Holly‘s review of Burn by Linda Howard
Romantic Suspense released by Ballantine 7 July 09

I’ve been disappointed in most of Linda Howard’s more recent releases, but I was pleasantly surprised with this one. It reminded me quite a bit of All the Queen’s Men. Kind of light on the romance and heavy on the storyline, but still oddly satisfying. 

I really liked the beginning of the book. Though it was kind of drawn out, I enjoyed getting to know Jenner and seeing the circumstances behind her winning the lottery. I think it really gave insight into the character she was and how she changed because of betrayals along the way.

Jenner was strong and levelheaded. Right from the beginning I liked her and was cheering her on. She was just your average ordinary girl who had something extraordinary happen to her. As the novel progresses into the second half we see that she’s changed quite a bit. She’s more jaded and cynical, though her core has remained the same. I liked that most of all, I think. Her core remained the same.

Cael is another story entirely. I never really felt like I got to know him despite the amount of time we spent in his head. I guess we got a feel for the basics, but I would have liked to see more of his backstory. Though it’s noted right from the start that his motives aren’t what they appear, I still wondered if he’d cross the line.

I was concerned that the resolution between Jenner and Cael wouldn’t be quite satisfactory, but I was pleased with the way it turned out. I felt they worked well together.

The storyline was interesting because it took place almost exclusively on a cruise ship. The suspense plot didn’t contain much mystery – the villain was introduced almost immediately – but it still worked. I’m sure if I thought long enough I could find plenty of holes in the story, but the truth is I was entertained enough that I didn’t care.

Grade: B

Summary:

It’s true what they say: Money changes everything. And in Linda Howard’s red-hot novel Burn, the changes come fast, furious, and filled with the kind of sexy suspense, heart-stopping romance, beautiful people, and risky business guaranteed to give you the most bang for your buck.

Money certainly changes Jenner Redwine’s life when she wins a lottery jackpot. But it also costs her plenty: Her father rips her off and disappears, her fortune-hunting boyfriend soon becomes her ex, and friends-turned-freeloaders give her the cold shoulder when she stops paying for everything.

Flush with new money, Jenner can’t imagine ever finding a place in the world of the wealthy. Seven years later, though, she’s rubbing elbows with the rich, despite the fact she still feels like a party crasher. Luckily she finds an ally – and a guide to the rarefied realm of privilege – in shy, kind-hearted heiress Sydney Hazlett, who quickly becomes Jenner’s confidante and surrogate sister.

When Sydney invites Jenner on a charity cruise aboard a luxury liner, Jenner reluctantly agrees. But while she’s expecting – and dreading – two weeks of masquerade balls, art auctions, and preening glitterati, what she gets is more like a Hitchcock movie than a Love Boat episode. Taken hostage by a menacing stranger, Jenner must cooperate in a mysterious cloak-and-dagger scheme – or else. With nowhere to run, and with Sydney’s life as well as her own at risk, Jenner is drawn into a game of dizzying intrigue and harrowing danger. But as her panic gives way to exhilaration, and fear of her captor turns to fascination, Jenner rediscovers feelings she hasn’t had in years – and realizes she’s found a life worth living. If she survives.

Read an excerpt here (click on the book cover).

Over the past few weeks, one topic has engaged the writer message boards and forums. But, although I’ve read it as an author, it occurred to me that the reader hasn’t really said anything yet. So I thought I’d see what readers think about the current RWA ruckus. Yes, I’m a writer, but I’m a disinterested party, as I’m not a member of the RWA, and I don’t enter either the RITA or the Golden Heart. I want to look at this as a reader, an avid consumer of the product that the RWA members produce, if you will. So I don’t care about the rules and regs, or about the plight of the authors, not in this column, just in what I see as a reader. 

Yesterday, Jasmine Jade, which owns the Ellora’s Cave, Cerridwen, Lotus Circle and Exotika imprints, announced it would not be going to the RWA’s big conference, usually known as Nationals. It is no longer a recognized, or acknowledged, or whatever they’re calling it publisher, so it would have to pay for everything, and it’s simply not worth its while. So anyone wanted to pitch to them, or to learn more about them, or visit with their authors at the booksigning will be disappointed.

Alongside this is a row about the RITA and the Golden Heart, the RWA’s two awards for published and unpublished writers respectively. E-published writers cannot enter either contest. The Golden Heart is for unpublished writers only, so they can’t enter that. But in order to enter the RITA, the book has to fulfill a number of criteria, one or more of which excludes e-published writers. Whether the intention was to do that or not, it’s impossible for an outsider to say, but that’s the effect. It’s all very complicated, and please, please, no more discussion of the actual rules and regulations. That’s none of our business, all of us who don’t belong to the RWA. What I’m concerned with is the effect.

In the past, I sometimes bought books because they were RITA winners. The award guaranteed a certain amount of quality, so it was safer to invest in a previously unknown or unexplored author. Readers would buy the whole of the list, winners and runners-up, to find the best of the best. That’s what the RITA seemed to represent.

These days, I don’t do autobuy anymore. Instead, there are authors I look for, and assess when I read more about the book. And these days there are as many e-published authors as there are mass-market paperback New York authors on my list. True, I live in the UK, so my ability to browse bookstores full of romance paperbacks is limited to my yearly visits to the States, but I have Amazon.

I’ve moved over to e-books as my format of choice. Only if the book isn’t available in e-book do I get the paperback. So I’ve discovered some new authors that I love. Joey W. Hill, especially her Natural Law books are musts for me, and Linda Winfree’s books are side by side with Suzanne Brockmann and Linda Howard. I eagerly look forward to new releases from all four.

But if the RITAs are limited to the books from the big print publishers, then that halves my interest in the awards. I know there are books out there that equate with anything New York puts out, because I’ve read them. I love discovering new authors, whatever the format their books come out in. I don’t check the RWA list of approved publishers before I buy a book. I look at the cover art, read the blurb and an excerpt and maybe, if there’s an award like the RITA attached to it, I’ll pay a bit more interest in it, and maybe take a chance on a previously unknown author.

The attitude of the people awarding the RITAs seems similarly strange to the publishers. All publishers are all increasingly putting books out in e-format, so it is fast becoming just another way you can buy books. I know there are serious ramifications for authors and contracts, but I’m trying to ignore that here, and look at it from the point of view of the consumer.

So, as a reader, would I attend RWA Nationals, or visit the big booksigning there? I’d be disappointed because some of my favorite authors won’t be there, and it’s so expensive to attend, so probably not. Would I buy a book based on the fact that it had been awarded a RITA? No, not any more. I can’t trust it anymore, because it excludes the books of some writers that I love.

The RWA is busy sidelining itself. It’s a shame, but it makes my choice of which conference to attend that much easier.

LauraD’s review of Death Angel by Linda Howard
Romantic suspense released by Ballantine 1 Jul 08

Linda Howard’s last hardcover release was more mountain survival guide than romance, so I had some trepidation about buying her latest before the Big Box store had time to put their new release discount stamp on it. But yea! Linda Howard is back in fine form and I got to spend a perfect summer day off work camped in front of the AC unit reading Death Angel nonstop from cover to cover.

Drea Rousseau, born Andrea Butts, has carefully cultivated the image of a beautiful, brainless piece of arm candy and become the bedroom playmate of Rafael Salinas, a notorious drug importer. She’s counting on a few more years with Rafael, collecting gifts of expensive jewelry to finance her inevitable retirement. Simon is an assassin for hire, and the wild card Drea didn’t count on. When Rafael barters her for Simon’s good will, she’s shocked to realize that her brief time with Simon has changed her and left her unable to continue her relationship with Rafael. So Drea steals over 2 million dollars from the drug lord, and runs.

Death Angel is tightly written and very fast paced. Drea’s initial escape from Rafael is an adrenaline buzz, though detailed enough to make me feel like I could see it as it happened. I really liked her character. Along with a name change or two, she changes significantly as a person during the events in Death Angel. One happening might be a deal-breaker for some readers, but I felt like somehow Linda Howard pulled off what another writer might have fumbled quite badly.

Simon isn’t going to be for the reader who needs a knight for a hero. Tall, dark, handsome; and an unrepentant assassin. To me, it again shows Linda Howard’s strength as a romance writer that I could believe in this guy as the hero and love interest of the book. Her contemporary romantic suspense has sometimes included characters of moral ambiguity, but Simon has got to be near the front of that particular pack. Does he redeem himself? That’s a question every reader is going to have to decide for themselves.

Death Angel is a great mix of romance and action. Part road romance, part thriller, all good fun summer buzz. There will probably be readers who don’t like this book, I can see where some issues might be based. Bottom line, I am betting you’ll like Death Angel as much as I did. I’m going to put my copy on the keeper shelf, just as soon as I read it again!

Grade: A+

A striking beauty with a taste for diamonds and dangerous men, Drea Rousseau is more than content to be arm candy for Rafael Salinas, a notorious crime lord who deals with betrayal through quick and treacherous means: a bullet to the back of the head, a blade across the neck, an incendiary device beneath a car. Eager to break with Rafael, Drea makes a fateful decision and a desperate move, stealing a mountain of cash from the malicious killer. After all, an escape needs to be financed.

Though Drea runs, Salinas knows she can’t hide-and he dispatches a cold-blooded assassin in hot pursuit, resulting in a tragic turn of events. Or does it?
Left for dead, Drea miraculously returns to the realm of the living a changed woman. She’s no longer shallow and selfish, no longer steals or cheats or sells herself short. Both humbled and thrilled with this unexpected second chance, Drea embraces her new life. But in order to feel safe and sound-and stop nervously looking over her shoulder-she will need to take down those who marked her for death.

Joining forces with the FBI, supplying vital inside information that only she can provide, Drea finds herself working with the most dangerous man she’s ever known. Yet the closer they get to danger, the more intense their feelings for each other become, and the more Drea realizes that the cost of her new life may be her life itself-as well as her heart.

Alicia Thomas’s review of Up Close and Dangerous by Linda Howard
Romantic Suspense published 17 Jul 07 by Ballantine

Warning, bad blurb ahead:

A mysterious plane crash . . . a dangerous trek through the Idaho wilderness . . . a smoldering attraction . . . and a deadly game of cat and mouse. In her latest tour de force of romantic suspense, New York Times bestselling author Linda Howard blends these elements into a gripping story that will keep readers breathless – and leave them begging for more. For in Linda Howard’s world, trust can be a weapon, a kiss can be a threat, and intimacy can be deadly.

Bailey Wingate’s scheming adult stepchildren are surprised when their father’s will leaves Bailey in control of their fortune, and war ensues. A year later, while flying from Seattle to Denver in a small plane, Bailey nearly dies herself when the engine sputters – and then fails.

Cam Justice, her sexy Texan pilot, manages to crash-land the aircraft. Stranded in the wilderness, and struggling to douse her feelings for the ruggedly handsome man by her side, Bailey begins to wonder whether this was a mere accident. Sure enough, upon her return to civilization Bailey’s suspicions mount: Who tampered with their plane? Who’s trying to reunite Bailey and her husband in the afterlife? Trusting her life – and heart – to Cam, Bailey must outwit a killer who will stop at nothing to finish the job.

Sexy, suspenseful, and lightning fast, Up Close and Dangerous showcases a beloved author at her dazzling best.

Read an excerpt.

This blurb is misleading to the point it makes me mad. I saw Amazon reviews where people were disappointed with the book because they were expecting what the blurb promised. Have you ever taken a drink of tea when you were expecting soda? It totally ruins the taste of the tea.

First, the “deadly cat and mouse game” doesn’t exist. The main adversary they face, for the vast majority of the book, is meeting their physical needs. It is mainly a survival situation plot. Why make it sound like they are being chased?

Second, it says, “Sure enough, upon her return to civilization Bailey’s suspicions mount…”. This makes no sense. The story is about over when they get back. To start the book expecting a lot to happen when they get back almost guarantees a feeling that the ending is too abrupt. “Trusting her life – and heart – to Cam, Bailey must outwit a killer who will stop at nothing to finish the job.”…?! I wonder if the person who wrote this even read the book. This just isn’t there.

Happily, I didn’t read the blurb until after I read the book. That’s a habit of mine with my auto-read authors. Cam is a great hero. He’s smart enough to admit his limitations but he’s also in control and does all he can in the situation. Bailey is strong enough to push herself but she doesn’t bluster about how tough she is. She just does what she has to do.

This book isn’t thrilling or exciting, at least after the plane crash. I’d call it a comfort read. It’s never boring and the characters are appealing. At times I’d giggle out loud. I closed the book with a smile, believing they’d have a happy marriage.

Grade: B