the passionate reader

Unraveled by Courtney Milan

2012-01-23T09:21:00.004-05:00

Grade: B

passion rating: hot

Over a rainy post-holiday weekend, I read - back to back - Courtney Milan’s Turner series. The series comprises three books and a novella and tells the tale, novella excepted, of the three Turner brothers, Ash (Unveiled), Mark (Unclaimed), and Smite, the hero of this novel. I found the series irresistible — taken together the books present an entrancing experience greater than that found in reading each alone. My favorite of the three is the first, Unveiled; my second, this tale of Smite and his unconventional love, Miranda Darling.

Each Turner is, in some way, an oddity. Ash is an Earl with no formal education and an inability to read; Mark, a ton darling who’s known for his treatise on and embracement of chastity; Smite, a wealthy magistrate who shuns all material and creature comforts. The three men are each acutely scarred by a childhood spent at the hands of a mother whose religious fervor devolved first into insane abuse, then into horrifying abandonment. These are books that must be read as a piece -Unraveled is firmly grounded in the brothers’ evolving relationships with one another and with Richard Dalrymple, once Smite’s closest friend and the brother of Margaret, Ash’s wife.

Ash and Mark have each found love, but, the Smite encountered in the previous books in the series seemed an unlikely candidate for intimacy. Smite is only a tad close to one person, his younger brother Mark. His relationship with Ash is strained, he lives alone with no servants, and his colleagues and those at his mercy in court see him as a zealot. He is known, unflatteringly, throughout Bristol as “Lord Justice.” Smite would be a completely solitary creature were it not for Ghost, an endearing sheepdog foisted on him by Mark. In general — there is the occasional meaningless coupling — Smite neither intimately touches nor talks to anyone.

One day he sees a young woman in his court. Smite, who has an eidetic memory, recognizes her despite the disguise she’s assumed; he’s seen her in his court before, testifying. Realizing, were she to swear to anything under oath, she’d be guilty of perjury, he dismisses the case before she can speak and, once the session is ended, goes in search of her. When he finds her, he tells her to stay out of his court or next time, she’ll find herself Australia bound or worse.

Staying out of the courts is a problem for Miss Miranda Darling. Miranda, the orphaned daughter of a pair of traveling players, lives in the slums of Bristol in Temple Parish. Those who live in Temple Parish rely not on the King’s edict for their safety and laws, but on the Patron. Miranda, in order to protect herself and her ward Robbie, does the Patron one favor a month in exchange for her and Robbie’s safety. Miranda’s theatrical background pooled with her charm makes her an ideal candidate to play roles for the Patron. A role she’s played several times is that of an innocent young lady testifying on the part of someone the Patron wants found not guilty. When Smite bans Miranda, in all her false incarnations, from the Bristol courts, Miranda worries the Patron will be displeased with her. When she tells the Patron, whose face is hidden away on the other side of an old confessional booth in a no longer used church, of Smite’s decree, the Patron tells her she’s to continue to seek out Lord Justice.

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A Lady Awakened by Cecilia Grant

2012-01-12T14:13:00.007-05:00

Grade: A-

passion rating: hot

Ms. Grant’s excellent debut should really be titled A Lady and a Gentleman Awakened. Both the heroine, repressed Martha, and the hero, feckless Theo, are, by this novel’s end, alert to possibilities unimaginable to both prior to their relationship. In A Lady Awakened, opposites don’t merely attract; two strongly disparate people are transformed into a singular pair.

Martha Russell is twenty-one, childless, and recently freed by a riding accident from an unhappy marriage to a drunkard. She is prepared to leave the home in which she’s lived for the past year, her husband’s family seat, Seaton Park, and dutifully move in with one of her married siblings when she discovers her husband's heir is a selfish lech who, in the past, molested the female staff at Seaton Park. When the family solicitor points out the inheritance isn’t settled until it’s clear Martha’s not pregnant, Martha, a woman so virtuous it’s wearing, begins to think of defrauding her seedy brother-in-law out of the estate.

Martha decides to approach Theophilus (Theo) Mirkwood, a young man recently moved into the estate next door. Theo has been sent to rusticate in the country by his father who is justifiably concerned at Theo’s careless, irresponsible life in London. As Theo explains, the crowning blow was Theo’s “expenditure of two months’ allowance to buy a single snuffbox from Sèvres" which, he acknowledges, was “Wasteful, in fact, and foolish in the extreme. Particularly given that I don’t use snuff.” Martha offers to pay Theo to bed her; the two will have sex every afternoon until it’s clear she has or hasn’t conceived.

Theo, after a bit of thought and a peek or two down Martha’s bodice, says yes. He sees the offer as a way to have safe sex with a pretty young widow and, though he’s the heir to a fortune, his funds are currently low. He’s unconcerned about his part in the fraud — this, like most things, Theo sees as not his problem. Martha suggests the two begin immediately — time is of the essence literally here — and their relationship begins.

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my grading scorecard for 2011

2012-01-07T11:15:00.005-05:00

Here's my grading scorecard for the 66 books I reviewed in my first year at All About Romance:

A's: 5 (7.6%)
B's: 30 (45.5%)
C's: 20 (30.3%)
D's: 10 (15.2%)
F's: 1 (1.5%)

Seductive as Flame by Susan Johnson

2012-01-01T14:28:00.005-05:00

Grade: F

passion rating: hot

I delight in sizzling sex and absorbing ambiance in my romances, so I was sure I’d love Susan Johnson. I’ve not read any of her other books, but she’s definitely got a reputation, and I was confident her novels and I were bound to be a perfect match. Well, damn my socks, but I was wrong. I didn’t like anything about Ms. Johnson’s latest, Seductive as Flame. Not the oodles of gooey sex, not the back story and its implied approval of British economic imperialism in late 19th century Africa, nor the libertine lovers both of who are as removed from reality as is Lady Gaga’s wardrobe.

Let me elaborate.

I didn’t like the plot. From the moment fabulously wealthy, divinely handsome, sexually exceptional, linguistically prodigal, superb rider, and almost painfully well-endowed Alec Munro, the Earl of Dalgliesh, sees flame haired, multi-orgasmic, violet-eyed, lush breasted, well-traveled, lynx fur coat wearing Zelda Mackenzie, he wants to ravish her in every position possible. She feels the same way about him, and after several dull chapters where the two talk about how desperately and creatively they want to get down and dirty with each other, by page seventy, they’ve had (literally) unbelievable amounts of constant copious coitus and Zelda has fallen in love. Alec, who’s married to a super bitch, isn’t quite in love but he wants much much more of Zelda’s curves and crevices, so the two embark on an affair. Alec’s slutty psycho wife tries to first break them up and then kill them. Alec, when he’s not drinking half a bottle of whiskey for lunch or showing Zelda the joys of bondage with very special knots, works on making vast sums of money from his mines in South Africa and valiantly protecting his step-son from his nasty mom.

I didn’t like the characters. Alec is my least favorite kind of alpha-male hero. He’s screwed more women than he can remember, but even thinking about the other lovers who taught Zelda to be so bodacious in bed makes him want to hit her. He’s so cock-sure of himself that, when Zelda compliments his amorous abilities, he thinks to himself, “That’s what they all say.” He lies repeatedly to Zelda — sometimes to shut her up, other times to manipulate her into doing his will. He’s such a dick — in so many offensive ways — I kept hoping he’d suddenly be felled by some horrible, impotence-inducing disease. Zelda is no better. She’s a whiner, wails when she doesn’t get her twentieth big bang of the day, and constantly discounts the needs, schedules, and presence of others so she can have wild screaming sex anywhere, anytime with Alec. Violetta, Alec’s evil wife, is so over the top, she’s a caricature. She doesn’t have a single redeeming aspect to her — she makes Cruella DeVil look compassionate.

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How the Marquess Was Won by Julie Ann Long

2012-01-01T14:25:00.005-05:00

Grade: B

passion rating: hot

The truth is, I’ve so loved the last two books in Ms. Long’s Pennyroyal Greenseries, I Kissed an Earl and What I Did for a Duke, that to like this book — just to like it and enjoy it as a good read — was a bummer. How the Marquess Was Won is, as I’d expect from Ms. Long, wildly well-written, peopled with complex characters, and willing to delve deeply into the nature of true love.It isn’t, however, relentlessly compelling or compulsively re-readable. Nor is it — and this is part of my discontent — the tale of an Eversea or a Redmond, the two families whose lives and loves have been chronicled in the series’ first five books.

The heroine of How the Marquess Was Won is Miss Phoebe Vale, a forthright young woman who is a teacher at Miss Marietta Endicott’s Academy for Girls. Phoebe, born in the slums of London, has secured her place in life by dint of will and intelligence. At twenty-two, she’s unmarried and feels rather uncomfortably on the proverbial shelf. Phoebe has a vibrant, enthusiastic imagination — fueled in part by the broadsheets she loves. She knows that while she may be lowly born, her aspirations are as valid as anyone’s. She appreciates the stability Endicott’s Academy has brought her — she arrived there at age ten, swept off the streets of Seven Dials by a mysterious benefactor — but she wants more. As the book begins, Phoebe is contemplating saying yes to two opportunities, one which would take her to Africa to teach, and the other, a short-term affair (just two days), which entails being a chaperone to former student Lisbeth Redmond, the niece of Fanchette and Isaiah Redmond.

Lisbeth, is at twenty, a diamond of the first, albeit shallow, water. She will make the perfect wife for any lord and, the hero, Julian Spenser, Marquess Dryden, is known for his perfection. Dryden, dubbed by the scandal sheets who track his every move as “Lord Ice,” has spent years ruthlessly, carefully, and flawlessly amassing his fame and fortune. His father was a reprobate who gambled away the family’s wealth and property. Julian has gotten it all back, whilst earning the slavish devotion of the ton - all but one last piece of land. That bit of English countryside, currently owned by Isaiah Redmond, will be Julian’s when he marries the lovely Lisbeth.

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Desired by Nicola Cornick

2011-12-12T08:39:00.004-05:00

Grade: B

passion rating: hot

At the start of Desired, Tess Darent, the Dowager Marchioness of Darent, in an attempt to elude raiding redcoats searching for radical reformers, ties a sheet about her waist and slips out the window of The Temple of Venus brothel. As she reaches the end of her tether, holding a borrowed purse and lavender slippers and swaying four feet above the ground, hands snatch her shoes, clasp her waist, and, oh so gently, lower her to the ground. The hands belong to Owen Purchase, the Viscount Rothbury, who has been sent by the Home Secretary to arrest the reformers.

When Tess asks Owen to return her slippers, he sinks to his knees and slides the too small shoes on her feet. “Just like Prince Charming,” she says. He replies, “I missed the bit of the fairy tale where Cinderella visited the brothel.”

The dazzling scene is a grand start to a quite good book.

Owen and Tess have met before — he’s friends with her sisters’ husbands — and both are renowned in the ton. Tess is a scandal. She’s been married and widowed three times (and is just 29), and is infamous for her gambling, extravagant spending, and worst of all, a series of highly erotic naked portraits. Owen, an American who fought first for England against the French and then against the Brits in the American Revolution, came quite expectedly into his title. Once a middle class sea captain, he’s now every matchmaking mother’s dream. And a few days after their encounter at the brothel, Tess too decides Owen is just the man she needs as her new husband.

Tess has several problems marriage to Owen will solve. First, she believes passionately British society must become more equitable and for many years has been a leader of and a generous donor to the illegal reform movement. As part of her work to change her world, Tess draws, under the pen name Jupiter, brilliantly biting satirical cartoons which infuriate the Home Office. Tess believes Owen knows her identity and, were he to marry her, he’d stop hunting her and perhaps even protect her. Second, an exceedingly nasty lord is trying to force Tess to give her permission for him to marry her innocent 15 year-old stepdaughter. This lecherous lout threatens to ruin the young girl’s reputation — by association - by spreading slanderous gossip about Tess. Were Tess to be a staid spouse rather than a wild widow, she feels the talk about her would subside.

Owen, who has only ever loved (and lost) one other woman, has never considered becoming any woman’s fourth husband. Furthermore, when Tess proposes to him, he’s fairly sure she is an illegal reformer and is asking him to marry her so he won’t be able to arrest her. But he finds her imminently desirable, interesting, and — because he is a good man — savable. He says yes to Tess and the two become betrothed.

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Head Over Heels by Jill Shalvis (mini review)

2011-12-08T19:03:00.001-05:00

Grade: B

passion rating: hot

Jill Shalvis is one of my favorite authors. Her men andwomen and they way they love--and make love--with one another are all prettyfabulous. Head Over Heels isthe third in Ms. Shalvis's Lucky Harbor series and while Iliked it a lot, I didn't love it.

I think, maybe, I'm too old to appreciate Chloe, the wildestof the three sisters at the heart of the series. Chloe is crazy, out-there, allabout the moment, and looks fabulous in yoga pants. At 50, I kept worryingabout her safety. She's seriously asthmatic and, frankly, she made me nervous.So nervous that, as hot as they were, her sex scenes with her (clearly destinedfrom the earlier books) friends-with-benefits partner Sawyer made me anxious.(I think I should confess I have a niece with asthma. But, really, Head Over Heels is a rockin' read.Sawyer, the bad boy turned town sheriff, is a great alpha male hero. He andChloe have been headed for the sack since their appearance in the first book inthe series. The evolving relationship between the two is well-done, witty, andhot.

It just made me tense. It says something about the book thatthe most romantic act in the tale is when Sawyer buys a nebulizer for his placeso that Chloe can stay there safely.

I love Jill Shalvis and I really did enjoy this book. I'llbet if you're not 50 or over, Chloe's daredevil behavior will enchant yourather than worry you.

The Sinner by Margaret Mallory

2011-12-08T08:30:00.001-05:00

Grade: B-

passion rating: hot

Alex MacDonald, the Scots hero of Margaret Mallory’s The Sinner, has every attribute one could dream up for the perfect alpha male hero. He’s a “blindingly handsome” golden haired sex god with a killer wit and a deadly claymore. He can easily defeat, singlehandedly, groups of ferocious warriors and, still dripping his enemies’ blood, kiss a chieftain’s gorgeous daughter witless. He’s intensely loyal, skilled with children, and has a perfect “arse.” His only blemish: a profound resistance to matrimony born from years of watching his parents’ carriage-wreck of a marriage.

This aversion to matrimony is shared by the novel’s heroine, Glynnis MacNeil. Glynnis has already been married once to a slopsucker of a man whom she stabbed in the thigh — she missed — then deserted. (Under Highland law, a spouse has the right to leave within the first year of the marriage for any reason.) Unfortunately for Glynnis, neither her father, the Chieftain of the MacNeil clan, nor her ex-husband is pleased with her response to her first round of nuptial non-bliss. Her derelict husband Magnus would like to kill her — or just settle for letting his men rape her repeatedly — and her father adamantly insists she marry again.

The Sinner is the second book in Ms. Mallory’s series Return of the Highlanders and, like the first, The Guardian, much of the plot revolves around the MacDonald Clan and its efforts to preserve itself amidst the political turmoil of early 1500’s Highlands Scotland. Alex and his friends Duncan and Ian (the hero of The Guardian) all are sworn to serve their cousin Connor, the head of the MacDonald clan. Alex would do anything for Connor except wed a lass from another clan in order to form a political alliance. Given that Alex won’t do the one thing Connor really needs him to do, Connor consigns Alex another charge. Alex is to travel to Edinburgh to meet with Sabine, a French noblewoman who was once Alex’s lover. Sabine has written Alex with the message that she has a special gift for him. Alex and Connor believe the mysterious gift may have something to do with the rebellion fomented by many clans from the Western Isles against the Scottish Crown. The MacDonald Clan is walking a fine line by supporting neither the rebellion nor the Crown. Connor and Alex wonder if Sabine — or their mutual French friend D’Arcy - has information for them regarding the views of the current regent, the Duke of Albany, on the stance the MacDonald Clan has taken.

Alex and Duncan head to Edinburgh by way of Duart Castle on the island of Mull, the seat of the Maclean clan, where many of the leaders of the rebellious clans are meeting. (I remain in the dark about why the two went there — Alex asks Duncan why they’re making this detour and Duncan just whistles a sad song.) Glynnis is there with her father whom she is trying to convince not to join the rebellion or force her to marry one of the chieftains there. Magnus is there too and, when he attacks Glynnis, Alex fights him almost to the death — Alex of course wins — while Glynnis watches and tries not to faint with desire. Later that day, after accidentally seeing Alex in all his astonishingly splendid naked male glory, Glynnis asks Alex to meet her behind the kitchens at midnight where she asks if he’ll take her to Edinburgh. She’s decided to run away from her match-making father and move in with her dead mother’s family whom she’s never met. (I’m sure this has nothing to do with wishing to see more of Alex’s perfect arse.) When Alex tells her no, she threatens to tell Shaggy Maclean, the chieftain of Duart, she saw Alex swiving Catherine, Shaggy’s routinely unfaithful wife. Alex, who this time had turned down Catherine’s offer of afternoon delight, reluctantly agrees to take Glynnis with him.

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Some Like It Hot by Louisa Edwards

2011-11-30T09:26:00.001-05:00

Grade: C+

passion rating: hot

I’m wondering if Louisa Edwards wishes she’d chosen a different heroine for her latest Rising Star Chef series. Somehow right now doesn’t seem like the best time to have a super rich, super bitch heroine and Eva Jansen in Some Like It Hot is both. I couldn’t stand her and I sure as hell couldn’t figure out what a nice guy like Danny Lunden, the hottie pastry chef hero, would see in her. She’s like Veronica (from the Archie comics) with a Sex in the City wardrobe and an affinity for casual sex.

Readers of Ms. Edwards’ series will recall Eva, Danny, and the Rising Star Chef competition from the first (and better) book in the series, Too Hot to Touch. You don’t need to have read that book to make sense of this one, however. As the book begins, Danny and the crew from Lunden’s, a famous steak house in the Village, are boarding a plane for the Windy City where they will compete in the second round of the contest. The plane, however, waits on the runway for one missing passenger to arrive. As Danny asks the flight attendant what the hold-up is — like me, he can’t believe the plane would delay take-off for one person - Eva dashes down the runway, thirty minutes late, saying, “God, Daddy’s getting on the airline’s Board of Directors is the best thing that ever happened to me.”

Danny’s brain knows she’s a stone cold brat — he refuses to partake in the mimosas to which she treats the whole plane because he’s not about to let her “buy him off” — but his below-the-belt body doesn’t care. So when the two meet again in the swanky hotel in which they are staying — guess who has the penthouse? — he’s all yes, baby, yes when she traps him in the elevator, pushes the emergency stop button, presses her Michael Kors clad body up against him, and seductively asks if “she can make it up to” him. You see, Eva gets what she wants and Eva wants Danny Lunden in her bed — in her experience, pastry chefs, with their ability to meticulously focus, make superb lovers.

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A Scottish Love by Karen Ranney

2011-11-29T09:56:00.001-05:00

Grade: C-

passion rating: warm

The beginning of this book is so peculiar, it’s disconcerting. It's 1859 in Inverness and Shona, the widowed Countess of Morton, so penniless she can barely feed herself, is interviewing - just for the hell of it - four stalwart lads she's asked to remove their shirts. I found this odd beyond measure. She's wasting these young men's time, she's ogling them in a society where such behavior could ruin her, and she’s doing this because she’s what? Bored?

Into this tableau strides Sir Gordon MacDermond, the man Shona once loved, and according to him, betrayed. He's come to see her brother and his friend, the war wounded Fergus, whom Gordon hasn't seen in six months, since both men returned from India. Shona, Fergus, and her companion Helen are all about to be evicted from their home - her husband's heir is taking the house. Shona's husband left her destitute and now, having sold everything she owns to pay off his debts and support her small family, she has nowhere to turn.

Shona and Gordon still love one another, but for hazy reasons neither can embrace the other. As Gordon is leaving, he stiffly inquires if Fergus needs anything and Shona, desperate, asks if Gordon can offer her brother a home in Inverness. She lies to Gordon about her distressed circumstances and tells him she's having a new house in Inverness readied and thus will be able to take Fergus back in a few weeks. Gordon agrees to take Fergus and Shona and Gordon part, full of thoughts of their passionate, rolling in the heather, youthful love.

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Blood and Fire by Shannon McKenna

2011-11-25T09:25:00.001-05:00

Grade: B

passion rating: hot

It’s safe to say I don’t want to live in Shannon McKenna’s fictional world. The bad guys are Machiavellian and ubiquitous, and way too much gruesomely horrifying stuff happens to reasonably good people. But, man, she’s fun to read. I had plans —big plans including a trip to Costco and Trader Joe’s (I needed some peppermint Jo-Jo’s) — before I started reading this book. A day later, I hadn’t done a thing but (briefly) sleep and read. From start to finish, Blood and Fire is a wild ride full of sex, violence, torture, revenge, breathtaking getaways, kick-ass men and women, crazy families, and, of course, true love.

Blood and Fire is the eighth book in Ms. McKenna’s McClouds and Friends series and I think it’s the best. My favorite books in the series are those that feature non-McCloud heroes — Seth inBehind Closed Doors, Nick in Extreme Danger and Val in Ultimate Weapon. Blood and Fire’s hero, Bruno Ranieri, is only a semi-McCloud by proxy: He was Kev McCloud’s best friend and non-blood brother during the years Kev was separated from his clan. (Let me pause here and say Blood and Fire won’t make a lot of sense if you haven’t read the previous books in the series although I suspect it would still be a fun read.)

Bruno is — like all Ms. McKenna’s heroes — gorgeous, cynical, funny, and blessed with a big brain and a talented dick. He’s an orphan with a murky past — he suffers from nightmares that suggest something very bad happened to him when young — who, as the novel begins, has been roped in to running his Zia Rosa’s diner in Seattle. (Rosa is, somewhat inexplicably, off caring for one of the McCloud spawn.) Diner duty would suck for Bruno except for one thing — the sexiest woman he’s ever seen keeps coming in every night and he’s sure she’s as hot for him as he is for her.

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To Tame a Wild Lord by Sabrina Jeffries

2011-11-23T10:00:00.001-05:00

Grade: C+

passion rating: warm

Ms. Jeffries’ latest in her Hellions of Halstead Hall series begins inauspiciously with an odd letter to readers from a character in the novel — the grandmother of the hellacious Sharpe siblings. In it, Hetty Plumtree frets about her grandson Gabriel's willful ways, speculates about his feelings for Virginia Waverly (the sister of Gabriel’s dead best friend), and confesses her own fascination with Virginia’s grandfather, the still handsome General Waverly. This awkward précis is clunky and unnecessary, and I was baffled as to its purpose.

The letter is followed by a prologue introducing readers to a young Gabriel, and explains the story that fuels this series. The Sharpe siblings’ parents died when Gabriel was seven. This is the fourthHellions book, and in each novel Gabriel and his siblings have uncovered clues that will lead them - in the fifth and last book (coming out in January of next year) - to finally understand who killed their parents and why. As I wrote in my review of the last Hellions book, How to Woo at Reluctant Lady, the series is best read in order. I do not recommend To Wed a Wild Lord as a stand-alone read. Actually, I don’t recommend To Wed a Wild Lord. It’s not a very convincing book.

Each Sharpe sibling has acted out in response to their parents’ untimely deaths and Gabriel is no exception. He has spent his adult life challenging mortality. He’s raced his horses dangerously so many times he’s earned the social sobriquet of “the Angel of Death.” In one such race, he and his best friend Roger Waverly raced a course where closely placed boulders allowed only one racer to pass and, as the two tried to “thread the needle,” Roger crashed and died. Roger’s remaining family — his younger sister Virginia and his bitter grandfather — blame Gabe for Roger’s death.

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A+ books

2011-11-17T07:42:00.001-05:00

This is a piece I wrote for All About Romance about the elusiveness of A+ books.

One of my children asked me recently if I’d ever given a book I’d reviewed an A+. I said I hadn’t. He then asked if I thought I ever would. I said yes, that in fact, there was a book I’d reviewed this past year and had given an A- to that I now see as an A+ novel (Julie Anne Long’s What I Did for a Duke.) “So what’s an A+ book?” he asked. “Let me think about it,” I said.

Not only did I think about it, I did some research. First, I checked how many A+’s AAR has given over the years. (21, and none since 2007.) I then asked my colleagues at AAR what they would consider an A+ book and if they’d ever read one. The responses were varied, yet many had similar qualities.

Sandy said, “An A+ book is a book that satisfies on every level. It is, in fact, a perfect book. I’ve given just one A+ and that was for Devil’s Cub by Georgette Heyer, a book first published in 1932 that I loved as a teenager and still love today. In my case, it was a book that stood the test of time. I wish now that I’d given an A+ to Untie My Heart by Judith Ivory. I gave it the typical A- back then and I regret it now.”

Wendy L agreed with Sandy and added, “Yes, and it has to provoke an emotional response, either crying, laughter, or anger to make it an A+ for me.” She listed The Truelove Bride by Shana Abe, Games of Command by Linnea Sinclair, possibly Charming Grace by Deborah Smith, and oddly enough Dooly and the SnortSnoot by Jack Kent as books that would rate an A+ for her.

LinneGayl added, “… it would be a book that would stick with me over time. Scenes and characters would pop into my mind, sometimes years after the first reading, and it would be one I would want to reread again and again. They would also be books in which I would hope that the author would write subsequent books featuring the secondary characters, because they too, as well as the hero and heroine, were remarkable and unforgettable. Honestly, I’m not sure if I’ve read a romance that would qualify for me, although I can think of a number that would definitely be A’s. I can think of two mysteries, Crocodile on the Sandbank by Elizabeth Peters and The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie (the first Flavia de Luce) by Alan Bradley that are definitely A+ for me.”

Vicky H said she’d never reviewed a romance that she’d give an A+ to with one exception. She says, “I do have one I would give an A+ if I were writing one today and that is the audio version of Outlander. The narrator’s performance makes it over the top and an A+ in my mind.” LinnieGayl agreed that the audiobook versions of some romances deserve different grades than the written versions. She says, “I can think of several SEPs that would have been an A or A- were I reviewing the print version (Match Me If You Can comes to mind). However, if I were to have written a full review of the Anna Fields audio version, it would definitely be an A+. On the other hand, one of my all-time Nora Roberts’ favorites, Born in Fire, is definitely a solid A for me in print. But in audio, it would be in the B range.”

Jean couldn’t think of a recent romance she’d give an A+ to. She says, “An A+ is perfect in every way – that is not negotiable. Plot, character, setting, pace, prose – all are original, heartfelt and moving, and there isn’t a single extraneous word. Seriously, I have to not find anything wrong with it, or change a thing. I have never given an A+ to a book written after 1980 (probably because my standards are so darn high), but The Black Hawk by Joanna Bourne, The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley, and Bound By Your Touch by Meredith Duran come the closest.” She added, “However, if we go back fifty years, then I’d name Georgette Heyer’s Frederica as a personal A+. Everything in that book works for me – everything.”

Lynn S says, “Hmm…that’s tough. I can think of several A’s for me, but an A+ is hard. I haven’t done a reread in several years, but I do think Alinor by Roberta Gellis would probably still hold up for me as would Venetia by Georgette Heyer.”

Pat H also loves Heyer’s Frederica. She says for her, “An A+ would be a book that sucks me into the world and characters so tightly that the real world around me not only dims, but when I’m pulled back to it, I struggle to get back into the fictional world. The main characters are people I know, understand, and love, people I personally would sacrifice for. Not only am I intellectually engaged, I’m viscerally sharing the emotions of the main characters. The A+ book is one I want to read over and over again because of the totality of the experience. The A+ book to me is the epitome of the addiction of reading. Books written after 1970 that fall into this category for me are Maggie Osborne’s Silver Lining, Mary Balogh’s The Temporary Wife and Slightly Dangerous, Carla Kelly’s The Admiral’s Penniless Bride, Lisa Kleypas’ Suddenly You, Maureen McKade’s A Reason to Live, and Sarah Mayberry’s She’s Got It Bad.”

Blythe too is a fan of Outlander. She says, “For me A+ books would not only be perfect, but memorable and maybe even groundbreaking. They are the kind of books that are so absorbing you feel annoyed when your real life intrudes. I can think of several that are solid As for me, but the only two I’d really give an A+ grade to are Outlander (not precisely JUST a romance, but surely about as romantic as it gets) and Mary Jo Putney’s Shattered Rainbows.”

Maggie reserves her A+’s for the classics. She says, “My A+ would be Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. For me it is a perfect read. A second A+ would be Sir Walter Scott’s Ivanhoe.”

Rike has given a book an A+ here at AAR and, had she to do it again, might have given more. She says, “I’ve only given one A+ here at AAR, and that was for Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones, which is YA fantasy with a very strong romance. I’ve given quite a few As, though, and when I consider the definition that the book has to stay with you, that you reread it again and again, and want to know about all the secondary characters, then Alinor by Roberta Gellis, In Pursuit of the Green Lion by Judith Merkle Riley, Bride of the Rat God by Barbara Hambly and Nine Coaches Waiting by Mary Stewart also qualify.” She adds, “Among Georgette Heyer’s books, I agree with all who name Frederica. Pitch-perfect, every sentence of it.”

Heather R thinks the A+ book is hard to find. She says, “I think of an A+ book as being a sort of elusive dream. Each time I open a book I’m hoping that it will deliver that perfect blend of superb writing (plot, characterization, dialogue, etc) and strong emotions. I have to love the characters and want to spend time with them. And though it has a satisfactory conclusion, I should be left wanting more. I’m still searching for my A+ read, but to date the book that probably comes closest for me is Laura Kinsale’s My Sweet Folly.

Jane G also hasn’t found the perfect book yet. She says, “I don’t know if I’ve ever read an A+ book, but for me it would be one that I could read over and over and over again– a true DIK– and that I could recommend to almost anyone, unequivocally. The closest thing would be Outlander.”

Leigh thinks that the way we see books changes over time. She says, “I don’t think I have either (read an A+ romance). And it is difficult for me to think of books that are still A books for me. I fall in love with them upon the first reading, but after re-reading them so often they turn into comfort reads, which is not the same as an A book. A books I tend to rave about and recommend to my friends. And after re-reading them so many times they lose their intensity.” The only book she’s given an A to is Sharon Shinn’s Dark Moon Defender. Leigh loves that book because “the hero doesn’t really know what love is. He grew up without it, and he has never experienced it, but his gradual awakening to it, rather than a quick intense blinding revelation touches me so. Add into that his realization he has family, and I can’t help but be touched every time I read it.”

As for me, an A+ book is one I adored the first time I read it, have re-read it several times, and, each time, found further depth and power in its prose. Compared to my colleagues, I’m clearly easier to please–there are at least five books I’d give an A+ to. They are the aforementioned What I Did for a Duke by Julie Anne Long, My Lord and Spymaster by Joanna Bourne, Lord Perfect by Loretta Chase, The Duke of Shadows by Meredith Duran, and Flowers from the Storm by Laura Kinsale.

The Other Guy's Bride by Connie Brockway

2011-11-11T16:20:00.001-05:00

Grade: B+

passion rating: warm

As I read Ms. Brockway’s much anticipated The Other Guy’s Bride, I was reminded of one of my favorite featherweight films, the 1999 romantic comedy caper “The Mummy.” The novel, like that delirious movie, stars a strong willed, smart tongued English lass and a sexy, cynical swashbuckler traveling together across early 20th century Egypt, escaping bad guys, outracing sand storms and, of course, falling in love. If you like your romances over the top, filled with danger, passion, and adventure, you will adore The Other Guy’s Bride.

Genisse Braxton hails from a world renowned archaeology-oriented family. Her father, Harry Braxton, is the most successful locator of tombs in Egypt; her mother Desdemona (Dizzy) Braxton is a famous and excessively brilliant linguist. Genisse’s six younger brothers too are making names for themselves in the antiquities world: The eldest of the six is an expert in embalming techniques and 18 year old Francis is a whiz at spotting — and making — forged artifacts. Genisse longs to join, even surpass, her family’s ranks. After studying ancient history at Cambridge (Ms. Brockway acknowledges she took several liberties with history; one is that Cambridge, in the early 20th century, admitted women and had a program in ancient history), Genisse becomes a glorified clerk to handsome Professor Lord Tynesborough, the youngest distinguished professor in the history of the college. One day she stumbles across an ancient bill of lading that convinces her the fabled lost city of Zerzura exists deep in the western Sahara. After doing months of surreptitious research under the watchful eye of Tynesborough, she decides to take hold of her fate. She boards a boat bound for Cairo — the city where her family lives and she grew up — determined to find Zerzura.

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A Beginner's Guide to Rakes by Suzanne Enoch

2011-10-30T21:59:00.001-04:00

Grade: B+

passion rating: hot

In Ms. Enoch’s latest, The Beginner’s Guide to Rakes, the first paragraph reads: “Very few things in the world could make Oliver Warren, the Marquis of Haybury, flinch. He could count those things on one hand, in fact. The yowling of small children. The squeak of rusted metal. And the mention of that name.”

She had me at yowling.

That name is Diane Benchley. Two years ago, in Vienna, when Diane had just been widowed and made penniless, Oliver and she shared an intensely passionate two weeks which ended when Oliver fled her bed without a word of explanation. Now, Diane, Lady Cameron, has returned to London where she aims to open a gentleman’s club in the only thing her gambling addicted husband left her, a London mansion called Adam House. In order to do so, however, she needs cash: Cash which she plans to borrow — actually demand by blackmail — from Oliver.

Oliver is a man accustomed to getting his own way. When Diane gives him a choice between being banned from every gaming establishment in London (she has a signed statement saying Oliver cheated in a game of cards) or lending her five thousand pounds, Oliver agrees to loan her the money. He does so with two goals in mind. First, he wants to prove to himself he was right to cut and run two years ago. Second, he plans get the proverbial upper hand with Diane. No one, and especially not a woman, is going to tell him what to do.

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To Pleasure a Duke by Sara Bennett

2011-10-27T11:14:00.005-04:00

Grade: C-

passion rating: warm

When I was growing up, “Why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free?” was regularly put forth as an argument against premarital sex. This awful phrase has been appearing in English literature since the 17th century. For hundreds of years, those words have described men who want the wanton bang without the wedding bling. These twelve words and the dilemma they describe sum up much of Ms. Bennett’s latest novel To Pleasure a Duke.

Miss Eugenie Belmont belongs, along with several other young women, to the Husband Hunters Club, a group of marriage minded graduates from Miss. Debenhams’s Finishing School. The husband she tells her friends she’s hunting — initially it’s a ruse on her part — is the uber pompous Sinclair St. John, the Duke of Somerton. Somerton, often called the most eligible bachelor in the country, is her neighbor back at home in Gloucestershire and her family is vastly socially inferior to his. The Belmonts are a ramshackle bunch. Eugenie’s father is a trickster; her mother, a flighty emotional ditherer. Her twin brothers are always in trouble; her brother Terry has taken up gambling and speaking rudely. Only her animal whispering younger brother Jack does anything to help Eugenie keep the family on track. The titled Somertons hold not only the Belmonts but virtually every family in England — and thus the world — beneath their notice. They are the cream of the ton and Sinclair, his sister Annabelle, and their mother (the dowager duchess) are utter snobs.

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Real Men Will by Victoria Dahl

2011-10-24T10:45:00.004-04:00

Grade: B+

sensuality rating: hot

Ms. Dahl’s final book in her Donovan Brothers Brewery series tells the story of Eric, the eldest and least at ease of the Donovan siblings. He, like his brother and sister, has to learn to be his true self in order to find love and happiness. In Real Men Will, as in the other novels in the series, honesty is hands down the best policy.

Eric has spent his entire adult life being responsible for his siblings and the family business. (The Donovan parents died in a car crash when Eric was 24.) Eric’s life — in nice contrast to his brother Jamie’s — is all work and no play. So, when sexy Beth Cantrell mistakes Eric for playboy Jamie at a business convention, Eric doesn’t correct her. In fact, he has an outrageously wild one night stand with her (described in Ms. Dahl’s novella Just One Taste) and leaves her without telling her who he really is.

Months later, Beth shows up at the Brewery and discovers Eric’s lie. She is fabulously furious with him. And she’s not the only one. Jamie, with whom Eric already has an extremely strained relationship, is outraged to learn the goody-two shoes brother who always lectures him about propriety and responsibility appropriated Jamie’s name and sex-god reputation in order to get laid. Eric’s life is instantly a mess and that, of course, turns out to be the best thing that ever happened to him.

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A Lily among Thorns by Rose Lerner

2011-10-18T10:29:00.003-04:00

Grade: B

passion rating: warm

I had hoped to love this book. I thought Ms. Lerner’s debut, In for a Penny, was marvelous. I did not love this book…but I did really like it. And I thought the unusually beta hero was a wonderful character. Ultimately, my lack of love for this novel stems from my lack of love for its heroine.

Serena Ravenshaw is an archetype I rarely warm to: the hard bitten former famed courtesan. Serena was forced into sexual servitude by poverty and her beauty — no one hires a gorgeous nanny — but was able, years ago, to change her life. She bought her sex contract from the brothel owner who possessed her with money rather randomly given to her by a man she met only briefly: Solomon Hathaway. Serena is now both the owner of a successful inn and the Black Thorn, a woman with great power in the London underworld. (This irked me — I didn’t feel Ms. Lerner made that aspect of Serena’s character believable. She doesn’t come across as someone whom people would be terrified to cross. She isn’t a killer.) Serena is adamantly alone and sees emotional connection as a deadly weakness. She pours her whole self into her inn and its kitchen and staff, and spends her nights alone.

Solomon has been wallowing in numb misery ever since he learned his beloved identical twin Elijah died in the Napoleonic Wars. He’s cut himself off from his aristocratic family and spends his days working as a tailor in his uncle’s shop. He’s depressed, lonely, and stuck. He is roused out of his despair by a cry for help from his family. His sister is getting married and a family heirloom she wishes to wear at her wedding has been stolen. Simon goes to see the Black Thorn to ask for her help in recovering the gems. He and Serena are both shocked to meet again after so many years.

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A Bride Unveiled by Jillian Hunter

2011-10-13T10:14:00.006-04:00

Grade: C-

passion rating: warm

The first two chapters of Ms. Hunter’s A Bride Unveiled are terrific. Violet Knowlton is thirteen and growing up in the sleepy English town of Monk’s Huntley. She has three friends: her awkwardly engaging neighbor Eldie, pompous local heir Ambrose, and dashing pauper Kit. The four, under the non-watchful eye of Violet’s young governess — she’s being led astray by the bricklayer’s feckless son — bond despite their social differences. Violet, an orphan being raised by an overprotective aunt and uncle, is especially drawn to Kit. He is smart, athletic, and literally desperate to escape the future the workhouse he lives in promises. As their childhoods come to a close, I yearned to learn of the fates of the four friends.

Sadly the next twenty-eight chapters and odious epilogue are a disappointment.

As the third chapter begins, ten years have passed and Violet is recently affianced to a dreary merchant named Godfrey. She hasn’t the slightest love for him, but her now widowed aunt, whom Violet longs to make happy, feels dull mercenary Godfrey is a safe choice for Violet given her background. (Violet’s secret past isn’t revealed until the last chapters of the book and is so unstartling it’s exasperating.) At a house party hosted by the notorious Jane and Grayson Boscastle — the lovers from Ms. Hunter’s guilty pleasure The Seduction of an English Scoundrel - Violet again encounters Kit.

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Only His by Susan Mallery

2011-10-12T09:02:00.001-04:00

Grade: D

passion rating: warm

The penultimate love scene at the end of Only His involves a giant metal vagina. Yep. True love is declared amidst a giant metal vagina. This didn’t work for me. In fact, pretty much nothing about Ms. Mallery’s latest in the Fool’s Gold series didn't. This was my first time reading a book by Ms. Mallery and I suspect it will be my last.

The heroine of this book is Nevada Hendrix. Nevada and her big wacky family live in Fool’s Gold, a town that could only exist in fiction. Everyone in the town has either an eccentric personality and/or a troubled past. Women run the place which is crime, politics, and reality free. As the story begins, Nevada is interviewing for a job as construction manager for the new casino Janack Construction is building on nearby tribal land. She’d thought she’d be interviewed by the head of the firm, Elliot Janack, but, to her horror, finds herself facing his son Tucker, who as the first line of the book points out, has seen her naked.

Ten years ago, when Nevada was in college in Los Angeles, she, on the advice of her elder brother Ethan — he and Tucker were friends for a summer in high school— looked up Tucker. The very moment she saw him, she “could only stare at the man she knew she would love for the rest of her life.” Sadly, her “love at first sight” wasn’t mutual. Tucker was already madly in love with gorgeous, famous sculptress (and utter narcissist) Caterina “Cat” Stoicasescu. One night, Cat (who is a total tool) breaks up with Tucker and tells Nevada Tucker needs her in his time of sorrow. Nevada hurries to Tucker’s sloshed side, seduces him (even though she’s a virgin), then gets her heart broken first when Tucker yowls Cat’s name as he comes and then again when, a day later, Cat takes Tucker back.

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A Scoundrel's Surrender by Jenna Petersen

2011-10-10T08:46:00.006-04:00

Grade: D-

passion rating: hot

Sometimes you can judge a book by its cover and the couple on the cover of Ms. Petersen’s latest is downright skanky. The chick looks like a stripper at a mid-level men’s club. She’s got streaked layered hair, lots of black mascara, lip-glossed pink lips, and is aiming a sexy pout at whoever took this photo. The guy’s sporting “hot dude” stubble and a chest so smooth I suspect he waxes. They both look too modern and too much like possible porn stars. The cover of screams sizzling contemporary; its prose drones dismal historical.

A Scoundrel’s Surrender has a boorish bastard for a hero. Two years ago Caleb Talbot found out he wasn’t his father’s son and freaked out. He ran away from home, refused any contact with his loving family (who, with the exception of his older brother, had no idea why he’d dumped them), and took up drinking copiously in low-rent taverns. Caleb is a jerk with really bad timing. A few days before he did his disappearing act, he’d made love to Marah Farnsworth, the virginal best friend of his sister-in-law. When Caleb bolts, he does so without offering any explanation to Marah. The guy’s an ass.

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and that makes 50!

2011-10-06T22:56:00.001-04:00

Today, All About Romance posted my fiftieth review! I began reviewing for them in January of 2011. If you want to see some of my reviews from earlier in the year, go to Power Search and click on Staff Reviewer Name. You can pull up my name and all fifty reviews will be there.

I've loved writing these reviews and I'm proud I've done fifty in less than ten months!

Impulsive by HelenKay Dimon

2011-10-06T10:37:00.005-04:00

Grade: C

passion rating: hot
mini-review

Impulsive is a rather mediocre read. The heroine made not a whit of sense to me. Her behavior was so all over the map, I wanted to recommend a nice therapist to her. The hero was too long-suffering for me and way too hung up on how the heroine looked and how hot she was in the sack. I never felt he truly cared for her... he saw her as a solution for his needs rather than a fully-formed person who could compliment him.

Additionally, I found the sup-plot bad guy really lame. I did like the hero's best friend. I found him more appealing than the hero, never a good thing!

Impulsive isn't a terrible book by any means. Ms. Dimon does a lovely job of showcasing Hawaii and the customs and vistas that make it such a unique place. And she has a good ear for funny dialog. But, the love story itself isn't convincing and is even, in places, hard to make sense of. With so many better written contemporaries out there, I suggest passing on this one.

Slow Ride by Erin McCarthy

2011-10-06T10:19:00.003-04:00

Grade: D

passion rating: hot

Slow Ride, the latest in Ms. McCarthy’s Fast Track series, is a wreck of a book. The heroine is abrasive and has an unpleasant drinking pattern; the hero, an emotionally stunted man who enables her bad behavior. I’ve read all five books in the series and this one comes in dead last.

The profoundly aggravating Tuesday Jones is having a rough time. Her father recently died and she is unable to deal with her grief in any healthy way. She continues to write “Tuesday Talladega” (her famous racing blog), and hang out with her best friend Kendall (the heroine of the last book), but mostly, she’s drinking and being an immature brat. At Kendall’s wedding, she encounters Diesel Lange, a gorgeous retired racecar driver. Diesel, who is struggling with pain and injuries from his career ending wreck, gives sloshed Kendall a ride home —she classily offers to blow him while he’s driving, an offer he politely declines. The next day, he returns to her home where she’s horribly hung-over, and drives her first to a post wedding luncheon, and then back to her car.

The two begin sleeping together and then seeing each other. I wish they’d done neither. On the night of their first real date, they are driving back to Diesel’s place when Tuesday tells him to pull over into a mini-mart so she can buy a six-pack. Diesel, who doesn’t drink because he still sometimes takes pain medication, asks her not to. He tells her he doesn’t want her to “be impaired” when he gives her an orgasm. Tuesday, rather than seeing this as a good thing, gets pissy with him. Ms. McCarthy writes: “She just wanted to win. He had no right to deny her liquor. This was a free county.” Diesel takes her to the store, she buys a six-pack, and they head to his house. Soon - after establishing that Diesel likes to be utterly in charge in the bedroom - the two are naked and ready to have sex… without a condom in sight. Tuesday, desperate for Diesel (he’s apparently wildly “well hung”) says to him, “I’m on the pill. Unless you have some gross disease, you need to fuck me right now.” And he does.

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Swept Off Her Stilettos by Fiona Harper

2011-10-05T09:02:00.007-04:00

Grade: C

passion rating: kisses

Somewhere out there are readers who will love this book. It’s sweet, the heroine didn’t get enough love as a small child, she hides her true self under a faux sex-kitten persona, and her hunky best friend turns out to be — and this is just a shock to our girl — madly in love with the real her. I, however, am not such a reader. I found Swept off her Stilettos to be prosaic, predictable, and passionless.

Coreen Fraser had a bad mom who loved poorly. Coreen is determined to never make that same mistake and thus only likes men who are mad for her and whom she can keep at an emotional and physical distance. Coreen works hard to get these guys. She’s perfected her sexy sway, and always wears red high heels, tons of make-up, and skintight sexy vintage clothes. The book is written in first person which, for me, was a problem, because I found Coreen a self-absorbed ninny. She natters on and on about how alluring she is and how important it is that she is so alluring. She’s that person who really would say to someone she’s just met and chattered to: “But enough about me. Let’s talk about you. What do you think about me?”

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Seven Years to Sin by Sylvia Day

2011-09-29T09:59:00.004-04:00

Grade: B

passion rating: incendiary

Seven Years to Sin commences (and concludes) with coitus. At its start, Lady Jessica Sheffield, on the eve of her wedding, is walking her dog on her fiancé’s estate. The pug runs away and, as she chases it down, she stumbles across a gazebo in which Alistair Caulfield, a friend of her fiancé’s younger brother (and “likely the handsomest man in all of England”), is energetically inflagrente delicto with a woman old enough to be his mother. Jessica cannot look away and, as Alistair sees her watching him, neither can he.

This encounter changes them both. For Jessica, it awakens her sexual self; she is so aroused she seduces her fiancé that very night. For Alistair, it is the beginning of an obsession with Jessica, one he is unable to act upon until after she is widowed, seven long years later. Jessica, still missing the husband she loved, then decides to travel to Jamaica to visit a plantation she inherited upon his death. The ship she takes is Alistair’s and, the second he realizes she will be on it, he arranges to sail with her.

Seven Years to Sin is an intensely erotic novel. Alistair is known for his sexual prowess and he uses every skill he has to get and keep Jessica in his bed. Given that the two are on a ship he owns, they have a freedom they’d never have in 1800’s England. They have sex — hot, steamy, constant, detailed sex —over and over again and they talk as they couple. I’ve rarely encountered so many good old fashioned Anglo Saxon words (fuck, cock, bollocks, suck, seed, slit, cunt…) so often.

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Animal Magnetism by Jill Shalvis

2011-09-26T09:47:00.000-04:00

Grade: A-

passion rating: hot

Jill Shalvis has a reputation for writing light, funny, sexy romances. Her latest, Animal Attraction, blows that reputation to smithereens. Make no mistake, Animal Attraction is funny and hot as hell. But it’s not light… it’s moving, empowering, and engaging. I've read it twice in the past month and both times it’s made me smile, sob, kiss my husband, and give my dog a big hug. It’s a great book.

Animal Attraction is the second in the Animal Magnetism series. The first book introduced readers to the protagonists of this tale, Jade Bennett and Dell Connelly, both of whom work at Belle Haven animal clinic in idyllic Sunshine, Idaho. Dell is the vet there; Jade, the office manager. Dell and Jade have been working together for the past eighteen months and have managed to keep their relationship strictly business. I don’t know how they did it. Dell is the sexiest, most appealing vet I’ve ever encountered. Despite all that, he’s a man afraid to love. Jade is equally grand. She’s wry, witty, and wounded — an ordeal in her past has made her almost cripplingly cautious. Watching the two become lovers considering love is bliss.

I relished this book. The world of Sunshine is utterly believable and yet — and this is hard to pull off — appealing. Ms. Shalvis writes marvelous dialog; her characters are interesting, realistic, amusing, and people I’d be pleased to hang out with. Dell’s rapport with his brothers Brady (the hero of Animal Magnetism) and Adam are worth the price of the book. The cleaning lady Bessie steals every page she’s on. And don’t even get me started on the animals. I hate cute with a passion and I enjoyed every non-human in this book… especially Peanut the parroting parrot.

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Bad Boys Do by Victoria Dahl

2011-09-24T14:00:00.006-04:00

Grade: A-

passion rating: hot

BadBoys Do, the second in Ms. Dahl’s exceedingly enjoyable Donovan Brothers Brewery series, is fabulous. It’s sexy, sweet, funny, moving, andwell-paced; it was a pleasure to read.

Theheroine, Olivia Bishop, has a tolerable life. She’s 35, been divorced for ayear, and is teaching community outreach courses at the local college. She’swell-shot of her husband and their marriage—he’s a pompous controllingprofessor who cheated on Olivia with his teaching assistant—but she’s lonely.Her friend Gwen talks her into coming to Gwen’s bookclub one night which isheld monthly at Donovan Brother’s Brewery. Olivia, who comes planning todiscuss the book, is startled to realize the other women there aren’tinterested in literature; they’re there to ogle the hot 29 year old bartenderand brewery owner, Jamie Donovan.

Jamieis a bona fide hottie. Nights he wears his kilt to the Brewery---his sisterTessa, the heroine of the first book in the series, Tweets his clothing statusto his many female fans--, women flock there to gaze lustfully at him and dreamof a night in his bed. Jamie doesn’t take women home, however. He hasn’t wanteda woman in over a year. Jamie is tired of a meaningless life—he wants to be morethan the playboy bartender he’s been since college. He dreams of adding arestaurant to the brewery, taking on more responsibility, and proving to hissiblings, especially his critical older brother Eric, that he, Jamey, is a peernot a problem.

Jamieand Olivia both notice each other the night of the book club, and both aresurprised when Olivia turns out to be the instructor in a class Jamie istaking. The minute the first class ends, Jamie walks up to Olivia’s desk andasks her out. She says no, shocked at the idea of dating both a student and—to her—amuch younger man. However, later in the week, when she’s is invited to afaculty party where she knows her ex-husband and his girl-friend will be, Oliviadecides Jamie would be the perfect date to show her ex how well she’s doingwithout him and she asks Jamie out.

Thusbegins a lovely relationship. Both Jamie and Olivia doubt themselves. Oliviaworries she’s dull—her ex told her she just wasn’t fun—and Jamie has familyissues that stem from his parents’ death when he was a teen. Olivia thinks Jamiecan help her loosen up and learn how to enjoy life; Jamie needs Olivia to helphim make his plans for Donovan Brewery a success. It’s wonderful to watch bothOlivia and Jamie get just what they need from each other.

Jamiemost certainly helps Olivia loosen up. She’s not a virgin, but she’s only everslept with her ex-husband, and her sense of herself sexually is fairlyrepressed. Jamie—one of the sexiest men I’ve ever encountered in a book—introducesOlivia to passion beyond anything she could have imagined. There is a scene inthis book, when the two are newly lovers, which is incendiary. In it, Olivialies on her stomach staring at the mirror hung aside her bed. As she watchesJamie make love to her, as she watches him watching himself slide in and out ofher, she’s overcome with emotional and physical sensation. It’s brilliantlywritten—it sets a standard for sensual, blunt prose romance writers shouldaspire to.

Oliviagives Jamie the confidence to see himself as a grown-up with skills that gobeyond the looks and charm he’s famed for. Jamie has never had a seriousgirlfriend before and, with Olivia, he learns how to share himself in a way he’dnever considered viable for him. He takes his newly learned interpersonalskills and uses them to improve his complex relationships with Eric and Tessa.He also begins to forgive himself for the sins of his past and, as he takeseach step, Olivia is there beside him. Together, they forge an adultrelationship, one that has passion and power.

Thebook’s only weakness is the obligatory conflict that, briefly, pushes the twoapart. But even that is better done than the vast majority of BIGMISUNDERSTANDINGS which drive the plots of most romances.

Iliked Good Girls Don't a lot. I loved Bad BoysDo. I suspect most readers of contemporary romance will too. It’s agreat book.

One Night in London by Caroline Linden

2011-09-14T10:18:00.003-04:00

Grade: B-

passion rating: hot

Reading One Night in London was for me, rather like a date with a really great guy I just couldn’t muster up any enthusiasm for. There’s nothing wrong with the book. It just didn’t stir my reading passions.

In this serviceable Regency romance, the heroine Lady Francesca Gordon needs a good lawyer. She’s convinced her young orphaned niece, Georgina, is being held against the child’s will by her stepmother for financial gain. Francesca has been turned down by solicitor after solicitor — her case is iffy and she’s a woman — but she finally convinces the best lawyer in London, a Mr. Wittiers, to take her case. However, minutes after he agrees to help her, one of his flunkies tells her he’s changed his mind. Wittiers has been called to work on what might be “the case of the decade” for a titled client and her case no longer interests him.

The titled client is Edward de Lacey, the second son of the recently dead Duke of Durham. Edward has a big problem. Moments after his father passed away, the family solicitor informed Edward and his younger brother Gerard that they, and their dissolute elder brother Charlie, may all be illegitimate with no claim to their family’s wealth and property. The departed Duke married someone other than their mother in his youth, neglected to get divorced, and the fate of the first wife is unknown. If she was living when the Duke married their mother, the second marriage would be invalid and his three sons would be, legally, bastards.

Edward is his family’s rock, the son who manages both the Durham money and the Durham name. He’s a calm, smart, proper man who cherishes order. When he discovers his possible paucity of proper parentage, he’s flummoxed and fearful. After his family’s secret hits the nastiest of London’s tabloids, his fears are realized in the worst way: The woman he loves breaks off their engagement, his older brother sinks further into debauchery, and his younger brother, a military hero, begins muttering about murder. So when the tempestuous, flame-haired Francesca arrives at his house and upbraids him for stealing her counsel, he makes a pact with her. She’ll use her influence with the publisher of the news rag to have the story pulled and Edward will help her find a decent lawyer.

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Good Girls Don't by Victoria Dahl

2011-09-07T08:33:00.003-04:00

Grade: B

passion rating: hot

Stephen King once wrote “Only enemies speak the truth; friends and lovers lie endlessly, caught in the web of duty.” Ms. Dahl’s latest heroine, Tessa Donovan, is a liar Mr. King would recognize. Tessa so loves her two older brothers — the three were orphaned years ago — she lies to them constantly, about important things, all in an effort to hold their family together. One of her larger filial deceptions is that she's a good girl, sweet, and (at 27) pure. This particular lie becomes impossible to maintain the minute she lays eyes on Detective Luke Asher.

Good Girls Don’t is the first of three books about the Donovan siblings, all of which are being released this fall. The three siblings run Donovan Brewing Company; Tessa is the youngest. Her older brother Eric is the overly responsible workaholic who runs the brewery; her middle brother Jamie is the hottie who manages the adjacent bar. The two men routinely are at odds with one another over the family business and Tessa sees herself as the one who, at all costs, must keep their unit together.The book begins with a break-in at the brewery.

When Tessa arrives to “manage” the situation, she finds Jamie there with Luke Asher, a detective with the Boulder Police Force. Jamie and Luke went to college together and are, nominally, friends. Tessa takes one look at Luke and her libido kicks into overdrive. She pockets his card and, a day later, calls him up and asks him out. Luke is at first inclined to say no — Jamie noticed the heat between Tessa and Luke and told Luke in no uncertain terms to stay the hell away from his little sister. However, Tessa is sexy and persuasive and despite Jamie’s threats, Luke finds himself saying yes, repeatedly, to Tessa.

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Vicky Dreiling's "How to Seduce a Scoundrel"

2011-09-05T09:25:00.002-04:00

Grade: D

passion rating: hot

Ms. Dreiling’s latest novel How to Seduce a Scoundrel is only 396 pages long, but to me it seemed endless. By the time I reached the sappy sentence fragment that comprises the last line of the book, I felt as though I had been reading haplessly for days.

The heroine of this turgid tale, Lady Julianne Gatewick, has loved Marc Darcett, Earl of Hawkfield — everyone calls him Hawk — since she was a child. He, much to her dismay, sees her as the little sister of his best friend. Julianne, a twenty-one year old with the maturity of a hormonal teen, is devastated when Hawk announces to the world (while at a ball) that he has absolutely no interest in her as a bride. His rejection leaves Julianne no choice but to pursue him idiotically for the next 300 pages of the novel.

This book has little to recommend it. Julianne is a twit — a twit who is, of course, the most beautiful woman in London. Hawk is a mass of seething contradictions congealed into a hero whose actions seem at best baffling and at worst unethical. The preeminent thing in the novel — and there’s very little competition — is the advice of Hawk’s aunt Hester, a widow with five deceased husbands, who tells Julianne the way to a man’s heart is through his “nether regions.” Julianne takes Hester’s advice and proceeds to spend much of the novel trying to get Hawk to try to bed her. Then, when he is finally dazed with the sort of desire she’s always felt for him, she plans to dump him and thus soothe her wounded pride. This, of course, makes no sense given that she’s loved him for years.

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Anne Mallory's "Total Surrender"

2011-09-01T12:30:00.002-04:00

Grade: B-

passion rating: warm

Rarely have I so looked forward to a book as I did Anne Mallory’s Total Surrender, the third book in her Secrets series. My favorite historical romance—thus far—of 2011 is One Night is Never Enough, the second book in the series. One Night is Never Enough introduced the hero of this book, the brooding, seemingly violent Andreas Merrick. In Total Surrender, the taciturn and remote Andreas finds his world upended by the gentle, chatty Phoebe Pace. I enjoyed their love story tremendously, but I found the plot surrounding the two difficult to comprehend.

Andreas is a dark hero, a man with a terribly abusive past and a brutal present. He runs a vast criminal empire in London with his brother (the hero of One Night is Never Enough) who is currently out of the country on his honeymoon. Normally Andreas could run the underworld in his sleep but his life becomes disordered when Phoebe enters his life. Her family owns a carriage manufacturing company which Andreas—unbeknownst to Phoebe—has been trying to destroy as part of a complex revenge plot against another man whom Andreas has hated for years. Andreas isn’t the only one with secrets in this story. Phoebe’s father is suffering from dementia, her brother is missing, and she, clandestinely, has been running the carriage company.

Phoebe slowly inserts herself into Andreas’s life much to his astonishment. He terrifies almost all who know him and he is used to intimidating everyone. Phoebe is not only not intimidated by him; she’s attracted to him and is determined to win his trust and his heart. Their interactions are a joy to read. Andreas’s cunning and manipulative intelligence is no match for Phoebe’s ability to genuinely charm Andreas (and all who work for him). I loved their verbal interchanges as well as Andreas’ inner musings.

Ms. Mallory is unmatched in her ability to write interesting, original, compelling characters. Phoebe, Andreas, and all who surround them are written exceedingly clearly and well. One of the delights of the novel is the dialogue Ms. Mallory writes for each and every character. As the (mostly) men in her novel talk to one another, each has an entertaining and discrete voice. Andreas’s revenge plot is exceedingly complicated and Ms. Mallory advances her story with clues casually dropped in conversation between not only Andreas and Phoebe but all those in the novel. I loved “listening” to the characters converse but couldn’t quite get the traces of information they shared to coalesce into an evident plot. The story was blurry and indistinct—even by the novel’s end, I wasn’t completely sure I understood exactly what had happened.

The last quarter of the book is rushed and not nearly as satisfying as all that has come before it. I wanted more passion between Andreas and Phoebe, more support for Andreas’s character change, and more information about what happened and why to Phoebe’s brother. I truly disliked the epilogue Ms. Mallory tacked on to the end of her tale—she’s a much better author than her pat almost saccharine ending suggests.

I enjoyed Total Surrender but I didn’t love it. It’s not as strong a book as the two that precede it both of which are superb. I still rank Ms. Mallory as one of the best historical romance novelists writing today and look forward to her next book. I hope is better than the good but not great Total Surrender.

Christina Dodd's "Secrets of Bella Terra"

2011-08-24T10:37:00.002-04:00

Grade: B

passion rating: warm

Christina Dodd gets plenty right in her latest romantic suspense novel. Her hero is a bona fide hottie, the mystery underlying her tale is interesting, and her setting, Northern California's wine country, is so well-rendered I long to take my next vacation there. 80% of this book is really good. The other 20% is missing. Pieces that should have been there - why the heroine and hero make self-defeating relational choices, how the villains manage to commit so much mayhem, why brothers, mothers, and grandmothers keep the secrets they do - are absent. It's as if Ms. Dodd knew her story so well, she neglected to share all of it with her readers.

Secrets of Bella Terra is the first of a series featuring the DiLuca brothers. The three men share the same father and are connected to the family’s vineyards and famous resort Bella Terra. As the book begins, the matriarch of the DiLuca family — Nonna - is brutally attacked in her home. Her three grandsons as well as the novel's heroine, Brooke Peterson (an old family friend who is now the manager of Bella Terra), rush to her side. Two of the grandsons, Eli and Noah, live at Bella Terra, but Rafe - this tale's main male — is a globe-trotter who runs a quasi-military security firm with offices all over the world. Rafe and Brooke share a long history and, from the moment the two meet again in Nonna's hospital room, they are enmeshed in their complex feelings for one another.

It's not a spoiler to say Rafe and Brooke are the great loves of each others' lives. They were lovers in high school and again in their early 20's. It's clear they belong together. It's not so clear why they are apart. Brooke and Rafe spend much of the book telling themselves they can't be together, even though they are sharing kisses from the moment they are again first alone. They constantly fantasize about each other but don't make love until more than half-way through the book, and even then, it's for solace rather than because they're soul-mates. (That doesn't stop it, however, from being smoking hot.) The barriers to their romance are too briefly explained and the path to their HEA seems facile rather than fated.

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Tracey Anne Warren's "The Bed and the Bachelor"

2011-08-22T09:31:00.002-04:00

Grade: C-

passion rating: warm

Ms. Warren’s latest Byrons of Braebourne historical romance is proof that an author’s competency with prose doesn’t inherently translate into a well-written book. Ms. Warren is a capable writer with a knack for description and settings. However, in this book, her proficiency does not extend to her plot or her characters. I found the former dreary and the latter unlikely.

Drake Byron is a brilliant scientist who has always put his work before his heart. Oh, he has the obligatory mistress he can pleasure several times in an evening, but he’s never come close to falling in love or even to believing any woman could understand his research-oriented life-style. He’s currently working on an unbreakable cipher to further stymie the French during the final years of the Napoleonic Wars. He takes great pains to make sure his work is secure, so he stores it in a safe, the key to which he wears around his elegant yet manly neck.

Drake hires the absurdly young and requisitely lovely Sebastianne Dumont to be his new housekeeper. Sebastianne, who is using the alias Anne Greenway, has been planted in Drake’s household by the cartoonishly evil Vacheau — a henchman working for bad guys somehow connected to Napoleon. Vacheau has threatened to destroy Sebastianne’s father and two young brothers if she doesn’t steal the cipher and turn it over to the French. Sebastianne has been picked for this unsavory task because she speaks perfect English and is English on her mother’s side. She hates to mislead Drake and his warm and caring staff (I am, of course, referring to those who work for him) but she must in order to save her family.

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Sophie Jordan's "Wicked in Your Arms"

2011-08-09T11:57:00.008-04:00

Grade: D-

passion rating: hot

I so disliked this book — the second in Ms. Jordan’s inexplicably named Forgotten Princesses series - that, after reading it, I put it down, waited several weeks, then picked it up again for a re-read. I wondered if I'd initially judged it too harshly. Sadly, the second time around was an even worse experience. This book has it all: Inconsistent and annoying leads, a plot that plays like a mediocre melodrama, an obvious and unnecessary villain, and a love story one roots against rather than for. It is, as Lady Gaga would say, a bad romance.

The heroine, Grier Hadley, is the illegitimate daughter of the king of the London underworld. Her father, Jack Hadley, has brought Grier and her sisters to town to marry them off. He believes aristocratic marriages on their part will elevate his social status. Grier was raised by her now dead saintly step-father in Wales where she worked by his side as a game keeper. She loathes the social rituals demanded by the ton but believes a good marriage will give her the propriety she desires. Grier resents the upper class snobs who belittle her for her scandalous birth and her sun-speckled skin even as she longs to be one of them.

Jack keeps dragging Grier and her half-sister Cleo to society functions where, he informs them, the two will catch aristocratic mates. At one such ball, Grier is hiding behind a fern and shoving frosted biscuits in her mouth when she hears two men talking. The taller and broader of the two is clearly looking for a bride but when his companion suggests Grier or Cleo, the man dismisses the sisters as completely unsuitable. He and his friend quip that Grier and Cleo are women a man beds rather than weds. Grier, despite knowing that her pedigree does indeed make her ineligible to many, is so angered by this man’s words she dumps her glass of lemon water on his head, snaps at him, and flounces off.

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Lorraine Heath's "Waking up with the Duke"

2011-08-01T08:35:00.001-04:00

Grade: B+

passion rating: hot

In Waking up with the Duke a married woman has an affair with her crippled husband’s best friend. Their story, beautifully written by Lorraine Heath, is a moving and lovely read. If not for an overly dramatic scene near the end of the book, it would have been a DIK (Desert Island Keeper) for me.

The heroine of the novel, Lady Jayne Seymour, has devoted herself to caring for her husband, Lord Walfort. Three years ago, Walfort and his cousin the Duke of Ainsley were out carousing in celebration of the news of Jayne’s pregnancy. Their carriage crashed; Walfort was terribly injured and left paralyzed from the waist down. In her grief, Jayne lost their baby — her first and, due to Walfort’s impotency, what would seem to be her last. Jayne loves her husband but misses the physical relationship the two had; since the accident, Walfort doesn’t share her bed, kiss, or touch her. She’s lonely and mourns the life of wife and mother she always thought she’d have.

Ainsley is grief stricken as well. He was driving the carriage the night of the accident and blames himself for all Walfort — and Jayne - lost with the crash. He knows Jayne loathes him for his carelessness that night and makes every effort to stay out of her sight. So, when Walfort asks him to come early to the first hunt he has hosted since his accident, Ainsley wishes he could say no. He can’t, of course; Ainsley would do almost anything to pay the debt he feels he owes Walfort. When he arrives, however, Ainsley is unprepared for what Walfort asks of him. Walfort tells Ainsley his debt will be settled if he will get Jayne pregnant and allow Walfort to pass the babe off as Walfort’s own.

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Sarah Mayberry's "One Good Reason"

2011-07-20T03:13:00.001-04:00

Grade: B+

passion rating: hot

For many a woman of my advanced age--50--the mere mention of Harlequin romances engenders painful memories of crappy books with silly covers read in their teens. That's a shame because today Harlequin publishes more than a few really well-written novels. One of my favorite Harlequin authors is the Australian writer Sarah Mayberry. Ms. Mayberry's books feature real people with real problems portrayed with nuance and by excellent prose. I enjoyed her latest, One Good Reason, immensely.

One Good Reason is the story of the bumpy love affair between Jon Adamson (he's the older brother of another of Ms. Mayberry's heroes) and Gabby Wade. Jon, who was abused as a boy, is a borderline alcoholic who sheers away from any and all emotional closeness. He has lived in Canada for many years but has returned to Australia after his father dies in order to finally come to terms with his past and thus be able to define his future. Gabby works for Jon's brother Tyler, a man she lived with for years and whom she left when she realized he'd never really love her. Both Jon and Gabby long for something better than the empty emotional lives they have but both are terrified of the possible costs of commitment to another.

Gabby and Jon don't immediately fall into each others' arms. Gabby thinks Jon's a bounder, not worthy of Tyler's--and the firm's--trust. Jon thinks Gabby is an uptight, judgmental prig. They circle each other warily until they conflagrate first in anger and then in passion. Their initial relationship is almost combatively sexual and both are threatened by the deep seated emotions their encounters elicit.

Sarah Mayberry never shies away from complex issues and in One Good Reason she takes on the scars left by child abuse. Gabby is much quicker than Jon to trust the feelings their connection engenders. Despite having been hurt by Tyler, she is, after a time, willing to offer her heart to Jon. Jon, however, is truly damaged by his abusive childhood. He doubts himself too much to believe he could ever offer a safe and sane future to any woman. He knows he's a good-luck guy women like in bed but he can't see himself as a husband or a father. Gaby, once she falls for Jon, isn't willing to settle for anything less than forever.

I really enjoyed this book. Ms. Mayberry's books feature men and women that--except for being Australian--seem just like men and women I might know. Jon and Gabby are credible characters--both their pain and their passion come across as viable and compelling. When the two finally find their happily ever after, it's one I enjoyed and believed in. If Ms. Mayberry is representative of the Harlequin catalog, I'll happy brave those still pretty silly covers!

Roxanne St. Claire's "Face of Danger"

2011-07-18T10:09:00.001-04:00

Grade: B-

passion rating: hot

First impressions matter. Fortunately they don't always presage what's to come. My initial impression of Face of Dangerwas one of annoyed incredulity. The heroine, Vivi Angelino, said to "have some of the best investigative instincts around," agrees to a contractual agreement even the most gullible of marks would question. The hero, Colton Lang, "an uptight Dudley Do-Right" FBI agent, engages in eye-poppingly nonsensical oral sex in an airplane with a scantily clad Vivi. At page 82, I detested this book. By its finish, however, I found it an enjoyable yarn.

Face of Danger is the third book in Roxanne St. Claire's Guardian Angelinos series. I've not read the first two but didn't need to for this book to make sense. The Guardian Angelinos is the name of a security firm run by Vivi and her twin Zach. (His story is told in the first book in the series Edge of Sight.) Vivi desperately wants her agency to make it to the big time. So, when she reads there's a possible serial killer slaying actresses who've won the Oscar, she sees a way to fame and fortune. Vivi looks a lot like actress Cara Ferrari and Cara is up for best actress award. Vivi approaches Cara and proposes, if Cara wins, Vivi will impersonate her. The "Red Carpet Killer" will come after Vivi (believing she's Cara), Cara will be safe, Vivi will bring in the killer and thus make her name in the security business. Cara agrees to the plan but swears Vivi to extreme secrecy: if Vivi tells anyone - including any law enforcement officers or family - she isn't actually Cara, Cara will force Vivi to pay her ten million dollars. Vivi, inexplicably, agrees.

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Liz Carlyle's "The Bride Wore Scarlet"

2011-07-15T12:22:00.004-04:00

Grade: B

passion rating: warm

Halfway through Liz Carlyle’s latest historical romance, The Bride Wore Scarlet, I put it down and went to reread the first book in The Fraternitas Trilogy, Ms. Carlyle’s latest slightly paranormal series. I enjoyed that book, One Touch of Scandal, but had forgotten its premise. I was glad I did — One Touch of Scandal is a fun tale and rereading it placed the plot and the characters in The Bride Wore Scarlet in context. One could read The Bride Wore Scarlet without having read One Touch of Scandal, but it wouldn’t be as meaningful.

I use that word deliberately. In this series Ms. Carlyle poses significant questions about destiny, fate, and responsibility. Her heroes and heroines struggle, at times painfully, to carve out lives — and loves — true to the tasks and talents life has bestowed upon them.

The hero in The Bride Wore Scarlet is Geoff, Lord Bessett — the son of the couple from an earlier Ms. Carlyle novel Three Little Secrets. Geoff, like the hero in One Touch of Scandal, has the gift of the Sight. The word gift, though, is a misnomer. It’s no gift to see the dangers about and the deaths to come of those around you. It’s a huge responsibility and requires enormous mental discipline. Geoff has that discipline, but it’s made him a chilly, almost remote man. The one thing he gives himself to is the work of the St. James Society (the fraternity of the series), an ancient group of Guardians whose mission is to protect those with the gift of the Sight, called the Vateis, typically women and children, from those who would exploit the Vateis’ abilities for evil ends. Additionally, Geoff, who has struggled with the burden of the Sight all his life, knows a child with the Sight must be trained to understand and successfully manage the gift. So, when the Society learns there is a young Vateis in Brussels whose Guardian has been murdered and who, with her mother, is virtually imprisoned by an iniquitous man (the rogue plans to use the girl’s gift to restore the French monarchy) Geoff volunteers to go to Brussels and convey the mother and daughter back to England.

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Melody Thomas's "This Perfect Kiss"

2011-07-12T09:18:00.000-04:00

Grade: C

passion rating: warm

As a reviewer, I aim to be fair. But true fairness implies a lack of context for each book and I doubt I am quite that impartial. I tend to read debuts with greater charity; I suspect I am harder on authors I’ve read and loved. Melody Thomas falls into the latter category. Her Donally family series is a favorite; its Match Made in Scandal, a DIK for me. When I read Ms. Thomas, I expect a neat plot, clever dialogue, and persuasive lovers. This Perfect Kiss was unsatisfactory on all three fronts.

The novel, a Scottish tale based loosely on the Cinderella motif, begins with a kiss between the illegitimate, half-American Christel Douglas and Camden, the earl of Carrick. He is a decorated British hero and she has crashed a ball held in his honor. Christel has loved Camden for years. She’s come to this ball to ask him to seduce her — in a few weeks time he’s to choose a bride from his class and she sees this night as her last chance to have, even if it’s just once, the man she loves. Christel, dressed in a golden mask, a golden dress she’s made, and golden slippers she’s sold her hair to buy, follows Camden out into the garden and the two kiss. As they embrace, servants call for Camden to rejoin the ball and the two then part without Camden knowing who she is.

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Karen Hawkins's "Scandal in Scotland"

2011-07-02T09:07:00.000-04:00

Grade: C

passion rating: warm

Scandal in Scotland is the second in a series of books by Karen Hawkins centered on an object called the Hurst Amulet. An amulet is a charm, usually worn about the neck, which wards off evil. In Scandal in Scotland, our heroine and hero are chasing after an onyx box that does not have any charms or jewelry in it at all. The onyx box is consistently referred to as an ancient artifact - an artifact being something created by someone for some practical purpose. Perhaps later in the Hurst Amulet series the amulet will appear and the reason for the name of the series will become clear. I'll never know. This book was such a bland, predictable read; I've no interest in the rest of the series.

The book - and each chapter - begins with a letter from one Hurst family member to another. (I disliked the letters — they interrupted the narrative, and given that I hadn’t read the first book, several of them made little sense.) In the first chapter, the letter is from imprisoned explorer and Egyptologist Michael Hurst to his brother sea captain William Hurst. Michael is being held by captors who want the amulet/artifact/box. The Hurst brothers’ sister Mary apparently got the amulet/artifact/box in the first book in the series and handed it off to William. William plans to take it to Egypt and give it to the as yet unidentified bad guys holding Michael. William brings the amulet/artifact/box to his ship and is readying to set sail when, in his cabin, he encounters the only woman he's ever loved, the famed actress Marcail Beauchamp.

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Isobel Carr's "Ripe for Pleasure"

2011-07-01T08:34:00.005-04:00

Grade: C

passion rating: hot

Isobel Carr’s debut romance has an unusual heroine in Viola Whedon. Viola, an extravagantly beautiful woman with tumbling red-gold curls, has been one of London’s most sought after courtesans for the past decade. She is currently on the outs with her protector - he was incensed when he discovered she planned to include him in the second volume of her memoir. The first one, already published, is a favored read of the scandal hungry ton. Viola hopes the money from the second will keep her “in coal and lobster patties for years to come” as she is ready to leave the mistress business behind.

Viola, at age 27, senses her days as a top “fashionable impure” are behind her, and that without a career change she’ll slip into common whoredom. She, despite having spread her legs for money for ten years, never wanted to be even an uncommon whore. (When she was just 15, she eloped. He died, both families shunned her, and as is so often the case in historical romance, young widowed Viola was too lovely to be hired for anything else.) Even worse, she doesn’t usually enjoy the sex inherent to her profession, because “the ones worth bedding were never the ones who could afford to keep her.”

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Anne Stuart's "Reckless"

2011-06-24T09:47:00.003-04:00

Grade: A

passion rating: hot

“Move your bleedin’arse,” Miss Charlotte Spenser’s maid, Meggie, said to her.”

With these opening words, Ms. Stuart, in the second book in her historical Rohan trilogy, pulls the reader in and doesn’t let her go until the very lovely last line. The series tells the story of three generations of Rohan men. The sexy anti-hero of this tale is Adrian, the son of the lovers in Ruthless, the first book in this series.

And when I say sexy, I mean sexy. Adrian, like his father, is a member of orgy-oriented, debauched Heavenly Host, a clutch of aristocrats who gather for all sorts of scandalous pleasures. Adrian lives life as recklessly as possible. He lives for pleasure and doesn’t care about its cost. He is “gorgeous, delightfully wicked and… the very devil in bed.” Women flock to him and, frankly, so would I.

Much to her dismay, our heroine Charlotte Spenser has been smitten with Adrian for years. She’s sure he’d never look twice at her — she sees herself as a too tall, too old spinster with no beauty, wealth, or charm. Adrian only dallies with dazzling beauties and yet, every time Charlotte sees Adrian, she can’t stop watching him — something Adrian has noticed.

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Anne Stuart's "Shameless"

2011-06-18T15:52:00.005-04:00

Grade: B+

passion rating: hot

Shameless is the fourth in Ms. Stuart’s The House of Rohan series and, while it’s not as stellar as the first two in the series, Ruthless and Reckless, it’s every bit as good as the third, Breathless. And, because it’s by Anne Stuart, it’s inherently a damn good read.

The hero of Shameless, Benedick Rohan, is the brother of the heroine (Miranda) of the last Rohan tale. In Breathless, Benedick was last seen married to a woman he loved with one son and another child on the way. In Shameless, somewhat confusingly, Benedick has now lost two wives to childbirth and has no children. (No explanation is given for what happened to his first son.) In Shameless, Benedick is a rake who no longer believes in love although he, like all in the men in the Rohan series, is a big fan of sexual congress in all its varied forms.

As the story begins, Benedick has come to London to do two things: find a biddable, boring bride and get laid. The first task is a necessary chore—he’s an eldest son and must have an heir. The second task he plans to accomplish with the help of one of London’s most talented fellatrices, Violet Highstreet. Benedick sends Vi a note asking her to come and attend to him. Violet dashes to his side, sinks to her knees and… suddenly, the door to Viscount Rohan’s salon flies open, admitting a strident woman he’s never seen before. The “virago” sternly tells Violet to “get up” and stop degrading herself! Violet protests she likes degrading herself in this particular fashion. The woman at the door, Lady Charity Carstairs, in a long-suffering voice, reminds Violet she has chosen to leave behind her livelihood of salacious acts and instead reside in Carstairs House, a home for fallen women. Violet rather ungraciously opts for housing over whoring and, much to Benedick’s sorrow, leaves his house with the all no-play and all no-fun Lady Charity.

The widowed Lady Charity Carstairs, at age 29, is a genuine prude. Her marriage to a much older man did nothing to convince her of the pull of passion and, as a widow, she’s had one brief, pitiable affair that left her sure men have nothing to offer. She’s confident, or so she tells herself, she’s content improving the lives of the gaggle of fallen women she saves from the streets. So, despite thinking Benedick Rohan might be the best looking man she’s ever seen, she wants nothing to do with him until one of her “girls” is brutally beaten.

Charity is sure the girl was so abused by the nefarious group of upper-class debauchees who form the Heavenly Host. The Host has figured in each of the Rohan books and, though the group has always been unsettling and seriously off-putting, they’ve never been truly criminal and violent until now. Under their new mysterious leader, not only has the Host begun viciously beating unwilling young women, rumor has it they plan to sacrifice a virgin on the next full moon.

Charity asks Benedick for his help destroying the Heavenly Host, a group his family founded years ago. Initially, Benedick, who has nothing to do with the group, doesn’t care the Host have become so dissolute. Then Charity informs him his younger brother Brandon, a post-war wreck of a man, is involved with the group’s horrific plans. Worried for his opium addicted brother—and drawn to Charity--, Benedick agrees to work with her to destroy the Host.

I wasn’t crazy about the suspense plot in Shameless. It was clear to me who the mysterious head of the Host was and I had a hard time buying Benedick’s brother Brandon doing anything truly evil. I was also bored with the Heavenly Host. They have been in every Rohan novel and, at this point, they’re rather like garish wallpaper—you see them but other than making you cringe, they don’t have much impact on things that matter. Additionally, I was saddened there wasn’t Ms. Stuart’s trademark Rohan secondary romance in this novel. While it’s clear there’s something between Brandon and Emma, Charity’s best friend and former madam extraordinaire, nothing of real interest passes between them in this book. I hoped for more for Brandon and Emma in this tale.

But the primary love story, I loved. Charity has only had unsatisfactory sex and has never experienced romantic love. Benedick has had a superb sex life and has truly loved—he adored his first wife. Charity holds her heart apart because she doesn’t know what she’s missing; Benedick, his because he’s terrified of the pain that comes with loving and losing. As the two move into each other’s arms and emotions, they both slowly learn the value of risking one’s heart. Ms. Stuart always writes well about the way passion can bind. In Shameless, she writes not only about the power of sex but of the joy of companionship, and of the pleasure in finding that special someone you most enjoy sharing your day—and life—with. In this book, she writes convincingly of falling sweetly as well as passionately in love. It’s a treat to see Ms. Stuart, who does dark romance so well, write with great verve and skill about a lighter kind of love.

Lori Foster's "Trace of Fever"

2011-06-13T07:59:00.001-04:00

Grade: D

passion rating: hot

Trace of Fever is the second in the Men Who Walk the Edge of Honor series by prolific author Lori Foster. In the preface, Ms. Foster writes the series is of “uber-alpha hunks featuring private mercenaries who are big, capable, a little dangerous and [she hopes] oh-so-sexy.” I didn’t read the first book, When You Dare and, after cringing my way through Trace of Fever, I doubt I ever will.

The hunky mercenary hero of this book is Trace Rivers, and while he certainly is big, capable, and dangerous, I didn’t find him a whit sexy. That said, he’s vastly more alluring than this tale’s heroine Priscilla Patterson. I can’t remember the last time I disliked a heroine as much as I disliked Priss. To be fair, she’s such a poorly written character — she has about four different personalities in this one book — perhaps it’s not her fault I found her whiny, stupid, self-absorbed, and often ridiculous. Halfway through the book, I found myself hoping she’d have an UEA (Unhappily Ever After) ending!

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Elizabeth Essex's "A Sense of Sin"

2011-06-10T11:34:00.002-04:00

Grade: B+

sensuality rating: hot

As I read Ms. Essex’s new historical romance, A Sense of Sin, I thought of words by Angel (he of the iconic show Buffy the Vampire Slayer) as he contemplates his intricate feelings for Buffy. He muses, “Passion, it lies in all of us, sleeping...waiting...and though unwanted...unbidden...it will stir...open its jaws and howl. It speaks to us...guides us...passion rules us all, and we obey. What other choice do we have? Passion is the source of our finest moments. The joy of love...the clarity of hatred...and the ecstasy of grief. It hurts sometimes more than we can bear.” Rupert Delacorte, the Vincent Darling, hero of Ms. Essex's lovely new novel, could have easily uttered those lines.

The story begins at a ball in Dartmouth where Del has come hunting Celia Burke, a girl whom the ton adoringly calls "the Ravishing Miss Burke." Del plans to seduce, without a touch, then devastate this young woman he’s never met. He blames Celia for the suicide of his younger sister Emily who had been Celia’s closest friend. His passionate hatred for Celia wars with the instant pull he feels toward her and the deep affection he had for her — via anecdotes told in his sister’s letters — before Emily’s death. Del is a seething, simmering sensualist who, from the moment he sees Celia descending the ballroom stairs, is overwhelmed by the way Celia makes him feel.

Celia is equally drawn to Del. She too had fallen more than a little in love with him via the letters he wrote to Emily. When she finally meets him in all his tall, golden gorgeousness, she feels, for the first time in her life, profound physical desire. For all her external beauty, Celia is essentially a scholar. Her great passion in life, prior to listening to Del tell her all the ways he’d like to strip her naked and pleasure her, has been botany and scientifically cataloging the freshwater plants of Devon. She’s not just inexperienced; she’s unaware of the lure of the sexual world. Men, the boring aristocrats who court her for her face and family name, barely register with her… until she encounters Del. As he, using just his shockingly erotic words, whispers to Celia about desire, Celia discovers the power of passion.

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Sarah MacLeans' "Eleven Scandals to Start to Win a Duke's Heart"

2011-06-04T09:40:00.005-04:00

Grade: D

passion rating: hot

Like Ms. MacLean's series, this review is by the numbers. Here are eleven reasons for my disinterest in Eleven Scandals to Start to Win a Duke's Heart.

1) The title is overwrought. Ms. Maclean’s trio of linked books is the Love by Numbers trilogy, and the titles all contain a little rhyme. I found this one to be particularly odd. I rarely think of scandals as something one starts. Every time, I picked up the book, I lapsed into thoughts of other titular options. Eleven Secrets to Tell to Marry Very Well. Eleven Scenes to Throw to Catch a Duke as a Beau. Eleven Kisses to Bestow to Become a Noble’s Ho. I suspect had the book been more engaging, I wouldn’t have been so distracted by its silly name.

2) The writing is breathless to the point of annoyance. Ms. MacLean relies on italics and/or sentence fragments to show her characters’ drama-laden inner thoughts. Paragraphs like this one made me wince.

“No. They were in a public place. He had to stop. She deserved better. They had to stop.Before he ruined her."

3) The book is written with the assumption the reader has read the two novels that proceed it. I hadn’t and thus had a hard time following the plot and the lives of many of the characters.

4) The heroine, Juliana Fiori, the daughter of a dead Italian merchant and a disgraced bitchy English aristocrat, is so stereotypically Italian she’s almost a caricature. She’s tempestuous, wild, impulsive, and voluble. She, twice, knees a man in his inguine. She is, just by being, a scandal. Juliana didn’t seem real to me — I felt as though she were symbolic, a representation of passion, rather than a genuine woman.
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Sheryl Woods' "Driftwood Cottage"

2011-05-31T10:09:00.002-04:00

Grade: C-

passion rating: subtle

Reading this book was a lot like spending an afternoon with my very sweet, very voluble cousin who, every time I see her, launches into protracted, tedious stories about people I’ve never met and, based on her anecdotes, have no interest in meeting. While she chatters on, I think - and I do always feel badly about this - “blah, blah, bored now, blah, blah, blah.”

Two chapters into this book, I wondered if my cousin had taken up penning humdrum romances, but no, this book is by Sherryl Woods, an author with over a hundred books to her name.Driftwood Cottage is the fifth book in Ms. Woods’s Chesapeake Shores series featuring the O’Brien family. Much of the fanciful - and boy are they fanciful - O'Brien family lives in the Maryland seaboard town of Chesapeake Shores. The O'Briens are a touching (read: fake and folksy), multi-generational (there's a cookie baking, sappy saying dispensing Grandmother and several cute as a button tykes), loving (meddlesome and gossipy) family replete with contented couples in which the men all seem, well, whipped. One son, however, Connor O'Brien, our hero - and I use that term very loosely — refuses to walk the O'Brien walk. He's so hell-bent on not being part of a happy, married couple he has refused, for years, to marry the woman he loves, Heather Donovan.

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Candace Camp's "An Affair without End"

2011-05-24T18:44:00.001-04:00

Grade: B

passion rating: warm

An Affair without End is the third and final book in Candace Camp’s Windmere series but it works just fine as a stand-alone read. In fact, the book itself works just fine: It’s well written, captivating, has winning leads and engaging secondary characters, and presents a pleasant dash of intrigue.

The primary lovers in this book are older and more self-aware than many in historical romance. Both Vivian Carlyle and Oliver, Lord Stewksbury, are adults - who act as adults. Their relationship unfurls untroubled by big misunderstandings or too stupid to believe choices. The obstacle they face is a simple one — they are very different people who, despite being drawn to one another, don’t believe they would suit as husband and wife.

Vivian, at 28, has decided marriage isn’t for her. She’s lovely, wealthy, easily bored, and unusually independent. She defines and enjoys her own pursuits. She charms men with ease and enjoys the social life of the ton. But the only man she’s desired — carnally-- is Oliver, whom she has known all her life. Oliver, several years older than Vivian, is seen by most as a conservative, even stuffy man. He’s a got a great deal of responsibility all of which he takes quite seriously. He’s unmarried, but knows, at some point, he will need an heir and thus he plans to marry a conventional bride to bear said heir. He’s always thought Vivian lovely, but sees her independent streak as reckless and her interests as flighty.

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Margaret Malloy's "The Guardian"

2011-05-20T10:34:00.003-04:00

Grade: B

passion rating: hot

As I read this book, I wondered two things. First, what was the average age of marriage for Scots women in the early 16th century? Second, why do all the names of the Scottish Highland clans begin with Mac?
The answer to the first was hard to find. Women did marry at a much earlier age than men - males needed to establish themselves economically before they could wed. Girls could marry as young as 12, but rarely did so. Several studies indicate that the average age for a first marriage for early Renaissance women was close to 18. The answer to the second question took just a moment to find. The prefix "Mac" means "son of" in Gaelic. Until the 1500’s, Gaelic-speaking Scots had just one name and were identified by their father. So, in Margaret Mallory’s satisfying Highlander romance The Guardian, the hero is called Ian, son of Payton, and he is a member of the clan MacDonald who live on the Isle of Skye.

In 1508, Ian is forced to marry his thirteen year old friend Sileas MacKinnon. This unwanted union occurs because, as Ian rescues Sileas from her malevolent stepfather (the toad is about to proffer Sileas to a child rapist), he has no choice but to spend the night with her and thus compromises her. (I had a hard time with the idea of Sileas, a skinny child with too big teeth, being old enough to be compromised. Hence my wonderings about the age of marriage.) Ian is 18 and in love with a beauty he’s met at court in Stirling - the home of the then Queen: The French Mary de Guise, bride of King James V, and an important part of the Auld Alliance of Scotland and France. Ian is unequivocally unhappy with his forced matrimony and, as soon as the ceremony is done, he leaves the Isle of Skye, accompanied by his three boon companions (Connor, Alex, and Duncan, each of whom will have a book in this series) and heads to France to battle the English. Five years later, Ian and his three comrades return — they come home when they hear of the Scottish defeat at Flodden (one of the worst in Scottish history) where their chieftain and his brother were killed. Connor is now the true head of the MacDonald clan, but his iniquitous uncle Hugh Dubh, “Black Hugh,” has seized control of the clan. The four returned Highlanders endeavor to ensure that Connor becomes chieftain, something Hugh fiercely fights.

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Mary Wine's "Improper Seduction"

2011-05-18T10:13:00.001-04:00

Grade: C-

passion rating: hot

In this historical romance, the story, for much of the book, centers on this burning question: When will our heroine, Bridget Newbury, give up her maidenhead to the hero, Lord Curan Ramsden? Two thirds of the way through the book, the two finally do the deed and, much to my surprise, despite the fact that Bridget is a well-bred young lady in the 16th century, she begins their tryst with a sexual act one rarely associates with virgins. I suppose I shouldn’t have been taken aback when, a few pages later, Curan, apparently uninterested in the bed in the room, deflowers his young bride on a nearby table. The scene is improbable. And while I’m all for passion in my romances, a book that’s about nothing but passion, and implausibly rendered passion at that, isn’t appealing to me.

As the book begins, Bridget’s mother, Lady Connolly, tells Bridget her father has arranged a marriage for her. Bridget is surprised to hear this because, three years ago, she was betrothed to a fine-looking border lord, Sir Curan Ramsden. When Bridget points out she’s already promised to another, her mother tells her that “things change quickly these days” and that for political reasons, her father - he lives in London serving the court of King Henry VIII - wishes her to wed Lord Oswald, an elderly man who has already divorced one young wife for not giving him an heir. Her mother tells her, “We must do all in our power to insure your union is a solid one,” and tells Bridget she has someone for Bridget to meet.

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Emma Wildes' "One Whisper Away"

2011-05-16T11:09:00.005-04:00

Grade: C

passion rating: warm

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a writer in possession of a good romance must be in want of a credible tale. Ms. Wildes, who references Jane Austen in her latest Regency romance, One Whisper Away, does not have one.

The story begins with a glass of spilled champagne and an unlikely whisper. Jonathan Bourne, the part-Iroquois Earl of Augustine, has recently come to England to take up his earldom and to marry off his three half-sisters. As the novel begins, he is somewhat inexplicably (he hates this sort of thing) at a ball. Also at the soirée is the stunning Lady Cecily Francis. A randomly gesticulating oaf spills a glass of bubbly on Cecily’s bosom. Jonathan wipes her breasts dry with his handkerchief, whispers to her that he’d rather lick it off, and then saunters away. None of this makes much sense. As written by Ms. Wildes, Jonathan is so ethical he lectures the bored ton matrons who sneak into his bed about the sanctity of marriage. He is an unlikely candidate for the aggressive overture Ms. Wildes saddles him with.

Jonathan is an amalgam of archetypes: Soulful Native American, sexy seducer, stricken swain. He serves as a medium for the clear moral of this novel: It is more satisfying and morally superior not to follow the common edicts of the polite society. In One Whisper Away, Jonathan - and indeed every main character - behaves in a way that, were they to be caught and subject to social scrutiny, would result in them being banned from not just Almack’s Assembly Rooms but all aristocratic gatherings. I would have been less bothered by this rash display of behavior if the story gave these people a context that explained their actions. But the plot and setting of this novel is the over-explored Regency realm romance readers know well. As I read this book, I wondered why Ms. Wildes set it in the time period she did. Her characters behaved in decidedly modern ways and, placed as they are in early 1800’s England, their actions are implausible.

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Kathleen O'Reilly's "Just Surrender"

2011-05-14T10:14:00.002-04:00

Grade: B

passion rating: warm

There’s a telling exchange between Edie Higgins and Tyler Hart — the heroine and hero of Ms. O’Reilly’s latest Harlequin Blaze novel Just Surrender — when the two first meet. Edie, moonlighting for a night as a New York cabbie, picks up Tyler from JFK and takes him the very long way into the city. The two are discussing Edie’s definition of love. She says, “The world has to tilt and shift — and I have to forget how to breathe.” Tyler, a cardiothoracic surgeon, counters, “That’s not love, that’s stress cardiomyopathy.” This exchange illuminates the two. Edie is all about the heart and Tyler, despite his overly obvious last name, is all about the brain. Interestingly, of the two, Tyler is the more likeable.

Edie annoyed me. The night she meets Tyler, she’s initially pretty rotten to him in an “I know what’s best for you” sort of way. He’s exhausted, having just flown in from Houston. He’s come to New York to compete for a fellowship and he all he wants is to go to his hotel and get some sleep. Edie decides to take him on an unasked tour of the five boroughs — the rate from JFK to anywhere in the city is preset — during which she harangues him to bare his soul. Tyler, bleary and frazzled, begins to find her seductive and at the end of the night — which goes on forever — they have sex at his exceedingly sleazy hotel. Afterwards, Edie agrees to see him again — not for more sex, but to teach him how to navigate relationships.

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Madeline Hunter's "Dangerous in Diamonds"

2011-05-11T09:50:00.003-04:00

Grade: A-

passion rating: hot

This fourth and last of Madeline Hunter’s Rarest Blooms series, tells the tale of Tristan, the Duke of Castleford, and Daphne Joyes, the proprietor of The Rarest Blooms, an unusual nursery. Theirs is a grand romance. Tristan is a splendid character — a smart as hell duke who spends all his days drinking and whoring — all days, that is, but Tuesdays. Tristan’s sober, sex-free Tuesdays are the days he applies his intelligence and energy to whatever interests him: Managing his investments, advising the Prime Minister, meddling in the lives of his friends (something he did to great success in other Rarest Blooms books), or masterfully seducing the guarded and aloof Mrs.Joyes.

Tristan’s closest cohorts are married to Daphne’s closest friends, yet the two have never actually met. (Tristan, once he sees how alluring she is, suspects his friends and their wives deliberately kept her out of his sight.) Their paths finally cross when Tristan inherits the land and the buildings that house The Rarest Blooms. Straight away, Tristan wants her in his bed and he is a master at getting what he wants. Daphne has heard countless scandalous stories about Tristan, and when he comes to introduce himself as her new landlord, she knows she’s in trouble. He makes it clear to her as they begin to negotiate the future of The Rarest Blooms, he will seduce her, pleasure her, and see her wearing nothing but diamonds. He is, of course, right.

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Heather Grothaus's "Never Kiss a Stranger"

2011-05-09T19:02:00.007-04:00

Grade: C-

passion rating: warm

“The monkey ruined the feast."

When I read the unusual first line of Heather Grothaus’ latest medieval romance, Never Kiss a Stranger, I was engaged. I had, as the song goes, high hopes which, sadly, were dashed by the rest of the tale. This book has an insufferable teenage heroine, an overly virtuous hero, and a story line that sputters out long before its welcome conclusion. The hero and heroine have so little chemistry that it actually makes a disheartening sort of sense that they scarcely touch each other. The two don’t banter or flirt— they chatter and bicker in ways unfunny and irritating. Even the monkey, improbably named Layla and perhaps the most faceted character in the tale, is, in due course, unappealing.

The monkey and its eventual owner, our trying heroine Lady Alys Foxe, begin their tale at the Foxe family home, the imposing — and coveted by King Edward — Fallstowe. Fallstowe houses the three Foxe sisters: The frosty eldest Sybilla, the pious and unexciting Cecily, and the spoiled, self-centered Alys. The three are orphans and Sybilla must scheme daily — she’s busy nightly with a series of one-night stands — to hold onto the family stronghold. Alys and Sybilla routinely clash and, on the night we meet the monkey, Alys shames the family by insulting the monkey’s owner, a vile woman named Lady Bloodshire. Sybilla, in an act of bitchy sisterly revenge, pledges Alys in marriage to Lady Bloodshire’s effeminate son. Alys, aghast, runs away to Foxe Ring, a place with mystical marriage-related powers. It’s said that when a man and a woman meet in the ancient ring of stones, under a full moon, the two are instantaneously wed.

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Pamela Clare's "Breaking Point"

2011-05-03T09:08:00.004-04:00

Grade: B+

passion rating: hot

Pamela Clare's latest I Team book is a fine addition to an exciting series. Ms. Clare’s I-Team is a group of investigative journalists who work for the fictional Denver Independent. The women of the team, all reporters, have in previous books taken on pernicious social evils, while falling in love (and lust) with smart, sexy heroes. Ms. Clare, a journalist herself, knows how to write a gripping story and Breaking Point is her most compelling romantic suspense novel thus far.

She dedicates her tale to "the memory of the hundreds of murdered and missing women of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.... (who) were brutalized and discarded." Ms. Clare's passion for justice for Las Muertas de Juarez - it's estimated that as few as 400 and as many as 5000 women have disappeared from that border town in the past two decades - makes this book not only an absorbing read but a stirring call for justice for the women and the brave reporters who have been killed while working in Mexico. That nation, as Ms. Clare points out, is now the most dangerous place in the world - outside of an outright war zone - to be a journalist.

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Anna Campbell's "Midnight's Wild Passion"

2011-05-02T09:44:00.003-04:00

Grade: D

passion rating: hot

As a rule, rakes set on ruin for the purpose of revenge do little for me. Not only do I pity them for never having learned that living well is the best revenge, I am irked that the ruin sought is almost always at the expense of a young virginal girl. Can’t these rich, handsome, brilliant, bad anti-heroes find someone of their own relative perfection to pick on?

The swarthy, golden-haired rake of Ms. Campbell’s latest historical romance Midnight’s Wild Passion is Nicholas Challoner, Marquess of Ranelaw. Nicholas has such a bad reputation that his mere appearance at debutantes’ ball momentarily strikes everyone there into silent shock. He’s there to dance with the innocent young Cassandra Demarest whom he plans to stalk, seduce, and abandon. Nicholas’s had it in for her father, Godfrey Demarest, ever since the latter despoiled Nicholas’s half-sister twenty years ago. Nicholas plans to return the favor. He knows he’ll “roast in hell for what he plotted. Cassandra Demarest was an innocent who didn’t deserve the fate he intended.” But he doesn’t care. He’s a rotter — in fact, he’s such a churl, he decides to seduce and destroy Cassandra and her fetching chaperone Antonia Smith. The way he sees it, “he’d have her (Antonia) in his bed. She’d be his reward for ruining the poppet.” The guy’s a louse.

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I've been reading, reading, reading

2011-05-01T14:56:00.003-04:00

I've been reading a lot this weekend and have been exploring some romances I am not reviewing for AAR. It's interesting to me how varied the world of romance novels is. I've enjoyed sampling different genres. I thought I'd share the books I've read and the grades I'd give them.

Kristan Higgins' My One and Only

grade:B+, passion rating: subtle

Connie Brockway's All Through the Night

grade: B-, passion rating: warm

Julie James' A Lot Like Love

grade: B-, passion rating: warm

Delilah Marvelle's A Perfect Scandal

grade: C, passion rating: hot

Jill Shalvis' The Sweetest Thing

grade: A, passion rating: hot

Maya Banks's "Sweet Possession"

2011-04-23T10:21:00.002-04:00

Grade: B

passion rating: Hot

Maya Bank’s latest Sweet erotic romance, Sweet Possession, may or may not be a tale of interracial romance. The cover, on which a topless man is pressed up against a topless woman, makes one think it’s likely the man is white and the woman is black or of mixed race. And while the man in the story, Connor Malone, is overtly described as white, his lover, Lyric Jones, is never ascribed a skin color. The only reason I thought about this as I read the book is that, in a lovely way, it doesn’t matter to the story. The barriers that stand in Connor’s and Lyric’s way are all of their own making and have nothing to do with social expectations. This is a nothing more and nothing less than the story of a man and woman learning how to love.

I’ve not read any other of Ms. Bank’s erotic romances but characters from the Sweet series permeate this book, and it’s pretty clear that compared to his co-workers and their partners, Connor’s idea of a good time is pretty tame. This book, for an erotic romance, is pretty tame. Connor and Lyric don’t make love until the book’s almost half done. And when they do, it’s in mainstream ways — no ménages, alternate entries, or fancy contraptions. This mainstream vibe is definitely, in the beginning, coming from Connor. Lyric, badly damaged by an abusive childhood, is a wild child. Yet her unconventional sex life has been about avoidance rather than connection, and from the moment she meets Connor she abandons her wilder ways. It’s clear to the reader — and, over time, to Lyric — that Connor Malone is a man who can show her how to conventionally love and be loved.

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Suzanne Brockmann's "Breaking the Rules"

2011-04-18T10:13:00.004-04:00

Grade: C+

passion rating: Warm

Eden Gillman, one of the protagonists in Suzanne Brockmann’s 16th Troubleshooters novel, has had an exceptionally inopportune life. She’s been gang-raped, drugged, groped by every boss she’s ever had, sexually molested by her brother-in-law, assaulted by her step-father, slandered by the creep who took her virginity, abused by loser boyfriends, and repeatedly called a whore by her family. She almost drowned in Hurricane Katrina, was later menaced by crazed criminals, miscarried her baby, and suffered a crippling depression. And she’s just 19.

Amazingly, in Breaking the Rules, Eden’s not the character who has suffered the most. That would be Neesha, a young Indonesian girl sold into sexual slavery at age eight and then regularly raped and beaten for the next eight years. Neesha, who escaped her vile captors and is now on the run in Las Vegas, is connected to Eden through Eden’s younger brother Ben, an appealing 15 year old gay kid. Ben has been mistreated by his parents, shipped off to a horrific “Scare the Queers Straight” facility, mocked by his peers, and has life threatening diabetes. Ben meets the terrified Neesha while she’s hiding out at the mall, trying not to be recaptured by the international sex slavers. That meeting brings Ben and Eden — as well as Eden’s husband Izzy Zanella, her brother Dan, and his saintly girlfriend Jennilyn LaMay — to the attention of the uber-evil slaver thugs who will kill anyone who gets in their way.

I will offend Suzanne Brockmann fans worldwide, but I’m just going to say it: This is a weak novel. Its plot is meandering; its gloom, almost unceasing; the writing, inconsistent; and its lovers, limited by their snottiness — St. Jenni notwithstanding. I haven’t read all the books in the series so Eden, Izzy, Dan, and Jenni aren’t characters I am invested in. But, even if I had read all the Troubleshooters books, I still would have found this story wanting.

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Karen Ranney's "A Borrowed Scot"

2011-04-16T17:08:00.009-04:00

Grade: B

passion rating: Warm

At the beginning of Karen Ranney’s new romance, A Borrowed Scot, the hero, Montgomery Fairfax, is at a London club surrounded by Latin-chanting men dressed in hooded robes. He’s there because he’s curious about the provenance of a numinous diamond-ringed mirror he’s inherited. Montgomery is the newly named Lord Fairfax of Scotland’s Doncaster Hall and has been told the Mercaii Club are London’s experts on all things paranormal. This evening, however, Montgomery is alarmed to see the Club’s members aren’t appraising or advising; they’re about to rape a drugged young woman: our heroine, Veronica MacLeod.

Montgomery, of course, rescues her. But when he tries to return her to her detestable uncle and his odious family — she’s an orphan — they decline to take her back. They say her nocturnal escapade has ruined her reputation and thus might ruin theirs. Montgomery feels he has no choice but to offer to marry her and she, of course, says yes.

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Rachel Gibson's" Any Man of Mine"

2011-04-15T09:02:00.006-04:00

Grade: B+

passion rating: Hot

Any Man of Mine is Rachel Gibson's sixth book featuring a sexy Chinooks ice hockey player, and it's a great one. That’s the good news. The possible bad news is it’s so similar in plot to the first book in the series, Simply Irresistible, I felt swamped by déjà vu as I raced through the pages.

I liked Simply Irresistible and I like Any Man of Mine. Ms. Gibson writes well about love that makes you laugh and love that makes you cry. Both books have moving storylines and characters easy to care for. It’s just a bit of a bummer that the stories are so akin to one another. Maybe it shouldn’t be. Great artists like Monet and Van Gough painted different versions of the same things over and over again and we consider each painting a masterpiece despite the sameness of subject. Perhaps we should just be pleased that Ms. Gibson has brought her formidable writing skills back to the story of two people who share a child but not, initially, a life.

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Shannon McKenna's "Return to Me"

2011-04-11T15:14:00.005-04:00

Grade: F

passion rating: Hot

(the full review is published here--it's not a piece on AAR)

"Sometimes—in fact, lots of times--I just want a down and dirty bad boy hero who sweeps into town, throws the good girl over his shoulders and drags her off to a happy ending. This bad boy does and then gets the nice girl story has been done many times by Shannon McKenna, sometimes well (think Extreme Danger) and, unfortunately for this reviewer, sometimes terribly. It’s hard to find much to like about Ms. McKenna’s overblown Return to Me.

The hero, Simon, is a self-absorbed jerk whose behavior between the sheets is so aggressive it’s kinda gross. The woman he’s burning for, Ellen, he deflowered and then dumped seventeen years ago. But Ellen, an enabler if ever I’ve seen one, just lets him right back into her heart and other parts. I wish I could tell you why Ellen is such a pushover for Simon and his constantly feeling sorry for himself ways, but I can’t because Ms. McKenna hasn’t bothered to develop Ellen or Simon into in-depth characters.

Nor has she produced a coherent plot. As best I could tell, Simon left town after being accused of burning down a barn—we know he wasn’t really isn’t a bad guy because he did try to save the horses. Ellen stayed in town—and I mean stayed in town, it’s as if she has never been anywhere other than LaRue—and became the controlling owner of a bed and breakfast. We are supposed to think she’s sweet—as opposed to stupid--because she has an assistant who is terrible at all things bed-and-breakfasty but Ellen keeps her on, smiling benevolently when, yet again, Missy burns the muffins. Simon has come back to town because his uncle Gus shot himself and something about that just doesn’t feel right to Simon. That doesn’t stop him from constantly ruing that he’s returned to LaRue. (He feels he is brings bad luck to the entire town—yes, it really is all about him!) There’s a psycho villain who has disgusting flashbacks to Vietnam where he learned to enjoy setting others on fire. There’s an uptight guy, Brad, who was engaged to Ellen but really should be with Cora, a woman whose reputation he ruined. (Cora and Brad are actually much more interesting a couple than Simon and Ellen although that isn’t saying much.)

There’s lots and lots of sex and none of it’s very sexy. Both characters are described routinely as gorgeous, hot, and desirable, but given that neither of them were anyone I would ever want to meet, I found page after page of them moaning into each other’s mouth just plain out dull. Plus, the idea of this couple reproducing is so appalling, I kept worrying that one of the bazillions of condoms—Simon is a lot like the Energizer Bunny--they were using might fail. When Ellen and Simon aren’t in the sack, they spend way too much time feeling sorry for themselves. Ellen doubts herself for being with Simon, Simon doubts himself for being with Ellen. Halfway through the tale, I doubted myself for buying this book.

By the time I got to the incredibly bizarre scene where Simon and Ellen, escaping someone or something—it’s all a blur—, find themselves in a hidden grove filled with huge animal statues made by Simon’s dead mother, I gave up. I flipped to the end and was unhappy to see they appeared to having unprotected sex and planning a family. Hopefully, they and their progeny will never leave LaRue."

Christina Dodd's "Taken by the Prince"

2011-04-11T13:24:00.003-04:00

Grade: C+

passion rating: Warm

"I never dreamed of being a princess when I was young. Queen, yes, princess, no. And yet, the Princess saga clearly sways many a little girl — Disney anyone? — and big girls too. Novels that feature princes as the hero strike me as the supersizing of the hero in historical romance. It’s not enough that a man be noble, gorgeous, rich, sexy as sin, and blessed with a fabulous tailor. No, the true fantasy fellow is also a prince and, by marrying our more beautiful than the sunrise heroine, he makes her — bluebirds twitter, flowers bloom — a princess.

Ms. Dodd’s latest historical romance, Taken by the Prince, tells the story of a lovely plucky virgin captured by a hunky, oh-so-good in the bedroom prince and, while it’s a fun read, it was a little too formulaic for me. It’s much better than bad, but not memorable enough to be really good."

click here to read the rest of the review

Maya Bank's "Hidden Away"

2011-04-11T12:54:00.003-04:00

Grade: D+

passion rating: Warm

"Hidden Away by Maya Banks is the second book I’ve read recently in which the macho hero has hot sex with the heroine while he is seriously injured. This seems ridiculous.

Him: Honey, I know I need to be in the hospital but, more importantly, I need to be in you. Right now.

Her: Wonderful. I’ll just ignore all your wounds and assume that when you’re moaning, it’s in pleasure rather than in pain.

Him: Great. Uh, and would you mind being on top? I think I may have a ruptured kidney.

That said, wondering whether the hero — Garrett Kelly of KGI (the Kelly Group International, an elite private organization that makes the CIA look wimpy and underfunded) might expire while bedding heroine Sarah Daniels adds some much needed suspense to this book. Most of Hidden Away is, well, boring."

click here to read the rest of the review

Kresley Cole's "Dreams of a Dark Warrior"

2011-04-11T12:45:00.007-04:00

Grade: B

passion rating: Hot

"Don’t read this review if you have any interest in Ms. Cole’s wildly popular Immortals After Dark series and haven’t begun reading it yet. This is the ninth book—the eleventh if you include novellas—and is chocked full of information about plotlines begun in earlier books. In fact, I wouldn’t recommend reading Dreams of a Dark Warrior unless you have read the all other books in the series. I’ve read most but not all and was, at times, befuddled. That’s not to say it not a great read—there’s a reason millions of the IAD books have been sold but it’s rather perplexing if you haven’t kept up with all the books preceding it.

Dreams of a Dark Warrior tells the disaster-prone love story of Aiden the Fierce (he’s a born again and again berserker) and Regin the Radiant (a Valkyrie). Regin and Aiden met centuries ago and are destined to lose and love each other over and over. Regin is an immortal and Aidan--striving for immortality but not quite there--are cursed to, every time they meet (in whatever incarnation Aiden is in this era), kiss and then have Aiden die. Regin has learned the hard way that loving Aiden means his death and thus has devoted most of her energies over the past few decades to the violent, entertaining, video-game playing life she shares with her immortal sisters at the wryly named Val Hall in New Orleans."

click here to read the rest of the review

Cynthia Eden's "Deadly Lies"

2011-04-11T12:44:00.000-04:00

Grade: C

passion rating: Hot

"In Deadly Lies, the third book in Cynthia Eden’s series about the entirely fictional FBI’s Serial Services Division—they track and catch serial criminals--, the literally tortured heroine is Samantha “Sam” Kennedy. Sam was tortured by a cretinous killer known as the Watchman in the first book, Deadly Fear, and was last seen in the second book, Deadly Heat, having panic attacks. In Deadly Lies, Sam is determined to get her mojo back professionally and personally.

She attempts to do the latter by picking up ultramasculine Max Ridgeway at a bar for a night of no strings sizzling sex. Sam isn’t, in general, promiscuous—Max is only her third lover—but, in an effort to escape her demons she goes looking for a wild one-night stand. She picks “the strongest man in the place” and goes home with him. Somewhat miraculously, Max makes her come within two minutes. Nonetheless, she slips out of his bed, planning never to rendezvous with him again. Two weeks later, though, after seeing a brutal crime scene involving a young man carved to bits, she seeks Max out, looking to lose herself again in his arms. (This time, Max is so great a lover; he makes her come –look, Ma, just my hand!--at a party in less than two minutes.) Later that night, after they have sex, Sam is again walking out on Max when his phone rings. It’s the same baddie who sliced up Sam’s earlier vic. The nasty piece of work now has Max’s younger step-brother Quinlan. Max and his wildly wealthy step-father need to come up with the big bucks in a hurry or, threatens our knife-happy villain, Quinlan will be slashed and trashed too."

Julie Ann Long's "What I Did for a Duke"

2011-04-11T12:42:00.000-04:00

Grade: A-

passion rating: Hot

"Genevieve Eversea, of Pennyroyal Green, has been in love with Lord Harry Osborne for three years. Harry is all that Genevieve wants in a man — he’s funny, handsome, shares her knowledge and love of Italian art, and makes her smile every time she sees him. She is certain they make the perfect couple and that he’s just waiting for the right moment to ask her to be his bride. So it comes as a horrible, heartbreaking shock when he tells her he intends to propose to her best friend Millicent at an upcoming Everseas’ house party.

Alexander Moncrieffe, the sixth Duke of Falconbridge, is, at forty, a chilly, ruthless, formidable man. He’s rumored to have poisoned his first wife and is known for never ever losing. Alex is a man most fear and avoid, although his title and wealth allow him to go wherever he chooses. He has chosen to come to the aforementioned house party where he intends to debauch Genevieve whom he’s never met. Earlier in the month, he caught her scapegrace brother Ian naked in bed with Alex’s now ex-fiancée. Alex has never let anyone cheat or wrong him without exacting revenge and, to him, the seduction of Ian’s innocent sister is fair retribution for Ian’s transgression."

Anne Mallory's "One Night is Never Enough"

2011-04-11T12:40:00.000-04:00

Grade: A

passion rating: Hot

"Anne Mallory’s One Night is Never Enough is as close to perfect as any love story I’ve ever read in recent memory. I bet it’s the best historical romance I’ll read this year and, yes, I know it’s only January. Ms. Mallory gets better and better with each novel she pens. Her last work, The Seven Secrets of Seduction, is a terrific read and earned a DIK from AAR. The heroine of One Night is Never Enough is a minor but fascinating character from The Seven Secrets of Seduction: one Charlotte Chatsworth, an Incomparable of the ton.

Charlotte has been raised to be a nobleman’s wife and to use her beauty to secure a place for herself and her family at the top of Regency society. When she was younger, she was sure such a future would bring her happiness. Now, she’s not.Her sot of a father has gambled away the family’s fortune and her mother’s and younger sister Emily’s very safety depends on Charlotte. Charlotte is horribly, heavily chained by her father’s determination to wed her to “the largest crown”—a wealthy peer."

Eloisa Jame's "When Beauty Tamed the Beast"

2011-04-11T12:39:00.000-04:00

Grade: B

passion rating: Warm

"In When Beauty Tamed the Beast, Eloisa James’ second fairy tale based novel, our hero is Dr. Gregory House, the TV doctor with the crotchety brilliant medical mind. OK, so our hero isn’t actually Gregory House. He’s Piers Yelverton, the Earl of Marchant, and he practices his snarky, deductive medicine in a huge castle in Wales, but he’s essentially House complete with cane, problematic familial relationships, debilitating pain, and a very nasty tongue. Piers, like House, is a Beast.

The caustic Piers lives a life of self-imposed exile in his castle turned hospital in Wales. He was severely injured when young and suffers from chronic pain in his leg. He practices brilliant medicine on the locals — he is superb at diagnosing and treating their maladies. (He is not a surgeon — the cutting is done by his handsome French cousin Sebastien with whom Piers works.) Piers avoids anything resembling affection from others and has absolutely no plans to ever marry and produce an heir. In fact, all who know him believe his childhood accident left him impotent.

Our heroine, the beauteous Linnet Berry Thrynne, needs a hasty marriage. All of London, including her father, believe that due to a few kisses with a prince and a dress that made her look enceinte, she’s probably pregnant and definitely disgraced. Linnet’s father — desperate for a groom — and Piers’ father — desperate for an heir — devise the perfect solution: Linnet will marry Piers, call the prince’s child his, and give the Marchant family a legal, blue-blooded heir. Linnet, despite knowing perfectly well the prince did no more than kiss her, agrees to this scheme because her father is insistent, no one in London will speak to her and, well, she rather likes the idea of marriage to an impotent man — she found the whole kissing thing with the prince quite distasteful. So, off the Wales she heads, the Beauty heading into the lair of the Beast."

Jo Beverley's "An Unlikely Countess"

2011-04-11T12:38:00.000-04:00

Grade: C

passion rating: Warm

"Jo Beverley’s An Unlikely Countess marvelously illustrates life in aristocratic Georgian England. The book tells the story of the relationship between titled Catesby Burgoyne and bourgeois Prudence Youlgrave. The novel teems with examples of how stratified life was in England at the time. The novel does not, however, teem with a great love story. While reading it, I felt as though the book could easily have been assigned in one of my college European history classes as a study on gender and class in 1700’s England.

Cate (he has not yet become Earl) and Prudence (her middle-class parents are dead and her lawyer brother barely gives her enough money to survive) first meet when he rescues her from an attack. They spend a chaste night together—he stays in her hovel rather than in an inn and gives her two shillings and a tiepin in payment—and then leaves her. Several weeks later, after he unexpectedly becomes the Earl of Malzard when his older brother dies, Cate wonders how she is doing and seeks her. He finds Prudence about to be married to a violent older man (her brother’s idea) and, unable to see her so wed, Cate marries her instead. Cate and Prudence head off to Cate’s family seat, Keynings, where Prudence becomes the unlikely countess of the title."

Molly Harper's "How to Flirt with a Naked Werewolf"

2011-04-11T12:36:00.000-04:00

Grade: B-

passion rating: Warm

"This book has a plot pulled from quirky old TV shows with a bit of a Twilight-type love tossed in. The setting of Grundy, Alaska is a dead ringer for the town in Northern Exposure; the hero, hunky werewolf Cooper Graham, struggles with the same issues as did Oz in Buffy (“Am I a killer?” “Why am I always naked in fight scenes?”); the lovers put up a token resistance to their powerful, somewhat scent-based lust for one another. The novel is light, predictable, and pleasantly lacking the gloom and doom often found in tales of the not-quite human.

Mo Duvall-Wenstein — it would be a spoiler if I told you what Mo is short for —has rather abruptly moved to Grundy, a small town in Alaska, where everybody is an idiosyncratic character. She’s run away from her over-protective, hippy parents — they renamed themselves Saffron and Ash when they met - and the boring, unfulfilling life she had in small town Mississippi. Mo is looking for a home — a place where she can be her fairly mainstream self. She picks Grundy because she liked its charmingly Spartan Web site and its vast distance from her mother. Almost everyone in Grundy likes Mo from the moment she arrives — she’s an attractive single woman (it’s Alaska, where single women are in short supply) and she cooks well enough to immediately land a job in the local diner. The only people who don’t instantly like Mo are the surly waitress at the café who sees her as competition for the hottest -single-girl-in-town title and Cooper who dislikes “outsiders.”

Sabrina Jeffries's "How to Woo a Reluctant Lady"

2011-04-11T12:24:00.003-04:00

Grade: B+

passion rating: Hot

"How to Woo at Reluctant Lady is the third book in Sabrina Jeffries’ Hellions of Halstead Hall series and it does not function well as a stand-alone book. That is fine with me because I have read the first two books in the series, but if you haven’t, don’t start here. There are five Sharpe siblings, each of whom will have their own book. The Sharpes are orphans being raised by their middle-class grandmother after their parents, Lord and Lady Stoneville, were shot and killed when the children were small. The cause of those deaths is a mystery whose plot line runs through the series in a way that demands a reader begin with book one, The Truth about Lord Stoneville, and then read the others in subsequent sibling order.

How to Woo a Reluctant Lady is the best of the series so far in large part because it tells the story of one of the Sharpe sisters — Minerva — a more unusual a protagonist than either of her older brothers. Minerva is a successful writer of gothic novels, and one of the joys of this book is seeing the world through her writer’s gaze. Minerva is smart, droll, and insightful and it’s fun to watch her take her world and turn it into the stuff of novels. And while she is, of course, beautiful and blessed with a “lushly feminine” form, our hero Giles Masterson admires her intelligence and wit as much as he desires her in his bed."

Suzanne Enoch's "Rules of an Engagement"

2011-04-11T12:21:00.002-04:00

Grade: C+

passion rating: Warm

"The most interesting thing about Suzanne Enoch’s latest novel, the third in her Adventure Club series, is its setting in the South Sea Islands. The islands, with their blood-thirsty natives, spiders the size of small mammals, topless natives, and scary weather, are much more gripping than either the hero or the heroine. Sadly, the cumbersomely named heroine, Zephyr Ponsley, and her suitor, Captain Bradshaw “Shaw” Carroway, are, well, dull. Their romance, most of which takes place on Captain Bradshaw’s ship, never drew me in or made my pulse race.

Zephyr and her father, famed botanist Sir Joseph Ponsley, are traveling the South Seas to document the area’s varied—and well-described—flora and fauna. Captain Carroway and his ship the Nemesis are traveling to Tahiti to return a small bejeweled mirror to a one-eyed native named King George who must have the mirror by a certain date or else an undefined curse will be unleashed. (This plot device made very little sense to me and came across as just that: An obvious plot device.) Additionally, The Royal Society has ordered the Captain to escort the Ponsleys on their “important to England” research mission, and off they all sail."

Elizabeth Essex's "The Pursuit of Pleasure"

2011-04-11T12:20:00.001-04:00

Grade: B

passion rating: Hot

"The Pursuit of Pleasure is an interesting historical romance. Its author, Ms. Essex, who has an undergraduate degree in Classical Studies and Art History and a Masters degree in Nautical Archaeology, writes with such clear sense of place that her setting, pre-Regency Dartmouth England, leaps from the page. Her hero and heroine are somewhat harder to visualize, however.

The novel opens with Lizzie Paxton saying to a friend, “I do say I’ll never marry, but I have always wanted to be a widow.” Lizzie feels extraordinarily boxed in by the conventions for women in her time and believes that only by being a widow would she have the independence she craves. Her wish is overheard by her childhood love Captain James Marlowe, who has just returned to Dartmouth in order to begin a dangerous assignment for the Navy. James, for reasons he is not honest with Lizzie about, promptly proposes to her, telling her he expects to die on his coming mission. Lizzie, after a day’s thought, says yes. It’s clear that she and James are strongly sexually drawn to each other, although the reasons they both give for marriage are, initially, exclusive of their desire. (The childhood relationship between the two is given such short shrift that their current feelings for one another seem abrupt.)"

Wendy Corsi Staub's "Scared to Death"

2011-04-11T12:18:00.001-04:00

Grade: C

passion rating: None

"In Wendy Corsi Staub’s latest thriller Scared to Death, a book with nary a spec of romance in it, a knife-happy serial killer is plotting to harm not one but three children. I found the angst-filled plot hard to follow and even harder to enjoy.

For starters, Scared to Death is a sequel to a book I hadn’t read, Live to Tell, and makes very little sense if you haven’t read the first book. As best I could make out, fifteen years ago a now-in-jail New York politician named Garvey kidnapped and killed a young boy named Jeremy in order to harvest his organs for Garvey’s oldest daughter, who had a life-threatening disease. People were violently slaughtered in someone’s kitchen and now those who weren’t murdered are trying to get on with their lives. This book begins a year later and, in it, Elsa Cavalon — Jeremy’s adoptive mother — and Marin Quinn— Garvey’s wife and Jeremy’s birth mom — are trying to raise the children they still have. For both women, life is very stressful. Elsa and her husband Brett are trying to adopt their foster daughter Renny and the process is challenging. Marin is struggling to hold her life and her two teenaged daughters (Carolyn and Annie) together after the shock of finding out her husband is a stone-cold killer. Both families are being menaced by — and we learn this almost immediately — Jeremy, who isn’t dead after all."

Beverley Kendall's "A Taste of Desire"

2011-04-11T12:17:00.001-04:00

Grade: B-

passion rating: Hot

"I had to wait a few hours after I finished this book to write this review — it’s hard to type when fanning oneself. This book is smoking hot — the sexual tension between the two leads crackles on the page and their love scenes are remarkably passionate. The hero, Lord Thomas Armstrong, is absurdly sure of himself, extraordinarily sexually talented, and gorgeous. The heroine, Lady Amelia Bertram, is sharp-tongued, headstrong, and, of course, beautiful. Their story, a loose retelling of The Taming of the Shrew, is both predictable and entertaining.

Amelia, at 19, has caused no end of problems for her widowed father. She has twice tried to run off with unsuitable suitors, is routinely shockingly rude, and refuses to marry any of the gentlemen who court her. Frankly, she’s often a brat. She is particularly discourteous to the handsome Viscount Armstrong, whom her father has mentored for several years — Thomas’s father died when he was just out of Eton. Amelia resents Thomas Armstrong’s closeness with her father, for she feels her father has woefully neglected her since her mother’s death when Amelia was thirteen. For his part, Thomas finds Amelia to be a “disrespectful termagant.” The first time they were introduced — a year prior to this novel — she insulted him at a ball by calling him “at best a rake about town, and, at worst a debaucher of women and maiden sensibilities.” If she’d been a man, he’d have thrashed her. Instead, he has since avoided her."

Sophie Jordan's "Wicked Nights with a Lover"

2011-04-11T12:15:00.001-04:00

Grade: D

passion rating: Warm

"Wicked Nights with a Lover is not a very good book. It has a silly premise, irritating leads, and ick-inducing prose. Surely Ms. Jordan, who has written five other historical romances — I liked One Night with You a lot - as well as several paranormal and young adult novels, can do better than this.

Marguerite Laurent is living the dull life as temporary companion to the elderly. Her boring life is suddenly changed when a fortuneteller predicts that Marguerite will happily marry and be dead within a year. Marguerite believes her — the medium successfully predicted Marguerite’s employer’s death — and decides to “live life to the fullest” in the time she has left. Naturally, she hurries off to proposition a lord who had earlier asked to be her protector, although prior to her death sentence Marguerite was a very good girl and was appalled at his proposal. Now, however, a life of trashy passion calls to her — marriage is out given that Marguerite is convinced that the fortuneteller’s prophecy is her destiny."

Julia London's "A Light at Winter's End"

2011-04-11T12:14:00.001-04:00

Grade: B

passion rating: Warm

"In Ms. London’s latest contemporary, Holly Drake, a 34-year old songwriter with a day job at a local coffee shop in Austin, can’t get along with her older sister Hannah. Hannah is everything Holly is not —polished, professional, and perfect — a fact their mother harped on for twenty years. Holly likes her life, although when she holds Hannah’s baby son Mason, she wishes she had a baby of her own. But, as a single songwriter/barista, Holly believes that having a baby isn’t a viable option for her.

In Holly’s view, being a mother is for women like her sister: Married, wealthy and superbly self-confident. Hannah, though, isn’t the woman Holly thinks she is and, days after their mother’s funeral, Hannah appears in Holly’s small studio apartment — a place Hannah’s only visited once in four years — and, with no real explanation, leaves Mason with Holly. Overnight, single carefree Holly becomes Mason’s mom. So, Holly (because her studio apartment is really really small) moves with Mason to the Drake family farm (which she inherited when her mom died), and begins life as a full-time parent."

my romance reviews

2011-04-11T11:27:00.002-04:00

I am going to begin updating this blog with my reviews for All About Romance so that those of you who aren't on Facebook can have an easy way to see when I publish. I will include the link, my grade and the first few paragraphs. I will direct readers back to AAR to read the full review--they're the one's who give me the books for free!

I also blog for them on non-book related issues, usually about once a week and I will post links to those pieces as well.

Thanks!

Spoiler alert: Lucky is Loki

2008-03-05T21:59:00.000-05:00

I am listening to Joanne Harris's Runemarks and I find myself vexed at how my copious knowledge of Norse Mythology--the D'Aulaires' Book of Norse Myths is one of my bibles--spoils the story for me. I am still wending my way through the first 100 pages and it's OBVIOUS to me that Lucky, the charming young redhead our heroine meets in the tunnels of World Below, is Loki. He even uses a fishing net, an overly clear shout-out if you ask me.

That said, Ms. Harris' imaginative world which envisions a world after Ragnarok where the old gods still exist, often in hiding, and the real villain is The Order which seems marvelously like the old Catholic Church is pretty great.

I'll post again when I've finished the book. At the end of the day, anything that calls to memory the Norse myths gets the passionatereader stamp of approval.

More books for teens

2007-11-14T14:57:00.000-05:00

On Sunday, the NYT published its annual Children's Books Review. I read the reviews and, given that I no longer have anyone interested in Mother Goose rhymes or picture books, I concentrated on the tomes for older kids. Here are the ones I've bought. If you click on each title, you'll go to the NYT review of the book. I'll review each one when I've read it.

Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You by Peter Cameron

Underground by Jean Ferris

Uglies (Boxed Set): Uglies, Pretties, Specials (Uglies) by Scott Westerfeld (The review is nominally about the last book--I'm going to read the three that preceded it.

Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac by Gabrielle Zevin (I loved her book Elsewhere.)

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie

The True Meaning of Smekday by Adam Rex

Looking for books for your teen....

2007-11-12T21:58:00.000-05:00

Martine Leavitt's “Keturah and Lord Death,” was a finalist last fall for a National Book Award. The heroine, Keturah, needs to find her one true love and save her village from the Plague while playing Scheherazade to Death himself.

The Bayern trilogy by Shannon Hale--"The Goose Girl," "Enna Burning" and "River Secrets"--is superb. Well written--it touches on true love, the nature of evil, and the seductiveness of power.

"The Golden Compass," "The Subtle Knife," and "The Amber Spyglass," a terrific trilogy by the great Phillip Pullman. Pullman's books evoke the otherworldliness of Tolkien and Lewis, but have at their hearts, a world far more ruled by man than by God.

"King Dork," by Frank Portman, is a bitterly hilarious mystery replete with a great sense of rock and roll. Amazon.com picked it as one of the best YA books of 2006.

"The Foretelling" by Alice Hoffman reworks the story of the Amazon women, imagining them as warrior women whose wars cost them more than their culture can ultimately bear.

"The City of Ember," "The People of Sparks", "The Prophet of Yonwood" by Jeanne Duprau explore the future with grace and a page-turning plot.

"Neverwhere" and "Stardust" by Neil Gaiman are wondrous dark fairy tales replete with murderous villains and witty heroes/heroines.

The Thief trilogy by Megan Whalen Turner is an adventure tale set in a semi-Mediterranean land.

"Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar: Understanding Philosophy Through Jokes" by Thomas Cathcart and Daniel Klein runs the reader through all of the world's great philosophies through the lens of jokes...and it works!

The Sevenwaters Trilogy by Juliet Marillier tells the story of a young woman's journey to adulthood in a believable and engaging fantasy world.

"The Hero and the Crown" and "The Blue Sword" by Robin McKinley are two of the best high fantasy books ever written--the reader looking for a story both profound and compelling will love these tales of the land of Damar.

"Special Topics in Calamity Physics" by Marisha Pessl, published in 2006, is a hodgepodge of a book, so full of sly references to just about everything that, by its end, the reader is walloped by the stellar plot.

"The Curse of Chalion" by Lois McMaster Bujold is a great blend of adventure, fairy tale, and religion.

"The Memory Keeper's Daughter" by Kim Edwards delves into the notions of family and secrets in a believable and moving way.

"Time Traveler's Wife" by Audrey Niffenegger is a love story extraordinaire--literally, in that Henry and Clare love each other through the magic and pain of Henry's unwanted ability to travel spontaneously through time.

"The Chanters of Trimaris" trilogy by Kate Constable tells the tale of Calwyn and the land of Trimaris. Ms. Constable blends fantasy and ecology in a way that resonates with modern readers.

"A Certain Slant of Light" by Laura Whitcomb is a love story set in a sort of Purgatory. The book is both readable and comforting in its vision of what each of us needs to do to be the best we can be.

"Looking for Alaska" by John Green is a YA book about suicide, friendship, and humor, full of laughs, insights and a few well-placed tears.

"A Great and Terrible Beauty" and "Rebel Angels" by Libba Bray are the first two books in a dense fantasy trilogy set in Victorian England.

"The Sea of Trolls" and "The Land of the Silver Apples" by Nancy Farmer are great books for anyone looking for reading in a post-Potter world.

"Wild Blue Yonder" by Jean Thompson is a moving, funny tale of a dysfunctional family and its rather crazed teenaged daughter who is trying to find her place in the world.

"Tithe" and "Valiant" by Holly Black and "Wicked Lovely" by Melissa Marr are well-written modern horror books that transcend the clichés of the genre.

"The Book of Lost Things" is a wonderfully complex read by John Connolly takes fairy tales to their genuinely unsettling place.

The Photograph****

2007-09-23T16:40:00.000-04:00

This book changed my life. Really.

Years ago, in my more than two decades love affair with my husband, we each wrote each other, at separate times, a horrible letter. We were young, we were angry, we had the clarity of those who've never had scary medical tests, we were not who we are now, either singularly or together. Anyway, I saved these two missives of acrimony because I thought someday I might use the words in a novel. However, after reading Ms. Lively's powerful The Photograph, I shredded the sheaves. I realized that, were I to suddenly die, my children might find those horrible words and, hence, see their parents' marriage through a different, sadder lens.

In The Photograph, Glyn, a widower in his early sixties, finds a photo of his lovely, young wife, Kath holding hands with Nick, her sister Elaine's husband. It's clear from the surreptitious way Kath and Nick are hiding their hands: they were lovers. Even though Kath has been dead for several years, Glyn becomes obsessed with finding out "the truth" about Kath, Nick and the years long gone. In the extraordinarily competent hands of Ms. Lively, the reader enters into the thoughts of all the players on her novel's stage. The impact of the found photograph resonates in the lives of not only Glyn, Nick and Elaine, but also in the life of Nick and Elaine's daughter, Polly, and in the life of Oliver, Nick's ex-business partner. Each character realizes several truths about the past and are able to see more clearly the present.

I cried as I read the last chapter of the book--I was so moved by interplay of love and loss Lively creates. It's so easy to look at another through the lens we choose and when we do so, we often miss so damn much. Others, and the lives we share with them, are marvelously untidy. The Photograph is a masterful novel--unflinching and yet sympathetic towards those who fill its pages.

Dragon Slippers**

2007-09-01T09:33:00.000-04:00

Dragonslippers by Jessica Day George was a perfectly respectable, predictable, fantasy novel with a smart, cheeky young woman as the protagonist, Creel. I read this book with my 11 year old daughter and we both thought it was OK. It's certainly not taxing--it's fantasy Muzak, pleasant, forgettable and kind of a waste of reading time. Parts of the plot were so similar to the vastly superior Goose Girl by Shannon Hale that it had a whiff of plagiarism.

However, if you have a daughter in the 7-12 range who is always on the lookout for fantasy books with strong young women in them, I bet she'd enjoy this book. An few hours lost to an OK book are not really squandered, they're whiled away, and that's just fine.

To My Dearest Friends **

2007-08-28T11:05:00.000-04:00

This chick-lit book by Patricia Volk let me down. A scribe no less than a book reviewer from THE NEW YORK TIMES wrote:

To My Dearest Friends is a cozy, kick-off-your-shoes-and-curl-up novel. If you happen to find it in an airport bookstore, you’re lucky. Just make sure you remember to catch your flight.

I found it to be a cozy, dull, help-you-go-to-sleep novel. I couldn't stand Alice, one of the novel's two protagonists and I found the other, Nanny, a natter-er! The feel good ending with its slightly odd plot twist seemed flat out saccharine.

Perhaps I am not a good candidate for chick lit--I was unable to finish another highly recommended CL book: Sheer Abandon. Whiny women or women whose lives work out to perfection by the end of the tale bore me. Kara Thrace, where are you when I need you?

The Foretelling **1/2

2007-08-24T19:36:00.000-04:00

I read all of Alice Hoffman's books. Some, like Illumination Night, I love and have read again and again. Others, like The River King, I sped through and will never pick up again. Ms. Hoffman made her name writing books for adults but, in recent years, she has penned many a young adult novel. Of those I have read, The Foretelling is the one I like best. The story is a retelling of the Amazon women and it imagines them as warrior women whose wars cost them more than their culture can ultimately bear. If you are looking for a book to share with your daughter, this is a good one.

A Field of Darkness **5/6

2007-08-24T19:33:00.000-04:00

It's true that I couldn't easily put down Cornelia Read's debut novel, Field of Darkness. It is also true that, at its end, I felt a bit let down. The villain was not that difficult to suss out and, more importantly, the class politics on which the novel revolves became a bit too black and white by the finale.

I did love the narrative voice of Madeleine Dare, ex-uber wealthy Long Islander, now stuck with a Naugahyde couch and a deep ambivalence about the middle class life she now shares with her hottie husband Dean about whom she hasn't a whit of ambivalence about. (The latter love/lust for a husband might be somewhat out of place in this hipster's tale, but Dean spends much of the book in the woods in Canada and thus the scenes of marital bliss are minimal.) Madeleine, in an attempt to figure out why her cousin Lapthorne's dog tags were found at the scene of a decades old murder, encounters all sorts, from Bonwit, the odious and wildly wealthy boyfriend of her mother, to Kenny, the ex-cop turned bartender who loathes the upper crust.

At the end of the tale, the villain is dead and our heroine has solved the murder. I had a blast reading the tale, I just wish the story had been a bit less simplistic in its judgements.

I'm only on page 100, but I'm loving this book

2007-08-21T17:55:00.000-04:00

a relevant post from therealeve

2007-07-26T21:39:00.000-04:00

I read the following on slate.com today and I post it as the end of the discussion as to the value of the Rowlings series.

"Dear Gryffindors, Ravenclaws, Slytherins, and Hufflepuffs,

Before I begin, a few words. Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak!

Will, you worry that those who judge the book as children's literature give short shrift to Rowling's work. I disagree with you a bit; I'm judging Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows as children's literature, but in doing so, I'm putting it up against some of the greatest stories I've ever read, stories that inspired, educated, and exhilarated me as a boy and as an adult. (Our daughter isn't named Lyra for nothing, after all; as the rest of America will discover when the film of The Golden Compass comes out this winter, Lyra is the intrepid heroine of Philip Pullman's spectacular children's fantasy series.) I hold children's literature up to high standards, higher in many ways than literature exclusively for grown-ups.

Rowling herself seems to wink at those who consign her novels to the margins with the introduction in Deathly Hallows of The Tales of Beedle the Bard, a kind of Brothers Grimm of the wizarding world. In his will, Dumbledore leaves Hermione a copy of the book, which Ron can't believe Harry and Hermione have never heard of. But because they grew up in Muggle families, instead of such popular wizarding children's stories as "The Wizard and the Hopping Pot" or "Babbitty Rabbitty and her Cackling Stump," Harry and Hermione read "Cinderella." ("What's that, an illness?" asks Ron.)

And when, naturally, Beedle's tales end up helping our threesome through their quest, the disregard some have for stories for children does not go unnoticed. Dumbledore, speaking to a not-dead, not-alive Harry in King's Cross, points out one of the Dark Lord's great weaknesses (emphasis mine): "That which Voldemort does not value, he takes no trouble to comprehend," Dumbledore says, as the stunted, scalded soul of Voldemort squalls on the floor behind them. "Of house-elves and children's tales, of love, loyalty, and innocence, Voldemort knows and understands nothing. ... That they all have a power beyond his own, a power beyond the reach of any magic, is a truth he has never grasped."

Whatever my quibbles with Rowling's decisions in this or any of the Harry Potter books, I cannot deny that reading them has been one of the most pleasurable, imaginative experiences I've ever had. I'm eager to read them to Lyra, and to Lyra's sister, due just two weeks from now, and to see both of them swept away, as I was by so many books as a child—and am by so few as an adult. We have no idea what we're going to name Lyra's sister yet, by the way. Maybe we'll name her Hermione. Maybe we'll name her Eilonwy. Maybe we'll name her Turtle. Hell, maybe we'll name her Jo.

Thanks, all, for joining in the discussion.

Best,Dan

Dan Kois has worked as a film executive and a literary agent. He writes and edits New York magazine's arts and culture blog, Vulture.

Dabney's daemon

2007-07-21T14:06:00.000-04:00

My latest post on the real eve is about my favorite fantasy series: Phillip Pullman's His Dark Materials. Check it out.

Echo Park ***

2007-06-18T19:10:00.000-04:00

After I read Wolves Eat Dogs, I polished off Michael Connelly's Echo Park. (It takes a long time to get from Paris to Raleigh and I am a very fast reader.) I like the Harry Bosch novels, although I don't find them as literarily stellar as do many reviewers. Harry is a bit too macho for my taste--his need to be tough makes him occasionally stupid and that always irks me.

Echo Park is a good Harry Bosch novel, but not the best. (My favorite is The Closers.) The suspense in this book is great--it is truly a page turner--and plot is twisty in a great way. It is the sort of story one stays up way past bedtime to see how it is resolved. It's a great summer read, or a great airline read, and there's nothing wrong with that!

Wolves Eat Dogs***

2007-06-18T18:39:00.000-04:00

Flying over the Atlantic, while returning from a family trip to France, I read Martin Cruz Smith's novel, Wolves Eat Dogs. I am a fan of the Arkady Renko novels and am, in fact, not quite sure why I haven't already read this one, given that it was published in 2004.

I owe to Smith much of my sense of Russia over the past 26 years--tracing its progress--perhaps--from Communist cold war big brother (detailed in 1981's Gorky Park)to Mafia ridden nightmare (in Red Square, 1992) to capitalistic free-for-all in Wolves Eat Dogs. At each stage Arkady, hampered by his sadistic and stupid bosses, has teased the truth out of Russia's corrupt intrigues. In each book, he is so saddened by his past and present, his future seems almost untenable. I find Smith a wonderful writer--his language is sharp and distinct, his scenes starkly readable.

In Wolves Eat Dogs, Arkady travels to the heart of darkness--the Zone of Exclusion which rings the dead zone of Chernobyl. Smith spins the story of what happened and still happens there. His descriptions of the towns, decreed to be empty, yet housing those who couldn't or wouldn't leave, are marvelous. Arkady's stoic heart is pulled by a woman and a child, the former a doctor in the Zone, the latter a silent orphan in Moscow. Some of my favorite dialog happens as Arkady, banished to the Zone to find who slit the throat of the senior vice-president of NoviRus, a huge New Russia corporation, spins the story of where he is to the eleven year old he feels somehow responsible for. The boy, silent on the phone in Moscow, impels Arkady to meld the dark fairy tales of Baba Yaga with the damaged world he finds in Chernobyl.

Like many books, Wolves Eat Dogs stumbles at bit at its conclusion. The story of who the killer is seems a bit oddly resolved and the last chapter is a bit too tidily woven. I forgive Smith these weaknesses, however. As I sat on my plane, the hours flew by and, at the end of the book, as I have in all of Smith's Renko series, I felt I understood a bit better the complex vastness that is Mother Russia.

Good reads about depressed Swedish policemen

2007-06-08T22:47:00.000-04:00

Last summer, I worked my way through a mystery series by a Swede named Henning Mankel. Here's a review I wrote then. In retrospect, I like these books even more, although I can't say I enjoyed them more. But I think they offer a stellar reading experience.

This book, Sidetracked, is the fourth in the series and I can't quite figure out why I keep reading them. Mankel's vision of Sweden is a downer--a bland, faceless culture filled with bureaucracy and bad weather. His protagonist, Kurt Wallender, is glum, often drunk, completely unable to connect with others and a bit of a prick. The tone of the books is dark and virtually without redemption. And yet...

The plot lines are global and give a world perspective vastly different from America's self-absorbed view. The way the strands and stories in the novel come together is always unclear until the end and it's interesting the way the characters and storylines evolve. The books are set in a real world context--in the third one, Mandela and DeKlerk are characters, one of whom is an intended murder victim. I do keep hoping Kurt will get his life together and find some happiness--although I have no reason, based on the first three books, to expect that will be true.

I have thought, as I read each book, this one will be the last one I'll read--there's got to be cheerier entertainment on my bookshelves (I've been ignoring the call of the new translation of Anna Karenina.) I'm a third of the way into this one and maybe, after I'm done I'll quit. But probably not--there's something compelling about being depressed by the details of another culture. I've come to believe I'd much rather live in North Carolina than in Sweden--even though there appears to be no rabid religious right in rural Sweden. There's also no Deadwood.

The Shadow of the Wind***

2007-06-07T16:14:00.000-04:00

Thinking of summer reading made me recall the halcyon days of last summer where, for one glorious week, I immersed myself in The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. This book is an international best seller and was on the bestseller list in Spain for over two years.

The Shadow of the Wind is a novel that’s a thriller, a tale of historical fiction, a mystery and a passionate love story. As I read it I was reminded of other grand tales I have loved, A.S. Byatt’s Possession, Marion Zimmer Bradley’s The Mists of Avalon, even, Ian McEwan’s Atonement. But mostly I didn’t think about anything but Zafon’s story, which is big, bold, funny, well written and shameless.

I will confess that I have begun to avoid difficult books. I just plowed my way through A Very Long Engagement and I was annoyed at myself first for not having a great enough attention span and then for sticking with a book I didn’t enjoy. Life is often hard and then you do, sooner or later, die. I have a certain quota for suffering caused by art and, I am not ashamed to say, it grows smaller by the year. Reading is for me, after the joys of mothering, marriage and my friends, my favorite source of pleasure.

I love to read, to talk about reading and to remember reading. I use reading to make sense of reality. I love the lenses reading affords—reading The Lovely Bones showed me a vision of being dead I could maybe accept and certainly found wildly interesting.

I recommend The Shadow of the Wind to anyone who wants to be seduced by a story. It’s not perfect and not all the metaphors hold together. And it is, upon reflection, a trfle melodramatic. But, God, was it a fun read.

The Myth of You and Me* and Snowflower and the Secret Fan*1/2

2007-06-07T10:34:00.001-04:00

Here's another realeve post proffering some good "chick lit" for summer reading:

I have just finished two books about "best friends," each told from the perspective of one of the women in the friendship.

The first, The Myth of You and Me by by Lisa Stewart, is so evocative of the last true best friendship I had and lost, that I had a hard time separating Cameron's and Sonia's friendship from the one I had in college. While The Myth of You and Me wobbles a bit in its writing and cliches, it is a wonderful read.

The second, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See, is beautifully written and completely lacking in cliches. It is a tale set in--I think--late 19th/early 20th century China and is full of often horrifying information about that country's wildly foreign customs: footbinding, social caste and Confucius's rules for marital life. I couldn't put it down--Lily's story of her life with her laotong (pledged life-long friend) Snow Flower is so compelling and believable.

Friendship between women, especially those we think of as our best, is its own sort of great love affair. It often strikes me that we outgrow the idea of best friends as we age--the demands of such an intense relationship are had to meet as we marry, work, raise children and strive to be so many things to so many.

I recommend both books highly.

Keturah and Lord Death***1/2

2007-06-07T08:32:00.001-04:00

I am in the midst--I hope--of a life long love affair with what bookies call YA (young adult) novels. Since childhood, I have loved books written--supposedly--for kids ages 10 to 16. Lloyd Alexander's masterful Prydain chronicles, Cynthia Voight's tales of the Tillermans, and, more recently, Shannon Hale's superb Bayern trilogy, are all books I have read over and over and shared with those I love.

Martine Leavitt's “Keturah and Lord Death,” which was a finalist last fall for a National Book Award, is a good addition to my catalog of excellent YA books. Ms. Leavitt is a strong writer and her depictions of the lives of her medieval small town characters seem real and are engaging. Our heroine, Keturah, needs to find her one true love and save her village from the Plague while playing Scheherazade to Death himself. The book ends satisfyingly, its plot resolved in believable yet surprising ways.

I loved the underlying premise of the story--we humans value what we love only because we know death could snatch our hearts away from us at any moment. As Keturah points out to Death, "It was Death who sweetened the apples.... He made her see how much she loved her friends, for all their trouble, and how much her grandmother loved her, and oh, he made her love the breath in her lungs."

So many great books, so little time.

A Good House****

2007-06-05T08:58:00.000-04:00

My friend Pam just returned to me my oft loaned copy of Bonnie Burnard's A Good House. Pam, like all with whom I've shared this book, thanked me and said "I really enjoyed it." Every one enjoys this book--many, like my sister, my next-door neighbor and I, love it.

A Good House, written in 1999, was awarded Canada's Giller Prize (best novel published in English by a Canadian author). Written from various points of view, A Good House tells the tale of the Chambers family of Stonebrook, Ontario, from 1949 to 1997. Like the work of fellow Canadian Alice Munroe, the power here is in the details and in the beauty and sadness in every day life. By the end of the book, the reader knows the Chambers, even loves them, and feels richer for the experience.

I recommend it highly--at the very least, you'll enjoy it.

Salon.com recommends hardback thrillers for summer reading

2007-06-04T11:32:00.000-04:00

What the Dead Know ***1/2

2007-06-04T11:22:00.000-04:00

Laura Lippman's slow turning mystery/psychological thriller What the Dead Know so evoked my early teen years in the mid-70's I kept humming "All the Girls Love Alice" (Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, Elton John, released in 1973)while I was reading it. This novel does a terrific job of plunking the reader smack dab in that long ago time. The story, which weaves the past and present together, waits until its end to reveal the fates of Heather and Sunny Bethany, two sisters, 11 and 15, who vanished in suburban Baltimore in 1975. Is the woman picked up by the police for leaving the scene of an accident Heather, as she claims? And if she isn't, why does she say she is and how does she know so much about the Bethany family's 1970's life?

In our world, we worry all the time about snatched away children and malevolent strangers, but in 1973, the mall seemed a safe place for two sisters to shop on a Saturday. One of the pleasures of this book is the lens it gives the reader on life in America three decades ago--it's impossible not to constantly stop and compare then to now as one reads. By the end of the book, not only has the sad fate of the Bethany sisters been revealed, an earlier era has been marvelously excavated: Jethro Tull, Bonnie Bell, Dr. Scholl's sandals, macrame purses and all.