Guest Review - - The Collector

The Collector

By Nora Roberts

Publisher: G. P. Putnam’s Sons

Release Date: April 10, 2014

  

Writer Lila Emerson enjoys a comfortable, if nomadic, existence as a house sitter.  When in Manhattan, she entertains herself by watching the neighbors through their uncurtained windows and making up stories about them.  It’s a harmless hobby until she witnesses one of those neighbors being murdered.

Ashton Archer, a successful artist, is the go-to guy for his extended and somewhat dysfunctional family.  He has so many siblings, half-siblings, and step-relatives that he needs a spreadsheet to keep up with them, but his affection and concern for them all is one of his defining traits.  When his brother Oliver appears to have killed his lover and then himself, Ash refuses to believe it.  He goes to the police station to pick up Oliver’s effects and meets Lila, the sole witness to the woman’s murder.

Ash’s need for answers and Lila’s compassion for his pain bring them together. Lila joins Ash in his quest to find justice for his brother.  Their search is complicated by a priceless artifact Oliver secretly sent to Ash.

They soon realize the artifact and others like it have left a trail of blood behind them, and a ruthless man will stop at nothing to obtain the one Ash now holds.

This latest outing of Roberts’ is a little different from her recent releases.  It’s set mostly in New York City instead of in a small community, and she uses the urban hustle and bustle at key points in the story.  The plot is also different in that it’s tied to historical mysteries and legends.  Last year’s Whiskey Beach used a family legend, but this story looks at a broader historical stage.  It plays nicely off of the story of the Grand Duchess Anastasia, thought to have survived the massacre of the Romanovs until DNA evidence demonstrated otherwise, and the priceless, lost eggs created by Fabergé for the tsar’s family.

Ash and Lila are engaging and sympathetic.  Lila,  who grew up on military bases, carries a Leatherman multi-tool and prides herself on her independence and her ability to fix almost anything that breaks.  Ash runs his family’s personal affairs but not without periodic exasperation. His determination to have justice for Oliver and Lila’s desire to help are believable, as is their attraction to each other.

The secondary relationship in the book involves a high degree of coincidence, which will bother some readers and not others.  Some may not like the fact that Ash, like Seth Quinn in 2004’s Chesapeake Blue,  is a young and phenomenally successful artist who intends to paint the woman he’s attracted to.  Others won’t care.

The opening of the story is a little slow, perhaps because Lila is content, with no hint of any looming problem.  Once the murder occurs, however, events move along at a good pace.  Ash and Lila’s strategy for dealing with the man behind his brother’s killer is clever and credible.

The biggest group of secondary characters are the Archer family members.  They have various temperaments, personality clashes, and agendas and varying degrees of affection or tolerance for each other.   The uncle for whom Oliver worked is a bit more prominent and very well drawn, as are Lila’s friend Julie and Ash’s friend Luke.

Overall, this was an enjoyable, engaging story.

~Nancy Northcott

A former attorney who never outgrew her love of comic books, science fiction and fantasy, Nancy left the legal profession to pursue her dreams of creating her own action adventure stories.  Check out her terrific contemporary romances set within a fantasy world in present-day Georgia.

Guest Review - - Far Gone

FAR GONE
By Laura Griffin
Publisher: Gallery Books
Release Date: April 15, 2014

What would you do if your computer genius little brother got involved with an anti-government militia group? Oh, and what if you happened to be a police officer sworn to uphold the very laws his group is breaking?

This is the problem facing Austin PD detective Andrea Finch in Laura Griffin's first hardcover thriller, Far Gone. At the start of the book, Andrea is already facing an investigation into her shooting of a young man bent on destruction in a local restaurant. And when she begins to suspect her brother is far more involved in the activities of a local anti-government group, she chooses to risk the career she loves in order to rescue him. Which puts her square in the path of sexy FBI agent, Jon North, who is determined to convince his superiors at the bureau that the group is involved in a bombing on the other side of the country.

The non-stop thriller that ensues is much larger in scope than loyal readers have come to expect from Griffin, and it's great. Whereas her earlier books deal with murder and corruption on the local level, the action of Far Gone has the potential to affect the whole nation. And with her attention to detail and meticulous plotting Griffin is up to the challenge.

What romantic suspense readers love most, however, is the romance, and Griffin doesn't stint on that one bit. (If my mental picture of FBI agent Jon North happened to look a lot like Thomas Gibson who plays Aaron Hotchner on Criminal Minds, you will forgive me, won't you gentle readers?) At the same time he's trying to stop her from getting involved in his investigation, Jon North can't help but be drawn to Andrea. And though she can't decide whether she wants to kiss him or punch him in the gut, Andrea is intrigued by the no-nonsense FBI agent with the unexpected flashes of humor.

There were so many things to love about this book: the banter between Andrea and Jon; the backstory of how Andrea and her brother grew up depending on one another; the very real—and disturbing—nature of the villains they're trying to catch; and perhaps most dear to my own heart, the glimpses of Alex and Nathan from one of Griffin's earlier books. All in all, I found it to be a first rate addition to the Laura Griffin canon and as usual when I turned the last page on this one, I'm already salivating for the next. 

~Manda Collins

http://mandacollins.com

Manda Collins writes smart, sexy historical romance laced with a touch of mystery. Manda still lives in her native coastal Alabama where she works as an academic librarian at a small liberal arts college.  Her most recent book, Why Earls Fall in Love, the second in her Wicked Widows trilogy, was released by St. Martin's on January 28, 2014.  You can find more information about Manda and her books at her website and connect with her online at Facebook and Twitter.

Guest Review - - All You Need is Love

All You Need Is Love

By Marie Force

Publisher: Berkley

Release Date: February 4, 2014

Cameron Murphy is the only child of an immensely wealthy businessman, but she is determined to succeed on her own. She is very proud of what she and her friend, business partner, and fellow-ADD sufferer have accomplished in building their web development business without depending on her father’s money or influence. Still, Cameron is grateful when Lincoln Abbot, an old friend of her father’s from their days at Yale, approaches her about developing a web site for his family business, the Green Mountain Country Store, which has been in his wife’s family for four generations. Cameron prepares a proposal, buys her first car (a new, cherry red Mini Cooper), and with Manhattan in her rear view mirror, sets out for Butler, Vermont, hopeful that the Abbot family will like her ideas and channel some desperately needed cash into her business. Her hopes dim when she has an encounter with Fred, the town moose, that leaves her car a wreck and Cam with a face so battered and bruised she frightens herself. Hope grows even fainter when the first citizen of Butler she meets is the grumpy Will Abbot, second son of the aforementioned Lincoln, who tells her that he and his nine brothers and sisters are adamantly opposed to their father’s plan to bring their business into the twenty-first century.

Will is convinced that the last thing the Abbots need is a city girl coming in and trying to change things that don’t need changing. He and his siblings are happy with the way things are and agree to do their best to overrule what they believe is just another of their father’s wild ideas. Will has a particular bias against city girls since his college girlfriend whom he expected to make his wife rejected him and small-town Vermont to return to the greater excitement of city life. He’s not about to allow himself to develop an interest in another girl from the city, no matter how attractive he finds her even with her battered face.  He keeps telling himself that she is not for him even as he buys her the right kind of boots for Vermont’s mud season and a coat with sleeves that will keep her warm and please her sense of style and invites her to breakfast and dinner and changes his mind about the web site.

It doesn’t take long for the city girl and the country boy to fall head over heels. Cameron also finds herself falling for the entire Abbot family from Grandpa Elmer, an expert in giving advice, to the youngest Abbot, college student Max who is having a crisis of his own, and the Abbots return her affection. But Cameron’s business is in New York. So are her father and her friends who have become her family. She loves bar hopping and Broadway plays and retail therapy, and the lack of a cell phone signal in Butler drives her crazy. Will’s life is in Butler. So is his family, immediate and extended. He loves winter sports and family dinners and his labs Trevor and Tanner, and he doesn’t even own a cell phone. Heartbreak seems likelier than an HEA for two people from such different worlds.

All You Need Is Love introduces a new series from Marie Force, and based on this beginning, I predict that it is going to be a smashing success. I fell in love with Will, the Abbott family, the country store, and Butler, Vermont, right along with Cameron. Will really is an irresistible hero—gorgeous, athletic, charming, and sensitive. And he loves his mom and his dogs and takes care of his kid brother. Cameron is smart, fiercely independent, and loyal with an openness and warmth that allow her to see the charms of a world very different from the one she knows best. There is also something a bit sad about her. Her privileged background didn’t shield her from the loneliness of growing up with no mother, no siblings, and a father who was rarely there. I not only liked these characters; I also believed in them and in Butler so strongly that I felt I could drive to Vermont and find them.

While Cameron and Will’s story is the heart of the novel, Force gives her readers enough information about the other Abbot siblings to know that each has a story.  I’m hoping that Force writes all of these stories. She has said that next up is I Want to Hold Your Hand (June 3, 2014), the story of the oldest Abbott daughter, Hannah, an Iraqi war widow, and Nolan, an old friend whose interest in Hannah is clear in the first book. That will be followed by I Saw Her Standing There, the story of Colton Abbott, a mountain man who lives primitively and runs the family's sugaring facility. That leaves seven more Abbotts plus their cousins and Cameron’s New York friends. This series could rival Robyn Carr’s Virgin River series in length. And, as with the Virgin River books, I’m ready to sign up for the duration of the series.

My only quibble, and it is a minor point, is that Will’s ex-girlfriend is “not good enough for him” because she chooses city life over him. Since I am barely willing to concede that Cameron is good enough for him, I’ll buy that the absent Lisa didn’t deserve Will, but I don’t think preferring city life to small-town life makes her morally inferior. I don’t think it’s unusual for college affairs to end because the people involved move in different directions. This is a hot-button issue for me, despite my abiding affection for small-town romances, but it is not enough to spoil my appreciation of these characters.

If you are a fan of small-town romances with a sweet and sexy love story that is also rich in family dynamics with a strong sense of place and a cast of characters who will linger in your memory and in your heart, I highly recommend this book.  If it’s not already on your have-read or to-be-read list, I suggest you add it today.  

~Janga

http://justjanga.blogspot.com

Review - - Watch Your Back

PJ here.  I'm delighted to welcome Manda Collins today, not in her role as a published author but as a book reviewer. Manda will be joining us from time to time to share her thoughts about books in one of her favorite romance sub-genres:  romantic suspense. Today, Manda is reviewing the newly-released Watch Your Back by Karen Rose. Welcome, Manda!




Watch Your Back
By Karen Rose
Publisher:  Signet
Release Date: February 4, 2014

                I've had mad love for Karen Rose ever since she happily autographed her entire backlist for me at a RWA conference some years back. It's rare that an author even gets her most recent book, let alone her entire backlist to sign at the RWA publisher signings—so her publisher must have known just how good she was!

                But what really tipped me over the edge to fangirl was her writing, and her latest WATCH YOUR BACK is easily one of her best.

                On medical leave from being shot in the previous book, Baltimore cop Stevie (Stefania) Mazzetti  has been going through her former partner's cases with a fine toothed comb in her down time, looking for anything untoward. You see, her former partner was in the pay of a very powerful man who paid to see to it that his enemies were punished while his friends got off scot free.  And Stevie wants to right the wrongs he committed, in part because she feels responsible for not having realized he was dirty. 

                          But Stevie has more issues than just a gunshot wound to deal with. She's also still recovering emotionally from the seemingly random shooting deaths of her husband and small son some years ago. And that has left her terrified to fall in love again. So much so that when former Marine turned Private Investigator Clay Maynard tries to turn their sizzling attraction into a relationship she turns him down flat. But when a sniper takes a shot at her on the anniversary of her husband and son's deaths, then tries again later at her house, she'll have to deal with Clay's presence in her life whether she wants him there or not. He's in protective mode and it will take more than Stevie's protests to keep him from doing what needs to be done to keep her safe.

                What follows is a twisting, turning tale of betrayal, sins of the past, and an arch villain who will stop at nothing to see to it that no one discovers he is the mastermind behind years of terror. As is her usual MO, Karen Rose has created a world in this Baltimore setting that seems so real you want to visit there. There are several threads of plot that carry over from the previous books in the series, and though I think it could be read as a standalone, to get the full effect it would be best to read those first.     

          

                One thing that is especially fun in any Karen Rose book is playing spot the walk-ons from other series and books. In this case, it's Stevie's friend and self-help guru, Emma , and her husband Christopher, who were the stars of Rose's novella "Dirty Secrets" from the anthology Hot Pursuit. And of course we get to see the couples from the previous books in the series, and various other secondary characters that populate her Baltimore world.

                Overall, I think this is one of Rose's strongest books, and I hope this won't end her time in Baltimore. I've grown to love these people and their friendships and loves and I will be sorry if we don't get to see more relationships develop among them. But knowing Karen Rose, even if she does decide to move the main action of her books somewhere else, we'll see these characters again someday as walk-ons in someone else's romance.

~Manda Collins

http://mandacollins.com

Manda Collins writes smart, sexy historical romance laced with a touch of mystery.  Manda still lives in her native coastal Alabama where she works as an academic librarian at a small liberal arts college.  Her most recent book, Why Earls Fall in Love, the second in her Wicked Widows trilogy, was released by St. Martin's on January 28, 2014.  You can find more information about Manda and her books at her website and connect with her online at Facebook and Twitter.

               

                

Guest Review - - Sweetest Mistake

Sweetest Mistake

By Candis Terry

Publisher: Avon

Release Date: December 31, 2013

Jackson Wilder and Abigail Morgan grew up together in Sweet, Texas. The Wilders made Abby feel like one of the family and gave her a sense of stability that her own materialistic, irresponsible parents did not. Abby loved all the Wilders, but her relationship with Jackson was special. They were best friends--sharing adventures and confidences, giving one another advice, and being present for one another in the needy moments. A few times their relationship moved to a more intimate level, but, afraid of jeopardizing their rare friendship, they always retreated to the familiar roles, viewing their time together as lovers as moments out of time, the one thing they could not talk about.

Abby kissed her friend Jackson goodbye when he headed off to war, and then she left town. Jackson never heard from her, not when he was in danger daily in Afghanistan, not when his brother Jared was killed in action, and not when his father died. He feels betrayed and angry by Abby’s disappearance from his life, but he has never forgotten her. Now, nearly seven years after she left, Abby is back in Sweet to prepare her parents' house for sale, and Jackson wants some answers. However, every meeting with Abby leads to another meeting and raises more questions for both of them. The only things they are certain of are the still-strong link their history forged between them and the still-explosive chemistry they share.

Reunited lovers and friends–to-lovers are two of my favorite tropes, and Candis Terry offers readers both in this book. While the story picks up at the point of reunion, Terry supplies enough details about Jackson and Abby’s past for readers to understand how rich and multi-layered the history between them is. I particularly liked that these characters are not frozen in time during the seven years that they are apart. They both try to create lives in which the other has no place, and they both make mistakes in choosing a marriage partner.

Abby tries on her parents’ values for size and marries a man who is fabulously wealthy and socially prominent, but it doesn’t take her long to discover that the things her parents covet leave her feeling empty when there is no real love or communication between her and her shallow husband who is more interested in image than in substance. Jackson marries a woman he loves, a good person with whom he has a child that they both adore, but he finds that loving and being in love are not the same thing. One of my favorite scenes shows him patiently allowing his three-year-old daughter to put hair accessories in his hair and makeup on him. Only a doting father who is totally secure in his masculinity would do that. I also really like that Abby and Jackson acknowledge their mistakes. While they each feel that the other contributed to their separation, neither tries to avoid his/her own responsibility. In other words, they have become grown-ups.

What separates Jackson and Abby is a misunderstanding of how the other feels that could have been cleared up with some honest communication. Usually such misunderstandings have me closing the book and muttering imprecations, but Abby and Jackson are young and they value the friendship that has been important to them for much of their lives. Both these factors make me willing to accept the misunderstanding as more than a weak plot point.

Terry has a gift for creating small towns that feel real. I liked her Sugar Shack series, but I think the Sweet series is even better. The widowed Jana Wilder and her sons are all characters with a high credibility quotient and strong appeal, and Joe and Jared, whose deaths occur before the series begins, have a real presence in the books and in the hearts of the surviving Wilders. I’m eager to see the remaining brothers, Jesse and Jake, earn their HEAs, and I am equally invested in seeing the hints of Jana’s romance developed.

If you are a fan of small-town romances with emotionally engaging stories and characters who will win your affection, I recommend Sweetest Mistake. The first book in the series, Anything But Sweet (Reno’s story) is also a good read, one with a rich vein of humor. Jesse’s story, Something Sweeter, will be released on June 24. It’s on my list for 2014.

~Janga
http://justjanga.blogspot.com

Guest Review - - Boots Under Her Bed

Boots Under Her Bed

By Jodi Thomas, Jo Goodman, Kaki Warner, and Alison Kent

Publisher: Berkley

Release Date: January 7, 2014

Berkley hit upon a recipe for success when they chose to combine novellas from four excellent and popular authors in this anthology.

“Crazy Callie” by Jodi Thomas

Callie Ann Cramer needs a groom in a hurry. Marriage will ensure that her husband is her next of kin and thwart her step-father’s plan to have Callie committed to an institution for the insane. He covets the ranch that he has worked since he married Callie’s mother, and there’s not much he is unwilling to do to achieve his goal. Callie has evaded his efforts to marry her off, survived attacks on her person, and found some measure of contentment living in a small house on the edge of the property. Her step-father has already been successful in persuading most of the town that eccentric Callie who prefers animals to people is crazy. Now that the woman he wants to marry refuses to love on a ranch with Crazy Callie, he has a new reason to get rid of his step-daughter.  Lawyer Luke Morgan—dumped, broke, and drunk—looks like Callie’s best bet, but he proves to be a better bargain than Callie dared dream.

Jodi Thomas is one of the best storytellers writing romance fiction, and in “Crazy Callie,” she takes one of the oldest tropes in the genre, the marriage of convenience, and gives it a fresh twist. The result is a story that blends humor, sweetness, and a sigh-worthy ending. Thomas is an expert at creating quirky characters that retain their credibility, and she does so again in this story. Even the villain is human. If you are a fan of Thomas’s Western novels, you will fully appreciate this one.

“Nat Church and the Runaway Bride” by Jo Goodman

Felicity Ravenwood left her groom at the altar and ran away in the private rail car her father had built for the couple’s wedding trip. Her father, a railroad tycoon, calls in a favor and sends Nat Church, an expert in repossession and recovery whose service is usually under the direct orders of the President of the United States, after his wayward daughter. Nat finds Felicity in a jail cell in Falls Hollow, Colorado, along with seventeen local temperance activists. Felicity has no intention of meekly accepting a return to her father, and refuses to leave the jail. But Nat is a man who knows how to ensure his success. The next thing Felicity knows she is in her private rail car in a leg iron, listening to Nat tell her that her father has cut off her funds but given her freedom to travel in the car so long as she never leaves it.  Thus the two begin two journeys: a circuitous one in the luxurious car through thinly inhabited Western towns and an emotional one that ends in an HEA.

Goodman’s story is my favorite. I too fell in love with Nat Church, who reminds me of a younger, sexier, more handsome version of Paladin in Have Gun—Will Travel, one of my early heroes. And Felicity’s independence and intelligence make her almost as delightful as Nat. The seduction scene is one of those perfect scenes that readers are lucky enough to be given sometimes. Readers of Goodman’s recent Western romances will recognize Nat Church as the fictional character in the dime novels referenced in those books.

“The Scent of Roses” by Kaki Warner

Richard Whitmeyer and Rachel James meet on a train shortly after a bank robber in Omaha City escaped with two hundred bearer bonds and a fortune in uncut jewels and left behind not a single clue as to his identity. Richard is an insurance investigator on track of the robber; Rachel is employed by a detective agency for the same task. Each holds his/her own identity close, and each is suspicious that the other knows something about the robbery. Warner adds a powerful attraction between these two strong-minded, intelligent people, the spice of danger, and some genuinely funny moments.

I love Kaki Warner’s characters. I always find them fully dimensional with an extra dollop of wit and warmth. Richard and Rachel are just as appealing as the characters in Warner’s novels. The battle between attraction and suspicion is handled with great skill, and the interactions between the protagonists often left me smiling.

“The Hired Gun’s Heiress” by Alison Kent

Maeve Daugherty ran away from her life as a banker’s privileged daughter in New York City because of her parents’ interference in her efforts to make a difference in the poorest sections of the city. She joined her Uncle Mick on his journey to Texas, but Mick gambled away their funds and left Maeve in San Antonio with the advice that she seek employment as a housekeeper on nanny. Instead, she finds work as bookkeeper in a brothel. Zebulon Crow, her father’s bodyguard, comes after Maeve. She thinks he has been sent by her father. In reality, her father is far more concerned about Mick and money he has stolen from him. Finding Maeve is Zeb’s personal mission, but the two will have to survive danger and defeat dangerous enemies before they can claim their HEA.

Kent’s story is the darkest in the group, and the most action-filled. It features degrees and varieties of villainy, class issues, a tortured hero, and an unconventional heroine. That’s a lot to pack in a novella, and it is a measure of Kent’s skill as a writer that she does so and makes them all work. 

Boots Under Her Bed is a rare anthology in which all the stories are entertaining with engaging characters. The voices and styles of the four authors are diverse, so there is never the sense of a story retold that plagues some collections. If you are a fan of any of these authors or if you just have a fondness for Western romance, I think you will agree that this book is a winner.

~Janga
http://justjanga.blogspot.com

Guest Review - - Snow Day

Snow Day

By Shannon Stacey, Jennifer Greene, and Barbara Dunlop

Publisher: Harlequin

Release Date: December 31, 2013

Christmas may be over, but seasonal books are still showing up on bookshelves, real and virtual. Harlequin offers this trio of stories about lovers reunited when a major winter storm hits Tucker’s Point, Maine in early January, forcing the lovers who have been apart for various periods of time ranging from six months to ten years into one another’s company.  The storm, the reunion theme, and a thread concerning a child lost in the storm link the three stories.

In “Heart of the Storm” by Shannon Stacey, Brody Rollins plans a quick, low-key visit to the hometown to which he has not returned in five years. His purpose is to meet his sister’s two-week-old son. Brody expects to spend one night with his sister and her small family, pay a brief duty visit to his parents, and get out of town as rapidly as he can. Instead, when his sister’s home loses power because of the storm, he ends up seeking shelter with her, her husband, and their baby at the local emergency shelter in an elementary school. One of the volunteers in charge is Delaney Westcott, the girl Brody left behind him with only a note to tell her that none of her dreams for the two of them were coming true. When Brody and Delaney meet again, it is immediately clear that the jagged edges of that goodbye still cut both ways, but five years of silence is a lot to overcome. Have the years softened the intensity of Brody’s dislike of Tucker’s Point and his fear of replicating his parents’ lives? Can Delaney forgive him for walking away with no explanation? Is an HEA for these two possible?

In “Seeing Red” by Jennifer Green, Whitney Carr has returned to Tucker’s Point at the urging of her mother and sister who think the “treasure” Whitney’s deceased grandmother left in her house might be truly valuable. Whitney left town at eighteen shortly after her high school boyfriend, Henry “Red” Redmond dumped her with no explanation on the night of their senior prom. Whitney still retains enough of her Mainer pragmatism to arrive prepared for the storm with food, candles, and a heat source, but she’s not prepared for the emergency crew member who awakens her in the wee hours of the morning to be Red nor for the feelings that the sight of him awakens. Red realized long ago that he made a mistake in not telling Whitney the truth about why he was setting her free, and he’s not about to miss his second chance with the only woman he’s ever loved. If these two can learn to be fully honest with one another, they just might deserve their HEA.

The lovers in the third story, “Land’s End” by Barbara Dunlop, have been apart for a much briefer period of time. Six months ago, Tessa Ambroise returned the engagement ring that she had been given by Colton Herrington of the Boston Herringtons. Tessa is in Tucker’s Point going through Land’s End, the twenty-six–room stone mansion built by her ancestors on twelve acres of prime beach front land nearly two centuries ago. The death of her great-aunt less than two months earlier has left Tessa and her brother heirs to the property. Since her brother is a busy doctor in Atlanta, Tessa volunteered to do the inventory at Land’s End. She may still think of her former fiancé; after all, it’s not easy to forget the perfect man—wealthy, good-looking, gentlemanly, and a skilled lover. But Tessa could never live up to his standards, and she grew tired of trying. She’s confident that she did the right thing in breaking things off. She doesn’t expect to see Colton again, certainly not at Land’s End. But she doesn’t know that Colton, with her brother’s full cooperation, has his eye on Land’s End as the site of the next Herrington Hotel and Resort. When her brother and Colton both arrive in Tucker’s Point, Tessa has a lot of questions, not all of them about real estate. No one expects the group, plus best friends, snobby neighbors, and adolescent athletes to end up iced in at Land’s End. And Tessa doesn’t expect the storm to reveal new and fascinating aspects of Colton Herrington.

I’ve been reading Jennifer Greene’s (aka Jeanne Grant) books since the 1980s, and I’ve been a Shannon Stacey fan since I read her first Kowalski novel. I was delighted to discover an anthology that included novellas by the two of them. The premise that links the stories is one to which most readers can relate, and I found it especially interesting that the stories show three different settings during the storm—an emergency shelter, a modest house that has been empty for months, and a mansion. The town of Tucker’s Point itself is a real presence in the first story where nameless, interested citizens watch the progress of the romance. It is represented by distinct personalities who remember Whitney and Red as a couple in the second story, and it serves as mere background for the Ambroise estate in the last one.

I enjoyed the three stories to varying degrees. I liked the characters in “Heart of the Storm,” as I generally do in Stacey’s stories, but I thought the heroine forgave the hero too easily. I believe one can realize a mistake in a single moment’s realization, and perhaps breaking off a relationship in a note seems less callous to a generation conditioned to celebrity breakups via text and Twitter. But I had problems believing the entire direction of a life can be changed so quickly, and I wanted to see more serious groveling on the hero’s part for what seemed to me a cruel, cowardly act. 

I liked parts of the Dunlop story a lot. I have seen friends and family try to become someone they are not in order to live up to a significant other, and thus that part of the story rang true. I also appreciated the rich humor in the story. But I felt the secondary romance needed more development to keep it from being merely a distraction, and I thought both the Ambroise sibling relationship and the reasons for Colton’s perfectionism needed more development. I think this was a novella that needed a novel’s length to become its best.

“Seeing Red” was my favorite of the three because I believed wholly in the reunion. First, eighteen-year-olds are entitled to make foolish mistakes. Common experience and biological research supports the idea that judgment is often flawed at that stage. Then, Red admits that he was wrong in thinking he knew what was best for Whitney. He explains why he acted as he did, but he doesn’t attempt to justify his choice as wise or smart. He also offers heart-melting evidence of his continued devotion.

For me, the collection offered an A- read, a B- read, and a C read, which averages four stars--not a bad result for an anthology. If you are looking for contemporary romance that offers a mix of sweetness and spice, some engaging characters, and a shivery winter setting, you should check out Snow Day.

~Janga

http://justjanga.blogspot.com

Guest Review - - If Wishes Were Earls

If Wishes Were Earls

By Elizabeth Boyle

Publisher: Avon

Release Date: December 31, 2013

Harriet “Harry” Hathaway decided that the Earl of Roxley was her perfect match when they were both children. Now that her best friends Tabitha Timmons (And the Miss Ran Away with the Rake) and Daphne Dale (Along Came a Duke) have married respectively the Duke of Preston and Lord Henry Sheldon and shattered the curse of Kempton that meant the marriages of Kempton maidens ended in tragedy, Harry is free to see the fruition of her plans to wed Roxley.  She has no doubt that Roxley loves her, particularly after a certain night they shared under the stars eight months ago. He may seem to be taking an inordinately long time to propose, but Harry refuses to be discouraged.

Tiberius Maximus Marshom, the 7th Earl of Roxley, left Harriet after that memorable night with the intention of securing a special license and marrying her immediately. But given all that has happened to him recently, he fears that his Harry may be safer far away from him. Suddenly his famous luck in every game of chance has turned ruinous, Home Office files under his care have disappeared, and his man of business, in a move totally out of character, absconded in the middle of the night with a hefty portion of Roxley’s money. Most suspiciously, a merchant, Mr. Murray, has purchased all Roxley’s debts, and he holds the mortgage on Foxgrove, the unentailed property that provides the income that supports Roxley and his aunts in the style to which they are accustomed. Roxley is confronted with the choice of marrying Murray’s daughter or losing everything—including the secure world of the aunts to whom he owes so much. The only way to avoid this fate is to solve the mystery of the person responsible for his sudden turn of bad luck.

Not even finding out that Roxley is on the verge of marriage to another woman discourages Harry. She knows that something is awry, and she is determined to find the answers she needs to see that Roxley is hers as he was meant to be. A villain in determined pursuit of famous diamonds does not deter her.

This is the third novel in Boyle’s Rhymes with Love series, and readers of the first two books will take a particular delight in seeing Harry and Roxley achieve their HEA. I found the pair charming when they were introduced in the first book and I thoroughly enjoyed the blend of romance, mystery, and humor that is their story.

I have an abiding affection for the hero who plays the fool but is really quite astute and brave. Roxley is a great example of such a hero, and Harriet calls him on his disguise, reminding him that he doesn’t have to act with her because she knows the person that he really is. The exchange where she reminds him of this truth is a great scene in a story that with many great scenes, particularly those that involve Harriet and Roxley in conversation.

As much as I like Roxley, however, it is Harriet who is the true star. She is smart and funny and active in pursuit of her desires. She knows Roxley, and she knows herself. Often with heroines of historical romance, while I find them perfectly satisfactory at the stage in life they are in the story, I have difficulty imagining them aging. They just seem perennially young. But I can imagine Harriet as an interesting old lady, wiser and more mature, but with no iota less of passion and conviction and willingness to act than she displays in this book.

If you are a reader who appreciates lighthearted romance that may seem all froth but which contains a core of substance underneath the delightful entertainment it offers, I definitely recommend If Wishes Were Earls. I feel certain that some of you will share my pleasure in the snippets from the Miss Darby novels that serve as epigrams for each chapter. Despite its being the third in the series, Boyle provides enough glimpses into Harriet and Roxley’s long relationship that the book can easily be read as a standalone.  However, if you’ve read the other two books, I predict you will embrace this one with special enthusiasm. I confess it’s my favorite.

~Janga
http://justjanga.blogspot.com

Guest Review - - Lord Rakehell

LORD RAKEHELL 

by Virginia Henley

Publisher: NAL

Release Date: November 5, 2013

I once said some people write with a quill, others with a sharpie.

What I meant was that some authors are subtle and quiet in their crafting of words while others are bold and sweeping.    There was no judgment in my statement—both have their time and place—but that specific place must be considered to guarantee the best read.   

Lady Anne Curzon-Howe has been in love with Lord James Hamilton ever since she was young.    While some time has passed since she’s last seen him—time in which she’s grown into quite the unrecognizable, gorgeous young woman—she decides to have an “intrigue” when next they meet, particularly since James doesn’t seem to know who she is and now cannot take his eyes off her.    Not revealing her true name, she lets him assume she is another man’s mistress, which allows time and license for some bold flirtation with a man she’s always adored.   

With a reputation so sordid he’s earned the nickname “Lord Rakehell,” Lord James Hamilton, attendant to Queen Victoria’s heir, will do everything he can to avoid the trappings of marriage.   But while James is showing the young prince the ropes of what it truly means to be a rake, he meets a beauty beyond compare, a beauty he’s hoping to make his mistress.   What James does not know, however, is that the beauty is a lady who will never agree to be anything less than a wife. 

The thing about the Victorian era is that it is a time period rife with so many social constraints it is difficult for the hero and heroine to express themselves to each other without some restraint.  It takes a subtle author-hand to navigate around those social constraints in such a way as to use them to wind the sexual tension as tautly as possible.   It is a time period where a simple look or touch serves as the most potent form of foreplay.

In Henley's Victorian era, however, all the bawdy conversations I'm so used to and adored in her medieval romances, are still there.   And yet, I can’t quite get over the fact Queen Victoria herself is secondary character in a book where conversations occur between men and women in which the size of a particular part of a male’s anatomy is discussed openly.  And while I've always appreciated Henley's brand of bawdy, her voice in the Victorian era feels much to me as though she put on shoes that simply don't fit her. 

That said, if you have enjoyed a Henley book in the past, you might want to try Lord Rakehell.   You WILL get a Henley romance and you may count on a detailed picture of the historical events of the time. 

~J Perry Stone

Guest Review - - No Place for a Dame

No Place for a Dame

By Connie Brockway

Publisher:  Montlake Romance

Release Date: December 1, 2013

The thing I adore about a Connie Brockway book is the guaranteed surprise I’m sure to find in every single one of them.   Whether it’s a twist of phrase, a word choice, a quirky character, or an unusual plot development, Brockway never fails to give me this gift.

What’s more, she draws her readers in with a particularly polished skill I like to call “the vulnerability of character” lure—a vulnerability that is so relatable, so fragile, yet both tragic and humorous, I can’t get out of her books until I’ve scarfed the pages down in one sitting.  

No Place for a Dame is no exception.

Avery Quinn, beautiful and brilliant but of no standing in society, has a deal to propose to her late guardian’s handsome heir, Giles, Lord Strand:  she will save him from a disastrous marriage if he promises to present her to the Royal Astronomical Society.

And he must present her dressed as a boy since the Astronomical Society only includes male members. 

And, actually, she proposes this deal after she saves Giles from said disastrous engagement.   Hopefully he’ll accept (and hopefully he didn’t want to marry his pea-brained fiancée in the first place).

Giles has always had a thing for redheads so when his late father’s beautiful crimson-haired ward tells him of her ridiculous scheme he has trouble refusing her.   But then again, he’s always had trouble refusing her.   And, perhaps, it was Avery who first introduced him to his penchant for redheads.   Meanwhile, he’ll strive to ignore her while he looks for a missing colleague.   And how hard will ignoring her be?  She’ll be dressed as a man and he has more important things to attend to. 

With biting repartee and moments that had me both cackling and sighing, Brockway has paid worthy homage to a favorite character first introduced some 15 years ago in her beloved novel, All Through the Night.      

And if my review hasn’t convinced you to buy No Place for a Dame
immediately, perhaps these two paragraphs will—found within the first 15 pages, no less: 

            The morning sun had burnished his golden head as he rode up the lane, lithe and graceful, his face alive with the pleasure of homecoming, his gaze traveling with pride over Killylea’s ancient façade.  He must have felt her gaze for he’d looked up and spotted her.   She’d frozen, red-faced at having been caught spying, and scowled down at him because she hated feeling awkward.  Then he’d compounded the injury by winking at her.  Winking.

                  It had been Avery’s first experience with masculine charm and it proved a disconcerting one.  She could not explain it—it was ineluctable, mysterious, and confusing—and even at such a tender age she had distrusted anything she could not explain.  It also irritated her.  He wore the unassailable certainty of his own consequence with as little self-consciousness as another man wears shoes and used his magnetism as easily as another breathed, and she’d despised herself for falling prey to it after just one wink just like everyone else, because she was not like everyone else.

            As I said.   “The vulnerability of character” lure!  

~J. Perry Stone