Heartwarming and delightful and full of love in varying degrees, Kat Martin has written one of those stories you just don’t want to miss. Emotion-packed, fun, and romantic, these characters of Dreyerville will steal your heart.

Summary:

Years after running away with her boyfriend in her junior year of high school, Marly Hanson returns to Dreyerville at the request of her daughter, Katie, who has recently been treated for brain cancer. Katie has never met her grandmother, Marly’s mother, Winnie. But Marly and Winnie have been estranged for years and confronting the past for each of them is painful. The homecoming is bittersweet, but revisiting the conflict between them is crucial if Marly and her mother are ever to find the bond they shared before Marly left Dreyerville.

To complicate matters, living next door to Winnie is handsome sheriff and widower Reed Bennett, and his son, Ham, who is close to Katie’s age. Ham and Katie become fast friends, while their parents find their attraction to one another going deeper than mere friendship. But Marly’s time in Dreyerville is limited and risking her heart isn’t something she’s willing to do.

As the days slip past, and though she tries to avoid it, Marly and Reed become more deeply involved. Can she risk loving the handsome sheriff and give up the the futer she worked so hard to forge for herself and her daughter? Can she make a life in Dreyerville after what happened all those years ago?

Will Marly finally realize that her true destiny and ultimate happiness lie in coming to terms with her past?

~1~
Dreyerville, Michigan
April 1995

Marilys Hanson didn’t want to go home. It was Katie, her ten-year-old daughter, who wanted to visit Dreyerville, the small Michigan town where Marly had been raised. Katie had begged for months to finally meet the grandmother she had never known. Marly had finally agreed.

The day was cool but sunny, a light breeze blowing over the fields and whispering through the verdant forests at the edge of town. Main Street loomed ahead. Unable to resist a look at the place she had left behind twelve years ago, Marly pressed on the brake, slowing her old blue Ford sedan to make the turn. It was a beautiful little town, like something out of a picture book with its sycamore-lined streets, old domed courthouse, and ornate clock tower in the middle of the square.

She remembered Tremont’s Antiques in the block to her left, and next to it, Brenner’s Bakery. She and her mom had made it a tradition to go to the bakery on Saturday mornings. Marly could almost see Mrs. Culver standing behind the glass counter in her pink-and-white uniform, her gray-blond hair tucked neatly beneath a matching pink cap, smiling and chatting as she took their order. The place smelled of yeast and cinnamon, and patrons sat at little round, white wrought-iron tables.

Of course, that was all before.

Braking again, she turned the car onto Fir Street. This time of year, the entire town was a lush garden of shrubs and plants, the trees all leafed out, the grass so green it made your eyes hurt.

She drove a couple of blocks and pulled up to the curb in front of a gray-and-white, wood-frame house built in the twenties, the paint a little faded and in places starting to peel. Katie slept in the passenger seat, her head tilted against the window. Looking at her daughter, Marly felt a tug at her heart. Katie was the best thing that had ever happened to her. She was sweet and smart and loving.

And Marly had almost lost her.

Reaching down, she turned off the engine, sat for long moments just staring at the house that had once been her home. The house she had fled that awful night.

After so many years, just being in Dreyerville made her stomach churn. Where she gripped the steering wheel, her palms were sweating. Her pulse thumped dully. Years of emotional turmoil threatened to surface. Marly took mental hold of herself and firmly tamped it down.

She had made the decision to come. Now she was here. For Katie, she would handle it.

She took a deep breath and slowly released it. She hadn’t seen her mother since the night she had left twelve years ago, the night she had run off with Burly Hanson, one of the town bad boys. Even when they were dating, Burly drank too much and flirted with other women, but she wasn’t afraid of him and Marly was desperate to escape. When Burly offered to marry her and take her out of Dreyerville, she had jumped at the chance.

She had sworn that night she would never return, but she had a daughter to think of now, a child who had just survived a series of brutal radiation and chemotherapy treatments for brain cancer. Still fast asleep, Katie breathed softly, her bald head gleaming in the sunlight slanting down through the window.

Marly had considered shaving off her own shoulder-length blond hair the way people did when a loved one was fighting the disease, but Katie had begged her not to.

“Please don’t do it, Mom. It’ll only remind me how ugly I look.”

So instead, Marly had tamed the soft curls that were her secret vanity into a modest French braid and silently thanked her brave little girl.

She glanced again at the child sleeping peacefully next to her. The prognosis was good, the doctors said. With luck and time, Katie should recover. Marly clung to those words, refusing to consider any other outcome. She couldn’t imagine a life without Katie. She couldn’t stand that kind of pain.

Still, it was too early to be certain the treatments had succeeded.

Which was the reason she was back in Dreyerville, sitting in front of the little house she had run away from all those years ago.

After what Katie had suffered, the child deserved her most fervent wish: to meet her grandmother, Winifred Maddox, Marly’s mother, one of the few relatives Katie still had. Burly’s mother, already an older woman when she had borne her only child, had died four years ago. Mrs. Hanson had no use for children other than her son, and Katie had only seen her once.

Grandmother Hanson was dead, and Burly and his good-for-nothing father were both in the wind. Marly had no idea where Burly had gone when he abandoned them, and she didn’t care. Burly had served his purpose and saved her. She had escaped her life in Dreyerville and started on a new path that held far more promise.

Distant memories surfaced, the trip east to Detroit, Burly landing a job as a trucker and Marly starting night classes. It took a while, since she was working as a waitress to help pay the rent, but eventually she had gotten her GED. By then she was eighteen and handling her new life fairly well—until she had gotten pregnant.

The thought stirred a faint thread of anger. A baby was the last thing Burly had wanted—as he’d told her in no uncertain terms. The bigger her belly grew, the later he came home. He took long-haul jobs that kept him away for weeks, and she knew he had begun to see other women. When she came home from night school early,
found a pair of red panties on the living room floor and a woman in the bed she and Burly shared, the relationship came crashing to an end.

Marly divorced Burly—which wasn’t difficult, since she had never really loved him—and surprised herself by discovering how capable she was. With her job as a
waitress, she managed to take care of her newborn baby without Burly’s income, then put herself through two years of college. A student loan took care of the next two years. With a small grant and a lot of hard work, she had finally graduated with a teaching credential. For a while, she had worked as a substitute teacher, waiting for a chance at a full-time job.

Then Katie had been diagnosed with cancer.

Marly looked up at the old wooden house. For a moment, she just sat there trying to work up the courage to get out of the car, to march across the uneven sidewalk and climb the front porch steps. She tried to imagine knocking on the front door, tried to guess the greeting she would receive.

Her mother knew they were coming. Winnie had cried when Marly had phoned after so many years. Only a few words were exchanged, just the information that Katie was recovering from cancer and that the child’s dearest wish was to meet her grandmother.

Winnie had simply said, “Yes. Oh, yes, please do come home.”

The memory of her mother’s voice on the phone made her chest feel tight. Older, but still as familiar as it had been when Marly was sixteen.

Her father was dead now. Over the years, she had kept in touch with a few of her friends, and one of them, a girl from Dreyerville High, had written to tell her that
Virgil Maddox had passed away. Marly didn’t send a sympathy card.

The inside of the Ford was beginning to feel airless and warm. Reaching over, she gently shook Katie’s shoulder and the little girl came slowly awake, blinking her big blue eyes as she straightened in her seat.

“Are we there yet?”

Marly smiled at the phrase she had heard a dozen times along the road. “Yes, sweetie, we are.”

Katie stretched and yawned, reached for the soft pink knit cap she had been wearing, and pulled it on over her shiny bald head. The doctors had promised the hair would grow back, and though Katie had suffered the indignity of her baldness fairly well, she was still selfconscious. And she had always been shy.

“So are you ready?” Marly asked.

Katie nodded, but her small hand shook as she reached for the door handle. She was a pretty little girl, tall like her mother, blond when she’d had hair, with the same blue eyes as Marly’s, the same heart-shaped face. Their features were similar, except that at twenty-eight, Marly bore tiny creases from the corners of her eyes, and she was beginning to see a line or two across her forehead.

She took a courage-building breath, opened the door, and stepped out on her side of the car. Rounding the vehicle to Katie’s side, she helped her daughter climb out. They linked arms as they started up the sidewalk that cut across the lawn, which was a little too long and in need of mowing, but now brilliantly green after the end of the cold Michigan winter.

The front door opened before they reached it, and a gray-haired woman Marly almost didn’t recognize stepped out onto the porch.

Her mother’s lips trembled. “Marly? Oh, dear God, it’s really you.”

For an instant, Marly stood frozen. Time seemed to spin backward. For an instant, her mother was no longer wrinkled and gray and a little overweight. She was young and lovely with a stunning figure and laughter in her eyes. Drawn by the spell, when her mother reached out, Marly went into her arms and simply hung on.

For long moments, neither of them moved. It felt so good to be there, so good to be surrounded again by her mother’s love. Both of them were trembling. The thick
lump in Marly’s throat made it difficult to swallow.

Another moment lapsed before the ugliness of the past began to intrude. Old memories rose up, bitter and dark. Memories that had her pulling away. Her mother wiped tears from her cheeks with the tips of her fingers and managed to smile.

Marly worked to find her voice. “Mother, this is Katie, your granddaughter. Katie, this is your grandmother Maddox.”

Katie smiled shyly. Marly could read the joy in her little girl’s face. “Hello . . . Grandma.”

More tears filled Winnie’s eyes. “Hello, dear heart. I am so happy to meet you.”

Katie reached up and self-consciously straightened her cap. “I usually look better. I lost all my hair, but the doctors say it’s going to grow back.”

Winnie enveloped her in the same warm hug she had given to Marly. “You look beautiful, sweetheart, just the way you are.” She managed a watery smile. “You’re as pretty as your mother.”

Unconsciously, Marly stepped backward. They had been so close once. But things had happened. Things she couldn’t forgive.

“Let’s get your clothes out of the car,” Winnie said to her. “I’ve got your old room ready. There’s a set of twin beds in there, remember? I hope that’ll be all right.”

Her stomach tightened. Staying in her old room was one of the things she dreaded. There were memories locked up in there. Memories too painful to recall.

She turned toward the street, saw her mother and Katie hauling suitcases out of the trunk of the car, and hurried to join them. Her mother and Katie rolled the overnight bags toward the house while Marly carried the hanging bag the two of them were sharing.

“It’s right this way,” Winnie said to Katie as they stepped into the living room.

The room looked the same and yet different. The old brown sofa and chair had been covered with a blue floral throw. Plump, light-blue pillows brightened the sofa, and a blue-and-brown fringed paisley rug had been placed beneath the maple coffee table. The brass lamps were the same, but the shade that had been broken during one of her father’s rages had been replaced.

She glanced toward the kitchen, saw freshly ironed, light-blue ruffled curtains at the windows. The blinds her father had mostly kept closed were gone, the windows now letting in the late-April sunlight. The old Formica-topped chrome kitchen table remained, but there was a merry little blue-and-white silk flower arrangement in
the middle.

“It looks good, Mother . . . what you’ve done. It looks very nice.”

Her mother beamed. She was still pretty, Marly saw, just older and grayer and more weary.

“I gave it a lot of thought,” Winnie said. “After your father died, I wanted something cheerful.”

Silence fell. The invisible monster in the room had just reared its ugly head. A big, heavyset, beefy man, Virgil Maddox had dominated every inch of the house.
There was no place to hide, no way to escape.

In the silence, his presence slowly faded.

“Well, you did a good job, Mother.” Not Mom, as she used to call her. Somehow the word was too friendly, too intimate for the relationship they now shared.

Her mother glanced away. Perhaps Winnie had caught the flash of remembered pain in Marly’s eyes, a reminder of the betrayal that stood between them.

“Come on, Katie.” Winnie reached down and took hold of the little girl’s hand. “I’ll show you where you and your mother will be sleeping.”

Katie grabbed the handle of her rolling bag and fell in behind the older woman. As Marly watched them walk away, she noticed a similarity in the way the two of them
moved.

Except for the faint limp her mother carried that would never go away.

Her father had been in one of his tempers that day, and her mother had displeased him. She had broken the yolk on one of his eggs, Marly recalled. The fight that resulted had left Winnie with a broken leg and Marly with a broken heart.

She steeled herself, shook the memory away.

When she stood in the hallway and looked into the bedroom, her mother was showing Katie some of the trophies Marly had won when she had been on the Dreyerville High School tennis team. Her father had said tennis was for rich kids, but for once, she had managed to change his mind. She had a knack for the game, she had discovered, and in her sophomore year had won the girls’ singles competition.

Unfortunately, by the time she was a junior, things had deteriorated so badly at home that she had dropped off the team and, later that year, dropped out of school.
Marly paused just inside the doorway, unable to take the final steps that would carry her into the bedroom. Inside, nothing had changed. The twin beds were still covered with the same pink quilted bedspreads and matching ruffled throw pillows that had been there when she had lived at home. The nightstands and dresser that she and her mother had painted white, very stylish at the time, were still there, along with the white-painted headboards.

She watched her mother proudly show Katie the framed high school report cards Marly had received, a string of straight As. Her honor roll certificates hung beside them, and her old grammar school science project sat on the dresser: a Styrofoam sun painted yellow surrounded by circles showing the orbit of each perfectly proportioned planet that rotated around it. She had gotten an A on that, too.

Her tennis racquet was missing from its usual spot, she noticed, then remembered that her father had smashed it against the wall in a fit of temper.

As Marly surveyed the interior of the room, a wave of nausea hit her. So much had happened, so many terrible nights spent there, lying in bed listening, waiting for her father to come home. Trying to block out the shouting and crying once he had.

Waiting for another awful night to end.

ROGUE WRITING

Rogue writing.  That’s what I call writing a book that is nothing at all like the dozens of other books I have written.  That is what happened with A Song for my Mother.

And, oddly enough, it isn’t the first time.

Years ago, after I had written more than twenty historical novels, I decided to try my hand at writing a contemporary.  I had this idea, a ghost story based on an actual incident that had happened to my husband and me at a bed and breakfast in Connecticut.  The Silent Rose, was the result.  Fortunately, readers liked the book, it was nominated for a Rita, and it has been re-issued and reprinted a number of times over the years.

After that, I wrote a number of contemporary romantic suspense novels and am currently writing The Against Series, which started with the Raines brother, Against the Wind.

Feeling comfortable writing in both historical and contemporary, the little Rogue genie struck again.  Another story, The Christmas Clock, got stuck in my head and wouldn’t let go until I wrote it.

It was a novella, a Christmas story set in the tiny mid-western town of Dreyerville in 1995.  There was no hot sex in this book and no passionate romance, just a sweet love story that told the tale of Joe and Syl and little Teddy Sparks and the people who lived in the town.  Once again, I was fortunate that readers liked the story.  Still, when the publisher asked me to write another similar story, I declined.

For a while.

Then the old Rogue genie got hold of me again and shook me until another Dreyerville tale popped into my head, and A Song for My Mother was born.

It’s being published in a small, gift-sized hardcover for Mothers Day.  It’s Marly Hanson’s story, a young woman who, years after dropping out of high school and running away with the town bad boy, returns to Dreyerville to fulfill a promise to her daughter.  Recently treated for brain cancer, Katie’s greatest wish is to meet her grandmother, Winnie, whom she has never known, and Marly hasn’t got the heart to refuse her.  But Marly and her mother are estranged and dealing with the dark secrets of their past is crucial if mother and daughter are ever to find the love that once bound them together.

And, of course, in any tale of mine there has to be romance.  Handsome Sheriff Bennett and his young son, Ham, live next door to Winnie, and though Marly is wildly attracted to the man, she has a job and a life waiting in Detroit.  Add to that Reed’s worry for a friend who has fallen into despair and you have A Song for My Mother.

I’m hoping readers will enjoy the book and perhaps this summer will look for Magnificent Passage, my first novel, a western romance that is being re-issued in July.  Till then, happy reading and all best wishes, Kat

Sandy M’s review of A Song for My Mother by Kat Martin
Contemporary Romance published by Vanguard Press 5 Apr 11

What a heartwarming story this is. It’s one of those stories that goes straight to your heart, not your libido, which it seems we’re so used to these days in our romance reading. A Song for My Mother is a tale of second chances, of forgiveness, of friendship, and, of course, of love – all in more ways than one.

Not wanting to return to her hometown after twelve years away, Marly sucks up the hurt and betrayal she suffered at the hands of her parents to make the trip to Dreyerville to introduce her daughter to the grandmother she’s never met. Katie has just completed cancer treatment and Marly can deny her nothing, including reliving the past in living color where all the horror happened. Steeling her heart against her mother’s explanations, Marly stays in the background while Katie and Winnie become acquainted.

Living in Detroit, city girl Katie doesn’t have a lot of good friends, so when she meets the boy next door so begin her hopes of making Dreyerville her new home, if only she can talk her mother into those hopes. Ham is the perfect friend, going to bat for her as no one else but her mom ever has. But Marly just can’t get over the past, avoiding her mother whenever possible and wanting to get back to Detroit as soon as she can. But things also change for her when she meets a next door neighbor of her own.

Hoping she can somehow get through to her daughter, Winnie also doesn’t want to push Marly too much. She ran from her family once and she will again if feeling cornered. After all these years, Marly should know her father’s secrets and why Winnie stayed when her daughter wanted only to go. Patience is her only option.

Reed is the local sherrif, a widower raising his son in small town America. He’s not been interested in a woman in four years, but meeting Marly has stirred something in him he thought never to feel again. Maybe it is time to move forward. He tries to help mother and daughter also move forward and gets a door slammed in his face for his efforts. But Reed isn’t one to give up, especially when it comes to something he wants.

There’s also a side story of Emily, widow of another sheriff’s officer killed in the line of duty, and her son Timmy, which is just as moving as that of the main characters. I love the small town way of life, how folks look after one another, and Ms. Martin writes it very well, even giving readers an extra romance along the way.

All of these characters are real and hurt by life, some of them want and need forgiveness. Others need enlightenment and friendship. All of them need love. Ms. Martin handles every one of these elements with compassion and emotion. I read the last page of this book and gave one of those happy sighs from the warmth and smiles, even the mistiness, these characters evoke. Pick this book up. Soon. You need to read it.

Grade: B+

Summary:

Years after running away with her boyfriend in her junior year of high school, Marly Hanson returns to Dreyerville at the request of her daughter, Katie, who has recently been treated for brain cancer. Katie has never met her grandmother, Marly’s mother, Winnie. But Marly and Winnie have been estranged for years and confronting the past for each of them is painful. The homecoming is bittersweet, but revisiting the conflict between them is crucial if Marly and her mother are ever to find the bond they shared before Marly left Dreyerville.

To complicate matters, living next door to Winnie is handsome sheriff and widower Reed Bennett, and his son, Ham, who is close to Katie’s age. Ham and Katie become fast friends, while their parents find their attraction to one another going deeper than mere friendship. But Marly’s time in Dreyerville is limited and risking her heart isn’t something she’s willing to do.

As the days slip past, and though she tries to avoid it, Marly and Reed become more deeply involved. Can she risk loving the handsome sheriff and give up the the future she worked so hard to forge for herself and her daughter? Can she make a life in Dreyerville after what happened all those years ago?

Will Marly finally realize that her true destiny and ultimate happiness lie in coming to terms with her past?

Read an excerpt.

Other books in this series:

Sandy M’s review of Rule’s Bride (Bride Trilogy, Book 3) by Kat Martin
Historical Romance published by Mira 27 Apr 10

I’m very glad Ms. Martin didn’t place the bulk of this story in America, which had been my thought might happen when reading the two previous books and Rule’s promise to his dying father was mentioned. Not that America of the time wouldn’t have made a good backdrop, I just felt this series needed to continue and finish in England.

We do, however, get a little bit of both. The book begins in Boston where Rule has been working for Griffin Manufacturing, where high-quality armaments are made. His boss is impressed with Rule’s work, as well as Rule himself, and extends an offer that ultimately Rule can’t refuse. The man is dying and wants to make sure his then sixteen-year-old daughter is taken care of when the time comes. Throwing in part ownership of the company is the deal maker for Rule, and he departs for England a married man, to return in three years’ time to claim his bride.

He never gets that chance, however, when Violet shows up on his London doorstep now a nineteen-year-old woman who has been keeping her father’s business successful since his death, who knows her own mind, and who takes the bull by the horns, so to speak, to get what she wants. And she wants out of her farce of a marriage to a man who never came back for her.

But once Rule gets a glimpse of his wife, he thinks married life couldn’t be so bad with a woman like Violet to come home to every night. He talks her into giving him a chance to prove himself, giving them both a chance to see what being married could be like. Against her better judgment, Violet agrees to one month in England. And so the seduction begins. Along with the danger.

I did enjoy watching the rake become a husband. Rule has always done what he’s wanted without regard to anyone or anything. He’s never had any experience of love in his life aside from his brothers, so he’s not familiar with the emotion when it comes to women. He knows what feels good and goes for it. Violet, on the other hand, falls for her husband once again, and this time around it’s a grown-up love, but can Rule really change his ways to commit to one woman in his life? Would she be better off with the man she left behind in Boston?

In the middle of all the seduction going on, Rule is accused of murder, a case is built and he’s tossed in prison. This brings  his family together to find the true culprit, which really doesn’t come as much of a surprise after some misdirection for a little doubt here and there is thrown in.

All in all, a good ending to the trilogy. These books don’t jump out and grab you as you read, but they’re solid stories that entertain. The Dewar brothers follow through on their promises to a dying father and find love along the way. We should all be so lucky.

Grade: B

Summary:

Unrepentant rake Rule Dewar is living the good life

when a most surprising event occurs—

he falls in love with his wife.

After their strategic “marriage of commerce” three years ago, Rule quite forgot about Violet Griffin, the teenage heiress to a Boston manufacturing fortune. He simply spoke his vows, took over her father’s business and returned to England to resume his usual pursuits: high-priced wine, high-stakes gambling and high-born women.

Yet when Violet, now a sophisticated woman, unexpectedly appears at Rule’s London townhouse, husbandly duties no longer seem so odious—he can’t wait to take his stunning bride to their marriage bed. Violet, however, is not so easily led: she has her own ideas and is seeking an annulment to marry another. But as Rule attempts to win her over, someone else is determined to frame him for murder and keep him out of the way for good….

Read an excerpt. (scroll down)

Other books in this series:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Grade: B+

Summary:

Wounded in battle,

Major Reese Dewar returns to England –

but his damaged leg is nothing

compared to his shattered heart.

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

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

Read an excerpt. (click book cover)

Other books in this series:

Sandy M’s review of Royal’s Bride (Bride Trilogy, Book 1) by Kat Martin
Historical Romance published by Mira 25 Aug 09

I’ve not read many Kat Martin books, but the ones I have gotten to have been satisfying reads. They haven’t blown me away, but, as with this book, I end up with a good story and characters I wouldn’t mind visiting with again if Ms. Martin had a mind to include them in another story down the line, which I’m hoping is the case in her latest trilogy.

It’s been years since Royal has been home to England, choosing instead to stay in Barbados on the family plantation he’s turned into a resounding success. But his father is dying and it’s time for the heir to come home. Expecting his father’s passing and then taking over as duke somehow turn out to be the easy part of his homecoming. On his deathbed, the Duke of Bransford receives a promise from his son to marry the heiress he’s chosen so that Royal will be able to bring the family coffers and estate back to their former glory, shedding a good light on their name once again.

The day finally arrives for Royal to meet his betrothed, to make plans for the wedding he is not looking forward to but will go through with because he gave his word. Coming upon a carriage accident on the Bransford estate, Royal finds his fiance injured but thrown clear of the wreckage. Lifting the beautiful woman in his arms to care for her only reinforces his immediate attraction. Perhaps marriage will not be such a terrible state after all.

He is in for a surprise, however, when he later learns it is his betrothed’s cousin and companion, Lily, he’s brought into his home. She’s come to make sure all is ready for Jocelyn when she and her mother arrive for their introduction to the Duke. Lily is as attracted to Royal as he is to her, but she knows he can never be hers. And then before she can stop herself, she’s offered the help of her uncle and his cronies, criminals all, but they do play a convincing confidence game, and that’s just what Royal needs to get the justice his father deserves after being expertly swindled, thus leaving their coffers dry.

I enjoyed Royal and Lily. They try to be so very good when in each other’s presence, but their longing for one another gets in the way every time until finally they go too far. But Royal cannot marry Lily due to his promise to his father, a vow he will not break, even for Lily. I cheered for her each time she succumbed to Royal’s loving because her cousin is one selfish bitch, even though it ate at Lily to be so brazen and disloyal. Jocelyn and her mother do not deserve such loyalty, and it’s a terrific comeuppance Jocelyn receives in the end.

The confidence game they play in the second half of the book is a lot of fun, plenty of players to make the sting possible and very successful, though it does come back to haunt them slightly afterward.

I did want a little more of Royal’s brothers throughout the story, but we get only a smidgen of Reese, the hero of the next book, and a tad more of Rule, who we’ll see in the third. I do hope we get a good update on Royal and Lily in Reese’s Bride. But overall she gives just enough to keep your interest in the characters alive and to make you have the next two books in hand as soon as possible. Which I plan to do.

Grade: B

Summary:

Though he is a titled nobleman, Royal Dewar is singularly unlucky …   forced to choose between his soul mate …  and his salvation.

After years abroad, Royal has returned to Bransford Castle to find his father dying and the family treasury nearly empty. Then the old duke wrests a final promise from his guilt-ridden son: that Royal will marry heiress Jocelyn Caulfield and restore the estate to its former glory. However, it is not his fiancee who quickens Royal’s pulse, but rather her beautiful cousin Lily Moran.

Penniless Lily knows that nothing can come of their undeniable attraction―but there is a way she can help Royal. Enlisting some questionable characters from her past, Lily concocts an elaborate ruse to recover some of the Bransford fortune from a notorious confidence artist. As the dangerous scheme unfolds, Lily and Royal are thrown together in pursuit of the very thing―money―that keeps them part.

Read an excerpt.

Other books in this series:

Sandy M’s review of Heart of Fire (Heart Trilogy, Book2) by Kat Martin
Historical Romance published 1 Jan 08 by Mira

This book started out a little slow. To me, there was just too much time spent on Corrie obsessing over her sister’s death before she finally decides to take action. However, once that action starts, the story picks up and I was quite taken with the characters and the ensuing mystery. Corrie is a kind-hearted but outspoken young woman, both of which get her into trouble during her masquerade as a simple country mouse, but she pulls her ruse off quite well for a while and digs up tidbits of information here and there to lead her closer to solving her mystery.

Tremaine is another story. He grew up in a home where his father, for some inexplicable reason, detested him, so love has been scarce in his life. He takes his responsibilties as earl seriously, including blaming himself for the death of his first wife. When he sets his sights on Corrie, he never expects the feelings that flourish for her, nor does he expect her betrayal. But even her betrayal can’t stem his consuming desire. When they are forced to marry, revenge is on his mind but his new bride still isn’t what he thinks she is and he is determined not to lose another wife. He’s a lusty man and thinks he can live on lust alone. Corrie teaches him otherwise while he teaches her the depths of lovemaking. They also work very well together deadly events hit a little too close to home for Tremaine to ignore.

The story weaves in and out of the history of Tremaine’s family through Corrie’s attempts to find the answers to her sister’s death. You’re thrown in directions you don’t expect along with Corrie, and through it all you roll through the ups and downs of the depths of their growing feelings. Corrie never gives up to the pressure to stop her investigation and she never gives in to Tremaine when he’d rather subdue her curiosity with loving than talking. He learns there’s much more to a woman than her body, something more he can cherish forever. I ended up liking the man for that as much as his aggressive, domineering ways.

Grade: B+

From the back cover:

As a viscount’s daughter, vivacious Coralee Whitmore is perfectly placed to write about London’s elite in the outspoken ladies’ gazette, Heart to Heart. But beneath her fashionable exterior beats the heart of a serious journalist.
So when her sister’s death is dismissed as suicide, Corrie vows to uncover the truth, suspecting the notorious Earl of Tremaine was Laurel’s lover and the father of her illegitimate child. Corrie infiltrates Castle Tremaine posing as a wide-eyed country relation whose charming figure — and reduced circumstances — make her irresistible to the confirmed scoundrel. But Corrie finds the earl is not all he seems…nor is she immune to his charms, however much she despises his caddish ways.

Far from a society column, Corrie’s life soon reads more like one of Mr. Dickens’s serials. But the danger of her ruse is hardly fictional: someone is bent on ensuring Corrie’s questions go unanswered — and unasked.

Read an excerpt.

Other books in this series: