It’s often said that writers are either pantsers (often rendered inaccurately as pansters, probably because it’s easier to pronounce) or plotters. Pantsers as in “write by the seat of your pants.” They make it up as they go along and don’t know where they’re going until they get there.

I think there are writers who do very long plots.

I’m writing this as a writer in the hope that some readers might be interested in the process.

We need to think—a lot. Think about characters, scenes and all the paraphernalia that makes for an intriguing novel. But for a novel that resonates, one that echoes in the hearts of its readers long after they’ve finished, a writer also needs to work out what’s going underneath. The duck or the iceberg of writing, where nine-tenths of it is below the surface. It’s that nine-tenths that decides whether the book, be it Harlequin category, historical romance or kick-ass urban fantasy, will be a game-changing one or not.

Sometimes the superficiality is the story. After all, we all live on the surface for most of the time. Romantic comedy can do that, and still be superb. But the ones that live with us are the ones with depth, something below the surface, maybe an inner sadness that affects one of the characters, one they bravely cover up—most of the time.

But in the true sense of the archetype, a character should stand for something. Something that affects a great number of the readers, something the reader can identify with at a deeper level than the daily routine. When that happens, the character speaks to the reader down through the ages, like Hamlet’s dilemma, something every person who has seen the play remembers and something that in some way reflects on his or her own life.

The plot has to work. Most writers trip up somewhere, but the world has to hold together. In a contemporary romance, the traffic has to go the right way up (or down) Madison Avenue, in a paranormal a dragon who can’t breathe fire can’t suddenly start doing it half way through the book without good reason. Everyone has to act in character, Americans can’t suddenly become French, brown eyes shouldn’t turn blue, unless the owner was wearing contacts, and novels set in the Regency shouldn’t have heroines in crinolines.

The author has to keep all those balls in the air, and at first it’s tricky. A plan is an enormous help, together with whatever tools the author finds necessary. Rewrites can add depth and richness.

A lot of beginning writers are pantsers. They just start, then very often they stall partway through when the story peters out. They learn to write past that eventually.

Me, I’ll take all the tools I can get. But I’m also all about jettisoning them when they’re not working. I don’t think many writers use exactly the same method throughout their careers. I could be wrong, since there are as many different ways of writing as there are writers.

Recently I’ve been stopping half way through writing a book to redo the plot. The characters and the story want to move in a different direction and so I stop. And yet the overall shape of the book remains the same.

So I’m going to try the next book with an outline and let it take me to new places. Wish me luck because this is new to me and I’m a bit scared. And excited!

Wendy the Super Librarian’s review of An Accidental Seduction by Michelle Willingham
Historical romance short story ebook released by Harlequin Historical Undone 01 Jan 2010

I’ve often said that the short story Harlequin Historical Undone line is like a gateway drug.  I read them because they’re quick, sexy reads, and often times I find myself getting sucked into a series or trying full-length novels by new-to-me authors.  This latest from Michelle Willingham is a prequel to her February Harlequin Historical release, An Accidental Countess, and introduces us to the romantic couple.

Emily Barrow is the daughter of a Baron, but thanks to family scandal her situation is rather dire.  Firmly on the shelf, she’s living a hand to mouth existence at the family country estate.  It’s so bad that she’s let all the servants go, and most of the furniture is gone, either having been sold off, or used as fire wood.  In fact, that’s what Emily is doing at the start of this story.  She’s out trying to split wood so she’ll have heat for the night.  That’s where childhood friend, and unrequited love, Stephen Chesterfield, the Earl of Whitmore finds her.

Emily tries to snow the man, but she doesn’t fool him.  Emily is too thin, wearing little more than rags, and while she maybe holding her head high, things have gotten very bad indeed.  Stephen is determined to protect her.

What follows is a story in the vein of Cinderella.  Nice, smart, resourceful girl, who has been cast aside by her useless relations gets rescued by handsome prince.  It’s straight-up rescue fantasy all the way.  Normally the sort of story that gets on my last good nerve, but Emily carries the day by not being one of those Victorian misses who meekly sits in the corner waiting for Prince Charming to arrive on the scene.  Of course she’s living hand to mouth, and things are anything but rosy, but bless her heart – she’s trying and doing the best she can.

Since this is a prequel, the author has to hold some of her cards back for the full-length novel that features the same romantic couple.  At that end, as a stand-alone story, this one isn’t perfect.  The happily-ever-after is extremely reserved, and one is left with the impression that Stephen and Emily are together, not so much because of true love, but because she needs a knight in shining armor, and he needs a wife who doesn’t annoy the crap out of him to get his matchmaking mama off his back.  But the story does end in a nice spot that sets the reader up with the hope that these two crazy kids are eventually going to realize how hopelessly in love with each other they are.  It’s not the best stand-alone tale, but as a prequel, it’s top-notch.  Now I’m really looking forward to reading An Accidental Countess.

Grade: B-

Summary:
Emily Barrow once dreamed that she could marry Stephen Chesterfield, the Earl of Whitmore, and be saved from her dreary life. Then Stephen’s father sent him away, leaving Emily broken-hearted…

Now Stephen has returned to find Emily destitute and alone. He has vowed to help her without compromising her honor…but Emily has other ideas. She doesn’t want his charity, but she does long to know what it would be like to take him as a lover, even if marriage is out of the question. Confined to close quarters with their passion burning as brightly as ever, will Stephen be able to resist the temptation and rescue her, or give in to his desire and completely ruin her?

Read an excerpt.

Other books in this series:

I confess, I haven’t read any of Kate Collins’ books yet, though I have most of them in the old TBR mountain. I discovered them this last year and they sounded like such fun, I started a search to find the entire Flower Shop Mysteries series. After reading Kate’s interview and this excerpt, I think you’ll agree and begin your own hunt.

So without further ado, let’s get on with the excerpt. Here’s a quick look before the good stuff!

Maybe Abby Knight shouldn’t have chosen a home and garden show sponsored by Uniworld Food as the venue for her protest against the corporation’s harmful farming practices. But being bodily removed from the event won’t stop her campaign. Nor will a burning brick thrown through her flower shop’s window.

After she narrowly escapes being kidnapped three times, Abby calls in the big guns-her ex-Ranger boyfriend Marco and her friends and family. And then the stakes are raised by murder…

PROLOGUE

A man stepped from the shadows into a circle of yellow light cast by a single bulb hanging from the high ceiling. He circled the rickety desk chair, the heels of his dress shoes striking the concrete floor, echoing in the chilly chamber. A predator circling his prey.

In the chair sat a large, bulky man, beads of sweat inching down his temples as he watched the other’s every move. He jumped when the figure spoke.

“You ask me to believe this situation was caused by a florist?”

His manner was low key, his voice smooth, almost amused. Still, the sweating man knew better than to trust outward appearances. Woe to the unwary who failed to sense the danger behind those hooded eyes and that deceptively calm demeanor. “I know it sounds crazy, but you don’t understand how persistent the woman is.”

“Perhaps not, but I’m beginning to understand how incompetent you are, my friend.”

“Wait just a minute here,” the sweating man said, twisting to keep him in sight. “This isn’t my fault.”

“Ah, but it is your fault,” the predator hissed serpent-like in his ear, sending a shudder down his spine. “I put the matter in your hands, did I not? You failed me, and now you want to blame this mess on a florist, as if that removes your culpability.” Strong fingers gripped the large man’s shoulders. “I don’t believe you appreciate the ramifications of your actions, and for that I must take exception.”

The big man swallowed hard, hoping his trembling couldn’t be felt through those fingers digging into his flesh. How ironic that for once he was the one in the hot seat. “Let’s not do anything hasty, okay? We both want to make money on this, so give me time to make it right. I promise you, I’ll handle the problem.”

The predator released him. “The problem? Would that be the florist?”

“See, that’s the thing,” the large man said, this time afraid to turn, unwilling to meet that cold gaze again. “It’s not like she’s just a florist. She studied law. She worked for a public defender. Now she believes she’s some kind of crusader.”

A long stretch of silence followed, broken only by a dripping faucet. Finally, from a distance, as though he’d receded back into the shadows, he said softly, “Her name?”

“Abby Knight.”

Silence.

“Look, I swear I’ll take care of her,” the large man said, peering into the gloom. “Just give me a week. That’s all I ask. One week.”

Silence.

The man wiped sweat out of his eyes. Waiting.

“All right,” came the reply at last. “But if you fail this time, you, my friend, are finished, and I shall put the problem to rest myself. Permanently.”

CHAPTER ONE

“Free jelly beans!” I called to the people walking past my table. “Heart-shaped red jelly beans. Get them before they’re gone!”

A pair of middle-aged women veered toward my table to dip their hands in the giant glass bowl, taking a handful of the small, cellophane-wrapped packages.

“Compliments of Bloomers Flower Shop,” I said, “located on the New Chapel town square across the street from the courthouse. And if you’ll sign my petition, you’re eligible to win this beautiful arrangement of red callas, pink roses, blue delphiniums, and white carnations, one of Bloomers’ many Valentine’s Day selections.” I pivoted the vase to display it from all sides.

“Lovely,” one said.

“What’s the petition for?” the other asked right on cue, bending down to see the names on the clipboard I pushed in front of her.

“You’ve heard that Uniworld Food Corporation is going to open a giant dairy farm on the outskirts of town, haven’t you?” I asked.

“Sure,” she replied, reaching for more candy.

Raising my voice to attract attention, I said, “Did you know that Uniworld’s policy is to inject cows with bovine hormones to make the poor creatures lactate nine times more than normal, and that any Uniworld dairy product you consume will be loaded with those same hormones, which can disrupt your endocrine system and have all kinds of harmful effects on your body?”

“That’s awful!” one of them declared.

I slid two glossy 8×10s toward them. “These are photos of hormone-injected cows. Take a look at those udders.”

“Oh, my!” the other said, as both women drew back in horror. “They’re dragging the ground!”  Only a woman could begin to understand the cows’ discomfort.

People were starting to gather behind the pair, so, holding up my clipboard with the yellow notebook paper on it, I continued, “This petition is to stop Uniworld from opening their dairy farm factory unless they guarantee, in writing, that they will not inject cows with hormones. Will you help by adding your name to this list?”

“We’ll think about it,” the first woman said with an apologetic smile, backing away, taking her candy and most of the crowd with her.

“What’s there to think about, except ending the poor animals’ suffering?” I called.

Before they could escape completely, I added, “Remember Bloomers when you need flowers.”

It was my first year exhibiting at New Chapel, Indiana’s Winter Home and Garden Show, and it couldn’t have come at a better time. With the exposition center’s cavernous hall filled with businesses from all over the county, where better to make people aware of the impending opening of the dairy farm as well as to drum up business for my struggling flower shop? Where else would I be guaranteed masses of people desperate to escape the winter doldrums?

Rather than handing out free flowers to draw people in, I was giving away samples of my mother’s jelly beans. Artisan candy was the latest in Mom’s long list of creative endeavors, which included her infamous, neon-hued, Dancing Naked Monkey Table, her ginormous bowling pin-shaped hat rack, and her clothing-and-accessories line made out of one-inch wooden balls that gave whole new meaning to the term “beaded jacket.”

Like past projects, my mom, an excellent kindergarten teacher, expected me to sell her designer candy at Bloomers. Luckily, she’d tested her initial batch on her family before offering it for sale, otherwise there would undoubtedly have been lawsuits involving blistered tongues and seared tonsils caused by her use of red pepper flakes for both flavor and color. She’d since switched to a recipe she promised was naturally sweet and mild.

Mom had sent her new batch with my thirteen-year-old niece,Tara, who promised I’d have amazing results. I hadn’t had a chance to sample them myself, so I took Tara’s word for it.

“We’ll sign your petition,” a young couple offered, stepping up to the table.

“It’s like I said before, Aunt Abby,” whispered Tara, sitting beside me, “aim for the young. The oldies just don’t get it.”

“Okay, first of all, I have been aiming young. I held two rallies on New Chapel U’s campus, both of which was covered by the local newspaper.” On page ten. Of the third section. Sadly, although my rallies brought out a lot of college kids who were more than willing to carry protest signs, the rallies weren’t very effective because students didn’t have a lot of buying power. I needed to reach serious shoppers.

“And second, don’t let your grandparents hear you call them oldies.” I glanced around to be sure my parents weren’t heading toward us at that very moment.

“Don’t worry. Grandma and Grandpa know they’re cool. But you’re gonna have to do better than that” –She pointed to my pathetically undersigned petition– “ if you want to stop that farm factory from opening.”

“I know that, thank you very much.”

“You need more media attention, like a video on Youtube. I can help you make one.”

Tara was the only grandchild in our family, born when I was fourteen years old, which sometimes made her feel more like a kid sister than a niece. She had shown up at the center that morning allegedly to keep me company. While I appreciated her camaraderie, I was fully aware that Tara never volunteered for anything unless there was something in it for her. I had yet to learn what that something was.

Looking bored, Tara rocked her chair back on two legs. “So when are you and Uncle Marco going to set a wedding date?”

Ah-ha! There was her hidden agenda. “Grandma sent you here to bug me about that, didn’t she?”

Tara looked offended. “Nuh-uh! It was totally my idea to help you.”

Right. “Okay, fine. I’m going to say this once, so listen close. Marco and I are still in the discussion stage. And by the way, he’s not your uncle.  Have some jelly beans.” I pushed the bowl toward her.

“Not now, thanks. And by the way, you’re lucky you didn’t have to try Grandma’s first batch. I couldn’t swallow for two days. If you ask me, she should stick to her clay sculptures, and you and Hot Pockets Salvare should set a date.”

“How about just Mr. Salvare?”

Tara made a face. “He’s way too cool for that. Hmm. Let’s see. What should I call my aunt’s boyfriend-and-possible future husband? Oh, I know. How about uncle?”

“How about no?”

Her chair came down on all four legs as she reached for the petition and added her name in balloon letters. “So when is Mr. Not-My-Uncle Salvare going to show up?”

“You’re just too cute for words, you know that? He said he’d come by this afternoon. He’s working on a private investigation this morning.”

“My friends are jealous because you’re dating him. How many boyfriends go from Army Ranger Special Ops to owner of a bar named Down the Hatch, plus being a private eye?”

“Your friends aren’t jealous because I own Bloomers?”

“They’d be totally jealous if you owned Bloomers and were married to Mr. Army Ranger-Bar-Owner-Private Eye Salvare. How about Valentine’s Day? It’s the perfect day to get married and it’s the day before my birthday. So, a year from next week on the fourteenth?”

“Tara, would you stop? We’re already getting enough pressure from our families without you adding to it.”

She grinned. “You are?”

“Your mother and your Aunt Portia send me fliers from every bridal shop in the greater Chicago area, Grandma has caterers calling me once a week, and Marco’s mom keeps tearing pages out of bridal magazines and mailing them to me. So trust me, when we make a decision, I’ll let everyone know.”

“Whatev.” She rocked back on her chair. “So, going back to my birthday–”

Now we were getting to the real agenda.

“–want to know what I want for a present?”

“I’m dying to find out.”

“You know the Barrow Boys are coming here to perform, right?”

“Who are the Barrow Boys?”

“OMG, Aunt Abby, I can’t believe you haven’t heard of the BBs. They’re just the hottest new boy band to come across the ocean in, like, decades. My friend Sonya Hucks text’d me last night that tickets are available right now because they added a show on Valentine’s Day.”

“So you want a ticket to the concert for your birthday?”

“Actually,” she said, “I want you and Dreamy Eyes Salvare to take me to the concert.”

The agenda unfolds. “You want us to escort you? Why?”

“Because Mom and Dad won’t let me go unless I’m chaperoned, and you and Macho Marco are cool enough that I won’t look like the biggest nimrod ever.” Tara clasped her hands together. “Please, Aunt Abby? I can’t tell you how much it would mean to me.”

I studied her hopeful little face and felt a tug at my heartstrings. Tara was so much like me — blunt cut, shoulder-length red hair, pert nose, freckles, short stature, and already showing signs of having curves — how could I resist her? In her acid washed, skinny jeans, banded-bottom flutter-sleeve plum top over a white turtleneck, and turquoise Blowfish ankle boots, she looked like a mini-model.

“I want written permission from your parents first.”

“Awesome. I’ll text Mom right now.” Her thumbs worked her cell phone at warp speed.

Bored out of my mind, I glanced at my watch. It was ten-thirty in the morning, an hour-and-a-half into the show, and I’d gotten a meager fifteen signatures for my petition. Tara was absolutely right: I had to do better than that if I hoped to have any leverage at all when I went to court to ask for an injunction against Uniworld.

More people were coming up the aisle, so I rose to deliver my jelly bean pitch. As I stepped into the aisle, I caught sight of a lean, so-blond-he-was-almost-albino guy watching me from across the way. In his mid-thirties, he had a clean-cut Scandinavian look about him, dressed as though he’d just stepped out of an Ikea ad. A decent-looking guy, I decided, until his hostile gaze met mine. Did he have a problem with me?

I smiled, hoping to disarm him, but it didn’t work, so I turned my back on him once again and began coaxing people to sign the petition. After collecting a few more signatures, I returned to my seat beside Tara and tried to pretend I wasn’t aware that the guy was still watching.

“Spook-Face over there is weirding me out,” Tara whispered.

“Ignore him. He’ll go away sooner or later.”

“Um, Aunt Abby?” She nodded in the man’s direction.

Crap. He was heading toward us, side-stepping browsers with the easy stealth of a leopard.

“Call Special Ops Salvare,” Tara whispered frantically. “We need back-up.”

I shushed her as the man approached. He picked up a cow photo for a closer look, put it down, then bent over the clipboard, running his finger down the list of names. Tara nudged me just as the man straightened, pinning me with his ice-blue gaze.

“Good morning,” he said in a smooth voice that registered a Germanic background. “I’m curious about this petition you have here.”

My inner antennae quivered a warning. Something about him set my teeth on edge. “I’m collecting signatures to halt Uniworld’s–”

“Stop, please,” he said at once. “You misunderstand. I’m curious as to what your petition is doing here, in this hall.”

I decided to play it cool, find out who I was dealing with before I went on the defensive. “Okay, first of all, let me introduce myself. I’m Abby–”

“Yes, I know who you are, Ms Knight.”

He knew who I was? My inner antenna were vibrating like crazy now. Trying not to appear nervous, I pasted a smile on my face. “How do you know me?”

“Your name is on the sign taped to your table.”

Oh, right.

“I’m Nils Raand,” he said curtly, “the local representative of Uniworld Food Corporation.”

No wonder he was hostile. “Then I don’t need to explain my petition, because you already know about your company’s criminal treatment of their animals.”

“Excuse me, Ms Knight, but I must lodge a protest. We do nothing criminal to our animals. Everything is FDA approved. Check your facts before making false accusations.”

I jabbed a finger at one of the photos. “So you’re defending the practice of injecting cows with hormones to increase milk production, regardless of the cost to animal or human life?”

His gaze didn’t move from my face, but I could see the tensing of his jaw, even though his tone remained eerily calm. “I did not come here to debate the issue with you. I came to ask you to put away the petition.”

I folded my arms. “Well, I’m not going to do that.”

Raand stared unblinkingly, as though trying to figure me out.  “As you wish,” he said at last, “but consider yourself warned.”

“Warned? What is that supposed to mean?”

He shrugged, as though to say, Figure it out, while his chilly gaze flashed, You don’t want me to explain. Then he turned and walked away.

“You can’t sue me,” I called. “What I’m doing is guaranteed by my First Amendment Rights.”

He didn’t look back.

I pressed my lips together and glared a hole in the back of his crisply ironed shirt. I hated bullies, and Nils Raand was nothing more than a bully in chic clothing. Too bad for Nils, bullies didn’t scare me.

It’s time for Duck Chat again. Welcome!

Today we have Kate Collins with us. She has a fun series I think you’ll like to hear about.

Kate has been writing since 1995 when she had her first child and decided to quit her teaching job. Since then she’s enjoyed terrific success with first her historicals and now her current mystery series. Gardening, exploring the Greek Isles, sampling wine and dark chocolate are just a few of her passions. Kate is married and she and her husband divide their time between Northwest Indiana and Key West, Florida.

Once you’ve read her interview, if you have any other questions for Kate or have a comment you’d like to leave, please do and you’ll be in the running for a $10 Barnes & Noble gift certificate that Kate is very graciously offering to one lucky commenter today.

Now let’s chat!

DC: Welcome to The Good, the Bad and the Unread, Kate. Congratulations on the success of your Flower Shop series. The ninth book was released just last month. For those readers who have yet to discover the series, would you tell them about it overall and then we’ll talk about a couple of the books individually.

KC: The Flower Shop Mysteries are intriguing, fast-paced, funny, have a touch of romance, and they keep you guessing, exactly the kind of book I like to read. I equate the series with my favorite sit-com, somewhere I like to visit regularly because I love the cast of characters. Readers can drop by Abby’s flower shop, Bloomers, located on the town square of quaint New Chapel, Indiana, watch Abby create floral arrangements, laugh at her assistants Grace and Lottie, drool over her sexy neighbor Marco Salvare, who owns the bar and grill two doors up the block, gasp at Abby’s mother, a kindergarten teacher/clay sculptress, whose works of art cause quite a stir around the square, and so much more.

DC: If you could retire any interview question and never, ever have it asked again, what would it be? Feel free to answer it.

KC: That question would have to be: Who is your favorite author?  When I hear it, I want to run screaming from the room. I compare it to being an elementary teacher (which I was) and having to decide which of my colleagues was the best. Could I answer that and ever expect to be invited out to lunch with them again? I don’t think so. However, I think I would be safe in choosing an author outside my genre, and that would be Barbara Kingsolver. She writes the most beautiful prose and fascinating stories of anyone I’ve ever read. I’m in awe of her writing. I would love to meet her one day.

DC: I’ve heard writers often say their stories take them in surprising directions, or dialogue flows from some unknown place. Is it the same with you? Do your characters surprise you sometimes?

KC: My characters take me all sorts of places, sometimes to places I don’t want to be. I hate when that happens. I have to outline mt stories loosely because as I write, I’m listening to the characters talking, and it flows naturally in directions I can’t anticipate ahead of time. And then there are minor characters who have been known to step in and take over. In my second Flower Shop mystery, my main character, Abby Knight, has to be a bridesmaid at her cousin Jillian’s wedding. But Jillian turned out to be such a delightfully irritating, funny character that I began to include her in all the plots. She’s the one who has surprised me the most. She can turn the story on its head when she enters a room. I love it! It keeps the story exciting for me.

DC: I read on your website that you enjoy gardening, working with your flowers and vegetables. Did your Flower Shop series germinate from that love of working with nature?

KC: You bet. I’ve been a gardener since I was a little girl. So when I was trying to come up with a setting for the series, I wanted something that I knew a little about and felt comfortable in. I also hung out at a flower shop to soak up enough knowledge to make my sleuth a credible florist, and in doing that, I found it the most delightful place to be. If I had to start another career, I’d be a florist.

DC: You have some cute titles on your books. Can any of them be credited to you, or is it like practically every author out there, your editor/publisher has chosen them all?

KC: Those titles are all mine, I’m proud to say. I agonized over each one of those babies for months.  I’m on the hunt now for the title for book eleven. It’s a long process.

DC: Do you ever argue with your characters while you’re writing? Who usually wins?

KC: I’ve had to toss down the gauntlet a few times, but for the most part, they know who’s in charge. (I use my teacher voice.)

DC: Let’s talk about the first book in the series, Mum’s the Word, where we’re introduced to Abby. Would you give us a look inside this story, how it all got started and what Abby comes up against throughout the book?

KC: I saw Abby Knight as a fearless, female knight-in-shining armor (hence the last name) — height-challenged, hot-tempered, red-haired, and always ready to stand up for what she believes in – most often at her own expense. After flunking out of law school, she used the last bit of her inheritance from her grandpa’s trust to make the down payment on a little flower shop named Bloomers, where she’d previously worked during summer months. From that base, Abby can do the two things she loves best – create floral arrangements and help people solve problems, which naturally gets her into sticky situation, including murder.

In the first book, she has just become the owner/mortgage-holder of Bloomers and is so proud of finally doing something right – she hopes. But she’s launched immediately into a tricky situation that just keeps getting more and more dangerous and needs a lot of guts and ingenuity to get out of – along with some help from the incredibly sexy Marco.

DC: With the series revolving around Abby and her mysteries, is she a one-man woman when it comes to romance? Can you tell us about her hero?

KC: Abby is a one-man woman, but what a man! I decided right away that my feisty little sleuth needed a male counterpoint who could tolerate her nosiness and always be there as back-up. This became Marco Salvare, a former Army Ranger who now owns the Down the Hatch Bar and Grill. Marco is all male, ruggedly good looking, and doesn’t much care for rules. What a match. It’s so fun to watch those sparks in the first book turn into something much more by book nine.

DC: What is sure to distract you from sitting down and working/writing?

KC: Free cell. It’s the bane of my existence. I should delete it from my computer, but I can’t bring myself to do it.  Also, email, Facebook, Twitter, my blogsite …. chocolate. Okay, just about anything.

DC: What has been your favorite book cover from all of your releases and why?

KC: That’s a tough question because I love all the covers and feel incredibly lucky to have them. But if I had to pick, I think I’d say Sleeping with Anemone. However, wait until you see the next one! Dirty Rotten Tendrils is purple! I love it!

DC: How about your least favorite cover?  Why?

KC: Maybe the cover of Slay It With Flowers. It’s yellow, which I thought would sell, but of all the books, that seems to be the one readers are least likely to pick up. And I love the story! The scenes where Abby gets bitten by sand fleas still cracks me up. Also, the murder is based on a true story from my hometown.

DC: How do you feel your male or female characters have evolved over your career? Do you think you write them differently now than you did when you started?

KC: I know I write them differently now because I know them better. I use that knowledge to reveal their deeper emotions and fears. After that first meeting between Abby and Marco, Abby’s got some issues to work out, so over the course of the series, readers get to see how that happens and how their relationship evolves and deepens, taking some surprising turns.

DC: Since it would be tough to squeeze in every book in the series, as much as we’d love to, is there one midway through the series you would choose to let readers know how things are moving along for Abby as it progresses?

KC: I think I’d direct them toward Shoots to Kill. The plot is full of twists and surprises, the characters are great, the mystery is intriguing, and Abby’s relationship with Marco hits a surprising bump.

DC: Is there a genre you haven’t tackled but would like to try?

KC: I wrote children’s magazine stories and historical romance before finally deciding mystery was right for me. I love comedy, too, so maybe someday I’d try my hand at romantic comedy. Right now, my series has all of that plus a mystery, so I’m quite content.

DC: What advice would you give to your younger self?

KC: Don’t be afraid to fail. Failures hurt but are survivable and, if you pay attention to them, they are invaluable lessons. Also, don’t let anything chase you away from your dreams. If I had listened to the warnings of how hard it was to get published, and then to get readers to find your books on shelves crowded with titles, I would  have been too paralyzed to send off a manuscript. My motto is to go for it.

DC: If you were a book, what would your blurb be?

KC: A Midwestern elementary school teacher, devoted mother and wife, avid gardener, staunch defender of animal rights, daughter of a police officer, plots murders for a living — and loves it.

DC: What would be your “voice’s” tagline?

KC: Fighting for truth, justice, and our Constitutional rights through humor and mystery.

DC: The latest book in the series is Sleeping with Anemone. What’s Abby up to at this point?

KC: Up to her eyeballs in trouble. After she learns that the giant Uniworld Food Corp is setting up a dairy farm factory in her hometown, she leads a protest to stop the corporation’s cruel practice of injecting bovine hormones into their cows, (all true, by the way, except for the fictional name of the company). Then bad things start happening – a burning brick thrown through her flower shop’s window, death threats, kidnapping attempts, and finally a murder – and although Abby wants to blame Uniworld, the evidence doesn’t point to them. Are they diabolically clever or is someone else after her?

DC: What romance book would you recommend our readers pick up during their next bookstore run?

KC: Christina Dodd’s latest.

DC: If you had never become an author, what do you think you would be doing right now?

KC: Probably teaching writing at the college level, or running a flower shop, or instructing Yoga, or…. Wow. So many choices!

DC: I read that you wrote several historical romances before your Flower Shop books, but information on them is a little scarce. Could you tell us about a couple?

KC: I wrote seven historical romances under two different pen names. They’re out of print now, but I’m sure copies are floating around used bookstores somewhere. I did four for Avon under Linda O’Brien, and three for Berkley. My favorites were His Forbidden Touch, and Beloved Protector, about two sisters who were very different in temperament.

DC: What’s on the horizon for Kate Collins?

KC: Right now, I’m contracted through book thirteen in the Flower Shop series, then we’ll have to see. They’re still going strong and my fans love the characters, so I’ll write them as long as people want to read them. And I’d love to do a new series one day, but what that will be, I don’t have a clue. I guess that makes me clueless!

Lightning Round:

- dark or milk chocolate?    – Dark

- smooth or chunky peanut butter?    – Chunky

- heels or flats?     – Flats

- coffee or tea?  – Tea

- summer or winter?    – Summer

- mountains or beach?   – Beach

- mustard or mayonnaise?     – Mustard

- flowers or candy?     – Too easy.  Flowers.

- pockets or purse?     – Purse.

- Pepsi or Coke?     – Water

- ebook or print?     – Print

And because we still enjoy the answers we get:

1. What is your favorite word?     – Plethora

2. What is your least favorite word?   – Very

3. What turns you on creatively, spiritually or emotionally?     – A gorgeous sunset

4. What turns you off creatively, spiritually or emotionally?    – Stress, noise, intolerance

5. What sound or noise do you love?    – The three deep blasts of a ship’s horn as it leaves port. It’s soul stirring and romantic.

6. What sound or noise do you hate?    – Jack-hammering

7. What is your favorite curse word?     – Damn

8. What profession other than your own would you like to attempt?    – Florist

9. What profession would you not like to do?     – Police work

10. If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates?    – “We have Ghiradelli dark!”

DC: Kate, thank you so much for being with us today!

Sandy M’s review of Naked Dragon (Works Like Magick, Book 1) by Annette Blair
Paranormal Romance published by Berkley 5 Jan 10

I’ve been a fan of Annette Blair’s since her first witch trilogy, and I loved every one of those books through two series. Her humor is her mainstay, something you know will be in every story and will keep you entertained throughout the read, as well as her imagination that gives you charming characters in various storylines, all of which are wrapped in magic. You cannot go wrong with an Annette Blair book.

What I love most about this book is not only Bastian himself, sexy, naked dragon that he is, but when we first meet him, he’s just come back to the human realm, once again a man after being a dragon for so many years. He has to reabsorb things that he knew as a Roman warrior.  So it’s his innocence, or, as McKenna is told, his literal-ness, that makes him so endearing. Ms. Blair’s humor helps him along; I found myself laughing out loud a number of times at his responses to situations.  Bastian’s the first of his brothers to make it back via the magic of the Goddess of Hope, so all are relying on him to defeat the Sorceress of Chaos and to pave the way for the others to follow. If he fails, all is lost.

McKenna is a direct descendant of Ciarra, a Salem witch who survived the witch trials.  Alas, McKenna has no magic and that’s why she’s in need of a handyman, pronto. She’s running against the clock to turn her rundown familial Victorian home into a bed and breakfast.  She refuses to be the one to lose it after so many centuries. She has a developer who’s hot for the land and won’t leave her be, constantly making her offers. So she turns to her cousin, Vivica Quinlann, who does possess magic and owns the Works Like Magic Employment Agency. Vivica has taken Bastian in when he arrives and now has the perfect place for him – McKenna’s jack-of-all-trades.

When these two come together, the fun starts and never lets up. Bastian loves the internet. He looks up every little thing he doesn’t understand anymore, and that’s a lot. He also speed reads, so his learning curve is quite high. Some things are still the same that he remembers from before, like the attraction to a beautiful woman. But then there are other things that confound him a little, his man lance being one. And that’s where most of my laughter came from. Bastian and his man lance are something else, first humorous and then sexy and erotic as all get-out.

Of course, there are serious moments to be had. McKenna has just lost her mother. Bastian is able to see all of McKenna’s past ancestors on the Greylock property, something McKenna has to learn to believe in on her own. The evil coming at them from both the human and the magic side is very real and they have to work together to conquer all. We don’t get to see Bastian’s dragon until the very end of the book when he can no longer control his inner beast as McKenna physically has to fight her rotten developer. Those scenes that come after when McKenna learns Bastian still lives are the best in the book. Ms. Blair can pull at the heart strings as well as she can hit the funny bone.

Secondary characters are just as wonderfully written as the hero and heroine. I especially love Dewcup, a miniature fairy who gets into trouble every time she turns around, and also Steve and Lizzie, McKenna’s friends, and their children. Scenes with these characters go from hilarious to heart wrenching.

This is a terrific start for Ms. Blair’s new series. Her writing is still invitingly fresh, especially the banter between characters no matter who they are. Her take on magic is just as fresh and very different from most of what’s out there to read nowadays. As her fans have learned from her previous series, each coming book will be a delight, will stand on its own, but will remain true and consistent to the essence of the series.

Isn’t it time you learned that too?

Grade: A+

Summary:

In Salem, human magick has thinned the veil between the planes to a permeable mist, forming a portal into the city, allowing time travelers and chameleons of the universe to enter there.

Bastian Dragonelli, once a Roman warrior turned dragon, is the first of his legion to be returned to earth, a man. So his brothers can also be saved and sent to earth, Bastian must reclaim the magick of Andra, Goddess of Hope, who sacrificed hers to transform him. He must seek his heart mate and make her quest his own. But the dark, powerful Killian, Sorceress of Chaos, who turned his legion into dragons and skewed his transition back into a man, is hot on his heels.

McKenna Greylock, the last non-magickal descendant of Ciarra, a witch who survived Salem’s hanging times, needs a jack-of-all-trades to help turn her dilapidated Victorian into a bed and breakfast so she doesn’t lose her home and her family’s centuries-old legacy.

Enter McKenna’s cousin, Vivica Quinlan, Ciarra’s most magickal descendent, owner of the Works Like Magick Employment Agency. Vivica has a gift for matching human employers with magickal employees. Like Ciarra before her, Vivica knows when magickal supernatural ancients are about to arrive. She greets them and acclimates them to life, and to making a living, in Salem.

Besides Killian’s threatening presence, Bastian’s life is also complicated by McKenna, his guardian dragon, a troublemaking fairy, and a case of culture shock. Bastian also has a problem with his man lance. It won’t behave at all the way he remembered it should.  Not at all…

Read an excerpt.

Sandy M’s review of Reese’s Bride, Bride Trilogy, Book 2) by Kat Martin
Historical Romance published by Mira 29 Dec 09

Ms. Martin has given us another solid read in her Bride trilogy, continuing with Reese, the middle Dewar brother. I actually like this book a little better than the first, though part of the story we’ve all read before but the author makes it work with her characters and the surrounding storyline.

Reese is home after being injured during his latest military stint, and it looks as though he won’t be going back for any further duty. So he’s determined to keep his promise to his father to finally make Briarwood his home as he’d intended years before – years that included Elizabeth. But she married another man and Reese hasn’t seen her since. So the first time he does run into her once home is fraught with tension and all sorts of emotion, especially hate.

Knowing she can’t ask more from Reese, especially forgiveness, Elizabeth at first hesitates to run to him when she finally realizes her life is in danger, ergo so is her son’s life if anything happens to her. He’s the next earl and has an uncle who is overly ambitious. But her son’s life is more important than her pride, her lost love, and anything else. Thus, she finds herself on Reese’s doorstep, knowing he will be honor bound to protect her and her secret.

And she’s right. Reese can’t turn her away, no matter how he feels, and he feels plenty. But he does the right thing, and you have to admire him all the more for it. He also gets to the root of the problem for both Elizabeth and her son, once he sees how they both flinch if he gets too close. Realizing there’s more to Elizabeth’s story, Reese begins to soften little by little the more he interacts with her, as well as with her son, who needs a man and a tender hand in his life.

I think that’s the biggest reason I like this book more than the first – Reese and how he handles Jared. The boy is obviously afraid of men, but Reese gets down on his level and talks to him man to man, despite his age. When Reese calls him son the first time, Jared takes that to heart and I thought my heart would break during the conversation between these two when Reese questions Jared’s calling him Papa. Lovely little scene.

Of course, Elizabeth’s secret does come out amid all the mystery and investigation of the attempts on her life, and that’s another terrific scene when Reese finally learns what she’s been hiding. Their love grows again, if it every really truly died, and I found these two characters quite charming together, trying to muck their way through a hurtful past to a bright future.

So far this trilogy has been quite rewarding. Rule, the third brother, will complete the series.  He’s a bit of a rake, loves the ladies, and it will be interesting to see what Ms. Martin has in store for him.

Grade: B+

Summary:

Wounded in battle,

Major Reese Dewar returns to England –

but his damaged leg is nothing

compared to his shattered heart.

Years before, love-struck Reese departed his home at Briarwood with a promise from raven-haired Elizabeth Clemens: that she would make a life with him upon his return. But mere months later, she married the Earl of Aldridge, attaining wealth and status Reese could never match. Memories of that betrayal make his homecoming far more bitter than sweet.

Elizabeth knows when she appears on Reese’s doorstep dressed in widow’s garb that she is twisting the knife. But fear for her young son’s safety has overcome guilt and shame: she begs Reese for protection against the forces that would see the boy Earl dead to possess his fortune. The former lovers forge an uneasy alliance, but Elizabeth still harbors some deep secrets—and Reese knows that protecting her means placing himself in danger…of losing his heart all over again.

Read an excerpt. (click book cover)

Other books in this series:

Wendy the Super Librarian’s review of Erotique: Jillian (Erotique #2) by Susan Lyons
Erotic romance short story ebook released by Spice Briefs 1 Feb 10

I was pleasantly surprised by the first story in Susan Lyons’ new erotic short story trilogy for Spice Briefs, so I happily settled in to read book two on my lunch break.  While it wasn’t without charm, sadly it didn’t work nearly as well for me.  Mostly because I found myself unwilling to suspend my disbelief in regards to the heroine’s work place relationships.

Jillian just helped land a big account at work, and she’s ready to unwind.  She’s thinking bubble bath, a naughty novel and a glass a wine.  However her boss, Carrie (the heroine from book one Erotique: Carrie) has another suggestion.  She gives Jillian a guest pass to the exclusive private sex club she belongs to.  Since the club caters to all sorts of fantasies, Jillian figures why not?  Little does she know that her boss has also given a guest pass to their sexy colleague Sandro Rodriguez.  Both Jillian and Sandro are very hot for each other, but she’s been putting on the breaks because of a past disastrous relationship with a former colleague.  Nope, our girl has learned her lesson.  No more mixing business with pleasure.  Sigh, but now here she is with hunky Sandro in a sex club.  Whatever shall she do?

When reading erotic stories, I’m usually pretty good at shutting reality out and going with the fantasy.  However, I just couldn’t do it this time.  Carrie is Jillian’s boss, and unlike a lot of boss/employee relationships in Romance Novel Land, these two aren’t best buddies.  It’s strictly a working relationship, and yet Carrie just blithely hands over a guest pass to a sex club?  Hello?!

Then there’s the fact that Jillian is gun-shy about getting naked with Sandro because of a past relationship with a former coworker.  Yeah, her ex?  Spread it around the office that Jillian was a “sex maniac” because she liked to have a lot of sex.  Ohhhhhkay then.  It’s entirely possible that the men I know in real life are a pack of drooling deviants, but this one strained.  And frankly if he was gossiping about her sexual preferences at work, why exactly did she not sue his ass for sexual harassment?

The erotic elements of this story are nice, steamy and vanilla – sure to please readers who don’t want to wade through a river of kink to get their kicks.  I also suspect it will work a lot better for those readers who can more successfully shut out reality than I apparently can.

Grade: C

Summary:

Jillian had been careful not to combine her personal and professional lives…even if that meant turning down a date with her sexy colleague Sandro Rodriguez. Still, she was in the mood for some fun and couldn’t resist a guest-pass to the private sex club Erotique from her boss, Carrie. Jillian hoped to relieve her cravings with a hot guy who understood how to tease and arouse her—but she never expected that man to be Sandro! And he was determined to show her just how fun mixing business with pleasure could be….

No excerpt found.

Other books in this series:

Our thanks to TJ Bennett for a super fun Duck Chat! We appreciate the time you took to talk to us, TJ.

And now we have two winners, each to receive a copy of TJ’s The Promise.  Drumroll please!!!

***Patricia Barraclough (28)

***Jennifer Ross (2)

Congratulations, ladies! Please send your snail mail addresses to us at lighthousetagger (at) gmail (dot) com and we’ll contact TJ for you!

Sandy M’s review of The Stranger I Married by Sylvia Day
Historical Romance published by Brava 4 Aug 09 (re-issue)

This book isn’t one I was to review. I picked it up just to take a peek. Just a little peek. But, heavens, it’s Sylvia Day. Who can take just a peek? Not me. Before I knew it, I was halfway through it, then it was finished. All in nothing flat. Ms. Day is just so danged good, if I’d been able to get my hands on another book of hers from the TBR pile, I would have cracked it open too. You can’t read just one.

And how good she is, Gerard, the hero of this book, in the beginning is not a man I would like very much in the hands of a lesser author. Of course, he’s very young at the start of the story, so he loves the ladies and is as wild as can be. All of that changes very quickly and the man shoots straight into your heart when he runs the gamut of emotion he, and you, never thought he’d see.

To keep his decadent and pleasurable way of life on track, Gerard approaches the mistress of his best friend and proposes they are perfect for each other and should marry, each going their own way after vows are said, not to be bothered . Isabel at first refuses the idea, but Gerard is very persuasive that they both would benefit from such an arrangement and she finally agrees to become his wife in name only.

Emotion hits both a high and a low for Gerard when, first, the love of his life is married. And pregnant by Gerard. He’s ecstatic to be a father, even though he won’t be able to neither acknowledge nor raise his child. Then tragedy strikes and both mother and child are lost in childbirth and Gerard is grief stricken. That scene is just heart wrenching, seeing this carefree character break down. The next thing Isabel knows, he’s gone from her life without a word, so she carries on just as they had agreed and awaits word from her broken, absent husband.

It’s four years later when Gerard returns, and he’s not the man Isabel married. He’s much more serious, harder, and intense than the Gerard she knew before. And he wants a real marriage, something Isabel resists. Her life has gone on just as she likes, she has a current lover who knows the score and she’s happy with that. But Gerard bombards her at every turn with his new self and she’s confused by and in a constant state of arousal with this stranger.

There are stumbling blocks for them from every corner, and though at first Isabel thinks to use one to get out of an impossible situation, she hangs in there to learn about the new man Gerard has become. The scenes showing how he has changed are very telling and you end up loving that man more than ever. Their attraction slowly grows into a wonderful, mature love, despite those problems thrown their way. I also enjoyed the side story of Isabel’s brother, Rhys, and Abby.

There’s not one thing about this book I didn’t like. I doubt Ms. Day will ever write a book I will dislike. She just doesn’t have it in her, as far as I’m concerned.

Grade: A+

Summary:

They are London’s most scandalous couple. Isabel, Lady Pelham, and Gerard Faulkner, Marquess of Grayson, are well matched in all things–their lusty appetites, constant paramours, wicked wits, provocative reputations, and their absolute refusal ever to ruin their marriage of convenience by falling in love with one another. Isabel knows such a charming rake will never appeal to her guarded heart, nor will she sway his philandering one. It is a most agreeable sham…until a shocking turn of events sends Gerard from her side.

Now, four years later, Gerard has come home to Isabel. But the carefree, boyish rogue who left has been replaced by a brooding, powerful, irresistible man who is determined to seduce his way into her affections. Gone is the devil-may-care companion who shared her friendship and nothing more, and in his place is temptation itself…a husband who desires Isabel body and soul and who will stop at nothing to win her love. No, this is not at all the man she had married. But he is the man who might finally steal her heart…

Read an excerpt.

Liviania’s review of Prince of Montéz, Pregnant Mistress by Sabrina Philips
Contemporary romance released by Harlequin Presents 1 Jan 10

This was my first Harlequin Presents.  I know from the other duckies (and reviews elsewhere) that this line is a bit of a crapshoot, often full of doormats and borderline abusive men.  And yet, I picked this one blind.  I didn’t know any of the authors, so I selected based on a title that was funny but not too funny and a blurb that sounded like something I would read.  (Not that you can always trust titles and blurbs.)  So I was surprised to find that I truly enjoyed Prince of Montéz, Pregnant Mistress. 

(As for the title?  It’s accurate, but Cally Greenway doesn’t get pregnant until the last third of the novel, making it a spoiler.)

Cally became an art restorer because of Jacques Rénard’s Mon Amour par la Mer [ed.: presumably a make believe painting - couldn't find a reference to it].  In the opening chapters, which remind me of a classic children’s book, the painting is on auction.  If the museum wins, Cally will be able to fulfill one of her greatest desires.  Unfortunately, the museum loses to a private buyer.  Fortunately, an attractive man chats her up.  Unfortunately, the two of them aren’t going to be able to meet again and Cally isn’t a sleep-with-strangers kind of girl.  Fortunately, he’s so suave she decides to have some fun anyway.  Unfortunately, it was a secret moral test and she failed.

Leon has his reasons for wanting a woman who can stick to her word – he rules a country that doesn’t allow the press to write about the royal family.  He might’ve forgiven the one lie, but he knew Cally also lied to him about why she wanted to restore the paintings.  Of course, which woman is more discreet: the one who gives a non-answer to a personal question or the one who tells her life story to a total stranger because he’s hot?  Aside from that major flaw in his logic, I do understand where he’s coming from.  (And he becomes more understandable when the greedy sister-in-law arrives.)  However, Cally is most qualified so he hires her to restore the paintings.  Then, neither of them can ignore the sparks.

He does treat Cally badly at points.  I can stand it because Cally doesn’t put up with it.  She calls him out, and refuses to be live with someone who doesn’t respect her.  Her confidence was damaged by an earlier relationship, but Cally is still no doormat.  Sabrina Philips made me believe that Cally and Leon would fall for each other, and that Leon would grovel to get her back.  I believe absolutely that they’ll have happily ever after.

I was extremely nervous going into my first Harlequin Presents, but I enjoyed the foray.  I’ll be back for more, though I’ll try to remain cautious about which stories I pick.  I know I’ll be likely to try another Philips, at least!

Grade: B+

Summary:

It’s the night of a most glamorous art auction in London, and Cally Greenway is due to land the restoration commission of her dreams…. Until the paintings sell to an unknown bidder and, devastated and dashed, Cally uncharacteristically finds solace in the arms of a handsome yet ruthless stranger.

He’s the very same man who bought her precious paintings—the Prince of Montéz! Leon summons Cally by royal decree—His Majesty wants a mistress: biddable, pleasurable…and pregnant?
Read an excerpt here.

Limecello’s review of Leave Me Breathless by HelenKay Dimon
Contemporary romance released by Brava 23 Feb 10

If this continues, HelenKay Dimon is going to become one of my favorite authors. Her writing seems to get better and better. It doesn’t hurt that I really enjoyed the story line, and setting. I knew I wanted to read this book because for a number of reasons. First, it’s a Brava book that Ms. Dimon wrote. Second, it’s set in DC. <3 Next, the hero is a judge. The heroine is a former FBI agent. The list goes on…

Callie is a heroine who has decided to speak her mind – and not in the TSTL way where she has no reason to do so, and no way to back up her words. Callie is the real deal, and I love that she gives Ben, the hero, a lot of crap. Not that she’s a bitch or a jerk, but she doesn’t let him get away with stuff. Callie is smart and capable, and I think of her as being rather scrappy. In a good way. She’s not privileged or entitled, but she also doesn’t have an inferiority complex. Nor is she arrogant. She’s simply practical, and is willing to see things as they are, and admit that she can’t control everything. She’s pretty reasonable, considering the circumstances. Callie is an adult, and knows she doesn’t always make the best decision, but is willing to take responsibility for it. I really enjoyed reading her story.

Bennet Walker is a great hero. He’s dense yet lovable. Callie constantly calls him a jackass, and often it’s well deserved, but he’s so earnest and caring and charming that you love him anyway. In fact, it’s almost part of his charm. Everyone loves him, but Ben doesn’t really let it get to his head. He’s a very macho alpha male, but once talked down, is willing to see reason. Both he and Callie are adults and act like it. It was so refreshing. Ben is very stubborn, set in his ways, and determined to save the world. He’s also emotionally stupid, and has no idea how much his past has affected him.

Ben and Callie are both characters with a lot of depth. Callie is very self actualized, and I liked that she addresses her emotions and talks out her feelings with Ben. I also loved his epiphany, and conversations with his brother, Mark. Then there’s another character, Emma, who is also a judge. Ben and Callie are a pair, and Mark and Emma the other. All fantastic romances, that are messy, complicated, involving, and tragic. But it all works out.

There’s a full supporting cast of characters, but they’re rather peripheral. I felt that Ms. Dimon got the characters spot on. For all that I love DC, I know it’s not perfect, and I think she did a great job of building the atmosphere of a courtroom realistically, but without getting bogged down in the details. Everything is lightened with the great banter between Ben and Callie. The gossip mill is well integrated into the plot, and I liked the continuing questions of who the villain was in the reader’s minds. There was a nice variety, and found the characters extremely realistic.

I feel the need to be critical, so I will say I don’t like the cover. It’s fine, other than that… thing on the cover model’s face. Like… a bad porn stache or something. Otherwise, it’s all good. Also, the plot wasn’t entirely as full as it could have been, but that doesn’t bother me as much because my focus on reading these books is the romance. With Leave Me Breathless there’s not only a fantastic main story, but a terrific secondary romance as well. One that doesn’t distract from the main couple, but is complete, and in fact bolsters the primary romance. Incredible. Unheard of. It’s what a secondary romance is supposed to be!

I will say that… I could have hoped for a little more from the ending. Nevertheless, Ms. Dimon has the characters promise each other “forever,” so that was sufficient. I hate the “well we’ll stick around and see how it goes… for now…” but that’s not what happened here. It seems a bit casual and open ended, but as I said, the thing that saved it is their use of forever. I definitely wouldn’t mind revisiting any of the main characters in another romance. At the same time, I love that this book was a single title. Regardless of what is up next, I can’t wait to read more of Ms. Dimon’s books!

Grade: A-

Summary:

PERMISSION TO APPROACH

According to Judge Bennett Walker, trying to kill him is a dumb idea. They might make him wear a big black nightgown to work, but it covers a lot of muscles, and he’s definitely packing beneath it. He’s also an ex-prosecutor and an ex-GI Joe. So when his brother brings in Callie Robbins to protect him, Ben has a few issues. First, he doesn’t need a bodyguard. Second, she’s a 130-pound girl—more smoking hot than smoking gun. And third, what if his body wants her guarding the night shift?

Callie has no problem brushing aside Ben’s disbelief. She left the FBI to escape the boys’ club, but she can be deeper undercover and twice as lethal as any beefy John Doe. As for whether someone’s after Bennett or not, the death threats and car bombs look pretty convincing to Callie. Of course, she might get distracted, sitting inches from the sexiest judge in DC for ten hours a day. Keeping him safe is no picnic. Keeping it professional—that might be impossible.

Read an excerpt here.

Who can resist a story that includes a sexy chef and a winery owner who also happens to the local Don Juan? Imaginations run wild when it comes to food and sex, at least mine does, and I’m thinking Julia Barrett’s will to0 in Beauty and Feast.

So how about an appetizer first?

Eva Raines is an uncomplicated country girl who’s all about food.  Eva moves to the Napa Valley where her culinary skills come to the attention of the owners of a start-up and Eva finds her niche as a personal chef.  Now all she needs is a man as perfect as her cooking, but she has serious doubts such a creature exists.

When wealthy entrepreneur, winery owner, and noted lothario, Gabriel Abbott, makes plans to seduce his flavor of the month, his assistant hires All Things to All People to cater a gourmet dinner.  Eva expects to use her way with food to showcase the startup.  What she unexpectedly discovers is that her culinary skills showcase far more.  Gabriel Abbott finds himself seduced by her voice and the sensual flavors and textures of her food and his previous plans are quickly forgotten.  He begins to obsess about meeting his little chef in person.  He’s not alone.  Once Eva hears Gabe’s voice and spends time in his home in the Napa Valley, she begins to wonder about the real man and her dreams of him are so hot they could ignite a barbecue.

When Eva and Gabe finally come face to face, the question is, how hot will their fire burn?

And now for the main course….

Gabe woke to singing. The room he lay in was dark and it took him a moment to remember where he was. When he smelled Eva, he knew. Gabe reached for her, but the spot where she’d lain was empty. He leaned back on the pillows, crossing his arms behind his head, and listened. It was an old Bonnie Raitt song, one he’d always loved—Angel from Montgomery. He closed his eyes and enjoyed the music. At first he thought Eva had turned on a CD player, but after listening for a few moments, he realized that there were no instruments accompanying the singing voice. It was all Eva. When she finished the song, she launched into a raw rendition of Lowell George’s Dixie Chicken. Gabe found himself grinning. If Eva would be his Dixie Chicken and he would most definitely offer to be her Tennessee Lamb. Gabe reached down to make sure he was covered in case she happened into the bedroom. He was relieved to find that she had thrown a quilt over his open fly. Maybe he’d covered himself. His memory was pretty vague.

Eva must be feeling better or she wouldn’t be up and about, and singing her lungs out. Her singing voice kept a smile on his face. It was smoky, peaty, and right on key. She sounded exactly the way she sounded when he’d awakened her with his late night phone calls. Warm, cuddly, sexy as hell. Just as Gabe began to wonder what she was up to, his nose started twitching and his stomach began to growl. She was cooking. If his nose was right, she was making Reuben sandwiches. Shit, he hadn’t had a good Reuben since the last time he was in Chicago and he’d taken his sister and her family to a deli.

Gabe adjusted his jeans and made sure to zip them up before he climbed out of bed. He stepped into the hallway and looked for the bathroom. When he came out of the bathroom, he ran into Eva just coming to wake him. He took a look at her long legs as she approached and he noticed that she wasn’t quite as stiff as he expected her to be. Despite the scrapes on her knees, she moved with an athletic grace he found extremely appealing. She still wore the man’s boxers she’d slept in. They hung on her slender frame so she’d rolled the waistband several times to keep them up. The ragged tee shirt didn’t cover much. Light from the living room shone through the thin cotton, framing her narrow waist and the gentle flare of her hips. He felt himself stir at the sight of her erect nipples poking against the material. He decided to be polite and look at her face.

“How’s your head?” He asked, studying the bruise on her forehead. She’d pulled her dark red hair back and braided it.

“It’s all right,” Eva replied. “It’s just a bump.”

“And the knees?”

“Sore.” She shrugged. “They’ll be better by the end of the week. Gabe…” she began.

“Hmm?” Gabe raised his eyebrows and waited.

“Thank you. Thanks for bringing me home and cleaning me up. I’m… I’m… I have to admit I’m more than a little embarrassed.”

Gabe felt his mouth twitch. “Why would you be embarrassed? Because I cleaned your cuts or because I stripped you naked and feasted my eyes on your beautiful body?”

Eva’s mouth opened and she sputtered for just an instant before she covered her flaming cheeks with her hands. Gabe heard a muffled, “Oh crap,” and he laughed.

Gabe took hold of her hands and he lifted them away from her face. “You have nothing to be embarrassed about, Eva. It was my pleasure. Truly. I would go so far as to say you are now in my top ten list of remarkable experiences.”

“Really?” Eva shot back, grinning now. “How high do I rank?”

Gabe ran a thumb across her luscious bottom lip. He heard her sharp intake of breath. “Number two, maybe.”

“Not number one?” she whispered.

“Give it time,” he teased, “I haven’t tasted you… yet.”

Eva lifted her chin. Gabe stared into her eyes, asking permission without saying a single word. He could see uncertainty warring with her strong desire to challenge him to do exactly what he threatened. Taste her. Everywhere. Starting with that delicious mouth of hers. He watched as Eva’s lips parted in anticipation, and he knew which side won. Before she could change her mind, Gabe slid a hand under her braid and he cupped the back of her head. He rubbed his lips against hers, as if testing the waters. Eva sighed softly in response, accepting him, but at the same time Gabe felt one of her hands press firmly against his chest as if holding him at bay. For an instant, he didn’t know which part of her to listen to, but then her tongue flicked delicately over his lips and he shut his mind up and kissed her.

The moment Gabe’s lips touched hers, Eva felt like butter left too long in the hot summer sun. At the same time, a tiny voice in the back of her mind reminded her that she really didn’t know the man at all. She’d been in his home, even in his bedroom. She’d strolled his gardens, picked his herbs, cooked for him, tasted his wines. Yet she truly didn’t know a thing about the man. The idea of pushing him away flashed through her brain, but her body decided not to listen. Her body responded automatically to the delicate touch of his mouth against hers. Before she knew what she was doing, Eva had licked his lips. Gabe’s body replied instantaneously. In fact, he practically combusted. An arm slid around her waist and Eva found herself drawn firmly against his hard chest, while the hand at the base of her skull tilted her head back to allow Gabe easier access to her mouth.

Eva had been kissed, but not like this. Not by a man this hungry. Not ever. His tongue explored her mouth liberally, uninhibitedly. It tangled with her own, tasting her as if she were a rare wine. Without realizing it, Eva dug a hand into Gabe’s thick hair and pulled him even closer, while her other hand clung to his shoulder. Eva felt the wall behind her back as Gabe rubbed his long, hard length against her, the material of her boxers moving with him as he pressed himself against what Eva considered her sweet spot. Caught entirely off guard by the strength of her desire, she heard herself whimper, feeling helpless, pleading for more.

A warm hand slid under her tee shirt and fingers moved up her belly. Eva found herself arching her back, giving him easier access. Gabe wasted no time in discovering the sensitive underside of her breast. He stroked the satiny skin with his fingertips and then, as his big hand cupped her breast, his thumb circled her nipple. Eva’s legs shook when he rolled her aching tip between his thumb and forefinger. She tore her mouth away from his, and tossed her head back, moaning, while his teeth sought her neck and he nibbled his way down her collarbone. Eva knew where his mouth was headed and she nearly screamed in anticipation. Abruptly, he shoved her tee shirt up and he arrived at her breast. Gabe closed his hot, wet mouth around a nipple that had become almost painful with desire. He sucked, closing his teeth around her taut point, biting, the action deliberate yet delicate at the same time.

Eva did scream, at least, she thought she did, and her hands sought the front of his jeans. She stroked his hard length through the taut material. She heard Gabe groan, his mouth still on her breast. He sounded as if he was in agony. In one fluid motion, Eva unzipped his jeans and she moved his boxers and freed him. A single thought raced through her brain as her hand ran down his steely length, Oh my God, and then it disappeared as her tee shirt was torn from her and her boxers were shoved down her thighs. Gabe’s fingers searched the delicate folds between her legs. She could tell she was incredibly wet and very slippery.

“Jesus Christ,” she heard him grit out between clenched teeth as a finger was thrust carefully inside her. Her body welcomed the intrusion and her mouth trembled as he took her lips again, thrusting his tongue inside, matching the rhythm of his finger. Eva teetered on the brink of what seemed like either a precipice or a cataclysmic orgasm. She wasn’t sure which. She slid her thumb over the tip of Gabe’s big cock, finding a drop of moisture there. The image had her panting. She heard him growl deep in his throat and her boxers vanished. She felt his hands reach beneath her bottom. Gabe began to lift her off her feet and… suddenly Eva smelled smoke. She pried open her eyes and watched, puzzled, as a gray haze drifted their way from the kitchen. For an instant the sight didn’t register, then the smoke detector above their heads began to shriek.

“Shit!” Eva yelped. “The potatoes!” Her feet found the floor. She shoved Gabe backward and bolted for the kitchen.

“Fuck the potatoes!” she heard him rumble from behind her retreating back.

We’re glad to have you all back for Duck Chat! Welcome!

Today Julia Barrett is with us, so get comfy, enjoy this time with her, and you may have just found a new author you’d like to read!

In my roughly five years as a reviewer, Julia is the only author who’s taken a so-so review from me with grace and then offered up her next release to go through the process again. She definitely takes after the heroines she writes – gutsy, courageous, gets the job done and never lets go, all the while being kind and gracious. Julia Barrett is the complete package.

She lives in Northern California with her husband and has three grown children. Hiking is a favorite pastime, something she’s done all over the U.S., depending on where she lived or vacationed at the time. Since we’re getting to know Julia today, if you’ve got a question for her, be sure to ask, or just leave a comment for her, and we’ll toss your name in for a copy of Beauty of the Feast, one of her latest releases.

Now let’s chat!

DC: Welcome to the Pond, Julia! Glad to have you here today. For those readers who haven’t yet read your books, would you tell them a little bit about yourself, the woman versus the author?

JB: Well, the woman and the author are the same, my author alter-ego simply has a different name so I can maintain some anonymity.  I’m as active, outgoing, opinionated, stubborn, and as observant as my characters.  I like to feature strong female heroines who know who they are and what they want – like me.  I wasn’t always assertive.  Growing up, I was quite shy, the quiet, brainiac type, who could be found with her nose buried in a book.

DC: If you could retire any interview question and never, ever have it asked again, what would it be? Feel free to answer it.

JB: Oh, here’s one that bugs me – Do you get turned on when you write your books?  OMG!  How can I answer that?  It’s waaaay too personal.  The answer?  Depends, and that’s as much as I’ll say.

DC: I’ve heard writers often say their stories take them in surprising directions, or dialogue flows from some unknown place. Is it the same with you? Do your characters surprise you sometimes?

JB: Absolutely.  It’s as if the characters speak through me, as if I am merely the vehicle for their story.  I know some authors talk about their muse.  I don’t know exactly what a muse is…I’ve always thought of my cats as my muses because they cuddle beside me when I write.  But I guess my answer is yes.  My characters surprise me all the time.  I do not plot out my stories, I just write and my characters take the directions they take.  I actually have a tough time writing a story if I can’t hear the characters’ voices in my head, which is why I struggle with deadlines.  I can’t make a character talk to me.  They say what they have to say when they are good and ready and once they start talking, they’ll often keep me up at night until I get their story finished.

DC: When you began writing, was erotic romance what you always had in mind or did that come later after trying other genres?

JB: Erotic romance totally came later!  I write nonfiction, mostly health and nursing related stuff and I began my career as a poet.  In college, I majored in creative writing and I figured I’d write the next great American novel by the time I was thirty.  What a laugh!  In my opinion, the last great American novelist was John Steinbeck.  East of Eden is brilliant.  Anyway, I was lucky enough to have some poetry published while I was still in college, but once I graduated, life intervened and I needed to make a buck in a hurry.  I returned to school to get a nursing degree.  I’ve worn many other hats over the years.  Four years ago I was laid up due to a climbing accident – really laid up, for nearly eighteen months – and a friend gave me a Linda Howard book.  I began to read romance…well, maybe devour is a better word, and I realized I could write it.  Hey, I’d lived it and I write what I know.

DC: What is it that drew you to erotic romance?

JB: Passion.  I don’t just mean sex.  I mean a passion for life.  A good erotic romance is filled with passionate people, characters who have overcome significant obstacles and despite tough odds, never give up, love life, and manage to connect with a true soul mate.  I do not like to read gratuitous sex scenes and I’m not big on really graphic language.  I prefer to read about a robust, realistic, overwhelming, passionate attraction between two strong people who, in the end, want to be together forever.

DC: Do you ever argue with your characters while you’re writing? Who usually wins?

JB: No.  Never.  If I did, the characters would probably win.

DC: What is sure to distract you from sitting down and working/writing?

JB: I am easily distracted.  I’m one of those people who when she sees a butterfly, drops everything and runs outside to get a closer look.  I never sit still.  It’s very hard for me to stay in one place to get any writing done.  I’ve been like this my entire life – guess I have a little ADD.  I do the best when I hike with my dog first thing in the morning – anywhere from three to five miles – use my elliptical for forty or fifty minutes to burn off some additional energy, and then I manage to sit and work.  If I’m really antsy, I head to a busy coffee shop and write.  Even when I was in college, I found that if I tried to study in a library, I totally lost it.  The quiet distracts me.  I had to go to a bar or the student union where I could focus against a lot of background noise.  My real life job takes a lot out of me and usually I have to crash for a day or so after several shifts in a row.  That’s when I surf the web, check out blogs and sites and maybe do some cooking and baking to chill out.

DC: You’re just beginning a very busy year of new releases, so let’s talk about your 2010 books. First up is Captured that came out in January. Please tell our readers about Ekkatt and Mari.

JC: This year is crazy and totally unexpected!  I thought Captured would come out in April, but it was released by Siren on January 6^th.  Captured is a work of romantic science fiction.  I actually dreamed the entire book and had to stop another work in progress to get this story told.

Mari finds herself captive on an alien vessel bound for the meat market.  She’s forced to hide her fear and tries to somehow connect with her captor in order to save her own life.  She succeeds but suffers survivor guilt, and worse, falls in love with the man who took her in the first place.  She compares her situation to that of collaborators in World War II.  Ekkatt is more than he seems.  He’s a trapper.  He traps human women for the market.  Their flesh brings a high price.  He took this job because of the perks – traveling through the galaxy, a chip in his brain that allows him to learn new languages, the money that helps to support his family – but he’s not stupid and he’s not cruel.  Despite everything he’s been taught by the religious and state authorities on his home planet, his encounter with Mari opens his eyes and he comes to realize humans are not insentient beings.  They are intelligent, despite their primitive technology.  They can feel pain and they do have souls.  He puts everything on the line to save Mari and he is overcome with guilt.  For years, he’s sent sentient beings to the meat market.  When he finds himself falling in love with Mari, he feels that first he must earn her forgiveness.

DC: How do you feel your male or female characters have evolved over your career? Do you think you write them differently now than you did when you started?

JB: Nope.  I still write smart-mouthed, talented women who are, above all, survivors and hard, hot, intelligent, loyal heroes who do not hesitate to go after what they want – which are of course, my heroines!

DC: Is there a genre you haven’t tackled but would like to try?

JB: I’m working on a ménage.  This is a very scary genre for me, and it’s really not in my nature to share when it comes to a partner or a lover.  However, I have a unique story in mind that involves two men in love with the same woman and I find it necessary to push my boundaries in order to figure out exactly how I want to handle the situations my characters may find themselves in.

DC: We meet Eric and Kate in You Just Might Get It, which is a novella in the The Cougar anthology. Can you give us a look into their story?

JC: Ooh cool!  I was unaware you knew about that story.  Eric is a chef, Kate is a nurse.  He’s twenty-something, she’s forty-something.  Eric is attracted to Kate, and he’s definitely the aggressor in this situation.  He’s mature and confident while Kate has been through a nasty divorce and stayed away from the dating scene.  When Kate gets locked out of her apartment building on a rainy day, Eric gets to play the hero and he invites her over for a quick supper.  The attraction between the two is undeniable, but you’ll have to read the rest of the story for yourself!

DC: What advice would you give to your younger self?

JB: Hmmm.  I have no idea.  I’ve been through a lot, lived a lot, done a lot.  I’ve messed up lots and lots.  But, I’m not entirely certain I’d change a thing.  Everything that’s happened to me over the years has made me the person I am today and I’m in a good place.  I have great kids, an amazing husband, cool pets and healthy parents.  What more can I ask for?

DC: Beauty and the Feast is coming out this month, takes place in Napa Valley, and revolves around Eva, who is a chef, and Gabriel, a winery owner. Sounds like a whole lot of fun going on. Tell us about it.

JB: I loved loved loved writing this story!  I’ve actually been a personal chef and a pastry chef, and owned a catering business and a restaurant.

When Gabriel Abbott hires Eva Raines to put together a seduction dinner for another woman, he has no idea he’s the one who will be seduced – by Eva’s food and her sweet voice.  He begins fantasizing about her, just as Eva, a shy country girl, begins to fantasize about the man who hired her.  When the two characters come face to face under unusual circumstances, they nearly burst into flames!  Beauty and the Feast is a straight contemporary with a fantastic, elegant, sensual love story, filled with interesting people, places and humorous situations.  I had so much fun with this!  Over the next year or two, I’ll be writing another contemporary about Quincy, Gabriel’s half-brother.

DC: If you were a book, what would your blurb be?

JB: Oh, this is an easy one – my book, Cara, which is no longer available, is autobiographical.  Here’s the blurb – Cara Franklin’s life has been one nightmare after another.  She grows to adulthood blaming herself for everything that’s happened.  She believes her safest path is to keep other people at a distance, especially male people.  James Mackie, a young doctor who is aware of Cara‘s history, is determined to break through her barriers, enter her world. and love her.  Cara cautiously allows him in and returns his love, only to watch her new world of happiness, a world she never genuinely trusted, comes crashing down.  She turns from James and runs far away in an attempt to reinvent herself.  She discovers old habits die hard. She’s run out of the frying pan and straight into the fire, into the arms of an abusive drug-dealer, Micah Welsh.  Now Cara must fight for her very survival and for the survival of her unborn child.  No one, not even her beloved James, can rescue her.  Cara must believe in herself or perish.

I’m hoping that one day the book will be re-released, but I’ve been told that the subject matter is too dark for today’s economy!

DC: What would be your “voice’s” tagline?

JB: Oh, you mean like Homer Simpson?  D’oh!  Actually, like most of my heroines, I suffer from a bad case of potty mouth – my voice’s tagline would probably be something that includes the F-word.

DC: What has been your favorite book cover from all of your releases and why?

JB: Well, I love the cover for Daughter’s of Persephone.  The artist expressed my vision perfectly.  It’s up on the Resplendence site and it is very sci-fi-ish in a Dune sort of way, which is what I was going for.  If you look at Captured, Jinger captured Mari and Ekkatt quite well.  She nailed Mari’s dragon tattoo.

DC: How about your least favorite cover?  Why?

JB: Oh gosh.  Covers are a sore subject with me, so I think I’ll just keep my mouth shut.  I’m happy with the covers of my current books.  I do believe strongly that the cover should reflect some aspect of the story within.  In the past, I’ve had covers that reflected nothing of the story and that is misleading to the reader and difficult for the author to accept.  We don’t always have a say in what our covers look like.

DC: What romance book would you recommend our readers pick up during their next bookstore run? (Yes, in addition to any Julia Barrett novel!)

JB: Well, in addition to any Julia Barrett novel, I’d have to say my two favorites are Linda Howard’s Kill and Tell and After the Night – I love both those books are re-read them all the time.  I’m a big Julie Garwood fan too and I’m a sucker for Karen Marie Moning’s hot highlanders.

DC: If you had never become an author, what do you think you would be doing right now?

JB: Well, I’m still doing it – I’m a hospice nurse.  Despite the intensity of the work, I love it.  It’s just that now I can do it part time.  I’m a restless soul and about every four years, I change careers, though I’ve kept my nursing license current since I graduated.  Hospice nursing is the first job I’ve stuck with for a relatively long period of time.  From time to time I toy with the idea of going back into catering and I dabble.  Every once in a while I’ll cater a wedding or a graduation party.  But, really and truly, I want to write.

DC: In July Books 1 & 2 of your Daughters of Persephone series is slated to be released, followed by Books 3 in August. Would you tell us first about the series as a whole and then give us a tiny sneak peek into each book?

JB: This series started out as a self-challenge.  I’m a huge science fiction fan and I decided to go for it and write my own version of a sci fi romance.  Here’s the story in a nutshell…In the final days of Earth, a cadre of elite scientist from across the globe join forces to create a line of genetically enhanced females to guide the remnants of humanity, to try to save us all.  The scientists decide to use women as women are less prone to violence than men.  Over succeeding centuries, the project, known as Persephone, takes on a life of its own and as the women evolve, they are able to make their own genetic adaptations within a single generation.  The series involves time travel, space travel, colonies of survivors far from Earth, blood, warfare, family, love and the power of hope.

DC: What else is on the horizon for Julia Barrett?

JB: I’ve got a challenging few years ahead of me.  I’m teasing out a sequel for both Captured and Beauty and the Feast.  As I mentioned, I’m working on a ménage – it’s a work of science fiction and this ménage is practice for the paranormal ménage I have planned.  I just want to make sure this is a genre I can do justice to – not only for the readers, but for myself.  I also have a couple previously released works of romantic suspense that I’m hoping to find a home for.  To be honest, I think I’ve found my niche in two areas, science fiction and contemporary, and I’ll probably continue to write in those genres.

Lightning Round:

- dark or milk chocolate?       – Milk – I know dark chocolate is more complex, but I love the creamy mouth feel of milk chocolate.

- smooth or chunky peanut butter?      – Chunky!!!  Don’t waste my time with creamy.  And I like the non-hydrogenated kind that you have to stir.

- heels or flats?      – Boots with heels.  After all the knee surgeries I’ve had, high heels are out, but I can get by with boots.  Mostly though, you’ll find me in my hiking boots.

- coffee or tea?     – Major coffee drinker – I love my Nespresso machine.  Nespresso, not espresso.

- summer or winter?      – Both and spring and fall.

- mountains or beach?     – Again, both.

- mustard or mayonnaise?      – Mustard, spicy brown or Dijon and I like it with the little mustard seeds in it.

- flowers or candy?     – Roses, big, fat, fragrant roses.

- pockets or purse?     – I am so hard on purses.  Mostly it’s my keys and cell phone in my jacket pocket and my wallet locked into my glove compartment.

- Pepsi or Coke?    – Oh, don’t even go there.  Coke.

- ebook or print?     – Both, but I love holding a book in my hands.  However, reading is the thing – turning pages or flipping a screen.

And because we still enjoy the answers we get:

1. What is your favorite word?   – I love language.  I don’t have one single favorite word.

2. What is your least favorite word?    – Moist – ew – the connotations in the nursing field, can’t go there!

3. What turns you on creatively, spiritually or emotionally?     – Hiking in the fresh air with my dog, galloping a horse across a mountain meadow, river rafting, water skiing…I guess nature and activity really turn me on in every way.  I love sports and I find baseball to be quite a turn on.  Of course, my husband turns me on too…

4. What turns you off creatively, spiritually or emotionally?     – A lack of sleep really does a number on me.  That and too much of the day job.

5. What sound or noise do you love?      – The sounds of making love.  The noise a horse makes when he or she is happy to see you.  The silent meow of my black cat.

6. What sound or noise do you hate?    – The noise of leaf blowers.

7. What is your favorite curse word?     – Merde.

8. What profession other than your own would you like to attempt?      – I would love to own a bakery!

9. What profession would you not like to do?     – Pathology – I could not stomach an autopsy when I was in nursing school and I couldn’t dissect anything for anatomy and physiology.

10. If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates?    — “Not too bad, not too bad at all.”

Wendy the Super Librarian’s review of Erotique: Carrie (Erotique Story #1) by Susan Lyons
Erotic romance short story ebook released by Spice Briefs 1 Jan 10

Sometimes an ending can completely ruin an otherwise fine story, and sometimes it’s the ending that totally makes the story.  This first story in Susan Lyons’ Spice Briefs trilogy is an example of the latter.

Carrie looks like your average suburban soccer mom.  However every few weeks she hires a babysitter, gets dressed up in very un-mom-like attire, lets her hair down and hits the private sex club, Erotique.  Erotique is very exclusive and caters to a myriad of fantasies that range from casual flirting to BDSM.  Carrie doesn’t stray too far to the wild side, but she knows tonight she wants passion.  Hot sex, with a hot stranger.  She finds her mystery man, dressed like a riverboat gambler, downing a fine brandy, and he’s more than willing to show her a good time.

To be blunt, this is a fairly conventional story featuring some hot, vanilla sex.  For readers who like the hot stuff, but don’t want to wade through a bunch of kink – this is a good, solid choice.  I’ll admit, the set-up and story weren’t really doing a whole lot for me.  Wow, an exclusive club where people can explore their sexual fantasies?  I’ve only read that a time or two or thousand.  Then I got to the ending.  It’s the ending that truly makes this story, and probably one I should have seen coming, but didn’t.  What could have been a been-there-read-that erotic short, easily forgotten, is instead made memorable by an ending that left me with a smile on my lips.  Good show!

Grade: B

Summary:

Normally Carrie is a very responsible person…but she still likes to walk the line every now and then. That’s when Carrie visits Erotique, a private club where members don costumes and use false names to explore their secret fantasies. For Carrie, it’s a chance for the suburban mom to feel like a sex goddess—especially when a certain masked man is waiting for her….

No excerpt found.

Other books in this series:

Sandy M’s review of Stolen Seduction (Stolen Series, Book 3) by Elisabeth Naughton
Romantic Suspense published by Love Spell 29 Dec 09

I have thoroughly enjoyed this trilogy by Ms. Naughton. She keeps a perfect balance between the suspense and the romance to give a reader one heck of a read in each book. I’m sorry to see it all come to an end, but with my enjoyment of these books also comes autobuy status of this author for me from here on out, and I know she’s working on a new series, so there’s still a lot of anticipation to be had. She’s one of a few lately who are drawing me back into romantic suspense, and she’s doing it so very well.

We met both Shane and Hailey in the previous books in this series, and things were hot between them from the beginning. Ms. Naughton gave me a little bit of a scare when it looked like perhaps these two wouldn’t get together after all. Happy to say she didn’t mess with that chemistry that bubbled over whenever they were in scenes together.

Hailey is a cop, mostly to stay out of the family business but lately because she loves it. However, she’s giving that career a rest at her father’s request to become CEO of Roarke Resorts. In the midst of all of this, her father is hospitalized and is subsequently murdered, with the culprits pinning the crime on Hailey. She’s now on the run to find the sixth statue of the Last Seduction in a crazy treasure hunt orchestrated by her father in his will and also to stay one step ahead of the law so she can clear her name.

As luck would have it, Shane is one of the detectives working her father’s case. He doesn’t think Hailey capable of cold-blooded murder, but he still has to do his job. And when he finds she’s keeping secrets, doubt begins to creep in. But when it’s either take her in in cuffs or join her in her search, he opts for keeping her out of jail for the time being, hoping they can find those responsible.

The action never dies down, the romance/sex heats up something fierce, and the mystery takes it own time coming to light. Hailey takes no crap from anyone, not even Shane, and that’s one of the reasons he’s attracted to her. He, however, has too many secrets that will get in the way of anything more between them but he’s also sexy as hell. I also like that the characters from the first two books make appearances here and help Shane and Hailey as best they can.

This third book is actually my favorite of the series, but the trilogy is well worth the read, especially if you’re a fan of romantic suspense. If you’re not that keen on it, try these books anyway. You will wonder what took you so long to pick them up.

Grade: A+

Summary:

The individual who collects all six statues and deciphers the code locked within will be awarded controlling interest in Roarke Resorts.

YOUR PARTICIPATION IN THIS ENDEAVOR IS A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH.

Hailey Roarke was never interested in her family’s fortune. That’s why she became a cop. But with her father and now her cousin dead, she’s suddenly on the wrong side of a police interrogation. The only way to clear her name is to solve the riddle before the real killer. Without getting killed herself.

Detective Shane Maxwell can’t deny the spark of lust he feels every time Hailey is near. But the woman is clearly hiding something. Trusting his gut—and the heat in her eyes—he joins her on an elaborate global treasure hunt staged by her late father. Caught between a sizzling seduction and a maniacal murderer, for Hailey and Shane the biggest reward of all will be making it out alive.

Read an excerpt.

Other books in this series:

Liviania’s review of Pleasure of a Dark Prince (Immortals After Dark, Book 8 ) by Kresley Cole
Paranormal romance released by Pocket 16 Feb 10

Kresley Cole earned her place as one of those authors that I buy immediately.  (Well, that I buy the paperback immediately.)  With Pleasure of a Dark Prince, there were some unforeseen complications (also known as blatant lies on the Barnes & Noble site) that led to me telling far too many people I wanted Pleasure of a Dark Prince before I got my hands on the novel. 

Although I forgot the title the first time, prompting the clerk to ask me for a different title.  I came up with Winter’s Wicked Kiss.  Not an actual Cole title.  Given that the next cover is also black and white, it’s going to be even harder to keep the books apart.

While knowing the titles is a daunting task, the Immortals After Dark series has been fairly welcoming to newcomers.  However, Cole is starting to elaborate on couples first mentioned in earlier books.  First, the novella in Deep Kiss of Winter, “Untouchable,” tells about the last Wroth brother and his heroine, Daniela. Now, Pleasure of a Dark Prince explores Lucia and Garreth’s relationship, which was originally mentioned in A Hunger Like No Other.  (Yes, I did have to look that title up.)  I enjoyed seeing Emma and Lachlain’s relationship from the valkyrie point of view – and that a werewolf agreed Emma’s family had a right to interfere.  However, I wonder how a new reader would feel about that subplot, which moves fairly quickly.

Though the books are becoming less welcoming to new readers, the romance is still enjoyable.  I did have more problems with Garreth and Lucia than some of her other couples. Garreth’s determination is attractive, as is his desire to aid Lucia.  But he ignores her ability to take care of herself too often, and he’s dismissive of what she obviously considers an important vow.  On the other hand, Lucia seemed too reluctant to tell him why the vow is important.  Yes, it was a shameful part of her past and might make Garreth angry, but Garreth would understand her vow more if she at least told him, “If we have sex together I’ll be defenseless.”

That doesn’t mean I didn’t love them together.  It was fun to watch Garreth work his way into Lucia’s heart – and to see them figure out how to get off together without penetration.  Also, the opening scene where she keeps shooting him and he keeps flirting?  It’s awesome in a very strange way.

For fans of Regin or Lothaire, they show up a decent amount in Pleasure of a Dark Prince and it looks like they will be in Demon from the Dark, though neither will be the hero or heroine.  (For a few brief, shining moments I thought the next book would be Regin and Aiden’s.  Alas.)  Overall, this isn’t going to replace my favorites in the series.  But Cole definitely left me wanting more of the Immortals After Dark.

Grade: B-

Read more reviews and information by following this series’ tag here.

Summary:

#1 New York Times bestselling author Kresley Cole enraptures again with this seductive tale of a fierce werewolf prince who will stop at nothing to protect the lovely archer he covets from afar.

A DANGEROUS BEAUTY…

Lucia the Huntress: as mysterious as she is exquisite, she harbors secrets that threaten to destroy her — and those she loves.

AN UNCONTROLLABLE NEED…

Garreth MacRieve, Prince of the Lykae: the brutal Highland warrior who burns to finally claim this maddeningly sensual creature as his own.

THAT LEAD TO A PLEASURE SO WICKED….

From the shadows, Garreth has long watched over Lucia. Now, the only way to keep the proud huntress safe from harm is to convince her to accept him as her guardian. To do this, Garreth will ruthlessly exploit Lucia’s greatest weakness — her wanton desire for him.

Read an excerpt here.

Other books in this series:

Lynne Connolly’s review of Bought: Damsel In Distress by Lucy King
Contemporary romance released by Harlequin Presents 1 Jan 10

A goodie. Even the title, if taken ironically, isn’t too bad. The blurb, however, is pretty dire. 

Due to a baggage strike at Heathrow, Emily can’t attend the wedding of her ex in France, and her sister thinks Emily needs closure. While she and Tom didn’t work out, she’s allowed herself to drift, and she needs to move on.

So her sister puts Emily up as a damsel in distress on “an Internet auction site.” Emily, while outraged, goes along with it when her sister gets the details of Luke Harrison. He’s willing to give her a lift in his jet, as he’s going there anyway. Hang on, a hero and heroine who know how to use the Internet? Wow. It is really good to read about people who accept the net as part of their lives, sending emails, not letters, carrying laptops and using them, not bunches of paper.

Of course Luke is gorgeous, but although there’s a definite spark between them, he doesn’t try to blackmail her or threaten her into sleeping with him. So I liked Luke. This being a romance, they do sleep together, and then part, to go their own ways. Only, this being a romance, they don’t.

And no, she doesn’t get pregnant from that weekend’s encounter. Hooray. Really. Sometimes I dislike the pregnancy forcing the h/h together. It doesn’t always work, although it’s being used quite a lot.

Emily is a confident, modern woman in control of her life, and praise be, not a virgin. Luke is a futures trader, and since this is the line for it, he’s wealthy, but he lost his wife three years before in a car accident. Praise be again, he loved his wife, and toward the end says he’ll always love her. He didn’t discover she was having an affair, tricked him into marriage or anything else. I really enjoyed that aspect. He’d let his life atrophy a bit, although he had dated since his wife’s death, he hadn’t met anyone he liked enough to take to bed. So not a manslut.

The dialogue between Emily and Luke was great. I could see the attraction developing as they got to know each other and I enjoyed the insights into each others’ minds they revealed when they talked. Witty, intelligent and just right.

I did find the end a bit of a disappointment, with one of the old Harlequin tropes coming into play but I can’t say that it spoiled my enjoyment overmuch because by then we were pretty much on the downward slope to the happy ending. I did, however, like Emily’s explanation of why she didn’t want a baby, ever. It rang true. And the reason why she liked being a high-ranking temp, although I find it hard to believe that companies would trust a temp with confidential material, without that temp being a consultant, or signing a confidentiality agreement. So I mentally wrote one in.

Since it’s spoiled by the official blurb anyway, yes, Emily does get pregnant later on. I just want to know what brand of condoms Harlequin heroes use, because you can almost guarantee they won’t work. I really don’t want to come across that brand.

I think this is Lucy King’s debut book for Harlequin, at any rate, I haven’t come across her work before. A good one, and I’ll definitely be looking out for more of her books in future. A for this book. Go, Lucy!

Grade: A

Blurb:

Billionaire’s bid.

Luke Harrison is always in control. But ever since he bid for the chance to save a green-bikinied beauty he’s felt his self-possession slipping away.

Blind date.

Independent Emily does not want rescuing – until Luke, a smouldering knight in shining armour, swoops in on his private jet and starts to change her mind!

Secret baby?

Neither is prepared for the heat between them as Emily unbuttons her steely-eyed billionaire, or for when their no-strings fling leads to pleasure beyond their imagining.

Read an excerpt here.

Wendy the Super Librarian’s review of Seducing a Stranger by Christine Merrill
Historical romance short story ebook released by Harlequin Historical Undone 1 Nov 09

Sometimes all it takes is a shorter format to make me more tolerant of certain storylines.  If Seducing a Stranger had been a full-length Harlequin Historical, it probably would have gotten on my nerves.  However as a short read that I zipped through on my lunch break?  It hit the spot.

Victoria Paget was a faithful, dutiful wife who followed her soldier husband to the battlefields of Europe.  When he is killed, she returned home to England, a young widow with many questions.  Her husband had voiced concerns about Timothy Godfrey, a Lieutenant in his unit.  When the entire regiment is killed and only Timothy survives, it’s easy for Victoria to become suspicious.  Is it possible that Lt. Godfrey was a French spy that led her husband to his death?  Determined to ferret out the truth, she discovers he’s a patron of a certain brothel.  With some help, she makes plans to meet him there under the guise of being one of the new girls.

When Timothy enters the brothel he is shocked to discover Victoria Paget.  Between the stories that Captain Paget told about his wife, and the miniature he carried with him, Timothy was more than a little envious.  He half fell in love with her, even though they had never met.  He wanted to speak with Victoria after her husband’s death, but she quickly left for England and he was transferred to a different regiment – only to return home to England shortly thereafter thanks to his own battlefield injury.  But now that he has Victoria in his sights, he’s not letting her get away.

What follows is the classic Big Misunderstanding plot.  Timothy thinks Victoria has fallen on hard times after her husband’s death (why else is she in a brothel?) and being the gallant, valiant sort, is determined to protect her.  Victoria thinks that Timothy is a traitorous scum bag who led her husband to his death, but she’s quickly having doubts.  Not only does this man stir her passions, but he certainly doesn’t act or live like someone in cahoots with the enemy.

Naturally it all eventually comes tumbling out, in no small measure thanks to the lust shared between both characters.  The Undone line promises spicy love scenes, and the author certainly delivers!

At the end, all is right with the world, although I was a little surprised how quickly Timothy forgives Victoria for her deception.  Oh, who am I kidding?  Just the fact that these two didn’t come from money and weren’t titled had me halfway sold on this story before I even started it.

That said, if you have an extreme displeasure for the Big Mis, this one will probably irritate.  But for this reader, it was just right.

Grade: B

Summary:

Though Lieutenant Tom Godfrey had never met Victoria Paget, he desired her. The late Captain Paget’s stories of his wife—and her portrait—were enough to arouse his envy…and his lust. Now Tom’s returned from the peninsula—and never expected to find the young widow in a bawdy house!

Necessity had brought Victoria to the house of ill repute: it was the only place she could confront Tom, whom she suspected was responsible for her husband’s death. But when she meets the virile soldier, his gallantry and her body’s passionate response to him take her completely by surprise.

What started as a one-night seduction may lead to much more…but will they still have a future when all their secrets are revealed?

No excerpt found.

As we all know, there are some crazies on teh interwebs. We’ve all heard about them, read them, or even experienced them. If you’re an author, you might also get the bonus of getting some crazy emails. Fan letters, hate letters, the works.

Every so often, an author will mention a “speshul” email on twitter. Recently, some authors talking about such a happenstance were HelenKay Dimon, Larissa Ione, Jaci Burton, and Lauren Dane.

Here’s an example.

Dear Larissa,

Thank you so much for writing your Demon books. I’ve been following the Demonica series since the first one, PLEASURE UNBOUND was released, and I can’t tell you how glad I am that I found them.

Finally!

An author is writing books that are specifically relevant to me! I, too, have my own special Demon who rocks my world. It’s so nice that you do too, and that you can understand where I’m coming from.

One of my problems with the series is when Wraith gave the Heofon to Kyran. Wraith would never have done such a thing because it would have been all about him and no one else. Why did you do that? You were wrong. Why would he do that?

And you’re wrong about Hell. I’ve been there. Satan is super cool. I’m going to tell him about your sucky books.

If I had more time, I’d tell you more about my Demon, but you don’t deserve to hear about him. I’m going to tell my demon to kick your demon’s ass the next time he sees him in hell.

I hope you learned your lesson. I’ll be looking for your next Demonica book, just to see if you did. Do not disappoint me in this. I do not like being disappointed.

Your #1 Fan

P.S. I’ve got my eyes on you.

So there you go. Why does this involve all of you? Well. Here’s where the fun begins! I teased the aforementioned authors that I was tempted to write them a very special fan letter. They said they’d post any bat shit crazy email I sent them.

This is where you come in. You have your choice of any of those four authors. Write the craziest, most freaky, creepy, incendiary email you can, and send it to crazyfanletter@gmail.com. (I know, I know I said I’m for contests where you just have to post to be entered, but don’t you think this is a fun and worthy cause?!) **NB** Because I’m having you email that specially created address, please include your info (name + address) in your email to expedite the shipping process for winners. Believe me – I won’t be sharing your information. And, you don’t need to sign your fan letter with your own name – sign it however you want, and add the info somewhere else in the email.

I’ve found an impartial panel, and the winner will get a copy of one of HelenKay Dimon’s books. (I’m hoping to find Holding Out for a Hero at Borders.) There might also be additional winners who get one of Larissa Ione’s Demonica books.

Incidentally, if you have any questions, please post them here, at the blog, rather than emailing that address. Also, if you’d like – and to keep conversation going, which author you’re writing your fan letter to. It’d be great if we could get a nice mix.

And don’t worry – I’ll be posting the best letters we get, and possible snippets of others as well. Ready, set, go!

*P.S. That’s not a real reader letter. I wrote that with my good friend Mad. At one point I had to tell her she was being too nice. And we kept trying to up the crazy, but we’re just not that good. I’m pretty sure you can do much better.

Dawna’s review of A Highlander’s Destiny (Daughters of the Glen, Book 5) by Melissa Mayhue
Time Travel Romance published by Pocket 29 Dec 09

There are good things and bad things about reading one of Melissa Mayhue’s stories.  The good part is I am totally enamored with her Daughters of the Glen series.  The bad part: I don’t get anything else done once I pick up one of her books.  I knew A Highlander’s Destiny was going to be a winner the instant I went to three different bookstore locations to hunt it down and they were all sold out.  I wasn’t disappointed once I got my hands on my own copy.

Jesse Coryell is another descendant of the Fae.  He’s a tough guy and takes his work seriously.  Jesse doesn’t believe in fate and when his little niece tells him it’s time to find his destiny, he chalks it up to her wild imagination.  But somehow “destiny” keeps popping up one way or another, and when he sees an email from a potential client whose name just happens to be Destiny, he is drawn to help her.

Destiny Noble wants nothing more than to find her younger sister.  Leah is all she has after being abandoned by everyone she has ever cared about.   The police have declared her sister a runaway, but Destiny doesn’t believe that for an instant.  Her visions have shown her the truth.  They’ve also led her to Coryell Enterprises and the man destined to help her in her quest.

Together, Jesse and Destiny must race against time to save Leah from the Naudians.  Destiny will do anything to get her sister back.  But when her feelings for Jesse come to a head, she has to choose between her love for Jesse or saving her sister.

A Highlander’s Destiny is an absolute must read.  I absolutely fell in love with the characters and found myself cheering them along.  There is so much at stake for these two.  Ms. Mayhue does a superb job of drawing you in and captivating you with this story.  She works true magic with her words.

Grade: A+

Read Sandy M’s review here.

Summary:

JESSE CORYELL is a man adrift in life, searching for his destiny. He doesn’t trust women; too many have chased him for his money and power. He’s tried to lose himself in his work, taking on the worst mankind has to offer, but as a Guardian and Fae descendent, what he really needs is to find his true love. When he sets out to help a mysterious woman find her sister, what he gets is
much more than he bargained for, battling an undeniable attraction to his sexy new client while fighting to save her life and rescue her sister.

DESTINY NOBLE is desperately searching for her missing kid sister. Not even her own attempted abduction will stop her in her quest. Abandoned by everyone she’s ever loved, losing Leah is the last straw. Authorities have declared the girl a runaway, but Destiny knows better. Her dreams have shown her the truth. They’ve also shown her Jesse.

Jesse and Destiny race against time to save an innocent girl from a powerful ancient evil. Will true love be their only weapon or will they each sacrifice their own destiny in the process?

Read an excerpt.

Other books in this series:

Lynne Connolly’s review of His Bought Mistress by Emma Darcy
Contemporary romance released by Harlequin Presents 1 Jan 05

Mistress – faugh. Doesn’t suit this book, unless it’s meant ironically.  Meant ironically, it works better, because Angie so doesn’t want to be a bought mistress. 

The heroine, Angie, is a successful businesswoman and the hero, Hugo, employs her to decorate a new block of luxury flats he’d just built. Both Angie and her business partner Francine are keen to find husbands, with their biological clocks ticking madly. While I recognized the urge, it wasn’t a particularly flattering one, but I quite liked that. Refreshing honesty. They weren’t prepared to throw everything away for a partner, but they did want someone to share their lives with. Where I take exception is when the heroine’s job is viewed as a kind of hobby, something for her to do until the hero comes along.

Hugo doesn’t always behave well, but I quite liked that, too, because he was prepared to admit his mistakes and apologize. And he isn’t beastly to Angie. Not something I like in my heroes.

The story begins when Francine, tired of fruitless attempts to find a man to love, has her picture put up on a billboard by Sydney Bridge. Only it isn’t her picture, it’s Angie’s. It’s only up for a day, before the company acknowledges its mistake, but it’s enough to make Angie’s current boyfriend, Paul, dump her, and for Hugo to see the picture and be attracted by it.

Angie agrees to go to Tokyo for the weekend with Hugo. I did think that a 9 hour flight was a bit much for a weekend, but hey, this is a fairytale. Long flights tend to put me in bed for half a day afterward, but these are romance heroes and heroines and not subject to our rules. They have a great time, bond, but Angie’s not sure if she’s getting into another physical only relationship, with no real lasting feelings. She feels the uncertainty of falling so hard, so fast.

I enjoyed our glances into Hugo. He isn’t the perfect hero and at one point he succumbs to his baser instincts, but his grovel redeems him. I don’t think he’s as fully realized as Angie, I would have enjoyed more of an insight into him, and the confrontation between Hugo and her ex, Paul, wasn’t entirely satisfactory, mainly because both men were in the wrong.

But I do appreciate Ms Darcy’s attempts to bring a more modern outlook to the Presents/Modern line and the more assertive heroine. I’d love to see more of those.

Grade: B

Summary:

The instant Australian billionaire Hugo Fullbright sees Angie Blessing, he knows he has to have her. There’s no doubt about the instant, sizzling sexual attraction between them! So why, at first, does Angie refuse his offer?

Angie cannot tell Hugo the real story. But finally she succumbs to his powers of seduction and agrees to join him on a weekend trip to Tokyo..not realizing that he’s a man used to paying for what he wants, and that she’s been bought–and brought–for his pleasure!

No excerpt available.

I’ve been thinking about the sudden surge to self-publishing and vanity publishing and the interest I’ve recently seen in various blogs and other places.

Being a suspicious soul, I started to think about why this should be. Not all improvements come because the time has come and it’s right for them. Sometimes the situation is carefully created.

I don’t for one minute think that the big six publishers intend to give an inch of ground to the new ones coming up, the Ellora’s Cave, Samhain and Loose-Id’s of this world. I’ve been involved in a developing market before, used to specialise in it, and I’ve seen it work itself out. Either a new big company emerges to take the profits, or one of the old boys muscles in and takes it later in the day, after others have pioneered. Or the market fragments, and the niches become the thing.

While every new market has a similar pattern, the details are more complex and the reasons come from several sources. With the new emphasis on self publishing, it might not come from the place you can first see, the vociferous place, the authors who are deciding to take that route.

Yes, the market is more open than it used to be. The big publishers have lost ground to the smaller ones, the market is more diverse. The smaller publisher can respond faster to market forces, demands for ‘more books about fairies,’ or ‘older heroes and heroines,’ or just ‘more sex.’ Even more when it’s digital. But many people still prefer a paper copy and many authors prefer not to put their livelihoods at the whim of a big corporation.

But there’s no demand from the public, the readership, for more self-published books. No big group of readers is seizing on a publisher like Lulu and asking for more books. The vanities aren’t growing market share. So where’s the demand coming from? When was the last time you walked into a bookstore and asked to be shown the self published section?

It’s being created. Sometimes a market responds to consumer need, sometimes the market shows the consumer what it really wants, and sometimes a market has to be built by the people who want it. These aren’t necessarily bad. I mean, who knew we needed Windows until Bill Gates showed us? Then yes, it was just what many of us were looking for, computing without all that tedious programming. I was involved in the early years of the computer. I learned (and forgot) four different programming languages, Cobol, Fortran 77, Basic and Diplomat, a language unique to the company I worked for. It was a complete drag. Then we get Windows, early BBC basic and the Acorn computers and we begin to see. It’s the experts who show us what we can have first.

But self publishing isn’t reinventing anything. It’s a book, same as other books. It’s for the author and the manufacturer. As a reader, I don’t care where the money’s going or who published a book as long as it’s readable and it looks pretty good. As an author, I put up my hands in horror at that statement, but to deny it would be foolish. I buy a book, I read it. If it’s in my price range, then I might buy it on a whim, the way most books are purchased. If it’s by a favorite author, I might pay a bit more. If it’s an art book, or something that is a beautiful object, I might pay more still (I do have some breathtaking fashion books – my shiny black copy of the book celebrating Yves St Laurent’s 25 years of design is one of my prized possessions, but oh, the price!)

So here’s what I think. I suspect it’s a production initiative. Think about it.

I suspect that there’s a convincing looking report going around, showing how the publisher can use up excess production capacity by farming it out.
I used to work in the print industry (I was a litho buyer) and print machinery is huge, massively expensive, and deteriorates quickly, as well as taking up a lot of physical space. It’s all expensive. So self publishing, for a publisher that owns such equipment and is looking for a way to use the capacity to take up the loss in bulk production, is a good idea.

And the marketing department has been told to sell it.

Most people know that the old system of oversupplying the stores so that every store has a book available, then returning half or more, is coming to an end. Stores are much more efficient in their stock turnover, there are fewer physical copies going to fewer stores, and the digital revolution is making serious inroads into paper books.

But those machines sit there, eating money.

Renting out time on the press looks like a win/win for the manufacturer. Which is why I think the marketing of Dellarte, the Harlequin vanity press, was so inept. They didn’t look hard enough at the front end. Editors, marketers etc could have told them what the reaction would be, and Harlequin employs some of the best, so my guess is that they were brought in on a done deal at the last minute and had to scramble to make the most of it. They want to keep those machines rolling. So sell it to the punter, in this case, to the writer.

Until that machinery is depreciated into oblivion, it has to make a profit for the company that owns it. The alternative is to do some clever financing, but most publishers have done that already. The production end is separated out so that it doesn’t drag the rest of the corporation down with it. But it’s still there and the parent company wants to maximize its profits.

So the editor, geared to selling to the reader, fine-tuned to deliver what the reader wants and the marketer, geared to making the most of what the company does best, is now expected to sell what the company produces. Which is, after all, how many companies started.

The difference for us is that they aren’t selling to the reader, they’re selling to the author. And that is so different it has to be hived off as a separate concern. I can’t see myself buying a book just to support the author, unless it’s a charity book, where all the profits are designated to one charity or another. The author who really knows what she’s doing can be on to a good thing. She must know the bookstores won’t take the books if they’re non returnable, she’s aware that she won’t have a big company behind her easing her way. She’s worked all that into her business plan. But the author who has tried every publisher and received a rejection from them all, who is being sold this option as a viable way of putting her “unusual, different, they-don’t-understand-me” book out there, it seems perfect. Of course it isn’t, it’s a cynical exercise to sell to the most vulnerable out there. Probably.

I would really love it if in the comments we didn’t get some of the self-publishing evangelists. Yes, we get it, it’s the best thing since sliced bread, a new market, a new opportunity, but this isn’t want this article is about. It’s about where the demand is really coming from and who stands to gain the most from it. And it isn’t the author. If you want to write a piece about how self-publishing has changed you and why an author should take that course, write an article and send it to Sybil (sorry, pet!). Or put it on a blog of your own.

The difference between self publishing and vanity publishing is deliberately obscured by many of the people selling it. For the customer, that is the author, it often isn’t clear until that first statement arrives, but basically it’s simple. In self publishing, the author buys a service, but she owns the ISBN, the copyright and 100% of what she can make from the final product, the book. In vanity publishing, the publisher owns the ISBN, can own the copyright too, and the publishing rights, and to take the Delarte example, takes 50%. So which is the best deal, especially since the author has to pay for everything and doesn’t even get the value of the Harlequin name on the dust jacket?

Let me see…

What does it mean for me? Nothing. I have no intention of going into self publishing in the market as it stands right now, though never say never. Things might change enough for me to consider it. But I’ve had my fill of selling, marketing, assessing markets, and doing everything for myself.

I come from a long line of small businesspeople, long enough to know I don’t want to wear myself out early doing things I don’t want to do. I want to write. And for me, the best option is to let someone else do all the other things. I want to concentrate on the thing I do best, which is the writing end. I could do the marketing, but I don’t wanna. Never did enjoy it very much. So I’ll give a proportion of the income up to someone who will. And will work hard to improve my sales and market share. Sure, I’ll help, which is why I can see the value in a cooperative, but I don’t want to do it all myself.

I just want to write. And read.

Welcome once again to Duck Chat!

What a treat we have for you today, Ciji Ware is with us!

Over the next couple of years, Ciji’s books are being re-issued by Sourcebooks, beginning with Island of the Swans this month, followed by several titles through next year.  Wonderful news for long-time fans and a terrific chance for readers who haven’t yet discovered Ciji’s books.

Ciji lives in California with her husband, and when she’s not writing, she is a Scottish history and dancing aficionado. If you’d like to know other little tidbits about Ciji, be sure to ask her a question or leave a comment and we’ll put you in the running for a copy of Island of the Swans. Sourcebooks is giving away two copies.

Now let’s chat!

DUCK CHAT: Welcome to the Pond, Ciji! Our readers would like to know a little about you. Would you give them a quick look at both Ciji the woman and Ciji the author?

CIJI WARE: Well, Ciji-the-Author has written six historical novels and two nonfiction works, scores of magazine pieces, and was a producer-writer on a now defunct web start-up (and trust me, that particular year-long experience is a novel in itself!). Ware-The-Writer has produced and written news and public affairs television shows for PBS in LA; some 5000 radio commentaries over seventeen years for ABC in LaLaLand; and is the proud author of “Mardi Gras Madness”—an original musical for the Sausalito Woman’s Club—a worthy organization still going strong after nearly one hundred years.

I recently completed a piece for AARP The Magazine called “Decluttering Your Life” and an 8-Week Online series on the same subject for aarp.org. As you probably guessed by now, I am one of those people who will “Write For Food.”

Ciji-the-Woman has tap-danced for money, loves to cook, is a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel fancier, enjoys figuring out delightful ways to live in small spaces (“Cottages R Us”); gives a lot of time to her alma mater; has been wed to the same man for 33+ years, and has happily married off her only child, 30-Something Jamie, to a beautiful brain scientist. Ciji loves going to Europe when she can afford it, and lives in a maritime village seven minutes across the Golden Gate Bridge from one of the greatest cities in the world: San Francisco.

DC: If you could retire any interview question and never, ever have it asked again, what would it be? Feel free to answer it.

CW: Probably the question I dread most—but one that is probably always worth answering, is: “Where do your ideas come from?”

In my experience, there is no one place ideas come from. Mine bubble forth from being curious, something that is probably in my DNA (I am the daughter of a crime reporter and writer and a descendant of several generations of professional writers). This innate curiosity is a character trait I developed very strongly during my twenty-five years as a print and on-air reporter and commentator for radio and TV. I was trained to look for the “who, what, where, when and why” in most situations in life—the result of which has been that asking questions usually turns up very interesting answers.

For instance, my great-grandmother, Elfie McCullough had long and loudly claimed that my mother’s family were direct descendants of Jane Maxwell, 4th Duchess of Gordon, the heroine of Island of the Swans. When I wondered if that were true and how that might be true, it launched me into writing my first novel after fifteen years in the journalism business. It even led me to wearing eighteenth century duds upon occasion as a means of promoting my books!

I was never, in the five years it took me to research and write this book, able to prove for certain that we were related, but what resulted from my curiosity to find out produced a novel that is, basically, “Gone with the Wind of Scotland!”

DC: Your first published book from 1989, Island of the Swans, as been reissued by Sourcebooks, hit the shelves earlier this month. We can see it received a new, updated cover. Did you do any revising or rewriting of the story itself? If so, is it major revisions/rewriting or just some tweaking?

When Sourcebooks Landmark (the historical novel division of the company, also publishing wonderful reissues of Georgette Heyer and my special heroine, Daphne du Maurier) made an offer to bring out a 20th anniversary edition of Swans, I delightedly agreed–with a couple of conditions:

1.) That I have cover approval so the “package” would finally fit the contents (here’s what the wonderful art department came up with, based on the portrait of the real duchess I had suggested), and

2.) That I be allowed to restore the one hundred pages about the “Madness Crisis of George III” and a section about women being drowned as punishment for disobeying their husbands in the eighteenth century that had been ripped out of the second edition of the novel by its previous publisher.

I also removed some of the Scottish dialect that I felt slowed down the reader’s enjoyment of the narrative. I kept in the Scottish lilt to the language and a few “Scottishisms” like the endearment “hinny”–but I think the prose reads much more smoothly now.

I was tremendously grateful to my wonderful editor, Deb Werksman, for the chance to produce this book as it was meant to be: an historical novel writ on the large stage of history that also had a strong love story at its core. In other words, I wrote what I love to read, as in Gone with the Wind, Forever Amber, Green Darkness, The French Lieutenant’s Woman, The Shell Seekers (I know, I know, not an” historical,” per se, but set during World War II and with depth and a sweep of events that I love), and, of course, du Maurier’s Jamaica Inn.

Producing a good, juicy historical has always been my goal with every novel I’ve written. That, and answering the question “What were the women doing during the Eighteenth Century Enlightenment?

DC: Jane and Thomas are featured in Island of the Swans. They grow from friendship into love and then unbelievable tragedy strikes. Would you give us deeper look at this couple and their story?

CW: Jane and Thomas, and certainly Alexander, the 4th Duke of Gordon, as well, are all victims of both fate and the choices they made as a result of the dramatic (and traumatic) events in their lives. All the key characters suffer almost unbearable losses, and yet (since this is based on the true story of their lives) the thing that interested me most was how they coped with those losses, and in many ways were transformed by them, especially Jane and Thomas. These two invariably exhibited what I call “grace under pressure.” Alex, with whom I sympathize quite a lot at various stages of the story, is conditioned by his upbringing and the power he possessed as a high member of the British—and Scottish—aristocracy, to avoid much introspective. Alex wants what he wants; will do what he must to obtain it; and when he is frustrated, becomes as punishing and self-centered as his mother, the Dowager Duchess, was toward him.

Toward the end of the novel, there is a scene where, for a tiny window of time, the Duke wonders what his life would have been like if he had merely accepted Jane for the amazing, independent-minded woman she was. But then, therein hangs the tale of this love triangle that endured for more than three decades.

DC: I’ve heard writers often say their stories take them in surprising directions, or dialogue flows from some unknown place. Is it the same with you? Do your characters surprise you sometimes?

CW: A lot of writers often discuss how their characters “talk to them.” Since Swans was based on the lives of people who actually lived on earth, I was constrained by the facts of their histories and I never put anything I the novel I knew to be untrue.

My characters didn’t talk to me, but they certainly appeared, in the course of my writing, to want their story told to the world. I know this sounds a bit woo-woo, but there were parts of the biographical narrative that I hadn’t been able to nail during the initial research phase, but I wrote certain scenes anyway with what I call “intelligent supposition” based on the information I did know. Time after time, (and in time to make any tweaks, if necessary), I would at a later date stumble upon cold, hard proof that I had “guessed right.”

During Jane Maxwell’s lifetime and long after her death, this eighteenth century “Woman of Fashion” had been castigated publicly for her “forwardness” in politics, for favoring military intervention in the American Colonies and even recruiting troops in the Scottish Highlands, and for her prominent—some would say flamboyant—role in the social life of her day. However, as with journalism, it behooves a reporter to see if there’s another side to the story.

In the course of my research, I found a significant cache of letters at the Scottish National Library and the Register House in Edinburgh, written in Jane’s own hand, that hadn’t been examined in a hundred and fifty years! These told a very different story as to her personality and the care she had for her children in the light of the caustic criticism by her contemporaries that she was merely a self-promoting, ambitious aristocratic mama called disparagingly “The Match-Making Duchess.” So much for the accuracy of some of the publications and political cartoons of her day. …

When I was writing Jane’s dialogue, it almost felt at times that she was attempting to “set the record straight.” For instance, I never could pin down even the name of her great childhood love—just that she’d had one and that rumors about her enduring affection for him grew poisonous around the birth of her daughter, Louisa (who ultimately married Cornwallis’s son of the Surrender at Yorktown fame). That she had always carried a torch for this person was definitely in the record, but the letters and documents saying precisely who he was simply weren’t there—or may have been hidden away or destroyed by her family during her lifetime or after her death.

However, by calculating births, deaths, and military records from the files of the 78th Fraser Highlanders regiment in which her brother Hamilton commanded a company, again, I think my sleuthing found the right man: Thomas Fraser of Struy. But, can I be certain? To date: no. Such is the pleasure of writing fiction, instead of biography!

DC: Do you ever argue with your characters while you’re writing? Who usually wins?

CW: No, I don’t argue with them….I allow the record of their lives, if they are historical characters, to lead the way. If they totally fictional, as with Arabella Delaney Boyd (a woman Thomas encounters in America when fighting in a kilted regiment during the American War of Independence) I had no doubt what role she would play in Thomas’s fate. In fact, I heard her speech in my head from the moment I introduced her on the page. Yes, she was the “bad gal;” however, a very wise editor, the late Beverly Lewis, once said to me, “Nobody cares about a cardboard villain…you must, as a writer, understand why they do the despicable things they do.”

I took that excellent advice and asked myself what the reasons could be that this “wicked” character changed the course of Thomas’ life forever by not posting to England a letter he’d written to Jane. The eventual answer to that question, while not excusing Arabella’s perfidy, made her actions understandable, her character richer—and ultimately—allowed Thomas to forgive her for basically ruining his life. Miss Arabella ain’t no cardboard character for sure!

DC:  Will any of your other books be reissued in the future?

CW: The amazing thing about the arrangement I made with Sourcebook Landmark is, once I secured the rights back to all my backlisted historicals, this company that certainly “gets” the digital revolution wanted them all!

As with the Georgette Heyer series, my new publisher is basically “rebranding” my work with covers that often feature portraits of women of the era and telegraph to the reader “This is historical fiction.” On the other hand, given other cues and clues on the covers, my books, as reintroduced to a new generation of readers, are positioned as “literate” as opposed to “literary” fiction. Put more plainly: as good reads.

What I write is certainly intended for a mass audience, but my work has never quite fit in the category as pure romance either. My books are for people who still like big, story-and-character driven tales that sweep the reader into a different era. They are set on the broad stage of history that, hopefully, offers men and women that capture the imagination and teach a little bit about a period in the past that nevertheless relates to the modern day in surprising ways.

As for the other books in the Sourcebook pipeline, A Cottage by the Sea, set in Cornwall and Wyoming, debuts in June, 2011, and tells the story of a woman who must completely reinvent her life—but first she must discover who she truly is.

Another of my historicals, Wicked Company, comes out in Fall 2010. It’s about a rollicking group of eighteenth century women playwrights (based on historical figures) who struggle against what they see as the “marriage trap” set by too-charming fellow actors and writers. They fight royal censorship as well as overt disdain for their efforts, and revel in the accomplishment of having their works produced to great success at Covent Garden and Drury Lane theatres during the era of the wildly successful comedies, School for Scandal and She Stoops to Conquer.

2011 in April will see the publication of my first new historical in a decade: A Race to Splendor, about two licensed women architects (again, based on real people)—who improbably win the assignment of restoring the fabled Fairmont Hotel atop Nob Hill in the wake of the devastating 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire. They have one year to accomplish this feat—and a very dashing and dangerous young hotelier is determined to see the heroine fail.

The other novels that will be reissued in 2011 clad in Sourcebooks’ truly marvelous covers are Midnight on Julia Street and A Light on the Veranda –both of which are set in the American South, but have historical links to eighteenth and nineteenth century Europe.

DC: What is sure to distract you from sitting down and working/writing?

CW: An invitation to lunch! Like my other favorite city, New Orleans, the San Francisco Bay Area, along with the wine country to the north, has an overwhelming array of great eateries—even a Wine Train. I mean, who wouldn’t pitch the day’s writing schedule to drink spirits and eat great, locally raised food while some very gorgeous scenery drifts by…?

DC: How do you feel your male or female characters have evolved over your career? Do you think you write them differently now than you did when you started?

CW: I think I’ve remained pretty consistent about the way in which I handle male and female characters and treating the subject of their interpersonal relations. I remain intrigued by the question: can men and women truly form an equal partnership? It’s been the quest of my own life, having married a fellow writer who evolved into an Internet Guru person. In each of my books, not only is the love relationship at stake; so is the day-to-day, how-do-we-treat-each-other questions of respect, acceptance of personal foibles, and forgiveness of the inevitable mistakes we humans make. After more than three decades of marriage, these issues are nearly settled, but it still “gets interesting” from time-to-time, as it certainly did in earlier centuries.

DC: Is there a genre you haven’t tackled but would like to try?

CW: Well, I’ve attempted, and not succeeded, as yet, writing mysteries, which I adore to read. However, I think that one day I’ll write an historical mystery in the mold of Jacqueline Winspear’s Maisie Dobbs, or Tasha Alexander’s Regency series. I’ve always put the mystery aside to do what I know how to do, but someday…

I’ve also written that one musical and I’d like to try another on a bit of a grander scale. I could probably keep myself busy with all the projects in mind till I fall off the perch.

DC: What advice would you give to your younger self?

CW: I would tell myself to stand up to the publishing authorities that told me what the trends are. Fight like crazy to have a genuine say-so about the ways in which your works are presented to the public, as in packaging (cover art, cover copy, positioning in the marketplace).

It’s scary to do this when your dream is to see your book between covers from a real publisher…but with tact and marshalling good, sound, economic reasons for your requests, the “other side” will respect a writer if she delivers a great book and then speaks up about how she’d like to see it presented to the public.

DC: If you were a book, what would your blurb be?

CW: This writer does her research and spins a tale of love and the vagaries of fate that you cannot put down.

DC: You began your writing career in the field of journalism. Did you find the switch to writing romance easy or did it give you a hard time?

CW: I had very little trouble switching from journalism to writing fiction, as I had honed the skills I needed to “get the story” – even if the story took place long ago. I also was blessed with having learned the discipline to meet all deadlines—no matter what. This endears you enormously with publishers. My problem has always been that I’m a hybrid: I write historical fiction that has a strong, romantic component, but, as Lance Armstrong said, “It’s not about the bike.” In my work, it’s not only about the romance, even though the love story in each of my novels is always a vital part of the package. I not only want my heroines to get their man; I want her to discover herself and how she defines herself on a life course separate from the man she loves. I’ve always been a “radical“ in this regard, and so are the heroines I’ve chosen to create.

DC: What’s on the horizon for Ciji Ware?

CW: I’m noodling about a couple of ideas with my editor, one of which would take me back to eighteenth century England and a bunch of aristocratic women whose marriages left the penniless and who were forced to find their way in the unlikely world of an all-male industry still vital today. Another idea is set in Scotland at the turn of the twentieth century, and still another would be loosely based on the story of my own mother, whose family was quite wealthy and lost every cent in the Crash of ’29. It’s taken a full year to prepare six novels for publication, so I’m all over the place, currently, as you can see. My editor, Deb Werksman, will have to sort me out.…

Lightning Round:

- dark or milk chocolate?     – Dark chocolate in a household that loves the milky variety!
- smooth or chunky peanut butter?    – Definitely chunky!
- heels or flats?     – Flats 97.5% of the time, but just last week at a “So You Think You Can Dance” party, I pulled out my Lucite, 4 inch heels and danced the night away at a disco extravaganza.
- coffee or tea?     – Tea first thing and at 4pm; Coffee after my walking group does at least a mile and a half Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.
- summer or winter?     – Neither: Fall. Where I live, the fog rolls in during summer and it rains like mad (at least during El Nino) during the winter. Fall in the Bay Area and in New York where my son and new daughter-in-law live is divine!
- mountains or beach?     – I’m definitely a by-the-sea gal…
- mustard or mayonnaise?     – Mayo…in fact, y’all try Wildwood Zesty Garlic Aioli (at Whole Foods, among other places). You will thank me forever.
- flowers or candy?     – Flowers, and don’t stint!
- pockets or purse?     – Love NOT to take a purse to functions and put my “necessities” into my husband’s pockets.
- Pepsi or Coke?     -  Neither. My mother forbad us to drink carbonated beverages, and it stuck, except for Vieux Clicquot champagne. Sorry.
- ebook or print?      – I got a Kindle for Christmas and it’s great when I travel, but I have to say, I prefer curling up with an honest-to-goodness book. I really like the size and feel of quality trade paperbacks, which are the size and format of Swans and my other books coming out in 2010-2011.

And because we still enjoy the answers we get:

1. What is your favorite word?      – “Excellent.”
2. What is your least favorite word?      – “Awesome”
3. What turns you on creatively, spiritually or emotionally?     – Watching dance performed brilliantly
4. What turns you off creatively, spiritually or emotionally?      -  Gratuitous violence
5. What sound or noise do you love?     – San Francisco’s foghorns
6. What sound or noise do you hate?     -  Loud, pulsing noise emanating from cars pulled up at a red light
7. What is your favorite curse word?    – Merde!
8. What profession other than your own would you like to attempt?     -  Either a film director or an interior designer of cottages
9. What profession would you not like to do?      – Anything where every day it’s the same task…like flipping hamburgers, okaying health insurance claims, etc.
10. If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates?     – “You got it right, Ciji: all IS well.”

DC: Ciji, thank you so much for being here today. It’s been a pleasure!

Sandy M’s review of A Highlander’s Homecoming (Daughters of the Glen, Book 6) by Melissa Mayhue
Time Travel Romance published by Pocket 26 Jan 10

Melissa Mayhue’s books are getting better and better, and if you haven’t read her yet, you are missing out on some flat-out great stories. Her Guardian books have been my favorites so far in this series, but AHH has nestled right alongside them in the No. 1 spot. Besides a terrific hero and heroine, it’s the time traveling that made this book so good.

At the end of A Highlander’s Destiny, it’s Robert who has volunteered to escort Leah, the heroine’s sister, who had been so torturously treated by Faeries, back in time so she cannot be located by those evil-doers again. This book picks up immediately with the planning stage for the trek in the works, dire warnings leveled about Fae magic, and the trip has begun. Of course, things go wrong from the beginning. Instead of landing at his home near the time he left ten years before, Robert ends up twenty years down the road, way past the time to follow through with his promise to a friend to take care of the man’s daughter. She’s no longer a young child.

In fact, Isabella is a definitely a grown woman with a mind of her own, living in a small cottage away from the grandfather she’s never gotten along with. She keeps him and everyone else at bay by appearing to be a ratty, dirty mad woman and that works for a while. Until Robert forces his way into her life. Refusing to be part of the clan politics, she returns to her home where she enjoys her solitude and an occasional visit from young Jamie, a child scared in the fire that killed his mother. Now, however, she has a protector, and Robert takes his duty seriously, even if he is a little late in getting started.

These two characters are, of course, the bright spot in the book. They are each opinionated, stubborn, and a lot of fun. Their attraction is palpable from the outset, and it grows steadily, but each tries to deny it for their own reasons. Though Isa wants nothing to do with her family, especially not wanting to inherit the whole kit and caboodle from her grandfather, she’s thrown into the middle of it all anyway, while doing her best to stay out of the enemies’ hands. She soon is grateful for Robert’s presence as well as his brawn.

Amidst all the danger, Robert has to deal with the effects of his time traveling, and Ms. Mayhue does a fantastic job in this respect. I also like the fact we get two separate instances of hurtling through time, one of which is not guaranteed to work at all. The only small disappointment I have is Robert not having the opportunity for goodbye for the second time in his life, which really surprised me because it would have been simple enough to do when all the players are present this time around.

If you love time travel, you should be reading Ms. Mayhue’s books. If you’re into Scottish historicals, you too should be reading this series. Heck, every romance reader should be reading these books just because they’re great stories. You will become a Melissa Mayhue fan in no time at all.

Grade: A+

Summary:

Scotland, Present Day. When Faerie Magic swept Robert MacQuarrie forward in time, modern medicine saved him from a fatal wound. But he also left behind an unfulfilled vow—to protect his friend’s young daughter, Isabella. Haunted by guilt for over a decade, he leaps at the chance to go back and keep that vow. The magic of the Fae works in its own mysterious ways, however.

Scotland, 1292. Isabella MacGahan has reluctantly chosen a lonely existence, scorned for her Faerie blood and uncontrollable power. When she’s caught in a conflict between clans, a pawn in the struggle for power and land, her only option is to trust a handsome stranger. One who swears he was charged with her safety a full twenty years before… although the deluded man seems little older than she is.

No one is safe when Mortal schemes and Faerie magic push Robbie and Isabella to confront their worst fears. Will the magic demand the ultimate price from them both—or will they find their true homecoming in each other’s arms?

Read an excerpt.

Other books in this series:

Lynne Connolly’s review of The Italian’s One-Night Love-Child by Cathy Williams
Contemporary romance UK release by Mills & Boon 5 Feb 10

DNF’s are unusual for me. I usually plod on until the bitter end, and frequently the book redeems itself. You see, I have a penchant for heroes and heroines who aren’t perfect, who may cheat and steal, but there are a few things that I really dislike, so this is the story of how a recent Harlequin book became a DNF. Usually, if I give up on a book, I don’t review it, because I figure that what didn’t work for me might work for someone else. I’m not doing it to trash the book and make the author feel bad, I want to warn the reader, and I want to point out what I want to see in a romance. In this case I’m fairly clear that most readers will want the same, but I’d love to hear from anyone who read this and loved it. Did I give up too soon? What can the heroine do to make me like her?

So here’s the book.

Cathy Williams is usually a reliable writer who comes up with the odd gem. She has a nice, light style that works well with the Presents/Modern line. I got about half way through her latest, The Italian’s One Night Love Child.

The heroine is Bethany, and she’s flat-sitting in Rome. A posh flat in the center of Rome, to be exact. She’s trying on the wardrobe belonging to the person she’s sitting for, and she hears a knock at the door. To do her justice, she realises she shouldn’t have been trying the dress on, but when she sees the gorgeous stud who answers it, and tries to hide. But he’s gorgeous and she agrees to go out to dinner with him, without telling him who she is.

Fair enough, because the owner of the flat, or her daughter, I wasn’t sure which, was concealing the fact that she’s in rehab and she doesn’t want people to find out. One night. Cristiano is intrigued and wants to sleep with Bethany, or Amy, as he thinks she is. The scene ends when she confesses to him that she’s a virgin.

The next chapter starts several months later. Wha..? I wasn’t happy. The reader misses their first kiss, when he takes her virginity and the two weeks they had in Barbados. Wait–she went back to his apartment? She made love with him for the first time in her life, and then flew off to Barbados with him? How did she manage that when the name on her ticket wouldn’t have matched the name on her passport?

That’s a whole chunk of story skipped over in a sentence. I felt like I’d missed the actual story. Their falling in love. I didn’t get to ‘see’ a vital part of the process and this is supposed to be a romance? WTF? Listen, a romance is about two people falling in love, the process. I want to experience the first time they touch, the first eye contact, the first kiss, the first lovemaking and the development of the relationship. To skip like that isn’t on.

I read on to see if Ms Williams could redeem herself. Bethany is living in Ireland, at her parents’ place, and she’s pregnant. She’s given up her university course in London and gone home. She had no intention of contacting Cristiano to tell him about it. Moreover, she’d lied to her parents, too, told them that she was engaged and that he was in Africa building schools (or something, she’s not quite clear) for the underprivileged.

That was where I stopped. I didn’t want Cristiano to fall in love with someone who was, let’s face it, a lying cheat. I felt very sorry for him and I really, really wanted him to walk away and find somebody nice who he could trust, but by this stage I knew he was fated to end up with this awful person. Bethany had lied to everyone she claimed that she loved—her parents and the father of her child. Although Cristiano was a wealthy man, she refused to give her child, another person she should love, with the privilege he or she is entitled to. She thought of herself rather than the child. That was where I closed the book because I was pretty sure that they wouldn’t sit down, have a civilised conversation, and then check Bethany into the nearest psychiatric unit where she could recover from her compulsive lying. If they’d taken the baby away from her I wouldn’t have been sorry. So there it ended.

At this stage I would have taken an amnesia plot rather than what she knowingly did, which shows you how desperate I was, because I’m not a fan of the amnesia plot. But at least that would have given Bethany a valid reason for walking away.

This is supposed to be a romance. I want a romance, and I want to read the developments along the way. And the characters I read about should be flawed, but should have some redeeming features.

Grade: DNF

Summary:

Pregnant with De Angelis baby! Seeing Bethany Maguire’s captivating curves in a tantalising silk dress, Cristiano De Angelis indulges in one night of passion with this beauty. A string of society heiresses have graced his bed.. .what difference will one more make? Except virgin Bethany is no socialite. She was just house-sitting a glamorous apartment when she gave in to temptation and tried on one of the owners designer dresses She doesn’t belong in Cristiano’s jet-set life, and when she discovers shes pregnant she flees. But the billionaire wont let her go that easily…

No excerpt found.

Liviania’s review of Lured by Lori Devoti
Paranormal romance released by Nocturne Bites 1 Jan 10

I enjoyed Lori Devoti’s Unbound series and Amazon Ink, so I happily picked up Lured for more of the same.  Unfortunately, it wasn’t more but less.

Annie is attached to her PDA, the stereotypical uptight businesswoman.  She’s recently become a werewolf, but thought she found a medical trial for a cure.  Instead, it was a trap.  Now, why a woman who is attached to her PDA did not research the trial or the address is not explained.  One of the complexities of a short story is the need to develop the characters much quicker.  Character inconsistencies are that much more apparent.

Theo is the alpha werewolf who rescues Annie, and then goes back to put a stop to the men who set the trap for good.  There isn’t much more to him.  I like the idea that he’s stronger with Annie, but it feels like true love happens to fast.  I followed the plot of Lured, but I didn’t believe in it.  Perhaps I would of enjoyed it if it were by an author I had lower expectations of, but as I like Lori Devoti quite a bit, I was disappointed.  She can do better.

Grade: C-

Summary:
Theo Malone was an alpha, not a lone rogue who needed to fight for a female. Still, something about Annie Cartwell called to him. Unclaimed and unaware that she had been turned into a werewolf, she was vulnerable to other wolves…and irresistibly attractive to Theo. His wolf had never reacted so strongly to a woman before–and Annie’s new inner wolf had the same hunger for him. His scent made her feel safe, his touch soothed her…and the thought of Theo awoke fantasies of being claimed by him like she’s never had before.

But while they both longed to fully give in to their desire, Theo and Annie must struggle to control these new feelings. For someone set up Annie as bait, and no wolf was safe until he was caught….

Moon Marked by Linda Thomas-Sundstrom
Paranormal romance released by Nocturne Bites 1 Jan 10

Nikki is a hunter, waiting for some werewolves that got away. Of course, those aren’t her only orders. Jonathon is a hereditary werewolf trying to rescue Nikki, since he knows she’s in over her head. The two are instantly attracted despite their conflicting loyalties, but things become complicated when Nikki is bitten by one of the crime lord’s wolves.

As a standalone, Moon Marked is a little confusing. Linda Thomas-Sundstrom’s world is involved, and it’s hard to figure out the hierarchy of things that go bump in the night in 62 pages when there’s action and romance going on. As an introduction to her Wolf Moons series, it’s fairly effective since I do want to read more about this world. Those who are already reading this series will want to pick up this Bite, since there is some world-building that seems important. (I could be wrong, since I haven’t read the series yet.)

Grade: C+

Summary:
In the secret war between humans and werewolves, Jonathan Baird and Nikki Reese were natural enemies. Born with the genetic gifts needed to join the secret society of hunters, Nikki had been raised to see all Lycans as her enemy…even if hunting them brought on a powerful craving for sexual release.

It was that craving that drew werewolf Jonathan to Nikki. Though he also sought the rogue creatures that threatened the secrecy of his people’s existence, his organization sent him to watch her…but he lusted after her, too. When a hunt goes bad and Nikki is infected with the Lycan virus, Jonathan couldn’t resist coming to her aid, igniting an insatiable desire between them. Will their passion bring together the two rivals, or will old loyalties die hard?

Loch Dragon’s Lady by Christine McKay
Paranormal romance released by Spice Briefs 1 Jan 10

I like Ellen, though she is a bit too stubborn for her own good.  After all, she has a sensible reaction to a handsome man trying to carry her off: stab him.  Unfortunately for her, it doesn’t work since Robert is a dragon.  Christine McKay doesn’t say much about how the setting or creatures work, but she provides enough information that nothing seems jarring.

Robert enjoys being alone, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t sometimes lonely.  It’s nice to see a fairly nice guy meet someone who he can live with.  The Spice Briefs are supposed to be more erotic than the Nocturne Bites, but I believed the happily-ever-after of Loch Dragon’s Lady the most.

Grade: B

Summary:
When Robert Dunyveg finds Ellen Kildonan on his secluded Scottish isle, he thinks she’s just another tourist to spoil his peace. Though outraged by her claim that the island is hers, the dragon shifter can’t resist indulging his long-denied desire with the exotic beauty. But while Ellen has the scent of a human, she tasted of magic–and the only way to unlock the mystery of her true identity is to explore their red-hot passion even more….

Sandy M’s review of Moon Craving (Children of the Moon, Book 2) by Lucy Monroe
Paranormal Romance published by Berkley 2 Feb 10

I’ve waited three years for this book.  Long years. The first book in the series, Moon Awakening, was terrific and I wanted more of these characters from that moment on. So much time had gone by, I actually stopped checking on a regular basis for when the next edition would be released. Seems like the time went much faster that way, because finally here it is. And I am not disappointed one bit.

I love Ms. Monroe’s werewolves. Strong alphas who expect to be obeyed at every turn, who protect what’s theirs with an iron hand, and who take advantage of a good thing when the opportunity presents itself. Talorc is no exception. He hates the English with a passion, and for good reason. When he’s directed by his king to marry an Englishwoman, the sister of the woman he narrowly escaped wedding before, he will only do so if he doesn’t find her too distasteful, as he did the first sibling.

Abigail has come to want marriage to the Highland laird her sister refused to have. Since her hearing was taken after suffering a childhood fever, Abigail’s mother has scorned her, treated her abominably. Hoping for a better life with a stranger, she goes to Scotland willingly, and, if nothing else, perhaps she will end up with her sister and her husband if Talorc chooses not to keep Abigail.

But from the moment these two meet, on a moonlit night just days before they’re to wed, there is a subtle attraction between them that surprises them both. On the journey to Talorc’s home, Abigail begins to fall in love with her new husband and ideas of living with her sister no longer have any appeal for her. Wanting nothing more than to make Abigail his own, he hurries his entourage to Scotland to consummate their vows. He refuses to take his wife on English soil.

Talorc and Abigail begin a beautiful new relationship, learning each other inside and out, the joys of loving and being loved. But they each have secrets they’ve yet to share with one another. Talorc has to make sure Abigail will not betray him as his father’s English wife did. He has to be very sure of his new wife before trusting her with his pack’s secrets. Abigail has not told Talorc of her deafness, believing he would not want her either, just as everyone else in her life hasn’t due to her disability.

Betrayal is eventually felt by them both, and thus begins the task of finding their way back to one another, all the while fighting members of the clan who are divided when it comes to Abigail and her English-ness. These characters are charismatic in their own way and you find yourself as lost in them as they are in each other. I also enjoyed several of the secondary characters who befriend Abigail. Betrayal is not solely for the hero and heroine in this story.

I am glad to see on Ms. Monroe’s website that the next book in this series will not be so long in coming this time around. It’s due out either later this year or early next year. Thank goodness. Waiting for these stories is just too hard!

Grade: A+

Summary:

If it were up to him, Talorc—laird of the Sinclair clan and leader of his werewolf pack— would never marry. But when the king orders that Talorc wed an Englishwoman, the lone wolf is shocked to find his mate in the strong-willed Abigail. And after an intensely climactic wedding night, the two fiercely independent souls sense an unbreakable bond…

Deaf since childhood, Abigail hopes to keep her affliction from Talorc as long as possible. And for his part, he has no intention of telling her about being a werewolf. But when Abigail learns that the husband she’s begun to love has deceived her, it will take all of his warrior’s strength—and his wolf’s cunning—to win his wife back. And Talorc will have to face his biggest challenge yet: the vulnerability of a man in love…

Read an excerpt.

Other books in this series:

Lynne Connolly’s review of Desert Prince, Blackmailed Bride by Kim Lawrence
Contemporary romance released by Harlequin Presents 1 Nov 09

Another daft title, but a bit more accurate than some I’ve read recently, where the title seems to have been drawn out of a hat.

I enjoyed this one. Like most HMB’s it suffers from the shoehorn aspect, where certain aspects have to be there, but in this one I could believe in the 24 year old virgin, and it’s not for any angsty reason, either. But I am getting tired of the “he stilled above her” moment in the Presents books.

Gabby arrives in Zatara trying to help her brother, who is in prison accused of drug smuggling. Although she will do anything to free him, she accepts that he’s a feckless person, so it’s not a case of blind love.

When she meets Rafiq, she thinks he’s in the palace clandestinely, but she doesn’t think that way for long.

I really liked Rafiq, who had a proper sense of duty. It overwhelmed him somewhat and certainly needed moderating, but he started from a good point. I didn’t believe the first scene, where the doctor tells him he’s dying, because he’s the hero and this a romance, and, well, heroes don’t die in romances, do they? But nobody else took it terribly seriously, either.

And the news should have brought his father, who remains absent throughout the book, even when Rafiq marries (this happens late in the book, but it’s in the official blurb so I’m mentioning it too).

Gabby has enough spirit to be interesting and not enough to be irritatingly feisty. She is the blonde, slight beauty that is so not Rafiq’s type, and her refusal to play dress-up can be irritating. Also the insistence on “designer” as if they are interchangeable. Everything is designed by somebody, and without the names the reference becomes fairly meaningless, it’s just a synonym for “expensive.”

However, their falling in love is believable and you get to see it and share it, which is the most important part of a Harlequin romance and that’s why I enjoyed the book.

Grade: B+

Summary:

Rafiq Al Kamil, heir to the desert kingdom of Zatara, thinks innocent Gabby will be the perfect convenient wife for his brother. But Gabby isn’t as biddable as she seems…

Now Rafiq will have to persuade her! Except the more time Rafiq spends with Gabby the more he wants her—in his own bed. But when he discovers she’s a virgin, the earth collapses under his feet. Suddenly, having her as his mistress is not enough— Rafiq demands she become his bride!

Read an excerpt here.

Limecello’s review of Too Hot to Print by Stephanie Bond
Contemporary romance released by Harlequin Blaze 1 Jan 10

I have to say, I was somewhat disappointed with this story. I felt that it was more a brief than a novella, and rather mislabeled. I’ll explain more below. However, I do want to point out the very proper and pleasing use of “too” and “to” – so kudos to Stephanie Bond and Harlequin for that one!

I realize that this is a novella, and it’s clearly stated on the cover. Nevertheless, I thought it was a bit short for a novella, and it was more what I would have been expecting in a Spice Brief, than a Harlequin Blaze. It was very short on romance, and aside from the fact that you’re led to believe the characters might give it a go in the end, there isn’t really a happy ending either. (I think the reader is more to assume the characters will get together, than know so.)

Gabrielle Pope and Henry Wells aren’t very developed. Both are strangers to each other, and the reader, unfortunately. Insight into Gabrielle is almost better given by the secondary characters.

Rather than emotions and close interaction, it really seemed to be impersonal sexual encounters. I’m having a tough time quantifying this story. I think had this been marketed as a Spice Brief, it would have gotten an average grade, in the C range. However, as it was sold as a Harlequin Blaze… sadly I was left wanting. There was also something a bit cold about Henry, and slightly pathetic about Gabrielle. Her obsession with being [or not being] an “old spinster librarian” seemed to be the point most expounded.

I do have to say props to Ms. Bond for posting an excerpt on her website.

Grade: D+

Summary:

How much sex is too much sex?That’s what librarian Gabrielle Pope is wondering. Thanks to a chance encounter with sexy-as-sin Henry Wells, she’s indulging in sensual acts she’s never even dreamed of. And she’s loving every minute of it…

Unfortunately, Henry’s not a local—he’s only in town on a seven day business trip. So Gabrielle has to decide—does she go back to searching for Mr. Right, or give in and totally indulge with Mr. Right Now. Because if this is going to be the best sex of her life, she’s can’t waste a single minute of it….

Read an excerpt here.

Liviania’s review of My Soul to Save (Soul Screamers, Book 2) by Rachel Vincent
Young adult urban fantasy released by Harlequin Teen 29 Dec 09

My changing feelings about Rachel Vincent’s novels have been well documented on the internet.  What has been less documented is the fact that sometimes I read other people’s reviews before I write my own.  Sometimes it sharpens my focus, other times it confuses me.  For My Soul to Save, it was the latter situation.

I expected more comments about the dark ending.  I expected remarks about the social satire and thinly veiled barbs aimed at Disney, which are particularly well-timed given the public meltdown of Lindsay Lohan.  I expected comments about the gender politics.  I just didn’t expect all of the comments about the gender politics to be completely opposite of my own observations.

Many reviewers dislike Vincent’s banshees because they are hysterical women who can only be calmed by a man.  I can get behind that being a bad subtext.  Now, I can’t blame Vincent for Kaylee, as a banshee, being a screaming woman.  Bean sidhe means female fairy.  Banshees wail before deaths in the common folklore.  The man part is Vincent’s invention, so that’s what I’ll focus on.

First, Kaylee doesn’t need boyfriend Nash to stop her wailing.  She did in My Soul to Take because she had no clue what she was or how to use her powers.  Now Nash’s mother is teaching her to control her wail, she can let it out a little at a time instead of becoming hysterical.

Second, I see Vincent’s banshees not as an interesting take on gender dynamics, since the females have the most agency.  Kaylee can interfere with a Grim Reaper on her own.  She can cross over into the Netherworld on her own (perhaps unwisely).  The only thing she can’t do on her own is prevent someone’s death.  Nash, and all of the male banshees, have no power without a female banshee.  He can’t direct a soul back into a body without Kaylee’s wail.  He can’t even do that often, since it pisses Reapers off and causes someone else to die.  Males only have power thanks to the females, and even then they rarely get to use it.

But really, subtext is subtext.  What about the text?  My Soul to Save is an interesting and well-presented story.  When Nash’s deceased brother Tod’s girlfriend Addison sold her soul, she had no idea what she was getting into.  Now Nash, Tod, and Kaylee are trying to save her – unfortunately, Addison was destined to die young.  And not even Kaylee’s wail can prevent her death since she has no soul.  There are clever plans in abundance, selflessness, and a nice sense of urgency.  But hoo-boy is the ending dark.

Maybe I’m deluding myself about the gender issues, but I like my interpretation.  If I thought the series was down on women I would not be nearly as excited as I am for book three.

Grade: B

Summary:
When Kaylee Cavanaugh screams, someone dies.
So when teen pop star Eden croaks onstage and Kaylee doesn’t wail, she knows something is dead wrong. She can’t cry for someone who has no soul.

The last thing Kaylee needs right now is to be skipping school, breaking her dad’s ironclad curfew and putting her too-hot-to-be-real boyfriend’s loyalty to the test. But starry-eyed teens are trading their souls: a flickering lifetime of fame and fortune in exchange for eternity in the Netherworld—a consequence they can’t possibly understand.

Kaylee can’t let that happen, even if trying to save their souls means putting her own at risk….

Read an excerpt here.