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Posts Tagged ‘Contemporary’

REVIEW: A Coal Miner’s Wife by Marin Thomas

By Jayne • Sep 2nd, 2008 • Category: B Reviews Category, B- Reviews, Ebooks, Reviews

Dear Ms Thomas,
I predict quite a few people will be interested in this book. It’s a straight contemporary with none of the stock characters or situations that appear to predominate in that genre. What? No SEALs, no secret agents, no model glamorous heroines? Amazingly enough, not a single one of those is to [...]



REVIEW: In the Bleak Midwinter by Julia Spencer-Fleming

By Janine • Sep 2nd, 2008 • Category: B Reviews Category, B+ Reviews, Reviews

Dear Ms. Spencer-Fleming,
My friend Keishon has been telling me for years to read this book. She’s a huge fan of your series featuring Episcopalian priest Clare Fergusson and police chief Russ Van Alstyne. Now that I’ve read In the Bleak Midwinter, the first book in the series, I can see [...]



REVIEW: The Map Thief by Heather Terrell

By Jayne • Sep 1st, 2008 • Category: B Reviews, B Reviews Category, Ebooks, Reviews

Dear Ms. Terrell,
I’m not much of one for Conspiracy Theories. When people begin babbling on about the grassy knoll, Rosicrucians, Freemasons, Paul McCartney’s death or whether or not NASA astronauts actually landed on the moon, I generally tune them out or (even better) edge away and don’t look back as I flee [...]



REVIEW: Slightly Foxed by Jane Lovering

By Jayne • Aug 23rd, 2008 • Category: B Reviews, B Reviews Category, Ebooks, Reviews

Dear Ms. Lovering,
What interested me in “Slightly Foxed?” The blurb.
They say you’ll know when you’re in love. What if you don’t?
Alys, a single parent and certified romantic disaster area, is always falling for unattainable men—the latest one being the dead author of a “borrowed” book of poetry. When she reluctantly returns the book to [...]



REVIEW: Deception by Sharon Cullen

By Jane • Aug 21st, 2008 • Category: C Reviews Category, C- Reviews, Ebooks, Reviews

Dear Ms. Cullen:
This book opens really well. The heroine, Kate McAuley, finds a man at her door, begging to come in. We soon find out it is her ex-lover, Lucas Barone, who disappeared 18 months* ago. He just walked out the door one day and never came back. [...]



REVIEW: Blame it on Paris by Jennifer Greene

By Jayne • Aug 13th, 2008 • Category: B Reviews Category, B+ Reviews, Ebooks, Reviews

Dear Ms Greene,
Poor Paris, it always gets the blame for everything. And this time it’s at fault for bringing Kel and Will together. Not that it’s really Paris that does anything. More that it’s Kel’s fault for picking a bad neighborhood to rent a hotel room in and then taking all [...]



REVIEW: If I’d Never Known Your Love by Georgia Bockoven

By Jayne • Aug 9th, 2008 • Category: B Reviews Category, B+ Reviews, Ebooks, Reviews

Dear Ms. Bockoven,
I remember reading the blurb of your book when it was released last year. I immediately thought of the American hostages then being held in Colombia, some of them in their 4-6th year of captivity. And of the others who’d been held by these militant groups, deep in the [...]



REVIEW: Just One of the Guys by Kristan Higgins

By Jane • Aug 7th, 2008 • Category: A Review Category, A- Reviews, Reviews

Dear Ms. Higgins:
Congratulations on winning the RITA for best contemporary. I’ll confess that I’ve been a skeptic of RITA winners in the past, but as I was lost in the world of Eaton Falls, I thought yours was well deserved. Just One of the Guys (link to excerpt) is a book that sells [...]



REVIEW: The Chef’s Choice by Kristin Hardy

By Jayne • Aug 7th, 2008 • Category: B Reviews, B Reviews Category, Ebooks, Reviews

Dear Ms. Hardy,
I may not be a foodie but I love food as unfortunately my butt shows. I don’t have the greenest thumb yet I can manage to keep plants alive. Usually. Well, at least for a while. So anyway, watching chef Damon Hurst and landscaper Cady McBain clash and spark was as much [...]



REVIEW: Thin Ice by Liana Laverentz

By Jayne • Aug 5th, 2008 • Category: C Reviews, C Reviews Category, Ebooks, Reviews

Dear Ms. Laverentz,
Recently I read one of Jane’s reviews of a sports themed novel (using football instead of hockey). You use the world of the NHL as the background for your hero, Eric Cameron. I’ll be honest and admit that I know just enough about hockey and medicine, the background of the heroine Dr. Emily [...]



REVIEW: Sweet Spot by Susan Mallery

By Jane • Aug 4th, 2008 • Category: B Reviews Category, B- Reviews, Reviews

Dear Ms. Mallery:
The benefit of reading books out of order is you don’t get all that messy character build up. Yes, that is a bit tongue in cheek, but the truth is, if I had read Sweet Talk first, I don’t know if I would have liked Sweet Spot as much [...]



REVIEW: Man of the Year by Lisa Ruff

By Jayne • Jul 30th, 2008 • Category: B Reviews Category, B- Reviews, Ebooks, Reviews

Dear Mrs Ruff,
Having read the glowing review of your first book at The Romance Reader, I decided to take a chance. After all, who doesn’t want to read about buff men paid lots of money to stay in buff condition while they live the American dream - getting paid to play a sport? But though [...]



REVIEW: Sweet Talk by Susan Mallery

By Jane • Jul 24th, 2008 • Category: B Reviews Category, B- Reviews

Dear Ms. Mallery:
July, August, and September sees the release of your Keys’ Bakery sisters series. The series begins with Claire, a piano virtuoso. Claire has been estranged from her family since, well, almost forever. When she was 3 years old, she walked up to a piano and started playing and [...]



REVIEW: The Tenth Gift by Jane Johnson

By Jayne • Jul 16th, 2008 • Category: A Review Category, A- Reviews, Ebooks, Reviews

Dear Ms Johnson,
Since I love historical fiction, I checked out “The Tenth Gift” when I saw it listed at Fictionwise. The blurb intrigued me but not enough to immediately buy it. But I kept going back and looking at it. Something about it wouldn’t let me go and when Fictionwise offered [...]



REVIEW: Show and Tell by Jasmine Haynes

By Jane • Jun 30th, 2008 • Category: B Reviews Category, B+ Reviews

Dear Ms. Haynes:
I hadn’t read you before and honestly, I didn’t think I would like this book. The reason for this isn’t grounded in any good reason, but a fairly superficial one, but I’ll articulate it in case other readers make these snap judgments.
I had started the book Fortune Hunter and read [...]



REVIEW: Upside Down Inside Out by Monica Mcinerney

By Jayne • Jun 30th, 2008 • Category: B Reviews, B Reviews Category, Reviews

Dear Mrs. McInerney,
Since it doesn’t look like I’m going to get to Australia any time soon, your book will have to serve as a travelogue of sorts. The Australian Tourism Board can use it as a reason why people should fold themselves into tiny airplane seats for an ungodly number of hours. [...]



REVIEW: Then You Hide by Roxanne St. Claire

By Jane • Jun 25th, 2008 • Category: B Reviews Category, B- Reviews, Reviews

Dear Ms. St. Claire:
This is the 7th installment in the BulletCatcher series comprised of five books and two novellas. Generally, I’ve liked each one of the installations. A lot of the times I think how well I like one of these books depends on how well I respond to the main characters.
Then You [...]



REVIEW: Hard as Nails by HelenKay Dimon

By Jane • Jun 24th, 2008 • Category: B Reviews, B Reviews Category, B- Reviews, C Reviews Category, C+ Reviews, Reviews

Dear Ms. Dimon:
Hard as Nails is an anthology that takes place inside a house that is being rehabbed. The first story is an architect working on the project, the second is of the lawyer to the construction company and the third is the project manager of the rehabbing project. All three books [...]



REVIEW: Game for Anything by Bella Andre

By Jane • Jun 21st, 2008 • Category: C Reviews Category, C- Reviews, Reviews

Dear Ms. Andre:
I’ve often wondered why sports stars are not the subject of more romance books. The men fit the standard mold: aggressive, wealthy, dominant, ambitious, usually in possession of totally hot bodies. As I read the few sports related fiction books I can find, I am more convinced that the [...]



REVIEW: Not Another Bad Date by Rachel Gibson

By Jayne • Jun 19th, 2008 • Category: B Reviews, B Reviews Category, Ebooks, Reviews

Dear Ms. Gibson,
After Jennie did a review of “Not Another Bad Date,” I saw her grade and mentally wilted a little. In fact, I wasn’t sure I even wanted to read it at that point. But after starting, and stopping, a horrible historical - asshole hero plus virgin martyr widow! - [...]



REVIEWS: Reckless by Maya Banks and Unwrapped by Jaci Burton

By Jane • Jun 18th, 2008 • Category: B Reviews, B Reviews Category, Reviews

Dear Ms. Banks:
I know you have a list of books you think I should read that you wrote and books you think I will despise but I can’t recall where this one fell on the list. Nikki has wanted JT Summers for as long as she remembered wanting a man but she’s always been [...]



REVIEW: Long Time Coming by Rochelle Alers

By Janine • Jun 16th, 2008 • Category: C Reviews Category, C- Reviews, Reviews

Dear Ms. Alers,
Long Time Coming is the first book in your trilogy about the Whitfields of New York. For the Whitfields, weddings and other celebrations are a family business. The book’s heroine, Tessa Whitfield, is an event planner and owner of Signature Bridals, the company through which she orchestrates dream [...]



REVIEW: Love the One You’re With by Emily Giffin

By Janine • Jun 9th, 2008 • Category: B Reviews Category, B+ Reviews, Reviews

Dear Ms. Giffin,
Exactly one hundred days to her marriage to her husband Andy, Ellen Graham literally crosses paths with her ex-boyfriend Leo. Ellen describes their encounter this way:
From the outside, say if you were a cabdriver watching frantic jaywalkers scramble to cross the street in the final seconds before the light changed, it [...]



REVIEW: Wrong Dress, Right Guy by Shirley Hailstock

By Jayne • Jun 7th, 2008 • Category: B Reviews Category, B- Reviews, Reviews

Dear Ms. Hailstock,
I have to admit it was the beautiful cover of “Wrong Dress, Right Guy” which caught my eye followed by the blurb. Yeah, I’m a sucker for weddings too as long as I’m not the one running the last minute errands or having to spring for any more of [...]



REVIEW: Sweet Love by Sarah Strohmeyer

By Jayne • Jun 5th, 2008 • Category: B Reviews, B Reviews Category, Reviews

Dear Ms. Strohmeyer,
Up until last year when we got some arcs, I hadn’t tried any of your books. After I read “The Sleeping Beauty Proposal” and “The Cinderella Pact,” I was hooked. When I opened a box of books Jane sent me, I clapped my hands when I saw your newest title, [...]



REVIEW: Desperately Seeking Susie by Patrice Wilton

By Jayne • Jun 4th, 2008 • Category: C Reviews Category, C+ Reviews, Reviews

Dear Ms. Wilton,
When I first read your excerpt for “Desperately Seeking Susie,” I had the idea it would be a modern Chick Lit in a more humorous vein. What it turned out to be is actually a much more serious first person exploration of Susie Levine discovering herself, finding love and dealing with life. [...]



REVIEW: Reason Enough by Megan Hart

By Janine • May 30th, 2008 • Category: B Reviews, B Reviews Category, Reviews

Dear Ms. Hart,
Your Spice Brief, Reason Enough continues the story of Elle and Dan from Dirty. Since I loved Dirty, I was really looking forward to Reason Enough and I am happy to say I enjoyed it.
Elle and Dan have been living in the first home they’ve owned together just a few months when [...]



Not Another Bad Date by Rachel Gibson

By Jennie • May 23rd, 2008 • Category: C Reviews

Dear Ms. Gibson,
Though I have read all of your books, in all honesty I’m not sure why. I liked your first book, Simply Irresistible, quite a bit, and loved your second, Truly, Madly Yours. Since then, your books have ranged from mediocre (I show five B- grades in my book log, which goes back [...]



REVIEW: His Secret Past by Ellen Hartman

By Jayne • May 15th, 2008 • Category: A- Reviews, Ebooks, Reviews

Dear Mrs. Hartman,
I’m so glad you offered DA a chance to read your latest release “His Secret Past.” I gotta be honest and say that when I look at current and future offerings from Harlequin lately, I’m desperately trying to find books that don’t feature a cherubic child or knocked up heroine [...]



REVIEW: Willow Spring by Jeannine D Van Eperen (9/07)

By Jayne • May 10th, 2008 • Category: C Reviews, C Reviews Category, Ebooks, Reviews

Dear Ms VanEperen,
I hadn’t read a contemporary in a while and since I’d been meaning to try one of your books, I picked “Willow Spring.” The second-chance-at-love plot is also a favorite of mine, so with no vampires or werewolves likely to pop up anywhere, I fired this one up on the old Ipaq.
Overall, I [...]