isn't sure if she's an average Romance reader, or even an average reader, but a reader she is, enjoying everything from literary fiction to philosophy to history to poetry. Historical Romance was her first love within the genre, but she's fickle and easily seduced by the promise of a good read. She approaches every book with the same hope: that she will be filled from the inside out with something awesome that she didnʼt know, didnʼt think about, or didnʼt feel until that moment. And she's always looking for the next mind-blowing read, so feel free to share any suggestions!Filed under: C Reviews Category, C- Reviews
Dear Ms. Hardy,
I have a complicated relationship to Harlequin Presents books. On the one hand I find the melodrama seemingly intrinsic to the line viscerally appealing, but on the other hand there has to be enough authenticity in the characters and the story to make me suspend my disbelief enough to let the melodrama work its magic. Surrender to the Playboy Sheikh seems to aim for authenticity above melodrama, and ironically, it did not work for me on either count, despite the fact that I found the characters to be perfectly likable and their happy ending clearly deserved.
After being badly burned by her now ex-husband, Elizabeth “Lily” Finch vows to be all about business, and as a result, her catering company, Amazing Tastes, is doing very well. No-nonsense Lily seems to be satisfied and focused enough until she catches a glimpse of a tall, dark, and handsome man at one of her client’s parties, a man who seems similarly, inexplicably drawn to her.
Karim al-Hassan knows that social networking is part of his job as heir to the throne of Harrat Salma, but he finds it rather tiring. A vulcanologist by training, Karim has managed …
Now that I’ve read three of your novels, I see a pattern in your heroines: they are extremely jealous of their independence, convinced that no man can be depended on, and afraid of showing themselves completely to the world. I appreciate these qualities in a genre that too often holds its heroines to unreasonable standards of nobility, gentility, and congeniality. All of which is another way of saying that I enjoyed Lori Love, the heroine of Start Me Up, and her difficult path toward the kind of happiness she had more or less given up on the moment she had to leave college and move back home to take care of her father and his car repair business. I did not find the book to be as strong as last year’s Talk Me Down, but it was still very readable.
After I read last year’s book, Your Scandalous Ways, I knew my expectations were going to be set incredibly high for anything that came after. And thankfully, Don’t Tempt Me is not a book in the same vein, but instead hearkens back to the Carsington series, especially Miss Wonderful and Mr. Impossible. A hero who has suffered a great loss and who copes by putting on a distracting outward display and a heroine who lives on the margins of polite society’s rules and whose innocence does not equate to naïveté. And while Don’t Tempt Me possessed a number of charms of its own, somewhere between my high expectations and the echoes of other books, I was not as tempted to love it as I hoped I would be.
If it were not for the wonderful query from your editor, Harrison Demchick, I do not know if I would have picked up your novel, The Sinful Life of Lucy Burns. And given my response to the book, I would suggest that more publishers take the approach of Mr. Demchick in either promoting books they truly believe in or at least being very smart about showing respect to and familiarity with potential reviewers. Because I liked The Sinful Life of Lucy Burns quite a bit and hope that many more readers get a chance to enjoy this quirky, intelligent, clever ode to everything from Faust to Walt Disney to the Native American trickster tradition to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
When I heard you were expanding beyond the pack books written as Shelly Laurenston to this Dragon Kin series, I was really looking forward to these new books. Not only do I have a soft spot for dragons, but I still love the tough, independent heroines for which you are known. And in that sense, Dragon Actually (comprised of two related stories) does not disappoint: Annwyl and Rhiannon, the two heroines, are at the top of the female alpha scale. But in terms of the overall world-building, character, and relationship development, the book read to me like more of a draft than as finished, polished work.
There is a point in your newest Sookie Stackhouse release, Dead and Gone, where Diantha, demon niece of supe lawyer Mr. Cataliades, warns Sookie of war brewing among the fairies. This spells danger for Sookie because of her connection to the fairy prince Niall, and like the weres in the last book, fairies are not united under one leader. When Sookie asks Diantha why Mr. Cataliades would potentially endanger himself to warn her, Diantha explains “Didyerbest,” which Sookie understands refers back to the horrific explosion at the Pyramid of Gizeh hotel a couple of books ago. Sookie and Barry the bellhop had searched for survivors among the rubble, even though they knew they risked being discovered as telepaths by law enforcement looking for an edge in crime solving. Together, they found many humans and vampires who otherwise would have perished.
As a satisfied reader of your Regency pirate series, I was definitely on board to try your new late Victorian book about a hero who suffers from Asperger’s. The barbaric aspects of a growing medical tradition and the increasing urbanization and complexity of British society are a perfect fit for a story that explores the sometimes narrow gap between obsession and madness. And in a genre where love is often portrayed and expressed in extreme measures of desperation, the fit is very fine. So it should be no surprise that I enjoyed The Madness of Lord Ian Mackenzie, both in its unusual choice of hero and its deft use of many solid genre conventions.
