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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Grade: D

Summary:

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

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

Read an excerpt.

Other books in this series:

Dinca’s Review of A Father’s Quest (Sentinal Pass, Book 9) by Debra Salonen
Contemporary Romance published by Harlequin SuperRomance 3 May 11

This is a totally different story than any I have read. Debra Salonen does a fantastic job of keeping me guessing. It doesn’t end anywhere near the way I thought it would, and it’s a very interesting read.

Jonas Galloway is serving in Afghanistan when his ex-wife disappeared with his seven year old daughter. On returning home he uses his insurance investigator experience and resourses to locate them. Discovering they have joined a religious cult, Jonas realizes he needs some divine help or at least some psychic power. He heads to the only person he is sure can help him.

Remy Bouchard is desperately trying to live down the weirdo syndrome that has followed her from childhood when she psychic-ly located a boy in a well. She does not feel she has any psychic powers regardless of what her mother had said. When her forbidden high school sweetheart shows up on her door step needing her help, she is torn by her need to help him and to move on with her life. Just being with Jonas is more than enough to tear her apart.

Remy agrees to help Jonas only if they will go take a DNA test, because they were led to believe they’re half siblings in their senior year.  Their feelings for each other are still strong and they desperately fight them along the way while trying to retrieve Jonas’ daughter.

This is the latest saga in The Spotlight on Sentinel Pass. Although the setting is in Louisiana, they do wind up back there at the engagement party of Remy’s twin sister. If you have read any of the series you will know the characters attending the party. The story starts with Remy’s sister leaving with her fiancé’ for Sentinel Pass.

I have to give Debra Salonen an A+ for the guess factor. I have been waiting a long time for writers to get on board with the science of DNA. This is the first romance novel I have discovered with it being an integral part of the story line. I do wish there had been more to it, but it still gets an A for content.

I would reach for another Debra Salonen read anytime. Other books in this series are listed below. I did review two other very enjoyable books in the series,  Until He Met Rachel (see my review here) and A Good Provider (see my review here).

Grade:A+

Summary: Jonas Galloway wouldn’t show up on Remy Bouchard’s doorstep without an excellent reason. Not after a secret destroyed what was so good between them. In this case, though, locating his daughter trumps unfinished business. He hopes he can persuade Remy to see it the same way.

Working with his high school sweetheart makes Jonas want to pick up where they left off. Especially because Remy is more tempting than ever. But he is a father and his little girl has to be his priority. Then an exposed lie hands him and Remy a possible future. And he can’t leave Louisiana without finding out if second chances are all they’re cracked up to be….

Read an excerpt.

Other books in this series:

Wendy the Super Librarian‘s review of In His Good Hands (Summerside Stories, Book 2) by Joan Kilby
Contemporary Romance published by Harlequin SuperRomance 01 Feb 11

I’m a sucker for reunion stories.  I’m also a sucker for a heroine who isn’t a svelte size 2.  The problem is that both of these tropes are a very tricky tightrope for an author to walk.  Potential minefields abound.  Ultimately it’s the minefields holding me back from enthusiastically enjoying Joan Kilby’s latest, the second book in her Summerside Stories series.  Because while the story told is interesting, and the author’s writing certainly kept me engaged, I just couldn’t fully buy in to the romance.

Renita Thatcher is the pleasingly plump loans officer at the local bank in small town Summerside.  Her latest potential client?  None other than Brett O’Connor – former Australian football star, winner of the prestigious Brownlow Medal, soon-to-be-ex-husband of a bleached, plucked, and augmented trophy wife, single father to a nearly teen daughter – oh, and the guy who broke Renita’s heart back in high school.  Brett wants to buy a local run-down gym, refurbish it, yada yada yada.  Renita agrees to push through a bank loan….the problem being not for the full amount he’s asking for.  It’s just not a good risk for the bank.

Brett is determined to make something of the gym.  His assets are currently unavailable because his soon-to-be ex is tying things up in court, so he needs a bank loan.  Sure, Renita approves enough funds to buy the business and slap a fresh coat of paint on the walls – but what about replacing the old, broken-down equipment?  He wonders if this has something to do with him saying no when she asked him to the high school dance?  Oh well, maybe the way to butter her up is to offer her a gym membership, and use her diabetic father who recently had a health scare as the bait?  Daddy and daughter can get in shape together!

Here’s the problem with this story: I thought this relationship was doomed from the on-set.  First, Brett doesn’t have all his ducks in a row before he walks into the bank to ask for a business loan.  Why?  Well, because he knows he’s meeting Renita and he figures that they used to be pals and he’ll pour on the charm, and her brain will start dripping out of her ears.  Then when she only approves a partial loan, he insults her by suggesting it’s because of something that happened back in high school.  Thirteen frickin’ years ago!

For Renita’s part, I was pretty confident that wasn’t why she turns down his full loan application, but then later on in the story she starts musing that wouldn’t it be great if she gets in shape, gets hot, and turns Brett down flat when he inevitably gets interested in New Sexy Renita.  So revenge is definitely on her mind, and it’s just sort of icky. Look, I know body issues haunt women, sometimes for their entire lives.  I get that.  But dang, high school was thirteen frickin’ years ago!  Time to pull up your big girl panties, get over it, or get your ass to the nearest therapist!

Inevitably Renita starts getting in shape, and Brett asks her out.  This whole thing comes off as…not romantic to me.  Realistic?  OK, yeah.  I’m sure Renita did start looking more attractive as the various jiggly bits started firming up, but hey, admittedly the fantasy tends to be more appealing when the hero is at least a wee bit interested before Cinderella gets made over by the fairy godmother.  Just sayin’.

At the end of the day, Brett’s lack of patience, his unwillingness to listen to reason, and the fact that the #1 reason most couples fight, and split up, is money left a bit of a sour taste in my mouth.  When it comes to finance, I find Renita quite competent and realistic, while Brett comes off as a spoiled jock strap who wants what he wants when he wants it.  I mean, that doesn’t exactly instill a lot of hope for wedded bliss now, does it?  Visions of Renita clipping coupons and asking her parents for a loan to buy groceries while Brett runs off to buy a boat or new car or a big house they can’t afford dance in my head.  Sigh.

Which makes it sound like this book is a worse slog than my own recently adopted fitness routine.  It’s not!  By the end of the book I thought Brett had caught just enough of a clue to not hopelessly doom everything, and Renita seems to have caught a few clues of her own.  And hey, Kilby can write.  One chapter read quickly turned to two and so on.  So while not a resounding success?  I didn’t dig out that dusty bottle of whiskey sitting in my kitchen pantry either.

Grade: C-

Summary:

Renita Thatcher never imagined she’d see Brett O’Connor in town again—let alone in her office. Over the years, Renita has only caught glimpses of her old crush in the tabloids as Brett jet-set his way to football superstardom…. Oh, who’s she trying to kid? She’d followed his career religiously. And his marriage to the gorgeous, high-profile trophy wife. Ex-wife.

Now Renita, the only loans officer in Summerside Bay, has something Brett wants. Just like in high school, she’s in a position of power over him, but this time, she doesn’t want to mess it up. Her next move is critical. Does she want revenge or does she want to surrender herself to a guy who looks even better than her best fantasy?

Read an excerpt.

Other books in this series:

Dinca’s review of A Lot Like Christmas by Dawn Atkins
Contemporary Romance published by Harlequin SuperRomance 9 Nov 10

Well, this is a first for me. I have never read a romance novel that took place in a shopping mall. Dawn Atkins gets an A+ for location. The characters’ names are a little confusing at first, Starr, Stark, and then the Starlight Desert Mall. It would have been easier if the hero’s mother had been someone other than Starr McCann.

Ms. Atkins has created a steadfast, lovable heroine in Sylvie Stark. Her interactions with the shop owners, I felt, are her greatest strength.  After being let down by her boss, passed over for a promotion, and having to work for her former crush, she manages to stay loyal to her new boss, the Starlight Desert Mall tenants and the McCann Development  Company.

I did not feel the McCann men were strong hero types in the beginning, but they came through in the end.  Chase McCann has been through a lot and doubts his judgment, so I will give him a little slack. He is determined to do the right thing by his investors.  When he realizes Sylvie has her hopes set on the general manager job for the mall, he tries to hand over as much of the reins as possible, given the position he’s in.

The interactions between Sylvie and Chase are interesting, especially the campout at the mall and exploring around the place like children.  I felt it’s a good move on Sylvie’s part generating the good memories Chase might have about the mall.

The vandals are also an interesting part of the story. The fact that they are not consistent in their threats had me fingering a lot of different possibilities, including Chase’s brother, since he’s so insistent on selling the mall. I’m surprised at actually who the villain turns out to be.

So take a break from your Christmas wrapping and go to the mall…the story mall that is… Starlight Desert Mall and enjoy your time there. It’s “A Lot Like Christmas” and Dawn Atkins nail it with this delightful read.

Grade:  A

Summary:

A lump of coal landed in Sylvie Stark’s stocking. Bad enough she’s been passed over for promotion, now she learns her new boss is none other than her old love, Chase McCann. No matter. She refuses to let him distract her from her job.

Read an excerpt.

Dinca’s review of Her Best Friend by Sarah Mayberry
Contemporary Romance published by Harlequin SuperRomance 13 Apr 10

My friend Sandy sent me this book. She must know me very well because I simply loved it. I have read Sarah Mayberry books before and she has never let me down. I thoroughly enjoyed reading about the unrequited love of Amy Parker.

The story is about Amy Parker’s passion for an old theater called the Grand that her great grandfather built. She is trying to buy it before it gets torn down and replaced by cheap apartments built by a sleazy developer and the villain of the story. Amy is so close to achieving her dream of owning the Grand, when a city councilman, in cahoots with the sleazy developer, tries to outbid her on the Grand and overlook the ordinances that protect the structural architecture.

In desperation Amy tries to contact her old friend Lisa, an attorney who also married her best friend Quinn and childhood neighbor and the love of her life, also an attorney. When she calls, Quinn answers and eventually, through phone calls and emails, talks her into letting him help her with her problem. She’s very surprised when he shows up at a city meeting to present her case.

Quinn has two best friends in his life. He married one, Lisa, and is now in the tail end of a divorce.  There is no way he wants to do anything that will mess up his friendship with Amy, even if lusting after her kills him. They are so busy trying to make sure they stay friends they almost combust from any physical contact.

Unbeknownst to Amy, Quinn has been in love with her since and lusted after her during his teen years. He married Lisa when there was no sign of Amy wanting him as anything other than a friend. Quinn is still having a problem wrapping his mind around the fact that Lisa has cheated and wants a divorce. He submerges himself into the Grand project, protecting Amy from herself and the sleazy developer.

We know they are going to get together, but the journey through the eyes of these delightful characters is a trip worth taking. Ms. Mayberry has created once again characters so believable, right down to the truly sleazy developer.

The story could have taken place in my home town.  And since I am married to my best friend, I was rooting for them all the way. I think it’s time I find myself another Sarah Mayberry book and settle down to another good read.

Grade: A

Summary:

What’s a girl to do when she’s secretly in love with a friend and he’s married to someone else? She gets over it. That’s what Amy Parker has done. Rather than lose her best bud Quinn Whitfield with an ill-timed, crazy confession of affection, she’s taken the smart route. She’s eased away from him. Just enough to get past the unrequited bits.  And you know, it’s working.

Until the day Quinn announces he’s now single. That’s right. He’s single. And he wants to hang out. With her. Get reconnected the way they used to be.

Oh, this is so not good for Amy’s equilibrium. Daily doses of Quinn remind her of everything she loves about him. But if he’s free…and she’s free…well, maybe the time has come for one of those crazy confessions.

Read an excerpt.

Di’s review of Her Best Friend’s Brother (Tulanes of Tennessee, Book 3) by Kay Stockham
Contemporary Romance published by Harlequin SuperRomance 10 Mar 09

I really prefer to read a series in print order, but I was so taken with Kay Stockham’s She’s The One, Book 5 in the Tulane Series, I ordered the other four Tulanes. The whole Tulane family from Beauty, Tennessee is very close and supportive to the point of smothering their relatives with overwhelming love. So much so that they can’t even go to the bathroom by themselves. You may laugh, but then you will just have to pick up one of these books and see for yourself.   They are truly a delightful and heartwarming family.

Luke and Shelby’s story is realistic and it had me rooting for them all the way. I didn’t exactly have a love/hate relationship with the story, more of a love/frustration relationship.  I wanted to shout at Shelby to just get over it and grow up. (I just might have, according to my husband.) You can only say “I can’t take a chance” so many times.

If the goal of the writer is to get under the skin of this reader, Kay Stockham succeeded. Shelby is very human, complete with hives. But I like my heroines to come across a little more mature than the silliness of Shelby, who can’t function just because her parents are a bad example.  I understand the off again/on again emotional drama of her parents’ marriage to be unsettling, but again I had to shout, “Get over it! You have already fallen for the guy, why see how long you can make his life miserable.”

With all the embarrassment her mother caused, a move to California seemed like a wonderful idea to me. I am not forgetting her dream of turning the old millhouse into a restaurant, but a little worldly experience would have gone a long way in making it a success. You would think her baby would be her new priority anyway.

You have got to love a guy who says “We’re pregnant.”  Sweet, wonderful, adorable Luke. No man on earth could be more understanding and considerate than the brainy computer geek turned California sunshine gorgeous, Luke Tulane. Who cannot fall for this hunk with a sensitive side?

Luke has loved Shelby forever and he really wants her and their baby.  He may not have known why she turned to him on that particular night, but there is no way he will pass up an opportunity to marry her and make it work. His every thought is of Shelby, so much so she is the heroine of the computer video game he designed. It is very off putting to him when his boss brings someone in who messes with his perfect heroine in his virtual idea. Luke’s character is so realistic you will never want to let him go. The guy really has staying power.

No romance is complete without a wicked witch. Luke’s boss is perfect in the role, destroying something he had perfected while he was getting his life in order. I really wish Shelby had an opportunity to give that woman a piece of her mind. I am glad Luke is returning to the family fold. I do wish his family were a little more open minded and understanding about his profession, though.

I felt this story was more about Shelby Brookes and not enough about Luke Tulane. After all it is the Tulanes of Tennessee series. Maybe Shelby would not have been so wrapped up in herself if she had known what was happening with Luke in his job and what he was sacrificing flying back to Tennessee. I am a firm believer in compromise and I did not see any in Shelby. She made no concessions to meet him halfway, not even in the end when she admitted she loved him and wanted their marriage to work. She still expected him to do all the giving and turn down the job offer that would take them to California.

Once again, as soon as I completed the last page I reached for another Tulanes series book. This one gives me just enough insight on Dr. Ethan Tulane that I can’t wait to see who comes back to Tennessee with him. I am definitely hooked on the Tulanes.

Grade: B

Summary

How could this have happened?
They had one night. That’s all Shelby Brookes would allow herself to indulge in with Luke Tulane. Yes, he’s gorgeous and yes, he’s the greatest guy she knows, but he’s her best friend’s brother for crying out loud! And she’s pretty sure there are rules against sleeping with friends’ brothers.
Then Shelby discovers she’s pregnant. And Luke’s determined to do the right thing—down to the bended knee proposal and the meeting at the altar. As tempting as his offer is, Shelby’s convinced she’s not the marrying kind. She’s bound to hurt him and that’s definitely against the rules of friendship. Still, she doesn’t count on how persuasive Luke can be when he really wants something…her.

Read an excerpt.

Other books in this series:

Di’s review of She’s the One (Tulanes of Tennessee, Book 5) by Kay Stockham
Contemporary Romance published by Harlequin SuperRomance 16 Mar 10

Alexandra Tulane is a successful travel magazine writer and photographer.  A far cry from the typical resorts and spas she reviews, Deadwood Mountain Lodge is in the back country of Alaska with breathtaking scenery. She finds her destination a rustic “man’s” lodge packed with charm, not to mention the charismatic distractions of the owner’s son and his little boy.

Complete with the reluctance of the pilot trying to discourage her from even getting on the plane and with her journalist curiosity always getting the best of her, she continually finds herself on Dylan’s bad side. What parent would not want a professional portrait of their child? With her heart going out to the lost man and his troubled son, Colt, Alexandra starts to question her own desires.

Alexandra sees her job as the means to stay away from a loving family consisting of four brothers who are happily married and she struggles with a mother’s matchmaking whenever she is home, so she plans to stay away for the Thanksgiving holiday, extending her stay in Alaska with the help of Dylan as her tour guide.

Dylan, hiding from his past, is not ready or willing to let his haven be disturbed.  The safety of his traumatized son is his main concern. His father’s recent heart attack is another reason to insure a quiet existence in the wilds of Alaska.

He has no clue just how fast his well being is going to change due to Alex’s undercover assignment.  Dylan thinks Alex has come to the lodge to take photos, having no clue that she is a travel writer for Traveling Single or what her article could do to jeopardize the peace and solitude he has established for himself and his son. With his scarred past and hands warring with the progress his son is making due to the presence of Alexandra, he fears his heart is in an emotional state in jeopardy.

This is a great read with a surprising ending. I thoroughly enjoyed the plot twist Ms. Stockham included that I did not see coming at all. Yes, I know in a romance novel the heroine always gets her man, but I really was impressed with the storyline.

Now I have to read the other adventures of the Tulanes of Tennessee. I am sorry I started with the last of this miniseries, but I am so intrigued I will read the others.

Grade: A

Summary:

Undercover travel writer Alexandra Tulane wonders if maybe she’s in way over her head. A men’s hunting and fishing retreat in the wilds of Alaska? Not exactly her stylish scene. Fortunately, there’s plenty of breathtaking scenery…including good-looking bush pilot Dylan Bower.

Despite the magnetic attraction between them, however, Alexandra is everything Dylan is not–she’s a rover, always looking for the next adventure. For Dylan, the scars of the past run deep. He’s hidden himself and his silent son in an isolated haven for their protection. Yet Alexandra engages both of them and soon they’re under her spell. This–she–feels so good Dylan doesn’t want it to end. So how can he convince her to stay?

Read an excerpt.

Other books in this series:

Wendy the Super Librarian‘s review of  What the Librarian Did by Karina Bliss
Contemporary romance released by Harlequin SuperRomance 16 Mar 10

Being one myself, I’m naturally drawn to romance novels that feature librarian heroines.  Over the years I’ve read some very good ones, and some others that have left permanent psychological scars.  Karina Bliss’s latest for Harlequin SuperRomance is, blessedly, one of the good ones.  Although at times, I felt the heroine’s “issues” overshadowed the romantic storyline.

Devin Freedman has spent the last 17 years being the bass player for the extremely successful hard rock band, Rage.  However a life of sex, drugs and rock ‘n roll have literally taken their toll.  When his doctors give him the unvarnished truth of what his alcohol addiction has done to his body, Devin cleans up and heads to his mother’s home in New Zealand.  Mom has had heart problems, and Devin is finally ready to take control of his life.  To that end, he decides to enroll in college.

It’s there that he meets academic librarian Rachel Robinson who has no idea who the heck he is.  That’s honestly about the only endearing thing he can say about her, since the woman seems hell-bent on challenging him with verbal sparring matches at every turn.

Rachel has led a fairly solitary life, and has just turned down a marriage proposal from a man who by all accounts has “good catch” written all over him.  She’s almost 35, does want a husband and children some day, so why does she keep turning men away?  She’s 35.  Her ovaries ain’t gettin’ any younger.  However, it’s rather complicated.  Rachel has a past that she’s been hiding from for 17 years.  A past that conveniently shows up just as Devin walks through the library front door.

I’m a bit of a sucker for opposites attract storylines, and rock star and librarian are just about as opposite as you can get.  Devin’s love of music eventually became overshadowed by his addiction, and the state of his personal health has given him a wake-up call.  There’s also the small matter that his older brother, the lead singer of the band, is possibly screwing him over financially.  He has a lot to sort out, but cannot help but become distracted by Rachel, who is intelligent, quick-witted, and not impressed by his fame.

The bulk of the conflict centers around Rachel’s past, and a choice she made 17 years ago that she’s now confronted with.  It’s pretty heavy stuff, and an issue I think the author handles well.  That said, it’s heavy enough conflict that I felt, at times, the romance loses some footing.  Especially since Devin and Rachel are extremely fond of jumping to conclusions about each other.  These two are determined to assume the worst about each other, and several misunderstanding crop up over the course of the story.  After a while, it gets a bit exhausting and a little old that these two just don’t confront each other, laying all their cards out on the table.

That being said, this was still a very strong, emotionally charged contemporary read.  Rachel isn’t my favorite librarian romance heroine ever, but she easily lands in the Top 5 and Devin’s bad boy charm makes him the perfect foil.  Karina Bliss is a new discovery for me in the SuperRomance line, and I look forward to reading more of her work.

Grade: B

Summary:

Is Rachel Robinson the only one on campus who doesn’t know who Devin Freedman is? No big deal except that the bad-boy rock star gets a kick out of Rachel’s refusal to worship at his feet. And that seems to have provoked his undivided attention. Devin, the guy who gave new meaning to the phrase “sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll.” Devin, the guy who somehow becomes wedged between her and the past she’s kept hidden for years.

It’s up to this librarian to find out firsthand just how “bad” he really is. Because her secret—and her growing feelings for a man who claims he’s bent on redemption—depend on his turning out to be as good as he seems. Which is really, really good.

Read an excerpt.

Liviania’s review of The Christmas Present by Tracy Wolff
Contemporary romance released by Harlequin Superromance 8 Dec 09

I understand the logic that if marketing says something sells, you should do it.  Harlequin didn’t become the powerhouse it is by making random decisions.  Still, I don’t see the point in packaging Tracy Wolff’s latest with a generic couple in front of the tree and the generic title The Christmas Present.  It hides the surprisingly dark story from the people who might enjoy it most. (It might also cause some people to be upset due to the trigger-y first chapter.)  There is an offscreen rape/murder, attempted rape, a shooting, and some other acts of violence.  The Christmas Present is not for someone looking for a fluffy holiday romance. 

The Christmas Present resembles a crime thriller, where the emphasis is placed on the romance rather than the detective story.  (That isn’t to say the plot is half-baked.  The ending to the whodunit is a bit weaksauce, but the crime elements are generally menacing, logically connected, and further the central relationship.  Plus, most of the mystery isn’t about whodunit but about finding mitigating factors and reasonable doubt.)  Diego is a young, low-class Mexican accused of brutally raping and murdering his pregnant girlfriend Esme.  Rafael Cardoza is the man who runs a community center and acts as Diego’s guardian, hoping his ward won’t be wrongfully sent to jail as he was.  Vivian Wentworth is the attorney forced to take the pro bono case by her firm despite the fact she’s a divorce attorney.

Vivian pulls the proceedings together.  As the opening, in which she is nearly raped, shows clearly, she is an outsider, over her head and vulnerable.  However, she’s also tenacious, clever, and generally the kind of lawyer kids like Diego need but will likely never have.  As in most stories of this type, things can get over the top.  But Vivian is a grounded and sensible presence, which made the story more convincing to me.

Rafael is very alpha male, but lacks some of the more annoying characteristics of that type.  He judges Vivian harshly at first, but it makes sense given his history with rich white girls.  He’s well aware of the class and race lines in the United States, and not happy about them.  Especially not when it hurts the kids he’s trying to help.  It’s hard not to like who a guy who clearly having papa bear urges and trying to protect his young.

I read this one very quickly, as absorbed in Vivian and Rafael’s pursuit of justice as I was in their attraction.  I have no idea how accurate the court stuff was, but Wolff sounded like she knew what she was writing about, which is enough for me.  The only time I came out of the story was when one passage reminded me that the book was set during December.  Until that point, I’d totally forgotten that I’d picked it up expecting it to be a holiday romance.  (I remembered Sherry Thomas recommending Wolff in her newsletter once, so I had the author’s name in the back of my head.)

I’ll definitely pick up another book by Wolff.  I may also start reading the Harlequin blurbs closer, as clearly the title and cover can’t be relied on.  (I knew this, but old habits are hard to break.)  This book contained a number of things I enjoy, including racial tensions and action, as well as a convincing romance.  The Christmas setting wasn’t saccharine, but a bittersweet reminder that even as the season draws people together, there are still bad things happening out there.  As The Christmas Present is a Harlequin, there is a happy ending.

But Wolff makes her characters earn it.

Grade: A

Summary:

Rafael Cardoza needs a lawyer. A good one well versed in criminal law is the only hope to save the wrongfully accused kid from Rafael’s community center. So how does he end up with uptown divorce attorney Vivian Wentworth? The chances of her successfully defending this case are slim to none. If Rafael were smart, he’d show Vivian the door.

Too bad his attraction to her is clouding his judgment. And when he can finally see past his libido, he realizes that there’s more to Vivian than her family name and her designer clothes. In fact, she’s working so hard to clear the kid’s name, they just might win. It’s the best Christmas gift Rafael could receive…or would that be Vivian agreeing to stay with him?

Read an excerpt here.

Warning: The excerpt contains the attempted rape that I think is trigger-y.

Lynne Connolly‘s review of Next Comes Love by Helen Brenna
Romantic suspense released by Harlequin SuperRomance 13 Oct 09

I don’t often read SuperRomance, but I’m so glad I decided to read this one! This had all the ingredients of being a mushy, overdone romance – idyllic island, amusing locals, and a child in danger, but in Ms Brenna’s hands it becomes a lovely romance with real people at its heart. 

That is the real secret to success in Harlequin lines. The situations aren’t original, the plot sometimes preposterous, but if the characters are there, if they’re brought to life, then the book can work, often superbly well.

Erica is a no-nonsense heroine, scared but not intimidated by the situation she finds herself in. She finds a job and an apartment on the island of Mirabelle, but the hero and the people she works for soon discover her real identity, because although she’s been clever, she doesn’t have the professional skills she needs to successfully hide.

The hero, Garrett, is a big city cop, moved to the island to start a new life and he finds an outlet in his woodworking. The island only requires a part-time police chief, so he can work as a joiner and construction worker in his spare time. He’s found happiness, or at least contentment. He isn’t looking for love, doesn’t really want it, but he doesn’t go to stupid lengths to shove it away when it finally finds him. And then goes after it when he finds it slipping away from him. I loved that. And Erica, while pretty, competent and brave, isn’t perfect. I loved that, too.

The suspense is well handled, with the story progressing believably and Ms Brenna builds up the tension really well. There are elements that are foreshadowed and then they happen, with no sugary “oh I was mistaken, everything’s fine” cop-outs that I’ve read in other books.

I can definitely recommend this one, well worth picking up.

Grade: B+

Summary:

“One cop wants her heart.  The other one wants her dead.

Street-smart city girl Erica Corelli spent the three best days of her childhood on Mirabelle Island.  Now her sister has disappeared and Erica’s on the run with her six-year-old nephew.  The boy’s father, an abusive Chicago cop, will stop at nothing to get his son back.  Erica can only hope this unforgettable island is a safe place to hide.

Garrett Taylor, the island’s chief of police, takes one look at Erica and thinks, trouble.  The mysterious, sexy kind that disturbs a man’s peace and instantly complicates the simple life Garrett came to Mirabelle to find.  But no matter how hard he tries, he can’t keep his mind—or his hands—off Ms. Couldn’t Be More Wrong for Him.”

Read an excerpt here.

Holly‘s review of Texas Wedding by Kathleen O’Brien
Contemporary Romance released by Harlequin SuperRomance 14 Jul 09

I’m still formulating my thoughts about this one. I generally enjoy the reunited lovers plot line, but this couple was bitter and angry. 

Susannah especially rubbed me wrong. She was bitter and angry, and her actions throughout didn’t speak well of her. She did her level best to treat Trent like shit, then complained when he didn’t fall all over her. Basically she was a complete and total bitch. This was explained away because of Trent’s actions in the past, but that was 11 years ago. I really felt like there should have been more growth on her part.

Trent I liked quite a bit better. He admitted what he did was wrong and tried to make up for it. He wasn’t afraid to say he didn’t have all the answers. He was tired of running and just wanted to put his life back together, which included making peace with Susannah and things that happened in their past.

Having said that, I didn’t read any of the previous books in this series and I get the impression I missed a lot of backstory. It could be my impressions would be different if I read the previous books. I’m still trying to decide if I’m going to do that. We’ll see.

Grade: D

Summary:

The days of Susannah Everly dreaming about white dresses, churches and Trent Maxwell are long gone. So it’s more than a little funny that she finds herself actually married to the guy. But she’s determined to save the family ranch by any means possible, and if Trent is those means…

Still, they both know the deal. This is a business arrangement and there are rules. Rules that do not include rekindling those old feelings or surprise midnight seductions. So what’s Susannah to do when Trent seems determined to break their agreement? Especially when what he offers is way too tempting.

Read an excerpt here.

Wendy the Super Librarian‘s review of His Secret Agenda by Beth Andrews
Contemporary romance released by Harlequin SuperRomance 13 Oct 09

It’s often overlooked thanks to the dopey titles Harlequin likes to slap on their books, but I strongly believe that some of the most interesting, innovating, and compelling stories are often told in the category format.  I can practically hear your disbelief over the telecommunication wires.  Yes, amongst the amnesia, secret baby, tycoons and virgin secretaries – writers publishing with Harlequin are churning out interesting, challenging stories featuring interesting, challenging characters.  No one is demonstrating this more for me right now than Beth Andrews.  With only her third book for Harlequin SuperRomance, she’s already shown that she’s a writer willing to take some risks.

Allison “Allie” Martin used to be a criminal defense attorney working for one of the most prestigious firms in Manhattan.  Then something happens (cue Big Secret music), she quit her job, and moved back to her hometown of Serenity Springs, New York.  She bought the local bar, and has been running it ever since.  What Allie hasn’t stopped doing is rescuing people from themselves.  She can’t seem to help herself, and it’s her attraction to strays that has created a small problem for her business.  She keeps hiring unreliable bartenders.  When Dean Garret walks into the bar for an interview, she takes one look at the Texas cowboy and says no thank you.  Sorry to waste your time mister.

Dean is not an easy fellow to brush off.  He needs the job because he needs to snoop (cue Big Secret music).  He’s been hired to do a job, and his instincts tell him that Allie Martin has the answers he’s looking for.  So he does a bit of a two-step, pulls a few strings, and Allie has no choice but to hire him.  In other words, she’s desperate, he can mix drinks, and his cowboy hat is practically charming the panties off her female customers.

The reason authors keep going back to the Big Secret plot device is because when it works – it really cooks.  It makes for a compelling read.  In this instance, both Allie and Dean are hiding something.  Allie hasn’t even told her family why she quit law and decided to run a bar for a living, and Dean isn’t about to come right out and tell Allie what he’s really doing in Serenity Springs.  He needs answers, and to his way of thinking, if he comes right out and asks Allie, all she’ll do is dodge and lie to him.

These secrets, and the minor suspense sub plot, keep the story humming along.  Dean is suitably charming and sexy – not to mention a little sneaky.  He’s also got the requisite baggage required of most romance novel heroes (he’s estranged from his family).  Allie is a nice girl, although one would think her years working as an attorney would have helped dim her rose-colored view of people.

Her character worked fairly well for me, but I can see her not working for other readers.  Allie has made some rough choices, and her work as a criminal defense lawyer probably isn’t going to endear her to some readers (in my experience, people have very strong opinions about lawyers who represent the accused).  She’s paying a price for some of those choices she made, which is probably why I expected her to be more jaded.  Instead she seems downright determined, bordering on naive at times, to believe the best in everybody.  Which is probably why Dean is so successful at hiding his true mission from her.

At the end of the day though, I did enjoy this return visit to Serenity Springs.  There is definitely an unresolved thread at the end of this story, and one suspects it is going to be mined for the author’s next book, which is due out in May 2010.  While it wasn’t a perfect read, I still enjoyed it quite a bit, and Beth Andrews has safely moved into my autobuy category.

Grade: B-

Summary:

Dean Garret is about to break the number one rule of undercover work. And it’s all because his new “boss” is as pretty as a professional cheerleader and has a do-gooder’s heart. Who can resist that combination? Still, Dean suspects Allison Martin is hiding something behind her dazzling smile. That something being the runaway mother and son he’s been hired to find.

To get the job done, he needs to gain Allie’s trust. Only, the lawyer-turned-bar-owner isn’t cooperating. But she can’t remain immune to his good ol’ boy charm and sexy drawl forever. Because Dean never fails. And he’ll do anything to solve a case. Even if it means he has to break all the rules.

Read an excerpt.

Other books in this series:

Welcome back to Duck Chat!

Today we’d like you to meet Tracy Wolff!

Writing in several romance subgenres keeps Tracy busy and her books on bookstore shelves. Her latest book is an erotic suspense titled Tie Me Down, and she’ll be talking about it today. Tracy writes for NAL Heat, Harlequin Spice, and Harlequin SuperRomance, three very different publishers, covering the gamut from sweet and sensual to suspenseful and erotic, a terrific span for readers.

Tracy is married and she and her husband have three sons. She is an English professor at her local community college, and she began writing when she was quite young and become more serious about the craft after her mom introduced her to reading romance.

Today Tracy is kindly offering up one copy of Full Exposure and two copies of the Naughty Bits anthology which also features Megan Hart, Delilah Devlin, Jodi Lynn Copeland, Sarah McCarty and a whole host of other authors. So make sure you leave a meaningful comment or question for Tracy to be in the running to win. Now let’s chat!

DUCK CHAT: Tracy, since you have a new release coming out this month, let’s talk about that first. The title is Tie Me Down, and with a title like that, the storyline has got to be hot! Would you tell us about Cole and Genenieve and how their story came about?

TRACY WOLFF: I freely admit that I’m a little bit (read a lot) of a control freak, so when I sat down to write Tie Me Down, I wanted it to be about control—having it, losing it and giving it away willingly once you find someone to trust. Much of the book is a battle of wills between my hero and heroine as each jockeys for dominance over the other—in the bedroom and out. Of course, in the end they learn that love is more about trust and respect than it is control.

Excerpt from Full Exposure:

Kevin Riley was the stuff fantasies were made of.

Her fantasies, to be exact.

Six foot five, heavily muscled, with the most beautifully intense blue eyes she’d ever seen, he captured her attention like no man ever had. And with his half-naked body in front of her and nature thrashing fiercely around her, it was all she could do to keep her clothes on, her mouth shut and her camera aimed somewhere besides his absolutely fabulous ass.

Not that he should mind– it was one of his best features, after all. And she was being paid, well paid, for taking pictures that showed his every side.

Of course, she wasn’t sure that fifty shots of his ass were quite what the publishers had had in mind when they’d hired her, no matter how glorious it was. Besides, her humming libido couldn’t handle much more without going into severe overdrive anyway.

Serena snorted before she could stop herself. Who was she kidding? She’d passed overdrive a while ago, was now heading straight toward spontaneous combustion at an alarming rate. The thought disturbed her and she moved restlessly, desperate to focus on something– anything–that could bring her traitorous body under control.

She glanced towards the large windows that covered an entire side of the old, red brick studio and tried to concentrate on the storm raging through Kevin’s little slice of bayou. But the wildness of it-the utter lack of control-only made her more uncomfortable.

Rain pummeled the tin roof, flashes of lightning illuminated the darkness beyond the house and thunder shook the studio as it exploded across the sky. Mother Nature was in a frenzy and much of southern Louisiana would pay the price on this steamy summer night.

She was just one more victim.

It was three a.m. and she should have been asleep, tucked safely into bed in her Baton Rouge condo. Nature whirled around her and she should have been terrified as she witnessed the destruction caused by every gust of seventy mile an hour winds. She was working and she should have been focused, completely absorbed in taking photos for the book that could blow her career wide open. But she wasn’t.

She wasn’t at home asleep, she wasn’t terrified and she certainly wasn’t focused.

What she was, was aroused.

Powerfully, frighteningly aroused.

Wetness pooled between her thighs, her nipples peaked and she had to work-hard– to stifle the moan threatening to part lips it was becoming harder and harder to keep closed.

She’d never been this out of control before, had never been so aroused that she couldn’t focus on anything but the throbbing ache between her thighs. Serena pressed her legs together, desperate to stem the sensations bombarding her. But it was no use. Heat swept through her body. Her skin flushed a rosy pink and her heart began to race as the fine tremor of arousal shook her, making hands that were normally rock-steady tremble with reaction.

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

TW: This isn’t from an interview, it’s from my neighbors and strangers on the street– So, is your sex life as good as your books suggest? And if you really want the answer—yes, it is. At least until my husband reads this and divorces me for kissing and telling …

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

TW: Of course they do! At least a few times in each book my main characters will do something completely different than I expect them to. I’ve learned, in most cases, to go with it instead of fighting it. Which is why I have yet to write a book that actually follows the synopsis—I’m beginning to think that I am simply incapable of following any sort of detailed plan.

DC: You have three different subgenres on the Books page at your website: Sensual, Contemporary, and Paranormal. Where did your first release fall? Do you like writing one more than another? There’s nothing on the paranormal page yet – any hints you can give us as to what’s coming up there?

My first story was No Apologies which is obviously erotic. My first novel is A Christmas Wedding, which is Contemporary. The first book I ever wrote is Full Exposure, which is erotic suspense. I’m all over the place.

As for the paranormal, that page will soon be connecting with another website—I’m writing edgy dragon shapeshifter paranormals for NAL under the name Tessa Adams. I’m finishing up my first one right now—Dark Embers, Book 1 in the Dragon’s Heat Series—which will be out in July 2010. I’m currently billing it as a modern day fairy tale: The Dark Prince and the Biochemist in Distress …

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

TW: I wouldn’t call it so much of an argument as a dictatorship. I win, of course—reference the first answer about my inner control freak.

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

TW: My children. Project Runway on the TV. Aerosmith on the radio. A kiss from my husband. Chocolate. Need I go on? Obviously I have the attention span of a three-year old.

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

TW: Oh geez, that’s a hard question because NAL has done such a beautiful job with my covers. Seriously, I think I have some of the best covers in the genre. If you’d asked me a few months ago what my favorite cover was I would have told you, no doubt, the Full Exposure cover (I loooooove the spine of that book). But now that I see how Tie Me Down turned out, I think it might be my favorite. I think the book looks fabulous!!!!

DC: Your contemporary books are for Harlequin SuperRomance. Ever find yourself going a little bit too far when writing, getting a little too hot for a SuperRomance hero and heroine?

TW: I think my writing might definitely have been too hot for the SuperRomances of a few years ago, but I think recent SuperRomances definitely span the spectrum from sweet to hot. When I first started writing for Supers, I actually spoke to my editor about my writing style and whether she thought my love scenes were too hot for Supers. She told me they were appropriate to the stories I wrote and that as long as that was the case, she would be behind them. So while I tone them down some from my erotic novels, I still feel like I stay true to my style.

Or to put it more succinctly, yes, every once in a while I have to stop and go, oh yeah, the whips and chains might be a bit much, LOL!

DC: How about your least favorite cover? Why?

TW: Honestly, the No Apologies cover—which was beautiful and visually inviting but did not reflect the story very well. My very suave, African-American hero was turned into a white cowboy on that cover. But other than that, I can’t complain. I’ve had very, very good luck with covers.

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

TW: That’s an interesting question and one I have trouble answering. But to give it a shot– one of my favorite reviews actually came from Wendy the SuperLibrarian on this site—she basically said the character in my first book, A Christmas Wedding, kept her husband’s balls in a jar by the door during their 27-year marriage. Can I say ouch? Yet, to a certain extent, Wendy was right. So while I still write really strong, kick-ass alpha females, I work to make sure I don’t cross the line into bitchy.

DC: Your Harlequin Spice, No Apologies, is in stores now. What are the differences in writing for Spice compared to NAL Heat, if any?

TW: Spice is, as a line, not as dark as Heat tends to be. So writing for Spice lets me be a little less dark and edgy than usual, although to be honest almost everything I write has some edges to it.

DC: Would you tell our readers about Gabe and Annalise from No Apologies?

TW: This story was great fun to write—just because Annalise was different than any of my other female characters. I have a tendency to write really, really angst-filled alpha characters (nothing makes me happier than to torture the hell out of my H/h and pit them against each other as I do it) and Annalise and Gabe are no exception. But Annalise is the only character I’ve ever written who really equates sex with power and trades in it ruthlessly. Writing about her falling for the one man who won’t let her wield sex as a weapon was really interesting—and intense.

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

TW: I’m actually tackling it right now—YA. I have always wanted to write a YA and I finally got off my butt and wrote the first 100 pages in a YA paranormal called Rip Tide. My agent is actually shopping it around this week, so fingers crossed.

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

TW: Get serious about your writing sooner. Don’t be distracted by school and marriage and jobs and kids. Just sit down and write the book, damn it.

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

TW: Tracy Wolff collects books, English degrees and lipsticks and has been known to forget where—and sometimes who—she is when immersed in a great novel. At six she wrote her first short story—something with a rainbow and a prince– and at seven she forayed into the wonderful world of girls lit with her first Judy Blume novel. By ten she’d read everything in the young adult and classics sections of her local bookstore, so in desperation her mom started her on romance novels. And from the first page of the first book, Tracy knew she’d found her life-long love. Now an English professor at her local community college, she writes romances that run the gamut from sweet and sexy to hotter than hell.

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

TW: Dark and edgy with a hint of kink …

DC: In December your next SuperRomance, To Save a Boy, will be published. This story sounds intense and quite emotional. Would you tell us about it?

TW: I love this story, though the book went through some fairly extensive revisions. It’s the story of Rafael and Vivian, two emotionally wounded people who both think trust is a four letter word. Rafael was wrongly accused of rape by a rich woman when he was eighteen and ended up serving time in prison for a crime he didn’t commit. Out of prison for a number of years now, he runs a teen center in the worst neighborhood of San Francisco—and when Diego, one of the kids at the center, is wrongly accused of murder, Rafa is determined to do whatever he can to keep the kid from suffering as he did. Enter Vivian, a very rich lawyer who takes on Diego’s case pro bono. The story revolves around Vivian and Rafa working towards each other as they search for a way to save Diego from a system that could destroy his life. There’s a lot of emotion as these two work through their own baggage while helping Diego with his and, of course, evading the real killer who wants nothing more than to see Diego hang.

DC: Since I love to cook and you have a Recipes page on your website, let’s talk about that! You encourage readers to send in their favorite recipes and then you list recipes that are associated with some of your books. Do you incorporate the recipes in the books or do you talk about them at all in the stories?

TW: I haven’t incorporated any yet, but I keep playing with an idea of doing a chef book of some sort. But everyone is doing those right now, so I’ll probably hold off. I do, however, print up recipe cards for each of my books. Each one has a recipe unique to the story/region/characters and I give them out to readers and anyone else who asks for them.

DC: What’s your all-time favorite recipe you like preparing over and over again? Would you share it with us?

TW: Oh, that’s easy. Death by Chocolate.

This is what you need:

One tray of brownies—sometimes I make them from scratch, but usually I just use the boxed kind.
1/4 cup Kahlua, Grand Marnier or Espresso
2 packages of chocolate mousse, made
1 pint of whipping cream, whipped with a little sugar and vanilla
3 Heath bars or one bag of Heath bar bits, crushed
1 cup crushed pecans
And then you just layer it all together. Crumble the brownies in the bottom of a trifle bowl, then pour half of liqueur or coffee on them. Spread with chocolate mousse and then a layer of whipped cream. Sprinkle with heath bits and pecans then repeat all the layers again.

It’s delicious and a huge crowd pleaser.

Man, now you’ve got me thinking about dessert- I might just have to go make this.

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

TW: I’d do full-time what I currently do part-time because I just can’t give it up—I’d be a college writing professor. There is nothing in the world like helping people learn to write—and write well. And teaching college is an absolute joy (most days).

Lightning Round:

- dark or milk chocolate?    – Milk, definitely. Preferably in the form of Godiva hearts or a Twix bar
- smooth or chunky peanut butter?    – Smooth
- heels or flats?     – I’m all about the wedge, baby
- coffee or tea?     – Both—preferably poured straight into my veins
- summer or winter?     – Winter—better book reading weather
- mountains or beach?     – Beach
- mustard or mayonnaise?     – Mayo
- flowers or candy?     – Flowers
- pockets or purse?     – Both
- Pepsi or Coke?     – Coke
- ebook or print?     – Still print, though the ebook is growing on me

And because we’re not tired of them yet:

1. What is your favorite word?     – wicked
2. What is your least favorite word?    – no
3. What turns you on creatively, spiritually or emotionally?   – Reading a really, really good book.
4. What turns you off creatively, spiritually or emotionally?     – Exhaustion
5. What sound or noise do you love?    – My husband’s heartbeat
6. What sound or noise do you hate?    – My five year old whining.
7. What is your favorite curse word?     – Fuck—I’m a purist.
8. What profession other than your own would you like to attempt?    – Archeologist
9. What profession would you not like to do?     – Soldier
10. If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates?     – “The Library’s that way—help yourself.”

DC: Thank you, Tracy, for spending the day with us! It’s been fun!

Wendy the Super Librarian‘s review of Cowboy Comes Back by Jeannie Watt
Contemporary Romance released by Harlequin SuperRomance 14 July 2009

When someone asks me why I like to read category romance I tell them it’s because of the strong focus on the romance. When the author is working with shorter word counts, they don’t have the time or space to delve into multiple character story arcs and secondary plot threads. Every single word counts, and those words have to be used towards building the romantic relationship between the hero and heroine. All that being said, one of the reasons I enjoy the Harlequin SuperRomance line is that it is one of the longer category romance lines. Authors can introduce some secondary characters and maybe a secondary plot thread. Unfortunately when it came to Cowboy Comes Back, I felt the author tried to juggle one too many balls and the romance ended up suffering.

Kade Danning and Libby Hale were childhood sweethearts. They had a lot in common – Kade living with an abusive single father and Libby with two parents more concerned with slowly drinking themselves to death than with her. They were young and in love. Until Libby told Kade that she didn’t think she was ready to get married. He translated this into rejection (because he’s a moron) and then proceeded to knock up the next available woman that came along. He married his first wife, they had a daughter, he made a name for himself on the rodeo circuit. Then it all went to hell when he found out his financial man swindled him, the IRS came calling, his wife divorced him, and Kade fell into the nearest bottle.

Kade’s come crawling back home now that his asshole Daddy is dead. He has settled his debt with the IRS, but his rodeo career is finished and he needs money to move closer to his ex-wife and daughter. He’s home only long enough to fix up the family ranch and sell it. Then he’s out of there. Which frankly, suits Libby just fine. Kade’s betrayal still stings and she’s nursing a serious grudge. It doesn’t help matters that Kade’s daughter has also been in town visiting her father. So not only does Libby have to see Kade’s handsome face, she also gets to be smacked up side the head with the evidence of his infidelity.

The conflict between Kade and Lily is pretty serious stuff. It’s certainly serious enough to sustain the entire length of a Harlequin SuperRomance novel, especially since Lily had every right to 1) skin Kade alive and 2) slice off his Mr. Happy. Instead, the author keeps the romance dangling on the line for entirely too long. Lily and Kade don’t really spend much time together, on the same page, until almost half way through the story. Instead the author introduces a mountain of secondary conflict – such as Lily’s evil bitch of a boss, Kade’s job search, a wealthy man who is unhappy about a herd of wild mustangs grazing on his land, and Kade’s horse, Blue, who he let loose in the wild after he left home. All of it is marginally interesting, and certainly the stuff about the mustangs and ranching add a lot local color to the setting of the story…..but none of it was the romance. And that’s why the reader is there. For the romance!

Because so much time is used to set up other aspects of the plot, I never really got on board with the happily ever after. This is probably because I thought Lily had every right to be majorly pissed off, and towards the end the author turns it around so she has to take some of the blame for their initial break-up all those years ago. Look, Lily had cold feet. She was unsure of herself. Kade was the one who couldn’t keep Mr. Happy in his Wrangler jeans. While certainly most break-ups take two people, and it’s usually not just one person’s fault – I didn’t see that here. Frankly, Kade’s lucky Lily didn’t gut him with a steak knife.

All this being said, this is a well-written story, and the characters were all interesting people that I could get behind. I just felt the pacing was off, and the time spent on other aspects of the plot made for a weaker romantic storyline. Which isn’t necessarily good in any kind of romance novel, but it’s really detrimental in a category length one.

Grade: C+

Summary:
.
Now that his rodeo career is over, Kade Danning has nowhere else to crawl but back home. He wishes he could just keep his head down, fix up his father’s abandoned ranch and then sell it so he can afford to spend more time with his daughter. Move back, then move on—quickly. Unfortunately, after ten long years he can’t avoid Libby Hale.
.
Kade has loved Libby all his life and he’d give his championship titles never to have hurt her. But he did. And convincing her to forgive him is the hardest challenge he’s ever faced—in or out of the arena.
.
Read an excerpt.

Other books in this series:

Wendy the Super Librarian‘s review of From Friend to Father by Tracy Wolff
Contemporary romance released by Harlequin SuperRomance 9 Jun 09

When I read Tracy Wolff’s debut Harlequin SuperRomance late last year I had some issues with the heroine. Now, with this second book for SuperRomance, I find myself having issues with the hero. I’m thinking by the time her third SuperRomance comes out that I’m going to love the hero and heroine so much that I’m going to want to have a menage a trois with them.

Sarah Martin’s worthless father abandoned their family when she was young. She followed this up by marrying her worthless ex who abandoned her while she was pregnant with their twin boys. Then her best friend, Vanessa, asks her to be a surrogate. Vanessa is half-crazed to have a baby, and Sarah agrees. Then tragedy strikes. Sarah is in the final stages of pregnancy when Vanessa is killed in a car accident. Leaving Sarah, and Vanessa’s widower, Reece, shell-shocked.

Reece Sandler deals with his wife’s death by running away. His wife was the one who desperately wanted a baby, to the point where their marriage was skating on some very thin ice. Reece mourns for his dead wife, what their marriage used to be, and the fact that he feels like he failed her. He couldn’t give Vanessa what she so desperately wanted, and now she’s dead. The problem here is that when he runs away, he abandons Sarah and his baby girl, Rose. Now with Rose several months old, he’s on Sarah’s doorstep trying to make amends. Needless to say, she’s not feeling terribly charitable towards him.

I’ll be honest, Reece is a hard guy to “like.” First, he admits that he wasn’t ready to be a father, that he only agreed to the surrogacy because Vanessa was half out of her mind with desperation. Then he admits that he’s always been attracted to Sarah, even when his wife was still alive. Can married men be attracted to other women? Certainly. Most definitely. I just don’t want to read about it in a romance novel. Also, it doesn’t help matters that his modus operandi is to run at the first sign of trouble. Given Sarah’s very real abandonment issues, this doesn’t paint the guy in the most favorable light.

That being said, he does come around. The reader just has to be willing to wait him out. Sarah is the character who really carries the majority of the book. She’s a warrior woman. A single mom who finds herself juggling two rambunctious twin boys and an infant she had no plans to be a mother to. But now she is. Because baby Rose is home with her, and her father has all but vanished. Sarah’s a mommy again, and if Reece Sandler thinks he can waltz into their lives and pretend like nothing happened, he’s got another thing coming to him. Does she overreact a bit towards the end of the story? OK, maybe. But given what she’s been through, and Reece’s tendency to run, you can’t entirely blame her.

What ultimately makes this story, besides how emotional it is, is how well Wolff writes. Wolff can flat-out write. The first few chapters are positively breath-taking in their emotional scope, with dialogue that just about rips your skin off. That’s what ultimately makes this story for me. Sure I wasn’t enamored with Reece, and sure I thought Sarah overreacted a bit during the final chapters, but the writing is the thing. I can’t wait for Wolff’s next book.

Grade: B-

Summary:
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Twin boys, a baby girl and Sarah, their gorgeous mother. It’s a dream family. Too bad it doesn’t belong to Reece Sandler. Correction. Part of it does belong to him. But he’s not ready to be a single father and he needs Sarah Martin more than ever. Funny thing, when he and his late wife asked Sarah to be their surrogate, he never imagined he’d raise that child with her.
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And the situation is complicated by his growing attraction to her. She’s vivacious, captivating and the kind of parent he only hopes to be. How can he resist her? Now to convince her to think of him as more than a friend.
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Read an excerpt.

Holly‘s review of A Not-So-Perfect Past by Beth Andrews
Contemporary Romance released by Harlequin SuperRomance 14 Apr 09

Beth Andrews is a fairly new Harlequin author, this being her second release with them. I liked the blurb so figured I’d give it a try. I think I may have suffered a bit for not reading her debut novel, Not Without Her Family, since I believe it probably offered quite a bit of backstory on the hero that was absent in this one.

I think Dillon was a very complex character. Because he was convicted of killing his step-father and spent several years in prison he is very cynical and hard. His experiences since he’s been home haven’t done much to change his attitude either. Yet underneath it all, he’s still managed to retain his common decency and innate goodness. Though he’s afraid to reach for it, he craves love and stability just as much as the next person. I loved that though he was a wonderful man underneath he was rough around the edges. Sometimes this works for the heroes of our novels and sometimes it doesn’t. Andrews made it work.

As the book beings we see that Nina is mostly a doormat. Her ex-husband and family run roughshod over her while she sits back and lets them. She thinks to herself that she should be stronger and stand up to them, but she never does. They tell her what to do in regards to everything: Dillon Ward, her tenant that lives above her bakery, her kids, her career, everything. I found myself becoming very frustrated with her for not standing up for herself, but I was furious with her for not standing up for her children. Her ex-husband was very verbally abusive to her and that carried over to her children.

To be fair, I don’t think she realized he was treating her children as badly as he was. Unfortunately that doesn’t do much to take my frustration from her because it was fairly obvious. I think she just didn’t want to see how bad it was. To make matters worse, in an attempt to prove herself – though I’m not quite sure to who – she began to take on massive amounts of work, further bogging herself down and taking her away from her children. She did show quite a bit of growth in the end, but I kind of felt like it was too little, too late.

I like the two of them together. They really brought out the best in each other. Dillon encouraged Nina to stand up for herself and take charge of her own life. She showed him it was okay to open up. Although I disliked the way Nina let other people take advantage of her, I liked that with Dillon’s help she was able to stand strong on her own.

I also really liked her children and the other secondary characters, with the exception of Nina’s ex, who was a complete ass, and her father, who didn’t redeem himself in my eyes. Her older sister and the teenager who has to make restitution by rebuilding her shop with Dillon were great additions, however. I also really enjoyed Dillon’s sister. So much so that I plan to buy her book.

I had issues with Nina, but I think Dillon and the secondary characters saved the story in the end.

Grade: C+

Summary:
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Everyone makes mistakes…but he isn’t looking for redemption
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He’s the most dangerous man she’s ever met…
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Nina Carlson knows all about Dillon Ward. Knows he served time in prison. Knows nobody pulled out the welcome mat when he moved to Serenity Springs. But that doesn’t stop her from renting him a place to live. And when someone crashes into her bakery, he’s just the man to fix the damage.
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And Nina isn’t the only one who thinks Dillon’s the perfect man for the job: her two kids have taken a shine to him. Still, she can’t afford to get close to Dillon, even if he is tempting her to toss out her good girl shoes. Because it’s not that she doesn’t trust him. It’s that she doesn’t trust herself.
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Read an excerpt.

Wendy the Super Librarian‘s review of A Holiday Romance by Carrie Alexander
Contemporary romance released by Harlequin SuperRomance 9 Jun 09

I tend to get a bit bitchy defensive in regards to my Harlequin reading. Oh, I’m used to dealing with the slings and arrows of the non-romance reading set. What I tend to resent is when I have to justify my Harlequin love to other romance readers. Carrie Alexander’s latest SuperRomance is just the kind of book I love to throw out at these non-believers. No babies (secret or otherwise) and no tycoons (Greek or otherwise). Just two healthy adults who fall in love after being thrown together by circumstance. And no, that’s not boring.

Alice Potter is finally getting off tiny Osprey Island, off the coast of Maine. Having spent the last several years caring for her ill mother, Alice is having herself an adventure. Her mother left her money in her will with explicit instructions that Alice go on vacation. Hoping to stretch that money into several trips, Alice decides to go the home-swap vacation route. While a police officer is staying in her cottage on the island (see last year’s Nobody’s Hero), Alice will be staying in his parents’ condo at a swank Arizona resort.

When she arrives it’s not quite what she was expecting. She seems to be the only person under the age of 70 and it’s the off-season. Arizona in July. The heat is so stifling it’s amazing she doesn’t melt the moment she steps off the plane. But she’s determined to make the most of it, with everything from horseback riding, to hiking, to boating. What she does not expect is to catch the eye of the resort’s manager, Kyle Jarreau.

Kyle is all work and no play. This is a particularly stressful time for him since the corporate big-wigs are due in a couple of weeks to have the final say on a big promotion he’s been gunning for. He’s got the resort operating like a well-oiled machine, and he’s not above making tough decisions. Oh, like firing his own kid sister when she breaks company policy. One of those policies? No fraternizing with the guests. He’s never been a “rules are made to be broken” kind of person. Not with the way he was raised. But the moment he sees Alice and spends time with her, he finds himself tap-dancing around a lot of rules.

This story is a bit of a slow starter, but it’s a real emotional charmer once it gets moving. Alice is just a flat-out nice person. You want to be friends with someone like Alice. A person who will always have a shoulder for you to cry on or help you out of a jam. This vacation is her chance to be someone she’s not. To break out of her rut. To not be “ordinary” Alice, but to be “fun, up for anything” Alice.

Kyle is ambitious to a fault, and when the reader gets to know his family, it’s easy to understand why he’s such a stick-in-the-mud. He wants better for himself, but it’s come at a high cost. His first meeting with Alice was an impulsive move on his part, and once he’s had a taste, he can’t help but go back for more. However it’s a sticky situation. Because as much as he is beginning to care for her, he has his job and future to think of. It makes for one emotionally charged ending.

I really liked this story an awful lot. I adored Alice’s sense of sweetness and adventure. I liked that while she had been living a sheltered life for the last several years, she wasn’t dead below the waist and she wasn’t naive. Kyle is suitably handsome and charming, but he does have to work to prove to the reader that he deserves Alice. He stumbles more than once, but redeems himself amiably at the end. It’s a sweet, sigh-worthy story that hits all the right notes, and I couldn’t get enough.

Grade: B+

Summary:
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A summer holiday in the desert—what had she been thinking? Extreme heat? Scorpions? Senior citizens? Check.
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This home-swap vacation had seemed like such a great idea at the time…. Huh. Yet Alice Potter might actually get the romantic adventure she’s only ever dreamed about, as resort manager Kyle Jarreau sends her adrenaline into overdrive. Sadly, the resort frowns on socializing with guests, and Kyle has always been a stickler for rules…until now. Seems Alice can be quite tempting when she puts her mind to it. But can they keep their romance a secret or will their Arizona fling burn them both?
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Read an excerpt.

Other books in this series:

Holly‘s review of Summer At the Lake by Linda Barrett
Contemporary Romance released by Harlequin SuperRomance 12 May 09

I’ve read countless romance novels that feature abuse victims – almost always the heroine – but I think this is the first where the victim is a young girl. This was definitely hard to read at times because of the content, but I thought it was a good story.

Kristin’s 11-year-old daughter Ashley was snatched outside a movie theatre and raped by some unknown man. 6 weeks later they borrow a friend’s lakeside cottage to take some time away to heal. Ashley hasn’t spoken since the attack and Kristin is afraid the bright, beautiful girl her daughter was becoming is gone forever.

I had kind of a love/hate relationship with Kristin. I understood – as much as a person can without experiencing something so horrific – her need to protect Ashley and the joy she felt at each small step she took on her way to recovery. I can’t imagine the pain and suffering she felt knowing her daughter had suffered the most horrific thing a woman can suffer. The guilt alone would be crushing. So her actions were understandable to a point. But something about her rubbed me the wrong way.

I think it was her constant negativity. She didn’t think her daughter would ever heal, or that the cops would ever find the man who did this. As I said above, I understood her feelings, but her constant negativity started dragging me down. So I figured it had to be affecting Rick and Ashley too. Her actions at the end especially bothered me. It wasn’t very logical for her to act the way she did and I didn’t like it.

I did like the other elements of the story. Watching Ashley heal with Rick and his dog’s help was heartbreaking. Her pain and fear came across very well. Rick was a great character and really pivotal in bringing about Ashley’s recovery. He was dealing with issues of his own. Trauma from a hostage situation gone bad that resulted in the death of a child. As much as I sympathized with him, it was obvious that he just needed to work through his grief and guilt and then he’d go back to work. His thoughts and fears that he’d never be able to return to hit were completely overshadowed by his actions and the way he was with Ashley and Kristin.

Parts of this novel were very emotionally compelling. I tried putting myself in Kristin’s place to see if I’d feel the way she did, and I just couldn’t do it. I don’t think anyone can that hasn’t experienced what she did. So despite my frustration with her during parts of this story, I was able to push past that and enjoy the rest of the story.

Grade: B

Summary:
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Kristin McCarthy hears him before she sees him. The melody of his saxophone glides across the summer night. The music’s healing effect on her daughter has Kristin seeking the person who can play so beautifully. Too bad Rick Cooper is a cop. With all she and her daughter have experienced, police don’t rank high on their get-to-know-you list.Still, Rick could be one of the good guys. Something about him challenges all Kristin’s assumptions. And their time together sparks her hopes for a future beyond this lakeside retreat. But before she can bring those dreams to life, Rick has to prove he’s the man she and her daughter can trust…forever.
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Read an excerpt.

Wendy the Super Librarian‘s review of A Not So Perfect Past by Beth Andrews
Contemporary romance released by Harlequin SuperRomance 14 Apr 09

Some of my favorite types of books are those I don’t fall in love with during Chapter One. Those books that might even start out a little bumpy, but over the course of the story the author weaves her magic, casts a spell, and has me falling in love hook, line and sinker. Beth Andrews’ second book for Harlequin SuperRomance is just such a story. I’ll be honest, I was more than a little concerned about the doormat heroine, but for readers who have the patience? A Not-So-Perfect Past hits all the right emotional notes.

Dillon Ward knows all about being an outcast. As an ex-con, convicted of murdering his stepfather, the people of Serenity Springs haven’t exactly thrown out the welcome mat. He’s doing construction work, renting an apartment above a bakery, and his baby sister is about to get married. Sure everybody in town thinks he’s the devil, but he’s doing just fine.  That is, until the sexy and sweet bakery owner, Nina Carlson tells him she’s evicting him from the apartment.

Nina tells him she wants to expand the bakery to include a tea room, but he knows that’s bull. Lucky for Dillon fate steps in when an SUV literally crashes through the front end of the bakery. With every other construction outfit in town booked up, Nina has no choice but to turn to Dillon Ward for help, and that scares her out of her mind. With two kids to raise, an odious asshole for an ex-husband, and an over-protective family breathing down her neck, it’s probably not a smart idea to be hiring the town pariah to fix the bakery. But Nina figures it high-time she grows a spine, and why not jump into the deep end head first?

I’ll be brutally honest – I wanted to smack Nina on several occasions during the early portion of this book. Doormat, thy name is Nina. Her ex was abusive emotionally and physically – but instead of leaving him, he left her for another woman. Everyone walks all over her, she hates to make waves, never stands up for herself, and is so very tired. This story is all about Nina taking baby steps to becoming her own woman. About her taking control of her life, doing what she thinks is best, and damn everyone else to hell if they don’t like it. It’s not always smooth, but by the end of this story I was madly in love with her and cheering her on as she found her spine, stood her ground, and stopped letting everyone push her around.

With a heroine that I didn’t start out liking all that much, Dillon carried much of the early portion of the story for me. What a hunky guy this hero turns out to be! He spent time in prison for killing a man in self-defense, and that time changed him. The man he was is gone, and what is left is a guy scorned by just about everyone in town except for his sister, her soon-to-be-husband, and the local bar owner. That is until he starts working for Nina – and he finds himself falling in love with her and her two kids. But a relationship between them would be beyond complicated, and even if Nina does learn to stand on her own, he knows a future between them is impossible.

Like all great romantic stories, it’s the journey that makes the reader fall in love. It’s Nina’s and Dillon’s journey, along with the conflict surrounding them, that give A Not So Perfect Past it’s emotional punch. It plucks all the right heartstrings and there is nothing more than I want right now than to read the story again, for the very first time. If that’s not a keeper, I don’t know what is.

Grade: A-

Summary:
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Nina Carlson knows all about Dillon Ward. Knows he served time in prison. Knows nobody put out the welcome mat when he moved to Serenity Springs. But that doesn’t stop her from renting him a place to live. And when someone crashes into her bakery, he’s just the man to fix the damage.
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And Nina isn’t the only one who thinks Dillon’s the perfect man for the job: her two kids have taken a shine to him. Still, she can’t afford to get close to Dillon, even if he is tempting her to toss out her good-girl shoes. Because it’s not that she doesn’t trust him. It’s that she doesn’t trust herself.
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Read an excerpt.

Other books in this series:

Wendy the Super Librarian‘s review of Someone Like Her by Janice Kay Johnson
Contemporary romance released by Harlequin SuperRomance 14 Apr 09

After reading last year’s, and now RITA-nominated, The Man Behind The Cop, I knew I would be reading more Janice Kay Johnson. While I didn’t flat-out love this latest book, it still packed quite an emotional punch. Reading portions of this story I had my heart in my throat, and tears misting at the corner of my eyes.

Adrian Rutledge is a high-powered corporate attorney who only has vague memories of his mother, who abandoned him with his cold-fish father when he was 10-years-old. Despite a lack of closure, and a private investigation that came up negative some years ago, Adrian assumed his mother was dead. Then one day Lucy Peterson shows up at his office, without an appointment, and tells him his mother is very much alive.

Known as “The Hat Lady,” Elizabeth Rutledge is tiny Middleton’s only homeless person. Several people in the town look after her. Lucy lets her eat at her cafe. The local priest lets her sleep in the church basement on cold nights. The man who runs the grocery store leaves out food for her. It never occurred to any of them that their eccentric, confused homeless lady had relatives, until after she’s hit by a car and slips into a coma. That’s when Lucy goes rifling through her things and finds out that The Hat Lady has a son.

What follows is the story of Adrian finding his way back to his past and into Lucy’s arms. With his mother’s abandonment, that left Adrian to be raised by an emotionally distant father. He slipped into the role of prodigal son, mostly because he knew his father would be upset if he didn’t. But he desperately missed his fun, playful mother. The woman who took him on ferry rides, loved hats and flower gardens, and read books to him.

Lucy grew up in Middleton with a dream that a lot of small-town raised kids have – getting out. What started as coming home to save some money after college, turns into her owning the local cafe and testing out her culinary skills on residents who wonder why she doesn’t offer the delicious potato soup every day of the week. She’s also chafing under the ever watchful eyes of an extended family. A family that has simply taken her for granted. Nice, dependable, boring Lucy. Not a beauty like her two sisters.

The best moments in this story revolve around Adrian’s relationship with his mother. Allowing himself to remember the past, and getting to know the woman she has become. His romance with Lucy also has a nice gradual build to it. These are two people attracted to each other, for different reasons, but who need each other desperately. There were moments where I thought Lucy was a little too good to be true.  Also, she’s downright obstinate during the final chapters, and there were moments where I felt she was expecting entirely too much from Adrian.  The guy has had a shock.  Cut the man a little slack.

Still, it’s a nice, emotional, heart-warming story and Johnson is still firmly on my auto-buy list.

Grade: B-

Summary:
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Finding his mother is the only reason Adrian Rutledge would set foot in this backward place. In fact, he can’t get out of town fast enough. At least, that’s his attitude before Lucy Peterson works her magic on him. The café owner is nothing like what he thought he needed, yet she’s all he wants.
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Then the job pulls him back to the city and Adrian slips into the life he once worked hard to achieve. And while it may not fit the way it did, he can’t simply abandon it. Or can he? Because suddenly he’s tempted by everything Lucy’s offering.
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Read an excerpt.

Wendy the Super Librarian‘s review of Pictures Of Us by Amy Garvey
Contemporary women’s fiction released by Harlequin SuperRomance 1 Jan 09

I bought Amy Garvey’s debut Harlequin SuperRomance strictly out of curiosity. She’s written a handful of books for Kensington Brava – fluffy, light contemporary affairs, some of which feature a hint of mystery. The SuperRomance line? Yeah, about as far away from fluffy and light as a person can get. Frankly, I was curious to see if Garvey could pull off a story with a more serious tone and, for the most part, I believe she does.

Tess and Michael Butterfield were high school sweethearts and have been married for almost 20 years. They have a fifteen-year-old daughter named Emma. Tess is a photographer and Michael is a writer and editor. They have a good life. They love each other. Then a call one May evening changes all of that.

Michael has a son. A twenty-year-old son he didn’t even know existed, by a woman he dated briefly when he and Tess were “taking a break” from each other. His name is Drew, and he wants to not only meet Michael, but Tess and Emma as well.

Certainly secret baby stories are a dime a dozen, but that’s not really what Pictures of Us is about. It’s actually a book examining a marriage that started when the couple was quite young. How that relationship blossomed, was passionate, and got a little bumpy as the characters matured, went out into the world, and started exploring life away from each other. I’m always awed by couples who were teenage sweethearts, mostly because I look back on my college years, all the wildness and craziness that ensued, and marvel at how two people, so young, know they are destined to be together for the rest of their lives. The author explores that here, and just for fun, she throws in the conflict to examine love at first sight, long distance relationships, marriage, child birth, raising a family, and all the stuff that goes on between a couple that’s been together for so many years.

That’s not to say I found Pictures of Us an entirely smooth read. I like adult characters in my romance novel reading. Characters who think logically and aren’t prone to flighty too-stupid-to-live behavior. That said, there were moments when I really felt these characters were a little too good to be true. Mostly notably Tess and Sophia, the other woman. Sophia was a little too self-sacrificing and Tess, I guess I expected her to have at least some moments of anger early on. Both of these women are a little too cool, and while Sophia never really seems to find a pulse, Tess does manage to exhibit some emotion later on in the story, especially after they meet Drew in person.

That aside, this is a strong emotional read that had me sniffling into a Kleenex by the final chapter. It’s not perfect, but if you want a book that will tug at your heartstrings, this one is definitely worth a look.

Grade: B-

Summary:

The photographs lining the mantel of the Butterfield home tell their story. From shots of Michael and Tess as high school sweethearts to images of their daughter’s wedding they look like the perfect family. But behind the pictures is a different tale that doesn’t quite fit the love-at-first-sight, happily-ever-after version of Tess and Michael’s marriage. And it’s a tale that’s revealed by a shocking phone call out of the blue.

With that one call the fabric of their life together shifts, and everything they believe is challenged. Are they the perfect family? Or is that a facade as thin as the photos themselves?

Read an excerpt.

Wendy the Super Librarian‘s review of A Man She Couldn’t Forget by Kathryn Shay
Contemporary series romance released by Harlequin SuperRomance 1 Jan 09

I’m indifferent about amnesia story lines. I can take them or leave them. But love triangles? For the record I hate love triangles with the passion of a thousand burning suns. Yeah, that much. So why exactly did I pick up a book that not only features amnesia, but a big honking love triangle? Because it’s Kathryn Shay. She’s my very favorite SuperRomance author, and I have several of her books housed in my keeper stash. For her, I was willing to wade into love triangle territory. I wish I could say this book changed my mind about love triangle plots, but sadly no. While it wasn’t a terrible book by any stretch of the imagination, I found myself wishing for a different outcome.

Clare Boneli was in a car accident and when she woke up in the hospital her memory was gone. Her doctor feels that once she goes home to her condo in the funky old Victorian house her memory will start to return to her in time. Which it does, slowly and in drips and drabs. But with her returned memories comes a lot of confusion.

There’s Jonathan Harris, the man she was seeing pretty seriously for about a year. He owns the local TV station where Clare has her own cooking show. Then there is Brady Langston, her next door neighbor and her best friend. However, even with amnesia Clare knows something feels “off.” She’s instinctively drawn to “best friend” Brady, but she was “in love” with Jonathan? And why do her other neighbors treat her like a pariah? And what kind of person was she pre-accident if she’s estranged from her own sister? As the memories come rushing back, Clare unravels all of these mysteries, and realizes which man is truly her future.

Shay handles the amnesia angle really well, and you can tell she did her homework on the subject. Clare’s loss of memory, and how it slowly becomes restored to her all ring true, as does her communications with her therapist. What doesn’t work so well is the love triangle, mostly because by the end of the story I wanted Clare to leave both of these guys in the dust and ride off into the sunset…by herself!  Almost every secondary character in this story struck me as supremely selfish, most notably Jonathan, Brady, and the two other tenants in the Victorian.

Clare is naturally confused, and unsure of herself. It’s frightening and scary to look in a mirror, and not recognize the stranger looking back at you. But do any of these people get that? Not really. Oh sure, there’s plenty of lip service, but throughout this story they’re pushing Clare back and forth and not allowing her to feel her way around at her own pace. It’s especially unnerving at the end, when Brady practically storms off to have a self-imposed pity party. Neither of these guys seems to “get it,” and frankly I didn’t think either of them deserved Clare.

That’s ultimately the sticking point for me. I didn’t want Clare to have a romance. I wanted her to move on with her life. Which isn’t really a good thing, given that this is a romance novel. That being said, I can see this story working a lot better for readers who like love triangle plots, and if you’re a sucker for amnesia stories, I thought the angle was well explored here. As for me? I’m slinking back to my self-imposed No Love Triangle Zone, and I still love me some Kathryn Shay.

Grade: C

Summary:

Clare Boneli has felt like a stranger to herself ever since the night an accident took her memory. The night she made a choice between two very different men.

Both Brady Langston and Jonathan Harris are good men. But their versions of her are so opposite, it’s as if she’s two different people. One man holds her career future and one man seems to hold her heart. Because when she’s with Brady everything feels so true, so right. As she moves closer to the truth about that fateful night, Clare has to choose again. To stick with the life she’s made for herself. Or listen to what her heart’s been trying to tell her…

Read an excerpt.

Sandy M’s review of A Christmas Wedding by Tracy Wolff
Contemporary Romance released by Harlequin SuperRomance 11 Nov 08

I really enjoyed this book because the hero and heroine are older characters; he’s in his 60s and she’s 49.  They meet when she’s 16 and we get to see the relationship and the characters develop over the years through reminiscing, journal reading, and sparked memories, all the ways you do think back over time when something momentous is happening in your life.  For Jesse and Desiree, their story is not only momentous, it’s near disastrous.

I’m going to start with my only nitpick of the book. I chose to read this book partly because of the Christmas-yness of it, since we’re headed into the holiday season. The Christmas wedding is Jesse and Desi’s daughter’s; it was always her dream to have her wedding on Christmas Day, which we’re told in the book.   But other than that, there’s really no mention of Christmas, no decorations, no tree, no carols, no hot toddies, etc.  So no “feeling” of Christmas throughout the book, which I really would like to have had while reading.  Okay, done with that!

When we meet Jesse and Desiree, right off the bat things are not going well between them, even though it is Christmas Day and it’s their daughter’s wedding. In fact, Jesse gets so frustrated with his wife, he tosses divorce papers at her and stalks out of the room.  Desiree, of course, is blindsided, never thinking their problems were that big.  This is the cause of each character thinking back on those memories that brought them to where they are today, how they look at what transpired at those times.

Even though both are at fault for the deterioration of the marriage, I found myself to be more sympathetic toward Jesse throughout it all.  He’s been one of the best horse trainers in the country for decades; that’s how he met Desi, when he came to work for her father in his quest to win the Triple Crown.  Desi fell in love with Jesse immediately, but because of the age difference and she was the boss’ daughter, he held back and never crossed the line.

It was eventually her fire, her spontaneity, her drive that caught him and he allowed his feelings to show.  They married on the sly, but her father still looked down at Jesse when his promise of creating a Triple Crown winner never came to pass, and even Desiree usually sided with her father in that respect, much to Jesse’s amazement.

She is her father’s daughter, no doubt, she’d been raised to run the Triple H Ranch, and she had no intention of letting her father down, even after his death.  Desiree also felt she had to prove herself capable to the entire horse racing community.  This is where Desi dropped the ball on her marriage, at least as far as I’m concerned.  She never allowed Jesse to be her partner in the ranch; she made all decisions, ignoring everyone’s, even her husband’s, suggestions and ideas.  She even let the ranch consume so much of her that she also missed a lot of her children’s lives as they grew up.  Yes, Jesse could have said something to her, but I really don’t think it would have done any good.  Desi wasn’t about to share her ranch.

And, as we find out in flashbacks, Desiree was so much like her father, she said and did such hurtful things to Jesse over the years, most of it having to do with their failure to still win the Triple Crown.  It’s not until she’s forced to really look at what she’s done to her husband over the years that she realizes the toll her actions have taken.  Even her children have sensed things were not right with their parents.  Jesse had always been the one there for them as they grew up, so I was glad to see the light finally come on for Desi before everything was too late.  They both still loved one another as much as ever, so it was quite depressing to watch them self-destruct scene after scene.

This is a terrific look at love and romance on the backside, a time when those things should be savored and enjoyed more, but we’re reminded how people can drift apart when they don’t communicate or because of actions they don’t think about, feelings they trudge over in the heat of the moment, which can cause lasting damage.

I like reading about mature love once in a while.  I’m the same age as Desiree, so reading about twenty-somethings most of the time gets to be a little much.  This book is well-written, the depth and strength of the characters just perfect, with feelings and emotions that spear you deeply.  A nice blending of life and the consequences of choices we make.

Grade: B+

Summary:

Desiree is determined to hold on to her husband. She’s loved Jesse Rainwater since the day the legendary horse trainer came to work at her father’s ranch. Now, on the eve of their daughter’s wedding, Jesse hits her with a bombshell that forces Desiree to reexamine their life together.

And she isn’t going down without a fight. She hasn’t struggled all these years to lose the thing that’s most precious to her. Desiree knows they share something true and strong, even if they lost sight of it somewhere along the way. Now her toughest battle lies ahead: to prove to Jesse that theirs is a love worth fighting for.

Read an excerpt.

Wendy the Super Librarian‘s review of A Christmas Wedding by Tracy Wolff
Contemporary romance released by Harlequin SuperRomance 11 Nov 08

Romance is the story of courtships. It’s about those heady, first days of falling of love. When the excitement is fresh, the couple is giddy with discovering each other, and the future looks rosy and bright. The novel is over before the real “fun” begins. Before the couple starts arguing about the kids, money, and before the hero can start resenting the fact that he’s working 40+ hours a week at a job he hates. Maybe it was this desire to explore conflict, post-happily-ever-after that led to the birth of the marriage in trouble plot? It’s an idea that Tracy Wolff explores in her debut Harlequin SuperRomance with mixed results.

Desiree Hawthorne-Rainwater is the only daughter of Big John Hawthorne, owner of the Triple H Ranch. They raise thoroughbred horses, and from the moment she could walk, Big John was grooming her to take over the family legacy. He’s a man obsessed with winning the Triple Crown, and to accomplish that mission he hires trainer Jesse Rainwater, 15 years Desiree’s senior. Over the years, the two fall in love, get married and have three children. Now one of those grown children is getting married in a lavish outdoor wedding at the ranch.

It’s the morning of the wedding when Jesse learns his wife has hired a new trainer behind his back. His replacement. Since her father’s death she has been consumed with winning the Triple Crown – a prize Jesse has failed to deliver. Their marriage has been a disaster for the last couple of years, and this final straw has pushed Jesse to the brink. He throws divorce papers at Desiree, on the same day as their daughter is getting married.

I found this to be a very problematic story, all thanks to Desiree who I flat-out did not like. She is a driven career woman who has sacrificed everything – her marriage, her children – to win the approval of a dead man. It’s her ranch. Her legacy. Hers, hers, hers. Never mind she’s been married to her husband for 27 years and he works on the ranch. Oh no. She’s the one calling the shots. The buck stops with her. And screw anybody who gets in her way.

Granted Jesse doesn’t earn a lot of points for handing over divorce papers on the day of his daughter’s wedding, but honestly I really couldn’t blame the guy. For 27 years his wife has been keeping his balls in a jar by the door. The word “emasculated” kept running through my mind over the course of this story, and I actually laughed out loud when the author uses the word towards the end. Seriously, I felt bad for this guy. I wanted him to go out and find a life – away from his wife who treated him as little more than an employee.

Normally when there’s a character that doesn’t work for me, the book keeps slapped with a really low grade. That being said, even despite my desire to throttle Desiree, this was one hard book for me to put down. I was compulsively reading it every moment I got. Standing in lines, waiting at red lights, on my lunch breaks at work – I could not tear my eyes away. Wolff can write, and she writes very well. Flashbacks are tricky things, and almost a necessity with marriage in trouble stories. She employs them to excellent effect, and I was positively tearing through this tale.

I did find the ending a bit abrupt, but I felt the “happily for now” style worked well. It would have been unbelievable, after all the years of neglect, for Desiree and Jesse to kiss passionately and have all their problems vanish into thin air. That being said, it probably won’t work for readers who prefer that everything is sunshine and rainbows by the closing paragraph.

While I had major issues with the heroine, I was so impressed with Wolff’s writing and storytelling, that I’m eager to give her another shot. And lucky for me? She has another book coming out from Harlequin SuperRomance in June 2009.

Grade: C-

Summary:

Desiree is determined to hold on to her husband. She’s loved Jesse Rainwater since the day the legendary horse trainer came to work at her father’s ranch. Now, on the eve of their daughter’s wedding, Jesse hits her with a bombshell that forces Desiree to reexamine their life together.

And she isn’t going down without a fight. She hasn’t struggled all these years to lose the thing that’s most precious to her. Desiree knows they share something true and strong, even if they lost sight of it somewhere along the way. Now her toughest battle lies ahead: to prove to Jesse that theirs is a love worth fighting for.

Read an excerpt.

Wendy the Super Librarian‘s review of Hidden Legacy by Margaret Way
Contemporary romance released by Harlequin SuperRomance 1 May 08

The entire time I was reading Hidden Legacy I was struck by the notion that I was not the intended audience for the story. The only way to describe this book is that it reads like a category romance I could have found on the shelves of my local public library….20 years ago. Old-fashioned doesn’t necessarily make a “bad” read, but coupled with an everything-and-the-kitchen-sink style plot and a heroine I never really warmed up to? Let’s just say it didn’t go well.

The first chapter signals trouble ahead when Alyssa Sutherland breaks up with her boyfriend by telling him:

“I can’t be with you anymore, Brett! You…you damage my psyche.”

Um, yeah sure, whatever you say, Queen Of The Dingbats. From that moment on, while she never does anything outright too-stupid-to-live, Alyssa does display a tendency towards petulance that grated on my nerves. Meanwhile, Brett morphs from needy to potentially abusive. Alyssa is glad to be rid of him, but soon gets devastating news when she learns her beloved great-aunt Zizi (real name: Elizabeth) has passed away.

Zizi leaves Alyssa her fabulous plantation-style house in Queensland. Once there, Alyssa meets Adam Hunt, the great nephew of Zizi’s former beau, and the man who found Zizi’s body. Adam believes that Zizi had many secrets, and was charged by his great-uncle to find them out. After some resistance, Alyssa agrees to help him, uncovers Zizi’s secrets, and opens up a big ol’ can of worms in the process.

Besides the Big Secret plot, which I suspect many readers will find repugnant and not romantic at all, the author also tosses in the abusive ex-boyfriend, a snide Other Woman, a suspense thread, and gothic overtones that never quite mesh. As if all this weren’t quite enough, the author tries to generate even more conflict by throwing up trust issues between Adam and Alyssa, naturally by way of the Other Woman who likes to plant ideas in Alyssa’s empty head.

The whole thing reads a bit like a sub par gothic romance that easily could have been published in the 1970s. Longtime fans of the author will likely find something to enjoy here, but as a newcomer I felt what I was reading was dated, and decidedly boring. Plot conventions are one thing, but when there’s nothing fresh added to the proceedings, it leaves readers with a paint-by-numbers story riddled with plot twists that can be seen a mile off.

Grade: D

Blurb:

Alyssa Sutherland has always adored her great-aunt Zizi-Elizabeth Jane Calvert-and valued their special relationship. Zizi has lived a quiet, contented life, one without great passion. Or so Alyssa thinks…

Then, unexpectedly, Zizi dies. Alyssa inherits her wonderful house in Australia’s tropical north Queensland, where she meets Adam Hunt, Zizi’s very attractive neighbor. It’s from Adam that she learns the first of Zizi’s secrets.

Together, she and Adam uncover the greatest secret of all-the lifelong love that Elizabeth Calvert kept hidden from the world. Zizi’s secret passion could change Alyssa’s whole world. But falling in love with Adam will change it even more….

Read an excerpt.

Thanks to the generosity of Harlequin SuperRomance authors Debra Salonen and Ellen Hartman, we had several contest winners to close out our May Spotlight! Winners need to e-mail Wendy with their shipping address to receive their prizes. We hope everyone has enjoyed this Harlequin Spotlight, because we sure did have a great time putting it all together!

The winner of two books from Ellen Hartman is:

Phyl!

The two grand prize winners of three books from Debra Salonen are:

Ruby D. and Greta!

These three runner-up winners will receive a copy of Debra’s latest book, Baby By Contact:

Virginia H., Jessica and TracyS!

The entire month of May, Wendy the Super Librarian, and a contingent of fine-feathered ducks, shined the spotlight on Harlequin SuperRomance. In case you missed out on some, or all, of our fun posts – here they are again, for your consideration, in one handy-dandy place. Enjoy!

The Intro: Super Wendy Does SuperRomance

The Authors:

Interview: Kathryn Shay Is In The Hot Seat

Interview: Debra Salonen Heads For The Hills

Guest Post: All About Men With Ellen Hartman

The Reviews:

Another Man’s Baby by Kay Stockham – reviewed by limecello

The Man Behind The Cop by Janice Kay Johnson – reviewed by Wendy and Sandy M

Having Justin’s Baby by Pamela Bauer – reviewed by Devon

The Boy Next Door by Amy Knupp – reviewed by Devon

Anything For Her Children by Darlene Gardner – reviewed by Sandy M

His Secret Past by Ellen Hartman – reviewed by Sandy M and Wendy

The Woman In Blue by Janice Kay Johnson – reviewed by Shannon

Shannon C.‘s review of The Woman in Blue (Patton’s Daughters, Book 1) by Janice Kay Johnson
Contemporary romance released by Harlequin Super Romance 1 Jul 99

I really appreciate that we’ve been doing these Harlequin Spotlight series over here on the blog, because otherwise I’m not sure I’d have ever picked up, well, much of anything they publish on my own. But there’s a lot that I like about the idea of Harlequin super romances–the slightly longer word count, the contemporary settings, the everyday Joes and Janes finding love, and, my God, if they’re all as emotionally wrenching as the book I just read, please to be signing me up for more of these books, k?  Thx. In fact, I am sad that this book is out of print, because it means you’re going to have to hunt it down before you can join me in squeeing about it, too.

The plot goes like this. Renee Patton can’t quite seem to exorcise the ghost of her father, the beloved police chief in Elk Springs, Oregon. Now she lives alone in his house after his death, trying to prove to herself that the abuse she suffered at his hands doesn’t mean too much to her. But then she is drawn to investigate the bones that Daniel Barnerd’s dog dug up on his ranch, which leads her to uncover some long buried secrets as well as an attraction to Daniel she soon finds it hard to deny.

In my ideal romance novel, I have to connect with the heroine. I don’t need to identify with her, but I’ve at least got to understand where she’s coming from. And I really got Renee. She is intelligent, brave, and compassionate, but she’s got a lot of emotional baggage to deal with thanks to her thoroughly craptastic childhood. I felt that her struggle was entirely believable, and that some of the cliches about romanceland heroines were nicely subverted–Renee doesn’t get a makeover to pretty her up, and she gradually comes to realize that she’s been crippling herself. That being said, she does have a few conversations with Daniel in which she plays the “I’m a feminist! No, really, I am!” card a bit to excess, perpetuating conflict where there wasn’t any.

I did like Daniel. He seems like such a nice, easygoing guy. He has a strong sense of honor, he loves his mama, and he can cook. Seriously, where can I find more like him? I will ignore the fact that I’ve read characters like him hundreds of times before, because I honestly found him charming. He isn’t perfect. He’s got some growing up to do on his own. But I got the impression he really got Renee and it was so fun watching them dance around their attraction and finally get their HEA. I even didn’t mind the fact that the sex scenes are fairly short and not terribly descriptive.

I liked the external plot, too. I didn’t see the resolution coming from a mile away, and there was no unnecessary suspense subplot. I liked particularly that the mystery further helped to develop Renee and Daniel’s relationship in meaningful ways and wasn’t an excuse to throw them together.

This is such a lovely book, with two people I came to care about, and I have to give the author points because I teared up at the end, proving that some tenderness still beats within the cold lump of clay I like to think of as my heart. If you can find this book, I highly recommend it.
Grade: A

     Summary:

     The people of Elk Springs, Oregon, thought Ed Patton was a good man, a good cop, a good father. But his daughters know the truth.
     Renee Patton feels she has to prove to everyone–especially herself–that even though she’s a cop, she’s nothing like her father. It’s definitely a full-time job, leaving her no time or inclination for a social life.
     But that changes when she meets rancher Daniel Barnard.
     Daniel’s the first person who’s ever made Renee long for another kind of life–a life that doesn’t revolve around her uniform. Suddenly she realizes she might just have found the one man who’s willing to take on Patton’s daughter. Everything would be perfect–if only Daniel’s mother wasn’t involved in the case Renee’s investigating.

I could not find an excerpt for this book.

Sandy M’s review of The Man Behind the Cop by Janice Kay Johnson
Contemporary romance released by Harlequin SuperRomance 13 May 08

Wow, it’s been a great month for me rediscovering Harlequin authors and books, and the SuperRomances I’ve read have all been terrific and made a new and improved fan out of me. I won’t be giving them up very easily like I did before. This book is the perfect one to end my month-long love affair with HSR.

The theme behind this story is domestic violence. It’s woven throughout the majority of the characters, the two most prominent being the hero and two major secondary characters, and the heroine, the one person who has never experienced the pain and humiliation of being beaten by a father or significant other, is the one who understands the scars, the fear, and the hurt that such violence wreaks.

Bruce Walker is a cop and meets Karin Jorgensen when he volunteers to teach a self-defense class at A Woman’s Hand where Karin is a psychologist helping battered women and children start a new life without fear and pain. Their attraction sparks immediately and they grow closer when working on a case that arises when Lenora, a patient of Karin’s, is attacked outside the facility after their first class. Her husband gets away, taking their kids with him. It’s during this time of working together that Karin learns Bruce comes from an abusive home. His father is a man who took his fists to his wife and three sons, with Bruce being the only one to break away clean. But he fears he can still turn out just like his father if he lets himself become angry enough, so he holds onto his temper at all costs. He doesn’t want to see what he could possibly become if he were to ever let go of the monster inside him.

Of course, while all these revelations are occurring between them, the hunt is on for Roberto and his children, everyone hoping they find them in time, before their father lashes out at innocent kids who only want to be held and loved by their parent. Also, Lenora lies comatose in the hospital from the attack and Karin is at her bedside when times allows, trying not to blame herself for her friend’s current state. Bruce goes by the hospital, among other places, himself as often as possible without seeming obvious, he just wants to see Karin, talk to her about the case, about anything. He just needs to be near her. I actually enjoyed their relationship a lot. They go out on a few days, sit and talk like lovers getting to know one another. That’s something you don’t get in too many stories nowadays. And when their hunger for each other finally erupts, it’s just as visceral, just as all-consuming as the violence all around them, just on the good side of it all.

This is a heavy topic to read, but it’s done quite well with the right emotions and actions for everything that happens in the book. And a lot happens. The scene between Bruce and Karin when they’re arguing on the street, pulling every punch they can think of, is a wonderfully emotionally fraught scene. As much as I liked Bruce before that scene, I was totally in love with him afterward. Bruce is also a Big Brother to Trevor, a kid who’s had a hell of a time with life. His relationship with Bruce is just another intricate nuance that adds another whole layer to the domestic violence story.

It takes a few tears, a lot of twists and turns, but the happily ever after you get in this book is worth going through all of that and more.

Grade: A-

Read Wendy’s review here.

Summary:

Being a big-city cop and being in control means everything to Bruce Walker. He knows how destructive a man can be when given the chance. That’s why he’s vowed never to get involved.
All that changes the moment he meets psychologist Karin Jorgenson. The connection between them is instant, intense…something he’s tempted to explore. Regardless of how Bruce feels, though, he can’t let go of everything he knows. His control is even more important now that they’re involved in a domestic violence case. Karin insists he’s a different man than the one he sees in the mirror. But can he trust her— and himself—enough to open his eyes and see it, too?

Devon’s review of The Girl Who Came Back by Barbara McMahon
Contemporary Romance released by Harlequin SuperRomance 13 Dec 05

After staying up way past my bedtime to polish off most of The Girl who Came Back, I stand by my earlier observations about Harlequin SuperRomance: even when there are issues, these books suck me right in, and sometimes the romance takes a back seat to the character’s personal dramas. I had debated about reading this one, as it’s a bit older, but I wanted to review another HSR, and the blurb was calling to me. Foster families, dark secrets, lost loves and a small Southern town. I had to know more. The Girl Who Came Back did deliver on its back cover promise. Although I have some complaints, I could not stop reading this for nothing.

The book begins with a flashback: what happened that fateful day when Eliza Shaw and her two foster sisters were separated from their foster mother, and from each other. This was also the same day her boyfriend’s sister died. Eliza has moved on from these traumatic events, and become a successful Boston chef with an attorney fiancé. Nostalgia had made her get a subscription to her hometown paper, and one day Eliza sees that Mattie, her foster mother, has suffered a stroke. Eliza decides to follow her heart back to Maraville, Mississippi, to help Mattie and track down her foster sisters. Unfortunately, she will also come into contact with Cade, the high school sweetheart who hates her to this day.

This is juicy, engrossing stuff. I liked Eliza. She was young and stupid and didn’t appreciate her foster mother, but as an adult, she longs for the sense of family she had then. She is strong and level-headed, and unwilling to put up with too much crap from her fiancé or Cade. I liked the small town setting. And, of course, the drama. What exactly happened that fateful day? What happened to the other girls? Can Cade ever forgive her?

Actually, I didn’t care about that part, as I really didn’t like Cade. I tried and tried to put himself in his shoes. He was young and overemotional, he came from a troubled family, he had suffered a great loss. But twelve years later, he still holds Eliza responsible for his sister’s suicide for the flimsiest of reasons, going so far as to think of her as a murderer. It made him seem like a jerk. Then once Eliza explains what happened (and no big surprises there) he suddenly changes his mind. Kinda. They are still very attracted to each other, and that worked. But Cade’s sudden decision that he was in love and wanted to marry Eliza didn’t ring true.

But still, I really want to know what happens next. So many things were left hanging. What will Mattie say when she regains speech? What is April like? Where’s Jo? What really happened to her? There’s something shady going on in town, for sure. The romance aspect would’ve kept this in the C range, but the fact that I am now determined to track down the other two books in the trilogy, The Lies That Bind, and Truth Be Told bumps it up to my final grade.

Grade: B-

From the Back Cover:

Home, Sweet Home?

When Eliza Shaw was sixteen, her life was torn apart. False accusations meant the only home had had ever known-a foster home-was destroyed, and she and her two foster sisters were separated. That same year, tragedy struck Cade Bennett, Eliza’s first love, and it ruined their relationship.

Twelve years later Eliza returns to the small Mississippi town where she grew up. Seeing her childhood home brings back emotions that Eliza hasn’t felt in a long time, and she begins the search for her former foster sisters. Eliza can’t ignore the feelings she has for Cade, either, even though he blames her for his sister’s death. But as the truth about the past begins to emerge, Cade and Eliza find themselves growing close. Maybe you can go home again.

No excerpt found.