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Family at Last
Family at Last by K.N. Casper released on Aug 09, 2005 is available now for purchase.
384 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 2005
About the author
Ken Casper
28 books22 followersKen Casper was born and raised in New York City. After graduating from Fordham University with a degree in Russian, he joined the Air Force, was stationed in the Far East, served in Vietnam, and lived five years in Germany. He also earned a Master's degree in Education from the University of Southern California. Ken retired from more than 33 years of government service in September '97.
Now a transplanted Texan. He and Mary, his wife of 34 years, own a horse farm in San Angelo. Along with their Border Collie, Chief, they have a Golden Retriever, Casey, two house cats, four barn cats and eight horses. They also board and breed horses and Mary teaches English riding. She's a therapeutic riding instructor for the handicapped, as well.
Life is never dull. Their two granddaughters visit several times a year and feel right at home with the Casper menagerie. Grampa and Mimi do everything they can to make sure their visits to Little Oaks Farm will be lifelong fond memories. After all, isn't that what grandparents are for?
Ken figures his writing career probably started in the sixth grade when he was ordered by a teacher to write a "theme" explaining his misbehavior over the previous semester. To his teacher's chagrin, he enjoyed stringing just the right words together to justify his less than stellar performance. Fortunately, she forgave him.
Since then, he's had short stories published in a popular men's magazine and was working on a mystery when his critique partners, three romance writers, suggested he try their genre. He had his doubts ("Me? Write romance? Are you kidding?), but he decided to give it a try, anyway. His first-chapter romance submission won honorable mention at the Southwest Writers' Workshop contest in 1993. Ken revised it...and revised it, then entered the Golden Triangle Writers' Guild contest in '95. This time he took first place in both mystery and romance. The romance entry later became his first sale to Harlequin Superromance. A MAN CALLED JESSE was published in October '98. Since then he's written more than a dozen other Superromances, including the First Family of Texas series, contributed to two trilogies, a six-book series set in the police department of Houston, Texas, and he's currently involved in a five-book series set in the beautiful hill country of central Texas. His October 2003 Super, THE WOMAN IN THE NEWS, was a Holt Medallion finalist.
Ken Casper previously wrote as K.N. Casper
Now a transplanted Texan. He and Mary, his wife of 34 years, own a horse farm in San Angelo. Along with their Border Collie, Chief, they have a Golden Retriever, Casey, two house cats, four barn cats and eight horses. They also board and breed horses and Mary teaches English riding. She's a therapeutic riding instructor for the handicapped, as well.
Life is never dull. Their two granddaughters visit several times a year and feel right at home with the Casper menagerie. Grampa and Mimi do everything they can to make sure their visits to Little Oaks Farm will be lifelong fond memories. After all, isn't that what grandparents are for?
Ken figures his writing career probably started in the sixth grade when he was ordered by a teacher to write a "theme" explaining his misbehavior over the previous semester. To his teacher's chagrin, he enjoyed stringing just the right words together to justify his less than stellar performance. Fortunately, she forgave him.
Since then, he's had short stories published in a popular men's magazine and was working on a mystery when his critique partners, three romance writers, suggested he try their genre. He had his doubts ("Me? Write romance? Are you kidding?), but he decided to give it a try, anyway. His first-chapter romance submission won honorable mention at the Southwest Writers' Workshop contest in 1993. Ken revised it...and revised it, then entered the Golden Triangle Writers' Guild contest in '95. This time he took first place in both mystery and romance. The romance entry later became his first sale to Harlequin Superromance. A MAN CALLED JESSE was published in October '98. Since then he's written more than a dozen other Superromances, including the First Family of Texas series, contributed to two trilogies, a six-book series set in the police department of Houston, Texas, and he's currently involved in a five-book series set in the beautiful hill country of central Texas. His October 2003 Super, THE WOMAN IN THE NEWS, was a Holt Medallion finalist.
Ken Casper previously wrote as K.N. Casper
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
June 22, 2015
3.5/5
Second reading. I quite enjoyed this book the first time around, a few years ago, and I enjoyed it again. There are weaknesses, but overall it made for a solid read.
As for weaknesses - it was occasionally dry, with more details in some places than I really needed.
For example, I'm not sure why I needed to know so much about the "B Plot" lovers. I like it when longer romances have a B-Couple, along side the "A Plot" characters, as it generally gives the story more layers, but in this one I wasn't sure why I was hearing so much. It felt throughout like they were being set up for their own book, but then it seemed like not. The strange thing is, there was a lot of extra stuff going on with them, but it all seemed very rushed and cursory, anyway, and they were rather cookie-cutter, over all. This was a weakness in the book that occasionally broke my engagement with the main story.
Further, there were strange goings-on at time that made me wonder what happened there.
For instance, it seemed at one point that the hero was "reduced to the poverty level" by some sort of stock crash, but then didn't have to adjust his lifestyle at all...? I wasn't sure what was going on. Perhaps this, too, is meant to set up another book...? Honestly, it was mentioned quite briefly for the main hero (it had more impact for the B Plot hero), but never came up again, so if I had blinked I might have missed it. This happened throughout the book, as it sped through many events, and often resorted to just info dumping or telling me what had occurred, or mentioning things so briefly I likely missed things.
Now, as to the positive side - the A Plot couple was very fine. I liked them both, and the kid, and the relationship was undramatic and rational. There was not one ounce of alphole behaviours from the hero, and the two interacted like regular, equal people. This was very nice to see.
The romantic characters are all a bit on the Mary Sue side, with very few flaws, mountains of "sympathetic lures", and, in some cases, super-skills, but most of them were nice and likeable.
As a side note, I might suggest the hero had a bit too much tragedy in his past - recently dead mother, check; father dead too young, check... why did he also have to have a dead brother, who died as a teen due to a car accident? It seems that this was extraneous, and made it seem like the book was trying too hard to make him sympathetic. It irked me a little bit, since his brother was never mentioned again, and could have been dropped easily.
Nevertheless, I bought the hero as a desperate dad to a troubled adopted child, and I liked the heroine as tutor. The hero was a bit unconventional in his anxiety, vulnerability, easy-going nature, etc. He was a bit older than most romance heroes, and he acted quite mature. Some readers might find him a bit on the wimpy side (i.e. his yearning towards fatherhood due, in part, to loneliness; his panic attacks; etc), but I liked him a lot. He seemed responsible, mannered, and, well, good. I appreciate these characteristics, so the hero worked well for me.
The heroine was intelligent, mature and attractive, and the settings/situations were memorable. Her mother was an asset to the book, as well.
Overall, very worth reading, and I'll likely hang onto it in case I want to read it again.
Second reading. I quite enjoyed this book the first time around, a few years ago, and I enjoyed it again. There are weaknesses, but overall it made for a solid read.
As for weaknesses - it was occasionally dry, with more details in some places than I really needed.
For example, I'm not sure why I needed to know so much about the "B Plot" lovers. I like it when longer romances have a B-Couple, along side the "A Plot" characters, as it generally gives the story more layers, but in this one I wasn't sure why I was hearing so much. It felt throughout like they were being set up for their own book, but then it seemed like not. The strange thing is, there was a lot of extra stuff going on with them, but it all seemed very rushed and cursory, anyway, and they were rather cookie-cutter, over all. This was a weakness in the book that occasionally broke my engagement with the main story.
Further, there were strange goings-on at time that made me wonder what happened there.
For instance, it seemed at one point that the hero was "reduced to the poverty level" by some sort of stock crash, but then didn't have to adjust his lifestyle at all...? I wasn't sure what was going on. Perhaps this, too, is meant to set up another book...? Honestly, it was mentioned quite briefly for the main hero (it had more impact for the B Plot hero), but never came up again, so if I had blinked I might have missed it. This happened throughout the book, as it sped through many events, and often resorted to just info dumping or telling me what had occurred, or mentioning things so briefly I likely missed things.
Now, as to the positive side - the A Plot couple was very fine. I liked them both, and the kid, and the relationship was undramatic and rational. There was not one ounce of alphole behaviours from the hero, and the two interacted like regular, equal people. This was very nice to see.
The romantic characters are all a bit on the Mary Sue side, with very few flaws, mountains of "sympathetic lures", and, in some cases, super-skills, but most of them were nice and likeable.
As a side note, I might suggest the hero had a bit too much tragedy in his past - recently dead mother, check; father dead too young, check... why did he also have to have a dead brother, who died as a teen due to a car accident? It seems that this was extraneous, and made it seem like the book was trying too hard to make him sympathetic. It irked me a little bit, since his brother was never mentioned again, and could have been dropped easily.
Nevertheless, I bought the hero as a desperate dad to a troubled adopted child, and I liked the heroine as tutor. The hero was a bit unconventional in his anxiety, vulnerability, easy-going nature, etc. He was a bit older than most romance heroes, and he acted quite mature. Some readers might find him a bit on the wimpy side (i.e. his yearning towards fatherhood due, in part, to loneliness; his panic attacks; etc), but I liked him a lot. He seemed responsible, mannered, and, well, good. I appreciate these characteristics, so the hero worked well for me.
The heroine was intelligent, mature and attractive, and the settings/situations were memorable. Her mother was an asset to the book, as well.
Overall, very worth reading, and I'll likely hang onto it in case I want to read it again.
May 24, 2013
A really lovely book!
August 6, 2009
Excellent
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews