LynneC’s review of  The Power and the Glory by Kimberly Lang
Contemporary Romance published by Harlequin Presents 2 Aug 11

There’s something vaguely disturbing about having a romance with a title from the Lord’s Prayer. Especially when that romance is most definitely not an Inspirational. I believe it also has something to do with the American Constitution, but I’m not sure. However, I think Jesus came first. To read that the heroine is a hippie type who doesn’t believe in marriage means the title is rendered fairly meaningless.

The heroine is Aspyn Breedlove, who I think was meant to be called Rowan. She is the daughter of conservation activists. She’s named after the mountain ash, which is why I say she’d have been better as Rowan, the alternate name for the mountain ash. She is a hippie in the loosest sense, with no real belief in the lifestyle. If this was portrayed differently, this could have worked really well, but as it is told, the hippie/activist is merely a veneer. Aspyn is an airhead, with no more passion for her beliefs than I have for little yappy dogs (sorry, I came off worst in an encounter with one the other day). She demonstrates no understanding for what being a hippie means or what working for a cause entails. It just provides her with a cute background and sets up the meet cute at the beginning, but it’s as thin as ice on a window and as durable. When her parents finally arrive on the scene, they have no compunction in using the Internet to keep in touch, although they’re conservationists. Masts in jungles, energy consumption? They condemn her for joining the campaign, instead of seeing her as an instrument for the cause. It just doesn’t gel.

The hero is Brady Marshall, one of the powerful Marshalls of Lang’s new series. While I give a cautious welcome to the idea of politics as a background, I’m not sure it works, because of the necessarily superficial treatment it has to receive as the background to a romance. Brady is the campaign manager to his father, Senator Marshall, and three weeks before the election, he’s run off his feet. Brady is a very busy man, he is attracted despite himself to Aspyn, and he starts an affair with her. Brady is the executive hero of many a Modern romance, but there’s not really anything to make him special. Transpose him to an office setting and he’d work just as well. And I think that’s why I had a disconnect with this book.

We are told Brady is intelligent and handsome, and we are told that Aspyn is sweet and trusting. Actually, in a political situation Aspyn is TSTL without the redeeming features of Gardener in Being There. And I don’t get the connect. We do get some sexy scenes, but more often than not, when they get to making love, we get a fade to black. After the undressing, the fondling, the foreplay, that comes across as cheating. We get the promise, but not the act.

The background is interesting, but not convincing. As we’re all learning so painfully, politics is a dirty business, where compromise is essential and beliefs are diluted to nothing. Politicians just don’t have the respect they used to, if they ever did at all. Although Aspyn’s parents do state the usual polemic about politics, the solution is seen as insultingly easy. I think the problem I have is that the backgrounds are used as the main conflict. There’s nothing inside, no deep disagreement of opinion that would drive this couple apart. They might have to compromise the way they live, but they are always going to be together, and the machinations have nothing to do with the great sex they share or the way they feel about each other. Or so we’re told. Politics is nothing if it’s not grey, and that might be another problem. The Modern Romance line works best when the moral decisions are more clear-cut. Although there is an attempt to give both sides a fair hearing, there isn’t the room to do more than skim the issues. Maybe, if a specific example had been cited, it would have worked better. Maybe, if Aspyn and Brady were more involving characters, it might have worked better. As it is, I got three quarters of the way through and realised that although the book is competently written and has a background that at least tries to go beyond the norm, it isn’t going to engage me and I actually didn’t care if Brady and Aspyn got together in a hippie commune or in the White House.

Grade: DNF

Summary:

Introducing The Marshalls… A rich, powerful family that mixes business, politics…and pleasure. If the U.S. had a royal family—this would be it!Any red-blooded woman would kill to be handcuffed to political hotshot Brady Marshall, but campaigner Aspyn Breedlove wants to raise awareness—not her own acute consciousness of those delicious, iron-hard muscles beneath Brady’s expensive suit.…

But in a shock move, she’s made a part of the Marshall re-election campaign.… Aspyn hopes she can dance with the devil and create change from within. But what chance does she have when that devil is sex-on-legs Brady Marshall—and as Christmas closes in, she wants to do considerably more than kiss him under the mistletoe…!

Read an excerpt.

Wendy the Super Librarian‘s review of The Playboy’s Gift by Teresa Carpenter
Contemporary Romance published by Harlequin Romance 01 Nov 11

If any author is ever insane enough to ask my advice, it would be to write the best book you can at that moment in time.  Period.  Do not think about readers.  Why?  Because we’re nut jobs.  Seriously, we are.  Wacky pants, insane in the membrane, fickle, fickle creatures.  No matter how we may try not to, readers have a tendency to bring their personal baggage with them when they crack open a book.  And guess what?  We all have a wide array of colorful baggage, all of us being unique, shiny, crack-pots snowflakes.  It’s my own colorful baggage that led me to DNF’ing this particular Harlequin Romance by Teresa Carpenter.

Carpenter is a local author for me, so I was curious to try her latest.  Yeah, wrong book to start with.  And it’s not “her fault” – I stopped reading because I was past the point where I could be rational about the story.  I got to the halfway point, but such a big hot button of mine was pushed that I was getting angry. Hulk-like angry.

Skye Miller’s brother passed away and his wife followed him shortly after.  They left behind a toddler daughter, and naturally Skye and her brother’s BFF, Rett Sullivan have been named guardians.  The fly in the ointment?  Skye and Rett were once very much in love, Skye got unexpectedly preggers, Rett didn’t react to the news to her liking, and when she ended up miscarrying, the relationship went kaput.

OK, I’m rolling with this.  Until the other shoe drops.  Skye can’t understand why Rett would want custody of her niece until he drops the bomb that he was the sperm donor for her brother and his wife.  Skye knew they used a donor, but had no clue it was Rett – Mr. Couldn’t Run Away Fast Enough When He Knocked Her Up.

“Skye went completely still, she couldn’t have heard what she thought she did.  “Aidan was Ryann’s father.”

“No.”

Repeat after me – just because you have the ability to make babies does not automatically make you a parent.  Just because you have sperm, does not automatically make you a father.  You know what it does make you?

A guy who can jack-off into a plastic cup.

Period.

But the whole blessed set-up of this book is that Rett is Ryann’s “father.” It’s practically shoved down the reader’s throat.  Rett keeps going on and on about how he’s the baby daddy.

NO!  NO, YOU ARE NOT!  YOU ARE THE SOURCE OF DNA, NOT A FATHER! THE HEROINE’S DEAD BROTHER IS THAT BABY’S FATHER.  YOU ARE JUST SOME IDIOT WITH SPERM!

I cannot express how much I loathe this Cult Of Biology that can sometimes creep into the genre.  It drives me insane.  Probably because I have friends who are and/or have adopted.  Probably because one of my nieces is adopted.  I’ve got too much baggage to be rational when a heroine going into a blended family wails about her inability to have “children of her own” or when a hero thinks he’s a daddy just because he can make a deposit at the local sperm bank.

For that matter, I hate the implication that romance hero must equal Guy With Massive Super Sperm Who Can Knock Up The Most Hopelessly Infertile Woman On The Planet.

Yeah, Wendy not rational.  Wendy stop reading.  But if you’re a different brand of irrational than I am and this kind of thing doesn’t make you want to spit nails? Maybe this book is for you.  There is some serie-itis, but the author handles it fairly well.  Also, the writing style worked well enough for me that I’ll probably give Carpenter another go.  Just so long as biology is totally off the table.  Because seriously, I just don’t like reading angry.

Grade: DNF

Summary:

An orphan baby wasn’t on playboy Rett Sullivan’s Christmas list, but as the holidays approach, he finds himself drowning in a sea of bottles, nappies and toys!

Skye Miller was shocked to learn her late brother and sister-in-law left their little daughter in the care of Rett, her brother’s best friend…and Skye’s first love.

The only way to protect her heart is to help the novice daddy and baby bond, then make a graceful exit. But the sight of Rett’s strong arms cradling the baby makes Skye weak at the knees.…

Read an excerpt.

Other books in this series:

LynneC’s review of Brazen by Margo Maguire
Historical Romance published by Avon 29 Nov 11

As I said in a previous review, there isn’t usually one reason to DNF a book, but more often than not it’s because the book doesn’t grab me. If I persevere and get to a third or more, then I could do a full DNF review, if I have something to say about it. A DNF isn’t always because it’s a terrible book. It could be because the book just didn’t do it for me, as in this case, but it might well do it for you. There’s no deep flaws, and the plots is interesting, but the authorial voice or the premise just didn’t take me away. So I’d say try it, get a sample and see if you like it. I got this book from NetGalley, and it occurred to me that if I could sample it, that might be a useful thing. I actually persevered past the first chapter, more to see if I could settle into the read. Sadly, I couldn’t.

The heroine is one of two daughters who were adopted by an earl when their grandfather and guardian, a duke, abandoned them after his son’s death. Yeah, I know. And that’s just the start of the complex plot that would have been worth concentrating on, had I cared. But I found the book a bit of a slog and I think the main problem is the pedestrian authorial voice. Which could be as much my problem as Margo Maguire’s. Sometimes an author’s voice just doesn’t work for a reader, and I fear that is the case in this book.

Because the heroine, although brought up in the bosom of society, has no clue about things that women would generally have known. A Regency lady who doesn’t know how to load and fire a pistol? A viscountess who lives in a cottage? That last throws me. In that era, a cottage was either a place to play, a la Marie Antoinette, or it was a hovel. Not a reasonably pleasant house with separate rooms. Okay, not so bad.

The hero is interesting. He’s the younger son of a viscount, so relatively low in the pecking order of the peerage. Goodie. And even though he’s a spy, he’s a believable one, having worked in the military, and he has one more assignment before he retires.

The heroine shoots him (a mere graze), but weapons were pretty erratic in those days, and even knowing about weapons, she could have done that. A niggle. Not important. Then she wants to stitch his wound, and in an age before penicillin, that could be dangerous, sealing in the infection. Whenever possible, wounds were left open so they could be cleaned frequently and allowed to heal from the inside out. The heroine has short hair and the hero hasn’t seen short hair before. Why not, when cropped hair was all the rage in the period? He was in the army, an officer, so surely he’d have set eyes on one or two fashionable women? Niggle followed on niggle, and the tone of the book is very much American (so, my US friends, it’s unlikely to bother you).

Words like “quit” for “leave” and the dreaded G word (“gotten”) make an appearance on the first page (to a modern Brit, “gotten” screams “American,” which in some circumstances is good, but not when it’s supposed to be a deep third point of view British Regency character). Maguire has a habit of “telling” instead of “showing,” which leads to a blander style. In an effort to avoid the purple, blandness ruled. They drank “whiskey” in an era when whisky was the equivalent to moonshine, and was as often clear as caramel coloured. In the end, I was just waiting for the next niggle to turn up. That’s always a sign that I’m not engaged with the book, because when a book catches me and drags me along, details are the last thing I worry about. So I gave up. I really wanted to like this one, but it just wasn’t doing it for me. It might for you.

Grade: DNF

Summary:

She will give him what he desires. But first, a small favor . . .

Lady Christina Fairhaven is devoted to her adoptive family—and most protective of her wayward brother.

So when battle-scarred and world-weary Captain Gavin Briggs arrives at her cottage bearing shocking news—that she is the granddaughter of an aged, bad-tempered duke— Christina is stunned . . . temporarily.

She will not meet the duke who abandoned her when she was a child; Gavin will not receive his significant—and much needed—reward. However, should the good Captain agree to help her locate and rescue her endangered sibling, then perhaps . . .

But with a fortune at stake, the road to London is paved with peril. Treachery awaits them . . . not to mention attraction, temptation, and a most unanticipated passion.

To regain his soul, to protect his lady, Gavin must be more than brave. To win his love, Christina must be positively . . .

Read an excerpt.

Laura C’s review of She Can Run by Melinda Leigh
Romantic Suspense published by Montlake Romance 28 Nov 11

Because this is my first Montlake Romance book, and because I think people might be wondering about the quality of these books, I want to give my impressions of the physical object itself before I start to talk about the story.

First, the cover. Go enlarge it so you can see what it will look like on a trade paperback sized book. It’s ugly. Really ugly. Like a first-year photographer and first-year Photoshop student could do a better job. I don’t want to see every pore of the poor heroine’s skin highlighted by bad lighting and emphasized by the ugly color scheme.

So it was with some dread that I opened the book. But the interior is a pleasant surprise.  Nice, heavy paper with a creamy color and a well-designed interior with readable font and good spacing. If you’re a trade paperback buyer, this is a good quality book, once you get past the cover.

Unfortunately, the story is a disaster. I couldn’t finish it. Melinda Leigh is a fine technical writer–her characters speak naturally and she has a good sense for how much description is enough without going overboard, but her plot is trite, clichéd, and full of holes.  I only got to page 110, and these are the clichés I counted:

Our heroine, Beth, is on the run from her
1 ) abusive husband, who is (naturally) a
2 ) powerful politician because she
3 ) saw something she shouldn’t have seen. She runs to her sort-of uncle who has ESP (not a cliché, but gimme a break already), which of course makes him a
4 ) Deus Ex Machina. He sends her off to a
5 ) horse farm in the middle of nowhere which happens to be owned by
6 ) an injured ex-cop who
7 ) “sees too much” and has as his companion a
8 ) dog who flunked police training and a
9 ) housekeeper who loves kids. Oh, did I mention Beth has two kids from her previous marriage? Well, she does, so this would be great except that Oops! there happens to be a
10 ) serial killer on the loose in their neighborhood who
11 ) fixates on Beth.

The characters in this book are incredibly flat. There are no shades of gray. You have good on one side, evil on the other. Good guys are guys who want to help Beth. Bad guys are ones who leer at her breasts or make (unwanted) passes at her like the neighbor or the feed store delivery guy or, of course, her husband that she’s on the run from.

And speaking of being on the run from the second husband, Beth’s psychology is all wrong for an abuse victim.  Most women who stay with abusers don’t bring to the relationship two kids from a solid, stable, faithful and loving marriage. They’re damaged goods going in, which is what abusers sense, what gives them an opening.  And Beth has approximately three hours–with no planning–to disappear completely, which she manages to do at the beginning of the book because her husband, unlike most abusers, doesn’t actually have all that much control over her.

Luckily, her aunt’s lover, who she is still in contact with and runs to in her hour of need, is the kind of guy with dozens of fake IDs (ESP, you know) so he cannot only help her disappear, he can disappear himself when the husband finds out where she went. Of course, that’s after he’s gotten her a job on the horse farm in the middle of nowhere.

And Jack, the ex-cop? His psychology is all wrong, too.  Beth complains over and over about how he sees everything. Well, maybe he sees, but he sure doesn’t interpret. Most every cop I know (and yes, I’ve known plenty over time) has the same reaction when a woman flinches around men: “domestic abuse victim.”  It’s like it’s hardwired into their brains.  And yet Jack, our hero, can’t figure out what Beth could be on the run from?

I gave up on this book when the husband, who has shown no signs of being a psychopath up to page 110, just a bad guy and a bully, decides that he’s going to deal with Beth by imitating the serial killer because it would be fun to torture, rape, and strangle her.

Grade: DNF

Summary:

Elizabeth was a young widow with two small children when she met Congressman Richard Baker. Handsome and wealthy, with a sparkling public image, Richard seemed like the perfect man to provide the security that Beth and her kids were craving. But when she uncovers a dangerous secret about her new husband, Beth realizes he will go to any lengths—even murder—to keep it. After barely escaping with her life, she and her children flee. They eventually make their way to a secluded estate in the Pennsylvania countryside, where Beth dares to hope she has found a safe place at last…

Forced into retirement by an unexpected injury, Philadelphia homicide detective Jack O’Malley is mourning the loss of his career when his uncle abruptly dies, leaving Jack to dispose of his crumbling country house. Unbeknownst to him, his uncle engaged a caretaker just before his death, a mysterious woman with two children and a beautiful face that haunts his dreams. Determined to know her, Jack begins an investigation into Beth’s past. When he uncovers the shocking truth, and a local woman is viciously murdered, Jack puts his own life on the line to keep Beth and her children safe.

Read an excerpt.

LynneC’s review of Dark Future by KC Klein
Paranormal Romance published by Avon Impulse 8 Nov 11

There isn’t usually one reason to DNF a book, but more often than not it’s because the book doesn’t grab me. If I persevere and get to a third or more, then I could do a full DNF review, if I have something to say about it. Sometimes it’s just not there, but it might be for you. A DNF isn’t always because it’s a terrible book. This book didn’t do it for me, but it might well do it for you. There’s no deep flaws, and the plot is interesting, but the authorial voice or the premise just didn’t take me away. So I’d say try it, get a sample and see if you like it. I got both these books from NetGalley, and it occurred to me that if I could sample the books, that might be a useful thing. The first chapter would have been enough, but I actually persevered a little more to see if I could settle into the read. Sadly, I couldn’t.

This book is written in the first person, which can be a problematic way to write a book. It takes a particular skill to write a book solely from the viewpoint of one person, and it’s far more difficult than most beginning writers suppose. The narrator has to be good at describing things and be believable, too, so that a character like Paddy Clarke sees things in his own idiosyncratic way. Not in the way that the writer would. Which leads me to another problem. The Mary Sue quotient can be high. Or the reader can just take a dislike to the narrator, and since there’s no respite, that’s that.

It’s the last one that is my main problem with Dark Future. The book starts promisingly with the heroine waking up to the awareness that someone is in her house. But even on the first page, the quips that sound more like authorial inserts than a true voice started to irritate me. One minute she is thinking rationally about what she should do, the next she’s making a quip that doesn’t quite come off. There are quips scattered throughout the book and to me they read as if the author was inserting them, rather than the heroine thinking them up naturally. As if there are two voices in there fighting for control. And I want the quipping one to go away.

Her intruder turns out to be a future version of herself. A ripped, tough version. Shades of Sarah Connor without the effort in between to learn combat and get ripped. She’s transported to the future.

So far no romance or any hint of one, and I am emphatically a romance reader. I skimmed until the hero appeared, but he seems to be an adjunct to the story, not an integral part of it. The heroine could have done what she did without him (he pops up in chapter four). So I gave up. A woman’s story with a bit of hot sex doesn’t really appeal to me. It might to you.

Grade: DNF

Summary:

Awakened in the middle of the night by a future version of herself, Kris Davenport is given a mission: go forward in time to save the world—and His life. Of course, her future self doesn’t tell her who he is, just sends her into the abyss and straight into an alien invasion.

He turns out to be ConRad Smith, the callous, untrusting commander of Earth’s army and the world’s last defense. There’s only one way for Smith to know for sure if this strange woman is an alien spy—slice her throat. Except, he didn’t anticipate the desire he would feel as he interrogates the hot-tempered, warm-blooded woman. For a man whose sole focus has been survival, she’s more temptation than he can handle. But a world on the brink of destruction leaves no room for love . . . and time is running out.

No excerpt available.

LynneC’s review of Star Crossed Seduction (Lords of the Seventh House, Book 2) by Jenny Brown
Historical Romance published by Avon Harper Collins August 30th 2011

If I’d read the book described in the blurb, I would have been a happy woman. Unfortunately, it’s nothing like that.  The description of this one intrigued me because it’s about an army officer and a street rat. No lords and ladies, even though the previous book had a lord for a hero. But I soon got bogged down in a welter of historical detail and astrological didacticism. If, like Ms. Brown, you’re a devotee of astrology, then this book might be for you, and certainly I can’t complain a huge amount about the history in this one, unless that there’s too much of it (I know, don’t faint!).

Captain Miles Trevelyan, Trev to his friends, is home on leave from India, so it’s a bit odd that he and his friend choose to wear their uniforms on occasion, because it was the convention for off-duty soldiers on half pay not to do that. But, anyway, a niggle, and it doesn’t bother me a great deal. He’s handsome, a professional soldier, not used to England, since he’s lived all his adult life in India.

Temperance is a street rat, a pickpocket, who gave her heart to a man called Randall, who is now, she believes, dead. When she tries to pick Miles’ pocket, he pursues her, and, in the ensuing struggle, gains the locket she always wears. But here comes my first disconnect. He kisses her and they get the instant connection thing. Wait—he kisses a street rat? These people had rotting teeth and stank more than somewhat. As a gentleman, he might just have noticed that.

Temperance and her friends are taken in by the heroine of the previous book of the series, to her refuge that she runs on astrological principles. Not too far a stretch to make, since there were all kinds of eccentrics around at the time. But in 1821, astrology wasn’t taken seriously in scientific circles and was derided by most. Everyone seems to take this woman seriously. She does the horoscopes of the girls she takes in and decides what to do with their lives accordingly. That is, to me, nuts. As is the assertion that when Temperance lies and gives not her birthday but that of her dead sister, Lady Hartwood spots that the owner of that birthday is dead. Does that mean everybody with the same birthday and time and place of birth are dead? So, as you can see, I’m an astrological skeptic, which makes me a hard sell for this book.

But I read books with elves and write books with vampires, so surely I can take a bit of astrological stuff and accept it for the space of the book? Well, I would, except there is so damned much of it. And it does read like didacticism. I gave up on the book after I got another lecture from Lady Hartwood and realised that, and my other disconnects, make me uninterested in what happens to the characters or the plot. I just don’t care.

There is a lot of history in this book and a lot of references to things that happened at this time. While I am familiar with the time and took most of it in stride, I don’t know how regular readers will take it and I don’t know why they should care. It’s set in 1821, firmly established as this is the year George IV finally was crowned as King, after all his years as Regent, and there are references to the Indian campaign and to the growing discontent among political firebrands, as they were known at the time. One of these themes would have been interesting, but it’s a bit like scattershot, especially in the early chapters—it is sprinkled all over in the hope that some of it might take. I wonder about the reference to Peterloo, for instance, which was a completely local affair and only became a national scandal after the military overreacted.

And the references to “dragoons,” as if they all belonged to the same regiment, is a bit off, too. Dragoons are only one type of soldier – light cavalry, i.e., they carried light weapons, were mounted, and were the lightning forces of the day – and the reference to Miles’ blue tunic (tunics came in a bit later for the army—at this period they were still coats) and blue trousers make me wonder. My father-in-law was a dragoon, but he was in an Irish regiment, so his uniform was green. Temperance’s assertion that the dragoons are all the same, that the ones at Peterloo were the same as the ones in India had me puzzled, but Temperance is a tempestuous heroine, much given to acting first and thinking later.

I really couldn’t like Temperance. She flings herself from one situation to another, and although we’re told she has a kind heart, it is the kind that gives things away to people and doesn’t really work for me. She accepts poverty, and worse, instead of taking what she was born with and making it better. She has the kind of idealism that people who have never known poverty imagine that poor people have for each other. Brown seems to want to make Temperance a bit of everything – intelligent, charitable, streetwise, gracious, a woman born to wealth who gave it up for an ideal—not only gave it up, but flung herself into the gutter. I think Temperance is a servant of the plot more than a living, breathing character, and I couldn’t warm to her. That’s the main reason I gave up on this one.

Miles is, well, the hardened military man thrown into schemes and devices not of his making. I think Miles is the more interesting character, but in the half of the book that I read, I didn’t get enough of him. I might have read on, but the heavy plot and the building “why should I care?” feeling eventually made me give up.

The dreariness of the prose, the throw-everything-at-it-until-it-sticks plot, and the dislikeableness of the main female character made me give up on this one. Oh, yes, and all that astrological stuff.

Grade: DNF

Summary:

Lovers or Enemies?

Captain Miles Trevelyan, on leave from active service in India, is heading out for a night on the town when he rescues a beautiful pickpocket from arrest. She’s the perfect choice for a few days of dalliance–beautiful, cunning, and completely disposable.

But Temperance has no intention of becoming the plaything of a man who wears the uniform of the solders who murdered her lover. Disarming Trev with a kiss, she escapes. But her sultry kiss opens the two Scorpio adversaries to an obsessive attraction that neither can elude–or possibly survive.

Following the success of her sensational debut novel, Lord Lightning, Jenny continues her Lords of the Seventh House series–in which each hero is a different sign of the Zodiac. A dark and sensual story reminiscent of the acclaimed novels of Loretta Chase, Anna Campbell, and Mary Balogh, but with a very tantalizing touch of the occult thrown in, Star Crossed Seduction is top-flight historical romance with a uniquely unforgettable difference.

No excerpt available.

LynneC’s review of  A Dark Sicilian Secret by Jane Porter and Bound to the Greek by Kate Hewitt
Contemporary Romances published by Mills and Boon Modern 1 May 22 and 1 Jan 11

The next two books I read have similar themes, but while one works for me, the other doesn’t.

So for the failure first, Jane Porter’s A Dark Sicilian Secret. This is a DNF. I hate those, I feel as if I’ve paid for nothing, so I do try to read the books I get.

The heroine in this one drives me crazy. Let me explain. She meets Vittorio, who she calls Vitt, falls for him, sleeps with him and gets pregnant with his baby. Unknown to him, she’s been involved with criminal elements before, and she knows how to change her identity and run. So when she gets pregnant, she runs. Turns into a blonde, changes her eye color with contacts, changes her name. Vitt has no problem with that. Although his family was mafia in the old days, they’ve been going straight for a while and they have a chain of successful hotels and resorts (what is it with the Modern/Presents line and hotels?) From the beginning Vitt knows where she is. He’s provided her with a job and safe haven. She has his child and he wants it back.

First, how stupid is the heroine? She’s used to hiding, and yet she’s offered a great job, a nice place to live and a babysitter on a plate? I just don’t buy it. Either she’s savvy or she’s not. The heroine of this book is as innocent as a newborn babe. She’s told by an 18-year-old chambermaid that her husband is mafia, she looks him up on the net, doesn’t realize that several people in his family bear the same name and jumps to the wrong conclusion? What world are we in?

And when Vitt finds her, he’s the typical alpha jerk. He takes over her life, without compunction, and she folds. Just collapses. By this stage I’m thinking that they deserve each other, and I realize that I don’t care about either of them, except that they keep each other off the streets. So I gave up.

My other problem with this book is in the style. There are an irritating plethora of tags. Speech tags (“She said,” “she thought,” “she reasoned”) all those. They are usually attached to a speech when the author can think of nothing else to do. They are liberally sprinkled into every conversation, every thought, so we are constantly reminded, even when we don’t need it, of what they thought and said. Some sentences are just plain clumsy and don’t say what they’re supposed to say.

Vitt takes over. While I can’t really blame him, he’s unnecessarily cruel to the poor, brain-dead heroine, so although I started the story fully in sympathy with him, I ended it exasperated with them both. I gave up because I honestly didn’t care what happened to either of them. I couldn’t possibly  begin to empathize with the heroine. She’s been running all her life, changing her style, her hair color, her eye color, so by the time Vitt catches up with her, I never got a handle on who she is or what she looks like. Once the author loses that, she loses a reader. She certainly lost me.

So to the next book, Kate Hewitt’s Bound to the Greek.

Jace meets Eleanor after several years apart. When Ellie announced to Jace that she was pregnant with his child, he walked out, because he knew he was infertile after a teenage bout of mumps. Misunderstandings, secret babies, things that I always approach with a touch of wariness. As it happens, the secret baby doen’t make it, and the hero has the big misunderstanding about the heroine.

What makes this different to the Porter? Lots of stuff.

For a start, the protagonists of this story are thinking, reasoning human beings. They are hurt, and they don’t deny it to themselves or to each other. Self-honesty is important when it comes to matters of the heart. The explanation above is all in the first three chapters. The rest of the story is concerned with Jace and Eleanor coming to terms with their past, their present, and deciding mutually if they have a future together.

They behave like grown-ups. That’s a big difference between the Hewitt and the Porter. They think about themselves, their unborn child, and each other and they care enough to try to work things out. Oh, yes, it contains tropes similar enough that the two books can be taken with each other. But the execution and the satisfaction are poles apart. Poles.

I like Eleanor and I understand why she doesn’t want to give herself to Jace all over again. She’d got on with the pregnancy after Jace walked out. She tried to contact him, but after a while it didn’t matter so much. She has her career, she’s built a life after Jace. While she still loves him, she appreciates that she’s still a person without him and she deserves better than the way he treated her.

Jace didn’t try to take over Eleanor’s life. He tries to understand. He uses his privileged position to get her in a place he can talk to her, but he doesn’t jeopardize her job or her life. He just wants answers.

The style is smooth and accomplished and takes you through the story effortlessly. There are no or few jarring sentences and passages. The characters progress smoothly toward their happy ending, and Hewitt helps us to care about them both. This is everything the Porter isn’t—grown-ups coping with a difficult situation to the best of their abilities and they earn their happy ending. I love that there are no instant fairytale answers to their problem, too. They would work it out. At the end of the Hewitt, I believed it and I was rooting for them to succeed.

Grade:  A Dark Sicilian Secret – DNF

Summary:
A Dark Sicilian Secret by Jane Porter:

She can run… Lethally attractive Vittorio d’Severano was everything Jillian Smith wanted – until she discovered his secret life and her dreams of a happyeverafter crumbled into dust… Brokenhearted and terrified, Jill disappeared. But she can’t hide! Now Vitt has returned – to claim the tiny son Jill has sworn to keep from him! But to stay with her child she must put Vitt’s ring on her finger. Yet what kind of relationship can they have when it’s based on secrets…and a heat impossible to resist?

Read an excerpt.

Grade: Bound to the Greek – B+

Summary:

Bound to the Greek by Kate Hewitt

Like a moth to a flame… Greek tycoon Jace Zervas’ legendary control is momentarily shattered when he’s confronted by Eleanor Langley – the flame he extinguished years ago! Gone is the sweet, homely girl; now an ambitious yet alluring New York career woman considers him with steely eyes, a hint of anger, and…surely not?… a touch of longing. Jace doesn’t deal in raw emotions. He hires the ice-queen purely for business. But secluded under the hot Mediterranean sun the real Ellie emerges again – and Jace finds the fire of passion still burns…

Read an excerpt.

Liviania’s Quick Quack Reviews of one science fiction romance and three urban fantasy novels by Cameron Haley, Ilona Andrews, Katherine Allred, and Phaedra Weldon.

Mob Rules (Underworld Cycle, Book 1) by Cameron Haley
Urban fantasy published by Luna 1 Sep 10

I love the world Cameron Haley sets up in Mob Rules. Her sorcerers are LA gang members who get power boosts from graffiti. Domino Riley, an enforcer for Shanar Rashan, is investigating a murder. Riley soon realizes that there’s something odd about Jamal’s murder when she has trouble summoning his spirit. It also means that her outfit is going to war with Papa Danwe’s outfit.

There’s a strong cast of background characters, especially the piskie Honey. The romance with Adan is nice, but ultimately a non-starter. I’m excited for the next Underworld Cycle novel. Riley’s smart and tough and Haley’s worldbuilding is off to a good start.

Grade: B+

Summary:

As LA plunges into an occult gang war, mob sorceress Domino Riley must unravel a conspiracy that reaches beyond the magic-soaked mean streets into a world of myth and legend.

Domino investigates the ritual execution of a mob associate, a graffiti magician named Jamal. The kid isn’t just dead, he’s been squeezed — the killer stole his magical power or “juice.” Domino summons Jamal’s shade, and the ghost points to Adan Rashan as his killer. This is tricky, because Adan is the favored son of Domino’s boss, Shanar Rashan, a six-thousand-year-old Sumerian wizard. It’s even trickier because only a mobbed-up sorcerer could have squeezed Jamal and Adan isn’t a sorcerer.

As the corpses pile up, Domino must confront the killer and unmask an otherworldly kingpin with designs on her gang’s magic-rich turf.

MOB RULES is an urban fantasy novel of murder and magic, betrayal and redemption set in the supernatural underworld of Los Angeles.

Read an excerpt here.

Magic Bleeds (Kate Daniels, Book 4) by Ilona Andrews
Urban fantasy published by Ace 25 May 10

I am extremely happy I finally read Ilona Andrews’ works. I read Magic Burns, Magic Strikes, and Magic Bleeds in quick succession. Thus, my memories are somewhat blended together. (I may also spoil parts of the previous novels.) Even with that handicap, I am convinced that Magic Bleeds is a highlight. Quite a bit is revealed about Kate’s mysterious past due to her adversary. Kate’s confrontation with her father is probably going to come soon, and I can’t wait to see how it plays out.

In addition, Curran and Kate’s relationship is progressing nicely. In fact, Kate’s willing to fight to stay with him. Kate’s becoming more connected to her community in a variety of ways and it makes her a stronger person. I can see why this series is so hyped, and I must say that it’s living up to all the nice things people say.

Grade: A

Summary:
Kate Daniels cleans up the paranormal problems no one else wants to deal with-especially if they involve Atlanta’s shapeshifting community.

And now there’s a new player in town-a foe that may be too much for even Kate and Curran, the Lord of the Beasts, to handle. Because this time, Kate will be taking on family.

Read an excerpt here.

Other books in this series:

Close Contact (Alien Affairs, Book 2) by Katherine Allred
Science fiction romance published by Harper Voyager 8 Jun 10

Science fiction romances aren’t that common, so I was somewhat excited by this one. Echo Adams is a Genetically Engineered Person with psi abilities. Now, instead of planning parties, she’s attempting to steal back a stolen crystal on a far-off planet and falling in love with the commander of the king’s army. But there’s something strange about Reynard and his fellow Madreans.

I found this one a little disappointing. I prefer hard SF to soft SF, and all the psi abilities being used might as well be magic. Echo and Reynard’s romance worked fine, but wasn’t overly memorable. The book is, however, better than the cover would lead you to believe.

Grade: B-

Summary:

GEPs just want to have fun . . .

A Genetically Engineered Person and self-proclaimed “party girl,” Echo Adams loves her diplomatic job entertaining alien bigwigs for the Galactic Federation. But the Bureau of Alien Affairs has discovered she’s much more than she thinks—that a rogue scientist endowed her with skills and psi abilities dwarfing those of common GEPs. And suddenly Echo’s luxury life is over, replaced with a far more dangerous one: a special agent expected to not only chase bad guys but eliminate them.

Echo hates being stuck on Madrea—a planet of technophobes off limits to Federation visitors—hunting for a stolen quartz crystal with a powerful alien life form embedded inside. She despises the Bureau’s restrictive rules—especially the one warning her away from the dangerously seductive commander of the king’s army. And if she doesn’t learn how to use her alleged super-psi powers soon, her partying days—in fact all of her days—will be over for good.

Read an excerpt here.

Other books in this series:

Revenant (Zoë Martinique Investigations, Book 4) by Phaedra Weldon
Urban fantasy published by Ace 1 Jun 10

Revenant is the fourth Zoë Martinique Investigation novel and an excellent example of why I like to start series from the beginning. The novel begins with a brief explanation of Zoë’s past. By the third page I was completely lost. She used a number of abbreviations and the timeline was quite confusing, plus it’s a totally made up system of magic. I may give Revenant another change if I can first read one of the earlier books. I’m not sure about the prose, however. It had a strong rhythm, with lots of staccato sentences. It seems like it would be jarring to read a full work written in Zoë’s voice.

Grade: DNF

Summary:

The smart, sassy, single, and “highly original” (#1 New York Times bestselling author Patricia Briggs) Zoë Martinique is back- and she’s seeking clues on the other side…

Zoë Martinique’s life hasn’t been ordinary for quite awhile. First she developed the ability to travel outside her body at will-where she encountered some seriously weird things. Things that left her with powers that she didn’t really want or need. Still, a person can get used to almost anything- even being a Wraith. Though more often than not, it plays serious havoc with her love life.

But for once, Zoë is glad of her abilities. Bodies are showing up all over Atlanta, drained of blood. They’re beings from another astral plane, called Revenants-and they’re being stalked by her old enemy, the Phantasm. The Revenants are hardly the nicest of creatures-but to preserve the cosmic balance, Zoë will need to put everything on the line to save them…

Read an excerpt here.

Other books in this series:

LynneC’s review of Wedding Of The Season by Laura Lee Guhrke
Historical Romance published by Avon 28 Dec 10

I hadn’t read Guhrke for a while, so I thought I’d give the first book in a new series a try. Unfortanatly, it didn’t work for me. But it might well work for you. I kept being held up by small, not-quite-right details. I wouldn’t call them inaccuracies, per se, just things that didn’t work.

This book is set in the late Victorian era, the 1890’s. The heroine, Beatrix, was jilted by her fiancé, the Duke of Sunderland, in favour of his hunt for the tomb of Tutankhamen in Egypt. On his return to England, after six years, the duke finds that Beatrix is engaged to another duke, Aiden (cue sequel bait). He wants her back.

My first disappointment was the era the book is set in. I can’t get past the fact that by 1918, a whole generation of young men were wiped out in the trenches, and then the population was further depleted by the subsequent flu epidemic. So any heroes or heroines stand to either lose their lives or watch their children die. That prospect casts a pall over any stories set in that era. It’s like ignoring the elephant in the room – it can’t be done. The generic “prom dress” cover doesn’t really give any clues to the era, and I got this book in galley form, so the blurb was a little sparse. It’s easy to say that there are always disasters in the future for romance heroes and heroines, but there was nothing like the 1914-18 war before, and thank God, nothing like it ever again.

The little details kept stopping me, so eventually I had to give up. It seemed that every page held something, a niggle or an “eh?” moment, which crashed into my getting into the story really deeply, so I couldn’t go on. I don’t know a great deal about the late Victorian era, only what the average Englishwoman would know, but some of the niggles didn’t sound right, didn’t work properly in the context of British society.

The book starts with a series of letters. One of them is addressed “My Lord Duke” and is from the duke’s man of business. A letter from a social inferior would always start “Dear Duke” or “Your grace” (ref – Debrett’s or Burke’s). The late Victorian/Edwardian era was bound about with formalities, and to transgress was to reveal gaucherie or unacceptable behaviour. That was one thing the First World War swept away. Hard to keep formal when you’re knee-deep in mud and filth.

When the hero arrives home, he passes fields full of Devonshire ponies. Erm, no. Devonshire (Exmoor) ponies run free, and it’s a special privilege. You just don’t see fields full of them.

The letter refers to a “ceremony in the House of Lords conferring ducal title.” Parliament has no say in conferring noble titles (though these days the Prime Minister recommends life peerages to the Queen), and the ceremony referred to is when the new peer is received in the House to take his seat in Parliament. It might seem like a subtle difference, but it actually conveys profound misunderstanding in the understanding of how the English social and political system works.

Beatrix’s new fiancé is said to be “tenth in line to the throne.” If he were, he’d be a Royal Duke. They are different to the regular run of dukes, and are not nobility, but royalty. The proper address to a royal duke is “your highness,” and a royal duke ranks higher than a prince. Aiden is not referred to as “your highness” but rather, “your grace” in this book. “Regular” dukes are not related to the royal family, except sometimes by marriage. (Many of her fellow aristocrats considered that Princess Diana had married beneath her, since aristocratic families often have a longer history than the royals!)

The bit about looking for King Tutankhamen’s tomb was something like meeting a man in the street and saying, “Oh hello, Mr. Baird. Invented the television yet?” While Carter and Carnarvon knew they were looking for the tomb by the late 1910’s, they didn’t know that it would prove such an important find. Until a month or two before the discovery they had no idea that the tomb would be untouched, full of treasure. It was more in a spirit of completing the exploration of the Valley of the Kings, and recording all the tombs there. So the hero of this book is almost psychic in his precognition. The clay pots and seals referred to by Beatrix were actually archaeological treasures. I couldn’t get past this. And as for the hero staying in Egypt for six years and not coming home, that sounds like an abandonment of his responsibilities, and while many aristocrats did that, I can’t see anyone who would do it as a hero. The Earl of Carnavon, who financed Carter in his discovery of the tomb, didn’t expect financial reward, and actually only went to Egypt in the season allowed by the authorities for digging. This came as a disjoint, especially considering the end of the book (yes, I did skip to the end!)

The end was what made me give up on the book. I can’t see it as a happy ending, for a woman previously described as strong to kowtow to her future husband’s desires in the way that Beatrix did. I didn’t really understand Beatrix. She wouldn’t go to Egypt with Will, but she sought excitement and adventure in her life. The first time we meet her, she’s driving a Daimler and wearing “Turkish trousers” in defiance of the dictates of her peers. She agrees to marry a man who loves her, knowing that she doesn’t and won’t love him back.

This book just didn’t do the job of taking me back in time and making me believe that the characters were part of that time and not this. And that’s what I look for in a historical romance. I’m desperately looking for an author who can do this for me, so if you have any suggestions, please recommend something.

Guhrke has a light, easy-to-read style that guides you effortlessly through the story. If a light read is what you’re after, and you can suspend your disbelief better than I did, then you can do far worse than Wedding Of The Season. There aren’t any obvious Americanisms in the prose, at least not as far as I read in detail, and it does provide a pleasant hour of two for the reader who isn’t as concerned as I am about historical accuracy and credibility.

Grade: DNF

Summary:

Abandoned at the altar…

Lady Beatrix Danbury has always known she would marry William Mallory. She’d loved him forever, and she’d never doubted he loved her, too. But when she made him choose between their life together and his lifelong dream, Will chose the latter, and left two weeks before their wedding.

Return of the duke…

Will has no illusions that Beatrix will welcome him back with open arms, but six years has not diminished his love or his desire for her. The only problem is that she’s about to marry someone else. Someone safe and predictable… the complete opposite of Will. But can he stop
the wedding of the season and win Beatrix back, or is it just too late?

Read an excerpt.

Other books in this series:

Dinca’s review of Christmas at Candlebark Farm by Michelle Douglas
Contemporary Romance published by Harlequin  Romance 30 Nov 10

Usually I can read forever. I fell asleep twice reading this book. And I made it through two chapters before giving up on Christmas at Candlebark Farm. I can’t believe I am giving a Christmas story a “did not finish” grade.

I need my heroes to have a few basic social skills. Luke Hillier does not believe his 15-year-old son needs to help him on the farm but needed to be hanging out with his friends. Jason hasn’t moved away from the TV yet, but he has offered to help his dad, who keeps turning his offers away.  He feels a friendly gesture from Keire to bring him and his son together is charity. Their whole existence on the farm and with each other is dysfunctional.

Keire Keely is only 24 and has gone to a fertility clinic. If she is having problems with her ovaries, she should have stored her eggs and given a normal life a chance. She has never had a steady male presence in her life. She supposedly has come to this town and rented a room in Luke’s house to secure her future for her baby, but she hasn’t done anything but go to the store, cook, and have morning sickness.

There’s no chemistry between the hero and heroine. The pacing is much too slow to keep a reader’s attention, hence my ability to fall asleep twice in two chapters. Between his lack of social skills and her lack of common sense and no rapport between them, there’s no reason to continue reading.

Grade: DNF

Summary:

Pregnant Keira Keely is lodging at beautiful Candlebark Farm this holiday season, whilst she organizes a place of her own.

Grumpy owner Luke Hillier seems too caught up in his own troubles to worry about anyone else’s. But when Keira has a crisis Luke is amazingly supportive.

Keira’s shocked that she actually likes being looked after by gorgeous, gruff Luke. Maybe now he’ll let her help him, too…. As fairy lights sparkle and Christmas approaches, could Keira have found her perfect home?

Read an excerpt.

LynneC’s review of Taken By Desire by Lavinia Kent
Historical Romance published by Avon 30 Nov 10

I received this book as a galley. When that happens, I feel obliged to review the book, otherwise I would have quietly put it aside and not mentioned it.

I am desperate to find a new writer of historical romance who I can read with pleasure. So far, I haven’t found one, but the fault may be as much mine as it is anyone else’s. I write historical romance, you see, and I love doing the research, so I probably know more than is comfortable about the Georgian era, which encompasses the Regency, in which this book is set. Sadly, I think I have to cross Lavinia Kent off my list of possibles.

All through the part I read, I kept thinking, “Is it me?” Because I felt a lack of connection to the characters from the start. They didn’t feel real, they acted and behaved, but I didn’t believe them. Very strange, and this may not be your response.

The book is well written, that is, the grammar, the sentences and the general flow worked well, was of a reasonable standard.

I’m used to ignoring the odd anachronism, and even Americanism. Nobody ever gets it completely right, and unless the anachronisms are glaring and obvious, I can usually ignore them when I’m enjoying a book. Americanisms are usually only a problem to me, a Brit, and every day I thank the powers that be that I have American editors who stop the mistakes I inevitably make when I’m writing American characters. It was when they grated that I realized I wasn’t invested in the story enough, and it was time to stop reading.

So, to start at the beginning. Our heroine, Anna, is a single lady attending a house party. She sees a man, Struthers, leave her sister’s room, and hears her sister’s husband approach. So she flings herself into Struthers’ arms and lets them think the worst. She is married to him in pretty short order, especially when she hears that her American cousins are planning to have her locked away for insanity.

So far, okay. The plot works, and I liked that the hero was a mere Mr. — one of my favorite heroes is Mr. Beaumaris from Georgette Heyer’s Arabella. However, Struthers is no Beaumaris.

I really didn’t like Anna. Neither did I believe in her. She is a wealthy, single woman living on her own and she’s created a few scandals in her time, had a few doors closed to her, but is still acceptable to most of society. Hence, the houseparty. A few things wrong with this—there is no chaperone in sight, not even the whisper of one. So already Anna would be completely unacceptable. And she’s never been married, but has had several affairs. Also not acceptable to Regency society. The lack of concern about disease or pregnancy made me a little skeptical, too. Basically, Anna couldn’t have existed in this era. Single women of a certain age could live on their own, but only with a companion/duenna and only in perfect respectability. I tried to think of a real-life example of such a woman, and in the wealthier classes, there were none that I could find.

Struthers never really came together, so to speak. I appreciate that Lavinia Kent is trying to create a fuller character, but he didn’t seem to work. He’s made his fortune in India and has a tragic past, but when he thinks about it, it seems to be without emotion.

Then there’s the American cousins, the Townsends, who I started to label Laurel and Hardy. They were about as menacing, too, though I think they were meant to be the villains.

The anachronisms started to come faster, and I found it harder to ignore them. In case you’re wondering – “sex” as a word for the sex act wasn’t used until the 20^th century, men’s shirts didn’t open all the way down the front with buttons, they didn’t have collars, men wore breeches for balls, not trousers, and definitely wore underwear. Women’s garments were not called “dresses,” they were “gowns” (your “dress” was the whole outfit). And the Americanisms – English cities don’t have “blocks,” people don’t ask “for a ride” and the dreaded “g” word started to get more frequent. To a modern British reader, “gotten” screams “American.” I did a quick survey of my fellow Brits (and even a couple of Aussies) at the recent RNA conference, and every one of them said the same thing – a book with “gotten” in it, especially a historical, screams “American.” Jo Beverley’s excellent suggestion of rephrasing the sentence seems to work well. I’d like to have seen that here, together with a little more care over the language used.

Getting hold of the theme or the plot of the book was a bit like trying to grab sheep and getting clouds. Or something like that. It dissolved as you touched it, and I’m still wondering why. There were a few plot threads, and I wasn’t sure which one would turn out to be the one, or to define the theme and mood of the story, but none seemed to dominate or even work for me.

The chemistry between the hero and heroine wasn’t there. It just didn’t seem as if they thought about each other, wanted each other enough. Their wedding night was a farce, but I’m still not sure why Struthers barely consummated it. He was angry about something, but I can’t remember what it was. Certainly it wasn’t about her previous lovers. After that, they do some lusting, then one night of passion. Their sexual encounters are mechanical, and although they appreciate each others’ bodies, it doesn’t seem to go much deeper than that. And when they’re married, they live in separate houses. Completely unlikely, though the way Kent worked this aspect made it at least possible. That was where I stopped reading, when I realized that I wanted Laurel and Hardy to lock her up, so I wouldn’t have to read any more clinical love scenes.

Sorry, but this one didn’t work for me. It might work for you.

Grade: DNF

Summary:

Strong and independent, she dreams of him in secret.

Fierce, yet world-weary, he’s always desired her.

Neither considers marriage an option.

But when a single kiss has unforeseen consequences, and wedding bells follow, they’ll both learn the power of passion. Desire can change everything.

No excerpt found.

LynneC’s review of Invincible (Benedict Brothers, Book 1) by Joan Johnston
Contemporary romance published by Mira 26 Oct 10

Invincible is the story of one of the children of the ‘infamous’ Bella and Bull. Bella is an English duchess who married an American millionaire (squillionaire?). Now she wants to see her children married before she dies. Since she’s 52 and her children are “all over 25,” she must have married at an indecently young age. But it’s possible. Other parts of the story aren’t so possible, but improbability piled on improbability, a preponderance of tropes I don’t like and the clunky style made me give up on this book. I’ve left the boring bit until the end, so those of you who are interested can read it, and if you’re not, then just skip it.

The heroine works for the FBI but is in danger of losing her job. She has a child, the result of one hot night with Max ten years ago. The neon lights started flashing “secret baby,” a trope I don’t hate, but I don’t like either. It has to work well to work with me. Here, it doesn’t. IMO, when a child is involved, it’s the child that’s important, not the parents. When the parents behave responsibly, I can take the trope.

For instance, when the heroine has done everything she can to inform the hero that he’s a father or when the father is presumed dead, I can go along with it, but in this case, Max hurt Kristin and she chose not to tell him about the baby. She told her daughter that her father was dead. No, just no. I can’t like anyone who puts their own feelings above that of their child’s, especially when the father is filthy rich and the child has some realistic expectation of having a more comfortable life. It’s selfish and unacceptable.

So now we have two of the tropes I don’t like. The secret baby and the big misunderstanding.

The heroine, Kristin, can afford to send her daughter to school in Switzerland. On an FBI salary? Maybe I missed something, but by then I’d begun to skim. Not just the title errors or the improbability of the whole thing (a CIA agent working with an FBI agent on a case? As partners?) but the acres of backstory. The prologue is Bella and how she wants to see her children married before she dies (my guess is that she gets a heart transplant and then reconciles with her estranged husband). I found it irritating. I didn’t care, at that point in the story.

Max? He’s a lord, he’s a world-class tennis player, he’s an intrepid ocean-going sailor, he’s a spy for the CIA. He probably does heart operations on the side (I made that one up). Yawn. Far too perfect. I didn’t believe in him. Oh, and he only uses condoms if the girl asks him to. Pardon me? Do I have to explain why I dislike that one? No, I thought not.

At the beginning there is a big scene where Max explains the plot to Kristen and how she has to help him on a case. What writers call a “kitchen table” scene. Not quite in the AYKB category, (“As You Know, Bob”) but close. And nothing happens.

Then Kristen meets her child off the plane. I don’t like stories where children play a significant part, it’s just a personal preference, but it didn’t really endear me to Kristen, who spends a lot of her time whining. At least up to this point. Already I know that Max and Kristen are going to be forced together to do this job, because, otherwise, there’s no story.

After chapter three, I started skimming. I felt obliged to read this book, as I had the galley to review, but already it had hit a lot of my hot buttons, and the style didn’t help. I just couldn’t engage with these characters.
A couple of scenes along, a new character entered, another of Bella’s children. So far, Johnston hadn’t sold me on Max and Kristen. Emma didn’t interest me, either.

I read the reason why Bull left Bella. After many years of marriage. I didn’t buy it. Basically, it was her twin in bed with her lover, not Bella. Another trope I dislike, and if Bull couldn’t tell the twins apart, even when one was pretending to be the other, he didn’t know his wife well enough. Another Big Misunderstanding.

The style of writing didn’t engage me, either. There are far too many dialogue tags for my liking, and after a while I found them intrusive. And the reader is “told” not “shown” too many things. There are too many explanations, not enough interaction between the characters and so the story, for me, became stilted and awkward. And infodumps galore.

Sorry, that was where I stopped reading. The plot contrivances didn’t persuade or convince me, and taken with the inaccuracies, improbabilities, and the tropes (child bringing a couple together, secret baby, big misunderstandings) I didn’t have the heart to go on. The clunky style, frequently stopping to explain things, the complicated plot, and the hero and heroine didn’t engage me at all.

If I’d bought the book, I’d have put it aside and read something else, probably chosen not to review it. But I didn’t, I got this book as a galley. I hate doing negative reviews, but sometimes it can’t be avoided. I searched and searched for something good to say. However, it might work for you, you might love it. I’d never say never, just make your own minds up.

Here’s “the science bit.”

Johnston has done her research, but not well enough. It floored me when she referred to Bella as “royalty” on the first page, because royal girls aren’t duchesses, unless they marry dukes. They’re princesses or nothing. Royalty is different, governed by different rules. The title of Royal Duke is totally different to that of “ordinary” ones. So I dismissed the “royalty” thing as just a silly mistake, and one we’re all entitled to, since I don’t think it was repeated.

Johnston later explains how Bella has the title:

When all the male Blackthorne heirs had died heroically during the Battle of Britain in the Second World War, Parliament had amended the Letters Patent creating the Dukedom of Blackthorne so the title would pass “to all and every other issue male and female, lineally descending of or from the said Duke of Blackthorne, to be held by them severally and successively, the elder and the descendants of every elder issue to be preferred before the younger of such issue.

Which meant that either males or females could inherit the dukedom. This prevented the title from being extinguished by the death of the last male Blackthorne during the war. It was the first time such a thing had been done since the Dukedom of Marlborough was preserved in the same way for similar reasons in 1706.

As the elder of twin sisters, his mother was the current holder of the title. Max’s eldest brother, Oliver, would succeed her as the next Duke of Blackthorne. As the eldest son, Oliver currently held one of the Duke of Blackthorne’s lesser titles, Earl of Courtland, and was often referred to simply as Courtland.

Erm no, or at least, not exactly. I wasn’t sure, so I took advice on this one. Letters Patent can’t be altered or amended, and these questions aren’t usually dealt with in Parliament, they’re dealt with by the Crown. The Marlborough title was set up that way in the first place. It was never altered. The title could have been re-created with new Letters Patent, but that’s not what it says. And all titles are subject to the laws of primogeniture. Stating a different method in the Letters Patent isn’t going to cut it. Titles are always inherited by the eldest male in direct line. Failing any male heir, then a female may be allowed to convey the title to her sons, but she doesn’t usually use the title.

Why is it so important to the story? Why bother twisting the inheritance laws to that extent? Am I supposed to be impressed that she’s a duchess? Also, I’m informed by the expert I consulted that the property wouldn’t go with the title, it would most likely be tied up in entail and go to the nearest male relative or back to the Crown.

The Dukedom of Marlborough was amended that way because the Duchess of Marlborough was the lover of Queen Anne. At that time, the Queen would have done anything for Sarah. And since the duke was a war hero, that gave her the excuse. Even the Marlborough title carries the rule of primogeniture, that only in the event of no male heirs, can females inherit or convey the title.

If Bella is British and Bull is American, then their children will carry American citizenship by birth. They would have to renounce that citizenship in order to inherit a peerage, although courtesy titles being virtually meaningless, they could use them if they wanted to. It’s just a bit pretentious. The American constitution forbids its citizens to hold anything but honorary titles. And British law forbids anyone but a British citizen from inheriting a British peerage and the land that goes with it. Which, since until recently peers were an important part of the law making process, only stands to reason, really.

Max, the hero of this book, is a covert agent for the CIA. I thought that only American citizens could join the CIA. If he’s British, and Lord Max, then he’d surely be recruited via MI6?

Yes, nitpicking, but since the author seems to want her heroes and heroines to have everything, she has to jump through some convoluted hoops to get there. And it detracted from the story for me, kept me wondering when I should have been concentrating on the heart of the story. Even if it’s possible, it’s not a detail that would make me care about the characters more, or anything that adds to the story.

And they sleep in a bed that has been slept in by Henry II. A bed over eight hundred years old? Something that precious and fragile belongs in a museum, properly preserved. And it most definitely doesn’t belong in a house designed by Robert Adam. It would make Adam revolve in his grave at great speed, this man who even designed the doorknobs in rooms he created.

There was something about jewels, but I didn’t care enough to find out. I think the jewels are supposed to bind the stories in the series together, but I didn’t get that far in. Or, in skipping yet more infodumps, I missed it.

The book reminded me of this passage from  “Alice Through The Looking Glass”

Alice laughed. There’s no use trying, she said: one can’t believe impossible things.

I daresay you haven’t had much practice, said the Queen. When I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.

I guess I’m out of practice.

Grade: DNF

Summary:

Bella Benedict’s five grown children are scattered around the world like a handful of precious jewels. Now she’s dying and she has one last, secret wish. To bring her children home. And to give them what she once had: a marriage of passion.Wealthy playboy Max Benedict has no interest in long-term commitment. He had his heart broken once and that was enough. Instead, he travels the world, working as a sometime spy for the CIA. When he’s asked to investigate a foreign threat against the president, he doesn’t think twice about accepting—until he hears who he’ll be working with in London.

FBI Special Agent Kristin Lassiter is under investigation and on the verge of losing everything—her savings, her job, her beloved father. So when Bella Benedict approaches her with the offer to pay her mounting debts, she’s tempted to accept. But there’s a catch—a big one. Bella wants Kristin to win the heart of her son Max, the very man who destroyed Kristin years ago. A man unaware he fathered her nine-year-old daughter. If Kristin succeeds, she’ll get the money she needs—and the priceless Blackthorne rubies Bella has offered to sweeten the deal. The only problem is, can she win Max’s heart without falling back in love with him?

Other books in this series:

Sandy M’s review of Switch by Megan Hart
Contemporary Erotic Romance published by Harlequin Spice 1 Jan 10

It’s been a long while since I’ve not finished a book. I usually stick with whatever I’m reading, good or bad, until done, but this time I’ve read half a dozen books since I put this one aside and I just can’t make myself pick it up again.

I’m getting ready to start Chapter 11, and I just don’t care anymore. I have no idea who the hero of this story is. Too much time is spent on issues in Paige’s life that just don’t make any difference to anything so far in the book. With most of it I was just plain bored. Shopping with Paige for a birthday gift for her stepmother, which the woman won’t like, and then going through the party itself lends nothing to the concept of this book. And there are other similar issues too. Getting to know Paige maybe? Fine, but I have to like the character first before I want to get to know her/him/them. There’s really nothing so far that makes me like Paige all that much.

Paige is in her mid 20s, lives alone, has a job she likes okay with a so-so boss. She goes out now and again for a night on the town with her best friend, who really turns out not to be that good of a friend after all. Their latest jaunt takes them to a local bar where Austin just happens to be. This is Paige’s ex.

She’s irritated that the friend told Austin where they were going, not wanting to be near him because of the way he treated her, but she ends up having sex with him anyway. He tries to tell her he’s changed, to give him another chance, but she won’t listen. Just heads home and life goes on as usual.

But the unusual that happens is bizarre notes are being inadvertently left in her mailbox, notes that make her think with the demands each one makes. And she’s starting to see and run into a new guy in her building. He doesn’t notice her for a while, that is until they finally have a few words at a neighborhood coffee house.

There’s other family issues and the like described in detail as they come along, but that’s it for eleven chapters. I figured the new guy is going to the hero after she leaves Austin behind, but still nothing of any substance has yet to happen because the man is hardly in the story at all. At this point I’m not even curious enough to keep reading to find out which man wins, nor am I curious enough to find out who the switch is and how Paige fares in being submissive.

The story just doesn’t grab a reader. It’s very slow. The characters aren’t all that interesting. The one sex scene in all those pages is good, enough to make me like Austin at that point. But that’s not enough.

Maybe I’m giving up too soon. Maybe in Chapter 11 things start to move in the book, things become more clear. I’ll never know.

Grade: DNF

Summary:

Don’t think.Don’t question.

Just do.

The anonymous note wasn’t for me. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not in the habit of reading other people’s mail, but it was just a piece of paper with a few lines scrawled on it, clearly meant for the apartment upstairs. It looked so innocent, but decidedly–
deliciously–it was not.

Before replacing the note–and the ones that followed–in its rightful slot, I devoured its contents: suggestions, instructions, summonses, commands. Each was more daring, more intricate and more arousing than the last…and I followed them all to the letter.

Before the notes, if a man had told me what to do, I’d have told him where to go. But submission is an art, and there’s something oddly freeing about doing someone’s bidding…especially when it feels so very, very good.

But I find that the more I surrender, the more powerful I feel–so it’s time to switch up roles.

We play by my rules now.

Read an excerpt.

Ash’s review of And Falling, Fly by Skyler White
Urban Fantasy released by Berkley 02 Mar 10

I picked this book up a few different times, thinking maybe it’s just my mood that’s keeping me from enjoying it. Finally I had to admit that the book is just not working for me. I hate giving up on books, but I couldn’t get through this one.

I had trouble making it past just the first page. The writing is just not what I find likable. It’s like Skyler White can’t say something simply, it has to be with as much description as possible. I was done with it by the third page. It’s just confusing and I had to work to figure out just what I was reading. I want to enjoy the books I read, and this I did not enjoy.  I suppose I’m not sure if or when that will happen. With so many books to read, I can’t keep holding onto books that are maybes.

I also don’t care for Olivia. I kept waiting for a reason to like her or feel for her, and I never did. The first scene of her feeding is one of the big things that turns me off.

“I don’t mean to do it, but the subtle razor surfaces of my teeth and tongue erupt, grazing the insides of his mouth, making cuts too small for him to feel. It doesn’t take much to feed me, microscopic globules of blood from the tiny surface cuts my quilled teeth make in his lips and against his gums.”

Maybe it’s just the way it’s described, I’m not sure. It took me out of the story, instead of bringing me in. I kept imagining this awful monster mouth full of sharp edges.

Fans of darker urban fantasies will probably enjoy this more.  I don’t think it is necessarily a bad book, it just isn’t the right one for me. Skyler White has definitely created a unique book, but sadly I wasn’t pulled in.

Grade: DNF

Summary:

Olivia is a vampire bored with modernity. Tattooist, boyfriend, black-metal singer: everyone you don’t love tastes the same. Since the fall from Eden, she has hungered for love, but fed only on desire. Dominic O’Shaughnessy is a neuroscientist plagued by impossible visions.

When his research and her despair collide in Ireland’s L’Otel Mathillide – a subterranean hell of beauty, demons and dreams – rationalist and angel unite in a clash of desire and damnation that threatens to destroy them both.

Read an excerpt.

Birdie’s review of Bound by Temptation by Lavinia Kent
Historical Romance released by Avon Feb 10

Have you ever put down a book, unfinished, but still recommended it to a friend? Or read a new-to-you author, didn’t finish the book, and picked up another by that author? I have done neither of these things but with Bound by Temptation, I probably would.

Clara, the Countess of Westington is trying to change her life. She married for love, she married higher up than her stations, and when her husband died, Clara went a little wild. She’s become famous for her daring ways and her generous charms but Clara has decided that enough is enough. She’s tired of being the “bad girl” and just wants to settle down and live a quiet life. Helping out her motivation is her stepson’s, the Earl of Westington, desire to marry a respectable girl. He’s in love with a local woman who’s father doesn’t really approve of Clara. So Clara has promised to behave herself and save her stepson a lot of heartache.

I’m not usually one for the strong, independent, I-am-a-sexual-goddess heroine but Clara got to me anyway. She was vulnerable when she needed to be, strong when the situation called for it, and smart. A lot of those type of heroines fall into the too stupid to live category but Clara (as far as I read) never did.

Kent’s writing style is sharp. The prose and pacing is very tight and I was never jerked out of the story by an odd turn of phrase or amateurish writing. The plot was interesting and kept me guessing as to what would happen next. So on paper, it sounds like I should love this book, right? Um, wrong.

My problem lies entirely with the hero, one Jonathan Masters. Look, I know we all love a hero who starts out like a jerk but can be reformed by the love of one lovely lady. And I know that sometimes those heroes act like asses right up until the very last minute. I get it. I sometimes like it. But this time? Not so much.

Jonathan Masters is everything that is respectable. He worked hard to pull his family from the depths of scandal and poverty, but along the way he sacrificed one sister to a loveless marriage (to a much older man) and another sister has gone missing because of his demanding, hard ways. When Masters meets Clara (um, he kidnapped her because he thought she stole a watch from him and he wanted to teach her a lesson …that should have been my first clue) I thought things would begin to turn around with him. Especially after he and Clara had a delightful interlude in a secluded part of the country house. But, no, it didn’t. And good gracious is the man a prig! He preaches. He snorts in disgust. He professes to disapprove of Clara yet can’t keep his hands off her. I stopped reading at this point. Page 207. Check it out.

“Any why should his interests be the same as hers?” Clara felt fire rising in her belly.

“Because he is her husband. Man and wife are one person and that person is the husband.” He spoke with all seriousness.

Ok, Birdie is done reading this book. I love historicals just as much as the next reader. And I know that, historically speaking, men did think this way. But it was the middle of the book and he hadn’t softened one bit. I couldn’t read another page of this man’s boring, arrogant drivel.

The thing is, a lot of readers would love this book. A lot of readers soak up the hero who will be changed. This time, I didn’t. I couldn’t stick around to read that moment because I knew it wouldn’t make up for Masters’ insufferableness.

I might read Kent again, and I would recommend this book with a few cautions, but for me this book was a DNF at page 207.

Grade: DNF

Summary:

Clara, the Countess of Westington, is one of the ton’s most scandalous women.

Jonathan Masters has spent his life striving to be one of its most respected members.

Of all the beds in London, she had to wind up tied to his.

Read an excerpt.

Lynne Connolly’s review of Touch of Surrender (Primal Instinct Series, Book 5) by Rhyannon Byrd
Paranormal Romance published by HQN Books 27 Apr 10

I’ve read Rhyannon Byrd’s books before and enjoyed them very much, but they were the books she wrote for Ellora’s Cave, and so I couldn’t review them, because they constituted a conflict of interest (I write for Ellora’s Cave). So when she went mainstream, I picked up a book, looking forward to it. I got this book in galley format to review, so I feel obliged to say something about it. Otherwise I’d have been tempted to bury this one and tried another one.

Touch of Surrender is the second book in a series, and the fifth in the Primal universe, but I’ve never been big on reading every book in a series in order, unless the books simply have to be read that way. Sometimes I find it’s a good test. If you haven’t read any others in the series, you can spot the sequel-bait and the recurrence of characters from previous books and see if they work for you as stand-alones. I don’t really mind the spoiler of seeing the couple from a previous book, as if it’s a romance, it’s pretty obvious who is going to end up with whom. And I have to confess that I’m an end-reader. Years of reading the classics for my first degree gave me enough unhappy endings to last me a lifetime.

I looked forward to getting into a great erotic romance, set in a paranormal universe, but if you’ve seen the grade, you’ll know I didn’t get it with this book.

The blurb sounded great. A bit of adventure, a lot of romance…I would have liked a touch of the erotic, but the book didn’t promise that, although, knowing Rhyannon’s way with a sex scene, I looked forward to some hot sex, too.

I didn’t last long enough for that, although I did skim forward a bit, to see if it improved later. At least some of my concerns stopped, but others popped up and I knew this book wasn’t working.

So what went wrong for me?

I found the first three chapters incredibly frustrating. The story starts when Morgan confronts Keirland in a nightclub. She’s come to fetch him because of a problem with the Watchmen, the organization they both belong to. Images of the other Watchmen intruded in my mind. For me, Watchmen meant Allan Moore’s seminal comic books of the 1980’s and images that didn’t belong to this book kept blocking my read. I’m not saying that authors shouldn’t use a term they enjoy, just that in my case, I had to fight through that to get to Rhyannon’s characters.

The hero had his arms around two swan shifters. While the idea of swan shifters intrigued me, they turned out to be cardboard bitches, just devices to create a bit more tension between Morgan and Keirland. Because of course, they’ve wanted each other for years, but something has kept them apart. Not a device I particularly enjoy, but okay, I kept reading. Only to hit a brick wall of several pages of backstory. I tried to concentrate, but at this point in the story I didn’t care enough about the characters to concern myself with the intricacies of their world.

They get into a fight. Then they get into another fight. And the fights are interspersed with yet more backstory and world-building. And a bit of standard yearning, to indicate that the two main characters still want each other.

Morgan isn’t the kind of heroine who particularly interests me because I have absolutely nothing in common with her. She’s a shape-shifter and has fought through the fact that she’s a “mongrel” and doesn’t have a specific form to become a seasoned warrior. But she’s a “generic” warrior. She fights and kicks and scratches and gets in close physical contact with the big, bad hero and–well, I didn’t care.

At first, it was the screeds of backstory and world-building that kept me from immersing myself in the book. The world wasn’t introduced in the action scenes. Instead, the action stops while the world is explained. So I started skipping. Not a good sign, to start skipping that early in the story. I’m a big believer in explaining things only when they need to be explained, and while in a paranormal romance there are a lot of things to acquaint the reader with, it’s so much better done in the course of the story. Write scenes that explain the world, rather than explain it separately. To explain a world, a writer tends to go into the omniscient viewpoint, and that is one reason why it distances the reader. After all, if both characters are heavily involved in the world, who are they explaining things to? Some of it is unavoidable, but please, not this much.

The first scene is set in Prague, but I didn’t get any feel for that gorgeous place. It could have been any city, anywhere. And the book starts with “The club reeked of sex, drugs and rock and roll,” so I have to thank Rhyannon for sending me back to my Ian Drury collection. I am now revelling in “New Boots and Panties.” Elvis Costello next. Anyway, I digress. I give Rhyannon credit for knowing that a club in Prague will play Europop or, more likely, pure electronic dance music, but it’s a shame Morgan didn’t like it, or recognise it, as I’d have liked to have known if it was an Orbital kind of gig or a Basement Jaxx one. What I guess I’m saying is that I’d have liked less of the generic and more particular details, the stately beauty of Prague, the kind of nightclub this one was. Details can bring a scene alive, just as much as a man in worn jeans and a shirt can.

Take this sentence; “Filled with every kind of depraved vice imaginable, the dark, trendy establishment was the last place on earth she ever would have expected to find fellow Watchman Kierland Scott.”

What kind of depraved vice? Drugs, drink, sex? I can imagine a lot–the trouble is, I can imagine too much. Regency gentlemen getting their jollies from chloroform included, but I doubt there were any of them in that club. Cut the backstory, and give me detail instead. Colour the scenes to show me what kind of paranormal world this is, and why Keirland isn’t usually found there.

And the characters. Kick-ass heroine who every other woman is a bitch to. It’s a variation on the Cinderella heroine, but with martial arts thrown in. I am so over the kick-ass warrior heroine, but here’s where your mileage may differ enormously, because I know that kind of heroine sells by the bucketload. If you like that kind of heroine, you’ll like Morgan, because she has all the ingredients. I just can’t identify with her, and so it takes a very special kick-ass heroine to get me going.

Keirland I never got a feel for. He was your standard alpha male werewolf. He could melt your heart, but I didn’t notice any vulnerabilities, except a penchant for cheap liquor and hot sex.

What I wanted was one of Rhyannon’s deeply involved stories about a couple who couldn’t keep their hands off each other, bound in with a little danger and a lot of spice. What I got, as far as I read, which wasn’t even a third through, was a generic story about standard characters kept apart by a conflict they could have talked through. And a dangerous situation that didn’t make any sense. And buckets of backstory.

And Rhyannon – No buy links on your book pages on your website, and no indication of the order of the series, for people who like to read them in order.

It won’t put me off looking for her books, but I won’t be reading any more of the Primal Instinct series.

Grade: DNF

Summary:

Their Love is their Destiny. . .

With his auburn hair and lean build, Kierland Scott looks more man than Lycan. But his wolf instincts are aroused by the gray-eyed Morgan Cantrell. Not because of  her beauty, but because of her long-ago betrayal, a fateful choice that made their love impossible.
Now, however, the two Watchmen must team up, leaving the placid Lake Country for the forests of Scandinavia. To rescue Kierland’s brother, they must track a vampire—and use their combined shape-shifting sensitivities in a battle that will take them beyond death. As the two learn to seek together, they begin to understand the history that has driven them apart. But they will have to overcome death itself, if their shared passion is to have a chance.

Read an excerpt.

Other books in this series:

Lawson’s review of Bitten by Cupid by Lynsay Sands, Pamela Palmer and Jaime Rush
Paranormal Anthology released by Avon 12 Jan 10

Obviously I’m a sucker for Lynsay Sands. When Syb handed me this book, I snapped it up. I get a lot of the historical romance as well, so this was something to lighten the historical TBR pile. Plus, Sands’ contribution is the story of Tiny, who I’m sure many have been asking for. I got to experience some new (to me) authors as well.

Vampire’s Valentine by Lynsay Sands

Tiny McGraw was a secondary character in A Bite to Remember. He’s a private investigator and Jackie’s partner. Tiny and Mirabeau LaRouche, an Argeneau cousin, are assigned to protect Dani McGill’s sister from the Immortal Hunter from those that are still looking for her. Mirabeau realizes quickly that she can’t read Tiny, her appetite is coming back and they’re lifemates. What made this story work outside of the obvious lifemate setup was Tiny’s enthusiasm for it as well as his enjoyment of getting Mirabeau to eat his cooking. It was cute, but not a lot of depth.

Grade: B-

Hearts Untamed by Pamela Palmer

Zeeland and Julianne are members of a race called the Therians. The Therians were shapeshifters once upon a time, but now they only shift in their dreams. They apparently have an enemy that could control some interesting magic. Zeeland left Julianne when he began to see her as a woman and felt Julianne was far too young. Julianne has waited for Zeeland for the last ten years, though the Therians are ok with free love and free bed partners.

This story was rather weak. The Therians didn’t make much sense, with their shapeshifting past and how they lost it. The backstory needed wasn’t really there. The characters all seemed a bit flat as well, there wasn’t much development. Not my cup of tea.

Grade: D

Kiss and Kill Cupid by Jamie Rush

This one was cute at first. Then came the serial killer’s thoughts and I was totally turned off. Especially when Kat, the heroine, hears these thoughts but can’t hear the thoughts of Adrian, the hero. Oh, and they’re part of a secret government project. I couldn’t get through this story at all. I’m not a bit suspense fan and the serial killer’s thoughts in the first couple of pages made me not want to read it.

Grade: DNF

I don’t know what overall grade to give this one, since the last story was a DNF.

Overall grade: C (or DNF)

Ash’s review of Tempted by a Warrior (Dunwythie Trilogy Book 3) by Amanda Scott
Historical romance released by Grand Central Publishing 1 Jul 10

Usually when I reach for a historical romance it’s because I need something I can just relax with, something that makes me forget the rest of the world for a bit. I want that with a good Scottish setting with tough, manly heroes (preferably in kilts) and spunky, fiery heroines. I want to feel like I am back in time and falling in love along with the characters. Sadly, with Tempted by a Warrior, all I felt was like I was back in school, confused, and a little bit sick.

When we first meet Lady Fiona Jardine, our heroine, she is seventeen, pregnant, and being beaten by her husband, Will (who is not our hero). Right off the bat I am scared. My hopes for this story fell a little, but I kept going to see where all this was taking us. Some pages later we meet our hero, Sir Richard Seyton. Throughout the story he is called Richard, Dickon, Kirkhill, and I think a few others that I can’t remember. To spare you all the same confusion, I am going to stick with Kirkhill.

It’s been a few days since Fiona’s husband Will has been heard from, after beating Fiona. To top it off, Old Jardine, Will’s father, is on his deathbed. With Will  presumed dead, Kirkhill is now Old Jardine’s heir and Fiona’s guardian. Of course, Old Jardine dies soon after and Kirkhill moves in to take over. Fiona is none too happy about that and complains about it like any teenager would.

So now we have Will still missing, Fiona the presumed murderess, Kirkhill taking over and fighting his attraction to Fiona. There is also some drama with Nan, Kirkhill’s fifteen-year-old sister. Kirkhill’s best friend plans to marry her, which just adds to my feeling of uneasiness. I prefer the heroines in my books to be at least a legal age. Oh, and Fiona has a baby boy. That is pretty much exactly how exciting the story is.

It is almost 200 pages before Fiona and Kirkhill actually kiss. By this point, I was just weirded out by the whole thing. Ignoring the fact that she is only seventeen, Kirkhill treats her like an unruly child, going so far as to attempting to put her over his knee and spank her. I never saw any real relationship between them, they lust after each other and that seems to be enough. Fiona acts like a brat half the time, but everyone shrugs it off as her emotions over giving birth, and Kirkhill acts like an anal father figure throughout the story.

None of the characters were interesting, I honestly couldn’t stand most of them. Tempted by a Warrior felt more like a bad historical  than anything else. I was either bored, grossed out, or struggling to understand even a word of what was being said. The mystery over Will is not something I ever cared about, since mostly everyone hated him anyway. At this point I just don’t care about anything to do with this book anymore, and I couldn’t continue reading it.

If all of Amanda Scott’s stories read like this one, then I don’t plan to continue reading her. I couldn’t finish this one, I am not sure I want to even bother giving another one a chance.

Grade: DNF

Summary:

Lady Fiona, wed in haste, has never known marital peace. When last she’d seen her cruel husband Will, he’d struck her – and she has no memory of what she did next – only that she woke later alone in her bedchamber. Will has gone missing, and Fiona fears that in her rage and terror she might somehow have killed him. When her husband’s cousin Sir Richard comes to search for Will, Fiona is touched by his warm nature. A knight and warrior, Richard is drawn to Fiona’s brave manner, quickly seeing in her an equal measure of inner courage.

Read an excerpt.

Other books in this series:

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

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

So here’s the book.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Grade: DNF

Summary:

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

No excerpt found.

Two Quick Quack DNF Reviews by Liviania

It’s rare that I don’t finish a book.  I try to pick up stuff that I think I’ll like and then I’m generous with giving it time to get good.  Generally, I feel picking a book up is a commitment.  It was in late junior high before I began not-finishing books.  On the other hand, it’s something I feel I need to do more.  There’s too much out there to read to waste time on books I’m not into.  However, the reasons I’m not into something may be wildly disparate. 

Soul Catcher (The Outsider, Book 1) by Leigh Bridger
Paranormal romance released by Bell Bridge Books 20 Oct 09

Soul Catcher has an awesome premise.  Reality is made of multiple dimensions and some beings like to travel among them.  Livia is born again and again to throw out unruly demons who negatively affect Earth.  Born with her are a group of protectors, to insure she can do her job.

How do they do so?  Why, they let her grow up ignorant of what her creepy paintings mean and only give her the truth once she’s brutally raped by her demonic enemy who apparently gets her every life.  I had to throw the book at the wall due to this passage:

“We’re here to help you. . . . If you listen to your soul and see past the surface, the evil souls will never seduce you again.”

I stiffened.  “I wasn’t seduced.  I was raped and nearly beaten to death.”

“Yes, but he lured you.  He charmed you.  And all because you didn’t recognize his evil soul hiding behind his handsome face.”

Yeah Livia.  It was your own damn fault you got raped.  Certainly not mine.  I mean, my purpose in being reborn isn’t to help you.  I haven’t known you for years in which I could’ve given you this info dump.  No, there’s no way my teaching you about your powers earlier could’ve prevented the rape.  Not that even then it would still be his fault, since he’s a rapist, not anyone else’s for failing to defend adequately against rape.  Because, you know, not being able to defend yourself against rape means you wanted to get raped.  It means you deserved it.

Book. Wall.  (Followed soon after by the trash can, is my recommendation.)

Grade: DNF

Summary:

From the gothic eccentricity of Asheville, North Carolina, to the terrifying recesses of the Appalachian wilderness, from modern demonology to ancient Cherokee mythology, Soul Catcher follows the tormented journey of folk artist Livia Belane, who has been stalked through many lives by a sadistic and vengeful demon. Livia and her loved ones, including her frontier-era soulmate and husband, Ian, a Soul Hunter, have never beaten the demon before. Now, in this life, it’s found them again.

Read an excerpt here.

—

Blood Kin (Blood Lines, Book 3) by Maria Lima
Urban fantasy released by Juno/Pocket 27 Oct 09

Blood Kin has an interesting cast.  The heroine is heir to quite a bit of power, but she has no clue about any of it and would rather remain the family outcast.  She’s got a fairy cousin, a gay werewolf brother, and a vampire boyfriend.  It could be ridiculous, but Keira Kelly’s voice is down to earth.  I’m also willing to forgive a lot in a book that praises the Texas landscape this much.

So why am I setting Blood Kin down?  Because I’m on page 140 of the ARC and nothing has happened, that’s why.  Keira’s grandmother called her home to Canada since she’s now the heir.  Keira says her goodbyes and goes to Canada.  Due to weather, Keira and entourage are stuck in the city for a bit until they can go to the homestead.  In the city, they discover that there’s possibly a Sidhe around that possibly killed a random musician.

I’ve been having a rough couple of weeks.  I need something more compelling than “I kind of like the characters.”  I may try Blood Kin again when I’m less busy, but for now it’s putting me to sleep.  It’s a generally accepted rule of plot that something needs to happen before the book is halfway over.

Grade: DNF

Summary:

The perils of power…

Keira Kelly has come into her full powers, and they are frighteningly strong, creating a distance between her and her human friends in her beloved Rio Seco.  It is time to obey her great-great-grandmother Gigi’s orders and rejoin her family in northwest Canada, where Keira can learn to handle her dangerous new skills.

She’ll have friends with her every step of the way — her shapeshifter brother Tucker, his beloved Niko, and, to Keira’s dismay, her cousin on her mother’s side, Daffyd ap Geraint, the Sidhe prince who suddenly appeared in her life and now refuses to leave — but her vampire lover Adam has insisted on staying in Texas.

And while there are certainly perks to being Family, such as a private Learjet for the flight to Canada and a fabulous penthouse condo overlooking Vancouver, there are threats looming that nobody, not even Gigi, anticipated. Keira’s Sidhe inheritance from her mother is far more important than anyone ever realized, and the fate of the Family may depend upon what she does next….

Read an excerpt here.

Liviania‘s Quick Quack Reviews of A Bunch of Category Romances by a Bunch of Authors
Paranormal and contemporary romances released Jun-Jul 2009

That’s right, I’m back in the US and all moved into my apartment.  But . . . I’ve got a lot to catch up on.  So here’s some short reviews of various Harlequins I read on vacation.  That’s the lovely thing about eBooks – you can take them anywhere without affecting the weight of your baggage.  [Gwen ed.: we made her save room in her luggage for booze and chocolate souvenirs for us ducks.] 

The Highwayman (Wicked Games, Book 1) by Michele Hauf
Paranormal romance released by Silhouette Nocturne 1 Jul 09

This is my second exposure to Michele Hauf, the first being a Nocturne Bite.  I enjoyed the short story, but found it a bit thin.  It can be hard to develop two characters in a very limited page count.  Luckily, the hero and heroine of The Highwayman get more development, though part of the hero’s reasoning still remains opaque to me.

Aby is a familiar – in the case, a familiar is someone who brings demons into the world through having sex.  Max has a deprivation demon trapped inside of him, making him unable to sleep, orgasm, or feel full.  This has made him a little testy.  But he’s found a way to escape his fate with Aby’s help – but he still plans to kill her afterwards, even after he gets to know her.  I prefer my heroes to be less intent on spilling the heroine’s blood.  Especially when they’re an otherwise reasonable person and the heroine has given them no reason.

Max’s stubborn homicidal tendencies would annoy me more if the plot didn’t work so well.  It moves right along, building the mythology of familiars, revealing Max’s past, and moving the characters to France for the final showdown.  It’s quick and fun, just like a category should be. I look forward to the second book in the miniseries, Moon Kissed, available September 1.

Grade: B

Summary:
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Max Fitzroy, the legendary Highwayman, had slain scores of demons with a razorlike whip and a burning need for revenge. Now, to rid himself of the demon inside him—who’d cursed him with immortality and stolen all sensual pleasures—Max needed a witch’s familiar, the one creature he’d made a career of killing.
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But the Highwayman wasn’t prepared for the familiar named Aby. The sleek and sexy conduit to the demon world saw past his swirling shadow as easily as he scaled the walls she’d erected to protect herself. Max needed Aby to grant him his freedom, and then he needed to slay her. But how could he destroy the only creature he’d desired in centuries?
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Read an excerpt here.

Wild Wolf (The Pack) by Karen Whiddon
Paranormal romance released by Silhouette Nocturne 1 Jul 09

I haven’t read any of Karen Whiddon’s other Pack books, but she quickly sketches out the important parts of her world and moves onto the relationship and plot. Simon is a member of the Pack, charged with finding feral werewolves and deciding whether they can be rehabilitated or need to be put down. Raven is a feral werewolf, living along after a traumatic experience with a mad scientist.

I can buy that feral werewolves are dangerous. Raven manages to fit into wolf society because she is sane – she just doesn’t want to live among humans because of her past. Since she is reasonable and Simon can see it, things have to go terribly awry in order for the plot to have enough excitement. And go awry they do.

Seeing how corrupt this segment of the Pack has become really makes me wonder how Whiddon set this up in the previous novels. It seems like something that was probably building. I love that Wild Wolf gives a sense of the larger world while standing fine on its own. The leads work well together. Both of them are strong, neither deferring to the other. Raven’s got as much alpha instinct as Simon does. It’s a nice change.

Grade: B+

Summary:
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Turning her back on humans because of her ability to shape-shift into a wolf, young and beautiful Raven doesn’t believe she needs anyone. Until the day a darkly handsome man appears near her remote cave…and she watches him turn into a wolf.
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Simon Caldwell has been sent to assess the threat of a new feral wolf prowling the Rockies. But he’s wholly unprepared for his intense attraction to Raven. His investigation is about to take a deadly turn as he and Raven become the hunted. Now their very survival depends on Simon’s ability to win what this wild wolf holds most dear!
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Read an excerpt here.

Return of the Wolf by Karen Whiddon
Paranormal romance novella released by Silhouette Nocturne Bites 1 Jun 09

After finishing White Wolf, I headed happily into this Bite by the same author. Three tries later and I still haven’t finished the sixty or so pages of this story, so I’m giving up. It begins slow, with the hero and heroine fishing together. They’re instantly attracted – Gideon knows she’s his wolf’s mate, and Memphis believes their reincarnated lovers.

I couldn’t sympathize with either of the characters. Memphis especially seems rather dippy. It takes quite a bit to make the destined lovers work, and I wasn’t buying. It didn’t help that I found the beginning boring. Fishing just doesn’t appeal to me.

This may work for others, but for me it’s a pass.

Grade: DNF

Summary:
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When Gideon Aronditis meets his new client Memphis Ayers for a fishing expedition, they both feel an instant attraction–and sense that they’ve met before. For shape-shifter Gideon, the explanation is clear: Memphis is his true mate and destined to be with him. Yet Gideon refuses to accept Memphis’s belief that knew each other in a past life, even though she has seen Gideon in her dreams for years. Can Memphis convince Gideon of the truth, or are they doomed to lose each other once again?
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No excerpt found.

The Illegitimate King (The Castaldini Crown, Book 3) by Olivia Gates
Contemporary romance released by Silhouette Desire 14 Jul 09

I liked the summary of this one, even though I’m not that familiar with the line. Clarissa and Ferruccio would have had love at first sight, if they hadn’t managed to deeply insult each other at first conversation. Ferruccio pursued Clarissa for years, and now has the leverage to make her romance him since she’s trying to convince him to accept the position of king of Castaldini. (Yes, the country name is ridiculous.)

This one had a few problems. Ferruccio could be kind of sleazy and their inability to communicate doesn’t bode well for a future relationship. (That doesn’t prevent a baby-filled epilogue since this is the end of a miniseries. If I were one of the wives, I’d insist on condoms. That many pregnancies takes a toll on the body.) Still, it was a perfect vacation book. It kept me interested and there was definitely sexual tension.

I might skip the first sex scene. It includes such awful descriptions as Ferruccio “feeling like a sword just out of the fire” to Clarissa. Not all of it is that painful, but none of it is sexy. It does get better, but that one scene is truly awful.

If you like family secrets or the other novels in this miniseries, you’ll probably like this one. The Illegitimate King made me want to try to the previous two novels, even with all of it’s problems.

Grade: C+

Summary:
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Once, she’d scorned him. And illegitimate secret prince Ferruccio Selvaggio had sworn he would make her pay. Now, Princess Clarissa D’Agostino was in his power. It was time to teach her a lesson…. The future of the kingdom rested on her. Clarissa knew she had to do whatever it took to convince Ferruccio to accept the crown and save them all. Even if it meant marrying a man who believed the worst of her. Even if it meant giving him her heart.
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Read an excerpt here (click “Read the prologue”).

Endless Summer by Julie Kenner, Karen Anders, and Jill Monroe
Contemporary romance anthology released by Harlequin Blaze 1 Jul 09

Normally I would separate all the novellas, but these are intertwined so I’ll do them as one. I picked up this anthology since I enjoy Julie Kenner’s paranormal books and wanted to try one of her contemporary offerings. It helped that Endless Summer, as the name implies, was a surfing collection. I enjoy surfing stories even though I’ve only been to a beach where you actually could surf once.

I’m not which of the stories was my favorite. I liked Drea, from Jill Monroe’s story, the best of the heroines because of her strong personality. I liked Zach, from Karen Anders’ story, the best of the heroes. Due to an injury, he became overly cautious. It’s a change from the take-charge hero. He’s also not afraid to design clothing. Now that’s a man. Kenner’s Laci and Taylor were a bit more bland. And Laci makes the classic mistake of not explaining why she’s angry. For some reason I want my romantic leads to communicate well even though I know miscommunication is a standard part of life.

But while each story had elements I liked, part of the reason I can’t pick a favorite is that nothing really stood out. While perfectly readable, each story was by-the-numbers – not what the risk-taking heroines deserve. I read these stories just yesterday and they’re already fading from my mind.

Grade: C+

Summary:
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Summer has never been sexier!
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Making Waves by Julie Kenner, Laci Montgomery is determined to be pro surfing’s Golden Girl. Does she need help from her ex—hottie sports promoter Taylor Dutton? No way! Well, not unless she’s on top…
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Surf’s Up by Karen Anders, After a crash meeting in the waves, surfer J. C. Wilcox and entrepreneur Zack Fanning practice daring moves that would make fish blush. But is it just sexy fun in the sun—or are they ready to risk their hearts?
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Read an excerpt here.
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Wet and Wild by Jill Monroe, Daredevil Rookie of the Year Andrea “Drea” Powell needs a sponsor. Superstar pro Kirk Murray needs a flashy new surfer to back. The explosive results heat up the competition…and the bedroom!

Sandy M’s review of Prey by Melina Morel
Contemporary Paranormal Romance released by Signet 2 Sep 08

Well, this doesn’t happen to me very often.  A book that starts out fine, sounds and feels like it’s going to be good.  A book that starts to fall apart in Chapter 2.  A book that I just can’t pick up again to finish it. That’s happened to me maybe three or four times in the thirty-five or so years I’ve been reading. That’s how much I like books.  And how much I didn’t like this one.

I actually told a friend that I had started this book and I was liking it so far. That was the first chapter.  After that I’m not sure what happened in what order for me, but suddenly I just didn’t like the story anymore. I think it was the dialogue. It became stiff and almost childlike. I got no emotion from it at all.

There’s a scene where the heroine, Vivian, is kidnapped.  Though she’s a shifter and can more than likely take care of herself, there’s still that window of time where she should be frightened, and though the words in the book tried to tell me that, I never felt it.  Even when the characters talk to one another, they’re rigid and unemotional.  They read like one-dimensional people on paper, which is exactly what they are.  The blind date between Hank and Viv, as well as their conversation, was so…high school.  Just didn’t work.

All of that then led me to not caring about and not liking the characters all that much. In the first chapter I really liked Pavel and Ivan. They shift into their cat forms to save a little girl from her kidnapper.  The action is good, the emotion is there. When that’s over, however, for the next twenty-three chapters, which is where I stopped, nothing happens. Nothing worth mentioning anyway.  Certainly no action.  No emotion.  Not even any sex.  I would have been happy with lukewarm sex.  Nope. Even when Pavel thinks about, admires Vivian, big whoop the way it’s described. Same thing when she thinks about him.

All I got, and this was the best part in twenty-three chapters, was when Pavel and Viv decided to be honest with one another and shifted to show the other their cat. Lots of looking during that scene. Some love-bites or licks would have been nice, but nothing.  Not even any sniffing. I did, though, learn the difference between Maine Coon Cats, Siberian something or others, and Russian Blues. That was said I don’t know how many times.  I just didn’t care by this time.

Why we went from a good opening chapter of shifting cats hunting the bad guys to those same cats in search of a Russian icon in their human forms is beyond me, because it got so very boring. The author didn’t make me care about a thing in this book.  And, believe me, when that happens when I’m reading, that’s bad.

Grade: DNF

Summary:

Vivian Roussel prefers to keep a low profile—she is, after all, a werecat, descendant of an ancient demigoddess, and highly regarded in Manhattan’s nightworld. But when she’s robbed of a priceless icon, she has only one recourse for protection.

Surveillance expert and werecat Pavel Federov never gets personal with his clients.But he’s drawn to Vivian. Pavel soon discovers that the thief has something far more dangerous in mind—for he’s marked Vivian as his next target.

When Vivian Roussel’s business suffers a mysterious break-in, she turns to security expert Pavel Federov for help and finds herself in the midst of international intrigue. Rogue werecats have stolen one of Russia’s most treasured icons, and Viv can’t understand what they want with her. Closer to home, trouble in her own werecat clan poses problems for her and Pavel, but their growing attraction makes them willing to turn things upside down and write new rules for interclan romance if they must. Love won’t be denied. But it might be killed if their enemies have their way.

No excerpt available.

Liviania’s review of Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer
Young Adult paranormal fiction released by Little, Brown Young Readers 2 Aug 08

I come from the generation that made Stephenie Meyer famous. I first read Twilight four years ago, when it was still an ARC. I was the second person who read it – a friend passed it on to me because she enjoyed it and knew I liked vampires. I enjoyed it and passed it on to another vampire fiction lovin’ friend. Now I wish I’d stolen it from the school because I’m sure the Twilight ARCs are collector’s items. It’s hard for me to think of this series as a cultural phenomenon. For me it’s still that book I read in the car one rainy afternoon. I will admit, I even skipped Eclipse because New Moon was kind of lame. (Jacob’s a werewolf?! You mean, I wasn’t supposed to figure that out in the last book?) Still, it’s hard for me to discuss Breaking Dawn because it is a huge deal to many of my friends. 

I started to speak with my ex-roommate about her reactions before Philosophy class started and random girls joined the conversation. This is an honors-only class. We secretly enjoy reading Plato because he’s . . . Plato. We openly enjoy reading Stephenie Meyer. While reading the novel, I discussed my reactions to the series with my current roommate. When I stopped reading, I discussed my reasons with a neighbor who stopped reading the novel even earlier than I did. It’s no Harry Potter, but the Twilight series is very much a cultural touchstone to me.

Now, back when I first read Twilight I knew it was a silly, pure entertainment value sort of read. Since then I’ve corrupted the experience by reading a number of essays that dissect the characters and their relationships. I realize that Edward is a bit sociopathic and his relationship with Bella reads as one that will grow to be abusive. When I read this paragraph in the first chapter, I got creeped out:

Very, very convenient—too convenient—that my truck would wheeze its last wheeze just weeks after Edward and I had agreed to our lopsided compromise, one detail of which was that he be allowed to replace my truck when it passed on. Edward swore it was only to be expected; my truck had lived a long, full life and then expired of natural causes. According to him. And, of course, I had no way to verify his story or to try to raise my truck from the dead on my own. My favorite mechanic—

On its own it’s fairly innocent. No one wants someone they love driving an old deathtrap. But Bella’s dissatisfaction with her new car and lack of choice of the model bother me as an indication of their relationship as a whole. Just because Edward gets to replace her truck doesn’t mean that Bella shouldn’t be part of the decision process. It is her truck.

Despite real world social observations marring my experience, I could almost take it. Then I reached the (SPOILER AHEAD) pregnancy scene and nearly lost my lunch. I actually found the story amusing in a train wreck sort of sense. But I’ll give you a brief sample of where I lost it, about halfway through:

Another shattering crack inside her body, the loudest yet, so loud that we both froze in shock waiting for her answering shriek. Nothing. Her legs, which had been curled up in agony, now went limp, sprawling out in an unnatural way.
“Her spine,” he choked in horror.

DOES NOT WANT. Also, SPOILER DONE. I’ll keep Twilight. Despite everything, I kind of like it. However, the sequels can be skipped, especially this one. I don’t mind giving it a chance so that I can talk knowledgeably about certain plot points with my friends, but cleolinda’s summaries are a great way to get the highlights with more humor and better writing.

Grade: DNF

Summary:
When you loved the one who was killing you, it left you no options. How could you run, how could you fight, when doing so would hurt that beloved one? If your life was all you had to give, how could you not give it? If it was someone you truly loved?

To be irrevocably in love with a vampire is both fantasy and nightmare woven into a dangerously heightened reality for Bella Swan. Pulled in one direction by her intense passion for Edward Cullen, and in another by her profound connection to werewolf Jacob Black, a tumultuous year of temptation, loss, and strife have led her to the ultimate turning point. Her imminent choice to either join the dark but seductive world of immortals or to pursue a fully human life has become the thread from which the fates of two tribes hangs.

Now that Bella has made her decision, a startling chain of unprecedented events is about to unfold with potentially devastating, and unfathomable, consequences. Just when the frayed strands of Bella’s life-first discovered in Twilight, then scattered and torn in New Moon and Eclipse-seem ready to heal and knit together, could they be destroyed… forever?

The astonishing, breathlessly anticipated conclusion to the Twilight Saga, Breaking Dawn illuminates the secrets and mysteries of this spellbinding romantic epic that has entranced millions.
Read an excerpt here.

Shannon C.’s review of In the Arms of the Wind by Charlotte Boyett-Compo
Romantic suspense eBook released by Ellora’s Cave 6 Jun 08

I tried, I really did, to get through this book. Charlotte Boyett-Compo seems to be one of those authors I really ought to like, but this one not only made no sense, it featured a character I profoundly disliked. It doesn’t help that Sybil warned me I would hate this book. I obviously should have listened to her. 

Firstly, the premise. When I requested this book for review, I thought that the premise of a man sworn to kill the woman he’s attracted to would be compelling. And maybe it could be. But I don’t think it’s the kind of story I’m ever likely to read again. Our “hero” Danny is a police officer who has strong family ties to a criminal element. He claims that all he’s wanted to do is be a cop, but he can’t get out of the family, and for me, that doesn’t speak of angst so much as it does a man who ultimately lacks much of a spine.

And his idea of courting the heroine? Letting her know that he’s abused his privileges as a cop by looking up background information on her, which he reveals to her. The heroine, predictably, thinks this is sweet and it cements her lurve. Me, I find my skin crawling and I want to reach into the book and get a restraining order.

The heroine, Kaycee, is your typical romance heroine, by which I mean she is a svelte twenty-something whose mental age is somewhere around 62. She’s fairly unremarkable, although she does try to be smart by installing the best security system she can afford. But that’s still not enough, because she is, after all, dating Danny. As for the two of them together… I guess what they have is chemistry. There seems to be a paranormal connection between the two of them that came out of left field, but when I read the first sex scene, all I could do was laugh helplessly.

I got about a third of the way through the book, and couldn’t finish. I could ignore a lot of things, but the creepiness of the hero makes this one too disturbing for me to even finish.

Grade: DNF

Summary:

Kaycee Connor was in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong man. Listening to her date being assassinated as she hid in his safe room, she would never forget the chilling words that had come from the killer’s lips.

Assigned to investigate the brutal crime, Police Detective Daniel Gallagher took one look at Kaycee and lost his heart. Trembling, terrified, her eyes filled with hurt, she made Danny feel things he had thought died long ago. Wanting to protect her, to keep her out of harm’s way, he’ll do whatever it takes to shield her from danger even if it means going up against a powerful crime family.

Hot passion brews like a hurricane along the Georgia coast as Danny and Kaycee weather the storm of desire flooding through their bodies. While the flashing lightning, lashing winds and driving rain whip their yearning to fever pitch, a treacherous enemy lies in wait to blow the lovers apart.

Reader Advisory: Story includes a non-consensual male/male scene. However, while the scene is non-detailed, the post-emotional aspects are shared with the reader.

Read an excerpt.

Gwen’s review of Acheron (Dark-Hunters, Book 12) by Sherrilyn Kenyon
Paranormal Romance released by St. Martin’s Press 5 Aug 08

Kenyon wrote this book in two parts, so I’ll review it in two parts.  Part I is the story of Acheron’s early life. (“Acheron” is properly pronounced “Ack-uh-RAHN” and we learn he’s westernized to “ASH-uh-rahn” or “Ash”.)  Part II is the story of his modern life and his love story.  I couldn’t review it in any other way than two parts.   I tried, and just couldn’t.  When you read the review, you’ll see why. 

Part I, Acheron’s Early Life [my name, not the author's]

Part I is the (long) tale of Ash’s birth and the first roughly 2,200 years of his life.  The focus is on his human days, before he’s re-born into his godhead. It centers around his step-sister’s journal for large portions – giving an interesting first person accounting of his most vulnerable moments.  Much of it is told in third person after his sister is sent to Apollo’s temple.

We learn more about his mother, his history, his family.  We learn just how badly Artemis treated him and why (that woman needs some serious counseling).  And we learned how totally screwed over he was and how little anyone cared about it – including his real mother despite all her protestations of love.

However, as interesting as all this was, I have to admit, I didn’t read all of Part I.  I skimmed and skipped sections.  It was really dull to me.  Perhaps I need to be more of a fangrrl to have slogged all the way thru it, but I just couldn’t.  After roughly 200 pages of reading what was roughly the same event, for what felt like the thirtieth time, I just skimmed and thumbed until I saw more dialog.  Then I skimmed and skipped until it looked like something might be happening.  Therefore, I can’t say I read all of Part I – perhaps I will by the time I stop thumbing thru it, but I can’t say I slogged all the way thru it and it was a slog for me.

That’s why my grade of Part I is…

Grade: DNF

Part II, Acheron Present Day

This part of the book is set in modern day and is the typical Dark-Hunter novel we all know and love.  Well, know at least.  This part of the tome would be the typical mass market paperback length, about 300 pages.

It’s no secret by now that Ash’s heroine is a character mentioned in the first Dream-Hunter novel – Megeara’s (“Geary’s”) cousin, Soteria (“Tory”).   Ash and Tory meet when Ash, in a very uncharacteristic move and to cover up the existence of Atlantis and what happened to him there, submarines Tory’s archeological peer findings presentation. Tory immediately decides she hates him.  Of course, the love story begins.

Tory isn’t what I expected for Ash.  Not at first, at least.  In many ways she grows into the part by the end of the book.  I enjoyed their love story and their HEA. I thought the chemistry between them was believable and sweet.  Hey – we also learn why he’s always carrying around that backpack and actually are told what’s in it.

I liked the secondary characters, even if I felt a bit of the Feehan’s Dark Celebration thing going on in part of it.  You know what I mean: trooping out all the old characters like a family reunion to no very good purpose, making a “kids perform in front of the relatives” kind of thing. It seemed a bit overkill there once or twice, given that Ash didn’t really need the help and how the bloody hell did all those guys manage to get in one place at the same time anyway.  Seemed a bit much to believe and felt a little disingenuous.

The last issue I want to bring up is what Kenyon seems to be doing to her heroes.  I think she’s trying to make them more “vulnerable” and less “alpha”.  In doing so, however, I feel that perhaps she’s taking them down the “woe is me” path too much.  I mention this in my reviews of a couple of her last few books.  Her heroes all are more than damaged – they’re damaged and wallowing in it.  I don’t like men (or women) who wallow.  Life sucks some most of the time – just pull up your big girl/boy panties and get on with it.  Now, mind you, going thru decades of torment might skew your view of the world for a few years, but 11,000 fucking years?  C’mon!  There’s a difference between caution and cynicism, over holding onto a grudge and self-pity. Learn it.  Live it.  I just thought Acheron would be tougher emotionally than he turned out to be.

The upshot is the second half of the (enormous) book called Acheron isn’t bad.  It’s not great – it’s a kind of middlin’ sort of Dark-Hunter book and was a little disappointing.  I expected a lot more.  Not sure what.  Just.  More.

Grade: C+

Summary:

The most anticipated story in the blockbuster Dark-Hunter series. The never-before-revealed story of the Dark-Hunter leader, Acheron. He was made human in order to escape death, but in death he was reborn a god. . .

Eleven thousand years ago a god was born. Cursed into the body of a human, Acheron spent a lifetime of shame. However, his human death unleashed an unspeakable horror that almost destroyed the earth. Then, brought back against his will, Acheron became the sole defender of mankind.

Only it was never that simple. For centuries, he has fought for our survival and hidden a past he’ll do anything to keep concealed. Until a lone woman who refuses to be intimidated by him threatens his very existence.

Now his survival, and ours, hinges on hers and old enemies reawaken and unite to kill them both.

War has never been more deadly… or more fun.

Read an excerpt here.

Gwen’s reviews of three completely different books by Eloisa James, Noelle Mack, and Kresley Cole
Historical Romance, Contemporary Erotica, and Contemporary Paranormal Romance

I read books all the time, squeezing a couple of pages in every chance I get – eating lunch, in line at the bank, while I’m on hold – but I don’t always review every book. Below you’ll find three books that I read but, for whatever reason, I didn’t want to do a full-blown review. So read on for three short reviews of three completely different books:

~ Desperate Duchesses by Eloisa James
~ Nights In Black Leather by Noelle Mack
~ Dark Desires After Dusk by Kresley Cole

Desperate Duchesses (Desperate Duchesses, Book 1) by Eloisa James (very nifty author site)
Historical romance released by Avon 29 May 07

I read this because Lime’s recent review of the third book in this series, Duchess by Night, made it sound so intriguing. And I liked this book. It took me a few chapters to get into it – I wasn’t sure who the hero or heroine were at first. Reading the first half of Desperate Duchesses is a bit like watching one of Robert Altman’s large ensemble cast movies – lots of intertwining story lines, all supporting some secrets, some heartache, some light romance, and myriad different details. By the time you get to the second half, it’s apparent who is pursuing whom, but you aren’t dumped into the relationship at the beginning, and that is actually kind of refreshing.

I enjoyed this book as a departure from the average historical. I really liked the dialog in it – intelligent and quick. I sort of liked the hero and heroine, but liked the ensemble cast more. Recommended for fans of non-traditional historical romances.

Grade: B

Summary:

A marquess’s sheltered only daughter, Lady Roberta St. Giles falls in love with a man she glimpses across a crowded ballroom: a duke, a chess player of consummate skill, a notorious rake who shows no interest in marriage — until he lays eyes on Roberta.

Yet the Earl of Gryffyn knows too well that the price required to gain a coronet is often too high. Damon Reeve, the earl, is determined to protect the exquisite Roberta from chasing after the wrong destiny.

Can Damon entice her into a high-stakes game of his own, even if his heart is likely to be lost in the venture?.

Read an excerpt and an even longer excerpt.

Nights In Black Leather by Noelle Mack (no author site found)
Contemporary erotic romance released by Aphrodisia 1 Jun 08

I had a really time with this book. I kept reading, but just didn’t like or believe in its premise. I skipped around it looking for something compelling to draw me into the romance, or even just the sex, and never did find it. I really didn’t like the hero – he was not appealing to me.

Grade: DNF

Summary:

She Said “Yes.”

London is a playground for international financier Adam Bowlin-it’s where he earned his fortune and his take-charge reputation. The man is big, bold, and wickedly handsome, and women can’t get enough of what he has to give. Adam is a master of pleasure, dominant by nature, with sexual skills beyond compare. And when Lara Stone, the firm’s beautiful and brilliant new associate, walks into his office, he sees a look in her not-so-innocent eyes that he understands completely. Behind closed doors, Adam and Lara come together to explore her darkest and most secret fantasies… one by one. Giving her what she longs for-what she needs-becomes his only desire. For the first time in his life, Adam is madly, truly, deeply in love…

Read an excerpt.

Dark Desires After Dusk (Immortals After Dark, Book 5) by Kresley Cole
Contemporary paranormal romance released by Pocket 20 May 08

What can I say that hasn’t already been said? This was an excellent book. I loved the hero, loved the heroine. Loved the very interesting elements of the heroine’s OCD and the hero’s complete acceptance of them. Just a terrific book. Read it.

(Is it bad that I keep typing this as “Dark Desires After Duck”?)

Grade: A

Summary:

A seductive beauty he can never have, yet can’t resist… Cadeon Woede will stop at nothing to atone for the one wrong that will haunt him forever. But once he secures the key to his redemption, the halfling Holly Ashwin, Cade finds that the woman he thought he could use for his own ends and then forget haunts him as much as his past.

A tormented warrior she should fear, but can’t deny… Raised as a human, Holly never knew that some frightening legends are real until she encounters a brutal demon who inexplicably guards her like a treasure. Thrust into a sensual new world of myth and power, with him as her protector, she begins to crave the demon’s wicked touch.

Surrender to dark desires… Yet just when he earns Holly’s trust, will Cade be forced to betray the only woman who can sate his wildest needs — and claim his heart?

Read an excerpt.

Sandy M’s review of Wanderlust by Shelley Munro
Romantic Suspense eBook released by Cerridwen Press 17 Apr 08

I love a lengthy read as much as the next person. But this book went on and on and on and…way too long. I ended up being bored more than I was excited, mystified, turned on, or any other emotion you’d care to work in there. I got through eighteen chapters and just had to call it quits.

Anna is a tour guide for Wanderlust Adventures and her current assignment is in India, ushering passengers around the country in a huge truck named Alice. She has an interesting array of folks traveling with her, but interesting turns to whiny and menacing in short order. The only person worth anything in her tour group and in the book is Sebastian, Anna’s casual lover she meets up with a few times a year for some great sex. He unexpectedly shows up to wander around with her, something she resents initially. She wants him when she wants him and not as part of her work, which she takes very seriously and wants any personal complications left behind. Too bad she didn’t tell her parents that when they decided to send her sister Elizabeth along on the Indian tour.

Gradually strange things begin to happen to the group, including murder. One by one the passengers begin to fall and it takes forever between each event. We get more whining from the female passengers, especially Elizabeth, who we find out doesn’t get along with Anna and never really has. Anna lets her go her own way, she’s an adult, she can live with whatever consequences.

She also finally gives in to Sebastian’s seduction and finally I perked up, although now I forget what chapter that was and how long it took to get there. But Anna goes right back to being Anna, pushing him away while he helps her at every turn, tries to protect her from a stalker and murderer, and has the sexiest grin around. She’s a little too independent if she’s going to keep Sebastian on the back burner for three-quarters of the book.

We also get a glimpse every so often from the culprit’s point of view, which, sorry to say, is just as boring as all the other in-between stuff from Anna’s point of view. It’s like there’s just too many little details that takes us away from the main point too many times. I gave the book one last chance up to the point Sebastian and Anna make love in the shower, which was the second best scene, right after the first time they make love, because she still hadn’t changed enough to keep me interested to get to the end.

Pull out all those unnecessary details, put in a lot more of Sebastian, plus Sebastian pulling out all the stops at seduction and you’d have a much better book. Well, IMHO anyway.

Grade: DNF

Summary:

Not many people live their dream, but I’ve been incredibly lucky. I’m Anna Tietjens, and I work as a tour leader for Wanderlust Adventures.

My current tour is through incredible India. It should be a breeze, except my younger sister is joining in New Delhi. Things are not exactly civil between us — a childhood full of upheaval didn’t help — and our parents have insisted she travel with me or not at all. I see fun times ahead. Now my boyfriend has turned up without warning. Don’t get me wrong. I really like Sebastian Brady. The sex is good, spectacular even, but meeting a few times a year is enough. I mean, I’m not looking for love or happy ever after.

But worst of all is the bad luck I’ve been having recently. One of my passengers died in Syria, and now it looks like my co-driver might have to leave the tour. Despite the exotic location, it’s not exactly smooth sailing, and I’m starting to think someone is out to halt the tour…

Read an excerpt here.

Shannon C.’s review of Gatekeeper by Debra Glass
Paranormal romance eBook published by Ellora’s Cave 8 Apr 08

I try, I really do, to finish every book I start, especially if I requested it for review. But I got about a third of the way through Gatekeeper and simply couldn’t.

The problem with this book is that there’s an author’s note at the beginning that tells us that our hero, Thomas Benton Smith, a ghost of a Confederate soldier from the American Civil War, was a real person that Ms Glass regularly chats with because she’s a medium. She further dedicates this book to him. The result of this was that I felt slightly uncomfortable. I don’t want to ascribe motives to the author that weren’t there, but all this coupled with the fact that Benton is the hero of the book just gave me a someone-is-creepily-obsessed vibe.

The plot centers around Jillian Drew, who has been denying that she’s a psychic for years. Her sister is abducted by some very bad people, and with the help of a ghost, the aforementioned Thomas Benton Smith, Jillian has to rescue her sister. I got the impression (about the time that I gave up and started skimming) that the problems between Jill, Amy, and the bad men that are out for both of them were far from over. Oh and, of course, Jill meets Benton, is wildly attracted to him, and they have hot monkey sex.

The characters here got on my nerves. Jill is shrill and weepy. She is either about to be terrified, recovering from sheer terror, or simply TSTL. Benton is an asshole of the sort that I thought were pretty much out of style in romances these days. I wanted to knock their heads together.

Maybe this book got better as it went along. I have absolutely no idea. I didn’t connect with any of the characters enough to feel their terror when the evil bad things went after them, and I truly do not care how the question of how a ghost can reside happily ever after with a mortal woman is ever resolved.

I did like the setting–present-day Nashville. I got the impression it’s probably someplace the author is familliar with, and one of my favorite human beings on teh Internets is also a Nashville writer, but I’m afraid the setting and the Civil War history just didn’t make up for the sheer drek that was the rest of the book.

Maybe other people will have better luck with this than I did, but life is too short to waste on something this horrendous.

Grade: DNF

Summary:

Evil shadow ghosts known as soul collectors haunted her childhood nightmares, so Nashville PD criminal profiler Jillian Drew did everything possible to turn her back on her psychic abilities. But now her eccentric sister has been abducted and nothing in her criminology background has prepared Jillian for that tragedy — or for Benton Smith, the powerful and devastatingly attractive ghost of a Civil War officer and the only witness to Amy’s abduction.

Fearful of the brazen specter, Jillian nevertheless needs him. Benton is her Gatekeeper, a spirit sworn to protect her from the soul collectors, who attack each time she unleashes her long-dormant psychic senses in an attempt to find her sister.

Yet she must somehow keep the devilishly seductive spirit at arm’s length, for Benton’s soul is at stake — and succumbing to his desires could have dangerous consequences for them both.

You can read an excerpt here.