Weekend Reviews: Good Dukes Wear Black and Heart Like Mine

Good Dukes Wear Black

By Manda Collins

Publisher: St. Martin’s Press

Release Date: April 5, 2016

In this third Lords of Anarchy book, Ophelia Dauntry is enraged when, during a shopping trip at a hat shop, her friend and fellow writer for the Ladies’ Gazette, Maggie Grayson, is shackled and carted off to an asylum for the insane by two men brandishing a writ for the action purportedly signed by Maggie’s husband. Ophelia does her best to prevent the men from taking Maggie, but she is no match for their superior physical strength. Indeed, she is injured in her valiant attempt to thwart them.

Ophelia immediately suspects that the Lords of Anarchy are involved in Maggie’s kidnapping and sets out to seek the assistance of Piers Hamilton, Duke of Trent, and the new president of the infamous driving club. Ophelia arouses Trent’s protective instincts, but he quickly learns she is no passive miss in search of a dragon slayer. She is direct in stating her expectations: “I do not expect you to fight my battles for me. I simply wished for your assistance. There is a difference, you know.”  The two will confront danger from unexpected sources as they work together to rescue Maggie and lose their hearts to one another in the process.

Once again Manda Collins gives her readers a tale perfectly balanced between romance and mystery. Ophelia is an intelligent, strong-willed heroine who rejects the role of helpless maiden without appearing to be a thoroughly modern miss in historical dress. Trent is a practically perfect hero who combines appropriate dukely powers with a soldier’s strengths and a lover’s ardor. I adored both characters. The mystery with its unexpected twists keeps the reader intrigued but never detracts from the relationship between Ophelia and Trent.

In her third historical series, Collins proves that she can offer character-driven suspense and historically accurate contexts with a grace and skill that earn her a place among the genre’s best writers. I highly recommend Good Dukes Wear Black. Although it is the final book in this excellent trilogy, Ophelia and Trent’s story stands quite well on its own.

Heart Like Mine

By Maggie McGinnis.

Publisher: St. Martin’s Press

Release Date: April 5, 2016

  

 

Mercy Hospital is facing tough times economically, and Delaney Blair, a hospital administrator who is hoping to be named CFO when her boss retires, is given the task of recommending major cuts in the pediatrics department—and she has a mere thirty days in which to complete her task. When all attempts to contact the head of the department for a meeting fail, Delaney reluctantly heads for pediatrics to beard the doctor in his department. Only Megan, Delaney’s assistant and friend, knows why the very thought of visiting pediatrics is enough to send Delaney into a panic attack.

Dr. Joshua Mackenzie has no time or patience to spend on the people from the business office. He is too busy meeting the needs of his pediatric patients with resources that never seem to be sufficient. When Delaney appears in his department, he ignores the tug of attraction and challenges her to spend time on the floor to find the “fluff” she is convinced is there. He insists that she can render a fair judgment only if she “mucks right in.”

The days that follow are a life-changing experience for both Delaney and Josh. Not only do their initial impressions of one another undergo radical change, but each learns a vital lesson about faults in the way they have shaped their lives. But can these two wounded people who have found salvation in their work take a risk and trust their vulnerable hearts?

I was a fan of small-town romance long before the current trend and continue to rank some small-town series among all-time favorite romances. But honestly, have recently read so many mediocre books in this subgenre that I am wary of adding new series. I did read (and review for TRD) Forever This Time, the first book in McGinnis’s Echo Lake series, but a secondary character I loathed made it a disappointing experience. However, in the final paragraph of that review I wrote, “I did like Ethan’s friend Dr. Josh and look forward to his story, Heart Like Mine, set for release on April 5, 2016.”

Fortunately, the secondary character I disliked plays a lesser role in the second novel, and I liked Heart Like Mine much better. First, it is rooted in a situation that many small hospitals are facing in real life. Second, the world of the hospital is filled with interesting, generally sympathetic characters. Most significantly, Delaney and Josh are richly developed characters who are engaging from the first and who grow during the course of the story. The conflicts between them emerge naturally from who they are and never seem contrived. If you enjoy small-town romance, I urge you to give Heart Like Mine a try. I’m betting you fall for Delaney and Dr. Josh too.

~Janga

Review - - Forever This Time

Forever This Time

By Maggie McGinnis

Publisher: St. Martin’s

Release Date: November 3, 2015

Josie Kendrew left Echo Lake, Vermont, for Wellesley College when she was eighteen, and she has not returned in the decade since then—not to see her parents or the fiancé whom she jilted with little explanation. But when her mother calls with the news that Josie’s father has suffered a stroke and has not regained consciousness, Josie comes home, hoping her father will recover quickly and allow her to return to Boston and her work as a therapist for families with seriously ill children. But Josie finds it strangely disorienting to find Snowflake Village, the Christmas theme park to which her workaholic father devoted his life, unchanged while her parents are changed almost beyond recognition. Nothing could have prepared her to see her strong, energetic father still and unresponsive, but it is equally shocking to see her disintegrating alcoholic mother sober and fulfilled in her role as homemaker. That’s a change Josie cannot trust.

Little about Ethan Miller’s life turned out the way he once planned. A high school football injury ended hopes for a military career that would make his father proud. Instead, his younger brother is now the one serving his country as a marine. He expected to marry Josie with whom he fell in love at sixteen, but she left him behind without a backward glance. Recovering from such losses was not easy, and yet Ethan has earned a place of respect in Echo Lake as CFO of Snowflake Village and as founder and the driving force behind Avery’s House, a nationally recognized facility for children stricken with cancer and other devastating illnesses and their families. It was established in memory of a child who captured Josie’s and Ethan’s hearts and whose death left them broken. Ethan finds healing in helping other children like Avery. Ethan was concerned when he learned Josie was returning, and when her mother sends her to help out at Snowflake Village, he is adamant that the two of them cannot work together and does everything he can to see that they do not.

Josie is no happier than Ethan is about her working at Snowflake Village, a place she hates for its superficial merriment and for its victory in the battle for her father’s attention. However, as she and Ethan are thrown into one another’s company, they both realize the compelling attraction that drew them together as teenagers has only grown stronger, and the memories of all they shared remain vivid. But are their feelings and memories enough to withstand Josie’s belief that she does not belong in the small town where Ethan’s roots are deep and the pressure Ethan is getting from those closest to him who warn that Josie will only break his heart again?

For the first several chapters, I had to push to keep reading what seemed like a story often retold with only the Christmas theme park to set it apart from dozens of others, and even that is not unique. But as more of Josie’s past with Ethan, with her parents, and with Avery was revealed, the story gained substance and emotional power. I felt sympathy for the young lovers and for the adults they had become. I didn’t always find these characters likeable. Josie really did come across as self-absorbed at times, and some of Ethan’s “jokes,” such as the unnecessary unloading of 500 pounds of ice, just seemed mean to me. But their memories of Avery and the ways she had helped to shape what they did with their lives were genuinely moving and fresh. and their connection to one another was convincing. Josie’s relationship with her parents was also potentially rich material, although I thought it merited fuller exploration. Everything resolves itself a bit too easily and tidily for my taste.

Still, had it not been for a secondary character, I would have given the book four stars and a recommendation with a caveat about the slow start. But I actively disliked Molly, Josie’s former best friend. I can understand an eighteen-year-old feeling betrayed by her best friend’s disappearance, but ten years later she seems to be no wiser or more tolerant. In fact, she frequently comes across as jealous and vindictive, and her final choice was wrong on two levels.

Overall, this is a promising story with some commendable parts but with too many flaws for me to give it an unqualified recommendation.  I did like Ethan’s friend Dr. Josh and look forward to his story, Heart Like Mine, set for release on April 5, 2016. But if McGinnis plans a book for Molly, I’ll probably skip that one. I would be a really hard sale on her as a redeemed heroine.

 ~Janga