodger’s and Hammerstein Cinderella musicals, I promised I’d be doing more Cinderella movies in the coming months. Here’s a different version of the fairy tale which is both more and less grounded in actual history but which I find charming all the same.

Jeremy Perkins at IMDB has done a marvelous job of writing a plot synopsis so I’m just going to credit him and borrow it for use here.

“With the sudden death of her loving father (Jeroen Krabbé), Danielle (Drew Barrymore) is made a servant by her new stepmother (Angelica Huston). She also has two new stepsisters, one quite kind (Melanie Lynskey) but the other one really horrid (Megan Dodds). Still, Danielle grows up to be a happy and strong-willed young lady, and one day her path crosses that of handsome Prince Henry (Dougray Scott), who has troubles of his own at home. Luckily the nice Leonardo da Vinci (Patrick Godfrey) is on hand to help all round.”

This version does make an attempt to ground the story in actual historical events even if, with a lot of them, it grabs history in a headlock and gives it a noogie. The film is set in France with various events in it dated to the early 15th century. If you want to read all the anachronisms, go to the goofs page of the IMDB and confirm all those niggling things that make you question, “what….?” as the film goes on. Even though things like this usually make me cringe, I find the movie’s strengths more than enough to balance them out.

What do I like? For one, the fact that Danielle is an intellectual who is first attracted to Prince Henry because he can discuss “Utopia” with her. And sure he’s handsome but he also listens enough to her likes and dislikes to offer her the one thing she’d be sure to love – access to the Royal library. Gotta love a man who pays attention. Instead of just wittering on about the ball and how handsome Henry is, the film has discussions of philosophy and shows Danielle out hunting for truffles with her pig. It is France, after all!

Also Danielle isn’t just interested in discussing philosophy – she lives by it. She’s the one who cares for her father’s estate even as her stepmother bleeds it dry and the one who looks after the servants going so far as to risk punishment to save one. She also saves Prince Henry with a handy fireman’s carry. When she’s put into the hands of her worst enemy, she’s the one who manages to rescue herself – even if I don’t believe that her father would have turned her into an expert swordswoman before he died when she was only 8 years old. Still, the look on Henry’s face when he rides up to save her and realizes she’s already saved herself is priceless.

Believe it or not, I also like the fact that Henry isn’t perfect. He’s actually a bit of a handful for his parents and initially seems more interested in Danielle because she doesn’t kow tow to him. He does show his feet of clay during the ball scene but receives two set downs for it – one when da Vinci basically tells Henry he doesn’t deserve Danielle and two when his foreign bride wails aloud at the thought of marrying him thus showing him he’s not the bee’s knees he thinks he is. And he does give a marvelous groveling scene as he proposes to Danielle. Plus, there are some nice, well stuffed codpieces to be seen throughout the film. Oh come on, you know I’m shallow that way.

As good a job as Barrymore and Scott do, they are backed by a great cast including Huston who manages to make the evil stepmother character delightfully wicked without turning her into such a caricature. The stepsisters aren’t physically ugly and one is actually fairly kind. Jacqueline helps the main romance along in the end and is rewarded with her own love while the evil sister and stepmother get their just comeuppance. I love the way Danielle is magnanimous yet still gets her revenge.

There are some things about the film which might turn people off. The historical anachronisms are there in plenty. As well, the delivery of the dialogue is somewhat period “stilted” though not badly enough to be too distracting once you’re used to it. But as a reward there are lovely costumes and scenery including the Château de Hautefort with which I am in love.

I think perhaps the main reason I end up liking this film so much is the fact that loving Danielle makes Henry want to be a better man. As well, Danielle has more to her than just a pretty face and the fact that her foot fits a particular shoe. Even if that shoe was made by Farragamo! Plus who can resist a fairy godmother in the form of Leonardo da Vinci? B

~Jayne

Other than Magic Mourns, the short story that was included in the Must Love Hellhounds anthology, I haven’t read any of your Kate Daniels series. I’m not sure why Kate Daniels unfortunately flew completely under my radar, but due to my giant, listing TBR stack, I doubt I’ll end up getting to it before I retire from my day job and my children are in college (read: not happening). While I may be late on The Edge bandwagon, I am happy that I jumped on with the second book.

I freely admit that what drew me to Bayou Moon was something in a blurb about William Sandine being a killer who plays with toys and action figures. Being a complete nerd and vinyl aficionado myself, there was no way I was going to pass up a book that feature a hero unafraid to show his less mature self. WHOOO! How little did I realize I hit the nail on the head with that thought.

William lives in the woods between the Weird (a magical world) and the Broken (mundane backwater South). An easy way to describe the Weird is it is a parallel world to our mundane one, but operates completely with magic and the fantastical, paranormal, what have you. Territory and power in the Weird are being fought for by nobles in the Kingdom of Andrianglia and the Dukedom of Louisiana. People like William live between the two worlds in the Edge. Those that are Edgers either don’t have enough magic to be welcomed into the Weird or they are outcasts from the Weird. Take a wild guess at which category William falls into.

William is a changeling, and all changelings in Adrianglia are separated from their families and bred as soldiers. After failing to follow orders, William is cast out into the Edge. I don’t want to ruin anything for those who haven’t read the first book here (and I haven’t but I picked up everything I needed to know from this book), so I’m not going to delve into William’s history too far. His lifetime of being trained as a tracker and killer precluded any sort of romantic or social interaction (along with being told that his attentions would be unwelcome by any female), so he is very much alone in the Edge in the beginning of Bayou Moon. William is approached by the Adrianglian Secret Service to go on a dangerous mission into the Mire, the swamps of the Edge that is between the Dukedom of Louisiana, the Broken and the State of Louisiana. He takes on the mission to try and get revenge against Spider, an agent from the Kingdom of Louisiana that kills changeling children.

Cerise Mar’s family were nobles, but they’ve been cast out to the Mire, and have claimed a huge portion of it for themselves. They may be poor, but the Mar family is large and they rely on each other. When her parents disappear, Cerise takes charge of the family and has to make some tough decisions. The family suspects that their rivals, the Sheeriles, are responsible for her parent’s sudden disappearance. Cerise is forced to travel to the Edge, and on her return, she and William’s paths intersect.

The book borders on epic in its scope; the worldbuilding is completely new and slightly complicated, and the characters don’t stay in one spot for long. However, Bayou Moon doesn’t slack on the development of characters or the story between Cerise and William. William may be a prime fighting machine, but his upbringing has stunted him emotionally and socially, and it’s both entertaining and painful to read as he works out what social nuance means and whether he reacts correctly or incorrectly in certain situations. His growth into a well-rounded person (character? changeling?) takes time and is believable. Cerise’s struggle to take up the family reins and effort to retain the control and respect of her unruly clan is well portrayed. Cerise is sure of herself but knows that she must prove that she can hold the family together. It was refreshing to have a heroine that could hold her own throughout the book and didn’t have quite as much growing to do as the hero. Cerise and William together…sometimes was explosive, but there were a few moments I felt like I was watching some really awkward interaction, and it felt slightly disjointed.

There were a couple of scenes toward the end of the book that frustrated me, but didn’t preclude me from enjoying the final chapters of the book, or the book as a whole. The secondary characters are superb and the tension (both romantic and action-filled) is strong throughout without having to be artificially manufactured. I’m going to pick up the first in the series and I hope that there’s another in the works. B+

~Shuzluva

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

The changeling William Wolf was introduced to readers in your earlier book, On the Edge. On your website, Mr. Andrews states in that book, William "lost Rose to Declan and did not save the day. This book [Bayou Moon] was his chance to be a hero, to get the girl. A damaged hero and a very odd girl, but still."

I enjoyed Bayou Moon, which takes place in the Edge, a strip of land between two dimensions, the Weird and the Broken. The Broken is our world, where there is no magic. The Weird is a magical realm, a mirror of the Broken in which two New World countries, Adrianglia and the Dukedom of Louisiana, are engaged in a cold war.

Bayou Moon begins when Nancy Virai, an Adrianglian spymaster, and her assistant/thug Erwin, arrive in the Edge to recruit William for a mission. William used to be a member of the Red Legion, an Adrianglian black ops army unit. But he was expelled from the Red Legion and adopted by the evil Lord Casshorn Sandine, who met his death in On the Edge. Since the events of that book, William, Lord Sandine, has been employed as a construction worker in the Broken and moping in his spare time.

Back in his Red Legion days, William had two encounters with a twisted, magically enhanced Dukedom of Lousiana spy named Spider. That William survived those encounters means he is the Adrianglians' best hope of defeating Spider and his covert organization of magically enhanced spies, the Hand. Spider and the other members of the Hand have infiltrated a part of the Edge which borders the Dukedom of Louisiana and is known as the Mire. Virai believes that they are searching for a magical item that could tip the balance of power between Adrianglia and the Dukedom of Lousiana, and mean all-out war.

William loathes Spider with his whole heart, since Spider is responsible for the murders of several Adrianglian changeling children (In Louisana, changelings are reviled so much that they are killed at birth, while in Adrianglia, many are abandoned by their parents and given over to the care of Hawk's Academy, the brutal orphanage where William grew up). Because he hates Spider so much, William agrees to infiltrate the Mire, learn what Spider and the Hand are seeking, capture that item, and if at all possible, kill Spider.

Meanwhile, in the Mire, Cerise Mar discovers that her parents have not returned from a ride to Sene Manor, an empty house that once belonged to Cerise's grandparents. When Cerise and two of her cousins ride to Sene, they discover that the house has been confiscated by the Sheeriles, a family with whom the Mars have a longstanding feud. The Sheeriles inform Cerise that the Hand has taken her parents, and they claim not to know the reason why.

Now Cerise and her family will have to fight the Sheeriles for Sene Manor, where there might be clues to explain the Hand's interest in Cerise's parents. But to prove that the Mars have the right to Sene, Cerise must travel to the Broken to retrieve a copy of the deed from her uncle.

Sneaking into the Mire from the Broken, William pays a man named Vern to guide him down a river to the town of Sicktree. Also on the same boat is a girl who looks like a hobo, and smells, to William's discerning nose, like a jar of moldy spaghetti sauce.

Partway through the journey, William and the girl lose Vern to a shark attack. Now the “hobo queen” is William's guide to Sicktree, and he does not trust her as far as he can throw a necromancer-controlled giant eel. But when he realizes the Hand's agents are after the girl, and that after washing off the spaghetti sauce, she smells delicious, William realizes that he has to stick close to her, and that that is exactly what he most wants to do.

For her part, Cerise, too, catches on to the fact that William is more than the spoiled blueblood he first appears to be. Unexpectedly attractive and proficient with a crossbow, William may be dangerous to Cerise's family. Can she trust him, and even if she can, should she risk her heart at a time when the lives of her family members are threatened?

Bayou Moon is darker in tone than On the Edge (One scene in particular is quite violent and not for the faint of heart) but it is still greatly entertaining.

William and Cerise seem right for each other. It was immensely enjoyable to see them begin to perceive they had met their match in the one they first dismissed as “Hobo Queen” and “Lord Bill.” As their strengths become apparent, they grow to admire each other more and more. Both are great with weapons and really respect each other's abilities in this arena. She has a huge family and he longs for family, a sense of belonging and being wanted and accepted, more than anything.

There is some delightful, laugh out loud humor in this book. I caught myself giggling and smiling several times. The novel had a terrific sense of adventure, particularly in the section of the book when William and Cerise were trying to reach Sicktree together, that reminded me of movies like “Romancing the Stone” and “Raiders of the Lost Ark.”

The worldbuilding is superb; the Mire comes alive and I felt as though I could feel the humid air and murky water, and see the creatures that inhabited this world, from the Loch Ness monster-like rolpies to the legged eels.

I did catch one major inconsistency, though. Earlier in the book, it was stated and shown that exposure to the Hand's magic makes people sick at first, but later in the story, when many characters encountered the Hand for the first time, this was not the case.

If the world was believable for the most part, so was Spider. I especially liked it when he stated that he became a monster so his fellow countrymen would not have to. It's a rationale that many have used on a slippery slope to evil.

Most of the secondary villains among the members of the Hand reminded me of the supervillains in the comic books I read as a child. On their own they were menacing, but when they gathered together for a big showdown near the end of the book, it was too much to be wholly convincing. The Sheeriles were more interesting villains and I particularly appreciated the multidimensional Lagar, who had a humanity that he denied.

The Mars (Cerise's family) were colorful and lively. They were distinct from one another and I had no trouble telling them apart and remembering who each of them was, which is impressive since there were so many of them.

William's desperate need to be loved and accepted was so intense that at times it seemed a little over-the-top, but it was understandable given how barren his childhood had been, and it made me feel for him. Cerise was so attracted to William that I wondered why the women if the Broken and the other part of the Edge hadn't been, or if they had been but William simply didn't notice because he didn't believe anyone could want him.

Cerise was a wonderful heroine, strong, intelligent and responsible. I loved that she could still be smart alecky with Williams despite all the pressure she was under, and I especially loved the way she struggled with the difficulties of leading her family. Even when she fell apart on the inside, she knew she couldn't show it on the outside, lest her authority be challenged at a crucial time.

The attraction between Cerise and William was potent and the fact that their lives were in danger made me root for them as a couple even more. I wanted them to find some happiness in the midst of all the danger, and I was glad for them when they did.

In the last third of the book, a lot of attention is given to the magical item Spider is bent on acquiring, and to the history of this thing. This came up just as things were heating up between Cerise and William, and romance-lover that I am, I wanted more focus on their relationship and less on the history of this magical item.

The final chapter and the epilogue have a very different feel from the rest of the story, and as a result, this book isn't as cohesive as On the Edge. The last conflict that came between William and Cerise near the very end of the book felt contrived to me. There is also a plot thread that is left unresolved. To me this was on the one hand this was somewhat dissatisfying, but on the other, encouraging, since I'm hoping for more books in this series.

Though it wasn't a perfect book, Bayou Moon was highly entertaining. I look forward to the next Edge-set book, and my grade for this one is a B+.

Sincerely,

Janine Ballard

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

I’ll be honest and admit that I approach westerns written by men with a degree of trepidation. From the ones I’ve read or tried in the past, it seems men have an almost irresistable urge to have their female characters assualted or raped during the course of the story and then treat the event as if it’s nothing more than a hangnail. I don’t know why this is but it drives me nuts. Thanks, for not falling into that same rut.

Marshal Dallas Blackwood and the stage driver try to tell Easterner Anastasia Forsythe that she’s better off waiting for the next stage to Baxter Springs since Blackwood is hauling a prisoner there for trial but the young woman has no intention of waiting a day longer. Which is something she lives to regret when the prisoner’s gang members try and spring him from custody. After picking up a dandy who is much more to Anastasia’s taste than the loutish Marshal, a wild shootout and hell for leather chase across the prairie, the stage finally arrives in the small town.

Anastasia isn’t much more impressed with Baxter Springs than she was with the Fort nor has her opinion of Dallas improved much however she does admit that he seems to know what he’s doing and does it well. Which is a good thing as the outlaws aren’t finished trying to free their man from trial and a hanging. Will Dallas be able to bring the outlaws to justice and change pretty Miss Forsythe’s mind?

At first glance Anastasia is a pretentious snob, which is your point. I was amused that Dallas might enjoy her looks but not her attitude though he quickly cottons on to the fact that she’s a fish out of water trying to hide her unease. Still that doesn’t stop him from giving her an order or two – much to her distaste – or not coddling her. I knew when the dandy Royal Darling (oh, what a fun name!) showed up Anastasia would initially fall for his slick ways and fancy talking, which she does, but she also slowly begins to show some discrimination in her choice of picnic partners as well as more common sense about life in the west and the people who live there. By the end of the book, she’s even getting a touch feisty – though in a good way – and more than proves her worth after the run in with the Kiowa warriors.

Dallas is a man of the west. He doesn’t waste words or actions where they’re not needed, rides hard, does the job he’s paid for and takes care of his horse. And no one tells him how to do his job, not even the mayor. He also seems to have a touch of PTSD from his time in the Union army during the late War though the tracking he did going after Quantril and his raiders stands him in good stead when the time comes to go after Pendergrass and his gang. He might not impress Anastasia at first sight but I like the way she has a chance to form a different view of him from his deeds and his kindnesses – both to widows and working girls. Dallas is one hell of a lawman, stubborn about seeing the job done, patient in following the trail to catch his man whether in town or not and determined to see justice done even if most people don’t think a dead indian is worth the effort. He tries to see both sides of an argument and enforces the same law for everyone. He also doesn’t view taking a life lightly, though if the need is there, he’ll do it.

The secondary characters add depth to the story without taking too much attention away from Dallas and Anastasia. My favorites are Reuben Huff who takes over the reins of the Concord coach with a boyish delight, Widow Opal Wilson who shoots straight and takes her own revenge for her loss at the hands of the outlaw gang and deputy Guy Stephenson who does his own good job in law enforcement but can’t help doubling over in laughter at the thought of Anastasia heading out with Dallas to track a killer. The details of the story and life in the west, from the wildly careening stagecoach being hauled over a high ridge by the powerful six-horse team during a gun battle, to the layers of dust ever present and able to choke anyone who steps outside, to the wildness of the cowpunchers out to spend their money while still in town, make the book feel immediate.

The romance here is both slow and measured as well as quick. Dallas and Anastasia aren’t too impressed with each other to begin with though the thaw in their feelings is believable. It does take a while before anyone even thinks the “love” word and the first time it comes to Dallas’ mind he’s just as astounded as Anastasia is when she finally admits to her feelings. Hopefully she’ll get more used to his teasing manner once they’re hitched.

Overall, I am very impressed with this book. I ended up liking and cheering for the two main characters, the length is just right and it highlights an area of the country, Kansas, that I don’t often see in western romances. Some of the sentences were overly long leading to convoluted descriptions of the characters that were hard to unwind in my mind until I’d read the sentence a time or two. But for readers looking for a grittier historical western with romance, this is a good one to try.

~Jayne

Book Link |   Amazon |   BN | Borders | Fictionwise

In Linda Howard's book All the Queen’s Men, Louis Ronsard plays the villian.   He’s a wealth arms dealer who is portrayed as completely amoral.   He is targeted as the middleman who sells stolen arms to terrorists.

Ronsard was a shadowy Frenchman who gave his allegiance to no one group; he was the conduit, however, for many, and he had made an enormous fortune providing what was needed. He probably wasn’t behind the development of the explosive, but he would be the logical person to approach as a middle man, one to handle payments and shipments-for a fee, of course

He was, though, not without some standards:

The maniac who wanted to explode a bomb in a school as a protest for world peace was not going to purchase that bomb or the materials through him.

But he facilitated getting dangerous weapons into the hands of men who would do terrible things, like bring down an entire airplane to get one man.    Despite this, there are a number of Howard fans who have found Rosnard interesting and would like to see him star in his own book.   After all, Rosnard had an excuse.   His daughter is sick and he’s amassing this wealth to save her.   Or at least that is part of his justification.

I never saw the appeal of a Rosnard, a man who helped terrorists.   I found that to be irredeemable.   His was not a book I’d want to read.    While it is just fiction, there are lines I have drawn, particularly in romance about the type of person I want to spend time with and even with some of my favorite authors, there are paths I can’t, or won’t, travel with her.    I note that it is generally within romance than I have more of a black and white view of the main protagonists (although in fantasy, I’m looking for the good v. evil fix as well).

There are tropes that are acceptable outside of romance that I think romance readers have a hard time accepting within the genre.   Incest is one of those.   V.C. Andrews’ famed Flowers in the Attic features a love story between the two eldest children.   Locked up in the attic for years, the two teenagers begin to explore their burgeoning sexuality with each other, knowing that it is forbidden.    This story is a horror story and the children suffer tremendous emotional and physical abuse at the hands of their grandmother and mother.   Perhaps in light of all that the children have suffered, the love of each other is a minor sin.

Within the romance paradigm, however, I can’t help but think such a story would not be countenanced.   More than one blogger has been so outraged by even the advertisement of a book containing incest that I cannot imagine the uproar that would exist if a legitimate publisher put forth an incestual romance.

Having said that, there are plenty of brother and twin menage stories and there is the famed Men of August series by Lora Leigh wherein the brothers had to share their wives with each other in group sex acts to feel whole and loved due to the fact that the brothers were mercilessly tormented as children.   (Shades of Flowers in the Attic?)

One area I have a problem with is infidelity.   In  Promise in a Kiss is the story of Devil Cynster’s mother and father.     The problem is that Devil’s father cheated on his wife with a Scottish woman and brought home the bastard to be raised by Devil’s mother.

  While Promise in a Kiss is written by an author who holds a strong grip on my reading emotions, the love story of the unfaithful Sebastien and Helena is one I simply couldn’t bring myself to read.

Yet, I’ve read books that feature infidelity within the genre trope that I’ve enjoyed.   I recently enjoyed a Michelle Reid glom and one of her backlist titles is The Ultimate Betrayal which features a husband who was unfaithful (to a certain point).   The infidelity happens off screen and before the start of the book.   Amy Garvey’s Pictures of Us is about a couple who had a picture perfect marriage only to find out that during a very difficult time in their relationship, before they were married, the heroine drifted away from the hero and the hero had a sexual relationship with another woman resulting in a pregnancy.   It wasn’t infidelity, technically, but the characters feel like they were being untrue to the other.

Then there is rape.   Forced seduction is an acceptable trope in the genre and some might even say that it is making a comeback.   I was surprised reading the March Sara Craven title, The Innocent’s Surrender.   I am a big Sara Craven fan but this one features a rape scene, or at least what I would term as a rape scene, in the beginning of the book.   Hero has heroine kidnapped and brought to his bedroom. His henchman lock the door and the heroine is not allowed to escape.   Hero tells heroine that she is not permitted to leave until she has sex with him. She begs him to allow her to leave, but he tells her that he has a letter indicating that she wants to engage in lascivious acts with him and that is what she will do until he tells her that she may go.

But what about Molly Sommerville in This Heart of Mine who raids Kevin Tucker’s shaving kit, climbs into bed with him, and while he is sleeping, proceeds to avail herself of his equipment and have sex with him while he is senseless.

The romance genre has con artists like the characters in Judith Ivory’s Untie My Heart, Jennifer Crusie’s Faking It, and Courtney Milan’s Proof of Seduction.     We’ve also had batterers, redeemed ones, in romance.   The Burning Point by Mary Jo Putney attempts to rekindle the marriage of a reformed batterer and his wife.

While I’d like to say a good author could make me accept anything, I know that is not true.   There are lines that I draw for characters and if they cross that line, it makes me hard to find them redeemable. I never enjoyed The Burning Point.   While I appreciated the writing in Ivory and Crusie’s books, I was never able to fully immerse myself in their stories.   In re-reading the Michelle Reid backlist, I’m not likely to revisit The Ultimate Betrayal.   I still have the willies after reading the first two Men of August books (could never make it to book 3) but I am able to read the twinsie/brother menages (because they aren’t touching!) although even that is losing its appeal the more that I contemplate it.

How about a bad mother? Could a mother who has abandoned her child, maybe even treated the child cruelly, be redeemed?   How about a pedophile?   A serial rapist?   An animal abuser?   Are there clear lines between the good guys and bad guys in your mind?    Are there lines that you draw in fiction?   Or is it all dependent on how good the author is?   Does it matter if it is romance or literary fiction? Why or why not?