Wendy the Super Librarian‘s review of The Maid’s Lover by Amanda McCabe
Historical romance short story ebook released by Harlequin Historical Undone 1 Dec 09

Amanda McCabe is quickly becoming one of my go-to historical authors when I’m in the mood for “different.”  Her latest short story for the Undone line features the criminally underused Elizabethan England locale to tell the story of two clandestine lovers.

Anne Percy may be related to nobility, but she’s a poor little orphan girl with few prospects.  There isn’t a lot of joy in her life, until she hooks up with Robert, Viscount Langley, a darling in Queen Elizabeth’s court.  These two cannot keep their hands off each other, arranging secret trysts in the woods near Anne’s home.  However the girl does see the writing on the wall.  She has zero prospects, while Robert is an heir – one expected to make a spectacular match.  He says they just have to be patient, but as the woman in this 16th century affair, she has everything to lose.  So even with her heart breaking, she cuts him loose.  Months later, now living at court, Anne has once again fallen under Robert’s spell – and this time, he’s not letting her get away.

This is ultimately a story about two people unwilling to compromise and communicate with each other.  Robert says they need to be patient, while Anne wants to scurry off and elope.  He’s definitely the more prudent of the two, but it’s easy to understand Anne’s fears.  Her and Robert have spectacular sex together, but he’s not exactly falling on bended knee declaring his undying love for her either.  Still, I couldn’t help but think that Anne was being a bit rash and silly – especially when later in the story she pulls a stunt to gain Robert’s attention.  Why she does this I have no idea.  I mean, the guy has sex with her in a hallway after a dinner at court and she still thinks she doesn’t have his attention?  Trust me cupcake.  You do.

What McCabe does exceedingly well is write about this time period.  It was downright refreshing to read about the Elizabethan era, and the excitement at court surrounding the Christmas holiday.  It’s a setting you don’t see every day in historical romance, and the author must have really thrown herself into research to include some of the interesting details that are found in the story.

Ultimately this was an OK read that kept me entertained on my lunch break.  The chemistry between Anne and Robert really sizzles, but there were moments when I was a touch annoyed with our fair heroine.

Grade: C+

Summary:

Anne Percy lived for her secret trysts with Robert, Viscount Langley, heir to a wealthy earldom and star of Queen Elizabeth’s court. Only then could she forget her life as a poor orphan at the mercy of her noble relatives and lose herself in the delights of his body. Every time they came together, it was just as passionate and wonderful as their first encounter. But even though Robert seemed to want her as much as she craved him, marriage appeared to be one thing they couldn’t share.

Now the lovers are reunited at the Queen’s Christmas feast—where Robert vows to show Anne they should never be apart…and to give her a very sensual Christmas Eve surprise.

No excerpt found.

Other books in this series:

Wendy the Super Librarian‘s review of Sizzling Seduction (Hightower Honors #4) by Gwyneth Bolton
Contemporary romance released by Kimani Romance 01 Oct 09

I play fairly fast and loose when it comes to picking out category romance titles to read.  I’m always willing to try a new-to-me author, and I tend to blindly choose books based on the back cover copy.  It’s really no surprise I picked up Bolton’s latest.  Hunky firefighter hero?  Single mom school teacher heroine?  Seriously, it’s got Wendy written all over it.  Unfortunately it stumbled a bit in execution.

With his three younger brothers happily married, one would think Patrick Hightower would be jealous of their bliss.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  He’s happy for them, but not so happy that he’s ready to take trip number two down the aisle.  He caught his first wife in bed with another man, and the divorce practically ripped his heart out.  No thank you.  He has learned his lesson.  That is until Aisha Miller shows up at his fire house with her kindergarten class ready for a tour.  He takes one look at the sexy single mom and he’s sunk.  Hook, line, sinker, wham-o!  Now all he has to do is convince the gun-shy Aisha to go out on one measly date with him.

Aisha has an incredibly horrible track record with men.  Her father is an emotionally abusive asshole, and then she got married at a very young age to her emotionally abusive ex-husband.  She ultimately divorced her husband, finished her college degree in education, and is making a home in a small apartment with her ten year old son Dillon.  The last thing she wants or needs in her life is another man.  But dang, that sexy Patrick Hightower is nothing if not persistent.

I wish Harlequin would do a better job of spotlighting series books in their Kimani Romance line.  A sub-title or cute little graphic on the front cover would make me one happy girl.  This is the fourth book in the author’s series about the Hightower brothers, and while it stands alone fairly well, there is a fair amount of info-dumping early on in the book.  It didn’t always make for a smooth read, and it wasn’t until after the first few chapters that I really started to settle into the story.

The conflict from the standpoint of Aisha’s past makes for the most compelling reading.  It’s hard not to admire a woman so determined to finally break out of the cycle of abuse that has plagued her all her life.  She wants better for herself, and her son, and I could easily understand why she didn’t fall all over herself accepting a date from Patrick – hunky firefighter or not.  What didn’t work nearly as well was the conflict surrounding Patrick.  His crazy, cheating ex-wife is trying to lure him back into her bed, and she’s being egged on by his vile Aunt Sophie who has some long-standing vendetta against his mother.  I’ll be honest, I found Aunt Sophie to be a huge, pointless distraction.  Especially since the conflict surrounding Aisha was much more compelling.

All this being said, I suspect that fans of this series will happily be gobbling up this installment – especially since they very likely got tantalizing glimpses of Patrick in the earlier books.  Also, they’ll probably be more tolerant of Aunt Sophie, who from what I can gather, was a source of conflict in the previous stories as well.  However as a newcomer to the series, I couldn’t help but wish the author had spent more time on Patrick, Aisha, their growing attraction, and Aisha’s past – kicking the Hightower family drama to the curb.

Grade: C

Summary:
Firefighter Patrick Hightower will take any risk in the line of duty. Risking his heart again? That’s something he’s vowed never to do. He prefers scorching affairs—the briefer, the better—though he might make a temporary exception for smart, sexy teacher Aisha Miller. But Aisha isn’t interested in exploring their instant, searing connection-no matter how much she feels the heat.

Aisha has had enough of dominant men trying to control her life, and the gorgeous firefighter who visits her kindergarten class is alpha male through and through. Yet the gentler side Patrick shows, especially around her young son, gradually melts her reserve. As shadows from Aisha’s past resurface, she’ll discover just how far Patrick will go to prove she’s found her real-life hero.

Read an excerpt.

Other books in this series:

When I learned a couple of years ago that RWA was planning on hosting their annual conference in San Francisco in 2008, I immediately marked it on my calander.  Mostly because it meant I could avoid flying the “friendly skies” and drive.   I don’t know about you all, but flying for me these days is on par with getting a root canal, a bikini wax and your finger nails pulled out….all at the same time.

The conference is always great fun for me because I love chatting with authors, whether they be rock stars or aspiring.  I get a lot of good information to take back to my library day job, and I learn about upcoming titles.  As if all that wasn’t cool enough, this year, our own dear Sybil hooked me up with a dinner invitation with Harlequin’s Digital team.  Not only did I get to eat seafood while gazing upon a fantastic view of the bay, I also got to chat with the Harlequin team about their upcoming ventures.

Launching in November will be Harlequin Historicals Undone, which will be ebook shorts similar to Spice Briefs and Nocturne Bites.  These will be short, tasty, historical stories with a higher sensuality level than a traditional full-length Harlequin Historical title.  I think I speak for HH fans everywhere when I say I hope these prove to be big hits.  The HQ Digital folks told me that the Spice Briefs have proven to be quite popular, so could a sexier HH short generate as much interest?  I sure hope so!

One of the things that the HQ Digital team offers, and I think is cool beans, are ebook bundles.  For example, with one click of the mouse you can buy all the Harlequin Presents titles that are out in any given month.  Also, they’ve done an Anne Stuart bundle that featured several of her “out of print gems.”  I would love to see more of these, and I would especially love to see Harlequin really dig into their rich and deep backlist.  Reissue some of these great older titles (oh, like Nicole Jordan‘s HH titles!) in ebook format.  I’d be first in line, waving my credit card in the air.

Harlequin has really been a trail-blazer in the digital frontier.  Online Reads have been offered on the eHarlequin web site for the last ten years!  I had no clue the program had been around that long.  In that vein, Harlequin has expanded their digital content to include “enhanced” ebooks, digital audio books, and mobile content for cell phones.  There’s also DailyLit, a subscribtion program that delivers a chapter a day of a book right to the reader, either by RSS feed or e-mail.  One of the big reasons I love to pimp Harlequin?  The fact that the books are shorter, quicker reads, and ideal for busy readers.  Now they’re giving us our fix by having a read delivered right to our Google Reader or in our e-mail inbox! 

I think we all know that Harlequin has been sneered at over the years.  Those books with the dreadful titles couldn’t possibly be any good.  That they’re throw away books written by hacks.  All nonsense, and a myth further dispelled by the work of the Harlequin Digital team.  They are on the cutting edge of offering digital content, and it has shown in their sales.  Vendors who deal in ebooks have quickly learned how popular romance novels are, because much like mass market paperback sales, romance dominates over the other genres in ebook format as well.

It’s really an exciting time for readers, authors and the fine folks at Harlequin.  I can’t wait to see what the team cooks up next!

They say confession is good for the soul. Despite a brief infatuation when I was a teenager, by the time I got out of college, my lip would curl in distaste if the words “romance novels” were even mentioned to me. Yeah, I was one of those.

I’m not proud of it, but there you have it. I blame my ignorance on the years I spent in academia earning the two college degrees that were necessary for me to get my dream job as a librarian. I got out quicker than most, but the trauma left me slightly warped.I quickly changed my tune when I landed a job buying adult fiction for a small, rural library system. We had a whole lot of romance readers using the library, and none of them looked like pathetic bored housewives who sat around eating bon-bons and wearing feather boas. I decided that it might be possible (just possible mind you) that my opinion of the genre was slightly “off.” So I started frequenting online romance review sites, went clicking through the positive reviews, and started checking out books.

It didn’t take long for me to get hooked.

That being said, my snobbery was still firmly intact. Because while I now admitted to loving romance novels it’s not like I was reading ::gasp:: Harlequins!

What can I say? I’m a slow learner.

I’ve learned over the years that my misguided opinion of the category format was not unique. There are plenty of romance readers out there who love the genre, but the thought of reading a Harlequin is too much for their fragile little minds to handle. The dopey titles, the shorter page count, the “hooks” found in many of the plots – they just cannot get past all that. To which I reply: “Why not try a SuperRomance?”

SuperRomance is one of the longest category lines that Harlequin offers, which means readers not only get a strong, central love story, but there can also be secondary characters and sub plots thrown into the mix. SuperRomance has a little bit more meat on the bone, and are often emotionally charged stories featuring conflict central to the lives of every day women. The characters are what I call “normies.” Normal, real, authentic characters. I often say that the characters in a SuperRomance are people you could see at the grocery store, your son’s little league game, or walking down the street.

All this translates into solid, honest-to-goodness contemporary romance. No vampires. No Dukes. No serial killers. SuperRomance stories give hope to the rest of us that yes, romance is possible. Yes, we too can fall in love. And no, we don’t have to wait for a Greek tycoon to knock on our door in order for it to happen.

So sit back, relax, and join us here at TGTBTU as we spotlight the Harlequin SuperRomance line all during the month of May. If you’re already a fan of the line, share with us why you love it. And if you’ve never read one before? We’re going to pull out all the stops to try and convert you.

Contest Alert! Debra Salonen has graciously donated books for us to give away to TGTBTU readers during our May HSR Spotlight! I will randomly draw winners from the comments (from all the HSR Spotlight posts) at the end of May. Two grand prize winners will receive three titles: Baby By Contract, Love By George and A Baby On The Way. Three runner up winners will receive a copy of Debra’s May release, Baby By Contract.