Dear Author: Romance Novel Reviews, Industry News, and Commentary » B- 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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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: 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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REVIEW: Tangle Girls (anthology edited by Nicole Kimberling)

Janine — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 21:00:31 +0000

Dear Readers,

Back in July of 2008, I reviewed Tangle XY, an anthology of short speculative m/m stories. Earlier this year, Blind Eye Books, the publisher of Tangle XY, came out with Tangle Girls, an f/f anthology. As with Tangle XY, some (not all) of the stories are multicultural, and many have fairy tale or science fiction elements, but in this anthology the commonality all the stories share is the focus on girls who love other girls. Here are my reviews of the six stories:

“Raccoon Skin” by J.D. EveryHope

In “Raccoon Skin,” Sophia, a college student, arrives at her parents’ home on a pre-dawn morning. After seeing that her parents’ trash can that has been upended by a raccoon, Sophia goes outside to put it back up, and while there, she sees crows attacking a golden eagle. The eagle falls to the snowy ground, and Sophia chases the crows away. Just as she is debating whether to take the eagle inside, the bird shifts shape and turns into a human girl — and not just any girl, but Sophia’s girlfriend, Caterina.

Caterina and Sophia met in college and began dating, but Sophia never told Caterina that she hadn’t come out to her parents. Now it seems Caterina has also been keeping secrets: not only is she a shapeshifter, she is also a princess from another realm, and her younger brothers’ lives are in danger. Caterina wants to return to her land and rescue her brothers, but her injuries are serious. Sophia convinces her to ask Sophia’s parents for shelter and help and allow Sophia to save her brothers instead.

Caterina gives Sophia a ring which will open a path to Caterina’s world when dawn arrives. Just as Sophia is about to go through the portal, a raccoon speaks and warns her that Beyond, where she is about to venture, is a dangerous place. Her odds of success will be better if she and the raccoon trade skins.

Sophia agrees. Clothed as a raccoon, she enters Beyond and it is indeed a dangerous journey. Fortunately, the raccoon skin proves very helpful.

“Raccoon Skin” is a charming quest story that reminded me a bit of some of fairy tales I read as a child. I loved the way the mundane was transformed into the magical, and enjoyed the clever ways Sophia found to see past the deceptive illusions of the Beyond. It was also neat to see the traditional gender role upended, so it was a heroine who charged to the rescue. I would have liked to see more of Sophia and Caterina’s relationship, but on the whole, I really enjoyed the story. My grade for “Raccoon Skin” is a B+.

“Amazons” by Jesse Sandoval

“Amazons” was the reason I plopped down $12.95 for Tangle Girls. I loved Sandoval’s story in Tangle XY, “Los Conversos.” The setting of “Amazons” is unnamed, although the title of course alludes to the Amazon. As the story, which appears to be historical, begins, its unnamed female narrator is rowing a boat on a jungle river. She observes the crocodile beneath the water and the black snakes hanging from the trees above with respect.

Once I saw one of those snakes lift a grown man off his feet and swallow him whole. The man pissed himself as the snake wrapped herself around him as if she were falling in love. She opened her thin mouth and took him in a deep kiss. I watched her eyes the entire time. She had the mesmerized gaze of utter adoration, as if this man’s form, his meat and muscle, had entranced her and drawn her into an unthinkable action.

I remember seeing that same unflinching stare long ago, looking back at me from a silver mirror. My hands trembled as I tried to load the pistol, the slender bullets wavered and slipped between my fingers. Then I caught sight of myself in a mirror. I gazed into my own eyes, the wide pupils dilated, entranced with desire. My reflection knew that I was a murderess before I did. She passed that assurance to me in a glance. My fingers have never trembled since.

How did the narrator come to look in the mirror and see a murderess? Since this story is only six pages long, I don’t want to give it away, but the story begins in Europe, where the main character met a woman named Maria, with whom she shared slices of cake and stories about the New World.

The imagery in “Amazons” has a hallucinatory beauty that captures what it is like to be drunk on love, willing to do anything for the other person. The story is haunting and powerful, though I wish it were longer so that I could feel I really knew Maria. I can’t wait for Jesse Sandoval to write a novel or a short story collection so that I can drown in his gorgeous prose. Ms. Kimerbling, if you’re reading this, can you do anything about that? My grade for “Amazons” is a B+/A-.

“The Conclave” by Trent Roman

Tanya Drake has been dating Erin, a centuries-old fey, but the relationship is becoming frustrating for her. The two met at the private Catholic school in which Tanya was enrolled. It wasn’t long before they became lovers. But Erin has a habit of comparing Tanya’s lovemaking to that of lovers from her past, lovers as famous as Sappho and Gengis Khan’s concubines. Erin also disappears for days on end only to reappear expecting the relationship to resume as though she’d never left.

After one such disappearance, Tanya tries to question Erin and find out how serious she is about their relationship. To make it up to Tanya, Erin offers to sneak her mortal lover into “the biggest bash in two worlds,” a party for immortal beings known as the Conclave. What kind of adventures will Tanya have at the Conclave, and how will they affect her relationship with Erin?

“The Conclave” is written in a crisp, snappy style I enjoyed. I liked the way Tanya and Erin arrived at the Conclave, too. But though Tanya is said to be a high school student, the character comes across as older. Erin is jaded and doesn’t treat Tanya that well, taking their relationship very lightly, so it’s hard to care about her, but Tanya isn’t sure if she’s serious in her feelings for Erin, either, so it’s also hard to care about how the relationship will change.

I felt that essentially, nothing that is deeply important to the characters happened in the story, so nothing that happened was all that important to me as a reader, either. After “Raccoon Skin” and “Amazons,” it was hard not to be disappointed in this one. My grade for “The Conclave” is a C-.

“Under Suspicion” by Dr. Philip Edward Kaldon

Set on the spaceship Mastodon, “Under Suspicion” begins when a shipwide alarm sounds, alerting United Star Fleet Ensign Lily Branoch and her fellow crewmembers to an accident in the main hanger. In the process of helping to rescue people trapped under “cargotainers,” Lily encounters a beautiful marine whose name she doesn’t catch. She glimpses the woman again before she learns that she is Lt. Cruz-Ortega.

Lily is powerfully attracted to the woman, so much so that she can’t get the lieutenant out of her mind. But this distraction becomes a problem when Lily begins to suspect that the beautiful Daniella may be involved in a plot to smuggle weapons off the Mastodon. Could Daniella Cruz-Ortega’s lovely face be hiding treachery? And even if not, will Lily ever get up the gumption to ask her out?

“Under Suspicion” was an enjoyable story and it probably had the most relationship focus of any of the stories in this collection. Lily was likable and the enigmatic Daniella was compelling. The worldbuilding was solid and I liked the military atmosphere. My main complaint is that due to the nature of the plot, the relationship between the two women did not develop that much. Nonetheless it was fun, though I would have liked it to be a bit more substantial. C+/B- for “Under Suspicion.”

“Cupcake” by Erin MacKay

Erin MacKay’s “Cupcake” takes place in the future, on a colonized world. The viewpoint character is Stasya, a professional assassin. As the story opens, Stasya receives an assignment from Rupi, a man who has hired her to kill in the past. This time Stasya is astonished at the target, whom she describes as “just a…a cupcake.”

Mitusko Jennings-Villega’s husband wants to collect on his wife’s life insurance policy, but Mitsuko is constantly watched by her wealthy father’s guards. To kill her, Stasya has to infiltrate “High Street,” Mitusko’s rarified world of corporate celebrities. Yet once she meets Mitusko, Stasya is in for a surprise. Mitusko realizes she is an assassin, and she is willing– no, ready — to die. Will Stasya be able to kill the woman she is beginning to admire and care for?

“Cupcake” is written in clean, straightforward prose and while the worldbuilding isn’t completely fresh, it’s well-executed. The story felt a little oppressive to me (though not nearly as much as MacKay’s story in Tangle XY, “Crossing the Distance”), but on the whole I liked it.

Stasya is a compelling character, though I wish her past, and especially her reason for becoming an assassin for hire, had made her more sympathetic. Mitsuko isn’t as morally ambiguous, but her life hasn’t been very meaningful. Though neither character is always likable, the story still kept me involved, probably because of the danger and high stakes. My grade for “Cupcake” is a B.

“Dead and the President” by Tenea D. Johnson

Set in a dystopian future, Tenea De. Johnson’s “Dead and the President” begins when the consciousness of the main character, a young black woman named Dead, is inhabiting the body of the President. Dead intends to speak to the world from within his body, but the President pulls out a gun and shoots himself in the head.

Dead then begins recounting her history to the reader. She was born in the Basin, where many people have inherited the special abilities given to blacks by a doctor who believed he was making genetic reparations. Dead’s talent is “phasing” into other people and controlling their actions.

Dead is a motherless twelve year old when she is tagged by the Internal Processing Department, which tracks those with unusual abilities, and uses her talent to escape. She ends up Topside, where life is much nicer and safer, but she can’t forget about the hungry kids she left behind in the Basin, and eventually, she hatches a plan to help them.

Dead has the potential to be a sympathetic character, and there were a number of relationships that could have been involving in this story, not just the sexual one Dead eventually has with another young woman, but also her friendships with a girl named Nina in the Basin, and with an elderly woman named Cecilia in Topside. But these pass by the reader quickly, like houses glimpsed briefly from the window of a moving car. It is hard to get invested in these people, even when they mean a lot to Dead, because we readers hardly get to spend time with them.

What gets the most attention in “Dead and the President” is the setting. Dead’s world is an interesting place, but I almost stopped reading a few pages in, when the unfamiliar terms became difficult to decipher. I still don’t understand exactly what a couple of them mean, even after reading certain paragraphs three or four times. Johnson has a nice writing style, and another thing I liked about the story was the way the futuristic setting reflected social and political injustice. This aspect of the worldbuilding was well handled and thought-provoking, but for me, it’s not enough to make up for what’s missing. C- for “Dead and the President.”

Overall, the anthology was a bit uneven, but still worth reading in my opinion, with four enjoyable stories and two weaker ones. I want to reiterate my plea for more fiction from Jesse Sandoval, who writes so beautifully. I will be keeping my eye out on future offerings from Blind Eye Books, too. My overall grade for Tangle Girls is a B-.

Sincerely,

Janine

This book can be purchased at Amazon. No ebook.

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REVIEW: Skin Game by Ava Gray

Jane — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 22:00:37 +0000

Dear Ms. Gray (aka Ms. Aguirre):

In reviewing my emails (because my memory, as you know, is terribly spotty), I see I received the book for review from you. I had enjoyed Grimspace and heard that this book was fresh for the romance genre and it is. Kyra is a grifter, working with her father, until he is beaten and left for dead by a casino owner named Serrano. Kyra runs a long con on Serrano, not just to take his money, but to humiliate him. She does this by learning what Serrano likes and transforms herself into the perfect woman, luring him in, and then ultimately humiliating him by gambling away his engagement ring, taking his money, and publicly admitting she just dated him for the money.

Serrano has his security guy hire a hitman to retrieve the money and kill Kyra, in that order. Reyes is one of the best but he’s a hitman with scruples. He is meticulous about who he kills and for whom he kills. He agrees to take down Kyra because she allegedly killed her father. A woman that kills her father needs killing herself in Reyes’ mind. Foster, the guy who hired Reyes, didn’t have a long history with Reyes and so it seemed a little farfetched that Reyes would just accept the “report” given to him, as if that was sufficient to whitewash his kill. Reyes is set up, curiously, as a one man judgment squad. He decides if you are worthy of taking out based on the information provided and he takes you out. Reyes realizes later he’s been lied to by Foster by I wondered how often he has been lied to. It’s not something Reyes even considers.

Kyra and Reyes have convenient morals. Kyra only screws over bad people and Reyes usually only kills bad men. Bad being relative here. They both don’t like drug dealers and at one point burn down a meth lab. Later they take a bad drunk/drug dealer on the side for a little con. Like many cons or morally ambiguous characters, they are good people to the core. Their justifications somehow make them all good. Whether that’s a realistic view of things or not, it’s how the story is played. And for all Kyra’s “wickedness” as Rey would put it affectionately, she still reads fairly innocent.

Admittedly, Reyes is pretty heartless. There is some sort of perverseness in Reyes character that he would have sex with someone he planned to kill. Later in the story, we are shown a real streak of ruthlessness. In the end, Reyes loves only Kyra. She’s his lodestone, and, I imagine serves as his conscience in the future.

There were other things that niggled such as Kyra so easily accepting Reyes as a partner. For someone who was on the run, this seemed improbable and quite stupid. She never even once thought that Serrano was out to get her; that Reyes somehow just so coincidentally shows up in two backwater towns hundreds of miles apart.

The sexual tension is really well done and after a wild romp in the bed, Kyra considers whether to break her no second night rule. It’s inevitable that she will, but the delicious tension that overlays the wait adds spice to the story. I was surprised at how sexy the book was but it fit with the danger. The adrenaline rode the two of them hard, particularly after a fight. I thought the romance was particularly well down. You really see how these two fit together.

They both knew each other’s flaws. I think this is why the con/killer setup worked so well. Neither was a deceived innocent.

Reyes ground his teeth. Something dark and primitive swept over him at hearing this asshole practice his sloppy endearments on her. It was all Reyes could do not to punch the son of a bitch in the face, which told him he had a problem. No wonder she’d played Serrano—and so well. Kyra was a pro, all right, well schooled in manipulating a man’s emotions. And that made him twice the fool—because even knowing what she did, he found himself susceptible.

Toward the latter half of the book, it really lights up. Kyra and Reyes fall for each other. For some reason Kyra begins to trust Reyes. For Reyes, Kyra is like no other. Her gift for the con, her matching scruples, her wicked ways all allow him to dream of a perfect kind of marriage, not in the white dress church style, but of the matching of hearts and souls.

As the two travel along, Kyra biding her time and Reyes trying to figure out if he kills her or scotches his perfect reputation and throws in with her, the story grows darker and darker. Kyra and Reyes are some kind of Bonnie and Clyde with the bad guys trailing them making things worse and worse. When the truth comes out on both ends, Reyes realizes how close to heaven he touched with Kyra now that he’s lost her and Kyra who is sick with shame over being duped and in bed with an assassin.

This book is very edgy and I appreciate the risks that it takes with the genre itself. It’s dark and the characters aren’t always doing likeable things. There is no questioning of morality in this story. You take the characters as they are. Everyone in that group of grifters, drug dealers, killers, thieves, have a differing take on the right v. wrong thing. Living up to your reputation, making sure you don’t harm those who don’t deserve it. That’s the code by which the characters of this book live. Trusting someone is the hardest thing to do, the most vulnerable thing to do. These emotions were well conveyed by both characters and while some of the contrivances that worked to bring Kyra and Reyes together made the earlier part of the book less believable, the romance made up for it. B-

Best regards

Jane

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REVIEW: Runaway Lady, Conquering Lord by Carol Townend

Jayne — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 10:00:22 +0000

Dear Ms. Townend,

I’ve enjoyed several of your other books for Harlequin Historicals and was delighted when you contacted me offering a copy of your latest in the “Wessex Weddings” series for possible review. (Note: FTC discloser out of the way!) And the heroine is a Fallen Woman too. Even better. At first I didn’t realize that the hero is the same man used as a decoy in “An Honorable Rogue,” but once I recalled this, it upped the incentive to read the book.

Oh, how the mighty have fallen. Four years ago, Lady Emma of Fulford would never have thought she’d be sorry to lose her livelihood – washing dirty laundry in an icy cold river – that puts clothes on her back and a roof over her head. But then she also never thought she’d have an illegitimate child or not be living in her father’s noble household. A love affair gone bad has landed her where she is today and that somewhere is desperate to escape the abusive father of her child who has somehow tracked her down.

Her appeal for a job to the garrison commander of Winchester, Sir Richard of Asculf, initially gets her nowhere. They have a bit of a history since he’s a BFF of Emma’s brother in law, Adam, who was awarded her father’s lands. Richard takes a little pleasure in seeing her in such reduced circumstances since Emma apparently made life difficult for them after the Battle of Hastings fallout but he’s also honest enough to admit that she stirs his sexual interest. Not that he’s going to lay a hand on her as Adam would nail him for it.

But with Judhael making threats against her and terrified that he’ll discover the fact that they have a son, Emma is pushed to offer herself to Richard as a mistress with the hope that he’ll take her and her son with him when he returns to Normandy to settle an inheritance. Can these two find love as well as sexual feelings for each other during the journey?

I like a good medieval and am glad to see the subgenre making a bit of a comeback. But for me to be interested in it, I need more than the standard Norman knight (who’s usually a bastard) and willowy Saxon maiden snipping at each other in faux medieval dialogue. I mentioned before how much I appreciate the fact that you avoid this but let me say it again to emphasize how much this means to me. No “mayhaps!” No “tis, twases!” No irate Jayne!

I haven’t read the first book in the series “The Novice Bride,” but I gather that Emma is quite changed since then. Several mentions are made of how her viewpoints on various things have changed since her days as the daughter of a powerful Saxon thane. At this point, she’s taken refuge in an inn with several ‘ladies of the night’ and far from looking down her nose at them, she thinks of them as friends. She’s even tickled pink when they show up after her wedding to wish her well. She’s practical and not above doing what it takes to see to the safety and care of her child.

Richard is shown to be human. He’s a man who can appreciate Emma’s curves and who is also not adverse to enjoying, just a little bit, seeing her pay a bit for her past actions. But his honorable side quickly comes out on top and he goes to great lengths to help her and feels guilty when they succumb to passion. I figured some revelation was coming to explain his nightmares and at first rolled my eyes a little that a big Norman knight would be so anguished at what bothers him but then thought again about how any warrior might take a particular death hard and be haunted by it.

The book is also a bit of a road romance and I enjoyed reading about the journey conditions. Definitely not modern traveling with ‘en suite’ bath included and one can forget having any privacy. You handled some aspects of the story differently than I expected which in this case is a good thing. When a potential wife for Richard is mentioned, I had images of catfights and outraged foot stomping to dread but thankfully this didn’t come to pass. When Emma imagines she feels someone watching her during their trip, I thought of several scenarios involving showdowns between the men. Again, you took a different path.

Emma’s venture towards “please don’t go there” territory alarmed me somewhat. True, she is given one good reason but I would have preferred that she ask before she acted. And let’s be honest, Judhael displays more common sense about her choice of action than she did considering she also has the welfare of her child to consider.

“Runaway Lady, Conquering Lord” – and can’t we just tell this is a Harlequin title? – is a fairly fast read and is quite readable, which I consider to be two different things. It stays away from many of the subgenre’s conventions and features two likable lead characters. I think readers interested in medievals will welcome it to the list. B-

Jayne

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REVIEW: Hidden Conflict by Various Authors

Joan/SarahF — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 21:00:01 +0000

Dear Authors and Readers.

If you will excuse a personal history, you will see its relevance to my review. I enlisted in the Army National Guard after 9/11. I became a US citizen and commissioned (became an officer) in 2003. I accepted a medical retirement in May of this year, at the rank of Captain, after 7 ½ years of service. I never went overseas, but I served in the Katrina response in Louisiana. I was a soldier and damn proud to be so.

But I am also bisexual (with some extra kinks outside the Kinsey continuum). This is the first time I’ve been able to admit this in public (well, I came out on Twitter on National Coming Out Day) since figuring it out because of the US military’s destructive Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy. My sexuality in no way affected my service. All outward appearances show a happily married, monogamous, heterosexual soldier, which is mostly what I am. But every now and then the issue came up and I had to bite my tongue. I could have been kicked out of the service if anyone had dug too deep, for a reason that didn’t affect my service or that of others around me.

At a time when Don’t Ask Don’t Tell is destroying the careers of loyal, hard-working, supremely competent soldiers, sailors, marines, and airmen of the American Armed Forces, this fictionalized retrospective of men who serve together and love each other is never more necessary and welcome. I was thrilled to receive it (free) from the publisher (through Jane) and while it did a great job of showing the soul-destroying problem of homophobia in general, I could have wished that it had focused more specifically on the subtle differences of the problem of being gay in the military, rather than just showing gay military men.

“Blessed Isle” by Alex Beecroft
I don’t know what it is about Beecroft’s writing that ravishes me so. Maybe it’s that her prose is like Keats’ poetry to me: redolent with scent, aching with color, and beautiful with taste and sound. Maybe it’s how she scours me inside with the deeply-felt emotions of her characters. But this story manages to do in 58 pages what False Colors did to me in more than 300.

Set in the late eighteenth century, Captain Harry Thompson, late of her Majesty’s Navy, safely ensconced in Rio, begins a journal of his relationship with his Lieutenant, Garnet Littleton. They met when Harry took his first command of the Banshee with orders to escort three transport ships to Australia. Buffeted by storms, typhus, mutinous convicts, and his own yearning for the free-spirited Garnet, Harry only finds happiness when he and Garnet are marooned for months on their own small Pacific island. The actual sexual activity is minimally detailed, but you feel every prick and rush of longing and satisfaction, the abject fear and bone-deep rightness when the men fall in love. See how much Beecroft can do with so few words:

When we woke, that first morning, we made love. Nothing needed to be said; we both understood it would happen as soon as we had the physical resources to allow it. It was sweet and weary and gentle, and afterwards I held Harry tight and mourned for all the things he had had to lose to make this possible. I wished I might give his prudishness and his confidence and his career back to him. And in a petty part of myself I wished he might have come to me despite them, instead of needing to be ruined first. But I will say that holding on to him afterwards, in the warm glow and satisfaction of coitus, I entertained the inexcusable thought that the past months had been worth it.

Harry and Garnet find their happy ending and record it for posterity, for a time when their love might be celebrated rather than reviled, for a time after their death when they don’t have to pretend. The story is told in journal form, with Harry’s memories interspersed with Garnet’s as they reveal to each other, even after years together, their feelings and motivations in the past, as they reveal them to their reader, who also becomes a character in the story. So even the journaling has a place in their relationship. Brilliantly, perfectly done. Grade: A+

“Not to Reason Why” by Mark B. Probst
This is a narrative — a very boring narrative – of Custer’s last campaign, told from the perspective of a corporal (I think? Too bored to go back and look). Brett has the hots for Dermot. Dermot is married to Sarah. Dermot loves Sarah very much, and Brett is jealous of Sarah. There’s absolutely NO indication that Dermot feels anything at all for Brett beyond deep friendship and besides one kiss Brett almost (but not quite) forces on Dermot a few days before the big battle, there’s nothing overtly romantic about this story at all. In fact, there’s nothing covertly romantic either. This is not a romance (especially since it does not end happily); this is a narrative representation of a campaign: They saddled up, then they stopped here, then had dinner, then dicked around in the evening as soldiers tend to do, then slept, then had breakfast, then saddled back up for another grueling day of chasing Indians, then stopped for lunch, then…. Seriously, with a little more detail to prove that Probst had done his research (They stopped under overhanging cliffs. They crossed the stream eight times.), that’s what the story is like. Every now and then Brett will think something emotional for a sentence or two, but then he’ll ignore it and move on. I hate to play to stereotypes, but this read like it was a “romance” written by a man, and hey, look! It was written by a man. Okay, dude, you did your research; now tell me a fucking story.

And seriously, someone please proofread: “Dermot was in line looking none the worse for wear, though Brett could see his eyes were still vacuous from lack of sleep.” Really? I do not think that word means what you think it means.

And if we’re going to have a story about a man who runs away from battle, who deserts his troops, then lines like “The heat was stifling and there were times Brett would have welcomed a warrior arrow straight into his heart just to end it all” are not only not helpful, they’re patently wrong.

After Brett does desert, the level of his thought processes about his actions are symptomatic of the level of emotion and characterization in the rest of the book:

The wind and his body heat had dried his clothing and he began to warm up. His thoughts were a jumble of images and confusion. He couldn‘t sort it out enough to put together a plan of action. A piercing accusation kept surfacing—You are a coward and a deserter. Was he? What good would it have done to have stayed and died with the rest? Perhaps a couple more Sioux and Cheyenne may have been wounded or killed, but it would not have saved a single soldier‘s life. He longed to be unconscious so he didn‘t have to think. After the celebrating quieted and morning drew near, he got his wish and fell asleep, lying on his side on the creek-bank.

Oh! Coward! Deserter! Right, check. Let’s move on, folks, nothing to see here.

The author didn’t seem to be aware of the weight of his words, and coming after Beecroft’s clarity and precision, it was almost painful. At one point, Brett engages Dermot in deep conversation:

“Wrong side?” Dermot frowned. “How can you say that? There is no wrong side against the Indians.”

“I mean wrong side, in that it may not be the victorious side.”

“There‘s nothing wrong with dying to protect your country.”

“Dermot, haven‘t you ever noticed how these things are reported in the newspapers? When we win they say it‘s a victory, but when they win they say it‘s a massacre.”

Then after the Brett escapes/deserts, he listens to the Indian victory drums: “It went on for hours. The chanting haunted him. He wanted it to stop. It tormented him by constantly reminding him of the massacre. He sat huddled on the riverbank; the drums felt like his own heartbeat.” Completely, utterly without irony, Probst uses the word he’d previously questioned.

Dermot was cardboard, Brett was an unlikable, whiny, cowardly turd, there was no romance, no emotion, no connection. What there was was wishy-washiness. Was this deep, thoughtful commentary or just campaign details? Neither. Sorry. Grade: F

“No Darkness” by Jordan Taylor

Okay, so when the book starts like this:

“Lieutenant Darnell!”

“Sir?”

“Oh, there you are. Why are you skulking, man?” The red-faced, broad-shouldered platoon sergeant did not wait for an answer but plowed on before Darnell could even open his mouth, “Find someone to take with you down to the cellar. There should be half a ton of supplies in this bloody shack and no one seems able to find so much as a tin of jam.”

Private Morgan stepped forward and saluted the sergeant. He had large front teeth and matching ears that reminded Darnell of a corgi.

“Sir,” the private said. “Me and Stokes searched the cellar already. Nothing, sir. No sign anything‘s been in there for some time, sir.”

The sergeant walked right past him as if he had neither seen nor heard the private. “Well, Lieutenant? What are you waiting for?”

I’m confused. Unless things are very different in the British army in World War I from the US Army now, lieutenants don’t call platoon sergeants “sir” and platoon sergeants don’t call lieutenants “man” and give them orders. And no one salutes NCOs. So I don’t think much of your research abilities if that’s how the book starts. I mean, seriously. And my father (British AND British history buff) also confirmed for me that the officer corps in 1915 was still very much of and from the upper classes and Darnell is not upper class. He’s almost the opposite of upper class.

Inaccuracies aside, this has to be one of the most depressing stories I’ve ever read. This is precisely why I don’t read stories that aren’t romances with HEAs. Yes, I understand that World War One was a desperately horrible war. Yes, I understand that being gay in the military is terrible. AND, I understand that the purpose of this anthology was not all about the happy endings. But can we have ANY bright points of light? Can we have ANY happiness in the story? Apparently not.

LT Darnell and PVT Fisher get shelled into a cellar with no way out. Fisher’s broken so many ribs he can’t do anything to help get them out. Darnell literally ruins his hands digging them out, but even when they get out, it takes days to find anyone else and of course when they do, disaster strikes. There’s only a relationship between these men on the level of two men who find themselves stuck in a cellar together, trying to get out. The fact that they’re both gay doesn’t really factor into it at all.

What I do think is interesting is that both this story and the last both conform to the melodramatic abjection of the married gay man being the one to bite it. Think Brokeback Mountain, right? Sure, Jack’s more out, more comfortable with himself than Ennis, but he’s the one who marries first and stays married so he’s the one who has to die. Ditto these two stories.

This story isn’t a romance. Not in the slightest. Not that it’s trying to be — and that’s fine, of course. But it isn’t really even a story about being gay in the military. It’s just a depressing story about a horrific war. I don’t know how to grade it. It’s not badly written like the previous story (research abilities aside). It’s just…not something I choose to read. So, I guess…Grade: C-

“Our One and Only” by E.N. Holland
This is the only story that truly deals with the problems that being gay specifically in the military can produce. Philip is Eddie’s lover, but when Eddie dies in France in 1944, Philip is left feeling invisible, able only to admit to being Eddie’s best friend, not able to fully express his grief over his beloved’s death. The story is told over 40 years, at intervals of a decade. We see Philip deal (or not) with Eddie’s death, even though every now and then you want to hit him over the head and say “Get OVER yourself already!” The story shows the expected and unexpected repercussions the life and death of one soldier have on his friends, fellow soldiers, and family. While not amazing, this story is thoughtful, interesting, and eventually has a hopeful ending (not with Eddie, obviously).

One thing pulled me out of the story. In 1954, Philip thinks, “he always thought war was sort of pointless and his feelings only sharpened after Eddie‘s death.” Maybe this is just me overthinking things, but if there was one “just” war, one necessary war, it was World War Two and I don’t think very many people can disagree with that. Yes, war is devastating and horrible, but with Hitler as an aggressor, there’s not much else that the Allies COULD have done besides what they did. WW2 was not a pointless war; of any war in history, it was the least pointless. The mindset Philip expresses is very much a post-Vietnam mindset and I found it jarring in this story.

Other than that, I enjoyed watching this man through 40 years of his life and I was very happy that he had a hopeful ending “blessed” by his long-lost partner. Grade: B

Overall, while I think that an anthology against DADT, showing the emotional devastation it causes, is a wonderful idea, it was only the last story that really dealt with the peculiar problem of being gay specifically in the military. Because in 1790, 1876, 1915, and 1944, being gay was a problem NO MATTER WHAT. So being gay in the military was no more or less difficult that being gay anywhere else (it might have been easier, perhaps, considering close proximity). I would really like to have seen the awful Custer-era story or the depressing WW1 story dropped, and a story about the Gulf War or even Iraq or Afghanistan added, to make the point that “being gay in the US military” specifically IS an issue NOW, because being gay now is much more accepted than in 1876 and it’s the military that’s ridiculously behind the times.

I once had someone ask me why a gay person would join the US military when they know they’re not wanted, and the question made me shake with rage. Gay and bisexual men and women want to join the military for the same reasons as everyone else: we love our country and want to defend it, we like the opportunities and benefits, we’re loyal and hard-working and honorable people. Just like everyone else. Why should we not be able to serve? We have just as much to offer — more, perhaps, since we’re joining knowing we’re not wanted, joining knowing we’re going to have to hide who we are in order to serve.

Anyway. Overall, I’d give the entire anthology a high C+ or a low B-, but the whole thing is completely and utterly worth buying just for the sublime Beecroft story, “Blessed Isle,” with a nice added bonus of the gentle “Our One and Only.”

Best regards,
-Joan/Sarah F.

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REVIEW: Captive of Sin by Anna Campbell

Jane — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 18:00:44 +0000

Dear Ms. Campbell:

I read your controversial debut and while I appreciated the chances you took, it didn’t inspire me to read your other books. When Captive of Sin arrived on my doorstep, I thought I would give the book a chance.

Sir Gideon Trevithick finds a woman cowering in the stable where his horse is quartered. She has clearly been beaten and when he extends his mantle of protection, she would rather be alone and in pain that accept his help. Gideon will not be gainsayed and sweeps the woman into his carriage and away from the perceived danger. He vows that he will not only protect her but he will not harm her himself.

Lady Charis Weston is one of the wealthiest women in England. Her stepbrothers are trying to force her into marriage with another man to pay off their debts. Charis refuses. She is only a few months away from gaining control over her fortune. Her stepbrothers engage in a series of small punishments which crescendo into threats of rape and of actual physical abuse. She runs away with no clear picture or plan, just an instinctive need to be away. She doesn’t trust Gideon and tries to escape several times until she realizes she is in far more danger by herself than in the hands of Gideon.

Gideon is honorable and he has no intention of laying a hand on Charis. He can’t, actually. As a result of a year long incarceration as a spy, Gideon cannot bear the touch of another human being nor can he touch someone. To do so triggers a serious PTSD response wherein he gets physically ill.

Gideon and Charis fall in love which each other although but are not able to overcome the Gideon’s aversion to touch. This theme of this story is that true love conquers all and while I would like to believe it, I felt that Gideon’s trauma was so extensive that the good loving of Charis wasn’t sufficient to cure Gideon.

I felt emotionally detached even though there were two very moving scenes in the story. I kept questioning the rapidity Gideon’s recovery from his lack of desire to be touched. I loved the idea that Charis would be proactive and that she was determined to play on his desire for her until she could break through. But the trauma of Gideon’s captivity which built over a year’s time just seemed so quickly resolved under the seductive machinations of Charis. I think I wanted to see more tentativeness on the part of Gideon; more days of seduction by Charis. I’m not sure if the story was rushed or you felt that prolonging the “cure” would be tiresome. My reaction was simply that Gideon was too damaged to merely succumb to the wiles of a pretty girl.

I also felt that Charis was wholly underdeveloped. What was her character arc? How did she grow? What was her emotional conflict?

Given the dark tone of the story, I thought the ending was a bit too kittens and rainbows for the two of them. I think that had I been more emotionally attached to both I would have enjoyed the ending more. As it was, though, I recognized this story was well written with good prose and emotionally moving from an objective perspective, but I felt that there was a barrier between myself and the characters, mostly because I doubted the redemption of Gideon from his self hatred to acceptance. B-

Best regards,

Jane

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REVIEW: From Waif to Gentleman’s Wife by Julia Justiss

Jayne — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 10:00:53 +0000

Dear Ms. Justiss,

You’ve been writing Regency set stories for years now so by now, I’m sure you’re more than familiar with all the conventions, the standard plots, the trope characters, all the things we’re used to seeing in this historical category. Well, I am too so when I come across something different, I’m liable to sit up, smile and say, “Yes!”

I’m sure that Sir Edward Greaves was, even if only briefly, a minor character in your book, “An Unconventional Match.” Alas, I don’t recall him. Shame on me as he’s a nice guy. As he, himself, thinks, he doesn’t have the lofty title of his friend Nicky Stanhope, the Marquess of Englemere, or the money his financial wizard friend Hal Waterman does but he’s not a bad catch on the marriage mart. So far, his attempts to find a wife he can admire as well as love, and who he thinks would enjoy living with him in the country, have not panned out but hope springs eternal.

In the meantime, he’s intrigued by a little property owned by Nicky. It’s far from Nicky’s other holdings and has currently been run almost into the ground by land agent mismanagement. In these postwar years when crop prices have plummeted and out of work Peninsular War veterans roam the countryside searching for work, it’s hard for even well maintained properties to cover their expenses. When an estate has been as badly administered as Blenhem, it’s almost a lost cause. But for Ned, this “perfect storm” is like a red flag and he offers to buy the property.

Widowed Joanna Merrill is truly destitute when she arrives at Blenhem, late on a stormy night, on foot and half starved. Unjustly thrown out of her last post by his wife after the Viscount got frisky and cornered her in her room, Joanna’s only hope is to find her brother who was managing a small property for their very distant relation the Marquess of Englemere. Only when she arrives, Greville is gone and another man has taken his place.

For various reasons, Ned has decided to take the role of an untitled land agent to allow him to discover just what went on under Greville’s management. He’s immediately attracted to the lovely Joanna but as a relation to his friend, she’s “hands off.” Trying to help her find employment, Ned hits on starting a school for the estate children with Joanna as the teacher. As their interest in each other grows, they attempt to discover what went on at the estate. But will Ned wait too long to tell Joanna who he really is?

For the most part, this is a quiet, country Regency. There is little about ton life in London, no Seasons, no Almacks, no dowagers quizzing young misses. I like that Joanna is a gentleman’s daughter while Ned is a Baronet instead of the usual Duke. And though he is sort of undercover in a way, he’s not a spy for Wellington. The use of the Luddites as a background conflict as well as Joanna and Greville’s experiences at the hands of the aristos is inspired. It’s been years since I saw this aspect of the times used in a Regency.

Ned doesn’t wallow away his romantically broken heart with wine, women and song. No, this boy throws himself into dethatching grass, soil additives, farming techniques and other agricultural improvements. Be still my beating heart. He’s also actually got a good reason for going undercover, as it were, at his new property. He thinks things out and truly wants to do the best for his tenants. What a guy!

I like that Ned listens to Joanna and doesn’t dismiss her concerns and statements about the aristocracy and their abuse of their privileges. He offers considered responses and tries to show Joanna the other side of the coin.

Joanna does get to see the real Ned even though she thinks he’s lower in social station than he is. Ned doesn’t hid who he really is, a man interested in farming and improving the lot of his tenants. While he, in turn, finds out more about her closely held feelings than he would have been able to in more polite, conventional realms. When they do start their physical relationship, I felt that they knew each other and didn’t just jump into lust. I will admit, however, to being slightly tired of the prevalent mental lusting up til then.

When the truth is revealed, at least Joanna doesn’t completely dismiss Ned’s entreaties to listen to his side of things, then to go to London to seek out her many-times-removed cousin the Marquess to see if he can assist her in finding her brother. Then she does listen to Nicky’s wife Sarah – who, thankfully, doesn’t meddle too much – and considers what Sarah, who knows Ned, has to say.

I did notice that Joanna mentions how diligently Nicky appears to work for his tenants at his various properties but then that brings up the question of why Blenhem was allowed to sink so far into disrepair while Nicky still owned it.

Another thing I noticed is when Joanna first arrives in London, she thinks something about how Nicky never offered to assist her. But then, I thought she had dismissed all thoughts of even going to him to seek aid. So is this really his fault he didn’t offer to help a relation who never called on him?

I was glad to see Jesse and Mary have a happy, and believable, ending. Yes, they will be sailing to America but honestly, I doubt that they could have lived in this small village given what Mary was forced into.

I hope readers looking for a slightly different Regency will check this one out. The innovative use of the actual concerns and conflicts of the age – progression of technology and factories, destruction of traditional handicrafts of rural England and fate of wounded soldiers after the Napoleonic wars were finally over, make it stand out. The mental lusting dragged and I had some slight questions about various parts of the plot but overall, I enjoyed it. B-

~Jayne

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REVIEW: To Desire a Devil by Elizabeth Hoyt

Jayne — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 10:00:24 +0000

Okay people, listen up. This is the last book in the series and the whole thing is a spoiler for the first three books. You have been warned.

Dear Ms Hoyt,

Capturing my attention for an entire series before I’ve even read the first book is something. Me remembering that a new book in a series is coming out without having someone remind me of it is something. Keeping my attention and enthusiasm for a series all the way into book four is something. So don’t be bummed that the grade for this one is lower than most of the others.

At last, here we are at the final book of the series when the bombshell, which was hurled at us in the preview included at the end of the previous book, explodes. For the length of the other three books and all during the seven years since the horrible events at Spinners Falls in the Colonies, everyone has known that Captain Lord Reynaud Hope, heir the Earldom of Blanchard, is dead. The pitifully few fellow Englishmen taken with him as captives by the Indian allies of the French saw poor Reynaud die. Two years later, his father died in England and the Earldom passed on to a distant relative, Reginald St. Aubyn who now lives with his niece, Beatrice Corning, as his hostess.

The boring tea being held by the Earl for his political cronies becomes less boring, in fact it becomes the talk of London, when Reynaud bursts into the room looking like a savage himself. And suddenly, right in the same house with her, lives the man with whom Beatrice fell in love when she and her uncle moved into Blanchard house and Beatrice first saw the portrait of Reynaud which hangs in the blue salon.

Only the man himself is nothing like she imagined. Gone is the laughing young man who left with his fellow soldiers for America. In his stead is a man who frightens half of London with his sometimes crazed behavior and who terrifies the one man who never thought his traitorous deeds would be uncovered. Is Reynaud a man who can find some tenderness and love in his heart for this woman who now loves him as he is instead of as how she dreamt he was? Or will the traitor finish what was started seven years ago before Reynaud is able to rediscover how to love?

Perhaps this book suffers somewhat from the “Devilish” syndrome wherein readers eagerly await a final book with a promised hero who then must live up to impossible standards. Perhaps it was the balance of the story which felt somewhat off to me. Maybe I wasn’t completely convinced of the hero’s sudden capitulation into headlong love for his heroine, who has already committed her heart to him by the middle of the story. I’m not sure what is the cause but I ended this book feeling somewhat let down.

Beatrice is a lovely heroine who compliments the other strong heroines she follows. She’s practical but with a romantic streak. She wants to believe that romance survives matrimony despite the unexpected “thud” sound she hears that heralds the letdown a dear friend is experiencing with her own marriage. Beatrice has been courted a little but no man has ever lived up to the dream she’s embroidered in her head about Reynaud. Yet, when the man himself doesn’t live up to her fantasy, she takes stock, really looks at her feelings and admits that she’s fallen for him as he is. She pushes for him to reveal to her parts of his captivity so that she’ll know him better. She doesn’t shrink from his grimness nor make excuses for him nor patronize him with empty platitudes. She wonders if her love alone will be enough for the two of them and she’s willing to accept this if that’s how it will be. In other words, she isn’t a missish weakling.

Reynaud is tortured, literally so as we learn throughout the course of the novel. He’s withstood seven years of hell by the overriding desire to get home. He’s been changed by his experience, as are all men who’ve survived war, and will never be the carefree man he was. If he had not been written with lingering effects, I would have cried foul. That he is resistant to anything which might weaken him, even if he might not be aware of that, is logical. He avoided the things which could have tied him to his Indian captors – marriage and children – and initially he avoids the deeper feelings which he might develop for Beatrice. His decision to marry is based on what it could gain him in other respects rather than for any tender feelings.

I was going to say that as with Hartley, Reynaud is too alpha for my tastes. He pays lip service to Beatrice’s wants too often. However, in his defense, I will allow that managing to live through what he did would probably turn almost anyone into an alpha just to survive. But if he’d come at me the night after taking my virginity and told me that I didn’t have enough experience with sex to know if I really wanted it again that night or not, I’d have told him, “Dude, you don’t know my knee well enough to know how it’s going to feel when I ram it up between your legs. But I’d be happy to let you find out.”

It takes too many outside influences to push Reynaud towards love. First Beatrice’s friend, Jeremy Oates, who is himself a broken survivor of war, has to extract a promise from Reynaud to take care of Beatrice when, up to then, all Reynaud can think when he sees Beatrice is “mine!” Then when the traitor makes his move and uses Beatrice as a pawn – and haven’t we seen too much of that already in this series? – suddenly, WHAM! Reynaud’s iron hard shell cracks and it’s love. Usually I enjoy watching how the fairy tale chapter headers mirror the action in the book but the heavy handed “bang me over the head with it” true love which has the strength to conquer the Goblin King (read traitor) ending of this one almost made me snicker.

I will say that I enjoyed watching Munroe and Hartley effectively spike the guns which were aimed at the bill which Beatrice and Lottie had worked so tirelessly for. It doesn’t take grand gestures to effect change, just smart ones. I wished that the subplot involving Lottie and Nate had got more resolution instead of the half baked “feel good” ending which didn’t seem to deal with the deeper issues which had caused them to separate. The outing of the traitor of Spinner’s Falls also fell flat for me. I had wanted all the information we had to be tied together somehow and the identity to be a “WOW, I should have seen this!” moment for me. Instead I felt cheated by the sleight of hand.

I wanted to finish this series with a bang. I wanted to close the book and feel replete, sated, emotionally spent – but in a good way. I felt a mild dose of these things but not the whole hog experience I was longing for. Don’t get me wrong, it is a good book. I enjoyed it and seeing Reynaud and Beatrice find their HEA but it’s not quite the book I was hoping for. B-

~Jayne

This book can be purchased at Amazon. The book will be available in ebook form on November 1 which is either the official release date or a way for publishers to punish you ebook readers.

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