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

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.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Dear Author earns a small referral fee if you use these links to buy Harlequin books. Click only if you are interested. (Thank you to those who have been clicking and buying!).

It's a Moonlight Madness sale.
eBooks Backlist Bookshelf: Get 15% Off Newly Released Backlist eBooks! More eBooks just added this month!

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

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.

This book can be purchased at Amazon. No ebook version that I could find.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Dear Author earns a small referral fee if you use these links to buy Harlequin books. Click only if you are interested. (Thank you to those who have been clicking and buying!).

It's a Moonlight Madness sale.
eBooks Backlist Bookshelf: Get 15% Off Newly Released Backlist eBooks! More eBooks just added this month!

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

REVIEW: Hot on Her Heels by Susan Mallery

Janet — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 21:00:01 +0000

Dear Ms. Mallery:

Having finished the entire Titan sisters series, I find myself in virtually the same place after the fourth book as after the first: I loved so much of the interaction among the women but found the basic suspense premise substantially problematic. Witty dialogue buoyed each book, while unconvincing characterizations torpedoed my ability to make the ultimate buy-in for each book. This last book, Hot on Her Heels, repeats the pattern faithfully, with Dana (an honorary Titan sister and oldest sister Lexi’s best friend for years) a witty, prickly, sassily amusing heroine and Titan half-brother Garth, her inevitable if not expectedly suited hero. With this book, we get the resolution to the power struggle between patriarch Jed Titan and his vengeful son Garth, as well as the Titan sisters’ campaign to bring Garth back from the dark side (i.e. war with the family). Can love redeem either or both of these difficult men?

First a bit of backstory. Unbenkownst to Jed Titan’s three daughters, before he married the first of his wives (Lexi’s mother), he got a local girl pregnant and ended up treating her very badly. When she did not accept his apology, the proud, rash Jed cut all ties to his son and his first love, going to far as to throw Garth out on the street when, at 14, he came to beg his father for enough money to treat his mother’s brain tumor. So now Garth is seeking his revenge on his father, and just for fun he decides to jerk with his half-sisters, as well. After all, they’re Titans, too, and have benefited from Jed’s wealth. And it’s not as if Jed is innocent, exactly; in fact, Jed’s sins are becoming more and more apparent to his daughters, and his behavior is becoming more and more hostile.

Although the older sisters had been slowly regaining control of the parts of their lives Garth messed with, in the last book, Straight from the Hip, wild child Izzy Titan was blinded in an explosion on the offshore rig where she worked as an underwater welder. Believing that Garth set the explosion, the sisters set Titanville police deputy Dana Birch on Garth, figuring that if anyone can get the truth out of Garth – who insists he had nothing to do with the explosion, despite his manipulations in getting Izzy to his best friend Nick’s facility for rehab – it’s the dogged, jaded, done with men, Deputy Dana. Not that Dana is resisting; in fact, she takes a leave of absence so she can tail Garth properly, even going so far as to let Garth know that she will be following him anywhere and everywhere he goes. A notion to which Garth seems unexpectedly receptive.

Because this is a Romance novel, in case we might forget, and the two remaining eligible single folks must be paired off by the end. And what is more canonical than the handsome, wealthy, committed to being single bachelor who can have any woman he wants wanting the boyish, no make-up wearing, defensive, only dates weak men woman? And in that respect, Hot on Her Heels is very traditional. There is a bit of a twist with Garth, who was held captive and tortured in a South American jungle, as well as with Dana, who was the teenaged victim of an abusive father. But for the most part, these serious issues serve as obligatory obstacles to emotional vulnerability and commitment for the two.

Now for the good, most of which happens around the smart-alecky sisters and their campaign to make Garth a true and loyal Titan sibling:

…”Come on. Join the party. As I said the other day, you’re family. This path of destruction you’re on is just plain stupid. So we’re going to save you.”

“Against my will?”

“If necessary.” She smiled. “We can be very persuasive.”

“Izzy wants you to join the family,” Skye said.

“By Christmas,” Izzy added.

He remembered her saying something like that before. “Thanks, but no.”

“You don’t get a choice.”

“Part of saving me against my will?”

“Uh-huh. Come on, Garth. We’re your sisters. Didn’t you ever wish you had someone to braid your hair?”

Scenes like this constituted the most enjoyable passages in the novel for me; the exchanges were sharp and well-written, the humor not overdone or tired. I was even willing to go along with the idea that the sisters would be so forgiving of Garth (something that becomes a bit more believable as Jed treats them more and more badly).

Unfortunately, the strong, well-portrayed bonds among the sisters and Dana were not well-matched by the development of the romantic relationship between Dana and Garth.

Which brings me to the bad.

By the end of Skye’s book, Lip Service, Dana was so motivated to bring Garth to justice for his attacks on the sisters that she was voluntarily breaking with her duty as a cop and engaging in some seriously unlawful behavior. That move was about as believable as the ease with which the sisters have decided to ‘love Garth into submission,’ but I was willing to suspend some disbelief because Dana’s loyalty to the sisters is so strong. That is, I was given enough of a basis in the existing relationships to accommodate this rather unexpected shift in Dana’s character.

Garth’s necessary rehabilitation into romantic hero material manifests in a form that is not unexpected but is also awkward, as the attention in Hot on Her Heels shifts away from his bad deeds to someone who is even more of a threat to the women. In relatively short order, Garth is able to shift positions from threatening outsider to trusted ally and long-lost brother, a transition that has been anticipated since the last book, but which is still hastily accomplished and involves the problematic sacrifice of another character.

Further, with Garth and Dana’s relationship, there is really not much foundation established for their budding attraction and romance (after all, Garth has been the guy going after Dana’s best friends in the whole world and her honorary sisters). And yet, Garth is already falling under the spell of Dana’s sensuous mouth by Chapter 2 of Hot on Her Heels, hastily confessing to her that “Your mouth drives me crazy,” kissing her senseless and giving her the magic orgasm of HEA bonding, all in about a hundred pages. By the time Garth proposes she move in with him so he can protect her from “the real threat,” conventional romantic formula is firmly entrenched as the main motivator of this couple’s relationship:

He turned to face her. “I thought you’d be more comfortable here. I didn’t want to assume…”

It was the first time she’d seen him unsure of himself. He didn’t look directly at her as he spoke and after gesturing to the bed, he shoved his hands into his slacks pockets.

A guest room. Who would have thought?

She thought of the big bed in the room down the hall, of sleeping next to him every night, of having him touch her and take her until she was weak with wanting to give all she had. And if she did that, what would be left of her?

“This would be great,” she said.

Something flashed through his eyes. Something that if she’d been brave like Izzy or beautiful like Lexi or emotionally strong like Skye she might have thought was disappointment, but being just her, she ignored it.

Garth and Dana spend a lot of time and narrative space questioning and ignoring the looks in each other’s eyes, the intention behind each touch, the emotion behind every smile and frown. Garth finds himself wanting Dana with properly intense and momentous desire, even though he’s convinced he will never fall in Love. Dana finds herself wearing mascara and high heels, questioning herself but enjoying the feeling of being a girl, prickly as a matter of form but clearly falling for the handsome, wealthy, I survived torture in a South American jungle Garth. There was so little here that was new or challenging that it communicated to me as trite, even annoying at times, especially all those moments of ‘does she or doesn’t she?,’ ‘does he or doesn’t he?’ Within a few chapters, it is obvious that these two are not only meant for each other, but that every aspect of their characters heretofore, every reason they have to distrust one another, to be truly suspicious of each other, and to follow the logic of Garth’s far-reaching revenge plot against the Titans, is swept away in the throes of their mutual passion.

And that is really the ugly of Hot on Her Heels. Garth’s systematic campaign against the Titans, which at least had some real justification behind it, is easily forgotten, at which point Garth really becomes the true Titan patriarch. Because we’ve known since the first book, Under Her Skin, that Jed was being set up as the true villain of the series, an egomaniacal nut who viewed his daughters as either pawns or whores (or both). This transfer of sympathy created two insupportable scenarios for me: either Jed had always been that way, in which case I could not imagine how his daughters were not neurotic messes, or he suddenly became that way, which I felt should have prompted something akin to a 5150 mental health hold as opposed to a Titan-sister counter-attack. Since neither option was explored in the series, by the time the sisters engineer their family reunion with Garth and join forces against their father, I had pretty much lost faith in the vehicle that drove the series arc. And with that it was difficult to see Garth and Dana’s relationship as anything more than a by-the-numbers coupling of romantic series convenience. Garth needs to be a “true Titan brother” and Dana needs to be a “true Titan sister,” so what better way to accomplish that than to make Garth a hero and match him up with Dana?

The last Titan sisters book I reviewed, Straight from the Hip (Skye and Mitch’s story), actually rose in evaluation once I started composing my review. Hot on Her Heels, by contrast, read much more generously than it reviewed. Once I really started reflecting on what worked for me against what didn’t, one column clearly dominated. And it was a disappointment, because the sisters and Dana had so much potential and so much fun in their portrayal. But the clichés became more and more wearing, such that what should have been the most challenging (and, it follows, the most satisfying) relationship in the series to develop – that between the vengeful bastard son and the avenger of justice and friendship – felt the most trite. C-

~ Janet

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

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Dear Author earns a small referral fee if you use these links to buy Harlequin books. Click only if you are interested. (Thank you to those who have been clicking and buying!).

It's a Moonlight Madness sale.
eBooks Backlist Bookshelf: Get 15% Off Newly Released Backlist eBooks! More eBooks just added this month!

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

REVIEW: Unrequited by Abigail Roux

Joan/SarahF — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 18:15:30 +0000

Dear Ms. Roux.

I opened this file when I got it because it wasn’t paranormal (no world building…I’m so sick of world building) and because you wrote it and I adore your Caught Running with Madeleine Urban. That said…meh. So many holes, such annoying characters, unbelievable timeline, so much potential angst wasted, wasted I tell you!

Vic the lawyer loves Owen the sheriff and part-time bailiff. Owen uses Vic as a fuck buddy and has done so for five years, which is tearing Vic apart. Or at least, so I’m told. Shane the judge is Vic’s best friend and convinces Vic, on 12 hours’ notice, to go on a month’s vacation. Apparently, public prosecutors in North Carolina don’t have to clear their schedule to go on a MONTH’S LONG vacation. I think I need to go to law school. As we learn…eventually…Shane loves Vic and has done so for…yes, you guessed it, five years. But as the entire story is told from Vic’s not-quite-first-person perspective, Shane’s emotions pretty much get lost and ignored in Vic’s angst and general cluelessness. Which is a shame. Vic, of course, comes to realize the relationship potential in his best friend and finally gets a clue.

The first scene is set up brilliantly…and then goes nowhere:

Victor Bronsen tapped his pen against his temple slowly.

Tap.

The defense lawyer was speaking in a low, monotonous drone. He was new to this district, brought in from somewhere else by the family of the accused man, and he obviously didn’t know how short Judge Trammell’s temper was when it came to stalling or pontificating.

Tap.

Vic glanced up at the bailiff, Owen Montgomery, who stood stock-still with his blue eyes narrowed, looking at the defense lawyer like he might like to hit him soon. Owen was a big guy, with thick blond hair, a full beard, and wide shoulders that made him look a little like a lion. He wasn’t the type of guy you wanted to piss off.

Tap.

Et cetera. Brilliantly set up. I read this and I was so psyched for the rest of the book, because it seemed so evocative of character and setting and I thought I was in for a treat of a book. But then…nothing. The judge is not Shane, which would have made for more tension, more literary impact. The judge in the scene does not eat the defender. Nothing happens. It’s like showing the gun over the mantle-piece and then completely ignoring it for the rest of the play. Aargh!

Even more infuriatingly, Shane’s judging a case that requires police protection for…like eight hours? WTF? Don’t mention a dangerous case and police protection if you don’t do anything with it. It’s not real life, it’s fiction, and things need to have meaning, rather than being random, especially in a 100 page story.

And then the drinking. This is why I do not like Nora Roberts’ early categories: everyone’s drinking and smoking. Yuck. While I understand that two to three men at the beach for a month might drink pretty much all the time, I personally find that an incredibly unattractive trait, which transfers to unattractive, unsympathetic characters, to my mind.

I kept waiting for both Shane and Vic to grow some. Both of them sat around for FIVE YEARS and didn’t talk with the object of their unrequited love? Shane’s excuse was that he knew that Vic loved Owen. Vic’s excuse was that he’s a pansy-assed coward and just…yuck. And after five years of angst (so we’re told), he switches to Shane in a month? And I’m supposed to believe in the HEA? Not so much.

Also, the tourist trip through North Carolina? Unnecessary because you don’t actually DO anything with it. It doesn’t reveal character; it doesn’t further the plot or heighten the tension — mainly because there was very little plot and even less tension. It’s just a travelogue. “Look, kids, Big Ben!” No no, that’s something else…

The book was mildly amusing. But I only finished it because I was waiting for Vic and/or Shane to grow some and they didn’t. The ending was vaguely interesting and gave me two seconds of warm fuzzies. But generally a pretty forgettable book. So forgettable, in fact, that I’m proud of myself for remembering to write the review. But then, I’m doing my best to avoid grading.

Grade: C-

Best regards,
-Joan/Sarah F.

This book can be purchased in ebook format from Amazon and other retailers.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Dear Author earns a small referral fee if you use these links to buy Harlequin books. Click only if you are interested. (Thank you to those who have been clicking and buying!).

It's a Moonlight Madness sale.
eBooks Backlist Bookshelf: Get 15% Off Newly Released Backlist eBooks! More eBooks just added this month!

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

REVIEW: Sindustry II

Joan/SarahF — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 18:00:27 +0000

Dear Authors:

I opened THIS anthology because I liked Sindustry I. But this volume is so obviously all the leftover stories from the Sindustry I anthology that didn’t quite make it into the first volume. And most of these stories should NOT have been included. This anthology had very few redeeming stories and some that make me want to puke, which kinda dampens any enthusiasm I might have for the whole. Mostly it’s filled with stories with awful, weak, boring, TSTL characters who couldn’t characterize their way out of a paper bag, and their ridiculously over-protective and unrealistic saviors. I have never really understood what m/m readers are complaining about when they say that that one of the characters doesn’t have to be the woman, but I do now. In this volume, one half of the relationship was invariably the damsel in distress who needed saving, the other the knight in shining armor who knew just how to take care of things, pretty lady…uh, I mean lad. Yech.

As in Sindustry I, the premise is that these are all stories about people in the sex industry, either strippers, prostitutes, or porn actors. This volume does a much worse job of speculating about whether it is possible to have a realistic representation of tricking and yet still have a good romance. Because the other problem with most of these stories is how glamorized prostitution or stripping is made out to be. And it’s not. That’s why I liked “Sunshine” so much, I think, because it showed some gritty realism about what money does to a relationship.

“Package Boy” by Connie Bailey
A strange little story about a high-end rent boy who has fallen in love with a client who happens to be the heir to a Mafia family. He hears a hit ordered on his lover while on another call and the rest of the story deals with how he and his lover respond to the news. Told mostly in choppy, untagged dialogue, the conflict is mostly external. The relationship conflict isn’t sign-posted very well so I didn’t know that it existed until it was solved. The affection between the lovers is genuine and the sex is pretty hot, but there’s a bit too much grating, unexplained mafia language. Grade: C

“Dance for Me” by Maria Albert
This story was both so melodramatic it was funny, and so completely disturbing I was sickened. Carlo is saved from an abusive john by Michael, a bouncer at a club. Carlo is barely 21 and has been kept in literal sexual slavery for 7 years, only to have been thrown out by his captor 2 weeks previously. Michael is 43 and lives at the club, which seems to be a kind of halfway house for gay homeless men, complete with Leprechaun-like Irish owner. Carlo and Michael instantly fall in love, but can’t communicate enough to actually figure things out without intercession by Michael’s boss. Carlo is a complete mess and Michael seems a few cards short of a deck and to have a relationship between them when Carlo is only 2 weeks out of 7 years of abuse and Michael seems emotionally unstable was unbelievably appalling. There’s a limit to what can be solved in a novel, let alone a short story. Don’t set up characters who need years of therapy and think some sex and a few kisses makes everything all better. Ew. The ending’s even worse, the HEA degraded beyond compare by the creepiness of Michael’s final words to Carlo. Grade: F

“Unorthodox Utopia” by G.S. Wiley
Stephen owns a salon but needs extra cash. He hires on as hair and makeup artist for a low budget porn shoot, where he meets Jeff, one of the actors, who has an abusive boyfriend. The story, told from Stephen’s first person point of view, is a nice, gentle blossoming of a good relationship, as Jeff leaves his boyfriend and grows closer with Stephen. There’s no sex, just two men getting to know and care for each other, even if they do it rather too quickly considering Jeff’s abusive relationship. Grade: C+

“Leather Dancer” by Andrew Grey
Denny is dragged to a Leather Expo by his way-more-outgoing friend. There he sees Robbie, the next-door-neighbor he’s been crushing on for months, dancing at a booth. Over the next month, they build a solid relationship. The characterization seems non-existent. Denny is a shy introvert, then he’s the driving force behind the relationship. Robbie is an annoying wet noodle who seems to bend to Denny’s whim and whatever the story needs him to do. Complete lameness: having Denny buy books from a booth at the Expo that is obviously the Dreamspinner booth, complete with titles mentioned. Stretching credulity: Robbie takes Denny to his father’s restaurant on their first date. Boring writing, very little conflict. Grade: C-

“Corona & Lime” by Sonia Devereaux
Jacob hasn’t wanted or had a relationship — or even sex — in ten months, since his boyfriend dumped him. Race is paid by Jacob’s friends to pick him up in a bar. They go to Race’s apartment, but Jacob puts on the breaks and they fight in a very amusing way (to me, at least). The next morning, they find a way to the beginnings of a relationship. The story is told from the point of view of both Race and Jacob as they each feel out their vulnerabilities and find how the other could fix them. Each convinced that the other couldn’t want them, the end is sweetly optimistic. Grade: B

“Sunshine” by JL Merrow
I thought Merrow’s story in Sindustry I was one of the best in that volume. “Sunshine” is definitely the best in this. The story is set in England, I presume in London, and replete with British slang. Daniel is a street-walker, Rob a bouncer at a bar who checks up on Daniel on the way home. He takes Daniel home with him once, paying for sex, ruining their tentative friendship and the story tells how they find their way back to each other. Sweet and sad and wonderful. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like Merrow has any full-length novels yet, just short stories. Pity. Grade: B+

“Night Moves” by Patric Michael
Guy who is NOT a trick spontaneously rescues a hustler and vows to protect and keep him all of his days. Huh? Over-emotional, crying at the drop of a hat, unbelievable love at first sight, out-of-left-field motivations, and generally a story that makes absolutely no sense. And don’t people know that relationship tattoos are incredibly bad juju? They’re a death knell to a relationship, so if characters go out and get one, I’m pretty much ready to chuck the book. Not sexy and romantic, just stupid! (But that might just be me.) Grade: D

“Wanting More” by Cari Z
Alex is a stripper who goes home with a trick, only to be discovered by the guy’s long-term partner. He is surprised when the partner, James, shows up at the club 2 weeks later and asks for a private dance. Surprised but thrilled, because he’s very attracted to James. They establish a relationship of sorts, with lots of really hot D/s sex, that eventually works into something more. A satisfying development of a wonderful relationship. Although if James didn’t learn from his previous lover or from Alex, when IS he going to learn?: a fact which threatens my belief in the HEA. Grade: B-

“The Cowboy and the Movie Star” by Kate Roman
Oh, blech. Jake is the foreman of a ranch hired out for a gay porn shoot. Matthew is the star of the show and a complete and utter wet blanket. If any heroine acted like Matthew—completely unable to take care of himself in any way—I’d chuck that book across the room without hesitation. One night of hot man-lovin’ changes their lives and Matthew quits in the middle of the shoot, except Jake doesn’t believe him….blahblahblah. The core of the story is when Matthew says to Jake, “Jake, do you know how long it’s been since someone’s touched me because I asked them to? Or because they wanted to? Because they wanted me?” And, I mean, sure. That’s the fantasy, right, that prostitutes and porn stars want their One True Love as well, that sex isn’t worth it without love. But these characters are awful, the story is unbelievable, the villain is ridiculous, and the sex is boring. Grade: D

“The Meaning of Perfection” by Taylor Lochland
A prostitute falls for the owner of the hotel who rents him and his roommate rooms for their jobs. Julian, the hotel owner, takes payment in kind from Felix’s roommate, which makes Felix very jealous because he wants to be the one servicing Julian. He eventually gets the chance, only to have Julian reject anything more in the morning. They eventually find their way back to each other, and poof! Felix quits whoring. Um, yeah, not so much. Grade: C-

“See Me, Feel Me” by Zahra Owens
A stripper takes a private gig for a friend, only to be wined and dined by a blind massage therapist, who does his own, unofficial sex work during his business. A fun little read, but the length of these “short” stories sometimes leaves me feeling like the story could be 2000 words shorter. Very little conflict and merely a progression of the relationship ensues and while that’s enjoyable, there’s no incentive to keep reading besides some moderately enjoyable sex—nothing’s at stake. Grade: C+

“Exposure” by Marguerite Labbe & Fae Sutherland
Whoa, hello head hopping! Give me whiplash, why don’t you! Ahem. That aside, this was a surprisingly hot story about a photographer introducing one of his models to a little bit of BDSM. The instant attraction between the two made me roll my eyes a bit, but then I was completely sucked in to the sexual and relationship tension between the characters and was very happily following along until the photographer called the model “Pretty baby.” That just stomped on all my squick buttons and pulled me right out of the story. I could tell that it was still hot in the same way it was before, except every time “pretty baby” showed up again, I’d get squicked all over again. Except for that, very enjoyable, and very very hot, very well-written D/s sex with a little bondage thrown in. Grade: B

Looking through the whole, now that I’m done, there’s quite a few more Bs than I thought there were. But still, the awfulness of “Dance for Me,” “Night Moves,” and “The Cowboy and the Movie Star” overshadows the good of “Exposure,” “Sunshine,” and the quirkiness of “Corona and Lime.” Skip this volume unless you can find those three stories separate.

Overall grade: C-

Best regards,
-Joan/Sarah F.

This book can be purchased at Amazon or in ebook format from Books on Board or other etailers.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Dear Author earns a small referral fee if you use these links to buy Harlequin books. Click only if you are interested. (Thank you to those who have been clicking and buying!).

It's a Moonlight Madness sale.
eBooks Backlist Bookshelf: Get 15% Off Newly Released Backlist eBooks! More eBooks just added this month!

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

REVIEW: A Trip with a Tycoon by Nicola Marsh

Jayne — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 10:00:33 +0000

Dear Ms. Marsh,

I’m trying to branch out in my Harlequin reading experiences so I decided to try your book in the “Romance” line. With no mention of secretaries, babies or royalty I decided to give it a go.

Recent widow Tamara Rayne is looking towards reentering the profession she gave up when she married a celebrity chef. With that in mind, she’s honing her food critic skills at the restaurant once co-owned by her husband Richard and his friend, entrepreneur Ethan Brooks. Even before Richard’s sudden death, Ethan had barely paid any attention to her so Tamara is amazed when Ethan begins to flirt with her.

Ethan had good reason to avoid Tamara since he didn’t think he could control his attraction to her and remain on good terms with Richard. But now that Tamara is available and seems to be getting over her grief at Richard’s death, Ethan decides to pounce. And what more romantic place to pursue her than on a luxurious trip across Tamara’s mother’s homeland of India. But has Ethan read Tamara correctly and is Tamara ready for another relationship just when she’s beginning to stand on her own two feet again?

This book should come with a warning. “Do not read if you’re hungry!” I loved all the stuff about the Indian cuisine. Names, ingredients, cooking techniques, the thought of having all those yummy foods laid out on a buffet for me to choose from…it made me want to rush out to my nearest Indian restaurant and pig out.

The details included about Tam and Ethan’s trip through India read like a fabulous travel brochure. I appreciate that though most of it details their luxurious accommodations, which one would expect given the fact that Ethan and probably Tam could afford the best, you do include mention of the poorer people in the country when Tam visits the beaches near Goa.

Tam is a food critic who takes her profession/job very seriously. She tests herself before she begins to ease back into the biz, she makes copious notes during her meals, she takes the time to savor the food she eats and works on imagining new ways to write about and share her love of good food. But one question. Shouldn’t food critics be unknown to the restaurants they visit in order to eliminate the staff catering to the critic?

If there’s two things this book has it’s endless vacillation and tons of mental lusting. I see what you’re saying about the Ethan being afraid of losing his control over his emotions and thus pulling back from feelings he feels overwhelmed by. I see that Tam was burned by her feelings in her first marriage and is hesitant to commit to a second relationship but the back and forth, push and pull of their “courtship” drove me bonkers after it had dragged on for so much of the book.

The same path gets trodden again and again. The same information is conveyed in almost the same way too many times. After hearing about the hero’s horrible childhood – including eating from dumpsters and being so hungry while he lived on the street – every third chapter at least, I began to skip these passages. And something so integral to the hero’s past and present behavior deserves to be read and not skipped. But honestly, I didn’t need yet one more repetition of the same material.

Ditto for the Tam’s ghastly first marriage. Richard was a jerk in private and she suffered because of it. I got it. He treated her like an object, belittled her, cheated on her and made her suffer. I understand. Tam resents the role she had to play in public as the grieving widow of the famous man so much it makes her want to scream. Yes, the point has been made. After reading it yet one more time, I was ready to scream.

Tam’s past marriage has made her hesitant and unsure of herself when facing a new romance. You carry this through in her reactions to Ethan’s pursuit. At first she is startled by his interest, then measured in her response to it, then willing to entertain the possibility, then willing to take a chance. Only to have him flip-flop yet again. I might have gotten tired of her acting spineless but I concede that you kept her reactions in tune with the background you’ve given her.

Ethan’s rags to riches background, on the other hand, didn’t work as well for me in explaining his hot and cold actions. Yes, he came through a terrible childhood but does that give him a free ticket to act as he does? I don’t think so and frankly had trouble getting over his initial plans to seduce Tam for the duration of their trip then drop her once they returned to Australia. This only increased once he got the feeling that her emotions were more deeply engaged and she might be falling in love.

I also didn’t buy their falling into each other’s arms at Goa. Too fast and too much of a turnaround. At this point, were I Tam, I wouldn’t have trusted Ethan that much. And then came the misunderstanding once they were back in Australia. Tam realizes the mistaken impression Ethan has about her marriage and still storms out? WTF? Her visit to her first husband’s mistress was also a wash-out for me. By this point, I was hoping that she had grown enough as a person and gained enough inner strength to at least give the woman a final, perfect come-uppant comment instead of just walking away. It only makes Tam look like the wimp Richard mocked her for being.

So while I enjoyed the fact that Tamara didn’t get knocked up in this book and that she’s not Ethan’s put upon secretary, too many other things didn’t work for me. Retreads of “I want her, no I must push her way” and “I’m so tired of acting the grieving widow in public, let me act spineless one more time” wore me down. Not even drooling over the food or picturing the glories of India were enough to make up for them. C-

~Jayne

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

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Dear Author earns a small referral fee if you use these links to buy Harlequin books. Click only if you are interested. (Thank you to those who have been clicking and buying!).

It's a Moonlight Madness sale.
eBooks Backlist Bookshelf: Get 15% Off Newly Released Backlist eBooks! More eBooks just added this month!

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

REVIEW: Storm Watch by Jill Shalvis

Jane — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 21:11:33 +0000

Dear Ms. Shalvis:

I like the blurb for this book. A search and rescue member of the National Guard having served umpteen tours of duty is finally home. He can barely think of what he should do tomorrow. All he wants is to rest, relax and recoup. But even that is a challenge because his family is pressuring him to settle down, the government wants him back, and Jason Mauer can’t catch his breath long enough to process even one demand. The situation isn’t helped when a terrible storm sweeps through his small beach town of Santa Rey, California, and Jason’s skills are marshaled to help an old flame.

Lizzy Mann is a nurse whose sister seems to have gotten herself in a pickle. Her sister is 9 months pregnant in an area of Santa Rey that needs to be evacuated. Lizzy needs to get to the evacuation site and get her sister out there. Lizzy’s sister is congenitally irresponsible and thus cannot be trusted to remove her pregnant self even in these dire circumstances.

Lizzy and Jason have a small past which appears to be the basis of the romance, told in small flashbacks and reminisces. This story takes place in a little over twenty four hours. In the space of twenty four hours, give or take, a bit of time, Jason and Lizzy renew their acquaintance, search for Lizzy, have time to make torrid love, fight, and then find their HEA in each other’s arms. Unfortunately this Speed like romance failed to work for me.

The pacing of the story started off wrong for me. Lizzy appears at Jason’s house thinking she would get his brother. Instead she finds a near naked Jason. Despite Lizzy’s impending emergency, three chapters pass as the two talk about the past, make out, and figure out what to do to help Lizzy’s sister. During these passing pages, I kept thinking “where’s the urgency here?” It seemed like enough time passed to have the hurricane wind down or the sister to have floated away. Every time they took a break to do something, like kiss or have some heart to heart chat, I wanted to shake them a bit. Okay, a lot. Shake them a lot.

It wasn’t just the brevity of time that was allotted for Lizzy and Jason’s story because I was more captivated by the tiny romance sub plot included regarding Lizzy’s sister, Cece, and the handsome neighbor who ends up helping Cece find safety. At one point, she’s trying to get him to give her a flaw and he finally confesses to liking his plasma tv better than half his co workers.

In other words, I felt like I got to know Cece and her neighbor better than Lizzy and Jason whose past was less interesting than the present for me. Plus, given the urgency of the situation, all the reminiscing seemed out of place. Further, given that Lizzy was so concerned about Cece, I just got frustrated with the kissing and flirting in the middle of the raging storm.

Finally, I was irked that Lizzy kept making Jason take her through the storm with him. He’s a professional search and rescue guy. If he says she should stay back then I need Lizzy to make a good case that she needs to be with him, otherwise I’m thinking she’s a liability no matter how many times she comes in handy. Just let him do his job.

Maybe I’m not cut out for the storm induced romances even if they are based on a couple that had a past. C-

Best regards

Jane

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

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Dear Author earns a small referral fee if you use these links to buy Harlequin books. Click only if you are interested. (Thank you to those who have been clicking and buying!).

It's a Moonlight Madness sale.
eBooks Backlist Bookshelf: Get 15% Off Newly Released Backlist eBooks! More eBooks just added this month!

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

August Harlequin Presents Lightning Reviews

Jane — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 18:00:42 +0000

Naughty Nights in the Millionaire’s Mansion by Robyn Grady. This book violated the number one HP principle. It was boring. By chapter five (which is about the half way point in an HP), I noted that there was amost no conflict and that the biggest issue thus far was the heroine being coy about whether she was going to spend another sexually fantastic night with the hero. (um, yes, why not?). The plot is that pet store owner with a big heart delivers some dogs to a rich man’s home. Rich man takes one look a dog lover and gets excited. Pet store owner is in need of money. Rich man has it but has complications in getting it into the hands of pet store owner. (This part of the story was clumsy in that rich man is head of a bank and facilitates a loan bypassing appropriate loan guidelines which could lead to trouble for him. Why not just give her a personal loan?) The conflict contrived by pet store owner at the end was a bit of a headdesker. She doesn’t want to be a distraction in his life so they can’t be together? Meh. C-

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

Ruthless Billionaire, Forbidden Baby by Emma Darcy. This book had conflict although it took a while for us to get to the Forbidden Baby part. Unfortunately, I found the heroine to be shrill and selfish. Her biggest complaint appeared to be that her Ruthless Billionaire didn’t want to attend the myriad of group functions the heroine partook of with her girlfriends and that his refusal to be part of that clique was insensitive of him. After reading the banal exchanges the girlfriends exchanged (which mostly consisted of ‘who are you dating now’ and ‘I’m so in love with x’ and ‘this is what will be at my wedding’) I was in full sympathy for R.B. The book is styled around the weddings of six friends. The heroine and R.B. hook up at the first wedding and see each other at successive weddings until they fall into the sack with one another and get to the babymaking but R.B. isn’t a full fledged social creature like the heroine which leads to ARGUMENTS! TEARS! UNHAPPINESS! C-

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

Spanish Magnate, Red-Hot Revenge by Lynn Raye Harris. This is a classic Presents with the uber alpha asshole hero doing his domination and revenge act upon the hapless heroine. Rebecca Layton struggled to keep her hotel chain afloat after her father died and left the company in shambles. Unfortunately for Rebecca, her ex lover Alejandro Arroyo Rivera de Ramirez has been waiting and even facilitating the extinquishment of the Layton hotel empire. Alejandro demands her presence in Madrid or her entire company will be torn into little bits and sold off, putting hundreds of employees out of work. Rebecca concedes to his demands in hopes of negotiating at least one hotel from Alejandro. Alejandro blames Rebecca’s abandonment of him five years ealier for all the unhappiness in his life but he’s unsure of what he really wants from Rebecca other than to see her miserable. Rebecca makes half hearted attempts at standing up to Alejandro which frustrated me because he was really mean to her, not so much in his actions but his words. I know I would have responded better had there been more equality in the relationship if only from an emotional standpoint. C+

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

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Dear Author earns a small referral fee if you use these links to buy Harlequin books. Click only if you are interested. (Thank you to those who have been clicking and buying!).

It's a Moonlight Madness sale.
eBooks Backlist Bookshelf: Get 15% Off Newly Released Backlist eBooks! More eBooks just added this month!

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

REVIEW: Cold Midnight by Joyce Lamb

Jane — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 10:00:32 +0000

Dear Ms. Lamb:

I wanted to read this book because a) I love sports books and b) so few of the sports books ever feature female athletes. The sports/athletic aspect of the book was the best part. The rest of it? Didn’t work so well.

<—What is going on with that chick’s breasts?

Kylie McKay was a tennis star at the cusp of breaking out. She had just won the Australian Open when, during a downtime at her home, she was attacked and her knee was bashed in by a baseball bat. Her career in tatters, Kylie runs off to UCLA to get her degree and heal. Ten years later, she returns home to open up a tennis/health club center. During construction, a baseball bat is found that Kylie believes is the one that damaged her knee. 10 years! In the dirt! and she can identify it! Maybe this is true but it strained my credulity. I mean, I would like to know what magic marker the assailant used that the words KILLER would have remained on the bat after being buried for ten years. I can’t keep the labels on my travel bottle from lasting more than one trip. Also, googling shows that a cotton rag degrades in 5 months, let alone surviving 10 years to yield blood and fiber clues. O_o

Chase Manning was her boyfriend at the time and is now a Kendall Falls Police Detective. He’s never gotten over the loss of Kylie despite having been married and divorced. He is portrayed as on the precipice of emotional instability upon finding the baseball bat and hearing of threats against Kyle and the McKay Tennis Center.

At first, I was intrigued. It seemed like you were playing with some established character tropes within the genre. Kylie was the stoic one, keeping her emotions in check at all times while Chase was the emotional one, driven by impulse and instinct. But as this wore on, Chase’s disgust for Kylie’s emotional discipline began to be offensive instead of endearing. Chase was great about blaming Kylie for the fallout of their relationship and for changing after the trauma into a stone cold hearted bitch.

Kylie gets her knee bashed in by a bat and it ends her tennis career, a promising pro career, something only a few could ever dream of and it’s over. Does he really believe that she won’t be totally traumatized by that? Further, Kylie explains that Chase didn’t wait long to move on because she heard that he got someone knocked up almost immediately after she left. Chase explains that he was distraught and sought “solace” (that’s what he calls it). It really wasn’t his fault that he couldn’t keep his dick in his pants while Kylie sought to recover from a super horrible event. I mean, if she had stuck around, he wouldn’t have been forced into some other girl’s bed.

I wanted to throttle him, he was so irritating. If you couldn’t tell.

Anyway, moving on to the suspense plot of the story. Bad things are happening to Kylie’s tennis center and to her personally. She doesn’t get a long great with her step siblings, one of whom might have been behind the attack, and she’s having to deal with uncomfortable feelings for Chase. There’s a complicating other man in Kylie’s life (a complication that is totally contrived and not a little skeevy). See the doctor that operated on Kylie’s life and saved her knee when she was seventeen totally had the hots for her back then and is taking up with her again when she returned. Her stepmother encourages this relationship, arguing he had waited for her for 10 years.

“I don’t know. He was very devoted to you before you left for California.”
“I was his patient.”
“A patient he liked very much.”

Oy is all I have to say. I thought the characterizations were way off. The suspense was the most interesting part of the book, but there were plenty of holes in the villain’s motivation for the crime, kind of like how I figured the evidence would be, buried in the ground after 10 years. It’s not quite a D book, but it came close. C-

Best regards,

Jane

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

REVIEW: A Dark Love by Margaret Carroll

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Dear Author earns a small referral fee if you use these links to buy Harlequin books. Click only if you are interested. (Thank you to those who have been clicking and buying!).

It's a Moonlight Madness sale.
eBooks Backlist Bookshelf: Get 15% Off Newly Released Backlist eBooks! More eBooks just added this month!

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

REVIEW: Angel with a Ray Gun by Deb Kinnard

Jayne — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 21:00:39 +0000

Dear Ms. Kinnard,

Despite absolutely loving the title of your book, I finished it with a sense of disappointment. And a feeling that if this is what contemporary Christianity is supposed to be, I want no part of it.

Matt Greenlee, Senior Pastor of New Hope Church, has a secret life. For years, he’s been writing a successful SF series under the pen name of Morgan Grimaldi. Now he’s just gotten the bombshell news that his trusty editor is in Nepal “finding himself” and Cairn Publishing is assigning him a new, and untried, editor.

AJ Mercer hopes to whip through the editing of the newest Jake Starborn novel. The series might be a best seller, but she has plenty of ideas to tighten this book up. Imagine her shock when she discovers the author is a minister. And that they’re slowly falling for each other. But there’s a snake in this garden which might just end not only their blossoming romance but Matt’s calling as a man of God.

First off, I wanted more about the Starborn books. After an opening in which Matt is working on finishing the latest one, we get almost zip. There are a few instances during which Matt “hears” his hero trying to give him life advice and a bit about AJ doing some red pen editing but not much more. I wanted to watch Matt get ideas for his next book or defend his opinions on AJ’s editing. How about his thoughts on cover art or back blurbs. Anything. And I thought that the publishing business was centered in NYC not Chicago. No? Are Matt’s thoughts about editors taken from your experiences? Hmmm, maybe you shouldn’t answer that.

AJ initially comes off as if she has something against Christianity, eg has been hurt/rejected/whatever in the past but then we find out that she’s just got an unconventional upbringing that has never included it. Her acceptance of Jesus in her life is fairly quick for someone with no background in the religion at all but then Saul’s conversion took even less time. I found myself puzzled by her idea, which Matt never seemed to take much time to correct, that she was so unworthy compared to the lifetime Christians at New Hope. If this is the feeling she’s getting from this congregation, then they’re not a bunch of people I want anything to do with.

I like that Matt doesn’t go all “hard sell” on her but rather lays out his beliefs, his enthusiasm, his openness to discuss faith with AJ and lets things go from there. I like that he prays not to convert anyone but for the Lord to give him the words needed to show his faith. But then, he seems to change slightly and makes comments about how he’ll help her change into her new identity as a Christian. I kept getting the subtle feeling that her old self was somehow being deemed “unworthy.”

But where Matt really loses me is when he goes into his crisis of faith and chickens out when he should at least call AJ and tell her why he doesn’t want to take her calls anymore. He just clams up and even gets his secretary to lie to AJ regarding his where abouts. Then when AJ pulls back, and rightly so IMO, he has the nerve to try and call her on it. What a hypocrite.

There was a fun early interaction scene of Matt with his buds playing hoops. But then what happens to all these friends of Matt’s when the elders attack him? Or for that matter, what happened to them on a regular friendship basis? It’s literally months later when the guys make another appearance.

And for a senior pastor, Matt seems to have relatively few demands on his time from his congregation. One crisis that does rock him but then after that, he seems to have all the time in the world to walk the beach with AJ, go to cons, reflect and pray for hours about how his life is circling the drain. And shouldn’t he have an associate pastor?

I find it hard to believe that Matt doesn’t know more about cons. Even the basics about them seem to be news to him. Wouldn’t the publisher have wanted him to attend some before now? I also find Matt’s belief that no Christian would read SF to be silly.

The initial attitude the elders have about Matt’s writing is what gives Christianity a bad name. What’s wrong with a Christian minister writing what he wants? Must they all write “rapture” novels? They, along with Courtney, make me furious. I realize that a minister is accountable to his congregation for matters of faith but I would hate to think that my private life, especially if not steeped in sin, could be dictated in such a way. At the end of the book, when the elders discover just how much of Matt’s authorial salary has been funneled into the Church, the greed that seems to change their whole attitude about his writing is sickening.

Matt’s secretary tells AJ that New Hope needs to work on its welcoming of new and potential members and all I can say is, amen sister. No church I’ve ever attended has seemed this cold to me.

But you didn’t portray all Christians as wonderful and all non-Christians as horrible. AJ’s mom at first seems as judgmental but then backs off and admits that she and AJ aren’t the same person and that one’s lifestyle won’t work for the other. The Church elders make me ill, but a few others in the congregation, mostly Matt’s buddies, appear to be warm and caring people.

I had hoped that this book would feature more of Matt’s writing as well as showing a different side to ministers. I’ve enjoyed the books which appear to fall between the inspirational cracks such as Beth Pattillo’s “Betsy” books and Cynthianna Appel’s “Preachin’ to the Choir.” It’s too bad that this book would be enough to turn me off of Christianity were I not already a member of the faith.

~Jayne

This book can be purchased in ebook format only at Amazon, Fictionwise, and other retailers.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Dear Author earns a small referral fee if you use these links to buy Harlequin books. Click only if you are interested. (Thank you to those who have been clicking and buying!).

It's a Moonlight Madness sale.
eBooks Backlist Bookshelf: Get 15% Off Newly Released Backlist eBooks! More eBooks just added this month!

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

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

REVIEW: Tangle Girls (anthology edited by Nicole Kimberling)

Related Posts:

REVIEW: Hidden Conflict by Various Authors

Related Posts:

REVIEW: Hot on Her Heels by Susan Mallery

Related Posts:

REVIEW: Unrequited by Abigail Roux

Related Posts:

REVIEW: Sindustry II

Related Posts:

REVIEW: A Trip with a Tycoon by Nicola Marsh

Related Posts:

REVIEW: Storm Watch by Jill Shalvis

Related Posts:

August Harlequin Presents Lightning Reviews

Related Posts:

REVIEW: Cold Midnight by Joyce Lamb

Related Posts:

REVIEW: Angel with a Ray Gun by Deb Kinnard

Related Posts: