Marie August's Blog, page 20

Book Review: Things I Can't Forget by Miranda Kenneally

A deeply moving young/new adult, contemporary romance with a social-drama subplot

Things I Can't Forget (Hundred Oaks) by Miranda Kenneally

Reading Level: Young Adult
Release Date: March 1, 2013
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Pages: 320 pages
Source: Library
Reviewed By: Kate McMurry

This is Book 3 in the Hundred Oaks series. Book 1 is Catching Jordan, and Book 2 is Stealing Parker. These three books are linked by recurring characters who are the same age and have attended the same high school (Hundred Oaks High) and the same church (Forrest Sanctuary) in Franklin, Tennessee, a small, rural community in the middle of the state.

Eighteen-year-old, recent high-school graduate, Kate, is in intense psychological turmoil. She and Emily, her best friend for the past 15 years, have bitterly quarreled. Kate--and Emily until a few months ago--has attended a very conservative, Christian church since infancy. She is soul-crushingly guilty that she chose her best friend over her theology when she recently accompanied Emily as a supportive companion when Emily terminated an unplanned pregnancy. At the time, there seemed to be no other option for Kate as a loyal friend, because Emily refused to tell her long-time boyfriend, Jacob, who is the son of the minister of their church, about either her pregnancy or her decision to have an abortion. Emily also did not discuss her family-planning choice with her parents until after the fact, and in a fit of rage, they threw her out. Emily was devastated by their betrayal and overwhelmed with the need to establish herself in a dingy apartment in a nearby city, subsisting on poverty wages, and she angrily refused to cooperate with Kate's tearful pleading that she and Emily pray together for God's forgiveness for the abortion. She said she no longer believed in the teachings of their church, and she accused Kate of being cruelly judgmental toward her. Kate has ignored Emily's calls ever since.

Kate and Emily had planned to be counselors together at Cumberland Creek Camp, located 45 minutes from their home town, for seven weeks the summer after high school graduation, but Emily has canceled and now only Kate has shown up to keep their mutual commitment. The camp is sponsored by the "Tennessee regional conference," a sect of Christianity consisting of six churches, of which their own church is a member. Every year, each of these churches sends three or four young members who are high school graduates or in college to act as camp counselors.

This is Kate's first job--her father is a prosperous attorney and her mother an interior decorator, so she has not previously felt compelled to work. She hasn't been at the camp since she stayed there as a participant when she and Emily were 11 years old. A talented artist, Kate has been hired to teach arts and crafts.

On her first day at camp, one of the male camp counselors looks extremely familiar to Kate, and she is amazed to discover that the tall, muscular, handsome, and extremely self-confident 20-year-old named Matt is the same Matt whom she met at the camp when he was a 13-year-old, skinny, introverted, musically gifted boy. She experienced her first--and only--kiss with Matt, because Kate has never dated. Matt has just finished his sophomore year at Middle Tennessee State University, majoring in literature and minoring in classical guitar, and he still has a very sweet, friendly disposition, but with the addition of an unexpectedly vibrant wittiness that makes Kate laugh more than she ever has before. There is only one issue that keeps Matt from being perfect boyfriend material, but it is, unfortunately, a rather large problem for Kate. He belongs to a fraternity, and from everything Kate has heard, fraternity members engage in a great deal of "sin," including excessive drinking, recreational drugs, and casual promiscuity.

Parker, the heroine from Book 2 of this series, and her boyfriend Will, are also at the camp as counselors, and Kate's connection to Parker forms an important subplot. Initially Parker is angry at Kate because when Parker's mother fell in love with the school secretary and the two women eloped together the spring of Parker and Kate's sophomore year, in Parker's perception Kate judged and rejected her as harshly as the rest of the members of their mutual church as the tainted offspring of a sinful woman.

There is also a cameo appearance toward the end of the book of Jordan, the heroine of Book 1 of this series, and her boyfriend Sam.

This book is a fascinating combination of three popular genres in both young-adult, new-adult and adult fiction: romance, social drama, and coming of age. The romance and social-drama plots contribute masterfully to Kate's coming-of-age journey as she struggles to establish her own unique personality, ethics and personal goals beyond those dictated to her during her childhood.

The author has attempted something quite daring in this book by covering the subject of conservative beliefs about abortion, homosexuality, and premarital sex. In my perception, the vast majority of YA popular fiction, which is not produced by an overtly Christian publishing house, presumes a politically liberal view in the audience toward these issues. For that reason, presenting Kate at the beginning of the book with a socially conservative perspective almost guarantees that a great many people in the target audience, both teens and adults alike, will view Kate as unsympathetic and agree with the characters Emily and Parker that she is "judgmental." In addition, readers who are themselves socially conservative are unlikely to appreciate the fact that Kate's "coming of age" growth arc in this book involves her developing a tolerance for the civil liberties of gays and women that is not sanctioned by their theology.

In short, it takes real genius to accomplish what this author has--successfully traversing the thin line of simultaneously being true to the conservative values Kate initially strongly holds while satisfying the world view of the liberal-leaning audience of this series. One of the literary "tricks" the author brilliantly employs to further this difficult goal is "dramatic irony." Kate's burning desire to be a "good girl" is the opposite side of the same coin as Parker's acting out as a "bad girl" in the previous book of this series. Both of them are lonely, social outcasts with extremely low self-esteem because they are rejected by their peers. But each exists at the opposite end of the stereotypical "Madonna/Whore," "lose/lose" continuum that socially conservative cultures all too frequently force on women.

For readers who love a good contemporary romance--and I am definitely one--Kate's romance with Matt is tremendously satisfying. He is an amazing romantic hero, very complex and multilayered, and a wonderful example of an ideal, "liberated" male who respects women, without being so perfect that he's boring. The author's presentation of his tender, nurturing relationship with his six-year-old sister juxtaposed to his sensitivity and compassion toward Kate--and hers toward him--blends in beautifully with the overall theme of this book. Outsiders are rejected by a bullying external society which props up its group ego by viciously rejecting people who are labeled "inferior" or "sinful." In response, rather than seeking revenge, the outsiders construct a family of affiliation based on love and acceptance, and they increase their self-esteem by building others up rather than tearing them down.

Kate has three main antagonists, her best friend, the young woman who is Kate's boss, and a beautiful, sophisticated, 21-year-old named Andrea who is determined to seduce Matt. None of them is a one-dimensional villain. Each is well motivated and comes alive on the page as an adversary who isn't in the story merely to give Kate someone to battle. Instead, their opposition acts as a grinding stone that pares away the rough edges of Kate's harsh, socially-created, false self and helps her discover an authentic, "kinder, gentler" self.

Having gone into so much detail about all the wonderful things this author has done to make this book such a great read, I don't want to leave anyone with the impression that this is a ponderous, intellectually challenging, literary read. On the contrary, though it has enormous depth, this book is a fast-paced, intense, highly entertaining read.

As the saying goes, "I laughed; I cried; I couldn't put it down."

I read this book in a Kindle edition, and it is very well laid out and edited, making it easy to read.

I rate this book as follows:

Heroine: 5

Hero: 5

Subcharacters: 5

Romance Plot: 5

Social Drama Plot: 5

Coming-of-Age Plot: 5

Writing: 5

Overall: 5

Book Review: The Right Wrong Number: A Short Story by Barbara Delinsky

A failure as a marketing ploy, and a failure as a romance short story

The Right Wrong Number: A Short Story by Barbara Delinsky

Reading Level: Young Adult
Release Date: April 2, 2013
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Pages: 30 pages
Source: Free Kindle download
Reviewed By: Kate McMurry

Like many others, I frequently try out authors who offer "FREE!" Kindle books. Delinsky is a well-known romance author, but I had never read her work, and the offering of what I assumed would be a complete novel at no cost seemed to be a terrific opportunity to check her out. Unfortunately, The Right Wrong Number is not a novel. It is a short story, and it is not even a very good one, for several reasons:

The "cute meet" of the hero and heroine results from the heroine presumably entering a wrong number in her cell phone. However, in order for that misdial to occur, we are asked to believe that she would choose to laboriously click in every digit for the number of her closest friends every single time she calls them on a regular basis--rather than simply programming their number into her contact list so that she can do one-click dialing when she calls them. This method of making calls digit-by-digit makes even less sense given that the heroine is a sophisticated enough cell-phone user to know how to program the phone so that all her outgoing calls remain anonymous, which makes it impossible for the romantic interest to track her down when she drops her cell in water and loses all its data.

I might have overlooked that non-motivated, key action of the heroine, given that I enjoyed the conversation that resulted between the heroine and her romantic interest, if only it had led to the two of them spending most of the book on stage together--which is what one expects in a romance short story or novel. Inexplicably, though, Delinsky chose to structure her story such that the two of them are in contact with each other only one other time after that single phone call, for a max of maybe 5-10% of the story. The other 90-95% of the story is dedicated to the heroine mulling over and carrying out what--to me anyway--is a boring business deal.

It's clear that the publisher thought this short story would be a good marketing ploy to introduce Ms. Delinsky to new readers. Sadly, it has failed in its intended purpose. It is impossible to tell after reading this short story if Ms. Delinsky is capable of writing an excellent romance novel. It is only possible to determine that she has been ineffective in writing this particular romance short story.

Book Review: Undercover Princess by Suzanne Brockmann

Review of the Kindle Edition of Undercover Princess, originally released as Silhouette Intimate Moments #968

Undercover Princess (Royally Wed, #2) by Suzanne Brockmann

Reading Level: Adult Romance
Release Date: Originally published November 1, 1999
Publisher: Silhouette; First Edition
Pages: 256 pages
Source: Library
Reviewed By: Kate McMurry

Twenty-five-year-old Princess Katherine Wyndham comes from a small principality in Europe. She is the youngest of her sisters and, in her own eyes, very "plain" compared to the other princesses and her mother, all of whom are heart-stoppingly gorgeous. Katherine has had only one love affair up until the moment of the story. The man involved used her to get ahead and ultimately dumped her, leaving Katherine very cynical about men who know her true identity.

Katherine's brother, the heir to the throne, was kidnapped as an infant, and her family recently has had leads in America as to several possibilities for his location. One of those leads is Trey Sutherland. Her brother was raised in an orphanage, and he may currently be Trey's business partner. Katherine has been trying unsuccessfully for days to get an appointment with the reclusive Trey, then suddenly when she calls his office, his secretary gives her an appointment for an interview that very day at Trey's home. Katherine grabs at this unexpected opportunity and rushes over to Trey's house, which appears more like a small castle than a home, with Trey's office located in a turret.

Katherine discovers that the reason she has finally been invited in so readily is that Trey desperately needs a nanny, and the secretary assumed that Katherine was applying for the job. Katherine does not want to deceive Trey as to her purpose for seeing him, but several things happen to cause her to decide to go "undercover," starting with telling Trey her name is "Kathy Wind." First, the man who may be her brother is currently out of town on an extended stay, and Katherine wants to be around when he next contacts Trey. Second, Katherine is instantly attracted to handsome, 35-year-old Trey, and he is clearly drawn to her. It is very tempting to get to know him without the burden of her princess identity tainting their interaction. Finally, her heart goes out to his children, who have gone through innumerable nannies and are in a very bad place. Trey's wife died three years before, and Trey's daughter and son are still obviously traumatized by the loss of their mother. When Trey sees how well his children respond to Katherine, he begs her to become their nanny. Katherine impulsively accepts his offer of a job.

This book has a wonderful hero and fantastic heroine! The passion between them is powerful, and their emotional connection is deep and very moving.

What was particularly enjoyable for me, as an added bonus over and above even these great things in the story, were the scenes where the heroine, Kathy, interacts as temporary nanny with the children of the hero, Trey. The daughter is 13 and quite angry and rebellious. The son is six, almost seven, and hasn't spoken in three years. He pretends to be a dog and only communicates by barking. His name is Doug, but his sister calls him, "Doggie." The manner in which Kathy coaxes him back into acting like a little boy again instead of a dog is both hilarious and extremely touching. Kathy's relationship with the hero's teenage daughter is great, too.

I originally read this book in 1999, and I just reread this book in a Kindle edition. It is well formatted and edited.

There is one main area of the story that is rather unbelievable to me this time around that I did not notice too much back in 1999 on my first read of this book. That is the fact that the heroine is able to get away with giving a fake name to the hero only because he never asks her to show identification to prove who she is, and she is not asked, as a non-US citizen, to demonstrate that she is legally able to work in the U.S. Such identification would have immediately blown her "undercover operation," and it has been required by employers for decades in this country, not just post-9/11. However, I will admit that many people, including prominent politicians, have made a habit over the years of paying undocumented workers such as nannies under the table, and so might have Trey. But it seems a shade too convenient to the story's requirements to just pretend this legal reality doesn't exist rather than motivating Trey for carelessly overlooking it.

A more likely downside to this story for many readers than the "papers, please" technicality is the fact that the mystery about the missing prince, which is the premise for the "cute meet" of the heroine and hero, is not resolved in this book. This book was originally released by Harlequin as part of the Silhouette Intimate Moments line, #968, December 1999, and labeled as Book 2 of the "Royally Wed" series. There are a total of 12 books in this series, and the rest of the books were not written by Brockmann, but by other Harlequin authors. Presumably the mystery about the prince is not fully resolved until the last book of this series. This is the only book of that series I myself have read.

Below is a complete list of the books in the "Royally Wed" series, only a few of which have so far been re-released by Harlequin in ebook format:

A Royal Baby on the Way by Susan Mallery, Book 1Undercover Princess by Suzanne Brockmann, Book 2The Princess's White Knight by Carla Cassidy, Book 3The Pregnant Princess by Anne Marie Winston, Book 4Man...Mercenary...Monarch by Joan Elliott Pickart, Book 5Royal Masquerade by Arlene James, Book 6A Royal Marriage by Cara Colter, Book 7A Royal Mission by Elizabeth August, Book 8The Expectant Princess by Stella Bagwell, Book 9Blacksheep Prince's Bride by Martha Shields, Book 10Code Name: Prince by Valerie Parv, Book 11An Officer and a Princess by Carla Cassidy, Book 12  
 

Book Review: Otherwise Engaged by Suzanne Brockmann

Reissue of Bantam Loveswept #824 from 1997

Otherwise Engaged (Sunrise Key #3) by Suzanne Brockmann

Reading Level: Adult Romance
Release Date: July 28, 2009
Publisher: Bantam
Pages: 304 pages
Source: Library
Reviewed By: Kate McMurry

I read the Kindle version of this book, and it is well formatted and edited, making it easy to read.

Molly Cassidy is a 30-year-old widow with a bright, sensitive, 10-year-old son who has been diagnosed with progressive, irreversible hearing loss. She has inherited a dilapidated mansion on a small island called Sunrise Key, near the Western Panhandle of Florida in the Gulf of Mexico. There are only a little over 600 residents on Sunrise Key, and one of the most eccentric of the bunch is a gorgeous, 35-year-old, divorced billionaire named Preston Seaholm. Molly hopes to turn the mansion into a Bed and Breakfast, but Preston keeps making her higher and higher offers to buy it. Molly constantly refuses his offers, but it is much harder to ignore Pres himself. He's sincerely interested in Molly's son, up to and including learning sign language in order to be able to talk to him more effectively, and Pres makes no secret of his intense attraction to Molly herself--an attraction that she fully reciprocates.

When Pres becomes a tabloid sensation after a notorious, erotic magazine names him Bachelor of the Year, Molly can't resist Pres's request that she help him fend off the paparrazzi by posing as his fiancee. Unfortunately for Pres, not only does this not solve Pres's initial problem, but the situation spins even further out of control.

This heart-warming and funny book provides a terrific conclusion to a wonderful, romantic-comedy trilogy. Molly and her son are very sympathetic characters, and Pres is both sexy and irresistibly kind and thoughtful. He's my favorite hero of this series.

Prior to discovering this trilogy, I hadn't realized Brockmann had written any comedies. She is best known for her SEAL, dramatic romances. Not everyone can write romantic comedy well. Brockmann does such a great job, I'm truly sorry she hasn't done any besides this trilogy, so far as I know.

I highly recommend this book for a fun, extremely entertaining read.  
 

Book Review: Canyons of Night by Jayne Castle

An exciting paranormal, science-fiction romance

Canyons of Night (Looking Glass #3) by Jayne Castle

Reading Level: Adult Romance
Release Date: August 30, 2011
Publisher: Jove
Pages: 367 pages
Source: Library
Reviewed By: Kate McMurry

In the prologue to this story, set fifteen years earlier, three drunken non-residents of the island of Rainshadow threaten young Charlotte Enright near the mysterious Preserve. She is rescued by her long-time crush, orphaned teenager Slade Attridge, but their relationship never goes beyond that because he leaves the island the next day for the Federal Bureau of Psi Investigation academy.

At the start of the story, Charlotte has returned to the island to operate the shop, Looking Glass Antiques, which she inherited from her recently deceased Aunt Beatrix. Slade has also just returned to the island to take over the position of police chief. Their paths cross once again in the wake of violence when a man is murdered in Charlotte's shop.

I'm a big fan of Jayne Ann Krentz in general, but her futuristics written as Jayne Castle are my favorites. As in all her novels, there is primary suspense plot, with the heroine and hero working together to solve a mystery. In the case of this story, it is a murder mystery. As usual, Krentz has created a strong heroine who is more than a match for the forceful romantic hero. As manly as he is, he has an adorable little pet, a dust bunny named Rex. Every one of the Harmony books contains dust bunnies, and it is one of my favorite recurring themes for this series.

The fascinating world of Harmony was colonized hundreds of years ago by people from earth. The planet was empty of living, intelligent beings, but it soon became apparent it had been inhabited eons ago by a long-dead race of aliens. There is no written record of their culture, but the structures and artifacts they have left behind are filled with enormous power.

In each successive novel in this series, Krentz takes us to a new section of the planet. All the other Harmony novels I've read were centered within a city, but this book is set in a sparsely populated, essentially rural, village type locale. The core identity of the island of Rainshadow is the Preserve, a fenced-off area full of alien energy so dangerous, anyone daring to enter it either goes mad or dies.

Over the years, the island of Rainshadow has attracted many eccentric residents who, though friendly and close-knit, have made a point of not inquiring too closely into each other's often murky pasts. This community forms an important, and highly entertaining, portion of this novel.

This book is part of Krentz's Arcane Society series. In addition to the futuristic Harmony books, she has written novels in the series set in the past, using her historical romance pseudonym Amanda Quick. She has also written contemporary novels in the series under her real name Jayne Ann Krentz.

I purchased this book in a Kindle edition. It is well formatted and edited, making it easy to read.

Book Review: Fortune's Fool by Mercedes Lackey

Fun fairy-tale retelling for older teens as well as adults

Fortune's Fool (Tales of the Five Hundred Kingdoms, Book 3) by Mercedes Lackey

Reading Level: Young Adult
Release Date: March 18, 2008
Publisher: Luna
Pages: 400 pages
Source: Library
Reviewed By: Kate McMurry

Ekaterina, "Katya" for short, is the seventh daughter of the Sea King's fourteen children. Her father is a very wise man who has brought peace rather than endless war to his kingdom. He believes that all his children should have useful work to do based on their individual talents, rather than getting spoiled, lazy and causing trouble due to idleness. Katya can function equally well breathing air and walking on land and breathing water and swimming under the sea. Her father also gave her and all her royal siblings dragon's blood, which imparts the ability to everyone who drinks it to understand the speech of all animals, and to a special few, including Katya, the ability to speak and understand all human languages. Because of these things, her father offered Katya the job of being his eyes and ears on land. The peace of his realm is not threatened only by events under the sea. Wars of aggression on the land can easily spread underwater, and he is determined to nip in the bud the destructive acts of magical villains before they get out of hand.

Prince Sasha is the seventh son of the King of Belrus, a small kingdom very near the Sea King's domain. Sasha is known as a "Fortunate Fool." In public he plays the part of a grinning idiot whose gift of luck brings peace and plenty to his father's kingdom, but in private his family knows him for an intelligent, decent, caring young man.

In between missions for her father, Katya encounters Sasha, and it is instantly clear that both of these intrepid virgins (neither of them has ever been attracted to anyone else romantically before) are made for each other. But before they can fully cement their romance, Katya is kidnapped by an evil Jinn, and Sasha is determined to find her and do everything he can to aid her in the brave escape he is confident she is inevitably planning.

This is the third entry in the 500 Kingdoms series by Mercedes Lackey, originally published between 2004-2011 by Harlequin's LUNA fantasy line. I had not read any of her books before stumbling on this series. I wasn't expecting to enjoy these books as much as I have because I'd never before been a fan of traditional fantasy novels. For my own preferences, books in that genre tend to be over-long because of spending a great deal of time lovingly detailing the magical world at the expense of a central, character-based story. In contrast, LUNA books must inevitably be tightly written because that imprint has a standard word length of no more than 120,000 words. This requirement pushes participating authors to stick to the main storyline which, because this is Harlequin, is a paranormal romance, with a secondary action-adventure plot.

As a long-time fan of paranormal romance, this series provides a type of fantasy story I could definitely get interested in for the romance alone. But Lackey has provided me with several other major attractions. First, the series employs fairytale-retelling, which I've always enjoyed, and which is brilliantly done here. The concept of a world driven by a magical "Tradition," which forces the people of the 500 Kingdoms to live out familiar myths and fairytales, is an enthralling choice for magical world-building because it is rooted in a universal truth of ordinary, human existence--all too often major, life choices are forced on us seemingly irresistibly by our upbringing, conventions of our local and national society, and by the options available to us in the era of history in which we live.

I constantly marvel at Lackey's sheer creativity in the way that she mixes and matches elements from fairytales and folklore from around the world, resulting in comically incongruous fantasy mashups. In this book the emphasis is primarily on Russian fairytales, but we get a taste of other traditions, too, such as tales from Japan.

Speaking of comic incongruity, the second major thing I adore about the 500 Kingdom books is that Lackey is truly brilliant at subtle, witty, often laugh-out-loud humor in every entry in this series, including this one. I love comedy, and the intermix of fantastical creatures with both adventure and romance creates endless possibilities for humor.

Regardless of the genre of fiction I read, I always prefer character-driven stories, and Lackey's series is totally character driven. Since this book is written for the adult, romance genre, we get to experience the dual points of view of both Katya and Sasha throughout the book. But because this book is based on fairytales, Lackey also from time to time moves into omniscient, storytelling, narrator mode, which works really well since that is the standard voice in traditional fairytales and strongly summons for the reader the mood of fairytales. In addition to the protagonists, the many subcharacters, both human and nonhuman, are vividly drawn and contribute tremendously to the story, while never upstaging Katya or Sasha, who are always compelling, every time they appear on the page.

Katya is a strong, sympathetic heroine whose missions for her father involve lots of flexibility, cleverness, and the ability to involve other people and magical beings in a team effort to defeat terrible villains. Sasha functions much the same as Katya, being assigned by his father, a king, to help protect his kingdom. Both have drunk dragon blood. Both are equally kind-hearted, valiant, and willing to risk their lives to defend the weak and those they care about against evil, magical villains. Both have been trained to understand and deal with the problems caused by the Tradition and are skilled at nudging it toward happy endings rather than tragic ones.

Sasha is particularly gifted at maneuvering the Tradition in two ways. He frequently does favors for people and animals, and as part of Sasha's magical luck, the Tradition forces them to repay those favors, usually just when Sasha desperately needs help. Sasha also regularly engages in on-the-spot composition of songs that are easy for anyone to sing, which allows them to rapidly spread throughout his kingdom. The continual repetition of lyrics that communicate a desired outcome exerts a counter pressure on the Tradition, steering it into paths that keep Sasha's kingdom safe and prosperous. It is fascinating to see a romantic hero whose weapons against horrible villains are not alpha-male battle skills, but rather his wit, big heart, and his magical luck as a Fortunate Fool.

For those who are reading the series in order, this is the third book, and it is fun to re-encounter two lovable, and quite amusing, talking dragons which are central characters in book 2, One Good Knight. We also meet again an extremely funny subcharacter from book 1, The Fairy Godmother, a flying "humpback" horse who is very clever but quite homely. In this story, as in every one I've read so far in this series, unicorns appear. Male ones are attracted to female virgins, and female ones are attracted to male virgins. They are utterly gorgeous, but completely dumb, and every time they appear, the results are hilarious, as in this book when--prior to meeting Katya--Sasha is constantly bombarded with their fawning attentions.

As is typical in actual fairytales, all the main romantic protagonists in this series are quite young, ranging from 16 to, at most, 20--in this book both protagonists are 18. Because of that, if it weren't for several tasteful, loving, non-graphic sexual encounters between the romantic protagonists in this book--and similar scenes in most of the other books in this series--these books could easily qualify as Young Adult (YA) suitable for ages 12 and above. The author's voice and tone are ideal for that genre. As it is, these books are definitely appropriate for teens 16 and older.

The books in this series as of today's date are:

The Fairy GodmotherOne Good KnightFortune's FoolThe Snow QueenThe Sleeping BeautyBeauty and the WerewolfA Tangled Web

I read a Kindle re-issue of this book which is well formatted and well edited.

I rate this book as follows:

Heroine: 5

Hero: 5

Subcharacters: 5

Fantasy World-Building: 5

Writing: 5

Romance Plot: 5

Action-Adventure Plot: 5

Overall: 5

Book Review: One in a Million by Susan Mallery and A Dad for Her Twins by Tanya Michaels

Kindle re-issue of two romances about single-mothers with twins

One in a Million by Susan Mallery and A Dad for Her Twins by Tanya Michaels

Reading Level: Adult Contemporary Romance
Release Date: February 28, 2012 (originally published in 2003)
Publisher: Harlequin Special Releases
Pages: 512 pages
Source: Purchased
Reviewed By: Kate McMurry

I hadn't read either of these authors before and discovered them through a link recommendation on Amazon. This is a Kindle edition, "two-for" deal. Susan Mallery's One in a Million was originally published in 2003, and A Dad for Her Twins by Tanya Michaels was originally published in 2008. This Kindle edition is well formatted and edited.

In One in a Million, 33-year-old widow, Stephanie Wynne, has kept a secret from her eight-year-old twin boys and 12-year-old son in order to save them from disillusionment--she wasn't in love with her dead husband, and she didn't respect him either. He was impulsive and immature, never helped her around the house or with the kids, and was a lousy provider as well. Just before he died, he came into an inheritance and made the one contribution to his family that actually worked out--purchasing a huge house in a small town to turn into a bed and breakfast.

When 31-year-old widower, Nash Harmon, arrives to stay at Stephanie's B&B, they are instantly attracted to each other, but Nash is as leery of a lasting attachment as Stephanie. Like him, his wife was with the FBI. She died on a joint assignment, and Nash blames himself, even though his boss and team members have assured him there was nothing he could have done to save her. Nash and his twin Kevin (hero of the book in this series just prior to this one) were born illegitimately to a 17-year-old mother, and they have recently discovered their promiscuous father had abandoned other legitimate and illegitimate half-siblings in multiple locations in the country, several of them here in the town where Stephanie lives.

Ms. Mallery states in a preface to her fans that this is a "delicious romantic adventure with a sexy guy who not only" makes the heroine's "toes tingle, but also folds the laundry and fixes breakfast." He can also fix a washer, clean the kitchen, and is great with Stephanie's kids. He is, in particular, able to relate to the two who are twins because Nash is a twin himself.

This is definitely a feel-good read. It is part of a series called Hometown Heartbreakers about the various offspring from multiple mothers of womanizer, Earl Haynes (see below for a full list of this series). It might be interesting to someone who has read the entire series from start to finish to have all the couples from the first nine books show up for three separate family gatherings in this book.

All of these various couples are, of course, gorgeous because they have been protagonists of romance novels. In addition, because most of these couples involve one or more partners with children from previous marriages and have since produced children together in their new marriage, there are multiple Haynes families with as many as five children. The extended family as a whole is presented as totally loving and mutually supportive, an idealized fantasy of large, extended family that is very common in these types of Harlequin series.

In addition, this book delivers exactly what every widow/divorcee-with-kids story from Harlequin promises: the once-burned heroine finds in the romantic hero a handsome, buff man who is a fantastic lover, doesn't care about her post-childbirth stretch marks and cellulite, thinks she's the most amazing woman he's ever met, cooks, cleans and does maintenance tasks for her, adores her kids and instinctively knows just how to parent them and, on top of all that, makes a good living. In short, he's perfect husband/daddy material. His only flaw (as is also fairly common in these types of Harlequin stories) is that he is afraid to love because of tragedy in his past. As additional romantic conflict in this story, the heroine is afraid to trust a man again because her first husband was a flake.

The kids in this story are smart and interesting--rather than just schmaltzy-cute, which is a plus. I also enjoyed spending time with Nash. Some readers get bored with perfection, but this is one fantasy that doesn't get old for most women, including me. His cleaning the kitchen was sexier for me personally than the bedroom scenes! I did skim the family get-together scenes because I found it hard to care very much about all the characters I didn't know from the previous books in the series.

Speaking of the series, for those interested, this is a list of all the books in this series:

The Best Bride, Sil. Spec. Ed. (SSE) 933, Jan. 1995 (Travis Haynes)Marriage on Demand, SSE 939, Feb. 1995 (Austin Lucas, adopted Haynes)Father in Training, SSE 969, July 1995 (Kyle Haynes)Part-Time Wife, SSE 1027, May 1996 (Craig Haynes)Full-Time Father, SSE 1042, July 1996Holly and Mistletoe, SSE 1071, Dec 1996 (Jordan Haynes)Husband by the Hour, SSE 1099, May, 1997 (Hannah Pace, half-sister of the Haynes brothers)Good Husband Material, SSE 1501, Nov. 2002 (Gage Reynolds, illegitimate Haynes)Completely Smitten, SSE 1520, Feb. 2003 (Kevin Harmon, illegitimate Haynes)One in a Million, SSE 1543, June 2003 (Nash Harmon, illegitimate Haynes)Quinn's Woman, SSE 1557, Aug. 2003 (Quinn Reynolds, illegitimate Haynes)
* * *

In A Dad for Her Twins, 28-year-old divorcee, Kenzie Green, has nine-year-old fraternal twins to raise, supporting them with a conservative job as a bank loan officer. She's just moved to Atlanta from a much smaller town, and her kids are resenting leaving their friends. However, Kenzie has been able to re-connect with her 26-year-old sister, Ann, who has a five-month-old baby girl, and is very willing to help Kenzie with babysitting and companionship. Kenzie is temporarily stationed in a small apartment complex, and she soon discovers everyone there is like a small family. They all know each other and are all friendly, except for the neighbor directly across from her apartment, a handsome, enigmatic, and very tall artist named Jonathan "JT" Trelauney.

This story is a good match for this duo of books. They have twins in common, and a similar reason for the heroine to resist re-marriage. In this book, Kenzie's ex is a rock musician who married Kenzie when she was only 18. She got pregnant with the twins almost immediately, and her ex was useless as a father. Kenzie divorced him because, like Stephanie of the other book, she felt he was like an extra child and not worth the hassle.

JT is a widower of about 31 years of age who is afraid to ever again go through the pain he went through losing his wife. He was a successful, much-lauded fine artist before she died, but he has been unable to paint in the three years since her death.

This is also a feel-good story about a woman with kids looking for a second chance at love with a man who is good father material. Like Nash, he is wounded and guilty and afraid to love. And like Nash, he is instinctively great with kids.

I enjoyed Kenzie's relationship with her sister and the family of affiliation with the quirky neighbors in Kenzie's apartment complex. This is a fast, easy read to while away an afternoon.

 
 

 

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Book Review: Rake’s Progress (House for the Season #4) by Marion Chesney

Delightfully oddball, Regency romantic comedy

Rake's Progress: A Novel of Regency England - Being the Fourth Volume of A House for the Season by Marion Chesney

Reading Level: Regency Romance
Release Date: March 31, 2011 (originally published in 1987)
Publisher: Rosetta Books
Source: Library
Reviewed By: Kate McMurry

This is the fourth of six books in the Regency-romance series, "A House for the Season." The complete series is:

The Miser of Mayfair, the First VolumePlain Jane, the Second VolumeThe Wicked Godmother, the Third VolumeRake's Progress, the Fourth VolumeThe Adventuress, the Fifth VolumeRainbird's Revenge, the Sixth Volume

The central core of this series is a group of servants who, for various personal reasons, are miserably bound to their employment at Number 67 Clarges Street in London's Mayfair, a house notorious for being unlucky and haunted because a past owner, the Duke of Pelham, hung himself there, and a woman who lived there was murdered. The current extremely wealthy Duke of Pelham pays no attention to this property, leaving its disposition--including the salaries of the servants that go with it--completely at the discretion of Jonas Palmer, the duke's agent. Unfortunately, Palmer is a bully and an embezzler. He tells the duke he is paying good wages to the staff, but actually gives them barely enough money to survive on and pockets the difference. Across this series, Palmer has also several times stolen money from the staff that they received as "vails" (tips) from people who rented the property, making it impossible for them to fulfill their heart's desire. They want to buy an inn and run it as a group.

This plan feels quite workable to the staff because over the years they have banded together and formed a family of affiliation, headed by the 30-something butler, Rainbird, a former acrobat, magician and juggler. Rainbird is clever, kind and helpful to every decent person who comes into his orbit, not merely the staff, but tenants of the house and, in this case, the romantic heroine, who is a neighbor.

The rest of the staff include a housekeeper named Mrs. Middleton, whose "Mrs." is an honorary title since she is a middle-aged spinster born to an impoverished curate; a brilliant chef who is a barbaric Scotsman named Angus MacGregor; a handsome, vain, and cowardly footman named Joseph; a chambermaid and skilled seamstress named Jenny; a beautiful, languorus, blond housemaid named Alice whom Rainbird frequently has to protect from lecherous guests; a sweet, innocent, teenage scullery maid named Lizzie, and the preteen pot boy, Dave, a former climbing boy whom Rainbird rescued from a cruel chimney sweep.

The newest resident of 67 Clarges Street in this installement is a rich, handsome rake named Lord Guy Carlton, who is the 35-year-old younger son of an Earl. On leave after many years in the Napoleonic wars, Guy is determined to pursue every form of dissipation. But after only one wild party filled with drunken gentlemen and naked, high-class prostitutes, Guy's pursuit of hedonism hits an unexpected wall in the form of a straight-laced neighbor. Miss Esther Jones is the most beautiful, enticing woman Guy has ever encountered. A tall man himself, her Amazonian height of 5'11" doesn't faze him, nor does her strong-willed disposition intimidate him, and unlike most people of his class, he's not impressed with the fact that she has one of the biggest fortunes in England since he has plenty of money of his own. What he is attracted to is her her beautiful face, flaming red hair, and gorgeous figure, as well as her intelligence and strength of character. Any woman he marries will have to "follow the drum" and come with him as he returns to war. Few women of his class would be capable of handling such a demanding marriage, but he is confident Esther could.

Though most women of the aristocracy consider rich, handsome rakes intensely desirable, Esther does not share this outlook. She is from the gentry, and her father disgraced her family with his rakish ways. In reaction, 26-year-old Esther has no plans to ever marry and is as prim as a Pilgrim. Her whole life is dedicated to raising her 9-year-old twin brother and sister, as well as teaching her servants to read and write, and conducting daily Bible studies for the entire household. She considers Guy a disgrace, and it takes all of Guy's ingenuity--with a big dollop of help from the intrepid Rainbird--to convince Esther that marriage with him would be an excellent idea.

As always, this book, like all of Marion Chesney's Regencies, has a strong touch of the bizarre in its comedy, which can be quite startling to the uninitiated, and quite funny when you get used to it. Also, in spite of the many oddball events in her romances, Chesney does a great job of authentically portraying the Regency era, and her main characters are always sympathetic. In this series, the family of servants led by Rainbird are a terrific throughline linking it together. Every one of them, even vain Joseph, grows across the series, and each is lovable in his/her way. And the two lovers in this particular book are a dynamic pairing. Every time they are on stage together the sparks fly, and both are equally strong and fearless.

No Regency author, anytime, anyplace, writes romantic comedy like Chesney. She is one of a kind, and an experience not to be missed if you love to laugh.

I read this book as a Kindle edition. It is well formatted and edited, making it easy to read.

I rate this book as follows:

Heroine: 4

Hero: 4

Rainbird and Crew: 4

Historical World-Building: 5

Writing: 4

Romance Plot: 4

Comedy: 4

Overall: 4

Book Review: Smart Girls Get What They Want by Sarah Strohmeyer

Cute, girl-power, chick-lit novel for teens

Smart Girls Get What They Want by Sarah Strohmeyer

Reading Level: Young Adult
Release Date: June 26, 2012
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Pages: 352 pages
Source: Amazon Vine
Reviewed By: Kate McMurry

Gigi, Bea, and Neerja have been best friends since elementary school. They are all three studious, ambitious, very smart girls, but they suddenly realize late in their high school careers that they want more than just their own little circle. They want to reach out socially and connect in ways they never have before in their high school. Bea decides to join the women's ski team. Gigi opts to run for office. Neerja trys out for the school play--and reachs out to a guy she has liked for ages. These are a very diverse range of goals, but the girls support each other all along the way.

This is a fun, non-preachy exploration of themes of loyalty to old friends while gaining new friends and experiences. It shows by example that it is possible to connect with boys romantically without having to compromise who you are. This is a terrific example of the best of the chick-lit genre.

Readers who liked this book might also enjoy:

Populazzi by Elise Allen, Also Known as Rowan Pohi by Ralph Fletcher, The Rites and Wrongs of Janice Wills by Joanna Pearson, and The Oracle of Dating and The Oracle Rebounds by Allison van Diepen.

I rate this book as follows:

Heroines: 4

Subcharacters: 4

Writing: 4

Chick-Lit Plot: 4

Overall: 4

Disclosure: I received a review copy of this book from the Amazon Vine program.