LynneC’s review of Reckless Night (Dangerous Trilogy, Book 3.5) by Lisa Marie Rice
Contemporary Romance ebook novella published by Avon 29 Nov 11

This story is an epilogue to a book by Rice, something I didn’t realize when I started to read it. It reads well as a standalone, and Rice is a competent storyteller, but I thought the story really needed to be in context to its novel.

Viktor (“Drake”) Drakovich and his wife Grace are living under new names and a new location. As far as the world is concerned, Drake died when his office complex exploded, but with a bit of plastic surgery and a lot of money, he’s been able to start his new life.

Grace gives Drake beautiful gifts that she’s made herself. Exquisite gifts, and her latest is a painting of his hand in front of a vase of flowers. This is described so beautifully that I wanted to see the painting, not just read about it. Strange how most artists in romance novels concentrate on traditional techniques and figurative images, but at least this painting sounds like an interesting one. I’ve read about paintings in romance novels that I’ve been glad I couldn’t see, the gaudy, sentimental kind of painting that I would gladly see on the top of a bonfire, but in few other places. Not so here. Grace does sound like a woman happy with her talent, capable of creating beautiful paintings and craft items and who loves her husband. I didn’t read that Grace was unhappy in her new life or that she regretted changing her lifestyle so drastically. That’s Drake, feeling guilty about dragging her away, not Grace.

Since this story is so short, it’s hard to discuss it without spoilers. Suffice it to say that Drake plans a surprise for her that goes somewhat awry, and the end of the story we’re wondering – what? Why? I’d have been much happier had the story ended with Grace and Drake learning to live their new life. The ending read like an intrusion, something that shouldn’t be there, that turns the whole situation on its head and means that they are left in the same slightly unsatisfactory position that they had at the beginning. There’s no progression, although there are moves towards it, and then something happens to stop it.

I do like Grace and Drake, and I can see where Rice is going with the main story. Drake is immensely wealthy, was an arms dealer with more money than he can count, and used to be surrounded by security stronger than any President. Grace is a free spirit, an artist who enjoys walks and her more relaxed lifestyle. The initial story must have been interesting, but now I’ve read the outcome, I can’t say I want to read it, because Drake and Grace are in a limbo of their own making, a well-protected beautiful island where they must exist, rather than progressing and getting on with their lives. Without that shock ending (don’t worry, it’s a romance, she doesn’t commit the ultimate sin of killing off her main characters!), it would have been more satisfactory and would have made for a happier ending. As it is, we’re left wondering – so what happens now?

My other problem is that half this book is a lengthy extract from the main book, the one I no longer want to read. I do think this story spoiled the main one for me. The story is 30 pages long, so there’s another 30 pages of extract and adverts. If you buy this book on Kindle, it’s currently $3.16, but if you buy it on B & N, it’s $0.99 – I don’t know why there’s a difference or why Amazon has allowed it, but I know which price I’d rather pay. Too expensive at $3.16, fine at $0.99

Note: While I do share a publisher with Lisa Marie Rice, this book isn’t published by our mutual publisher, and Lisa Marie is not a special friend, so I felt it was fine to review this.

Grade: D

Summary:

What do you give your beautiful wife when you’ve got all the money in the world but can’t spend it?
Victor “Drake” Drakovitch used to run a criminal empire, but he gave it all up for the woman he loves. Grace, an accomplished artist, abandoned the life she knew in order to be with the one man she could never live without.
Exiled to an island far from their former lives, the two stay safe from the watchful eyes of Drake’s many enemies. This Christmas, Drake wants to show Grace how much her sacrifice means. But what can he give a woman who shuns gold jewelry and diamonds, furs and expensive cars? Grace doesn’t want fancy things; she wants what Drake can give her—unquestioning devotion, fierce protection… and the best sex a woman has ever had.
Until terror strikes and Grace realizes that the best gift of all is a dangerous husband.

Read an excerpt.

Wendy the Super Librarian‘s review of One Wicked Christmas by Amanda McCabe
Historical Romance short story ebook published by Harlequin Historical Undone 01 Nov 11

I always pick up books by Amanda McCabe because she never gives readers the same thing twice.  She’s done everything from the 15th century to the 1920s.  Any author who delivers that kind of variety gets my attention.  I wish I could say I loved this latest, a Christmas short story set in Regency England, but, alas, it didn’t really work for me.

Lady Cassandra Osborne is a young widow who loved her kind, gentle husband.  They led a quiet life and made lovely companions.  Since his death she’s locked herself away, and her best friend is urging her that it’s time to take a lover.  The problem is that the only man who interests her is her husband’s roguish BFF, Sir Ian Chandler.  Ian came around a lot after her husband died and looked after her.  But after they shared a smoldering kiss?  Yeah, Ian has been out-of-sight, although not for one moment out-of-mind.  When it turns out that Cassandra and Ian are invited to the same Christmas house party?  Yeah, we all know where this is going.

I actually tend to like plots of this nature, but in a short story format it’s really problematic.  When strung out over a full-length novel, the author has time to explore the internal angst of the characters and slowly unfold the developing romance.  In a short story?  It comes off as distasteful.  I honestly find myself feeling sorry for the dead husband when it’s revealed that Ian, his best friend!, has had the hots for Cassandra since the wedding day!  Then there is the manner in which Cassandra and Ian fall into bed together.  She sneaks into his room expecting a romp with another man.  Eww.

That being said, McCabe’s writing style continues to really work for me, and I zipped through this short story in quicker manner than is my usual custom.  While it doesn’t work for me, it certainly hasn’t put me off from this author’s work, and who knows?  Maybe it will work better for you.

Grade: D+

Summary:

London, 1806

Lady Cassandra Osborne is ready to take a new lover to her bed—and knows exactly the man she wants: Sir Ian Chandler, her late husband’s rakish best friend. The single kiss they’d shared had made her feel alive again, awakening dark needs she didn’t even know she had…though Ian had quickly pulled away. Cassie is sure he doesn’t want her, until their reunion at a Christmas house party tempts them to succumb to the desire that has haunted them both….

No Excerpt Found.

C2’s review of Slow Ride (Fast Track, Book 5) by Erin McCarthy
Contemporary Romance published by Berkley 4 Oct 11

In Erin McCarthy’s latest NASCAR book, Tuesday Jones (aka racing blogger Tuesday Talledega) gets her chance in the spotlight.

Tuesday Jones meets a handsome stranger as she is leaving her father’s graveside service – and has a breakdown on his sympathetic shoulder. Only later does she realize her good Samaritan is retired NASCAR driver Daniel “Diesel” Lange.  Diesel retired from racing after a horrible crash left him with career-ending injuries.  He has built a business restoring old cars and has very little to do with the racing world.

Tuesday and Diesel have chemistry and neither is interested in anything serious, so they start casually seeing each other.  Of course, casual never lasts long, does it, faithful reader?  Soon enough, both realize they are spending way too much time thinking about the other person and anticipating their time together more than a “casual” relationship would explain.

To honor her father’s career (he was a writer and covered racing extensively) and raise money for cancer research – and help her deal with his loss – Tuesday decides to have a charity event and auction and Diesel offers one of his restored cars for the auction.  But Tuesday continues to struggle and often finds solace in a wine bottle.

I am sure we, as readers, are supposed to feel sympathetic toward Tuesday, but she is so self-involved and such an obnoxious drunk it is hard to be anything other than annoyed.  And the fact that her friends and family are not particularly concerned is baffling to me. Maybe their behavior is supposed to mimic real life?  I hope people don’t really do that.

Diesel, on the other hand, would probably be a very nice, not-so-talkative, normal guy in real life – and no one would give it any thought.  However, as the hero of a romance novel, he seems lacking. At least he is concerned about Tuesday’s drinking.

I struggled with this book.  Tuesday is unbelievable and self-centered with obvious issues and in serious need of therapy.  Diesel is really just a normal, boring guy who gets sucked into Tuesday’s crazy world.  In real life, couples like this make me scratch my head and wonder how short the relationship will be.  That we are asked to believe these characters will live happily ever after (without serious therapy) is surprising.  Yes, toward the end, Ms. McCarthy tries to show emotional growth or self-realization or something, but it seems like too little too late.

For a series that started out so well, the last two books of the Fast Track series have been very disappointing (except the covers – they are consistently fab).  I am still willing to check out the next book because Elec and Evan’s sister is the heroine and that could be fun…and maybe even get the series back on track? However, my expectations are low.

In the meantime, does this book stand alone? Mostly.  It would probably make more sense if you read The Chase – Tuesday’s best friend Kendall’s book.  Do I recommend reading The Chase? No.  Nor do I recommend this book, unless you are a hardcore fan of the series and have enjoyed all the previous books.

Grade: D

Summary:
As a tribute to her late journalist father, Tuesday Jones is planning a career benefit, auctioning off racing memorabilia and meet-and-greets with drivers. Ex-racing star Diesel Lange has had his own brush with death, and is determined not to waste another minute of his life- especially when he meets Tuesday. He wants nothing more than to shift their romance into high gear, but he knows she’s still grieving. Can Diesel do the one thing he could never do on the track and take it slow?

Read an excerpt.

Other books in the series:

LynneC’s review of His Christmas Acquisition by Cathy Williams
Contemporary Romance published by Harlequin Presents 29 Nov 11

I have enjoyed Cathy Williams’ books in the past, but, sadly, this one isn’t one of them. Tired situations, tired characters no thicker than a sheet of paper, and a tired style make this a disappointing read.

Apart from his habit of wearing jeans to work, Ryan Sheppard is the usual type of Modern/Presents hero. He is powerful, wealthy, owns his own company—and the other stuff. He behaves in a conventional way, so making him a computer entrepreneur and getting him to wear jeans for work is only a thin disguise. He isn’t updated at all. This would have been fine, but Ryan behaves exactly as he is expected to by the reader, and there is really very little to say about him. He doesn’t stand out and he isn’t different. We have the standard supermodel-type girlfriend, except that Williams’ versions all seem to have hair down to their waists. Apart from that, they’re interchangeable, only there to compare to the wholesome heroine.

Jamie is a doormat of the first order, but at the beginning of the story she is running on empty. Her sister, a complete and utter bitch, is currently separated from her husband, a vet (not a veteran, an animal doctor) and the vet is the man Jamie used to work for before she came down to London to get away from him. Because she was quietly and desperately in love with him for years and she doesn’t think he noticed. No man is going to ignore that, unless he’s brain dead. She runs to London to get away from her sister marrying the vet. And meets Ryan.

Her sister makes Jamie ask people to Christmas dinner, including Ryan, and then Jamie does all the cooking while selfish people drink her wine and enjoy their day. It doesn’t say a lot for Jamie, who, after all, brought her sister up, that Jessica turns out to be such a dyed-in-the-wool, irredeemable bitch. What happens to Jessica in the end is so unbelievable that I nearly threw my Nook across the room.

Ryan and Jamie do the “this is only for two weeks” thing that is fast becoming one of my most unfavorite tropes in Harlequin-dom. Almost every author is using this artificial construct, and it is getting wearing. If an author who knows how to write interesting stories about real characters used it and added internal character pressures, then count me in, but when the hero just says it, for no real reason, or the heroine agrees to it, then it doesn’t work as well.

One of my big disconnects with this book is the head hopping. It’s a long time since I read head-hopping this wild and confusing in a published book. Unpublished authors do it all the time, and it’s one of the big things they are asked to change by critiquers. We’re told that you won’t get published if you head hop, and it’s true, most editors are very anti. Either Williams has earned her place because of her previous titles, or she has an editor who doesn’t care about this, or she doesn’t have an editor at all (this being Harlequin, I doubt that last bit). But during the first chapter, I started to mark the head hopping. After that, I didn’t bother. She changes points of view in the same sentence, so that at one point Ryan is thinking something about Jamie, and by the end of the sentence, the reader is in Jamie’s head. It’s only made worse by using a masculine-sounding name for the heroine, so, at first, it’s hard to remember if Jamie is the hero or if it’s Ryan.

A disappointing read, as if several tropes were jammed together, and a few characteristics added for effect.

Grade: D

Summary:

There’s only one item left on entrepreneur Ryan Sheppard’s Christmas list—something scandalous for his buttoned-up secretary…
It seems that disapproving Jamie Powell is the only woman that doesn’t fall at Ryan’s feet. Jamie is well aware of her boss’s heartbreaker reputation…fending off his discarded women is virtually part of her job description!
Ryan’s hoping a Christmas trip to the Caribbean will entice Jamie out of her pencil skirt and into the skimpiest of bikinis! And, with the boardroom transferred to the beach, surely there’s little harm in indulging in a little festive pleasure on the side…?

Read an excerpt.

Ash’s review of Secrets to Seducing a Scot (Highland Knaves, Book 1) by Michelle Marcos
Historical Romance published by St. Martins 02 Aug 11

This will be a short review because I feel like there isn’t much to say. It’s an okay story about okay characters.

The romance aspect is really lackluster. There is no tension or build up, Serena and Malcolm just slowly end up wanting to be together with hardly any conflict. I suppose for people who prefer the sweet and light romances this would work, but I am definitely not one of those people. I want to read a love story that gives me butterflies, and Secrets to Seducing a Scot gave me drowsiness.

The little conflict there is has to do with Scotland revolting against England. It’s basically a bunch of angry Scotsman getting riled up and saying they will do something, but by the time anything happens in the story, I was already bored. Every time I put the book down I forgot it, it doesn’t stand out in any way.

If I had to describe it in one word it would be boring. I kept waiting for action or passion, and Secrets to Seducing a Scot never delivered what I was looking for.

Grade: D+

Summary:

Meet the Highland Knaves, an infamous clan of outcast Scots who live for justice, lust for freedom, and long for lovers bold enough to tame them…

A DIAMOND IN THE ROUGH

Torn from a pampered life of luxury and thrust into the midst of a Scottish revolution, Serena Marsh is shocked to meet the brutish man who has been assigned to protect her from the rebels trying to kill her—Malcolm Slayter, the most rugged, most dangerous, and most undeniably attractive man she’s ever encountered…

THE KNAVE OF HEARTS

Malcolm has no loyalties, no country, and no sense of propriety. Hired by her father, Malcolm agrees to protect the lovely lass for a fee. But when Serena challenges Malcolm’s authority—and engages him in a risky flirtation—all bets are off. When the battle heats up, it’s anyone’s guess as to who’s seducing whom…and who’ll surrender first.

Read an excerpt.

Other books in this series:

LynneC’s review of A Vampire For Christmas by Laurie London, Michele Hauf, Caridad Pineiro & Alexis Morgan
Paranormal Romance published by HQN 18 Oct 11

Most anthologies are the curate’s egg kind of book, with good bits and bad bits or not-so-good bits. This is no exception, but on the whole it is a decent read and a nice introduction to the flood of seasonal books. There are four stories by authors established in the genre.

Enchanted by Blood by Laurie London

This story takes part in her world, one I hadn’t read before but I had no problems catching up on. It is a story complete in itself and is about Trace Westfalen and Charlotte Grant, who have met before, although Trace wipes Charlotte’s mind and she doesn’t remember their previous encounter. This sets up an interesting situation in which Trace remembers and Charlotte does not, so she is learning him from scratch. This is the kind of story where the big bad vampires share a house, the kind with chandeliers and antiques but go out hunting dressed in leather with fearsome weapons. You have been warned.

Trace is forced to step in when Charlotte is in danger, and this inevitably leads to their involvement again. I do think that the couple end up in bed too soon, considering Charlotte doesn’t know him from Adam at this point in the story, but this is a short, and it’s sometimes tricky to do that.

However, London does have one maddening habit which brings the story down for me. Every time the action heats up, she ends the scene on a cliffhanger, and then starts the next with a recap of what happened. That means the reader isn’t there and doesn’t experience it. It happens too many times, and it irritates me, and brings my grade down.

Grade: C

Summary:

All they want for Christmas is you -

It’s the time of year for twinkling lights on trees and kisses under the mistletoe. Yet the passing of another year means nothing to the stunning immortals who lurk in the shadows of the new-fallen snow.

And they don’t care if you’ve been naughty or nice.

Let four fanged lovers open your eyes to a passion you never dared to imagine. After all, there’s no place like home for the holidays and these dazzling vampires can’t wait for an invitation.

Read an excerpt. (scroll down)

Monsters Don’t Do Christmas by Michele Hauf

The hero in this story has only been a vampire for a year. He was a money man and had lots of it, until he was turned, and I’m still not sure why he gave it all up. He roamed the streets and fought werewolves, who, we are told, hate vampires. I don’t know why. The heroine is Olivia Adorata, a pop star who takes every Christmas off and lives in a small apartment on her own, celebrating the season. She thinks of herself as a monster because of her fame. So why didn’t anyone recognise her? That is only one problem I had with Olivia. I can see what Hauf was trying to do, have two people reconcile the monsters within themselves, but in neither case does the motivation and the conviction go through them deep enough for me to really understand why they feel that way. There is the possibility for some breathtaking moments, but they aren’t taken. I don’t feel I know Daniel at all, and Olivia is too sweet to be true. Neither character entirely works for me.

Grade: D

Summary:

Sexy singer, Olivia isn’t at all frightened by the vampire she finds fending off werewolves outside her door. Why should she be? She’s just as much a monster as he is. Daniel Harrison hasn’t been vampire long, but the monster he is does not do Christmas. That doesn’t keep him from trying to rescue another who could transform before the full moon—but can he do it and win Olivia’s heart with but a flash of fang and his desire for her to ‘sway with him’?

No excerpt available.

When Herald Angels Sing by Caridad Pineiro.

Although Pineiro’s recent full-length paranormal release didn’t quite do it for me, she is a considerably talented author with a great, smooth style and a willingness to tackle unusual situations.

This story takes place in 1931. The hero, Damien, is or was a rum-runner, and it is a century since he first met his love, Angelina. Their enemy, a demon called Pedro, tears them apart, or makes Damien make the wrong decisions, and they are torn apart again, only to be reborn to have another attempt at getting it right this time.

Although this story has a few of the vampire clichés, they are almost impossible to avoid in this genre, and it doesn’t stop me enjoying this story of everlasting love constantly thwarted. Angelina has a secret of her own, but when she is dumped on the beach, she is injured and needs Damien’s help. He tends to her, and they get together again, knowing that yet again, Pedro has the upper hand.

Of course, this is a romance, so you know it will work out, one way or another, but you don’t know how it will work out. Angelina and Damien are believable, interesting characters with the depth that a story of this length will allow.

Grade: B

Read an excerpt.

All I Want for Christmas by Alexis Morgan

The last story is, IMO, the best one. It is a sweet, poignant morsel of a Christmas tale and took me from beginning to end. I made fewest notes on this story because I wanted to enjoy the read and let the story take me away, which it does. The setup is simple, so little backstory is needed. Eagan is an undercover cop and vampire looking for some rogues. Della is a human woman who runs a diner, peopled, although she doesn’t know it, by supernatural beings as well as humans. Della likes Christmas and is determined to bring it to the people who frequent her diner. Despite his better nature, Eagan is strongly attracted to Della, and soon they begin an affair. Della is under threat and is put into danger, so Eagan has to find and rescue her.

Simple setup so the author can concentrate on the characters, something I really enjoy. The characters are believable, the setting well depicted, and I was just drawn into this one.

Grade: A

Read an excerpt.

Overall Grade: C

LynneC’s review of Hermes Online by Rose Anderson
Erotic Romance novella published by Siren Apr 11

The author sent me this book, and I was pleased to review it. Siren is a big company, but usually passes under the wire, except when it publishes one of its outrageous sexxoring ménages. But this is a sweet erotic, heterosexual, about two people falling in love. Or being in love already and not knowing it. Or something like that.

Vivienne is a town planner, and she is trying to save an old house from demolition by re-purposing it. At night, on her home computer, she dreams erotic dreams and eventually writes a story, publishing it online. She is contacted by someone and they build their connection through email, then messenger, then video. Eventually they agree to meet. There she finds the man who has been contacting her—but that’s the end of the story, and I don’t want to spoil it.

The story is in the first person, so we only get Vivienne’s point of view. I found this story a bit claustrophobic, and I wasn’t always in sympathy with Vivienne, so I would have preferred a third-person narration. There were also Mary Sue elements, although this isn’t completely a Mary Sue story. But the writing, the compliments she gets, and then the communication made me somewhat uncomfortable, as if the author was deeply embedded into her story.

Also, Vivienne is completely TSTL. Let’s see, she publishes a story on a public site, initiates communication with one of the commenters, and then continues into mutual masturbation and long descriptions of her body. She tells the truth, but there’s absolutely no guarantee that he is doing the same. He could be a she, he could be a teen having fun, he could be a crazed stalker. And she reveals her body to him first, naked, online, without showing her face. This isn’t trust, it’s rank stupidity. That’s why I had to give the book the grade I have done. That and a few other reasons, but that is the main reason. Internet security is the last thing on Vivienne’s mind, but it should have been the first. Exchanging sexy talk, okay, if you first randomise your IP address so whoever it is can’t trace you through it. Video chat? Messenger? Hell, no. And then at the end of the story, she goes to meet him in a hotel room. If he’d turned up with an axe and chopped her into little pieces, I might have enjoyed the story more. Or if she’d taken a gun or told a friend where she’d be. Anything, really.

I’ve recently written a story that involves stranger sex, and my editor was insistent I show that my heroine wasn’t stupid. She went to a reputable agency, told someone where she’d be and made sure she got there first, as well as taking some weapons with her. And she knew she was still taking a risk. Why didn’t Rose Anderson’s editors make sure she put those safeguards into place? I’m not talking about setting a good example, I’m talking TSTL here.

The “You’ve got mail” chirp of AOL – does AOL still do that? I had no idea the company was still going! Gets irritating after a while. There are a number of repetitions that could have been edited out or restated. The heroine’s long, straight red hair, for example, and the hero’s large hands (his large strangler’s hands?). It goes past reminders and continuity and enters repetition, where the reader is saying, “Yes, I know about his hands.”

I’m afraid I have absolutely no idea what Hermes had to do with the story. True, he is the messenger of the gods, but he doesn’t appear in the story, unless I missed that part. And there are other messengers who would have done. I kept expecting him to pop up and he never did. I get the sneaky feeling he is literally the thing most editors despise – the deus ex machina.

The sex is sweet and vanilla. For most of the story, it amounts to mutual masturbation. Lots and lots of it. And then some more. It progresses the story, in a way, because each time they reveal a little more about each other, but that could have been done faster. There are just accounts of her going to work, dealing with the old house, coming back to her lonely apartment, eating and then going online. And yes, you do get the details.

There is no villain, nobody who opposes what they want to do, and although there is a narrative about the old house, it doesn’t really figure in the main story, and it doesn’t link in. Remember the gun. As Jennifer Cruisie said, “If you produce a gun in chapter one, you’d better have used it by chapter six.” It seems like it doesn’t belong.

The language is odd. At times it is very old-fashioned, as if it is a historical romance. And some really strange sentences. Like, “My tenuous emotional state couldn’t bear lingering over” to which I say, “huh?” She embodies emotions and body parts a little too often and there is too much use of the passive verb and narrative, “telling” instead of “showing.”

The twist at the end isn’t really a twist. It’s easy to work out what’s going on, and I think the story might have worked better had the author been frank from the start and told the story from the viewpoint of both characters, their conflicts and anxieties working to build the tension.

I do think that if Rose Anderson had a thorough edit and incorporated all the elements of the story a little better, she might have a good story here. As it is, she’s a work in progress, and while some of the aspects of her work interest me, others make me turn off. A long mutual masturbation session between a man in jeans and a woman in sweats isn’t really my cup of tea. But it might be yours. However, her heroine deserves to die for the errors she makes in security.

Grade: D

Summary:

Imagine if you will a story begun in the halls of Mount Olympus long before this modern tale was conceived. It was a time when the god Hermes flew on his winged sandals and carried messages from the gods to the mortals below. And between that time and this, couriers became postmen and handwritten letters became bytes. It is said the gods still speak to those who listen… Left bruised and brokenhearted after a cruel breakup, Vivienne Bennet finds herself mired in a world of self-doubt. To her surprise, she receives an email that challenges her to rediscover the sensual woman she once was. Together Vivienne and the enigmatic man known only as S embark upon the world of anonymous Internet communication where suggestive emails lead to erotic chat, where cybersex leads to Skype, and C2C sends both into the arms of a love they’d believed lost forever.

Read an excerpt.

Dinca’s review of Delicious Do-Over (Spring Break, Book 1) by Debbi Rawlins
Blaze published by Harlequin Blaze 19 Apr 11

I’m so disappointed in this book. I usually like Debbi Rawlins, and that is the only reason I finished reading this one. It never got better.

There’s so much wrong with this storyline, I wasn’t sure I would finish it.

First, the author needs to learn how FaceBook works, for starters. Or explain herself better.

I also cannot imagine a good-looking, 29-year-old woman not having sex after her spring break affair. I really don’t care to read about dumb blondes making stupid decisions, no matter how smart and practical the writer says she is. This tale would had been better and more believable if the author had given Lindsey a life after college.

As for Rick Granger… if he missed her, he would have found her, even with the false name. He knew where she went to school. Any yearbook would have solved the problem.

There is another book in the series. It’s about the next friend and her “Do-Over.” I don’t think I will have a do-over.

Grade: D

Summary:

On the cusp of a new business venture, überpractical accountant Lindsey Shaw has reluctantly let her friends talk her into a “second spring break” in Hawaii. Now she’s in Waikiki…and even reuniting with her wickedly hot one-night fling from years ago! Only Lindsey is feeling a tingle of fear—or is that sweet, sweet anticipation?

Rick Granger has his own fear—that gorgeous, smart Lindsey might discover more about him than he’s ready to reveal. She thinks he’s just a surfer dude—fine with him, it keeps things uncomplicated. Only, complications whip up like waves once Lindsey dips a toe in his waters….

Read an excerpt.
Other books in this series:

Wendy the Super Librarian‘s review of The Earl Takes a Lover by Georgia E. Jones
Historical erotica digital short story published by Spice Briefs 01 Jul 11

I’m a sucker for historicals with an erotic edge, so whenever I see one pop up in the Spice Briefs line, I always take a closer look.  Georgia E. Jones is a writer I’ve never read before, and the back cover blurb sounded enticing, so I gave it a whirl.  I wish I could say I fell madly in love – but sadly, not so much.

Penelope Montague makes her way in the world as a companion for an elderly lady.  Educated in a convent, what nobody is aware of is that young Penelope is the daughter of a prostitute and, for the first few years of her life, was raised in a brothel!  Not only that, she’s the author of the scandalous A Woman’s Handbook, which has ladies in a swoon and gentlemen in a lather.

It’s in her duties as a companion that she meets the new Earl of Thanet, Robin Sackville Tufton.  Robin is a rake of the first order, but now that he has inherited the title he finds himself thwarting off various matchmaking mamas.  When he spies Penelope, he knows that he must have her.  But what will happen when he discovers one taste is not enough?  As an Earl, Penelope is so far beneath him she might as well be hanging out with The Mole People.  And sure as shootin’, she ain’t content to be no man’s mistress.

While the sexy times were certainly sizzling, everything else about this story didn’t work for me.  While born to a prostitute and raised in a brothel, Penelope is still, conveniently, a virgin. Frankly, this smacked of the author wanting to have her cake and eat it too.  Especially since Penelope apparently “knows” enough about Sexy Times to write a book, but not enough so that Robin can still “educate” her.  Bah humbug.  We’re also to believe that when the patrons of said brothel begin to take notice of young Penelope, the madam ships her off to convent school.  OK, I’m calling shenanigans on this one.  What self-respecting madam in early 19th century London is going to ship off a potential money-making bonanza?  No hooker has a heart of gold that pure, let alone a madam who is, (hello?!) essentially, a pimp.  Don’t they kick you out of the Big Pimpin’ Union for that sort of thing?

Even if you’re willing to roll with Penelope’s background, there’s the small matter of the ending.  Um, there isn’t one.  This story just stops.  The resolution to the conflict?  Yeah, there isn’t any.  It just….stops.  This might not be totally disconcerting in a straight-up erotic story, but I viewed more than one romance road sign over the course of my reading.  So to have things just….stop?  With no real resolution?  Frustrating doesn’t even begin to cover it.  Bah humbug indeed.

Grade: D

Summary:

London, 1801

No one could have guessed that virginal companion Penelope Montague is the author of the scandalous manual A Woman’s Handbook. Society believes she was educated in a convent, unaware she spent the first half of her life raised by the ladies of the famous Black Swan brothel.

Only rake Robin Sackville Tufton, Earl of Thanet, sees the sensual woman behind Pen’s proper exterior. From the moment he sees her, he wants her more than anything else. But Pen isn’t fit to be an earl’s wife, nor can he simply take her—despite her passionate response to his touch. Can Robin and Penelope rein in their desire…or will they find a way to indulge it?

No excerpt found.

Dinca’s review of Ranger Daddy by Rebecca Winters
Contemporary Romance published by Harlequin American Romance 2 Aug 11

Nothing about this book shouts “Yay! I am glad I bought this book!” There’s so much wrong in the story I could not concentrate on what’s good.

My husband has always told me never to let facts get in the way of a good story. But the facts about California Child Welfare law are so bad I found it distracting from the story line. I spent more time discussing it with my husband than I did reading the book. But then the story would have ended with the first conversation with her attorney when he mentions eight years of back child support. Not to mention the only reason a biological parent can give up their obligation is for adoption purposes. Until then they are on the hook for child support.

Ms. Winters also writes there are moose in Yosemite. I do not know which national park she did her research in, but it was not Yosemite. There are mule deer, aka black tailed deer, but no moose. The only thing she gets right are the names of places in the park and you can get them off a map. Last but not least, Merced airport only flies to L.A. and Las Vegas, so, on that note, why did they have to go to Reno to get married? I am really disappointed in the author’s lack of research. She could have gotten all of this information off the internet. Fresno would have been a better place to have them fly out of, with more flights and locations.

As for the story itself, I find it weak in content. The part with the interfering parents is real life and well written. However, Gabi Rafferty needs to fire her attorney and get one that has a clue about California child welfare law. If Jeff is the one person she trusts, then she should have put her trust in him and leveled with him about her situation. For a school teacher she sure acts like she’s the one with no education at all. I don’t think I would want her teaching my children.

Ranger Jeff Thompson seems to be an okay kind of hero, but nothing just grabs me and makes me say “Awww, what a guy.” I would have much preferred a man who went after what he wants instead of him just waiting for it to drop in his lap.

All in all, the characters are not very gutsy. The book just rolls on and on with even the so-called exciting parts not being very exciting.

So on one last note, since there aren’t any other good points to tell you about…as my mother always taught me, “If you don’t have anything good to say, then shush.” This is me…shushing.

Grade: D

Summary:

Can He Keep Her Safe?

Frantic to escape her dangerous ex–husband, Gabi Rafferty flees with her daughter to Yosemite—and the man she trusts more than anyone. Ranger Jeff Thompson can provide a safe haven. He’s also the man Gabi once loved. Still does. Only this isn’t the time to think about missed chances. Not with
her child’s life at risk.

Fourteen years ago, Gabi ran to Jeff for everything. Now she needs his protection, and the honor–bound ranger will do whatever it takes to keep her and her daughter safe. But he’s still carrying around unfinished business. And with her little girl growing so attached to him, Jeff knows the moment has come to trust Gabi with the truth.

Coming clean about the past is their only shot at a future. Because he can’t lose her a second time…

Read an excerpt.

LynneC’s review of The Crown Affair by Lucy King
Contemporary Romance published by Harlequin Presents 6 Sep 11

I loved Lucy King’s first book for Harlequin, and I gave it an A. So I picked this one up with high expectations. The characters in this one tip over the edge into TSTL and the sketchy research makes for a less-than-convincing background. This book is the story of two immature people who would rather flounce and pontificate after their lusting than discuss and be honest with themselves and each other.

The lusting at the beginning is embarrassing. It goes something like this:

“Oh look, a man with his shirt off – phwar.”

“Oh look, a sexy woman in revealing clothes – phwar.”

Do they get it on immediately? No. Because he’s a king avoiding the paparazzi and she’s an architect who is fascinated by his – manor house. At one point she gives a textbook description to “prove” she’s an architect. The thing is, I’ve never had an architectural lesson in my life, and I could have said the same thing by looking at the building, which by her description sounds a lot like Sulgrave Manor. When they finally get to the point, she won’t do it because he sits her on what she calls “a solid mahogany Regency breakfast table.” Finally she consents to do it on a sofa, which she whimsically says she will do as long as it’s flame-proof. By this point I had a toothache.

Anyway, he is super-conscious of the press and suchlike, which is why he is living alone in the manor house – and why he is chopping wood half naked. Yeah, right. Like they’d leave him alone for that? Like they wouldn’t find out where he is in ten minutes and be buzzing the place in helicopters? This man, already a million-trillion-dillionaire, has discovered he’s unexpectedly heir to a small European country, and the press is leaving him alone? The British press? The press that not only hacked the cell phones of celebrities but also, it is now alleged, the lawyers of the celebrities? No. Just no.

And she’s an architect with assertion problems who has just lost her job. She wants to get into restoration, which makes me wonder why she didn’t do a restoration course (most of those take seven years to get the qualification) instead of architecture. So she’s confused, ditzy, and she wants to build your house. No.

They meet, and he takes her to his house and lets her wander around on her own. On the basis of a paragraph that she could have learned by heart from a guidebook. This man is so security conscious he should be locked up for his own safety. But they get together, and, sigh, have bit of afternoon delight. At this point, the lusting is really getting on my nerves, and I want them to get together and get it over with. Because I can’t stand any more blocks of text describing how sexy they are in such clichéd terms that, although I’m sure this book is new to me, I keep checking the publication date to see if I could have possibly read it before somewhere. And it’s “standard” lust, the kind that isn’t specific. Hot man plus sexy woman equals sexy time. The characters never come to life, and, although I’m told repeatedly what they are and who they are, I never see it from their actions or their thoughts.

Here’s a sample:

He ran his gaze over her and her body burned in the wake of its trail. Her breasts swelled. Her nipples hardened and molten heat pooled between her legs. Desire whipped through her and she had to fight not to tremble.

See what I mean? It’s a lot easier to give an example. Hardened nipples, molten heat, ho hum. Very few authors are immune to doing this, but when all the descriptions are like this, it starts to get a bit stale. Lucy King seems to have read a lot of erotic romance from about five years ago.

Throughout there are chick-lit phrases that I really don’t enjoy, because there are so many of them. “uber-fashionable,” “uh-oh,” and more and more, so that the book is overweighted by them. It makes Laura sound very immature, and I’d begun to think that maybe she shouldn’t be allowed out on her own. I’m also irritated by the plethora of one-sentence paragraphs. Very mannered and noticeable, when I’d rather have been reading a smooth-flowing story.

The second part of the story is when Laura applies for a job in Matt’s new principality for restoring the palace. Again, no. For a job as huge as the one described, a team of tried and true restorers, with expertise in various disciplines, would be employed, not a young person without a team who had lost her previous job. It just wouldn’t happen. Neither would it happen that someone as newsworthy as Matt would have escaped Laura’s attention. Are we to believe that she decided that the house she was so passionate about at the start of the story didn’t matter? She didn’t research the owner, the man she’d just had sex with? She didn’t see his face or hear an account of him on the news? Like I said, she shouldn’t be allowed out on her own.

But – someone who enjoys a lighter tone, someone who misses chick-lit, who likes the Bridget Jones style voice of the heroine and the uber-sexiness of the hero is going to love this. I fully expect to see some reviews where the readers adored it. But I’m afraid the book isn’t for me and I found it a struggle. The plot holes and unbelievability, plus the immaturity of the characters and the author’s jagged style, combined to make this book a struggle for me to read.

Grade: D-

Summary:

Close encounters of the royal kind

After being made redundant and finding her boyfriend in bed with another woman, Laura decides it’s time to take charge of her life. However, the last thing she expects is for the new Laura to end up having wild, naked fun with the gorgeous guy next door…

She virtually runs away afterward in shame— but so what? She soon gets a new job, on the Mediterranean island of Sassania, no less! But the island has a new king—aka Laura’s guy next door! Now they’re both in trouble, for King Matt should be focusing on affairs of the state, not on reigniting a hot affair of his own…

Read an excerpt.

LynneC’s review of One Night In London by Caroline Linden
Historical Romance published by Avon 30 Aug 11

This is the start of a new series from Linden, and since she’s a new-to-me author, I was looking forward to the read. However, this one proved to be a bit of a disappointment, because of its lax pacing and lack of real conflict.

Edward de Lacey is the second son of a duke. The book starts with the old man on his deathbed and several pages of “but I must tell you my secret!” before the duke dies in good old “It was Argh!” tradition. But the secret, or part of it, is vouchsafed by the family lawyer. The duke was married before he married the mother of the three sons who consider themselves his heirs. That would illegitimise them, and so they couldn’t inherit anything that wasn’t left to them personally, and would, of course, disbar them from the entail and the title. There is a cousin, Augustus, who would be the heir.

So Edward, who is the responsible one and runs the estate, goes to London to engage a solicitor. I wasn’t quite sure why, but I think Ms. Linden has confused the roles of a solicitor and a barrister. That continued to be an annoying niggle. A great house like that of a duke would have a regular “man of business,” or solicitor, and he would take care of all the estate business and engage a barrister when necessary. People don’t go directly to barristers as a rule, and a barrister’s only job is to represent the client in court. So why Edward would want a new solicitor  who seems to do a barrister’s job when he has a perfectly serviceable solicitor is a bit nonsensical. But it does mean that he gets to meet the heroine, Francesca.

Francesca is a widow, and she wants her niece back. She believes that her niece is being held by the family of her aunt against her will and being used as a drudge, and she wants to engage a solicitor to act for her in court (which he couldn’t do, not in the higher courts, anyway). The man agrees, only to be thrown into a frenzy by getting the case from Edward about the dukedom.

There is my other disconnect, because I’ve read Bleak House, which is about a real-life case of inheritance. The lawyers throw this one into such complexities that the estate is eaten up by legal fees and lasted generations. A case like this would be nuts to the lawyers, and there is one easy solution. The Crown takes away the title and reinvests it in the eldest son as the first of the dukedom of the second creation. It happened sometimes, and it sorted out legitimacies or, otherwise, created new conditions.

Why am I going on about this? Because the book does. The first 30% (I read the ARC on my Kindle, which does percents rather than pages) is full of it and little else. There is little character development or plot development and no tension or reason to read on. I nearly gave up, but I wanted to read at least half, to see if there’s any story at all in this.
Well, not really. The story about the niece kind of peters out and has a conclusion I find a little difficult to believe. The duke problem, of course, goes on to another book.

So I always say that the romance is about the characters, right? Okay. Edward doesn’t seem to have a character, apart from being steady and boring. There is nothing to attract me to him, other than his performance in the sack. He’s tall, dark, and boring. Francesca is similarly plodding and a bit boring. She has a nice life—and there’s a word that’s used inappropriately in this book—and except for the problem of her niece, everything’s hunky-dory.  And there’s a woman called Evelyn in this story, which was a man’s name in this period.

There is quite a lot of sex in the second half of the book, as if making up for lost time.

The book is reasonably well written, and most of the historical details are nicely done, although the author didn’t really create a world for me, just bits of one. Things like the heroine’s clothes, which are described as full and frothing (in the Regency?) took me out of the story occasionally, and the “g” word crops up a time or two. My main problem with this book is the lacklustre plot and characterless characters. I wasn’t really engaged in their story.

Oh, yes, and the frankly horrible cover. What is she doing? Presenting herself for doggy-style sex? Not the author’s fault, though, so I can’t hold that against her, except that I kept putting the book to the bottom of the virtual TBR pile because of it. But I read it all, and I don’t think I’ll be aching to read the next in the series. Sorry.

Grade: D

Summary:

A bargain that was all business . . . and pure passion.

Neither wealth nor beauty will help Lady Francesca Gordon win custody of her young niece Georgina, saving the girl from a cruel stepmother; she needs London’s top solicitor for that. But when Edward de Lacey, son of the powerful Duke of Durham, hires away the one man who can do the job, Francesca decides Edward himself must champion her case . . . if only she can melt the dashing lord’s stony heart.

Edward has reason to be guarded, though. London’s tabloids have just exposed a secret that could ruin his entire family. When Francesca offers a unique chance to undo the damage, Edward is forced to agree to a partnership . . . and now, each moment together feeds the flames of his scandalous longing for the passionate widow. But when Georgina disappears, fate will test them both . . . and leave their love hanging in the balance.

No excerpt available.

Wendy the Super Librarian‘s review of How to Lasso a Cowboy (Gold Buckle Cowboys #2) by Christine Wenger
Contemporary romance published by Harlequin Special Edition 21 Jun 11

File this one under When Tropes You Love Turn Out Not So Great. A cowboy? A supposedly Plain Jane heroine? Reuniting with an unrequited teenage crush? What could possibly go wrong with all that Wendy Bait crammed into one single book? Well, turns out, quite a bit. Bother.

Jenna Reed is a 30-year-old single school teacher. She wants to get married, she wants to have babies, but since Mr. Right hasn’t come calling she figures it’s time to travel, see the world, and shake up her routine. She’s packing her bags for Europe when her big brother, Tom, calls with a favor. Her nephew, Andy, has been ordered to attend summer school and is dangerously close to being held back a grade. Could Jenna be a doll and tutor him while Tom is working the bull-riding circuit for some extra cash? Oh, and his BFF, Dustin Morgan, will also be staying at the ranch. Dustin is also a bull-rider and has been sidelined with a broken leg.

The fly in the ointment is that Dustin and Jenna went to high school together. Jenna had a major crush on him, but Dustin didn’t know she existed, despite that fact that he was BFFs with her brother. But guess what? Dustin has always had the hots for Jenna! He stayed away because Tom ordered him to. Jenna’s a precious snowflake and is too good for the likes of Dustin, Mr. Playboy. Now what will happen that these two are staying at Tom’s ranch together? Gee, I wonder.

This story gets off on the wrong foot with me and never recovers. Frankly, it starts out repetitive and boring, with a heavy tell over show writing style. I kept on with it, hoping the writing would smooth out and, sadly, got more annoyed the deeper I went into the book. Besides being yet another self-sacrificing heroine, Jenna comes off as a clueless snob. Quite a to-do with her is the knowledge that Dustin chucked aside a college scholarship to join the PBR circuit right out of high school. Somehow that becomes okay though when she finds out he had A Very Good And Noble Reason for doing so.

The clueless part comes in thanks to a magazine article she reads on “how to seduce your man” and she decides to employ those tricks on Dustin. Here’s the problem: at the beginning of the story the reader is told Jenna Wants A Man And To Make Lots O’ Babies. Yet what happens when she bags her cowboy? Yeah, she does an about face. Suddenly her and Dustin want “different things.” Even though she knows Dustin wants to leave the circuit, buy his own ranch, and “settle down.” Really? I must have missed the part where Jenna’s multiple personality disorder is disclosed.

Dustin seems like an okay guy at first, but turns out he’s a moron too. Instead of telling his BFF to go to hell, he boinks Jenna and then runs away out of guilt because he made that stupid promise. Hey, I don’t think Jenna is much of a prize – but the chick is 30. Too frickin’ old for her brother to care who his single sister is knockin’ boots with.

All of which begs the question – what was Tom thinking? He’s warned Jenna away from Dustin. He knows Dustin is warm for Jenna’s form. And yet Tom asks Jenna and Dustin to live together at his ranch while he is away traveling the PBR circuit? With only a 10-year-old boy left behind to supervise? Really, dude?! I mean, really?!

So, yeah, this didn’t work for me at all. Between the lackluster characters, strained conflict, and a logic-free Tom-size plot hole you can drive fifty city buses through? Ugh.

Grade: D-

Summary:

Catching herself a cowboy was the last thing on Jenna Reed’s mind….

Until one moved in with her! Well, technically bull rider Dustin Morgan was staying at her brother’s house for the summer—but so was Jenna. Having her high school crush under the same roof was not the way she’d planned on spending her vacation. Especially since Dustin had never, ever so much as flirted with her. But maybe it was time the plain-Jane changed all of that.

On the verge of turning thirty, Jenna knew it was high time to go after what she wanted…and she wanted Dustin. Using a magazine article called “Ten Ways to Seduce a Man,” she set out to lasso her cowboy. But what would she do with him once she caught him?

Read an excerpt.

Other books in this series:

Dinca’s review of The Prodigal Son (Diamond Dust Trilogy, Book 2) by Beth Andrews
Contemporary Romance published by Harlequin SuperRomance 03 May 11

Finally, I made it all the way to the end. I didn’t think I would be able to finish this book. The hero, Matt Sheppard, is not where he wants to be, the heroine is angry and resentful of her lot in life, the hero’s manipulative mother and two brothers are not happy about the whole mess. There is not a lot of love and harmony going on in this book, and waiting until the last chapter for any good vibes is just not my kind of story.

Matt has a fight with his father and is disinherited. He goes off to college on his own and makes his mark in the wine industry. Then he is summoned home to be in his brother’s wedding, and his mother manipulates him into staying and defaulting on his contract on a vineyard in Australia, thus ruining his reputation in the industry. If it wasn’t for his brothers losing the vineyard, he would walk away.

Connie Henkel would give anything to be a Sheppard.  She looks up to Matt’s father and has learned from him. She’s earned the title vineyard manager, and now she’s being pushed out of her position by the very man who spurned her mentor and didn’t want to have anything to do with the Diamond Dust Winery. She has been saving for years to buy into the vineyard and Matt’s coming home has ruined it all.

On top of her work life falling apart, Connie has a mentally ill mother who demands her time, along with two lovely yet self-absorbed daughters to care for. She is stressed to the max and has to deal with her new co-manager occupying her thoughts, her work days and soon her nights.

As for the supporting characters, we have a wimpy brother who doesn’t get what he wants out of life. The middle brother is trying to find his way after being in the military. And last and certainly not least is a witch of a mother who doesn’t take the time to think that someone may have feelings and obligations beside herself.  I don’t much care for “soap opera” mothers and this book has two of them. I find Matt’s mother a malicious, unpleasant, and a selfish person, and I might as well include arrogant. Connie’s mother is mentally ill and has a good excuse for being manipulative and time consuming. So in general we have a book full of nasty, angry people and very little love in the air, considering a wedding is supposed to be taking place.

I need a little more peace, love, and understanding between my characters to find love and romance enjoyable. Even when they were close years before, there were very few undercurrents and not a lot of sizzle between the characters. Life in general has enough ups and downs without having to spend your leisure time reading about someone else’s.

Grade: D

Summary:

He always gets what he wants—and that’s made Matt Sheppard an international success as a vintner. So he never saw his mother’s blackmail coming. She says she’ll sell the family’s vineyard if he doesn’t stay put for exactly one year. But running the Diamond Dust with his brothers was his father’s dream, not his. Now he’s shackled to the place by familial ties as strong as vines and tight enough to strangle him.

Worse, he’s forced to work with a resentful manager, Connie Henkel. Her mile-long legs can’t distract him from his goal: to improve the business and get out as soon as he can. Because if the single mom entwines herself around Matt’s heart, he’ll never be able to leave.

Read an excerpt.

Other books in this series:

LynneC’s review of The Bed and the Bachelor (Byrons of Braebourne, Book 5) by Tracy Anne Warren
Historical Romance published by Avon 26 Jul 11

If you want to read a historical where the heroine repeatedly date rapes the hero, then you’ve come to the right place. This is the book for you. But let me start at the beginning. This is a book that started a little bit iffy and carried on down, with a dislikeable heroine and a clueless hero. It posed a question for me. Is it okay to have date rape if the book is a historical and it’s the heroine who does it to the hero?

Let me backtrack a little, see if you agree with me.

The heroine, Sebastianne, is posing as a housekeeper in the household of a man with the unfortunate and unlikely name of Drake Byron. Lord Drake Byron, if you please. He’s the fourth son of a duke, and I presume I’ve come in on the tail-end of a series. Obviously using the “Mad, Bad and Dangerous” tag which was attached to Lord Byron by Lady Caroline Lamb, this is fixed firmly in an alternate Regency where the real Lord Byron doesn’t exist.

Okay, so I was extremely skeptical when Sebastianne got the job, despite being 22. Housekeepers were invariably mature women, who’d worked up through the household hierarchy and I don’t imagine any employer would even consider her for the job. But I let it go, because I wanted to see where the story went.

Until the end of the first chapter. Then Sebastianne reveals to the reader that she is a French spy. Oh dear. I avoid spy books set in the Regency. Spies weren’t gentlemen, they were considered liars and cheats, until the advent of James Bond, when Fleming put  a brand new and brilliant spin on what used to be a disreputable profession. And worse, she’s a reluctant spy, because they are holding her family to ransom. So she’s being blackmailed. Ugh. I’d rather have read a book with a committed French spy, someone who believed in what she was doing. But no, Sebastianne is a martyr.

She is there to get a copy of a cipher which the mathematically brilliant Drake has made up for the government. He keeps the key to his safe on a chain around his neck. So Sebastianne drugs him, then sneaks into his room one night.

What follows is an almost casebook example of date rape. She gives him the Regency equivalent of rohypnol. Makes him sleepy and randy. She sneaks into his room in her night clothes.  He half wakes, and wants her. He pursues her, she does the “no, no” thing and goes to bed with him. She gets the wax impression of the key.

This is what the Women’s Health site says about the effects of date rape:

• “You feel drunk and haven’t drunk any alcohol — or, you feel like the effects of drinking alcohol are stronger than usual.
• You wake up feeling very hung over and disoriented or having no memory of a period of time.
• You remember having a drink, but cannot recall anything after that.
• You find that your clothes are torn or not on right.
• You feel like you had sex, but you cannot remember it.”

Which is how Drake is described as feeling the morning after. Drake can remember having sex with Sebastianne, or Anne, as he knows her as, but he thinks it’s a dream, vaguely. Although he makes the approach to her, it’s clear to her that he’s not in his right mind. After all, she drugged him. If this had happened with the sexes reversed, the romance community would be up in arms, but it can happen the other way, too. And she isn’t remorseful, except with regard to herself. Would she get caught? Would he sack her before she’d stolen the papers from him?

Mind you, I’m almost in sympathy with her because of an earlier scene when Drake, coming home from an enthusiastic session with his perfectly nice mistress, has inner thoughts about lusting after his housekeeper. Very heroic, right? Erm, no.

The second time they have sex, Drake is drunk. So mark that down as two date rapes. He isn’t used to being drunk.

I really didn’t believe in Sebastianne, and I didn’t care for her. She’s a typical passive-aggressive rapist, denies her own feelings, denies his, and blames somebody else (the French). He’s a mathematical wiz who thinks it’s okay to have sex with one woman to get another out of his system.

The style is a little off. I have to give Warren kudos for trying to recreate the Regency era, although she peoples it with characters who seem to have been transplanted in the modern era. And cowboys. There is one scene in which Drake and his brother Cade discuss the issues over a cigar. She transports me to the old West, when characters had names like Cade and Drake, and smoked stogies. Certainly not the Regency era.

There are some details that aren’t quite right, as well. The “g” word turned up more than somewhat and several American terms like “quit” for “leave,” “candy” for “sweets” and the startling modern sentence, “I’m through with her.” But it won’t bother the average U.S. reader, and since American-authored historicals rarely travel far, that should work out fine. They’re common enough phrases for her readers not to notice, although to a British reader, it reads very “American” (so why doesn’t Avon employ a few British beta readers?) I did appreciate that she’s done some research into the era, but the household was more Downton Abbey (Edwardian) than Northanger Abbey, and some of the characters belowstairs seem to have come directly from that series.

Her style bothers me a bit, too. She describes something, then there’s a paragraph of static description, so that drags the book down and makes it a bit of a slog to read. I prefer it when details are incorporated into the action. But this seems to be the way she writes, or at least, she does in this book.

I’m really sorry this book didn’t work out for me. I did try to like it, I really did, and I did force myself to read to the end, but I’m afraid neither character redeems themselves for me.

Grade: D

Summary:

Everyone knows the Byron brothers are “mad, bad, and dangerous.” But the devilishly desirable fourth son, Drake, is too scholarly to misbehave . . . or is he?

Lord Drake Byron has no time in his busy life to worry about taking a wife. He is more interested in the unbreakable code he has developed to defeat Napoleon’s forces. Little does he know that the irresistibly lovely new housekeeper he’s hired is really a French secret agent.

Sebastianne Dumont is not at all who she seems to be. Forced to spy to save her family, she embarks on a mission that takes an even more dangerous turn when she falls in love with the surprisingly tempting man she must ultimately betray. And if she succeeds in her mission, will she also break Lord Drake’s heart, while leaving her own behind?

Read an excerpt.

Other books in this series:

Wendy the Super Librarian‘s review of Should’ve Been a Cowboy (Sons of Chance, Book 4) by Vicki Lewis Thompson
Contemporary Romance published by Harlequin Blaze 24 May 11

It happens.  Eventually every reader hits their “breaking point” when it comes to a series.  Like most things in life, there is no hard and fast rule.  Every reader is different.  In some cases I can make it 20+ books in before I “break up” with a series.  Others, I’m still going strong with.  In the case of Vicki Lewis Thompson’s Sons of Chance series for Blaze?  I think this one, book four, might have been the undoing.

Tyler Connelli is up for a big promotion with the luxury vacation cruise line she works for.  However, before setting off to her next exotic locale, she’s swinging by Jackson Hole, Wyoming to visit her very pregnant sister, Morgan.  Little does she know that Alex Keller is also in residence at Last Chance Ranch.  It was at her sister’s wedding that Tyler had an explosive roll in the hay (literally – they did it in a hayloft!) with Alex, who was still licking his wounds over his divorce.  Having relocated from Chicago, Alex now works for the Chance family.  The same family her sister married into.  And suddenly that quick, memorable roll in the hay is casting a very long shadow.

Here’s the problem with this story – it’s got a very been there, done that feel to it.  The conflict, which has the heft and consistency of wet tissue paper, consists of Tyler and Alex thinking that they can just bounce off each other while she’s in town, get the attraction out of their systems, and go along their merry way.  Tyler’s upcoming promotion fits in there too, but given that it lacks any real urgency, it’s hard to consider it actual “conflict.”  We’re talking a Blaze here, a line I read for “fun and sexy” more so than “angst and meaty conflict” – but this is still epically thin for “fun and sexy” standards.  It also doesn’t help matters (at all) that this Let’s Just Be Bang-Buddies “conflict” is prevalent in each of the three previous books in the series.  Been there, done that, bought the T-shirt.

Now, you might be thinking to yourself, “Well Wendy – you are once again being a disagreeable piss-pot.  Plus, I haven’t read any of the three previous books, so I’m not worried about the conflict sounding monotonous.”  Which would be the point in this review where I warn readers unfamiliar with the series, that Series-Itis has now come calling, unpacked its bags, and is settling into Last Chance Ranch like it’s the family homestead.  The first several chapters feature many previous characters, all of whom don’t bring anything to the fact that Tyler has learned Alex is still in town.  They just stand around blathering on about nothing, to the point where even I (who know who all these people are) am like, “Blah, blah, blah – don’t care!  Let’s get to the main couple of this story thankyouverymuch.”

So yeah, this book sort of left me in a bad mood.  Thompson can write fun and sexy better than just about anybody in the romance business, but here it falls very flat.  I’ve heard all of this before – in the previous three books in the series.  Which I might have been able to roll with if Tyler and Alex had elevated themselves above “characters” and felt like “real people” to me.  Which they don’t.  Bother.

Grade: D

Summary:

Party organizer Tyler O’Connell is on the fast track to her dream career. She’s so close she can almost taste it. But when she returns to her family and sees her one-night stand, Alex Keller, all done up in his cowboy gear, her self-control is stretched to the breaking point….

They’re worlds apart. She’s a busy career girl, and Alex is a cowboy. But while getting together might not bode well for anything long-term, it more than makes up for it in sheer hot chemistry! Problem is, this is one wrangler she might want to get tied down—and tied up—to…indefinitely!

Read an excerpt.

Other books in this series:

LynneC’s review of Meddling with a Millionaire by Cat Schield
Contemporary Romance Ebook published by Harlequin Desire 1 Jun 11

I love discovering new authors to follow and enjoy, so Schield’s debut book with Harlequin Desire is a perfect candidate. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work out too well and I don’t think I’ll be hunting down her future releases. But a heroine who is bemoaning the fact that she’s down to her last $100,000 doesn’t really get much sympathy from me.

I really don’t like doing these reviews, especially with new authors, but this book is so clunky, with such dislikeable characters, that I had to force myself to read to the end. I did it because I wanted to give Schield a fair shake—perhaps the book would improve in the second half. Sadly, it doesn’t.

Emma has already slept with Nathan once when they meet at a New Year’s party at her father’s house—they’d done it against the door of his apartment a while back—but now Nathan is pursuing her with a different purpose. If he marries her, he gets the deal with her father that he’s after. The first scene is Emma trying to get away from Nathan at the party, and failing. I’m not sure why Emma is running. Because it makes a good scene, I suspect.

Emma is a poor little rich girl. Her father cut off her access to the Trust because she’s spending too much on clothes and shoes. Instead, he gives her $100,000 to survive on for a year. And we’re supposed to feel sorry for her, or smile at her predicament? Sorry, no. Emma is also supposed to be a talented jewelry designer. She promises to pay her father back the $30,000 she’s already spent, and then he won’t insist on her marriage to Nathan. This makes no sense at all. And we never get the feel for Emma as a designer. We’re just told that she is.

At one point, she is in her workshop rooting through a box of sapphires, looking for a stone for her latest creation. I winced. Once a stone is cut and polished, it’s not kept with others. That’s only for the rough designs. Cut and polished precious stones are kept in padded cases, separately, to avoid scratches and the sharp edges of the cut being rubbed off. It’s details like that that stops this story gaining any feel for the real. Vague descriptions, together with the odd product placement (honestly, it feels like that) stop the background from becoming real. At one point, she empties her wardrobe, thinking she should sell the clothes. Okay, since they’re designer, but stuffing them into garbage bags isn’t doing them any favors, and hoping to get more than thrift shop prices is a bit daft. Since this is one of Emma’s consistent habits, i.e. doing dumb stuff, it could have been endearing. But it turns out annoying. She shouldn’t be allowed out alone, and she keeps insisting that she’s competent and bright. No on both counts.

Product placement? At one point Nathan is concerned and worried. He drives his car, a BMW, out in pursuit. But the text describes the car, specifically a BMW 650i coupe. Are we expected to believe that Nathan is thinking of the model of his car in this situation? Or is this an unintentional slip into omniscient POV? Either way, it jars, and makes me laugh. Maybe Nathan’s a snob and the model of his car means more to him than Emma’s predicament. I wouldn’t be surprised.

Now we come to Nathan. A more selfish, egotistical, wrong-headed person it would be more difficult to meet, and he doesn’t reform until far too late into the story, and then for the wrong reasons. We’re expected to believe that he’s a successful, hard-headed businessman. One who doesn’t seem to have heard of a company portfolio or spreading the risk or even risk assessment strategy. He is opposed to his brothers’ safer strategy of buying into a different firm, and he wants the deal with Emma’s father. It’s basically a plot device, as it turns out, giving him an alternative. And when he changes his mind, he does it for family reasons, not business ones. Way to run a business, gambling with the futures of employees. I guess the brothers are sequel-bait, but they’re very loosely drawn, so I’m not really pulled to read their stories. Nathan wants what Nathan wants. He insists on it.

There are lots of clumsy backstory drops. They are sprinkled through the text, but, particularly at the beginning, the story comes to a screeching halt for yet another paragraph of what Emma feels and what she’s done in the past. The reason she’s determined on love in marriage is explained with the usual clichéd backstory, and disappointingly, so is Nathan’s excuse for not looking for love in marriage—it destroyed his mother, so therefore, everyone who falls in love is deluded and he doesn’t want any of it. Say what? Would you work for a man who makes such crashing generalizations?

There is a consistent error, too. The author uses “that’s” and “it’s” when she really should have put “that was” and “it was.” Consistency of tense is quite important, and every time it’s used wrongly, it jarred.

There are some odd metaphors that don’t make sense. For example, at the start of Chapter Two, “where a jackhammer had started drilling into her brain.” Jackhammers drill? A little more attention, replacing “drill” with a more appropriate word would have worked better. And there are more of these that make a reader stop and do a mental double take before reading on.

The lack of “showing” in favor of “telling” too – telling us Emma is a great designer without describing her designs, for instance, doesn’t lead to extra closeness with her. I could understand if she is really a talented designer and just needs a break, but the story isn’t told like that.

Oh, yes, and an old Harlequin trope shows its head again. Emma and Nathan are about to get down and dirty, when…when…the doorbell rings. I have so not missed that one. And, to make matters worse, it’s Emma’s BFF, and after Nathan leaves, she talks everything over with her. Sigh. The BFF discussion is so 1990s, and so obviously a way for Emma to explain her feelings without going into more introspection.

One thing that actually moves irritation up to anger is the lack of contraception/protection. Unless it’s so brief I missed it, there are no descriptions of condoms, neither character mentions any worries about babies or disease (which is another Stupid Emma moment) or mentions that their religion forbids it.

I am so sorry, but this book just didn’t work for me on any level. I can’t give it an F, because it is at least coherent, and to give an F for a debut novel smacks of unnecessary cruelty. But I wouldn’t be honest if I didn’t give it a D. So D it is, and I’m so sorry. All I can say is try it, you might like it a lot more than I do. At least there aren’t any secret babies.

Grade: D

Summary:

Sydney Chase may have sworn off relationships—but she still has needs. So she heads to the Panther’s Lair in search of sex: no strings, no emotions. The club owner, dark, mysterious Raimond Decoudreau, is exactly what she’s looking for—his French accent alone makes her hot. Fortunately, his mouth has other sinful talents, as well…

After just one night with Sydney, Raimond knows she’s his. And when the time is right, when she loves him in return, he’ll reveal his deepest secret. For now, he’ll enjoy pleasuring her in the most intimate of ways.

But when Sydney’s life is threatened, Raimond’s instincts take control, and she gets a glimpse at the beast within…

Read an excerpt.

LynneC’s review of Kathryn the Kitten by Lavinia Kent
Historical Romance eBook novella published by Avon 28 Jun 11

With the blurb and a title like that, how could I resist? It was like a challenge. But it’s one that quickly dissipated.

It took me a while to get what the tagline was about. I’d thought it meant that the author had taken care over the details, researched the period. Silly me. It’s a reference to reality shows, I think, though it took me a while to get the point.

The book, short though it is, starts very slowly. There’s a scene with Kathryn, and a scene with her husband, Robert. They aren’t very good in bed together, although they are in love. Kathryn lost their baby and they hadn’t really got together since. But I read it. The research is enough to give the story some authenticity, but not enough to interest me. Clubs and society, a brief mention of current affairs. I read on.

Kathryn asks a friend about jazzing up her sex life. Friend obliges, showing her how to behave like a slut, because we all know how much men love that, especially upright and slightly stuffy dukes. Kathryn and huz do a bit better.

That’s about it, really. There is a confusing plot about a print in an apothecary’s shop. I’m not quite sure why it’s not in a print shop but instead the apothecary’s shop, full of the bottles and pills it contains, but there you go. Maids discuss the ladies in the print, who will, of course, have their own stories. Ladies of the day could expect to be immortalized in prints, and common folk could buy them and put them up in their living rooms. Livens the place up a bit. Of course, there are also scurrilous cartoons, scandalous in their subject matter, lampooning politicians in ways nobody could get away with today.

Kathryn seems obsessed with the print, and nobody could understand why, least of all me. Honestly, I didn’t get the point. I felt a bit thick, to tell you the truth, but I couldn’t understand what it’s about. I don’t watch many reality shows, only the X Factor and Strictly Come Dancing, so I’m probably missing an allusion to something else. I have no idea what.

There are a lot of Americanisms in the book, and when there aren’t any, the characters are speaking in Regency-ese, where words are sometimes contracted, sometimes not. It makes for a stilted read. And why call the heroine “Kathryn”? A twentieth century version of the name Katharine. In the Regency they might have thought that her parents couldn’t spell. Misspellings and alternative spellings weren’t too popular then. So we had King George instead of King Jorj. Shame, really. There are a fair few Americanisms, and the style is, well, flat and very simple. I’m afraid it didn’t engage my interest.

This is really a novella, at 33,000 words, but it seems much longer. Much, much longer. In a story where very little happens, and what does happen is predictable and devoid of interest, the best thing about it is the blurb and the way the story is sold. There are more to come, but they’ll have to get along without me.

By the way, I went to her website to check on this one and maybe get a nice cover pic. The only mention of this novella is a brief one on the news page.

Grade: D

Summary:

Regency England just got real(ity)

Episode 1: How Kathryn Got Her Passion Back

Kathryn, Duchess of Harrington, has the perfect life: a handsome duke for a husband, riches to spare, a house in Mayfair, and the right group of friends. The only thing she doesn’t have is her husband in her bed. But she’s about to change that. Enlisting the aid of her best friend, Linnette, who knows about these things even though she’s a duchess herself, Kathryn begins her seduction plan.

But Linnette knows a secret and it involves Kathryn’s husband. And, when that comes out, Kathryn’s marriage isn’t the only thing at stake. Can you say Afternoon Tea Catfight?

No excerpt available.

Ash’s review of Finding Forgiveness (Poconos Pack Book  1) by Dana Marie Bell
Erotic Paranormal Romance ebook published by Samhain 05 Jul 11

I don’t know what it is lately, but the Samhain books I’ve been reviewing have all been duds. Throughout the whole book I wanted Dave to get rid of Ben. Since it’s their romance, that’s not really a good thing.

I could not stand Ben and that is my biggest issue with Finding Forgiveness. As the pack Marshall he can feel everyone’s pain, and so he automatically assumes Dave is an alcoholic because he has headaches. There are no other signs to support it, but Ben is convinced. Even his excuse is weak and I feel that the thing that made him so sure of Dave drinking should have been how he knew he wasn’t. If Ben is used to being around an alcoholic, then I think he should know how to tell the difference between a hangover and a headache. From the start I disliked him, and it never changed.

Dave is an okay character, and if he is with someone else he could have been great. I don’t like that he goes to gay pride week at Disney World in order to find another mate, which apparently can happen but is rare. I guess if you are going to get another one, Disney World is a good place to look. Then when Ben goes there to claim him, Dave is 100 percent sure he is dreaming. It’s just…weird.

Their romance just felt…unromantic. The emotion between them is lacking. Ben should have had to grovel longer, and I think the whole headache issue went on for too long. It took years for Ben to find out the truth, and he finds it out from the alpha pair, Rick and Belle, when they finally decide to act like they care. I feel that if Rick and Belle care for Dave as much as they say they do, they would try to find out what the problem is sooner.

As for everything else, I don’t think this should be labeled Book 1 of a new series. The pack alpha has already had his own book, as have other characters we meet. It made me feel like I’m missing a lot of stuff. Not sure if I will be reading any more by this author.

Grade: D+

Summary:

To forgive is divine…if he can pin his lover down long enough to beg for it.

Poconos Pack, Book 1

Ben Malone’s role as Marshall attunes him to every nuance of the pack’s wellbeing—which means he’s forced to feel every one of his mate’s hangovers. It’s the one reason Ben will never claim Dave Maldonado. Being alone is better than being with someone who lives in a bottle.

Dave was destined to be a pack Alpha until his first migraine hit at age fifteen, the day he caught his future mate holding hands with another boy. In the nine agonizing years since, he’s contented himself as Beta, but never learned to live with the pain and confusion of Ben’s rejection.

Dave’s worst attack yet sends him to the hospital—and brings them both face to face with the misunderstanding that’s kept them apart all these years. It’s too late, though. Dave is headed for Gay Pride Week at Disney World with one goal in mind. Forget Ben Malone.

Ben’s got a problem with that. Only one man is destined to hold his David. And he’ll give anything, even his last shred of pride, to win forgiveness—and the right to finally claim his mate.

Read an excerpt.

LynneC’s review of Heartless Rebel (Bad Blood Collection, Book 5) by Lynn Raye Harris
Contemporary Romance published by Mills and Boon Modern Romance 17 Jun 11

A bit of desperation setting in on the titles? Jack isn’t heartless and he isn’t a rebel. He isn’t a card sharp, either, he’s an investment manager.

Cara has been brought to Europe as a croupier for a special night, when her boss plans to scam a wealthy card player out of millions. Unfortunately, when it comes to the crunch, Cara can’t do it. Jack realizes that Cara is in trouble when he susses out what’s going on and risks his life to rescue her. He gets a beating for his pains. I wasn’t sure how Cara and Jack get out of this life-threatening situation, it just doesn’t work out right. The boss doesn’t seem to know who his customers are, which is highly unlikely in a high-stakes private card game and gets his goons to beat Jack to a pulp. Later on, Jack has no trouble getting what he wants from him. So that early part seems contrived, to say the least.

Cara is a croupier from a white-trash background, but she’s fighting to succeed. I like that about her. But I don’t find the set up entirely convincing, and then when Jack points out that her boss wouldn’t have let her go, her insistence on believing otherwise is rather annoying. She’s asked to wear an unusually sexy outfit, and then to cheat? She does it for unselfish reasons, of course, and then can’t go through with it. And she thinks she’ll get away with it?

Cara is a bit irritating in her naïveté, and she also has a trope I’m not particularly fond of – she’s supporting the family back home and she needs the money to care for them. Her New Orleans background is described, and her Cajun-style French came in useful in Paris, though, and that is fun, together with Jack’s arousal at the husky, less-than-crisp French. Because Jack tells her he’s no good and not to rely on him at the start of their affair, Cara takes that as gospel, rather than the fact that at the beginning, Jack had risked his life to rescue her. I find that pretty irritating. Cara isn’t a bright girl.

And they keep secrets from each other. Jack is fooling himself that he’s only helping a pretty girl and having a fun affair, while Cara refuses to face herself, as well as Jack. The conflict keeps going a bit too long. Until the reader, in this case me, is saying, “Just tell her already.”

Jack is not a card sharp, he just plays cards well. He is the typical fare for this line – a fabulously wealthy businessman, in his case an investments manager for himself and others, as well as the inevitable charities. I say inevitable, because that is a trope to show the inner goodness of the hero – he gives a lot to charities. He spends hours on investments. I do get a little tired with the comparison between card playing and other gambling to managing investments. If you manage investments like you play cards, then you’re doing it wrong and you’re not going to make any money, much less billions of dollars.

Jack is more interesting than Cara, but barely so, because in this book Harris relies a bit too much on the tropes. I wanted to see more of their characters and how they cope given that situation.

In this book, this parallel isn’t made directly, only that Jack likes taking risks. But it is dealt with too lightly for my liking, and I’d prefer more color in that part of the story to deepen the understanding of Jack’s character. It might be just me, but I’m left with a character, which, while fun to read, is only skin deep.

Grade: D

Summary:

Jack…Red-Hot. Renegade. Restless.

Notorious gambler Jack no longer gets a buzz from the risks he takes at the card table. In fact it bores him. Until one night he wins more than he ever bargained for…

His prize is stunning Cara Taylor – she might be down on her luck but she certainly doesn’t need rescuing by a card-shark like Jack! Now she’s stuck with him she doesn’t know whether to love him or loathe him.

No excerpt available.

Wendy the Super Librarian‘s review of What’s a Housekeeper to Do? by Jennie Adams
Contemporary Romance published by Harlequin Romance 3 May 11

What I find appealing about category is that the shorter word counts mean an immediate strong and intense focus on the romance.  Since I read romance novels for the romance, this is a major plus, in my opinion.  Do you want to know what the kiss of death is for a category romance?  No, not secret babies, billionaire tycoons, or virgin secretaries.  When the book is boring.  Shorter word counts should equate intense conflict and emotional punch.  It should not equate putting me to sleep.

Not only does Lally Douglas have no life, she lacks her own identity.  She has spent her entire adult life catering to her large family and working for them – either as child care or in their small businesses.  But now the unthinkable has happened – nobody in her family needs her.  So she answers an ad for a temporary housekeeper, thinking that once this job is over, surely someone in the family will need her again.

Cameron Travers not only works in property development, he’s a successful crime fiction writer.  Alas, right now, he’s got a lot on his plate.  He’s working on remodeling a new property, he’s got a wicked case of writer’s block, his editor is breathing down his neck, and oh yeah – he’s an insomniac.  He’s hoping that by hiring Lally to handle a lot of the little day-to-day stuff, it will help free up some of his time and maybe kick his muse into gear.  He did not bargain on being attracted to her.

The bulk of my problems with this story occur with Lally’s character.  Or lack thereof.  Now, we’ve all read our fair share of self-sacrificing heroines.  The martyr-types who routinely throw themselves on various fires.  But Lally is different.  She’s painfully vanilla.  I never got a sense that she’s her own person.  Or even that she wants to be her own person.  You know that expression about your family being your anchor?  Well, Lally has strapped that anchor around her neck and is sinking like a stone.  The worst of it is that no one in her family is evil.  They’re nice people.  But it takes them conspiring against her, and lying to her face, for her to go out on her own.

The problem is that I never feel like Lally does that.  She trades taking care of her family for taking care of Cam.  Heroines like this don’t need a romance.  It’s the bloody well last thing they need.  They need to get a life of their own.  An identity.  Something that actually makes me give a damn about them as a character.

The other edge of this sword is that this story lacks any real conflict for a very long time.  Lally has a Big Secret that could have been dynamite dramatically, but it comes off with a fizzle.  It does help to explain why she is the way she is, but the lack of urgency to what few teasing bread crumbs the author drops early on just aren’t enough to make me care.  Cam seems like an OK sort of bloke, but even with all his baggage, he never rises above mild interest for me.

At the end of the day, Lally’s bad first impression that drags on and on, coupled with the lack of urgency, and this is one deadly dull read for me.  It may appeal to those readers who find themselves burnt out on over-the-top angst or characters with so much baggage you wonder how they’re not in a psychiatric hospital.  But all the way through this one I found myself yearning for something, Dear Lord, anything to happen.  It just never did.

Grade: D

Summary:

Being housekeeper to crime writer Cameron Travers should be a pretty simple, safe job—just what Lally Douglas wants. Once burned, forever shy Lally wants to blend into the background.

Cameron Travers is attractive, intelligent, fun and very charming! Soon Lally wants to wear all colors of the rainbow and embrace life. Most of all she wants Cameron to notice her, in that way.

Read an excerpt.

LynneC’s review of Guarding a Notorious Lady by Olivia Parker
Historical Romance published by Avon 31 May 11

I’ve never read Olivia Parker before, and while this is a pleasant read, it’s instantly forgettable, so gossamer-thin that if I don’t write this review now, I’ll probably forget about it. I put this book down half an hour ago, and if I hadn’t made notes, knowing I was going to review this one, I wouldn’t remember it.

This is an ARC that I received from NetGalley, and in my desperate hunt to find a new historical author to love, I thought I’d try this. It’s not for me, though it may well be for you. It’s an airport book, and God bless anyone who can help the poor traveler to wile away those tedious hours after security and before takeoff.

The heroine, whose name I’ve forgotten already and have to look up, Rosalind (oh whoops, Rose of my Richard and Rose series is a Rosalind, I should be able to remember that name!) is a scamp rather than notorious, so the title seems a little inappropriate and far too melodramatic for the tone of this book, which is charmingly light. Anyway, Rosalind is in London for the season when she meets a neighbour, Nicholas (with the unusual surname of Kincaid – an Irish name for a Scot living in England? Ah well, could be. After all, Billy Connolly is Scottish). She has no idea he’s in London and no idea that he has recently inherited the title of Marquis until Chapter Two.

That wasn’t my first “Eh?” moment, but it did stop me a bit. She would have known. She’d have known he was in line, and she’d have known when he inherited. But this is a light-hearted story, and it would be a shame to spoil it, wouldn’t it?

Historical inaccuracies and skimming period and setting are legion. Kilts and whisky in the Regency period? Not for fifty years did they make an appearance in polite society, but, eh, I told myself. At least whisky is spelled right (big sigh of relief there!) or maybe it wasn’t Regency. Since there’s no mention of Napoleon, Wellington, or any other reference to ground me in the period, I wonder if it might be early Victorian, except no mention is made of her, either. Not that I noticed, anyway. There doesn’t seem to be a mention of the period in the blurb, either. So I decided the whole thing is taking place in America in the 1850s. Somewhere like Boston (is there anywhere else like Boston?) and since I know very little about this time and place, it works much better. Because Britain it isn’t. Neither is it Regency.

I can actually take a lightly written novel if the author makes me care about the characters and their dilemmas. But there doesn’t seem to be any dilemmas. Rosalind spends the whole book falling into Nicholas’ arms, tripping, stumbling, falling off ladders and so on. Accident prone doesn’t begin to describe it unless, of course, she is doing it on purpose. That’s about it, really. The plot, I mean. Rosalind spends a season falling into his arms and he spends the season kissing her and then pushing her away, either because of basic honor or a promise he made to her brother or because he has a Tragic Past. Take your pick. None of them seem to matter come the sex scene.

There is a little kissing, a little heavy petting, and one sex scene in the book. It’s a book written by numbers in that respect.

Rosalind is in love with Nicholas from page one and he’s in love with her, so the whole book could actually have ended at the end of Chapter One. Or Chapter Two, if you like a ball scene. She meets him unexpectedly, he’s inherited a title, her family approves, and they announce their engagement. There’s no conflict, no believable reason for staying apart, no reason why they should resist each other.

So, as I do when I start getting bored, I note the inaccuracies and plough on. If I weren’t determined to find one historical I liked, and I knew I’d decided to review this one, I would have given up.

Am I hard for commenting on inaccuracies in what is essentially a romp? No, I don’t think so, though I do feel a tad mean. But hey, remember Georgette Heyer – unforgettable. She wrote romps, scads of them, and in every one she gave the reader a reason to turn the page and in every one she made serious efforts to ground the reader in the period she loved, giving details without swamping the characters in it. They just belonged there, as surely as the Baluchistan Hound belonged in Green Park. But with the Parker book, it would have been any dog in any park, and it wouldn’t have had the same impact, or the same comedic effect. And the fact that I can remember that and the scene effortlessly should really show the difference. Heyer’s Frederica is deeply memorable and very funny in parts. The Baluchistan Hound and Dr. Ratcliffe’s Restorative Pork Jelly are indelibly marked in the minds of anyone reading it. It’s the superficiality of the Parker book that I find tedious and, I think, why it doesn’t have the same effect on me.

And if you don’t know what I’m talking about, go and get a copy of Georgette Heyer’s Frederica and read it now. You won’t regret it.

Don’t get me wrong. Parker’s style is delightful and has enchanted many a reader, but it isn’t a book you’d put on your keeper shelf. Or you might, remembering that you enjoyed it, and then pick it up six months later and think, “I don’t think I’ve read this one.”

So for an airport read, it’s probably a C. For review purposes, it’s a D. Sorry. And I did enjoy the first chapter, and I thought I’d found something interesting. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out.

Grade: D

Summary:

Exquisite trouble . . .

A woman of pristine breeding, Lady Rosalind Devine is also an unrepentant meddler and snoop–which is why her brother refuses to leave her to her own devices while on his wedding trip. But Rosalind will not make things easy for any unseen, unwanted “nursemaid”–and vows to use her considerable wiles to expose her mystery guardian.

Nicholas Kincaid, the Marquess of Winterbourne, agreed to secretly guard his friend’s spoiled, stubborn sister, though her infuriating penchant for mischief is causing him to question his decision. Though bound by the rules of society–and friendship– Rosalind’s spirit and sensuality have sparked a fierce desire in Nicholas to play a very different role in her life, one that entails passion, ecstasy . . . and unavoidable scandal.

Read an excerpt.

Dinca’s review of Desperate Desires by Terri Wolffe
Erotic Historical Romance ebook novella published by Terri Wolffe 1 Feb 11

Sex, sex and more sex. Not even really good sex. Just sex.

Lady Lucinda Davenport, at the request of her much older husband, sets out with her mentally challenged brother and several servants to kidnap a duke.  She searches the ton for a suitable father for her child.  Finding Lucien Brandford, fourth Duke of Carlsborough, to be acceptable, she lures him to her carriage while her oversized brother, Georgie, captures him in a bear hug until she can get him restrained and drugged.

Lucien wakens to find himself tethered to a bedpost.  After being restrained and drugged and kidnapped, I am wondering how he ever managed to have sex in the first place, even if she is a beautiful woman. And once he is released from bondage, he stays for more? He has always preferred women who have no need of commitment. Now he finds himself wanting the one woman he can’t lay claim to.

Long story short: the husband pimps his wife out to get an heir. Hmmmm. I guess it is not my kind of story.  I understand people do bad things for good reasons, but I just don’t see the glory here.  The end is predictable since this is supposed to be an historical romance as well as erotic. But why he would fall in love with a conniving sperm thief is beyond me.  I feel the book needs a little more story telling. That would have placed it in more of a romance category instead of, in my opinion, what goes way beyond the erotic and borders on porn, especially when the book is touted as a “sweet and spicy novella.”

Disappointment also comes near the end of the book when Lucien goes to confront the husband, aiming to tell the man that Lucinda is his and he will marry her, never let her go when she’s finally a widow. I kept reading only because this confrontation intrigued me, and it’s never given a scene of its own. It’s totally glossed over with no other mention of it whatsoever, and that one small scene would have made the entire story so much more romantic than what it is.

Considering this is Terri Wolffe’s debut book, I will not be hunting down any of her future works.

Grade: D

Summary:

The cunningly audacious Lady Lucinda Davenport is by no means a conventional woman. Smart and fiercely determined, she’s more comfortable adding numbers than she’ll ever be socializing with highfalutin members of the ton. When desperate straits force her into action to save her home and lands, she finds herself faced with only one option. Summoning every ounce of her courage, she sets in motion a wild and raunchy scheme that would set the ton on fire if they ever caught wind of her actions.

Lucien Brandford, fourth Duke of Carlsborough, is a dangerous man. Wealthy beyond imagination and handsome to a fault, the Duke is sought after by nearly every woman of the ton. Single, widowed, or married, ladies vie for his attention with cutthroat precision. But the Duke has no tolerance for the machinations of his title and fortune-hungry peers. He seeks his pleasure from women who require no commitment.

That attitude ensnares the Duke in Lady Lucinda’s plan. Caught unawares, Lucien finds himself at the mercy of a bold and luscious woman whom he cannot decide if he wants to strangle or bed.

The sensual dance that follows between captor and captive as they engage in a volatile battle for control, culminates in a seismic eruption—both psychological and sensual. As tempers flare and sparks fly, an intense and erotic interlude of passion ensues.

The temperamental lovers soon discover what all the world knows: that in order to possess the love of a lifetime, they must submit to one another to conquer their own Desperate Desires.

Read an excerpt.

Sandy M’s review of Captured by the Highlander (Highlander Trilogy, Book 1) by Julianne MacLean
Historical Romance published by St. Martin’s Paperbacks 1 Mar 11

This is my first book by Julianne MacLean. I’ve got a good portion of her backlist in that TBR mountain I sometimes refer to. That’s because a number of friends like her books, so I’ve taken their word and purchased her books when opportunity allows, and she’s giving me in this trilogy those sexy, alpha Scottish warriors I love to read. On top of that, I’ve been in the mood for a Highlander read. I think it’s been a month or so since I’ve read one. So with all of that going for this book, what happened?

First, the beginning of the book is terrific. Duncan MacLean, aka Butcher of the Highlands, has silently broken into an English fort to gain his revenge against the officer who raped and murdered Duncan’s fiance. Instead of the man he expects, he finds Lady Amelia Templeton, the murderer’s fiance. Not getting the revenge he’s planned on, Duncan absconds with the woman to draw her man out to finally make sure he gets what he deserves.

Up to this point I’m engrossed in the story. Then little things begin to emerge which pull me out of it – dialogue doesn’t sound authentic, has a modern feel to it more often than not or sometimes doesn’t fit the characters; I don’t feel much chemistry between the hero and heroine once their relationship begins to change; and I don’t like the fact that Duncan’s change at the end of the book is more from a push from Amelia than it is from his belief and soul that the change needs to be made. And these are the major issues for me. There’s a number of smaller ones that combine with these which turns this book into one big mess.

I read Scottish historicals mainly because of the heroes. Duncan is one of those heroes. At least in the very beginning. Then there’s several times Ms. MacLean tries to portray him as hard-hearted toward his enemy, which Amelia initially is, and also arrogant, but he comes off more as a brute in the former instance and a plain old braggart in the latter. I also read these stories for the feel of Scotland, descriptions of the country itself in either peacetime or war.  Either way, the eras usually written about are brutal, men protect what is theirs, fight for God and country. All of which Duncan says at one time or another and is definitely the way he lives, but Amelia constantly throws her beliefs about killing and violence at him, forcing him to look at himself as he’s never done before. But this is all near the end of the book, and it’s more to satisfy her because she’s unwilling to be with him any longer because of the way he lives. And this is suddenly a new Duncan who’s now making an appearance in the story. Have no idea where he came from and I don’t like him much because his character is now forced, no longer the man I’ve known for a few hundred pages.

As far as chemistry, or the lack thereof, between these two, it just doesn’t flow smoothly. Duncan is telling Amelia to shut her mouth or lose her life, she’s threatening him with the full force of the English military. Very strong, negative emotions. Then on the next page are thoughts of touching, kissing, making love and all that goes with it. It just doesn’t make sense this early and in these circumstances with the feelings they have for one another at that point. Okay, there can be lust, but I still don’t feel it works at this particular point in the book. It’s too fast, especially when both of them are having similar thoughts. There’s no gradual turning of feelings due to event. That comes later and, therefore, makes those feelings less than they should be because they’ve been there in one form or another all along. Suddenly Amelia is in love, but I never feel what it is that changes for her, why her feelings change; it’s surely not the violent man she’s been traveling with and learning about. And she never tells the man about her love. In between, she’s still questioning him and his violence, suddenly forgetting the love she’s just admitted to herself.

There are a couple of things that did work for me, which is what keeps my review grade from being rock bottom. It’s not until about 140 pages in where Duncan explains about his past, his parents, how he was raised, the dichotomy of his life as a result. This is the first true insight into either character and I’m glad it’s Duncan since I like him more than Amelia. There never really is any insight into Amelia along the same lines – she just spouts the same litany about violence and killing, never letting up – until the end when she realizes she’s been wrong treating Duncan like she has, if you want to call that an insight.

The biggest twist in the book I never saw coming. I really can’t say anything about it because it gives too much away, but right up until it happens – we find out the same time as Amelia does – I had no clue. Maybe I was too caught up in all these other things that I did miss some clues, but have no idea now. All I know is surprise and excitement hit, along with some hope that things might be changing and the story will begin to get better. Alas, the surprise and excitement don’t last long, but it’s nice to have it for a bit anyway.

Even with all this that doesn’t work for me, I do want to read the next book, Angus’ story, Claimed by the Highlander. He has so much emotion roiling around inside, he’s got a betrayal on his conscience that doesn’t bode well for him, and, thus, a pretty tortured soul, and I am intrigued. So I’m willing to try one more time to see whether Ms. MacLean’s style and writing will work for me.

Grade: D+

Summary:

THE ENEMY IN HER BED
Lady Amelia Templeton would rather die than surrender to a man like Duncan MacLean. He is the fiercest warrior of his clan—her people’s sworn enemy—and tonight he is standing over her bed. Eyes blazing, muscles taut, and battle axe gleaming, MacLean has come to kill Amelia’s fiancé. But once he sees the lovely, innocent Amelia, he decides to take her instead…

THE LOVER IN HIS ARMS
Stealing the young bride-to-be is the perfect revenge against the man who murdered Duncan’s one true love. But Lady Amelia turns out to be more than a pawn of vengeance and war. This brave, beautiful woman touches something deep in Duncan’s soul that is even more powerful than a warrior’s fury. But when Amelia begins to fall in love with her captor—and surrenders in his arms—the real battle begins…

Read an excerpt.

Other books in this series:

LynneC’s review of In Want of a Wife? by Cathy Williams
Contemporary Romance published by Mills and Boon Modern 1 Apr 11

In this new series from Harlequin, they’ve taken some literary classics and used the themes to make contemporary stories for the Modern line. Seems a difficult request, and from reading the first in the series, I’m not sure it’s an entirely successful one.

I can’t entirely blame Cathy Williams for this, because in some ways she has the worst of the lot. Most romance readers have a copy of Pride and Prejudice on their shelves, and the astonishing success of the BBC’s serialization of the series means many of us picture Colin Firth in this book. Not a bad thing, either.

But how do you love a clever, beautifully written story of early nineteenth century manners and morals and transpose them to the modern day? It just doesn’t work. While Williams does her best to reconcile the stories, there are some serious disconnects that mean this story is neither one thing nor the other, and it fails to entirely convince.

Lizzy Sharp (could we have a sly reference to Vanity Fair here?) meets Louis Jumeau in a snowstorm. Louis has bought the local manor house for his boutique hotel business, and this is Scotland in winter. Lizzy is riding a motor bike, although from the extended conversation she and Louis have on the road, I wonder if Ms. Williams has ever ridden pillion. You can’t have a conversation on a motor bike unless you also have radio transmitters in the helmets. But they manage, due to the magic of romanceland, one imagines.

Louis makes some assumptions about Lizzy and Lizzy about Louis. Lizzy is irritating here, far more TSTL than Lizzie Bennett. She doesn’t just jump to conclusions, she hangs on for dear life and won’t let go, even when she has no reason to think things like that. There is no Lady Catherine in this story, which is a shame, but there are all the sisters, with different fates which more or less parallel the differences in the original.

But some things just don’t work well. The main impetus behind the story, the need to marry, just isn’t there. In the original, if Mrs. Bennett doesn’t get at least one of her daughters married off, once her husband dies, they could find themselves in the poorhouse. It’s more than love, it’s necessity. The desperation adds to Mrs. Bennett’s character, and to the obligations her daughters feel under. And it explains why Lizzie’s rejection of Mr. Collins is so foolhardy, as well as the only decision Lizzie can make. In In Want of a Wife? Lizzy is a teacher in London and she can walk away at any time, with no real hardships for her family. Williams does her best to explain that, but it seems forced and doesn’t work for me.

Mr. and Mrs. Bennett go from clearly delineated, fascinating characters to wallpaper. They don’t come to life, they are just loving parents who want the best for their daughters. The secondary couple, Jane and Nicholas, is also a cipher, just a young couple who want to get married, dissuaded by Louis and then persuaded again.

Louis suffers from being under the shadow of Fitzwilliam Darcy. To be honest, he doesn’t stand a chance. There is none of Darcy’s reticence, almost shyness, that helps to explain his terse nature. Louis is, frankly, a fairly standard Modern/Presents hero, and in many books would be perfectly adequate. But not next to Darcy.

Lizzy and Louis go through their story, and it’s partly because I know the story, not just the end but the bits in between, and partly because comparisons keep popping up that I find this a disappointing, disjointed read, with nothing to lift the story and make me go “hmmm.”

Oh, and the cover? Hideous. That simpering woman is by no means either the Lizzy of this story or the Lizzie of the original.

While I understand that Harlequin wants to take some of the themes and the characters from the books, and not mirror the books themselves, comparisons are inevitable, and, of course, the Harlequin author will suffer. Without the length Austen had to explore the characters, without the leisure to explore and write the characters, they are bound to come off worse.

Grade: D

Summary:

He’s the last man in the world she would ever marry! To Lizzy Sharp, businessman Louis Jumeau is a real-life Mr Darcy: insufferably proud, infuriatingly prejudiced…and impossibly good-looking! Louis knows exactly what gold-digging families like the Sharps are after – his money. But the universally acknowledged truth is that this billionaire needs a wife. Independent Lizzy might not seem the perfect candidate, but her curves are proving powerfully tempting. And the arrogant and well-practised Louis is sure all it will take to wed – and bed! – her is a little seductive persuasion… The Powerful and the Pure When Beauty tames the brooding Beast…

No excerpt found.

Wendy the Super Librarian‘s review of Pleasured By The Viking by Michelle Willingham
Historical Romance short story ebook published by Harlequin Historical Undone 01 Aug 10

Michelle Willingham’s medievals tend to really work for me.  The fact that this short story features a secondary character from last year’s Surrender to an Irish Warrior, a book that landed on my personal Best Of 2010 reading list?  Yeah, I was expecting good things.  Unfortunately, while competently written, there’s fall-out from the happy-ever-after that didn’t work for me at all.

Auder Ó Reilly has agreed to marry a Norman baron in the hopes of protecting her mother and securing peace for her struggling clan.  Besides it being no love match (she’s never met the man!) Auder is concerned she will displease her husband when it comes to martial relations.  She dispensed of her virginity ages ago, it naturally wasn’t very good, so she thinks she’s “bad” at s-e-x.  She confides this bit of news to Viking warrior and friend, Gunnar Dalrata.  Gunnar makes her various girly bits tingle, but he’s currently pitching woo with a widow.  Little does she know that Gunnar is finding himself increasingly distracted by her presence as well!

The basic idea behind this story worked pretty well for me, but it’s the inclusion of the widow that Gunnar is currently spending time with that throws a wrench in the entire romance for me.  Gunnar comes off as a guy juggling two women, which isn’t exactly an endearing quality in a “hero.” Then there is the fact that in order for our couple to be together, someone has to be thrown under the bus – and guess who that is?  Yeah, the widow.

For her part, the author doesn’t fall into the all-too-common (and annoying) trap of making the “other woman” eviiiiiil.  Also, there’s a wonderful sense of place and time period here.  The widow’s outcome feels authentic, and the author does spin it in a way to suggest that the widow isn’t really getting that screwed over…but it still leaves a bad taste in my mouth.  It also leaves me not feeling very “happy” for our romantic couple.

Grade: D

Summary:

Ireland, 1181

To secure peace for her clan and protection for her mother, chieftain’s daughter Auder Ó Reilly agrees to marry a powerful Norman baron. Though she desperately hopes the alliance will work, Auder worries she won’t be able to please her husband in the marriage bed—a fear she admits to her friend, handsome Viking Gunnar Dalrata. Auder has no difficulty imagining sensual delights with Gunnar, but she doesn’t believe he would ever think of her that way. Until the night of Bealtaine, when Gunnar whisks Auder away to introduce her to the true pleasure of making love….

Read an excerpt.

Other books in this series:

Ash’s review of Be Careful What You Wish For by Nick Howard
Fantasy Romance short story published by Samhain 11 Jan 11

Well…I don’t really have anything good to say about Be Careful What You Wish For. I was looking for something fun and I got something bland.

Gawain never even notices Lilly until she wishes for it, so the entire time I had a hard time believing any of what he says. Nothing about him stands out to me.  Lilly herself is also uninteresting, she has no personality and it’s no wonder she has to make a wish in order to get a man. I know it’s a short story, but not enough time was spent on their development.

Be Careful What You Wish For just feels very stiff and awkward. There is no passion or love or much of any feeling in what they say or do. Everything is done in protocol, even the supposed erotic scenes.  Lilly calmly goes along with everything, because the law says it’s okay. Gawain is trying to win her over, but he talks about spanking her as if he is commenting on the weather.

When I read a novella, I’m looking for a quick, fun read, something that leaves me wanting more.  Unfortunately that doesn’t happen, and the blurb ends up being more exciting than the story.

Grade: D

Summary:

Fairy Godmothers don’t always know what’s best. Or do they?

“If love is pain, I want to be hurt!”

It must have been her distress over being dumped by Sir Justin that made Princess Lilly less than precise expressing her wish to her Fairy Godmother. Otherwise, she would not have ended up the indignant prisoner of Sir Gawain, a vile knight who wouldn’t know how to properly treat a princess if the instructions whacked him upside his armored helm.

She should be angry, but she has no one to blame but herself, and no way out. The Kidnapping of Damsel Laws are very specific—once she is taken, she has no choice but to submit to his seduction. Every kiss, caress…and spanking.

Still, she’s determined not to make it easy for him. If he thinks he will bend her to his delicious…no, barbaric intentions, he has a serious flaw in his logic. Yet as he carefully executes his plan of exquisitely pain-laced pleasure, she finds her body responding quite against her will. And her mind racing with immoral thoughts that threaten her jealously guarded virtue.

Until there is a very small, tiny, remote possibility that Sir Gawain might win her hand…

Read an excerpt.

Wendy the Super Librarian‘s review of Her Midnight Cowboy by Lauri Robinson
Historical Western Romance short story ebook published by Harlequin Historical Undone 01 Nov 10

My recent reading has been a bit on the lackluster side, and they all happened to be contemporaries.  So I figured, why not read something historical and short?  Oooooh, and a western!  Surely that will kick-start my flagging mojo!  Yeah, not so much.  Bugger.

Angel Clayton is a pampered Daddy’s princess that knows what she wants – and what she wants is none other than Rowdy McGuire.  The problem is, that no matter what she tries – Rowdy just won’t catch a clue.

Oh, Rowdy has gotten the message.  Loud and clear.  However, he’s staying as far away as he can because Angel is The Boss’s Daughter.  Rowdy is a drifter and ranch hand, which means no matter how you crunch the numbers, it all adds up to Angel being way out of his league.

Part of the problem with this story is largely my fault.  Generally speaking, I am not a fan of Heroine In Pursuit themes, because the heroine tends to come off as needy and desperate.  Add to the mix that Angel is a Virginal Heroine In Pursuit, and, well, it’s really not my scene.

However, just because something isn’t “my thing,” doesn’t mean it won’t be some other reader’s “thing.”  Ultimately though, this is a hard story for me to recommend because of the historical feel, or lack thereof.  The problem comes in the form of Angel’s Daddy and stepmother.  Self-indulgent parents are a dime a dozen in the genre, but these two take the cake!  Yes, the West was different – but not that different.  Especially when you factor in that Daddy owns a successful ranch and Angel doesn’t want for anything.  Society rules and social mores should have definitely been at play here – and they’re just flat-out ignored.  Dude, I can bend for the sake of fiction, but not that much.

I love the Undone line, but I’m still waiting for a western short that really cooks for me.  I was hoping this would be the one, but alas the answer is still no.

Grade: D

Summary:

Eastern Wyoming, 1884

In Angel Clayton’s opinion, men don’t get any finer than hired hand Rowdy McGuire. The very thought of him makes her ache with need—and the sight of his golden, glistening skin only makes it worse. She knows he feels their bodies’ magical, intense pull towards one another, even if the honorable cowboy refuses to admit that a drifter and a ranch owner’s daughter could ever be together.

But Angel is determined to get what she wants—and she wants Rowdy!

No Excerpt Found.

Liviania’s review of Ghost of a Chance (Ghost Finders, Book 1) by Simon R. Green
Urban fantasy published by Ace 31 Aug 10

Simon R. Green began writing urban fantasy when the genre was still young. Thus, I’ve heard good things about his work for awhile. I bought one of his books before, only to discover it was the third in the series instead of the first. So I was very happy when I finally got the chance to read his work. Unfortunately, Ghost of a Chance is an unpleasant surprise.

JC Chance, Melody Chambers, and Happy Jack Palmer are a team working for the Carnacki Institute to exorcise bothersome ghosts.  Melody, the only girl on the team, is the techno-geek.  For most of the novel she has to leave her equipment behind, rendering her mostly useless.  (The techno-geek working for the Crowley Project, their enemies, much more wisely carries a laptop.)  JC is charming but gratingly arrogant.  Happy Jack is the telepath on drugs to deal with his abilities.  None of them really rise above their cookie-cutter roles.

The romance in the novel is central, which is kind of strange for a male-oriented urban fantasy.  When exorcising the Oxford Circus Tube Station, JC falls for the recently murdered Kim, who might hold the key to defeating the evil in the subway station.  Through the rest of the novel, JC and Kim are motivated by their instant true love.  (Kim, apparently, never notices that one of JC’s defining attributes is “annoying.”)  I could believe in the love at first sight if the relationship had ups and downs while forming, but it’s smooth sailing.  The only danger to the relationship is external.  JC manages to survive by deus ex machina halfway through the novel, which is very fortunate since that same deus ex machina saves the characters several times.

The human enemies are the best part of the novel.  Erik Grossman is a thug who uses cybernetic technology.  (Okay, he’s fairly flat too.  But you know what kind of flat character everyone is since they’re all introduced with two or more paragraphs of exposition.)  Natasha Chang is the gorgeous telepath with a suspiciously high number of ex-husbands.  She kind of admires JC and develops an interesting rapport with Happy Jack while trying to survive the horror in the tube station.

There’s a creepy horror story somewhere in Ghost of a Chance.  And flat characters wouldn’t hamper a horror story all that much.  But what actually happens is a bloodless adventure centered around a sugary sweet forbidden romance.  (Humans aren’t supposed to date ghosts, so JC will probably face fallout for that in the next book.)  Ghost of a Chance is more lame than terrible.  It feels like an amateur’s effort, rather than the newest release of a respected author.

Grade: D

Summary:

The Carnacki institute exists to Do Something About Ghosts. Lay them to rest, send them packing, or kick their nasty ectoplasmic arses with extreme prejudice.

The institute’s operatives are the best of the best. JC Chance: sharp, brave, charming, and almost unbearably arrogant; Melody Chambers: science geek, techno-wizard extraordinaire who keeps the antisupernatual equipment running smoothly; and Happy Jack Palmer: the telepath with the gloomy disposition, the last person anyone would want navigating through their head.

No excerpt found.

LynneC’s review of His Unknown Heir by Chantelle Shaw
Contemporary Romance released by Mills and Boon Modern Romance 1 Feb 11

I always think long and hard before putting up a review of a book that I didn’t like. If I don’t have anything to contribute to the discussion, I’m likely to shrug and put the book aside. But with this one I do have something to say, and, hopefully, it’s of interest.

Recently, Jessica and Tumperkin did a joint review of Michelle Reid’s latest, The Italian’s Future Bride. Parts of that story annoyed them. Well, this is a new release from the Modern/Presents line and it annoyed me with tropes that were either old-fashioned, insulting to today’s woman, or inadequately thought-out. Perhaps all three. Jessica and Tumperkin had similar issues.

Harlequin books are basically coffee-time books. A book to read when you’re taking a break from real life. But they have to reflect real life enough to make a believable read, even if the world isn’t populated by relatively young, extremely rich businessmen in their early thirties who all know how to dress well and beautiful, put-upon heroines. You buy into that when you buy a book from this line, but this, this was too much for me.

This book is a secret baby book with knobs on. Right at the start in the prologue we are given the moment that Lauren decides not to tell Ramon that she is pregnant, when he makes it clear that he regards her as his mistress, nothing else, and that in the fullness of time he will marry someone of his own station and have suitable children.

While I can understand her anger and humiliation, nothing, in my opinion, gives anyone the right to keep a secret like that from the father. I’ve read secret baby stories that have, despite the odds, worked, but this wasn’t one of them. Lauren has no excuse other than her determination not to tell Ramon about the baby. She acts like a spiteful teenager who wants to deprive her baby of the wealth and privilege that he could have by birth. While at this stage she doesn’t know that Ramon is a Spanish duque, she does know that he’s very rich and influential in the business world, although, considering Ramon is a tabloid favorite, it’s hard to know how she could have been ignorant of the fact.

Oh yes, and later on in the story, when Ramon reappears, it seems to be assumed that the baby, Mateo, is Ramon’s heir after he marries Lauren. As far as I know, Spanish law is like the British variety, and titles of nobility can’t be passed onto illegitimate children, even if the parents marry after the birth. No dukedom, or duquedom, for Mateo.

At this stage in the story, there is not even consideration of a termination. With Lauren so determined about not telling Ramon, and with a demanding career that she’s worked years to attain, it seems like the natural choice for her. But it isn’t even discussed. I can understand that this is a marketing decision by HMB, in that some of the readers might not agree with that, and the anti-abortion lobby is vocal and even violent in the USA, but if they want to avoid it, don’t set up this kind of situation. Lauren isn’t religious, she doesn’t have any convictions, and so for a woman in her position, that’s the obvious solution. It might have made for a more interesting book, although not a long one. Personally, I dislike the HMB attitude to termination. It doesn’t make a woman “bad,” and it doesn’t mean she won’t have children in the future and it annoys me when a woman doesn’t take the rational view, but instead goes off on a I-can’t-possibly-terminate-his-child rant of guilt. It would certainly have solved their problem.

The use of the word “mistress” is something I find confusing in HMB romances. It’s unsuitable for a contemporary, outside the realms of the gutter press who sometimes use it for effect, but in this book the real meaning to the coded word is made more than clear. In this context, “mistress” means “prostitute” or maybe even “fuck buddy” without the buddy bit. Albeit one man at a time.

Despite Ramon’s insulting behavior, at this point in the story my sympathies are with him because of Lauren’s choice. Her reason, that her father walked out on her and her mother, seems petty and even irrelevant. Certainly not enough to merit such a momentous decision.

So they part, and fourteen months later, Ramon seeks out Lauren again. Here’s where he loses my sympathy. Lauren is a lawyer specializing in commercial property, working for a big London firm. She is called into her boss’s office to be told that she will work for Ramon exclusively on a project. So Ramon has used his “tycoon” status to get her back, and at this stage he doesn’t know about the baby. What’s more, she’s expected to work from his penthouse, the place where they used to make love on a regular basis. Coercion and nasty manipulation, he has it.

At this stage, Lauren could have gone back to her boss and come clean. He already knows about the baby, and if she explains the whole situation to him, he’d have known that he’s in extremely dangerous legal waters and wouldn’t have allowed her to take the job anyway, no matter how hard Ramon pushes for her.

Of course, Ramon soon seduces her and then discovers about Matty, and is, understandably, angry. He then threatens to take Lauren to court for custody, because she shoves him into daycare all day and he can take better care of her (how? By employing nannies? Whoop-de-doo). Double standards, he has them, too. This was where I get angry instead of irritated.

There are plenty of working, single mothers out there who do very well, and this book is an insult to them. Daycare doesn’t equal neglect. Instead of defending herself, Lauren goes into guilt mode. She also shrinks like the proverbial violet from the thought of a court case. This is a lawyer, folks, and although her specialism lies elsewhere, she’d surely know about the legal ramifications. The court wouldn’t give Ramon custody just because he’s richer than Lauren, however much money he throws at the case. She could threaten in return, and she would be highly likely to win because she’s the mother and because she has a good record of care where her child is concerned. Only in areas of neglect would the courts seriously consider awarding sole custody to the absent father, and there is no evidence of neglect here. So why did Lauren decide to go to Spain with him and let him take care of Matty? Here, I think, is where the motivation of the characters is too weak to overcome the trope. If she feels overwhelmingly guilty, then maybe. But although there is a mention of it, there is more mention of Ramon’s hawtness. Oh, yes, and how about a court case for inappropriate behavior while she’s working for him? Sure as hell she’d win that one.

Like many HMB heroines, Lauren loses all her mental faculties in bed. He seduces her and she regresses to teenagerdom, the equivalent of the fangirl squee. Ramon continues to treat Lauren like shit and misunderstands her feelings and her motivations, although he, like her, loses any maturity he might have between the sheets. He uses sex to manipulate her into changing her mind, and he does it with a cold-blooded calculation that made me decide that perhaps he did deserve Lauren after all. It ends with Lauren happy to give up her career, although to do him justice, Ramon does find out the way she could become a lawyer in Spain. That part I liked, but it was too little, too late.

I have other issues, notably the Beautiful Bitch Ex-Mistress, but that on its own wouldn’t have been enough to put me off. And the drunken colleague, who is seen off by the macho hero.

So, a hot mess of a book. I can’t decide whether Chantelle Shaw was pushed for time and just turned out a book, whether her editor destroyed her original intentions, or whether it’s just that the tropes have reached the end of their lives. A good book might have been possible, but the appalling behavior of both the hero and the heroine made me angry rather than entertained, irritated rather than involved in their dilemmas. I’ve read some great Mills and Boon/Harlequin/Silhouette books recently that tell a wonderfully romantic story without insulting my intelligence, but this one breaks all the rules, and not in a good way.

And here’s where an author writing a review might have a different viewpoint. You often see comments by disgruntled authors receiving bad review that miss the point. They will say, “Let’s see her write one!” But in this case, yes, I could write a better story than this one. I’d make Lauren discover she was pregnant after she’d walked out on Ramon, and then not be able to get in touch with him to tell him the news. Very wealthy people can effectively block access to their presence. I’d definitely make her not a lawyer but in a different profession, so that by the time she discovers he’d stepped into seriously actionable behavior, it would be too late and she’d agreed to marry him. I wouldn’t have Ramon take her to his penthouse and a spurious “office” there. That’s totally unacceptable and there’s really no need for it. If she needs to go to his apartment, she could take an important document there, just to deliver it or something similar. The emotions, not the tropes, and the motivations beefed up a bit. I’d also make the bitch ex-mistress come and see her later, and say, well, the best woman won and all that. Just because I’m tired of the irredeemable bitch thing.

Grade: D-

Summary:

She committed a sin. And hides a shocking secret. Ramon Velaquez, heir to the Velaquez winery, clearly stated his cardinal rule to Lauren Maitland – he can’t promise her more than a red-hot affair. Whilst she heard the words, her heart wasn’t listening, and her punishment for falling in love was to be sent away. Two years later, and Ramon still can’t escape the memories of the woman he banished. But when he finds Lauren again she’s independent, strong, and harbouring a shocking secret.

Read an excerpt.