Heiress Bride

Heiress Bride was the second book by this author I read, back to back, purely by accident. The blurb drew me: scarred heroine and equally emotionally scare half Indian hero brought together by a matchmaker.

Most of the POV for this story was from the heroine’s perspective, with only the occasional insight into the thoughts of the hero. For that reason, the tension was well developed. Just as in real life, the reader has to go on what she is told and what she surmises of the hero’s thoughts and feelings to get his motivations. And when Nathan informs Ella after their wonderful first time together, and he’s taken her virginity, that he can’t love her, that he’s incapable of love, I really felt for her.  

Now this is the exact plot device used in the last book. Maybe I wouldn’t have noticed the sameness of it, and the scenario of the bad guy secretly trying to kill her, if I’d read a few books by other authors between. But going from one to the next, and finding this less-than-appealing quality in both heroes, I was disappointed. Yes, it gives the heroine something to aim for: getting the hero to fall for her. But with that one cruel announcement I lost any real interest in Nathan, just as I had with Duncan.

Anyway, even though I was turned off by Nathan, who really wasn’t enough of an Indian for my liking anyway, I continued reading because I quite liked Ella. She embraced her new life as a rancher’s wife and worked her fingers to the bone to be the woman he needed. Maybe she oscillated a bit over whether she loved him or not, telling him and others that she did and then denying it later, but she was a woman with courage and determination, a woman who could embrace an illegitimate brother her father kept secret all his life, and then hit him with a bucket when he threatened her life. I liked her development.

And of course she gets the love of her man, and some very exciting sex along the way. So it was a satisfying conclusion. It just would have been more so if Nathan had been more sympathetic as a character. So, he fell in love when he was young, and she rejected him because he was half Indian. That doesn’t mean you marry a damaged woman so you can have kids and tell her after sex that he’ll never love her. That’s just awful. But that’s probably my own preference in heroes. 

Tame a Wild Heart

Tame a Wild Heart is a well written cowboy romance that very much reflects the post-civil war period in the West as I imagined it would have been. Just lately I seem to be going through a phase where everything I read is set in this era.

The hero, Duncan McKenzie, returns to a ranch he left ten years before. In the interim years Duncan has become a bounty hunter, but doesn’t much like the life, so when his old friend asks him to return to the ranch and offers up his daughter in marriage so that the black-hearted neighbour can’t get his hands on her, he’s happy to oblige. Cat was an appealing fifteen year old when he left, (because things were heating up between them,) and in the ten years since, she hasn’t lost any of her appeal. She turns out to be a great kisser too, which sweetens the pot. And because she was crushing on this guy ten years ago, it doesn’t take much to have Cat agreeing to this marriage as well.

There were a lot of secondary characters that fill this book out so that you get the full feel for the era, even down to Indians and a couple who are illegally sold part of Cat’s father’s land and they’re allowed to stay on because they haven’t got the money to go anywhere else.

So I liked the fullness of the story, I was happy with the writing, although it could do with a bit of an edit in places, but it didn’t quite hit the spot for me. And I think the reason was that the romantic couple just weren’t real enough. I couldn’t engage with them. I kept thinking that it would have worked better if the story had started just before young Duncan left the ranch. The dynamic could have been established immediately as the young guy finds himself too attracted to his friend’s young daughter, who follows him around until she finally seduces him into kissing her. Maybe then I would have felt some tension when he comes back. But instead there are two people with a history we’re told about, rather than actually see, who fall too easily into marriage when blackmailed into it by dad.

 

Don’t get me wrong, the sexual sparks between these two are well-written and enjoyable; and I particularly liked the penny dreadful story of Duncan’s adventures as a bounty hunter. That gave the me a wonderful insight into his personality and life. I just wasn’t all that into them as people, and for me that is why I read romance, to meet and fall in love with the characters. And though the story was interesting, it just left me kind of flat. But I would still recommend this book to anyone who likes cowboy romance.

Waltz In Time by Eugenia Riley

I joined a site called Book Machine which allows me to get free books in return for reviews. My first book was a pleasing surprise. Here is my five star review of it

First let me say that I’m a Time Travel buff. It is my favourite genre. So when I got the opportunity to read Waltz in Time I jumped at it. And I wasn’t disappointed.

This is a well written, deeply involving story about family love. It has ghosts as well as time travel, and a lot of history about Natchez Post-Civil War, an era I find fascinating.

Stephanie is a widow who settles in the house her great-aunt left her and her sister. But her aunt hasn’t moved on after her death, in fact she’s haunting Stephanie, along with the ghosts of a bunch of children and a governess who plays the violin badly. Our heroine finally agrees to help the restless spirits find peace, but doesn’t realise that involves going back in time to do it.

At first I really didn’t like the ‘scamp’, (the use of this word intensified the childishness of the hero for me,) Andre, whose children Stephanie has come back to help. Yes, he’s gorgeous, but he really is a player of the worst kind, and irresponsible as well. So it was easy to support Stephanie’s stand to reject his none-too-subtle attempts at seduction. But the more he fell under her spell, the more I fell under his. Although I’d never call him one of my favourite fictional heroes, I came to like him and wanted the couple to find happiness together.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book, especially the children, who quite stole my heart. I stayed up late at night reading to find out what happened next, and it was a wonderful world to escape to.

If there was one criticism, it was that Stephanie took to life in the 19th Century too easily. Except for one comment about the chair commode and a few modern terms drifting into her language, she was remarkably adept at adapting to this very different era. She even commented that wearing boys clothes was odd but liberating. Does that mean she never wore jeans in the modern world? For this reason, this was more historical romance than time-travel, which I still enjoyed immensely.

So if you’re looking for an easy, relaxing, escapist romance that warms your heart, whether you’re into time travel on not, then this is for you. I will definitely be looking for other books by this author.

Charlie Davidson is the UnGrim Reaper

I decided my first post was going to be dedicated to Darynda Jones' Charlie Davidson series. I would recommend starting at book one, First Grave on the Right. But I'm up to Book Seven so I've included that image. They're short books, but packed with laugh-out-loud humour and steamy sex wrapped loosely around a detective story.

I have no idea how I originally found this series and it probably wouldn't have attracted me, based on its cover, but as soon as I started it I was hooked. Who wouldn't be with quirk little one-liners as chapter headings like, 'So many dead people, so little time.' 

Charlie Davidson is the Grim Reaper but there's nothing grim about her. She's funny, brave and very crazy, and you have to love her First Person POV quips and comments as you go along. But if you're looking for an example of proper English, this is not it. Jones writes as Charlie thinks, and while not truly Stream of Consciousness, it comes in as a very funny version of it. Molly Parker is also good at this style of writing, and I'll talk about her books in another post.

So Charlie as the Grim Reaper doesn't actually kill anyone, she just moves them on into the Light. Or she actually is the Light they pass through. But Reaping the dead is not her day job. She's a PI and her books follow at least one murder, missing person or crime, while she's doing weird and wonderful things like talking to the dead asian guy in the corner of her living room, naming everything she owns, including her sofa and breasts, interacting with wonderful friends, and falling in love with the Son of Satan.

Did I get your attention with that last one? Yes, Reese the very delicious hunk is the mortal form of a demon who is the son of Satan. He's had a terrible tortured life, but having come from Hell he's pretty much able to handle it. I'm not going to add Spoilers in this review so you'll have to read the books to find out if Reese is a good-guy or bad-guy. But he is certainly a bad boy, and every female that lays eyes on him is drawn to him. It's his devilish good looks and charm. Actually no, he isn't charming, he's kind of the straight man of the comedy duo. The Martin of the Martin and Lewis team. (If you've never heard of Jerry Lewis, then my blog is probably not for you. And I only know them from watching Late Night Oldies, because I'm not THAT old.)

If you're looking for a fast-paced, hysterically funny romantic mystery then this series is for you. But be prepared for steamy sex scenes. If you're not into them, then do as I say to my fans who complain about the sex - skip that part and get back to the story. Steamy sex scenes aren't for everybody, but its easier to put them in for those who like them than leave them out completely in case they offend. That's what's so good about books, you can speed=read through the bits you don't like.

Romancing the Soul

I've been reading Romance since I was about ten. I can remember hiding away in my bedroom pouring over a paperback belonging to an aunt while everyone else was out in the world being busy. I sometimes wondered if there was something wrong with me. Certainly no one else in my family had their head in a book every spare moment. To my mother it was a sign of laziness. 

As I got older I started to realize that I wasn't the only lazy person burying their head in books and that, as far as the educated world was concerned, reading was anything but laziness. 

My love of reading led me to become a High School English Teacher, a soul destroying activity. No matter how hard I worked, getting the bulk of my students interested in the books on the syllabus was almost impossible. And I didn't blame them. Shakespeare is written in a foreign language and no matter how brilliant his words, if kids can't understand them what's the point? The same could be said for the novels we force-fed them back then. Books written fifty or more years before their time, which seemed to have no bearing on their modern lives. 

And my guilty secret all those years I was ateacher? I didn't read the Classics or even good literature in my spare time. I read Stephen King or Ursula Le Guin. And I still regard good literature like a bland salad I eat because its good for me. My chocolate fix comes from J  K Rowlings' Harry Potter series or J R Ward's Black Dagger Brotherhood. 

But my skills at analysis helps me to determine why I enjoy what I enjoy. What works and what doesn't. So on this blog I plan to write about the books I love and why I love them, and even if you, the reader, might never have considered reading these books, you might be more open to them in the future.