Tara Chevrestt's Blog, page 82

True Spies (Lord and Lady Spy #2) by Shana Galen

I enjoyed this light, humorous historical romance. Though the second in a series, it can stand alone.

Basic summary: he's a spy and has been hiding that little fact from his wife for all 14 years of their marriage. She feels unloved, unwanted, undesired, and like most housewives...bored. Her children are at that age they no longer need her constant supervision. When a man claiming to be a spy wishes to engage her in a love affair, she just loves feeling desired again and plans to enter this exciting life with the man...but then the husband finds out.

Based loosely on the movie True Lies.

I enjoyed the plot, though I didn't find it as intricate and exciting as book one. I liked this spunky heroine, how she stands up to her husband. I enjoyed their banter and arguments. I appreciated that she was a normal woman, with stretch marks and fullness to her body. Mr. and Mrs. Smythe from book one make enough appearances to please me. I really like those two. Blue...Blue is back and nearly steals the show a few times. I also liked how this story touches on--however lightly--a serious issue that most married couples face after a decade or so: boredom and taking each other for granted.

Sometimes we have to be reminded of what we have in order to appreciate it.

Oh--and you could say there's a theme of compromise. That's an important factor in a marriage and these two really brought that home, so to speak. COMPROMISE is a must.

The story is really really LOL funny toward the end...with the prince. OMG. I laughed out loud and had to cover my mouth as my husband was sleeping.

I'm also extremely excited about book three, which promises to have another woman spy. I can't wait! And I wonder what movie it will be loosely based on. I love this idea.

My quibbles: I can't help but compare it to book one, and I have to say, I don't see myself reading this again and I didn't find it as "unputdownable" as the first. Matter of fact, I didn't laugh my butt off till the end, but I liked it. However, though the ending was funny, some things didn't quite line up for me. Blue being afraid of tunnels, refusing to go in at first, but then hopping in a bit later? No....

The historical setting was well done. There was just enough of it to make me feel "there" but not so much that it became bogged in details. I'd say this story overall had the perfect blend of historicalness, romance, humor, banter, and suspense.


Arc received via Netgalley.

The Girl You Left Behind by Jojo Moyes

I've yet to be disappointed with a Jojo Moyes book and this is my third. Her books take me on an emotional roller coaster ride. I become so invested in the characters, I laugh with them, I cry for them. I especially love the situations her characters face, that have you constantly questioning..."What would I do?"

Would you betray your husband to save his life? Would you do your job at the risk of hurting others?

This story also made me think about how...what looks good and right on paper may not be the right thing. In the case of the painting...should the artists's descendants have it simply because it's their "family right" or should a woman who understands the woman within the canvas be allowed to keep it?

There's two stories going on here. One is Sophie in WWI, France. Her home has been taken over by the Germans. She's forced to cook for them. She misses her husband, an artist, desperately....and will do just about anything to save him. Through her we see a town under German occupation as they watch their village taken over, their homes destroyed, their items stolen, as they try to survive on rations and also, sadly, spew hatred and venom at each other.

The modern-day story is Olivia as she deals constantly with grief. She's a widow. She has a painting...that someone else wants and through a sick twist of fate, she and her new lover end up on opposing sides...

The character list is extensive yet you feel like you grow to know each and every one. Each person mentioned has an impact. I especially enjoyed Olivia's roommate. She's the kinda gal I wouldn't mind having around. In a story full of heart ache and turmoil, she provided the laughs.

"I'll be back at three o'clock and I'll call in sick to the restaurant and we can swear a lot and think up medieval punishments for f*ckwit men who blow hot and cold. I've got some modeling clay upstairs that I use for voodoo dolls. Can you get some cocktail sticks ready? Or some skewers? I'm all out."

I have nothing bad to say about this book. It transports you, you makes you think, bite your nails, worry, ties your tummy in knots, and it's just....darn. good. writing. I can't emphasize that enough. The historical bits were incredibly realistic and heart pounding. The modern-day bits were full of thought-evoking situations that made me analyze many things about today's society and behavior.

A beautiful book, a beautiful story, about beautiful women who stand for what they believe in, be it saving their husbands' lives or memories or just holding on to a painting they believe is rightfully theirs.

I received this from Netgalley.

My Ever-Growing TBR Pile 9/21/2013

Spotted on Edelweiss. Intrigues me because I once had a similar idea...I mean, every author has at one time or another fantasized about the hero she's writing coming to life. I think Happily Ever After by Elizabeth Maxwell just sounds fun. On my wishlist. It's a 2014 release.


In this witty, sexy tale, an erotic novelist meets the fictional hero of her most recent book in real life, and must decide whether she wants to get him back between the pages—or between her sheets.At forty-six, Sadie Fuller’s life isn’t exactly romantic. A divorced, overweight, somewhat sexually frustrated mother of an eleven-year-old, she lives in the suburbs, shops the big box stores, makes small talk with her small-minded neighbors, and generally leads a quiet life. But while her daughter is at school, or when Sadie is up late at night, she writes erotic fiction under the name KT Briggs.

Then, during a routine shopping trip, Sadie runs into someone familiar…too familiar, in fact. She encounters an incredibly handsome man exactlylike the one in her imagination—and her latest novel. Is Aidan Hathaway really one of her characters? And if so, what is he doing in Target? As Sadie tries to negotiate this strange new world, her eyes begin to open to romantic possibilities in places she never dreamed of looking…places where Happily Ever After might not be so far-fetched after all.

***
Camp Sunshine by Ruth Francisco was free on kindle. WWII saga that looks promising.
As the United States enters World War II, military commanders send their best officers to set up an amphibious training camp on Florida's desolate Gulf coast. Major Occam Goodwin anticipates challenges—swamps, snakes, alligators, hurricanes—and the daunting task of turning twenty thousand green recruits into warriors. But when his surveyors discover a murdered black family deep in the forest, he must dance delicately around military politics, and a race war that threatens the entire war effort.

Here, in this harsh but mystically beautiful land, young recruits test themselves to the limit in love and combat; politicos and tycoons offer aid with one eye to profit; women patrol the coast on horseback, looking for German subs; a postmaster's daughter, the only child on base, inspires thousands; a determined woman bravely holds together her family and the emotional soul of the camp. Amid tragedy and betrayal, victory and terror, the fate of the soldiers and their country hangs perilously in the balance, as each endeavors to find his destiny.

Based on the true story of Camp Gordon Johnston, this novel is about young men on the brink of war, and a country on the brink of civil rights, a tale of soldiers and officers, daughters and mothers, death and redemption, and a man unyielding in his integrity, compassion, and struggle for justice.


***
Really enjoyed Gunpowder Tea this last week, so this one has gone on my wishlist: Head Over Heels by Margaret Brownley.


Despite her lovely red-blond hair and exquisite looks, unconventional Kate Whittaker will never find a husband as long as she keeps shocking the town with her newfangled inventions. That is just fine with Kate—until she meets handsome Jonas Hunter, who dares to claim her inventions as his.

Jonas is stunned to discover that this infuriating woman is stealing his ideas. But his fury doesn’t work on her—it just makes Kate angry.

When Jonas tries to trick Kate into admitting she stole his idea, the ploy fails. When he attempts a little romance, it backfires—Jonas never meant to have his heart stolen. But love proves to be a very old invention—one that is made to be shared.


***
Tiefland by Calvin Glover was free on Kindle and caught my eye because it's about a woman movie producer who had some controversy during WWII. I have heard about this woman before. She was a side character in another WWII novel. Now she's the focus of one.


Swing era Germany. A young Leni Riefenstahl is acclaimed as the greatest female filmmaker of the 20th century. Dancer, actor, screenwriter, and director, she is renowned as a consummate artist. Then come the atrocities of the Third Reich and suddenly she is dismissed and despised as a Nazi whore. Tiefland is a fictionalized account of her struggle to restore her reputation and her desperate attempt to regain the adoration she once enjoyed.

Calvin Glover nudges the envelope of historical fiction. Drawing heavily from Leni Riefenstahl: A Memoir, several biographies that stake out conflicting viewpoints, and archival news accounts of the day, he has fashioned Tiefland as a dramatic metaphor. It is a literary collage mixing fact and fiction to create a fascinating portrayal of a complex, famous, and notorious woman.
***
Spotted on Amazon while doing my "women in aviation" search: The Darling Dahlias and the Texas Star (The Darling Dahlias #4) by Susan Wittig Albert. I haven't read the first three, but this went on my wishlist anyway and you'll see why when you read the blurb.
The Texas Star herself—Miss Lily Dare, the fastest woman in the world”—is bringing her Dare Devils Flying Circus to Darling. Unfortunately, she’s also bringing a whole lot of trouble. As the Dahlias prepare for the annual Watermelon Festival—where they will present the famous female aviatrix with her own Texas Star hibiscus—rumors are flying.

Dahlias president Liz Lacy learns from newspaperman Charlie Dickens that Miss Dare has been threatened and her plane sabotaged. Apparently the bold and beautiful barnstormer has made plenty of enemies. And is it possible she may even be involved with the husband of one of Darling’s local ladies?

And speaking of wings, the new cook at Myra May’s Darling Diner can fry a chicken and whip up a sweet potato meringue pie like nobody’s business. But why is she keeping her past such a mystery?

As the Texas Star barnstorms into town, Liz and Verna Tidwell offer to help bring down a saboteur who may be propelled by revenge. Before it’s all over, there will be plenty of black eyes and dark secrets revealed….


***
I said above that I really liked a book by Margaret Brownley. While reading her Gunpowder Tea, a name in the story was mentioned: the first female Pinkerton agent, Kate Warne. I immediately did some more research and discovered there's a historical fiction novel that has her in it. Despite its poor ratings, I nabbed myself a copy. You just never know.

Pinkerton's Secret by Eric Lerner. This romantic adventure conjures up the passionate life story of the Civil War era's legendary private eye, recounting dramatic exploits and his clandestine love affair with his partner.

Allan Pinkerton's story opens in Chicago on the eve of the American Civil War. After battling con men, train robbers, and vicious gunmen, Pinkerton senses that change is in the air. Already committed to the abolitionist cause and the Underground Railroad, he allies himself with John Brown's radical antislavery crusade. Upholding the law with one hand, he unapologetically breaks it with the other.

Kate Warne joins the Pinkerton Agency--its first female detective-- and quickly takes her place as Allan's closest confidante. He asks Kate to join him, and she embraces his cause in all its contradictions and extremes. Comrades-in-arms, their romantic passion becomes the most combustible and irresistible kind, the mutual affirmation of a world of two. Together they save the life of Abraham Lincoln on his inaugural journey to Washington, root out Confederate spies within the Union government, and establish the nation's first Secret Service, sending their agents deep behind enemy lines. Blind to all consequences, the secret lovers learn too late that some battles, no matter how right the cause, cannot be won.

***

Spotted on Harlequin Junkie, my fave blog and now on my wishlist because it's a woman pilot!!! Love is in the Air by Anji Nolan.


When Royal Canadian Mounted Police Sergeant Jim Cromwell and airline pilot Captain Sophie Berg are shot in a drive by shooting, their bond is instant and palpable. Jim is investigating a drug running operation in Maine known as The Albatross Alliance, so he assumes he was the target. Until he learns Sophie works for Granola Aviation, a charter airline carrying celebs and alleged drug kingpins about the world, and her latest contract is for Albatross Marine.

The pair meet for dinner and though Jim is attracted to Sophie, he is suspicious. After she reveals her own concerns about Granola Aviation, its passengers and cargo, Jim suspects she is being used. As their friendship morphs into romance, she provides the information to connect the pieces of the drug running puzzle together.

But it’s only when she is kidnapped by one of the drug smugglers that Jim realizes how important she has become in his life.

Newsflash: Your Sh*t DOES Stink. How Internet Viruses Are Destroying Humanity.

Today I want to talk about rudeness...and entitlement. There seems to be some major viruses going around, among authors, readers, giveaway winners, publishers, and pretty much anyone who does their business from behind a computer monitor.

One is the "You can't see me, so I'm going to say what I want to" epidemic. There's also the "I want something for nothing" epidemic.

And it's ruining humanity, making humanity a rude, entitled, snotty mass of people.

Regarding the first epidemic, take care in what you say to people online. Would you say it to their face? Ask yourself that. I recently had a woman PM my FB author page. She claimed she'd won a book of mine in some Rafflecopter giveaway. It had ended five days ago and I had not yet heard from the host about who the winners were or what their emails addresses were. So I believed this chick, provided her the book, and apologized for the delay.

She signed off with, "I'm done with you now."

This is a classic case of Virus One and Virus Two, both.

P.S. Upon reaching the giveaway host, I discovered she hadn't even won my book!

More examples:
-Publisher emails me wanting a book edited. I'm already giving them a discount. I give an estimate that is the exact same darn fee I've been charging this organization for a year. Suddenly I'm too expensive and all the work goes to an editor is new, has no clue, but works for almost free. Nevertheless, this is an example of Virus 2. FYI, reading a book twice can take a while. When you take the hours it takes to read a book and look at how much we get paid, we don't even make minimum wage. *Dear publisher, there is a LAW about that!*

-Author provides a book for review. I give it a three-star rating on Goodreads. Those who follow me know that a review will be posted once it goes live on my blog. She sees the three-star and emails me, "I thought you liked it?"

I did, but it wasn't the best thing I've ever read...I had a quibble or two. But a three is not a bad thing from me.

Then, without even seeing the review, she demands I not post it at all.

That's Virus 1 and a mixture of another virus called "My shit don't stink."

Oh, and while I'm on the subject, I should talk about Virus 3: "The rub it other's faces" Epidemic.

You got a new car! That's fabulous!!! Good for you. 

You post 18 pictures of it on day one. Day two, you liked every single page on FB related to the make of that vehicle, the engine inside it, and then bombard your friends with reminders of what you drive. Day three: you talk about your woofer. Day 4: you cry because there's hail on it. Day 5: you debate window tint...

You never ever let anyone forget for 5 minutes that you have a new car.

You probably park it just far enough away that you don't have to worry about door dings, but just close enough that everyone can you see get in and out of it, and then stand there for 5 minutes for some imaginary reason to make sure everyone sees you. 

Another example of this is authors who brag constantly. They find subtle ways to mention their incredible, insta-book sales. And they knowingly relay this data constantly to other authors whom they know are struggling.

Yes, there is a third epidemic. 

What is the world coming to?

Before you send that email, before you post that FB status, before you hit that Enter key, ask yourself, "What the f*ck am I doing?"

OH--and dear publisher who claimed I was too expensive after I worked my butt off for you for a year, and dear Rafflecopter winner who didn't really win, and dear author who had a seizure over the three-star rating, and dear author who loves to remind me of your insta-sales, this is for you:

A Woman's Work is Never Good Enough: Guest Post & Giveaway with Ainslie Paton

We know the stats.  Not enough women in leadership positions.  Not enough women able to influence the debate about how we build our societies, run our industries and develop our cultures – and that’s the first world.
Elsewhere baby girls don’t make it out of the womb safely, let alone through school, college or university and into the workforce.
Romance fiction might not be an obvious place to showcase this issue; to show heroines who are bright and tenacious, and have sharp enough intellects and elbows to survive and succeed in a male-oriented workforce — but there’s no reason it can’t be.
At least that’s the way I think about it. 
In my day job I’ve never had a female boss, except for two brief occasions where I was coming and they were going, so it’s men who shaped the work environment I had to navigate.  Which meant a jumble of gender stereotyping, skills-typing, and artificial capabilities barriers to jump.  Barriers my male, always better paid, even if not better skilled, colleagues did not have in front of them.
And on top of that, none of them got taken for an assistant who should bring the coffee, if they stood in the doorway of another male in his office.  None of them faced subtle yet pervasive discrimination because they might decide to start a family.  They got invited to golf days.  They had the secret handshake that opened relationships and affiliations that greased career poles.
I had to work harder.  But that’s okay.  Every woman I know did. 
And now I get to have my fun.  I get to write about this dynamic, pull it apart and put it back together again in more a pleasing form. 
I’ve written four and a half novels where I use gender workplace imbalance as a frame for the story.
The first is Getting Real.  I wrote a female wild child rock chick.  You’re going: “So, never heard of Pink?”  And I’m going — that’s exactly the point.  The rock sub genre of romance is all about the boys.  The heroines are always in subsidiary dependent roles: the home town girlfriend, the journalist, the groupie, the biographer, the photographer. 
There’s something crappy about that.  Sure the women in these stories undo the men, bring the rock stars to their knees, but they never get to be the stars themselves outside their man’s eyes.  And I didn’t think that was good enough.  So I got to write it my way around.  My heroine is a star and she falls for a roadie, an ordinary boy next door.
The second novel where I play with the theme of gender and work is White Balance.
Here’s Bailey thinking about a job her ex-boss is offering her:
Bailey had spent five years of her life making Blake look good. Sure it’d been her job to support him, but she’d done more than her job; more than support him. She’d enabled him to be a star, and he’d grabbed every opportunity that sidled by, and a few that hadn’t. So now six years later, here he was, not spit exchange distance away, the CEO of his own multimillion dollar advertising company. And here Bailey was, technically unemployed, reputation slightly shop soiled, and all penguined up.
But you know what? Being Blake’s go-to girl again, someone to polish his dull edges, straighten his tie, smile and keep the home fires burning, while he was out conquering worlds wasn’t on her to do list. Even if that list did currently only containing the two words: Find work.

She’d done it once because she’s loved her job, enjoyed the challenges and yes—she’d been a little in love with Blake, which added to the whole sense of adventure at the time. It was Bailey and Blake against the world, finding ways to do impossible things, sometimes for the sake of seeing how far they could push the envelope. But she’d grown up, got over him, got out of the boy’s club that favoured the messy XY chromosome over the neat double X. She’d stretched her own wings and was making her own name in the industry, despite whatever momentary set back the blackout was causing.

Blake clearly didn’t get that. Because here he was fielding his wicked, ‘you can’t deny me anything’ grin, and assuming she’d salivate at the opportunity to be his lackey again.

She wasn’t sure what hurt more; that she’d expected better from him, the insult, or the knowledge he might be right.

Perhaps it was the best she was going to do in this economy. Taking his offer was a smart way to lick her wounds and stay sane and solvent while she waited for the rest of her contracts to come on board later in the year.

But no. It didn’t matter how right he was. She’d find another way to manage, because there wasn’t a snowball’s chance in hell she could be Blake’s fame agenda administrator ever again.

After White Balance, which is set in the Mad Men world of advertising, came Detained.  In Detained my heroine, Darcy is a journalist.  On the whole print journalism is one of those professions were merit ranks before sex, but broadcast journalism is another story.  You can be bald, unattractive with a beer belly and still be on camera if you’re a man.  If you’re a woman you can’t be thin enough, pretty enough, young enough or brunette enough.
Here’s an early scene where Darcy has to fight for an assignment against her boss, with the support of her boss’s boss:
Gerry propped his ‘years of long lunches’ bulk on Mark’s desk, wafts of cigarette smoke easing from the creases in his crinkled blue shirt. “She knows nothing about reporting business at this level.”

Mark kept his frown steady on the Richter scale and his voice level. “Is that right, Gerry?”

“Don’t fuck with me. What’s she got I haven’t, apart from legs to her hairy armpits and good tits?”

“I’m not going to respond to that, Gerry and neither is Darce. It’s beneath you.” Mark’s warning look was the kind you gave a dog about to steal a shoe to chew, right before you thwacked him on the nose with it to make sure he didn’t. Mark knew how much Darcy wanted to knee Gerry where it would hurt more than his 48pt-sized ego.

“This paper used to be about in-depth, intelligent, investigative reporting. She’ll write about his flamin’ hairstyle, and what he has for fucking breakfast.”

“Darcy will write about Parker Corporation, and if what Will Parker has for breakfast is part of his extraordinary success, she’ll write about that too.”

“Fuck. You’d be the worst managing editor I’ve ever worked with.”

“I bet you say that to all the boys.”

Darcy would’ve laughed but Mark hairy-eyeballed her.

A little further into the scene Darcy can’t hold back:
“Jesus, Gerry! I’ve done my apprenticeship.”

The words were bouncing around the room before Darcy realised she’d said them. She looked at Mark. There was a fight going on at the corner of his mouth, one side ticked up with the vague promise of a smile. He wasn’t going to shut her down.

“I’ve been reporting for ten years. I’ve covered business, sure not at your level, Gerry. But I know the drill. I’ve worked crime, education, science and public companies. I’ve done bloody awful death knocks, and bat shit boring budget lockups. I’m damn sure I can interview a CEO and come away with a decent story.”

“A reclusive superstar CEO about whom not a word’s been written that’s not pure speculation or conjecture.”

Gerry had a point. Gerry always did, that’s why he was the country’s leading business commentator and Darcy was rattled by this whole thing. One minute she was writing about particle physics, the next Mark wanted her on a plane to Shanghai to write the definitive piece on Australia’s most enigmatic businessman.

This was the ‘Oh my God’ particle right here.

But if she showed any sign of weakness, any twitch of confidence, Gerry would elbow her sideways so hard she’d be writing the racing guide. And if Mark, for all his apparent consideration and support, smelled a whiff of fear, he’d have no qualms reversing his decision.

“I’ve got this, Gerry,” she said, looking at Mark. Mark who’d sign her expenses and ultimately approve her copy. And bounce her so hard if she fucked up, a job in a suburban paper writing about the need for more school safety zones would start looking good.

Later, Darcy gets a plumb television job, but she’s devastated to learn that her appearance is more important to her network bosses than the journalism skills which got her hired:
“Eat something, Darce. I know I’m not supposed to believe there’s such a thing as too thin for TV, but you look like you could do with a good feed.”

Our hero isn’t comfortable with how she’s changed either:
“I’d rather feed you.” He stood. “Do you like being this skinny?”

“You’d rather avoid me. And it’s virtually in my contract.”

He looked around for his jeans, handed Darcy his old flanny. “I don’t see me getting away with much avoidance. And that’s a crappy job condition.”

“Hey. I had to work hard to get that much attention from you. And I agree with you about the condition. Who’d have guessed being skinny would be a key factor in how well I can read a script?”

In Floored, which releases later in 2013, my heroine Caitlyn is working as a chauffeur and is often harassed and abused:
Now all she wanted to do was sleep, because tomorrow she was booked for another buck’s night and had to do this all over again. The picking up, putting down and waiting, the intense politeness in the face of drunk, drugged, and plain old boorish behaviour. And the abuse. Let’s not forget the abuse. Which ranged from the benign—‘Oh fuck, we have a woman driver’, to the more humorous, ‘It’s a chick. We’re all going to die.’

Later she tells our hero:
“I can’t fault a good tipper. And to be honest, a woman driver makes most people nervous. Even other women. The tips don’t exactly flow.”

He laughed. “You don’t make me nervous, Driver.”

Oh but she does, for all sorts of reasons not related to her profession.
And now I’ve started on my 10th novel and I’m still playing with themes of gender and work.  It’s early days yet for this story called Insecure, and who knows where it will end up, (a very deep drawer with a missing key comes to mind) but the framework is a one night stand between a senior company executive and an lowly IT geek.
Here is Jacinta propositioning Mason:
She’d waited till he was alone, leant across the desk and said three words in a dirty low whisper. “I live close.” Then she walked away. This was such a bad idea, but the city was burning, so if the girl was on fire he had a duty to try to put her out.

Still he had to say something. He closed down the PC and followed her across the empty ballroom, Nolan’s eyeballs stuck to his back.

She waited, but she wasn’t in a socialising mood. “Look Mason, you either want this or you don’t.” She spoke softly in that you will obey me voice, looked him dead in the eye, daring him to misunderstand.

He was hooked. He’d been snagged by her from the moment she stood at the front of that meeting room, explained the game plan and called him on not paying attention in front of nineteen other people.

Later, Mason struggles with the power dynamic and what it means:
He thought about saying friend was a pseudonym for lay and that he’d made the career limiting move of fucking his boss’s, boss’s, boss’s boss, and there probably weren’t even enough bosses in that thought.

See, what an endlessly giving theme, resonant with conflict, strong emotions and vested interests.  It’s our modern day battlefield.  How could I not write it? 
Of course I’m not the only writer invested in it, and others will do it better.  My fiction isn’t going to change the world, make the work environment any less fraught with complexity, but if each novel entertains one woman and makes her feel even marginally better about her 9-5 existence — my work in this is done.

GIVEAWAY!!!!!!!!!!! Ainslie is offering up digital copies of all three ebooks. Use the rafflecopter below to enter for a chance to win one of them. Three books, three winners. Winners will have 48 hours to reply to my email or a new winner will be chosen. International entrants welcome. Ends 10/4.




a Rafflecopter giveaway

Strong is Sexy Heroine of the Week: Vega Johnson

Book: Restraint
Author: Sherry Sonnett
Heroine: Vega Johnson


Vega Johnson is the heroine of my novel, RESTRAINT, an erotic noir published by Simon & Schuster in both paperback and ebook.  I think of the book as the story of a spiritual awakening, although Vega's journey takes her to a dark place.  When the story begins, Vega is a comfortable financial planner in Los Angeles (as she says, "there's something sexy about a woman good with numbers who also looks good in stilettos and a tight white suit."  But she feels too much is under control.   She's searching for "one more big thing and I was waiting for it, longing for it to explode through the center of my life.  Then he came along, and I see now that's the way it happens -- the line comes up, and you jump."
The man is Paul Lattimer, a mysterious international businessman.  She's immediately attracted and an affair begins.  Through Paul, Vega awakens to a sexual boldness she didn't know she had and, step by step, she experiments with many different sexual entanglements (no bondage or S&M).  Eventually, this experimentation has less to do with Paul and more to do with her search for her own limits.  When Paul reveals some of his business and gives her a chance to become involved, her search for limits becomes both sexual and criminal, ultimately leading to a single explosive act.
Vega is strong because she's unafraid to transgress the boundaries she's been taught and passively accepted.  She discovers in herself a deep and certain capacity to walk up to the edge, jump, and make herself ready for the next edge up ahead.  It may be sex with a woman, or with her transvestite ex-husband dressed as a woman, or a willingness to appropriate her clients' money.  Each act brings her a more expansive sense of self.
This gradual awakening to her own nature gives Vega a potent sexiness.  Her willingness to experiment and to take risks lends her a power to attract she didn't know she had.   As she  moves through the day, she's aware of this new power,  and slowly realizes it isn't just sexual but pervasive in every aspect of her life.
Blurb:A fast-paced novel hailed by Entertainment Weekly as a "well-crafted, suspenseful thriller [which] offers sex, erotica, and more sex."In Sherry Sonnett’s compelling first novel, Vega Johnson, a successful L.A. investment counselor, is leading a respectable but dull life when she meets Paul Lattimer, a major player in a mysterious, international finance game. Immediately fascinated by and drawn to his power, she soon gets caught up in his dark world of kinky sex, white collar crime, and murder.




Are you an author with a strong heroine in your book? Want to see her featured? Find out how here.

A Bargain Struck by Liz Harris

I've never read a book like this before...I'm sitting here reeling and trying to gather my thoughts.


First, major points for uniqueness. It's def not a traditional romance. I hesitate to label it a romance, honestly. Instead of a man and woman meeting, feeling attracted to each other, falling in love, and ending with a wedding and passionate lovemaking before or after, you have instead, a wedding first, a man who treats his new wife like a cow and just mounts her night after night without even kissing her (thankfully the details are left out), no attraction at all till very late in the game, and maybe...just maybe some love later?

'Cause this is all literally a bargain.

"He was highly satisfied with the bargain he'd made with her. His side of the bargain had been to give her a home; hers had been to run the house, look after Bridget and be a good mother to any children they might have together."

Methinks she got the short end of the stick. :/

Regardless, I was taken aback by this story. He orders a wife from Omaha to help him in WY Territory, with his farm, his daughter, and making mini-mes. She has a scarred face and naturally, left that detail out as she knew he wouldn't agree to wed her then. He marries her anyway and she feels he's done her a great favor. Through them we see the hardships of farming and living and even town life of WY Territory. There's also a side story of poachers/cattle thieves, jealousy, a brother come back, and a woman making trouble for the new marriage.

It may seem as if I didn't like this story, but I actually did for the most part. I was intrigued, sucked into another time, and I have to admit, I found it all very thought-evoking. There is so much about people's behavior in this book and it made me take a long look at people. We're all guilty of these actions at times, we are. We can claim all we want that looks don't matter, but deep down inside, they do more than they should. When Conn abandons his wife to dance with the pretty girl all night, when the little girl avoided being seen with the "ugly woman", when the "ugly woman" felt grateful to be married and demanded nothing she was so dang grateful that someone had married her...all of this was thought-evoking.

How many of us are guilty or have been guilty of this stuff at some point?

That being said, there was much that irritated me though. The daughter, Bridget...what an evil, nasty little girl. Though she changed in the end, I was disgusted that no one ever made her apologize for her earlier nastiness. That there were never repercussions for her. The ending of this book disappointed me. The two who ride away....again, the villains face no repercussions for their actions and wrongdoings.

And the worse thing of all....and this grated on me more than anything...was how spineless and passive the heroine is. She spent the entire book apologizing for her ugliness and thanking her husband for marrying her in spite of it. And while he finally came to see the beauty IN her, she didn't. And frankly, I felt it was more important for her to realize her own self -worth than him. She never sticks up for herself, never says "No, I don't feel like it", just feels grateful someone married her and thinks she has no right to ask for anything else.

I think more could have been done with her, especially in the end.

I received this from the publisher.

Visiting Women of the Wild American West with Liz Harris

Please welcome Choc Lit author Liz Harris as she discusses her new book, A Bargain Struck.

"After writing The Road Back, published last year, in which my heroine was a victim of her family circumstances and her time – the 1950s and 1960s – I had a high time writing a contemporary heroine, Evie Shaw, heroine of my ebook rom com, Evie Undercover. A spunky, go-getting heroine, Evie was great fun to live with.
What next, I asked myself when I’d said goodbye to Evie. The next novel had to follow The Road Back, so I was looking at a historical romance. Into my mind floated a concept I’ve always found very romantic – mail order brides. It was closely followed by a location I’ve always thought the ultimate for rugged outdoor types – The American West in the late 1880s. And A Bargain Struck was born.
I wanted another strong woman, and Ellen O’Sullivan walked into my head. Bingo, I thought.

It was time to start thinking about Ellen and the times into which she was born. I did more than just think, in fact; I went all the way to Wyoming to find out for myself first hand.
My contemporary heroine Evie’s nature was to be strong, and she lived at a time when she could give full rein to that – 21st century women were educated, could pursue almost any career, could have medical problems dealt with surgically, could control their fertility with the pill, could drive cars, and so on – they were more empowered than ever before.
Not so in Wyoming, 1887, when the West was still wild and the options for women were few; when a woman could find herself labouring from dawn to dusk doing ‘a woman’s work’.
Ellen O’Sullivan, recently widowed, with no caring family, no home or job to fall back on, reads an advert from a widower Conn Maguire, a homesteader, who needs a wife to do the woman’s chores, and to look after his eight year old daughter and bear him a son. Ellen applies, is accepted, and a train and stagecoach journey later, marries Conn.
It struck me that a girl couldn’t be much gutsier than that! When Ellen answered Conn’s ad, she’d no idea that he’d turn out to be extremely easy on the eye. She’d omitted an important fact about herself, and he, too, might have done the same. And he might be heavily mustachioed, suffer from halitosis and be badly in need of a few months on the Atkins Diet!
And she wouldn’t just be pulling up potatoes - she’d be alone with him and the daughter, and obliged nightly to fulfil her marital role. No coyness and fluttering for her at the bedroom door – having a child was part of the bargain and there was only one way of going about that in 1887.
True, she made things worse for herself by not being completely open in her initial exchange of letters with Conn; if she had, she’d never have been so paralysed by guilt for what her omission had done to those around her - a guilt that weighed more heavily on her than did her corset and petticoats, a guilt that made her unable to relax from the outset and be the kind of woman she was.
I’ve now reluctantly said goodbye to Ellen, whose life with Conn is captured in the pages of A Bargain Struck, and I’ve returned to the present century. It was fun transporting myself to a period in which a woman’s life was much more determined by her environment than happens today, but I’m so glad I live in the times that I do!" 

Blurb:

Widower Connor Maguire advertises for a wife to raise his young daughter, Bridget, work the homestead and bear him a son.

Ellen O’Sullivan longs for a home, a husband and a family. On paper, she is everything Connor needs in a wife. However, it soon becomes clear that Ellen has not been entirely truthful.

Will Connor be able to overlook Ellen’s dishonesty and keep to his side of the bargain? Or will Bridget’s resentment, the attentions of the beautiful Miss Quinn, and the arrival of an unwelcome visitor, combine to prevent the couple from starting anew.

As their personal feelings blur the boundaries of their deal, they begin to wonder if a bargain struck makes a marriage worth keeping.

Set in Wyoming in 1887, a story of a man and a woman brought together through need, not love …

*Come back later today to read my review of this interesting book!*

FREE Chick Lit/ Women's Fiction for Two Days. Kissing My Old Life Au Revoir by Eliza Watson

I read this book a while back and LOVED it, (review here) so I'm pleased to be able to tell ya'll it's free for two days. Today and tomorrow, the 18th and 19th, on Amazon Kindle. Ladies, this is a book I feel is worth paying for, but regardless, go nab yours on Amazon.


Event planner Samantha Hunter is prepared for a few challenges when escorting a group of good ole boy beer distributors to Paris, the city of haute cuisine and fine wines. However, she doesn’t foresee being passed up for a promotion because she is too professional and doesn’t knock back beers with her clients. Her focus soon switches from landing the well-deserved promotion to finding her free-spirited sister, who lives in Paris and has disappeared, leaving behind family secrets to be uncovered. A sexy puppeteer helps Samantha search for clues to her sister’s whereabouts and teaches her to embrace her inner child. And a funeral-crashing psychic demonstrates the importance of living life to the fullest. It takes Samantha’s life spiraling out of control for her to finally get a life.
About the Author:
Eliza’s first attempt at creative writing was in fourth grade. She and her friends were huge Charlie's Angels fans and she would sit in her bedroom at night writing scripts for them to act out at recess the following day. She was Kelly Garrett. The journey from fourth grade script writer to published author wasn't an easy one, but it was always an adventure and the final destination was well worth it.


When she’s not traveling for her job as an event planner, or tracing her ancestry roots through Ireland, she’s at home in Wisconsin working on her next novel, bouncing ideas off her husband Mark, and her cats Quigley and Frankie.


Author Links
www.elizawatson.com
http://www.goodreads.com/ElizaWatson

https://www.facebook.com/ElizaWatsonAuthor

The Anatomy of Death (Dr Dody McCleland #1) by Felicity Young

LOVED this book. I have nothing bad to say about it. It has everything a strong woman could possibly desire in a fiction book.


Suffragettes. Dody's sister Florence is a suffragette becoming further embroiled in the militant movement. There's riots, force feedings, passion for the cause, foiled attempts to make a statement...

A rule-breaking heroine. It's pre 1910 and we have a lady medical examiner. She even works at a women's clinic free just to get experience because back then hardly a soul would hire a woman doctor. She's tough and compassionate at the same time.

Mystery. What was supposed to be a peaceful Votes for Women parade goes awry when police begin beating up the ladies. But when one society woman ends up dead, it appears there's a cover up and Dody is placed in the middle of it in more ways than one. Her sister could be involved somehow and while Florence accuses her of taking the police's side, the police are distrustful of her.

Mild romance. With Police Inspector Pike. It doesn't leap off the page. It's barely worth mentioning, rather giving us hints of things to come and I was totally fine with this. I love that we have a novel here that doesn't make it seem as though us women do nothing but sit around and pine for men and wish for love.

I found this very well written, decently paced, and while I was almost able to tell whodunit, I wasn't certain or 100%. I only had a vague idea and I like that. I'll be reading the rest of the series. I foresee lots of tension coming between Pike and Dody, Dody and her mentor/another doctor, and Dody with the police force, period. I also think that thanks to Florence, we'll be seeing a lot of women's rights issues in this series. This combination makes a winner for me.


Favorite part:

From her Gladstone bag she removed the velvet pouch containing her own smoking paraphernalia. Five pairs of eyes converged on her as she expertly packed her clap pipe, swiped the match across the rough wall, and coaxed the tobacco to a gentle glow.

"How many bodies are there, Superintendent?" she asked between puffs.

Shepherd was staring at her in undisguised disbelief. A most unbecoming habit in a lady, she could imagine him saying to his colleagues later in the station house. But what did he expect her to use to combat the stench--lavender water?

I obtained this via paperback swap.