Review - - The Ballad of Hattie Taylor

The Ballad of Hattie Taylor

by Susan Andersen

Publisher: Berkley

Release Date: January 5, 2021

Reviewed by PJ

In the small, bustling town of Mattawa, Oregon, the turn of the century offers a new kind of frontier for women: a vast and exciting range of possibilities--to a point. It's a time for change, and no one is more eager to embrace new paths than free-spirited outsider Hattie Taylor. If only she could embrace Jake Murdock too.
 
Jake can't remember a time he was so confused. Hattie is off-limits. The provoking spitfire is under his mother's protection--his protection--and he has always belonged to another. But now, with the passing of his wife, Jake feels something shift between them. Frustratingly aware of Hattie as a woman, he struggles with new feelings, new questions, new desires.
 
But when a desperate decision born of good intentions turns out to have ugly repercussions, Hattie confronts a cruel reality she can no longer ignore: the truth of where women really stand and the actions men take to keep them there. To navigate her new world of tainted justice and privileged order Hattie will draw on the strength of the women around her--and Jake will learn what it truly means to support the woman he loves.

PJ says:

The Ballad of Hattie Taylor is a saga that follows the life of orphaned Hattie from the age of eleven to her early twenties. Set in Oregon at the turn of the 20th century, it not only tells the story of Hattie but reflects upon the lives of all women of that era. It was a time where exciting possibilities were opening up but also when a woman's reputation was precarious and inequalities existed, not only between women and men but between women of different classes. Societal issues are highlighted through the actions of the characters as well as the (sometimes brutal) injustices they suffer.

The book is a well-written, thought-provoking, page-turner with complex, fully-formed characters and complicated relationships. Readers are taken on a life journey that evokes a full range of emotions. Make no mistake, this is Hattie's story and it is a compelling one. She is a character who endeared herself to me early on and I was firmly in her corner from start to finish. But there is also a rich supporting cast of characters who are vividly portrayed and critical to Hattie's story. Like many sagas, while they have pivotal parts to play in Hattie's life there are also individual stories to be told. Stories that will also evoke strong emotions. One that made a significant impact on me is that of a young maid, a minor character, but with an important role, whose courage I greatly admired and whose circumstances clearly delineated the line between classes. 

It would be hard to discuss Jake in too much depth without giving away spoilers so I'll just say that my feelings about him, as well as his relationship with Hattie, and his relationship with his first wife, are mixed and leave it to you to make your own decisions about him.

There are parts of this book that will not be easy to read and many issues women still face today that I was left pondering long after finishing the book. Readers should know that Hattie ultimately claims a happy ending but it certainly isn't won without a lot of pain, forgiveness, healing, and internal strength.  

Content Warning:

One thing the author does not do in this book is hold back from harsh realities of life. There are some major triggers that I was unaware of before beginning the book and the impact they had on me was deep. Not only was I filled with heartache and rage for the entire second half of the book, I'm still haunted by what happens to these characters. Readers who are sensitive to these topics should be aware that they will be dealing with the following issues on the page: 

Rape

Beating 

Adult death

Death in utero

Review - - No Strings Attached

No Strings Attached

By Susan Andersen

Publisher: Harlequin HQN

Release Date: July 29, 2014

Seven years ago, twenty-two-year-old Tasha Riordan was on a rare vacation in the Bahamas when, the day before she was scheduled to fly back home to Razor Bay, Washington, she met Diego, a hunk hot enough to melt any reservations the usually pragmatic Tasha may have had about a fling with a guy whose last name is unknown to her. Their one night together was so spectacular that Tasha agrees when Diego asks her to stay so that they can have one more night together. But Diego leaves for a meeting with his boss and never returns. Instead the police show up, and when a search of the room reveals illegal drugs, Tasha spends two nights in a Bahamian jail. The experience rates among the worst of Tasha’s life and leaves her wary of good-looking men who make promises. When Tasha arrives late at a farewell party for the mother of her friend Harper Summerville, she gets the second greatest shock of her life: Diego is one of the party guests.

DEA agent Luc Bradshaw is in Razor Bay to meet his two half-brothers, Jake and Max. He can’t believe his eyes when Tasha walks in. He has never forgotten their time together, and he is perplexed when she responds to his smile with a drop-dead look and makes an excuse to leave the party. Although he tells her that he was deep undercover on a DEA assignment and was rushed off the island by his superiors who had reason to believe his life was in danger and explains that he never knew about her arrest, Tasha refuses to believe him. What’s a guy to do when the woman who has haunted him for years persists in believing he is a rat bastard who ranks lower than a worm’s eyelashes?

Between Luc’s having sublet an apartment that Tasha owns and the fact that he is spending as much time as possible with his brothers, who are spending as much time as possible with their significant others, Tasha’s best friends Jenny Salazar and Harper Summerville, Tasha cannot avoid Luc. It doesn’t help that her attraction to him is undiminished. Luc may be irresistible, but Tasha will do everything she can to see that this time she does not lose her head or her heart.

One of the reasons I’m a huge fan of romance fiction is that I am interested in relationship stories, and I count on Susan Andersen to give me a story that satisfies that interest. In No Strings Attached, Andersen gives her readers a look at many relationships in addition to the central romantic relationship. There are the relationships among the three Bradshaw brothers; the friendship Tasha shares with Jenny, her best friend since high school, and, to a lesser degree, with Harper; and Tasha’s relationship with her employees at Bella T’s. All of these add to the reader’s engagement with the story, and the romance has more substance and credibility because Tasha and Luc have all these other connections in their lives. Also, Andersen always provides plenty of sizzle for readers who want heat with their romances.

I confess that I grew irritated with Tasha’s stubbornness. Her anger over the past is understandable, and certainly jail time would have been traumatic for a young and inexperienced girl. But her refusal to accept evidence and her vacillation about her feelings for Luc grew tedious. It is this factor that kept me from enjoying the third Razor Bay novel as much as I enjoyed That Thing Called Love and Some Like It Hot. However, this flaw was not enough to prevent my appreciation of the book overall.

Fans of small-town romance with rich contexts and interesting characters should like No Strings Attached. Andersen provides enough details about the characters for the book to be read as a standalone, although I recommend that you read all three books for a more rewarding reading experience.  If you have never read Susan Andersen, I also recommend Baby, Don’t Go (2000), one of her best books that was reissued this past spring.

~Janga

Guest Review - - Some Like it Hot

Some Like It Hot

By Susan Andersen

Publisher: Avon

Release Date: July 30, 2013

Harper Summerville may be a rolling stone, but she has settled with surprising contentment into her new job as summer activities director at the Brothers Inn in Razor Bay, Washington. She likes her job, she likes her boss, Jenny Salazar, and she really likes the spectacular scenery in Razor Bay. This liking encompasses both the spectacular views of the Olympic Mountains and the fjord that is Hood Canal and the sightings of Razor Bay’s sigh-worthy deputy sheriff, Max Bradshaw. But there is more to Harper Summerville than the citizens of Razor Bay realize. She is not in Razor Bay for the job, the scenery, or the deputy; she is there to covertly check out Cedar Village, a home for at-risk boys, to see if it deserves a grant from her family’s charitable foundation.

Max Bradshaw is a big, taciturn guy whose tough exterior hides a heart larger and more vulnerable that anyone suspects. He is enjoying his newly established brotherly relationship with Jake, the half-brother he hated when they were kids. He is invested in seeing that the troubled boys at Cedar Village get the kind of support that helped him turn his life around. He keeps telling himself that Harper Summerville is not for him, but the chemistry that sizzles between them every time they are together is hard to ignore. And those times seem to happen often between Jake and his fiancée Jenny’s throwing parties and Harper’s volunteering to help out at Cedar Village. But Max’s roots in Razor Bay run deep, and Harper is there temporarily. Then there’s the matter of the secret she’s keeping. The road to an HEA never did run smoothly.

An author known for her ability to evoke place in her books, Andersen vividly and visually presents Razor Bay, and her affection for the Pacific Northwest comes through clearly. Max lives up to the promise of a rough-edged hero in need of a healing touch that won readers’ interest in Jake and Jenny’s story (That Thing Called Love). He’s my favorite kind of wounded hero: he has some heavy emotional baggage, but he’s trying to move past it, nor drown in it. I had a more difficult time understanding Harper. Her gotta-keep-movin’ obsession struck me as over the top. I was also disappointed that the Cedar Village youths never come to life in the way that Austin and his friends did in That Thing Called Love. I was surprised too since Andersen usually does great kid characters.

Susan Andersen was writing smart, sexy contemporary romance that evoked a smile, tugged a heartstring or three, and sent the sensuality meter into the red zone when that kind of truly contemporary story was much rarer than it is today. Some Like It Hot is not her best book, but it is one that Andersen fans will likely enjoy. If you are new to Andersen, this one is not her best. I recommend you start with That Thing Called Love or download a copy of Head Over Heels, the first book in her Marine series, or add her Baby series to your ereader, or grab a copy of All Shook Up when it is reissued in November. As for me, I like Razor Bay, and there’s that mysterious connection between Jenny’s best friend Tasha and the third Bradshaw brother, Luc. Count me in for their story.

~Janga
http://justjanga.blogspot.com