Dear Author: Romance Novel Reviews, Industry News, and Commentary » Book Reviews

REVIEW: A Wanted Man by Ellen Hartman

Jane — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 21:44:10 +0000

Dear Ms. Hartman:

I think this is your first book. I was thrilled when I found it on Mill & Boon in digital form because I could immediately buy it (along with all your other titles) after the thoroughly enjoyable Boyfriend: Plan B (review to come).

Nathan Delaney is a famous children’s writer using the pen name of Chris Senso. Nathan is a recluse, though, because he had a brush with fame back in his early college days which turned him into a near hermit. The only picture on his books is a childhood picture and he lives a very isolated life.

Unfortunately a popular daytime talk show host has decided that she will unmask Chris Senso and she begins a daily hunt for him, asking for her viewers to call in with tips and clues. She ratchets it up on a daily basis from using an age regression analysis to hiring a profiler to look at the books to determine the race, age, geographic location.

Nathan is spooked. He had writer’s block since he and his fiancee broke up. Nathan decides to get out of his current town. He starts driving and his car dies around Richwoods,New York.

Rhian MacGregor’s life was put on hold when her sister and her sister’s husband died eight years ago. They left behind a little baby and Rhian took up the parenting reins. She lost her fiance and her business that she started with him but now, as Jem is off for a summer trip with his grandparents, Rhian is starting to look at her empty life.

First, though, she needs to get her house painted. Nathan has offered up his services as a housepainter and despite having no local recommendations and appearing kind of a drifter, Rhian doesn’t have much choice. No one else will return her calls. (why Nathan choose to set himself as a housepainter is a bit questionable).

Nathan and Rhian are instantly interested in each other, but both are little too risk adverse to take a chance. As Nathan paints Rhian’s house and they begin to spend time together and their attraction deepens. Rhian decides that Nathan, a transient painter, would be the perfect person with whom to have an affair while Jem is gone. Nathan knowing he is just passing through also feels that this connection with Rhian is safe.

I loved the interaction between Rhian and her friend Min, both women were at a crossroads in their life. Nathan’s banter with his long time friend and agent, Matt, provided frequent moments of levity. Rhian and Nathan’s connection felt genuine.

Raising one eyebrow, he grinned wickedly as his eyes skimmed down her body. “Will you wear an apron? A very little apron to go with this,” he said, leering, “very little skirt?”

“I’m a waitress, not a French maid.” She blushed. She’d wanted him wanting her, but it felt uncomfortable.

He kissed her firmly and then pulled back and said matter-of-factly. “Any apron will do. I have a good imagination.”

I thought it was an interesting look at the fetishization we have as a public and our deep seeded desire to know all can result in exploiting other’s losses such as when Lindsey, the talk show host, dug up the story about Jem’s parent’s death and put the pictures of it on her show. Jem was heartbroken and confused but all the while had enjoyed the hunt for Chris Senso.

“Why did she show my mom and dad?” He turned to Rhian with bewildered eyes and she pulled him closer. “Does she know about them?”

“I’m sorry, Jem. I think she does.”

Jem’s voice was full of unshed tears. “I don’t want her to talk about my mom and dad. What if people watch her show and ask me those questions? I hate those questions.”

Nathan knew the questions Jem meant, because he hated them, too.”

Nathan’s emotions were all over the place. He was falling in love with Rhian who maybe only wanted a temporary fling. He was afraid of ruining the tranquility he felt in this small town with its loving community by being found out as Chris Senso. He felt guilty that his friend and agent, Matt, was being followed around 24/7. He felt like he was losing control (and he was).

Rhian’s not so confused. She knows what she wants but she’s afraid to move outside her comfort zone, whether it is working on her children’s book or taking what she wants with Nathan.

But both Rhian and Nathan’s lives were on hold. Nathan because he hadn’t quite been able to shake off the past and Rhian because of Jem. Both were afraid to move forward.

The hunt for Chris Senso was a great way to build anticipation and suspense in the story. You knew Nathan was going to be found out. It was a matter of when and how.

There are things that didn’t make sense to me. Why did Nick really believe Patricia, his former fiancee, would not reveal his secret when they broke up? Where did he meet her if he has lived this hermit life existence? I also thought it was interesting that Nathan’s writing and art was so inspired by the women in his life. And if that were so and Patricia was as truly shallow as she is portrayed, then why wouldn’t his books during the Patricia period be shallow as well. As an aside, I always wonder at the taste of the hero when his first wife/fiancee is such a horrible person. Surely, there had to be something to recommend her other than her good looks and her desire to be showered with gifts? Also, was it too perfect that Rhian wanted to be a children’s writer as well?

I did love how the book ended and how Nathan and Rhian foiled the talk show host and Patricia. This is a sweet and tender romance and I’m ever so grateful to Jayne for having shown me the way to your books. B-

Best regards,

Jane

This book can be purchased at Amazon in used format (originally published in 2007 and apparently no longer in print) or in ebook format Mills & Boon.

PS Mills & Boon, the excerpt at the end of the book for Falling for the Tycoon by Karina Bliss totally worked for me. Bought the book. Who can resist a man that cries at funerals!

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Friday Film Review: The Swan

Jayne — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 10:00:33 +0000

The Swan (1956)
Genre: Historical Dramedy
Grade: B-

Here’s a golden oldie, or moldy oldie if you don’t care for it. The movie is based on a play written by Ferenc Molnar and was filmed twice before this final one was made. It’s Grace Kelly’s next-to-the-last film made before her marriage to a real Prince and she never looked lovelier.

It has always been the overriding ambition of Princess Beatrix (Jesse Royce Landis who also played GK’s mother in “To Catch a Thief”) to see her daughter Princess Alexandra (Grace Kelly) become a Queen. Their family was forced from the throne of their tiny middle European country by Napoleon (whose name Princess Beatrix will not allowed to be mentioned in her presence) and she’s aware that it’s probably their last hope to regain some stature by cementing the ties between their dispossessed family and their cousins, the reigning royal family headed by Queen Maria Dominika (Agnes Moorehead) and her son and heir Prince Albert (Alec Guinness).

[[Show as slideshow]]

When Beatrix gets word that Albert is on his way to visit them, she immediately pulls out all the stops and whips the palace staff, and her family, into a frenzy in order to present Alexandra in her best light. But after Albert arrives for his short four day stay, he spends more time duck hunting, inspecting the modern dairy and with Alexandra’s younger brothers than with the slightly shy Alexandra. What’s a mother on a deadline to do? Use a little old fashioned jealousy, that’s what.

She instructs Alexandra to invite the boys’ young and handsome tutor Dr. Nicholas Agi (Louis Jourdan) to the final night ball in the hopes that it will spur Albert to a proposal. Instead, to her horror, things backfire as Agi, emboldened by this chance of which he never dared dream, confesses his secret love to Alexandra. Now whom will she choose?

As I’ve seen mentioned in other reviews, the plot for this story is obviously dated even by the fifties. The world it depicts was long gone even then – either during WWI or by the end of WWII. But while I’m watching it, I try and lose myself in what it shows as still existing among a people who have no clue that their way of life is in its twilight. And yet, the film does hint at what is to come.

It’s all about the differences in classes – the old class of royalty who are shown doing little beyond ceremonial duties and being instructed in how to “be royal” and the rising middle class who will take over due to their drive, education and ambition. We see the best and the worst of both classes and are left to decide on our own if Alexandra makes the correct decision or not.

There is a great deal of dry comedy throughout the story which Alec Guinness pulls off in style. But he also shows great tact, after an initial spell of pique, in dealing with Alexandra’s conflicting feelings. Another surprisingly fun character is Symphorosa (played by Estelle Winwood) whose pithy one liners often embarrass Beatrix as she’s trying to make a good impression on Albert. Agnes Moorehead is regally grand and imperious in a role that had little time on screen but which she made the most of.

Landis beautifully balances Beatrix on the knife edge of likability. We can see her as a woman just trying to see to the future of her family – the scene when she offers contradictory advice to Alexandra on how to behave around Albert is quite funny – as well as a pushy, slightly snobby royal who is obviously shocked when one of the lower orders dares to have feelings for her daughter. Kelly floats coolly through her role until the moment when her passions are aroused and she comes to life. There’s a late scene when she lets Albert “have it” for the way he’s acted towards the family and of course the final scene where she comes to terms with the direction her life will take.

The movie has a slightly bittersweet ending. One might wish for it to end another way but given the way Alexandra has been raised her entire life, I wasn’t surprised. I’m not entirely convinced that her protestations of love for Agi are real. Perhaps or perhaps not. As Albert reminds her, she just kept her feelings so controlled and beneath the surface for so long that when they finally burst free, she’s not sure how to handle them.

As far as I can tell, “The Swan” isn’t available on DVD but there are two ways for it to be viewed. Someone has loaded it on youtube (type in “The Swan-part 1″ — note the hyphen is important). I’d love to know which language it’s subtitle in. It’s also being shown on Turner Classic Movies in November (right now it’s scheduled at midnight on the 26th/27th but check closer to the date to be sure).

~Jayne

FTC discloser – I watched this on television.

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REVIEW: Mr. Malcolm’s List by Suzanne Allain

Jane — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 22:10:17 +0000

Dear Ms Allain :

Thank you for sending me this book for review. I am a big fan of the traditional regency which is what I would categorize this novel as. The key to a successful traditional regency is the total immersion of the reader into the time period which is well done in Mr. Malcom’s List. Like other traditional regencies, the hero is not a lord, but a man of great means and the second son of an Earl which, during that time, was sufficient to make him a marital catch.

Selina was a paid companion who was left comfortably well off after her companion’s death. She does not want to return to her vicerage with her family and writes to her old school classmate, Julia, with a request to visit her in London. Julia is living the life of parties with other young people that Selina longs to enjoy. Julia ignores this request for months and then, out of the blue, Selina receives an invitation to visit.

Julia Thistlewaite had her sights set on marrying The Honorable Jeremy Malcolm, second son of the Earl of Kilbourne. He was the catch of the season and Julia was a beautiful, wealth, well connected member of the gentry. But Malcolm has a list of attributes he wants in a woman and Julia doesn’t measure up. (She fails item No. 4 which is “The ability to converse in a sensible fashion.”). Cassie, friend to Malcom and cousin to Julia reports back that she doesn’t meet all the requirements on the list. Julia decides she’ll use Selina to enact a revenge. Selina is to conform to all the list elements and make Malcolm fall in love with her (or at least to request her hand in marriage) whereupon Selina will crush his dreams.

Selina agrees to do this because she won’t get to stay and have fun in London unless she agrees to Julia’s schemes and because Malcolm sounds like a prig in need of being brought down to earth.

When Selina and Malcolm meet, they actually start to like each other quite a bit to the point that Malcolm does indeed think that Selina is the woman for him. When he finds out its all a ploy, he’s angered and hurt. Selina feels badly and tries to explain that she, too, has real feelings for him but he is definitely not interested in listening to her.

I actually thought the star of the book was Julia. I found her really entertaining. She was always scheming even when it went against her own interest and eventually she has to give up her vendetta against Malcolm to get her own matrimonial prize. Selina and Malcolm were a bit stiff to me, particularly juxtaposed against Julia.

Another highlight of the story is the dialogue. It’s snappy, entertaining and humorous. The plot was comedic but it felt a bit forced as the characters carried out setup after setup even until the end of the story. C

Best regards,

Jane

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

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REVIEW: What Remains of Heaven by C.S. Harris

Jennie — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 10:00:34 +0000

Dear Ms. Harris,

I have been anticipating the release of What Remains of Heaven, the fifth book in your Sebastian St. Cyr mystery series, for several months. I’ve come to expect a new book in this series every year, and while I’ve liked some of the offerings more than others, each has been satisfying (with grades ranging from A- to B), and the continuing turmoil in Sebastian’s personal life has held my attention from book to book.

Just a quick note: I think it’s probably going to be hard to entirely avoid spoilers for earlier books in the series in this review, so if you haven’t read the series, intend to, and are fanatical about remaining spoiler-free, you might want to stop reading now.

Sebastian St. Cyr, Viscount Devlin, has rather inadvertently and reluctantly become known as a murder investigator (don’t you hate when that happens?). His imperious aunt comes to him accompanied by her friend, the ailing (but still formidable) Archbishop of Canterbury, to request Sebastian’s assistance in finding out who killed the Bishop of London, Francis Prescott. Bishop Prescott had been summoned to the village of Tanfield Hill one night upon the discovery, in a recently opened crypt, of a body that did not belong there – a long-deceased man found not in a coffin but on the floor of the crypt, with a knife sticking out his back. The Reverend Earnshaw, who had ridden to Lond to inform the bishop of the grisly discovery, is late in meeting him at the crypt and discovers Prescott practically atop the first body, with his skull bashed in.

Sebastian has no particular personal interest in this crime (unlike some of the previous ones he’s investigated), but agrees to look into it because of his regard for his aunt. Bishop Prescott, as it turns out, had any number of enemies (don’t they always?). He had angered many with his abolitionist stance, and the fact that he was being considered for the powerful position of Archbishop of Canterbury may have made some who opposed his views on slavery nervous. One of this group, a foppish aristocrat named Lord Quillian, was overheard threatening the bishop shortly before his death. Additionally, Prescott was see arguing with a butcher the day he was killed (it turns out the butcher’s son has an unpleasant past association with Sebastian, which ends up complicating his investigation), he had had a run-in with William Franklin (a real historical figure and son of Benjamin Franklin, William had been exiled to England for his support of the British during the American Revolution) and there was apparently acrimony between the bishop and his nephew Peter Prescott, an old school chum of Sebastian’s. Things get even murkier with the introduction of a subplot about a mysterious spy who had operated against the British during the revolution 30 years earlier; this thread ends up involving both Prescott’s family and Sebastian’s own (this is another one of those series that makes me wonder if there were only a couple of dozen people living in London in the 19th century, since the same people turn up over and over again).

As with previous books in the series, the mystery didn’t engross me hugely. At times it felt like there were lots of potential red herrings and improbably coincidences thrown at the reader, but those may be par for the course in mysteries, for all I know; I haven’t been a regular reader of the genre since I was a teenager. When I read mysteries these days, I tend to filter out the very same information that mystery fans are probably filing away to see if they can figure out the solution to the crime. I really don’t care about solving the crime myself, and untangling the clues makes my head hurt, so it’s hard for me to assess the worth of this book as a straight mystery, except to say that I was impressed by how neatly all of the pieces fit together in the end. That’s really all I ask of a mystery; other readers may have more stringent requirements. (I guessed one fairly obvious “surprise” early on, but the the ultimate identity of the killer did surprise me.)

Again, as with previous books in the series, my real interest is the setting and the continuing characters. Sebastian remains an intriguing and highly sympathetic hero, one who has been buffeted by a number of distressing revelations over the course of the series. This book is no exception, and while these revelations are fairly melodramatic, even soap-operaish in nature, there was an internal logic to the ways in which the characters were manipulated, I thought.

As in past books, Sebastian’s romantic travails are featured in What Remains of Heaven, but I was a little disappointed that the characters seemed to pretty much tread water for the course of the book. Sebastian’s relationship with Hero Jarvis is complicated by the consequences of their night together in the last book, but while they meet up a number of times in What Remains of Heaven, their conversations have a repetitious quality that frustrated me. (Hero has her own reasons for wanting to get to the bottom of the bishop’s murder; he was a friend of hers and was helping her with a personal problem.) Sebastian’s relationship with Kat Boleyn is rocked by an entirely unshocking shocking revelation, but there are still considerable obstacles between this couple and their HEA (and honestly, I’m more on Team Hero at this point). I would have preferred a bit more balance between the mystery and Sebastian’s relationship drama. I don’t mind the series being drawn out, and I realize that this dictates that things go slowly on the personal front, but I do want to see some progress in the course of a book.

Sebastian’s relationship with his father continues to intrigue; the two have been very up and down in the course of the series, owing to the fact that Hendon was hard on Sebastian as a boy and continues to lie to him about Very Important Things now that Sebastian’s an adult, things that Sebastian has a way of finding out, leading to a fresh round of recriminations and then estrangement. I can’t help but like Hendon in spite of his flaws because he really is a fully drawn character; he loves his son but he can’t seem to stop making mistakes with him. He has functioned at times as an antagonist in the series, but he’s anything but one-note (unlike, say, Sebastian’s sister, whose personality seems to be permanently set on Witch).

The prose is mostly smooth, marred here and there by a lack of subtlety and a tendency to over-explain (Hero at one point thinks that it’s tedious that as an unmarried female the rules of society dictate that she can’t visit a man she wants to question in the murder case; I would think the vast majority of readers would understand enough about the mores of regency society that they would not need to have these circumstances pointed out to them so explicitly). My enthusiasm for the series really does rest mainly with the characters; Sebastian, Hero, Hendon, Kat and a few others are sympathetic enough to make me care about them and faceted enough to keep me interested from book to book.

My grade for What Remains of Heaven is a B+.

Jennie

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

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REVIEW: The Husband She Couldn’t Forget by Carmen Green

Janine — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 21:00:46 +0000

Dear Ms. Green,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sincerely,

Janine

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

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REVIEW: Submission Times Two by Claire Thompson

Joan/SarahF — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 10:00:51 +0000

Dear Ms. Thompson.

I’ve had numerous people recommend your books to me as examples of good BDSM romances. When James Buchanan recommended you yet again, I broke down. I’m glad I did. I really enjoyed Submission Times Two and look forward to reading more of your books.

I started with Submission Times Two because how could I not?! It hit all my buttons: menage, m/m, and BDSM. But especially the menage. Cam and Ethan are desperately in love with each other. They’ve been living together for just under a year. They’re committed and focused on making their relationship work no matter what. The problem is, they’re both submissive, and unable to dom each other convincingly. So they’ve worked out a deal: on the weekends, they each go to different clubs, scene with doms there, get their pain-play needs met that way, and then go home and fuck like bunnies. So far, it’s been working out for them. Then Ethan hooks up with Maestro and starts thinking about how he needs more than just weekend scenes — he needs a full-time dom, which of course starts getting in the way of his relationship with Cam.

“Maestro” is actually Andrew, and he’s sort of semi-stalking Ethan. He had a huge crush on Ethan back in high school, when Ethan was the so-closeted-even-he-didn’t-know-he-was-gay quarterback who everyone adored, and Andrew was Andy, nerdy and completely forgettable. Andrew finds Ethan through Facebook, and figures he can finally make a dream come true when he figures out that not only is Ethan gay, but he’s submissive. He goes into the relationship figuring he’d steal Ethan from his partner, only to change his mind when he meets Cam.

Cam, of course, is pretty upset when Ethan starts keeping things from him, but what I loved about this story more than anything else is that no one huffs off in a Big Misunderstanding. They all TALK with each other, and work things out, just like real people in committed relationships should do. If they do go off half-cocked (harhar), they get their heads out of their asses pretty quickly and figure things out.

Although the story is only 100 pages, all three characters have emotional arcs, all three characters fall in love with each other, all three characters make it work together. And the BDSM aspects of the story are wonderful. You obviously know what you’re talking about and the BDSM is about the sensation and the psychology, as it should be. You show how intimate it can be, how mind-altering and relationship-changing. It’s also not for the faint-of-heart. The BDSM is pretty heavy at times, definite pain-play, not just submission with some slap-and-tickle. So readers should be warned.

I loved the actual story, the BDSM was fabulous, the emotions were strong and made my stomach all swirly. But…but two things: characterization and writing.

The characters weren’t 100% differentiable (if that’s a word). When you’re dealing with three men, more has to separate them from each other than their names. While Andrew was obviously different from the other two because he was a dom, Cam and Ethan were less distinguishable. They had different backgrounds, of course, and difference relationships with Andrew, and different needs. But I couldn’t tell them apart by speech. I couldn’t figure out whose head I was in without a name marker. The dialogue was great, the banter well done, the conversations good. But the characters didn’t sparkle and because they weren’t instinctively different from each other, I kept having to consciously remind myself that Cam was the one who ____ and Ethan was the one who ____ and that was a little distracting.

For those in my “How not to write BDSM” mega-review who said they didn’t want a BDSM manual while reading, this book was proof both that something that reads like a manual at times can be hot and that it can also be slightly tedious and preachy. I don’t know if it was just that I was super-sensitive to the issue, reading the story as I did while also dealing with the debate in my last post, but at times I felt like Ethan, Cam, and Andrew were reading from a “How to do Safe, Sane, Consensual BDSM” script, rather than organically moving through the story. But I also felt it was better to have that than not. The book did a great job depicting BDSM and the extra little preachy bits were just slightly too sticky-sweet icing on the cake.

But overall, I think the preachiness is a result of the biggest problem I had with story. The writing was inelegant. I’ve thought long and hard how to say this, and I think that word is the best choice I could make. The writing has no sparkle; there are no surprises. Every cliche is milked for all it’s worth. If a situation happens, I just knew what phrase was going to be used to sum it up. The story and emotions and characterization were all mostly solid. And although there was nothing terrible about the writing — with the actual stringing of words into sentences — it was pedestrian, sometimes even boring, although the story itself wasn’t boring. At times this annoyed me, at times I could ignore it and sink into the story. I loved the story and these guys, but the writing was, well, inelegant.

However, I’ll be looking forward to reading the other books of yours that intrigue me, because, inelegant writing aside, you’ve got nice situations, pretty good characters, and solid, even hot BDSM scenes. Oh, and can I just say: Predicament bondage! OMGyum!

Grade: B-

Best regards,
-Joan/Sarah F.

This book can be purchased at Amazon or in ebook format (this vendor is unknown to us).

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REVIEW: The Bargain (Finding Home Book 1) by Catherine Stang

Jayne — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 23:51:43 +0000

Dear Ms. Stang,

Me loves a good American Civil War novel but unfortunately, most publishers today don’t agree with me so pickin’s have been slim lately. So when I was perusing the new ebooks at Fictionwise a few months ago, I decided to buy your book and give it a try.

With her three older brothers gone for soldiers, Cassandra Beaumont has taken charge of the family plantation. She, her younger sister Rachel and her sister-in-law Ellie are the only adults there. Things are grim and looking to get worse when a troop of Union soldiers arrives with orders to commandeer the place for use as a hospital. Cassie makes a bold but thwarted stand against Major Joel Bradshaw before realizing she needs his medical expertise to help deliver Ellie’s breech baby. Needs must and the two work out an agreement: his help with the delivery for her help as a nurse once the hospital is set up.

Baby Joel James Beaumont is delivered, everyone settles into the arrangement and the wounded begin to arrive. A Colonel who dislikes the fact that the Beaumont women are still there arrives too and Joel makes a hasty offer of marriage to Cassie which will allow the ladies to stay. Facing eviction and having no brothers on hand to help her, Cassie agrees. But as their feelings for each other develop, is there hope for this marriage bargain made in the final days of the war?

Let’s see – what I liked. I liked the characters and the fact that no one is a villain. No foaming at the mouth, scenery chewing bad guys to arrive in the last act. No one does a 180 character change and for the most part, everyone acts honorably.

But I felt that a lot of issues were skated over with little depth. This is supposed to be the site of a wartime hospital but precious little time is spent on page dealing with the wounded and I never got the feeling that this aspect of the novel was anything but peripheral. The extent of Cassie’s nursing is described – in past tense – as wrapping bandages and handing Joel surgical instruments. Joel’s activity is described – also in past tense – as a few operations and making his morning rounds. I didn’t see the blood, hear the cries of the wounded or get wound up in any emotional life or death scenes because there weren’t any.

Now for my main problem with the story. There’s lots of potential external conflict: We’ve got North vs South, Cassie and Joel working out their marriage, the Colonel poking his nose into whatever is going on, Cassie’s Confederate doctor brother who sneaks back to the plantation to see his family, his problems with his wife Ellie, sister Rachel and Joel’s second in command who clash but…little of this is carried through into internal conflict.

Everyone is so darned nice and polite and accommodating that whatever conflicts arise in the story are quickly dealt with in a matter of a page or two. To me, it made the characters seem flat. Oh, Cassie does something that Joel doesn’t want her to. No worries because he won’t stay mad or really do anything about it. Rachel defies Joel or Scott’s demands that she stay inside. Not a problem because a short discussion with her will turn her contrite. Ellie is mad that Jamie never answered her letters. Wait, here the letters miraculously are and all is forgiven. Usually my complaints are that conflict is dragged out past believability but with this book I was longing for a good show down. I needed something to build the tension and get me to madly flip pages to see what would happen next. Instead, after a little while, I could easily predict how these people would neatly resolve everything.

The next book in the series also promises an era little used in recent years, that of Reconstruction. I’m interested enough in that time frame to give it a shot and will cross my fingers that I find it more emotionally engaging than I did this book. C+

~Jayne

This book can be purchased at Whiskey Creek Press in ebook form.

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REVIEW: Yours for the Night by Jasmine Haynes

Jane — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 21:00:29 +0000

Dear Ms. Haynes:

Dr. Brooke Magnati has come out as the face behind the prostitute Belle Du Jour. Dr. Magnati was finishing up her PhD and running low on cash and decided that having sex for money would be a way for her to keep her day job, make ends meet, and presumably have time to herself. Magnati as Belle du Jour wrote a number of bestseling books regarding her life as a prostitute and Showtime has an adaption of this series called Secret Diary of a Call Girl.

Why bring this up? The social messaging of this book is that sexual commerce can be an empowered female concept. Problematically, the stories really don’t play out that way. Instead, as one person mentioned to me, this is Pretty Woman done three ways. Each story in this collection is about a high class courtesan/prostitute/call girl who leaves the empowered life of hooking when a fabulous looking guy who happens to be super rich marries her. A woman is matched with the client. The client pays a fee to the company and the woman gets paid through “tips” or other forms of compensation (jewelry, clothes, etc) if the client is happy with the “date” which is how the agency and call girls refer to the client appointments.

The Girlfriend Experience. This was the weakest and least favorite of the collection primarily because Marianna was so irritating.

Thirty five year old Marianna finds herself in a financial fix when her father won’t give her a loan. Marianna has a good time blaming her problems on her father. After all, he and her mother want her to have a lifestyle that fits their image of wealthy and successful while Marianna would like to be read books to kids and do other good deeds. Unable to be successful in real estate and unable to live a less expensive lifestyle, Marianna is unable to make ends meet. Her girlfriend gives her the idea of becoming an escort. At first, Marianna is aghast, but her friend tells her that not only is it sexy, getting paid for sex, but it’s also powerful.

Okay. “Doesn’t it make you feel sleazy and dirty?” Marianna was dying to know.

The smile was slow to grow on Jewel’s lips, but when it came, it was sexy, sultry, secretive. “Getting paid for it is the hottest thing I’ve ever done, and so damn sexy. This is better than a one-night stand, and you don’t have to worry about how to get rid of him in the morning. Oh my God”—Jewel rolled her eyes—“if a one-nighter is looking for a relationship . . .” She punctuated with ﬁnger quotes. “If I decide I don’t like a guy, I tell my consultant not to put his calls through.”

After his wife died, Chase Ramirez focused all of his attention on raising his daughter. She’s a sophomore in school now and Chase is suffering a bad case of boredom. He exhibits signs of serious depression: ” Yet as hard as it was to get up in the morning, if he didn’t have work to occupy him, he’d simply die. And he needed to stick around for Krista.” Clinically, this would be known as suicidal ideation. Anyway, Chase’s buddy convinces him that he just needs to get laid and provides a number for an exclusive call girl company (Marianna’s in fact!). The idea of buying someone for sex appeals to Chase. The anonymity of it, the immediacy of it, and of course, the transient nature.

In Marianna, Chase finds the perfect antidote for his loneliness. Bonus, even his daughter likes her.

*****

Payback. This was the best of the collection because it actually takes some time to explore both the positive and negative sides of sex and commerce.

Dominique Lowe is a long time contractor with the call girl agency. She was once the perfect wife of a wealthy man until she found out she couldn’t have children. Edward, her ex, cheated on her, impregnated a young woman, divorced Dominique and married the pregnant girl. Dominique was humiliated and hurt. Making men pay for sex was one way in which she enacted revenge against her ex.

At a party, Gabriel Price watches an interesting tableau play out across the room. A woman encounters a younger pregnant woman and an older man comes and ushers the young pregnant woman away. The woman, Gabrielle, is hurt and vulnerable and this appeals to Gabriel.

Gabriel and Dominique engage in a torrid limo encounter after which Dominique hands him her card and suggests that he call up and ask for a date, through her agency. Dominique is encouraged to date Gabriel without the agency involvement but Dominique is adamant that she is only in control through the agency set up:

“I’m a courtesan, Isabel. I can’t go back to a normal life with a normal relationship. I like the power too much. And a man is never going to accept what I do for a living. You know it as well as I do.” She snapped her purse closed as if that solidiﬁed her decision on the matter. “He pays like everyone else does.”

Dominique’s post divorce identity was so strongly wrapped up in her work.

When she was with Gabriel, Edward ceased to exist. No other man had done that. Not the sheik with his thirty-thousand-dollar gift. Not Trevor with ten thousand dollars or diamonds and emeralds. No amount of money, no present, made her forget. It only gave her power when she imagined showing Edward her worth to other men.

Gabriel made her powerful without the symbol.

Unfortunately, Dominique was sure that Gabriel was just fascinated by her because she was something new and shiny to him and repeated engagements would wear down the novelty. While Gabriel would like to pursue something more meaningful, Dominique keeps trying to return it to a business transaction. She finally comes to the realization that no amount of money or perceived power will restore her and that with Gabriel, she has the opportunity to move forward.

Triple Play. This story is the most outre of the collection. Noelle St. James is kind of a sex addict. She loves sex, all kinds of it, with all kinds of people. Courtesans provides her an opportunity to get paid for doing something she craves. Lately though, something is missing. Like an adrenaline junky looking for her next fix by taking on increasingly risky adventures, Noelle is no longer satisfied by her “dates.”

Fortunately, Dax Deacon arrives on the scene. Dax has a fetish that ordinary dating can’t fulfill. He loves to watch. Recognizing that most women won’t enjoy being constantly asked to have sex with others, Dax has turned to the professional sex trade and in Noelle, he finds the perfect partner. Nearly every fantasy that he can dream up, Noelle wants to act out. In this, they find the perfect partnership.

One thing I did like was that all the characters are older. The heroes are in their forties and the heroines are late 30s to late 40s. There aren’t too many books that feature protagonists over forty and this collection makes a good case that older doesn’t mean less sexy.

The sex scenes in the story are well done and the book is as hot as you’ve ever written. So long as the reader totally focuses on the fantasy, these stories are both romantic and sexy. I never did, however, buy into the idea that getting paid for sex, particularly in the manner that these women were paid, was empowering at all. Being a courtesan in the historical time period was empowering because it was one of the only ways a woman could be truly independent. In modern times, however, I have a hard time believing in this fantasy, no matter how convincing the pen of the storyteller. C+

Best regards,

Jane

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

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REVIEW: A Hearing Heart by Bonnie Dee

Jayne — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 21:00:20 +0000

Dear Ms Dee,

Thanks for offering Dear Author the chance to review your latest historical from Liquid Silver. And then for following up with me to be sure I got the book. I do fall behind on my reviewing at times.

After the death of her fiancé, Catherine Johnson, a New York schoolteacher in 1901, travels to Nebraska to teach a one-room school and escape her sad memories. One afternoon, violence erupts in the sleepy town. Catherine saves deaf stable hand, Jim Kinney, from torture by drunken thugs.

As she takes charge of his education, teaching him to read and sign, attraction grows between them. The warmth and humor in this silent man transcends the need for speech and his eyes tell her all she needs to know about his feelings for her. But the obstacles of class difference and the stigma of his handicap are almost insurmountable barriers to their growing attachment.

Will Catherine flout society’s rules and allow herself to love again? Can Jim make his way out of poverty as a deaf man in a hearing world? And together will they beat the corrupt robber baron who has a stranglehold on the town?

The scenes of Catherine teaching Jim to read then of them both learning sign language are fascinating. Since I’m not a teacher, I wouldn’t have the first clue as to how to start. I think you did a great job showing how Jim’s new learning is opening up the world for him. I can’t imagine not being able to communicate beyond simple pantomimes. Not being able to hear, speak or write would be terrifying and immensely isolating. You conveyed this well.

The book avoids sugary sweetness. It is matter of fact and down to earth. Brava. I did get tired of reading about the state of Jim’s cock. It was almost to the point where I was looking for the scene “cock alert.” Is it hardening yet? Has Jim managed to hide his physical condition from Catherine? The inclusion of the hawt sex scenes at the end of the book were jarring as compared to the low heat level of most of the rest of the story.

Jim is ready to help people, even when he initially doesn’t like them as we see with Dean and his filly, but when the chips are down, he steps up to the plate – though thank you for not turning him into a sudden Superman. He’s never fired a gun, as I believe was the case with most men of the time, and it shows. This is a good thing, IMO.

The villains and the lengths to which Karak is willing to go to get what he wants don’t surprise me. This was the age of range wars and men owning towns – just as you’ve described him as doing.

Jim isn’t made to be a poster child for pc-ness nor does Catherine treat him like some pet project – she sees him as a man and realizes early on she is attracted to him as more than a friend. But here’s the trouble for me – the first time they kiss, she’s not expecting it and she feels guilty and thinks – “we can’t do this because of the social differences.” Then – while they’re on their picnic – she thinks that if there’s going to be any kissing that day, she’ll have to instigate it. WTF? And she does, knowing that she doesn’t feel they’re social equals and that she could hurt Jim with any rejection. Then she keeps letting them get more physical all the while knowing that she isn’t up for a social relationship. I know you want to present a flawed heroine, and I’m grateful for that, but I couldn’t help but finish reading the story thinking that she’s damn lucky to get Jim rather than the other way around.

The ending is nicely done. They obviously can’t stay in a town that views Jim as nothing but low class hired help and the location of the School for the Deaf in Catherine’s home state is fortuitous. Win-win situation all around.

Despite the issues I have with the book, I’m glad I read it and glad that you sought out a review for it. I’m sorry that it didn’t work quite as well for me as you would probably wish it had but it’s still a B- for me.

~Jayne

FTC discloser – A free copy of this book was provided to DA by the author for a potential review.

This book can be purchased Liquid Silver Books in ebook form.

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Friday Film Review: Latter Days

Joan/SarahF — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 10:00:23 +0000

Latter Days (2003)
Genre: Gay Romance
Grade: B

I’m an absolute sucker for coming out stories and especially, apparently, for “religious twink overcoming his background to accept who he is” stories. This film delivers quite nicely. I came to it oddly: I stumbled across a novelization of the film while cruising (so to speak) the gay and lesbian fiction section at Barnes & Noble. Being what I am, I read the end and loved it, so streamed the movie on Netflix. The ending in the novelization was actually better than the ending in the movie (a little more dialogue, a little more emotional depth), but I still wasn’t disappointed in the movie.

[[Show as slideshow]]

Christian is your typical — one might even say stereotypical — gay LA party boy: a gym rat who fucks a new guy every night and has a job as a waiter while he tries to break into acting (I think — not super-clear). (Jacqueline Bisset, BTW, still gorgeous, moonlights as his wisdom-dispensing, snarky boss.) Aaron is a Mormon from Idaho on mission to LA. He lives with three other Elders in the same apartment complex as Christian and Christian and his friends make a bet that Christian can seduce one of the Mormons. He goes after Aaron because Aaron isn’t a blatant homophobe, but Christian’s first attempt at seduction is aborted when he uses his “seducing straight guys” line of “it doesn’t have to mean anything” on Aaron and Aaron balks because, to him, his first kiss, his first sex DOES mean something. Because Aaron is for real. He really believes in his mission, he really believes that he can do some good, and he really believes that things should have meaning. He accuses Christian of being shallow, which, of course, is true, spurring Christian to undergo a Cher-from-Clueless-like shallow-person personality makeover that actually sticks and is quite cute.

When they finally get together, they are, of course, discovered, and Aaron is sent home in disgrace and shame. The emotional violence his mother inflicts on him will haunt me. I know the answer to this, but do people really do this to their children? I guess the question is, HOW can people do this to their children? How can belief overcome what should be unconditional love? How can a mother drive her child to suicide by rejecting him and then not understand that it’s her fault? These scenes were played sparingly and well.

The actor who plays Christian occasionally overacts in the really emotional scenes. The requisite scene in which he tells his own coming out story skirts the edge of farce where I kept expecting him to stop, smile, and say “psych!” which is not necessarily the response the film was attempting to evoke. But all that is nothing when confronted with his sheer prettiness. :) Additionally, the pacing is, at times, odd: slow then superfast, told, not shown — but not distractingly so. And I could have done with a little more lingering over the denouement, but then I’m a emotions-whore.

Fair warning (or, perhaps, enticement): the film is not shy about swearing and even less shy about nudity. Christian and Aaron take off all their clothes and you don’t get just discrete flank shots. While there’s no erect penises, there are certainly penises. And that’s very happy-making! :)

This movie is not a romantic comedy but it’s not a drama either, because it has its happy ending. The themes in this movie are not subtle, but they’re heartwarming and true, nonetheless: interconnectedness and community, character depth and worthiness, how we effect and affect everyone around us. The narrative does a great job of showing how one person’s small, unthinking kindness can work in others for good or ill in an ever-widening web. There are no coincidences, or if there are, they can still serve a purpose. Everything means something, in one way or another.

And love is love is love and deserves to be recognized as such. Grade: B

P.S. I watched this again with my husband and it’s just as much fun the second time around and I felt the emotions more deeply, perhaps because I was comparing it with itself, rather than with the novelization. A happy, feel-good movie with a great message.

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