#TBRChallenge 2018: Wish Upon a Snowflake

The Book: Wish Upon a Snowflake by Christine Merrill, Linda Skye, and Elizabeth Rolls

The Particulars: Historical romance anthology, Harlequin Historicals #1207, 2014, Out of print, Available in digital

Why Was It In Wendy's TBR?: It's a holiday anthology from Harlequin Historical. How could it not be in my TBR?

The Review: Anthologies, by their very nature, can be wildly uneven affairs.  Not every reader is going to find a good fit with every author.  Case in point, I'm trying to think of the last anthology I read where I liked all the stories, and my hazy memory is coming up blank.  Which is what makes this book really interesting.  There are varying degrees here, but I enjoyed all the stories!

Christine Merrill is grossly under appreciated for her willingness to take risks with the Regency setting.  I've read some really "out there" stories by her.  Have they all be raving successes for me?  No. But she's a risk taker, and I've always appreciated that about her work.  The Christmas Duchess features some refreshingly different elements from a normal ol' Regency Christmas tale and I quite enjoyed it.

Generva Marsh is having a very bad day.  Her daughter, who was supposed to be married on Christmas Day, has just been jilted in a very public and embarrassing fashion.  Naturally, though none of it is her fault, the girl is suitably ruined.  So the last thing Generva, a widow, is in the mood for is for the once-intended groom's uncle (a Duke!) to show up claiming victory because he was able to secure the special license in time for a Christmas wedding.  Thomas Kanner, Duke of Montford, is a bit surprised by Generva's response - which is to say she hits him over the head with a broom.

What I loved about this story is that it features an older, forthright heroine and a Duke hero who is, well, charming as heck while being a genuinely nice guy.  He's immediately smitten with Generva, sings Christmas carols, and reckons to fix the mess his heir has made. Generva loved her husband, but as a sea captain he was away an awful lot, so she's learned to be self-reliant.  She's past the age of believing that Prince Charming is going to show up on her doorstep and rescue her!  Bonus points for a well-written child character, the heroine's school-age son, who provides some nice comic relief at just the right moments.

Grade = B+

Once upon a time Harlequin experimented with shorter digital lines, one of which was Harlequin Undone.  These were marketed as short spicy reads set in a variety of time periods, and featured more sexy times than your standard Harlequin Historical.  As I was reading Russian Winter Nights by Linda Skye, I was struck that it read very much like an Undone and...I'm a genius (plus I read a lot of Undones!) - this is a reprint.  It was first published as part of the Undone line in 2013.  What's shocking is I hadn't read it until now - although a quick look in my Kindle Dumpster Fire of Doom shows I have this in my digital TBR!!!

Ekaterina Romanova is the niece of Empress Anna of Russia, who is naturally vile since hello - she's a Russian ruler (seriously, it's basically a job requirement).  She was summoned by her aunt to court, which frankly doesn't bode well, so Ekaterina has been aiming to keep a low profile.  She was succeeding until she meets Andrey Kvasov.  Their encounter is a chance one, suitably steamy, and naturally neither finds out right away who the other one truly is.  This leads to many complications, especially since it becomes quite clear that Aunt Anna has marked Andrey as her next conquest.

Skye does an excellent job of creating the backdrop in this story.  There's intrigue and political shenanigans aplenty, and it creates very high stakes for the lovers.  But after the somewhat traditional read that is the Merrill story, jumping into this one which reads more erotic felt like a bit too much of a tone shift.  The language in the love scenes tends to flirt too much with "overwrought" for my tastes, but it's not the purplest shade I've read in my day.  Also while the ending ties things up somewhat satisfactorily, it lacks a sense of finality. The story ends with the lovers getting the upper hand but do they really?  I mean, the villain is the Empress of Russia!  I'd have preferred them riding away from the Catherine Palace together.

Grade = B-

A Shocking Proposition by Elizabeth Rolls reads a bit more traditional than the previous two stories, in that we have a young, unmarried heroine determined to save her virtue, and her home, from an oily cousin trying to force her into marriage.  Madeleine "Maddy" Kirkby's solution is to propose a marriage of convenience to Lord Ashton Ravensfell, the younger brother of a Duke.  They knew each other as children, he's recently returned from fighting on the Continent, and he's obsessed with antiquities.  Given that part of Hadrian's Wall is on Maddy's property - well, it seems like a reasonable solution to her predicament.  Of course the evil cousin won't go quietly into that good night...

The main leads are charming, and well matched.  The villain, while one note, is suitably vile to give the story enough heft of conflict to spur us forth to the happy ending.  It's not quite as steamy as the Skye story, but still quite steamy - what with the heroine getting deflowered in the carriage ride back from the wedding! - and while the hero has a bit of a White Knight Complex, he's protective of the heroine, obviously smitten, and a breath of fresh air from the recent Alphaholes invading the genre.

Grade = B

All in all, this was not a bad way to spend my time and I inhaled the anthology in nearly one sitting.  Given that the book I tried to read before this one got DNF'ed out of indifference?  This was a big win!  It's a really solid holiday collection and I'm glad I chose it to close out my TBR Challenge reading for 2018.

Overall Final Grade = B

ETA: I just found out that the Rolls story was also originally published as a Harlequin Undone short!  Which explains the deflowering in the carriage scene!  But unlike the Skye story, it wasn't languishing in my digital TBR.

#TBRChallenge 2018: Midlife Crisis

The Book: Midlife Crisis by Audra North

The Particulars: Contemporary gay romance, Riptide Publishing, 2017, In Print, LAMBDA finalist Best Gay Romance

Why Was It In Wendy's TBR?: I liked the cover, I LOVED the fact that both main characters were in their 50s, and I scored a free copy at last year's RWA Librarians Day.

The Review: Buckle up kiddies because I have a lot to say about this book - some of it good and some of it that had me frothing at the mouth angry.

Cam McGhee is a widower in his early 50s with two grown children.  He lives in a small, historically black, rural town.  He played high school football, married the girl next door, opened his own feed store and he's gay.  He's still firmly in the closet, but has decided to take a sabbatical from the business (his son is running it in his absence) and spend some time in The Big City (Austin).  Cam has to find himself, and who he ends up finding is Dave Montoya.

This is a romance, but to be honest it works better as a Coming Of Age or Self-Discovery Narrative.  Cam has been hiding his truth for so long that reading about the romance between him and Dave is actually quite sweet.  Cam married LaVerne right out of high school so not only has he not dated in a dog's age, he also hasn't been involved with someone he feels a deep attraction and passion for.  Naturally it all gets complicated when he realizes he is developing real feelings for Dave.  For one thing, Cam's kids have no clue that Dad Is Gay.

So what's the problem?  LaVerne.  The author chooses to employ flashbacks to Cam's marriage and that makes LaVerne a very big problem.  I learned a long time ago that life isn't fair.  You know what I love most about genre fiction?  It's fair.  True love conquers all, the bad guys lose in the end, genre fiction is art's way of righting the universe.  LaVerne is a sweet, small town girl who is "sickly."  Turns out she has sickle cell that goes undiagnosed for a long time and ultimately it's complications from that disease that kill her.  LaVerne is married to a closeted gay man who does love her (in the way friends love each other) and LaVerne DIES.  And by all accounts, LaVerne has no clue that Cam is gay (the author tap-dances around this a bit, but there's never any big moment where LaVerne indicates she knows the truth so I'm operating under the assumption she doesn't know).

LaVerne gets hosed.

LaVerne spent her whole adult life married to a man who had to fantasize about other men when they did have sex (which wasn't often).  LaVerne NEVER knew what it was like to be desired.  LaVerne never felt true passion.  No man ever looked into LaVerne's eyes and told her how much he desired her, how much he loved her, how he would walk through the fires of Hell for her.  And now, LaVerne is dead.  Her chance at happiness, her chance at true love and passion are forever gone.  And that makes me so angry I want to throat punch somebody.

Look, I get it.  I'm not unsympathetic to Cam's plight.  But the fact that nobody, at all, says word one about how LaVerne got shafted makes me angry.  When the kids find out they both ask Cam if he cheated on their Mom (he didn't).  But then they just drop it.  Nobody thinks for one moment what life must have been like for LaVerne - with a myriad of health related issues and a husband who was using her as a beard.

The worst part about this whole thing is that I don't think the author made these choices for her story with any malicious intent. LaVerne is not a villainous character by any stretch of the imagination.  However, while I'm not widely read in m/m, even I know that the sub genre doesn't have the best track record when it comes to writing female characters.  Which, when you think about the fact that the readership is largely female and the writers are largely female is seriously messed up.

Is this a sweet romance featuring an older couple?  Yes, it is.  But it's also a rage-inducing read about a woman who gets screwed, and not in a good way.  If there is any justice at all in the world, an author is going to read this review, agree with me that LaVerne gets hosed, resurrect her, and give her her own passionate, soul-defining and beautiful happy ever after with someone who treats her like a goddamn goddess.

I recognize that the narrative of Cam finally living his truth is a good one but I can't overlook LaVerne.  So...

Final Grade = C

#TBRChallenge Review: The Guardian

The Book: The Guardian by Cindi Myers

The Particulars: Romantic suspense, Harlequin Intrigue #1572, 2015, Out of print, Available digitally, First book in mini-series

Why Was It In Wendy's TBR?: I had an autographed copy which means I more than likely picked this up at a RWA conference.  I tend to pick up category romance at conferences rather indiscriminately, especially for authors I've never read before - and as amazing as this sounds, I don't think I've read Myers before.  Despite her large backlist and the fact that she's written across several Harlequin lines.

Review: Meh. Oh, you expect more than that?  OK.  Well, once again my lagging mojo meant I waited too long to settle on a TBR Challenge read for this month, so I went diving in the ocean that is my Harlequin print TBR and unearthed this Intrigue.  I like Intrigues because they're fast-paced and short - which means the author has to hit all the emotional beats and build a fast moving suspense thread to hook the reader.  Myers does that here.  I think Intrigues are notoriously tricky to pull off for a writer, so when I find someone who handles the line and format well, I take notice.  Myers inserted a few elements in this story that annoyed me, but I can't fault her on her skills.

Abby Stewart is a former beauty queen, turned soldier, who was injured while deployed in Afghanistan.  In fact, she almost died.  She was rescued by Michael Dance, a PJ (para jumper) with the United States Air Force Pararescue.  It's been five years but he's never forgotten Abby - mainly because she was the first person he managed to save who didn't end up dying on him.  He now works for Customs and Border Protection and is part of a inter-agency task force patrolling public land in Colorado.  Imagine his surprise when Abby bursts into the staff meeting he's trying to stay awake in.

Abby is back in school, working on her PhD-or-something-or-other in environmental science of some sort (I kind of tuned this out).  She's studying the native plants in the region, collecting samples, hoping her research will lead her to a cure for cancer, Parkinson's, pick your poison.  Anyway, she's out gathering her plants when she meets a Hispanic woman collecting edible plants and carrying a baby.  The woman speaks no English and Abby only remembers the rudimentary basics of her high school Spanish.  But then the woman is frightened by an approaching group of men, Abby hides, and when the men disappear she emerges only to be confronted by a dead body.  Hence her going to the ranger station and interrupting the meeting that Michael is in.

This isn't a terrible read by any stretch of the imagination, but there were authorial choices made here that I wasn't entirely captivated with.  While I liked that Abby was ex-military, and therefore extremely level-headed and capable, she does make a couple of bone-headed moves and gets butt-hurt when Michael goes all Macho Man wanting to protect her from danger.  Yeah, that's annoying, but she is, after all, technically a civilian in this situation.  On the bright side, there was one really nice moment in the story where she apologizes afterward knowing full well she flew off the handle a bit.

In Abby's defense, Michael wanting to cocoon her from harm is pretty annoying since he's fully aware that she's ex-military and has experience working in a war zone.  Seriously dude, I know you're getting all these gooey feelings for her, but let's not start treating her like some hothouse flower that's going to wilt.  But I liked that Michael and Abby have the shared experience of both being former military, that they talk about the trials of acclimating back into civilian life post-military, and all the challenges that that entails.

I walked into this story knowing full well it was book one in a series.  What I didn't realize was that it's book one in a mini-series.  For Harlequin fans, think of this like it's the start of a continuity series written by one author.  The suspense thread here is just the start of an overarching plot that carries over into the next three books.  Illegal immigrants are on the public land working at something...illegal.  What?  Who knows. The characters suspect it's a drug operation and there's naturally One Very Bad Man who is keeping these illegals prisoner and working them as slave labor.  I liked that Myers addresses other aspects of human trafficking to the plot - that yes, many victims are forced into sex work, but some are forced into illegal drug labor pools, domestic work etc.  I also liked that the author focused on illegal activities on public lands and in National Parks - where people have set up large marijuana grow operations and meth labs.  While Hispanic characters are victims in this story, the author has made the inter-agency task force diverse and some of those characters become protagonists in the later books.

So while this has potential, and I'll certainly read Myers again, it's not something that lit a fire in me to continue on with the next books in the mini-series.  There's a lot left unanswered in this book one that I know will be addressed later (a gazillionaire who has a compound near the public land, a missing TV news anchorwoman, what exactly are the bad guys up to etc.) but I just can't be bothered.  I was annoyed with myself for not realizing this was a mini-series and not just a plain ol' series.  The characters were nice enough, Myers is certainly a capable writer in the tricky Intrigue format, but I just wasn't feeling this.  It's OK but...meh.

Your mileage may vary.

Final Grade = C

#TBRChallenge 2018: Private Places Anthology

The Book: Private Places by Robin Schone, Claudia Dain, Allyson James and Shiloh Walker

The Particulars: Historical erotic romance anthology, Berkley, 2008, In Print

Why Was It In Wendy's TBR?: I'm fairly certain I got this at a SoCal Bloggers Lunch / Book Swap (back when we used to read print we'd have these epic book swaps - I gotta say I kinda miss them!)  Anyway, I like anthologies because it's a good way to try new-to-me authors without investing a lot of time and energy and this was historical erotic romance so I snagged it.

Review: The anthology kicks off with The Decidedly Devilish Duke by Allyson James and it didn't go well.  Amelia Lockwood is a widow who is at the mercy of her dead husband's heir for her care and well-being.  Naturally he's been stingy with her allowance and naturally it's because he wants to debauch her.  She goes to his estate to confront him, he challenges her to a game of cards (you win you get your allowance, I win you do every debauched thing I can think of...) and she accepts because she knows she can trounce him.  Of course it doesn't enter her bubble head that a guy like this would cheat.  Anyway, Michael Beaulieu (a Duke, because of course he is) witnesses the exchange and manipulates Amelia's late husband's cousin (or whatever he is) to let him play the game in his stead.  Michael and Amelia once had "a thing" before she threw him over for her late husband and he took off to more exotic locales.

Yes, exotic.  It's rumored that Michael spent time in the Middle East (Turkey is specifically mentioned), that he had his own harem, and naturally he's spent an inordinate amount of time outdoors so he's all bronzed and "exotic" looking.  Yes, the word "exotic" is used a few times over the course of the story.  So yeah, none of this is good.  But making it worse is that Michael is the kind of hero who literally says to the heroine, "It doesn’t work that way. I might not be able to stop until too late. A wise woman would leave now.”  Does the heroine pick up the slack?  No, she does not.  Because even though she's a dang widow, the sex with her husband was of the "lay back and think of England" variety.  Because of course she should still be "innocent" so Michael, he of the harem rumors, can "teach" her.  Shoot. Me. Now.

No.  No, no, nopity, no, no.  I really disliked this story.

Grade = D-

On to the next story which is A Night at the Theater by Claudia Dain, a clever idea for a story that suffered mightily on execution.  Two courtesans go to the theater.  Sophia is beautiful, experienced, and knows how to protect herself.  Zoe is young, desperate and looking for a protector.  But as the evening unfolds, the drama happening in the audience is more riveting than the play happening on the stage.

Ugh. So basically the author tries to sell readers on the fact that Zoe and the man she ensnares is this great love match even though he's married and she becomes his mistress.  But it's OK because his wife ends up dying and they live happily ever after in the end.  Sophia seeks revenge on a guy she thinks is a jerk (he is) and uses that revenge as a means to finally bag herself a husband.  None of this is helped by the fact that every blessedly character talks in circles to the point where I wanted to stab my eyes out.  Clever plot idea populated with characters I wanted to run over with a team of stallions.

Grade = D-

So yeah, this is not going well.  Next up is Hunter's Mercy by Shiloh Walker and Praise Jeebus!  Write this down, the paranormal story is the one that saves this anthology from being a complete waste of my energy.

Jack Callahan is coming home after fighting in the Revolutionary War to keep a promise to his BFF, who died in battle.  The promise is, of course, to look after his BFF's little sister, Mercy.  Mercy was a tomboy and tag-along, and unlike her brother, has no idea Jack is a shapeshifter.  Jack is also a Hunter, which means he basically disposes of feral shapeshifters.  He happens across a pair of red coats who fit that bill accosting a slight young man.  Except it turns out the young man is Mercy in disguise.  Ever since her husband was brutally murdered by "monsters" she taken to becoming an amateur hunter - being able to shoot and track thanks to all those years tagging along with her brother and Jack.  And she's gotten good - because she manages to wing Jack with a silver bullet.

The conflict in this story is good.  There's a past between Mercy and Jack, Mercy LOVED her husband, has this amazing amount of guilt over his death because of a Big Secret, and she has NO CLUE that Jack is "a monster."  Walker isn't a historical writer by trade, but she does an OK job with the colonial setting and she populates the story with likable secondary characters.  This didn't wow me (the ending is rather abrupt), but I'm also not a big paranormal reader, so the fact that I liked it says quite a bit (in my opinion).

Grade = B

As incredible as this is going to sound, I've never actually read Robin Schone before.  Her story, The Men and Women's Club, was eye-opening.  It's also part of a series, which made it kind of a mixed bag because I do feel like I "missed" some stuff being completely unfamiliar with the previous book in the series.

Joseph Manning is a professor and Ardelle Dennison the first female publicist for the London Museum.  They are also members of The Men and Women's Club, which Joseph founded for inquiring adults to discuss their desires and intimate secrets.  Something happens in the previous book and there's a trial coming up, leading Joseph and Ardelle to a confrontation.  Ardelle is complicated, a bit standoffish, some say cold, and two years previously she divested Joseph of his virginity.  It's been two years, he's been celibate since, and practically burning for her.

This whole story is basically one giant trigger warning, so I'm going to include spoilers.  Ardelle is career-driven and ambitious, and she's the first female publicist in the history of the London Museum.  To get this plum job?  Yeah, sexual harassment.  It's also later revealed that her father sexually abused her (no penetration and clothes stayed on, but yes it was abuse) and her mother basically made Ardelle feel dirty for her husband's vile behavior.  So yeah, Ardelle has issues.

But Schone doesn't spare Joseph who also has his own dark secrets involving boarding school (because of course he does).  Basically Joseph likes a bit of pain with his pleasure.  There's also some mild humiliation going on between Ardelle and Joseph that they both get off on.

Look, I'm making this sound really unsavory - and it is.  But Schone writes with a maturity that's hard to ignore.  She also writes the most challenging story in this anthology and part of the reason I've always been drawn to erotic writing in general is because I like to be challenged.  I like it when authors explore societal mores and norms, challenge those mores and norms, and in turn challenge the reader.  Is this story one I would recommend?  Lord, I don't know.  But there's a captivating quality to it that I cannot deny.  I'm going to ding this one mostly because it doesn't stand-alone (at all) - but it had that deer in the headlights effect on me, so that's a win.

Grade = C+

This was a completely mixed bag for me, most of it falling on the not-good end of the spectrum.  Howver, the Walker story was engaging and the Schone story reminded me that, more often than that, when erotic romance works for me it's written by someone with that Old School joie de vivre.

Overall Grade = C

#TBRChallenge 2018: Law of Attraction

The Book: Law of Attraction by Allison Leotta

The Particulars: Legal Thriller (with romantic elements), Book #1 in Anna Curtis series, 2010, In Print

Why Was It In Wendy's TBR?: I failed to catalog this one, but I suspect I picked it up at the RWA conference in Anaheim in 2012.  Reading a friend's GoodReads review, the author was there, and since it was a local conference for me, I basically took any book that wasn't tied down.  I'm a mystery/suspense reader from way back, hence why this one has survived various TBR purges over the last couple of years.

Trigger Warning: Domestic Violence

The Review: I've been slogging through romance, of late, but it's an affliction that hasn't hit my mystery/suspense reading.  Partly because I have very warm, squishy nostalgic feelings for that genre (it's the genre that made me fall in love with reading) but also in a world on fire the very real promise that the bad guy will be caught, and justice served, hits my sweet spot.  Case in point, this book.  Oh, there are issues - but they didn't keep me from inhaling this 400 page book in one day.

Anna Curtis is a fresh-out-of-law-school Assistant US Attorney pulling duty in the Domestic Violence Paper Room.  An assignment that is crap on a good day, let alone the day after Valentine's Day when domestic violence cases surge.  After getting a particularly foul cup of cafeteria coffee she heads back to her office where she catches Laprea Johnson's case.  Laprea is basically bleeding all over one of her crappy office chairs, having just taken a beating from D'marco Davis, father of her children (fraternal twins).  Laprea is determined to press charges and the case hits Anna close to home.  She's determined to help the young woman.  The fly in the ointment?  D'marco's attorney is Nick Wagner, a former law school acquaintance who Anna coincidentally ran into at the court house just moments before.  The attraction is immediate, with Nick asking her out on a date.  Then they find out they're going to be working a case on opposite sides of the aisle.

What happens next is what sadly happens in a lot of domestic violence cases.  Laprea changes her story, D'marco walks, and a couple of months later?  Laprea is dead.  D'marco is the obvious prime suspect.  However, by this point, Anna and Nick are in a full-fledged love affair.  When she finds out he plans to continue being D'marco's lawyer?  Yeah, that puts an end to that.  Next thing she knows, because of her knowledge of the previous case, she's assigned to work with Jack Bailey, the top homicide prosecutor in the city.  He's none to thrilled to have a rookie with zero homicide trial experience dogging his heels but the boss says she's in, so now he's got Anna as his second chair.

Naturally though, things aren't as they seem - and further complicated by the fact that Anna, who has obviously never watched a single Law & Order episode in her life, fails to disclose her previous romantic relationship with the defense counsel.  Yeah, that's going to come back to bite her in the ass later.

And that would be the main issue I have with this book - Anna is young, green, fresh out of law school, and makes some bone-headed decisions over the course of the story.  But I could roll with it because her instincts are mostly good and Leotta writes the hell out of this story.  It's firmly third person, but the author shifts character points-of-view to keep the proceedings lively and the pages turning.  Which is no small matter given that I pretty much had this mystery unraveled fairly early on as the author tips her hand way too early with those point-of-view shifts. 

Leotta lays out the challenges of prosecuting domestic violence in a compelling (and depressingly) realistic manner, structures a good sense of place around D.C. (I felt like I was THERE), and features a nicely diverse cast of law enforcement characters (there's an equal mix of white and black lawyers and cops).  No, it's not perfect - but it's an example of a book finding me in the right mood, at the right time.  I'll be reading the next book in the series.

Final Grade = B-

#TBRChallenge 2018: Cinderella's Wedding Wish

The Book: Cinderella's Wedding Wish by Jessica Hart

The Particulars: Contemporary romance, Harlequin Romance #4084, 2009, Out of Print, Available Digitally

Why Was It In Wendy's TBR?:  Hart is probably my most favorite author in the Harlequin Romance universe.  She's an autobuy.  This was one of her backlist titles I picked up when I "discovered" her with a later 2009 release.

The Review:  I like category romance for a lot of reasons, but it's hard to deny that it's a format that is laden with tropes.  So for this month's Favorite Trope theme, I decided to go into my Harlequin TBR and read the first book that caught my eye.  Lo and behold, this Jessica Hart was right on top and it's a Boss/Secretary book!  Yes, yes - I'm part of the problem.  I love Boss/Secretary books.  I know, I know!  Don't hate the player, hate the game.  Turns out though this really isn't a Boss/Secretary romance - it's more general office romance with some Cinderella and Fake Relationship tossed into the blender.

Miranda Fairchild is the plain middle child, while her two sisters are raving beauties.  Miranda left college to try to save the family business (a department store) but it was too late.  The damage was done, her father having ignored the signs of impending doom for far too long.  Her younger sister's answer to this little problem is to try to bag a rich husband (older sister is already married), while ever practical Miranda goes the old fashioned route.  Yeah, she finds a job.  The problem is her resume isn't all that impressive (the stored died on her watch after all), so she's working as a temp at the Knighton group and working evenings at a friend's catering business.

Rafe Knighton is an only child, a reformed bad boy that still managed to inherit the family business even though his father disapproved of him (ultimately though Daddy did leave him the company).  The problem is that even though he's "grown up," Rafe cannot shake his reputation.  It's while walking the halls of his company that he meets Miranda accosting an uncooperative copy machine (girl, I'm been there...) and he's taken with her.  Her temp assignment is almost up, and Rafe knows she's just the woman he needs....to help him find a wife.  He asks her to organize a charity gala to help him look for a potential spouse.  Someone intelligent, accomplished, and beautiful certainly wouldn't hurt.  He's ready to settle down and certainly a wife will convince everyone (the press, his own board of directors etc.) that he's no longer a "bad boy."

Eventually Rafe's plan to land a wife has him turning to Miranda to pose as a temporary/fake fiancee, but there's tap-dancing to get through first.  We all know what happens next, they soon learn there is more to the other one than meets the eye.

This is pretty much standard issue, right down to Miranda hiding behind an ill-fitting, less-than-flattering wardrobe.  While Miranda certainly stacks up with her sisters in the looks department, she never saw herself that way so...why even bother?  Rafe is drop-dead gorgeous but has never been given much credit in the brains department because of his reputation. 

This is a very pleasant, straight-forward and sweet romance.  There's one off-page sex scene and there's some nice chemistry between the main characters.  But this all sounds like damning with faint praise, doesn't it?  That's because it kind of is.  I hate to judge an author by previous (and future) work, but this one doesn't have the emotional gut-punch I've experienced with other books by Hart.  Don't get me wrong, it's nice.  It's a good, solid, romantic read.  But it didn't leave me swooning or weepy like a lot of her other books have.

But there's nothing wrong with straight-forward and honestly, this is not "bad."  It's a good, pleasant read that I tore through in a couple of sittings.  It's just nowhere near the best of what Hart can showcase in the Harlequin Romance format.  Good, but not a favorite and not the first book I would recommend to a newbie by this author.

Final Grade = B-

#TBRChallenge 2018: A Dime Novel Hero

The Book: A Dime Novel Hero by Maureen McKade

The Details: Historical western romance, Avon, 1998, Out of print, Available digitally

Why Was It In Wendy's TBR?:  It's a western and it's Maureen McKade.  I won't tell you how long it's been in my TBR though.  Years.  I'm not exaggerating...YEARS!

The Review:  For those of you keeping score at home, my reading of late has been the pits.  I mean, the literal pits.  So this month's Comfort Read theme for the TBR Challenge was just what the doctor ordered.  I opted for a historical western (a sub genre I love) and Maureen McKade - who has written some amazing books and some ho-hum meh books, but who has never delivered an outright stinker.  And boy howdy, I've read some steaming piles of you-know-what lately.  A Dime Novel Hero was her second published book and no, it's not perfect.  But it's competently, and compellingly, written and I sunk right into the story.  I read this in two sittings, practically gulping it down like a man near death from thirst.

Kit Thornton was a motherless pudgy little girl with spectacles whose father didn't have time for her and worse still, didn't "get" her.  She loves to read books, take care of injured stray animals, and needless to say is a favorite target for bullies.  Then one day wild Jake Cordell comes to her rescue and hero worship quickly turns to puppy love. 

Years later, Jake is working as a law clerk in Boston when he gets word his father, a prominent judge, is gunned down by an outlaw.  Never close with his father, his mother having abandoned him at a young age, Jake is determined to exact his revenge.  He saddles up as a bounty hunter and six years later has finally brought the killer to justice.  Now he's back home to claim the family ranch.  Except the family ranch is now owned by Kit Thornton.

Thanks to a stipulation in Jake's father's will, Kit was able to buy the ranch and she lives there with her two hired men (both of them "not white" - so that goes over just about as well as you'd expect with the "good townsfolk") and her adopted 5-year-old son.  The boy, Johnny, is Jake's.  A product of a relationship he had with a saloon girl who Kit nursed in her dying days.  But Johnny doesn't know that and neither does Jake.  And now he's back in town.  Further complicating Kit's life?  She borrowed money against the ranch to buy some horses, that loan is nearly due, and Kit doesn't have the money.  Oh, and did I mention she's the secret writer of dime novels starring Jake Cordell?  Yeah, those books have expounded on his reputation and needless to say Jake's not terribly pleased.

We all know where this is going.  Jake has done what he set out to do, which is find his father's killer.  However his relationship with his father was complicated and Jake has a lot of unresolved baggage.  Kit's books (which nobody knows Kit is the writer) have elevated Jake to this mythic-like hero, when he's really a flawed man.  A man that Kit has to pick up off a saloon floor and bail out of jail in the early chapters.  But Kit, bless her heart, can't help herself.  She's still rescuing strays and her feelings for Jake are complicated.  Now he wants to buy back his family ranch, doesn't know she wrote those novels about him, doesn't know he has a son, and doesn't know about her current financial straits.

There's a Sword of Damocles hanging over most of this story because both Jake and Kit are lying to each other by omission.  Kit's reasons are fairly easy to understand.  I don't necessarily like that she doesn't come clean about little Johnny straight away, but she has her reasons - most of them wrapped up around the mother's wishes and Jake's footloose track record.  Jake is one of those complicated romance heroes that runs hot and cold.  He's a good guy underneath everything, which is what Kit sees in him.  But man, there are times you want to slap him into next Tuesday.  Kit is so good, and so giving, and frankly he does her wrong (by omission - but still done wrong) in more than one instance in this story.

This is a romance, so naturally it all works out in the end and there are some really heady emotional scenes during The Black Moment that I actually felt a few tears leak out.  That said, this ain't perfect.  Kit is the sort who claims she doesn't care what people think of her, but the cruelty hurts her all the same.  She's the sort that if she were pregnant out of wedlock she wouldn't hide away for 9 months, and yet everyone in town just assumes Johnny is biologically hers. This is a plot hole the author never explains. The conflict hinges on several Big Secrets and in the end the fact that Kit is the author of the dime novels is dashed off as an afterthought, which is a sign (in my opinion) that there were too many elements being juggled at once.

There's also a few elements that some readers may find upsetting that I feel like need to be mentioned in a minor spoiler sort of way.  One of Kit's hired men is black, and the n-word is dropped during one scene by a villainous character who just got done beating up Kit's other hired man, who is half-Pawnee.  There's a near rape of the heroine (because of course there is - this is a 20-year-old historical after all) and over the course of the story a horse has to be put down. 

But in the end, even with the faults and nit-picks, I really fell right into the story.  It's well-written (nit-picks aside), I was invested in the characters, and easily kept swiping left to read the next page.  It's nowhere near my favorites by McKade, but it was a pleasant, memorable read that found me in the nick of time.  As my reading of late has showcased, I definitely could have done worse.

Final Grade = B-

#TBRChallenge 2018: The Courage To Say Yes

The Book: The Courage To Say Yes by Barbara Wallace

The Particulars: Contemporary romance, Harlequin Romance #4390, 2013, Available Digitally

Why Was It In Wendy's TBR?: Wallace is basically an autobuy in the Romance line.  But an added mystery with this book - I had both a print copy and a digital copy in my TBR.  Because apparently one copy wasn't enough?  My guess is I snagged the print at a conference without realizing I already owned it in e.

The Review: This is an interesting book and I'm still trying to wrap my brain around how "successful" I think it is.  But I enjoyed this, and I thought the author does a wonderful job of juxtaposing the emotional baggage between the romantic couple, so I'm counting this one largely as a win.

Hunter Smith is a photographer who travels the globe documenting political hot spots.  He's home in New York City, in between assignments, eating breakfast at the same greasy spoon diner every day and should be working to hire a new assistant.  Instead, this man who spends his entire life not inserting himself into "the story," who instead chooses to stand outside to document "the story," finds himself playing white knight to a damsel in distress.

Abby Gray left her abusive POS boyfriend 6 months ago.  She's living in a women's shelter and is working the only job she could find - as a waitress in a crappy diner.  And she's not a very good waitress.  She thought Warren was gone for good, but instead he turns up at the diner, grabs her wrist hard enough to leave bruises, and before she can diffuse the situation, her hunky regular customer intervenes.  Much to her horror. Abby doesn't need or want pity.  She got herself into her current mess, she's going to figure out a way to get out of it.

The trajectory that follows is pretty straight-forward.  Hunter can't leave well enough alone, feels guilty when Abby's asshole boss fires her, and offers her the vacant position of being his assistant.  His last assistant basically said that what Hunter really wanted was a housekeeper, and Abby, with no marketable skills (she hitched her wagon to the abusive ex at a young age) can't say no.  She needs the job - and cleaning house for Hunter, helping him organize his life, is something she is qualified to do.

The abusive ex angle is the conflict in the story that I'm not entirely sure the author pulls off to satisfaction, and a lot of this has to do with timing.  Gun violence and the domestic violence history of men who perpetuate gun violence are in the news a lot right now - it's hard to set that aside, especially since Warren is portrayed as "a bully."  Once Abby stands up to him, he basically slinks off into the sunset once he realizes she cannot be pushed around anymore.  This is a nice idea, but one that rarely plays out in real life.  I don't want to say Wallace writes this as "easy" - but the reality is that women escaping these types of situations aren't always so lucky.  I don't think the author minimizes the conflict, but I also think it's a conflict that's hard to do justice in the category format.

Now, that being said, where this book really shines is in the character growth and development.  You have a hero who has spent his life always on the outside, putting a barrier between himself and anything resembling feelings.  The camera serves as a wall between him and the outside world.  Getting close is not an option.  Then you have a heroine escaping an abusive relationship, who has been beat down and belittled her entire life - first by a stepfather, then by a boyfriend.  She, too, is closed off emotionally in many ways, distant and scared - and really?  Who could blame her?  But that's not even the best part - this isn't a traditional Rescue Fantasy.  Not really.  The heroine realizes fairly quickly she's "safe" with Hunter - so there's this great push-pull dynamic to their interactions, right from the get-go.

It's how these two characters bounce off each other that makes for interesting reading.  They're not really that different, have more in common than they first realize, and help each other grow over the course of the story.  Even better?  Wallace doesn't try to do too much with the ending.  It's a bit more than "happy for now" - but it's also not a "let's get married and start working on getting you pregnant with triplets" ending either.  Thank the sweet baby Jeebus.

I've read a number of books by Wallace and while this isn't a favorite, it's still pretty darn good.  There's some interesting things on the page here and it was time well spent on a lazy Sunday afternoon.

Final Grade = B

#TBRChallenge 2018: Satin and Silver

The Book: Satin and Silver by Jane Archer

The Particulars: Historical western romance, Signet, 1986, Out of print, Not available in digital.

Why Was It In Wendy's TBR?: I found this in a Las Vegas used bookstore and became entranced by the female cover model.  That dress! That choker!  HER HAIR!!  I mean, the dude appears to be drooling on her boobs but LOOK AT HER!  So yes, against my better judgment I bought this.  I mean, how could I not?

The Review: The Bodice Ripper Era in romance isn't all that different from today's genre.  There were good books.  There were bad books.  And then there was a whole lot of meh in between.  This book mostly stays in the meh territory with occasional trips into problematic territories that one kind of expects from this era of romance.  Unfortunately there's little WTF-ery to make this a truly memorable read in the sort of train-wreck vein - so for most of this I was largely bored.  Mores the pity.

Shenandoah Davis (seriously) is in Tombstone, Arizona (because of course she is) working her charms as a gambler and waiting for her uncle (who is in Leadville - because of course he is) to send for her.  All it would take is a mention of Dodge City for the author to hit Bodice Ripper Western Bingo.  Anyway, after the war options were limited for Shenandoah, so her uncle brought her out west and taught her a trade.  But never fear, our girl may work in saloons, but she's still a virgin because....1986.

Rogue Rogan (seriously) has just arrived in Tombstone, sent by "Fast Ed" Davis (yes, the uncle) to collect his niece and escort her back to Leadville.  Rogue doesn't want to dilly-dally for long since he needs to get back to the mine he owns with Uncle Fast Ed, get together some capital, and head back to his inherited silver mines in Silver City, New Mexico before his dastardly cousin, Blackie (seriously), finds the motherlode.  But turns out Shenandoah won't leave until her baby half-sister, Arabella, arrives from Philadelphia, and wouldn't you know it?  Her stagecoach was robbed and she was kidnapped.  It's 1883, why the chit wasn't taking the train I have no idea - but whatever.  Ours is not to reason why.  So before she agrees to go anywhere with him, Rogue agrees to go along with her to rescue Arabella...for a price.  Basically Shenandoah will be indebted to him and he'll name his price "later."  Because 1986 and jackass heroes y'all!

If there had been any hint of mining anywhere in the purple-y back cover blurb I would have left this book in Vegas, stunning female cover model aside.  Wendy's first rule of historical westerns: any one that mentions a mine tends to be a stinker.  I know, I don't get it either - but every single one I've read, I've slogged through or intensely disliked.  There's also the problem with this being three books in one.  You've got the Arabella rescue, the Leadville prelude, and then the mad dash at the end of the book (after 460+ pages) in Silver City where the author brings all the players together for a final, rushed showdown.

When the "romance" isn't insta-lust, it's sex scenes with dubious consent.  In fact the first "love scene" happens after the hero gets insanely jealous seeing Shenandoah with one of the villains (suffering from a punishing embrace that he takes to mean she's totally compliant!  Because OF COURSE!) and only stops just short of forcing himself on her after she turns all willing like a lust-filled jelly donut.  He gets jealous a lot.  She gets jealous a lot.  And they have lots of angry-like sex with punishing kisses because OMG they can't keep their hands off each other!  Because OF COURSE!

Just in case you don't realize how desirable Shenandoah is - every single male character in this book (except her uncle because...eww), wants to have sex with her - consensual or not.  Really, it doesn't matter.  Men turn into mindless rutting zombies when Shenandoah walks into a room.

Arabella's characterization is also rather insulting - given that she goes from proper eastern-bred lady to self-loathing Stockholm Syndrome sufferer who keeps flailing herself on the rocks no matter how understanding her uncle and sister are.  But don't worry - she miraculously sees the light just in time at the end to save the day (because OF COURSE!).  And falls in love with a guy named Cougar (seriously).

There's not even a heaping pile of one tragedy after another with a side of WTF-ery to keep me going.  No avalanches or earthquakes or marauding pirates who kidnap the heroine to a Caribbean island.  I mean, really?  What kind of Old School romance is this?

Anyway, I wouldn't recommend this.  When it's not dull as dishwater, it seems to only feature the most annoying of the Old School Romance tropes.  I do love this cover (do you think that dress could work at the office?  Asking for a friend....), but that's pretty much all this has going for it.

Final Grade = D-

#TBRChallenge 2018: Hotbed

The Book: Hotbed by Portia Da Costa

The Particulars: Contemporary erotica, Black Lace, 2002, In Print

Why Was It In Wendy's TBR?:  Before the term "erotic romance" was coined, there were only a few select authors in Romancelandia pushing those sexual boundaries.  Which means if you wanted to get your kicks, you went across the pond to the Virgin Publishing imprint, Black Lace.  The majority of what they were publishing was erotica, but there were a few authors who specialized in happy endings, albeit "not traditional" ones.  After discovering Emma Holly through her 2002 Berkley historical romance, Beyond Seduction, I was on a mission to find her Black Lace titles and discovered other authors along the way, including Da Costa.

The Review: It's been a while since I've read a Black Lace novel and it's going to take me a few days to recover.  I have no idea how I'm going to review this or how I'm going to assign a grade to it - but let's get this party started and see where we end up, shall we?

First things first, this is erotica.  It's not erotica with a tinge of romance, it's not erotic romance - no, it's foot to the floor, fast and furious, erotica.  In recent years Da Costa's writing interests have taken her firmly into erotic romance territory (and hot vanilla at that), but she got her start writing erotica and this is most definitely from her erotica period.  Repeat after me: This. Is. Erotica. Not. Erotic. Romance.

Natalie is slowly getting pushed out of her magazine job in London and decides to head back to the quaint English village where she grew up and where her half-sister Patti still lives.  But this isn't a visit to see her sister, not really.  No, there's a shady politician, one of those Moral Majority-types, who is rumored to have his sticky fingers in a lot of pies.  In a bid to jump-start her flagging career, she's looking to do a bit of muckracking.  What she finds instead is a whole lot of sexual shenanigans.  Good Lord, the shenanigans!  In her tiny, dull hometown?!  Who woulda thunk it?

Sure, Natalie is living in cosmopolitan London - but it's Patti who is having all the fun, with a hunky window-washer roommate, a drag queen, and various other participants at said drag queen's BDSM club.  Because, of course!  This drag queen, with the EPIC name of Stella Fontayne, is basically the puppet master in the story - pulling various strings, manipulating everybody to basically amuse themselves. (Gender identity and pronouns aren't discussed but reading in between the lines, Stella struck me as bisexual with a fluid gender identity).

It's not long before Natalie, hot on the trail of the politician, is getting distracted by her hormones.  There are men.  Many men.  There is humiliation and BDSM and, you know, the whole half-sister thing.

And that's how you know this is erotica.  A big deal is made over them being half-sisters (because that somehow makes this less squirky?!) - but eventually there's several instances of voyeurism and a scene at the end where they speed right across that line.  Also there are some dubious consent issues at play here.  Characters are coaxed into things they're not completely comfortable with from the start.  They end up having the best orgasms of their lives, but it doesn't make the consent issues any less squishy.

Go ahead, think less of me - but I still read this book with a kind of morbid fascination that's hard for me to describe.  This is erotica and I compartmentalize erotica completely different from romance.  I, personally, don't have to be "turned on" by what the characters are doing to read and/or enjoy the story - and ultimately getting "turned on" is not why I read erotica. I'm into erotica, predominantly, for heroines who aren't persecuted for being sexual beings and to be "challenged."  Challenging erotica, for me, involves taboo, how the author addresses those taboos, and how the characters operate in the world they inhabit.  Certainly there are things I do not want to read about - and I think any erotica reader will tell you that.  So yes, even as wrong as half-sisters are?  I read this.  Go ahead.  Judge me.

As if the incest weren't enough, other problematic elements rear their ugly head with the ending, when I felt like Natalie morally and ethically sells out. Also, the Stella character.  I mean, I'm glad Natalie is having a grand ol' time, but Stella is a manipulator.  I don't expect a happy ending in my erotica but I do like the heroine to be "in a better spot" at the end - and I didn't get that here.  Stella will continue to manipulate and Natalie sells out. 

I'm going to cop-out and assign this an average C grade.  It's erotica.  It's problematic.  But that's exactly what I want from my erotica - for it to be problematic.  But I can't think of who I would recommend this to (dear Lord, no one!) and as much as I love some of Da Costa's work (and I do!) this one is strictly for fans - those curious to read her entire backlist and follow her evolution as a writer.  Now I'm off to have a glass or two (or three) of whiskey.

Final Grade = C

#TBRChallenge 2018: Sweet Lullaby

The Book: Sweet Lullaby by Lorraine Heath

The Particulars: Historical western romance, Berkley Diamond Books Homespun, 1994, Out of print.  Available in digital edition, Harpercollins Avon, 2010

Why Was It In Wendy's TBR?:  It's a Lorraine Heath western and a beloved book for many in Romancelandia.  I tracked down a print copy pre-ebook days and paid the exorbitant price of $6.50 for a pristine used copy.  Because that's what us old farts had to do back in the pre-ebook days.

The Review: It's been a long time since Wendy hated on a classic romance beloved by Romancelandia - yet, here we are.  Although "hate" is probably too strong a word.  To get this party started let me just say that this was Lorraine Heath's debut novel and it finalled for a RITA.  That bit about this being her debut?  That's important.  I'm come back to it in a moment.

Rebecca Anderson is the only child of a prosperous Kentucky rancher and Daddy has been grooming her to take over the family business.  Then the fool girl makes the mistake of falling in love with one of the men and getting pregnant.  This is how naive our girl is - when she tells her father about the baby she's blindsided by his less-than-thrilled reaction.  Anyway, the Baby Daddy has taken off for parts unknown before Rebecca even knows she's pregnant and he made no promises or gave any indications when or if he would return for her.  Daddy sees only one option.  She's going to have to marry someone else and Jake Burnett is the man for the job.

Jake has loved Rebecca since he first laid eyes on her and while they are friends, this love is totally unrequited.  But given her limited options and with Jake having land in Texas that they can settle on, a shotgun wedding is planned and over with before we even hit page 50.

After I finished the first two chapters I immediately went to check the author's web site.  This is the same author who wrote the Texas trilogy and Always to Remember?  Yes it is - and that's how I verified that this was her debut.  Guys, it totally reads like a debut.  You know what else it reads like?  Like the author wanted this to be a saga.  A 600-800 page historical saga with a long-winding romance arc but she ended up selling it to Berkley who told her to chop out half the word count.  The character development is flat.  We're TOLD Jake has unrequited feelings for Rebecca.  We're TOLD they're friends.  But there's no foundation laid.  Other than Jake being the Beta-iest Hero to Ever Beta, I'm not sure WHY he loved Rebecca so fiercely.  The pacing also felt "off."  There's too much time spent on secondary characters for a book that's less than 300 pages (in my opinion) and there's a mad dash to the finish line that felt positively frantic.

Things do get better the further along in the story we go, but these characters never feel fully realized until towards the very end of the book, and that's when more problems come into play.  Namely, Rebecca.  Man, is this girl a problem.

I liked her at first, I really did.  She has gumption.  She knows her own mind.  She sticks up for herself and for Jake.  But, as you can probably guess, her past comes back to haunt her towards the final third of the book and that was when she was dead to me.  You know how we like to talk about romance heroes who need to grovel?  The kind of heroes you want to have to crawl over broken glass to atone for how dismally they treat the heroine?  Well, never let it be said that I'm not equal opportunity because Rebecca's actions during this portion of the book had me shaking my head in disgust. 

Original cover. Isn't it horrid?

Now, Jake?  He's one of your standard Too Good To Be True heroes.  The only thing (and I mean ONLY) thing saving this guy from being a hopeless Gary Stu is that the author gives him a back story to explain his lack of backbone.  Frankly, given Rebecca's actions in the latter half of this story I was left firmly believing that he was WAY too good for her and was hoping against hope he'd fall in love with a woman who truly deserves him (for those of you who have read this - I had my eye on Velvet The Prostitute for that role).

I was all set to slap this with a C grade, mostly because of the flat writing and lack of character development.  But then the conflict that spurs the reader towards The Black Moment comes into play and it left a sour taste in my mouth.  I'll be honest - this final grade is probably a little harsh.  I've read way worse and maybe if I had read this book earlier in my romance reading life I would have loved it.  But I didn't and I didn't and here's where we're at. 

Final Grade = D+

#TBRChallenge 2018: Flower in the Desert

The Book: Flower in the Desert by Lavender Parker

The Particulars: Hot Contemporary Romantic Suspense, Novella, 2014, Digital-Only

Why Was It In Wendy's TBR?: Oh, it's probably been a couple of years now, but a bunch of bloggers did a read-along, book-club-like thingy with this novella.  What ended up tipping me over the edge though was that author Jill Sorenson liked it.  Jill is one of a handful of authors that when she recommends something, I tend to like it.  Plus it was reasonably priced to the point where I had no qualms about taking a chance on an unknown-to-me author.

The Review: I try to concentrate on my print TBR for the Challenge but after DNF'ing three Harlequins in a row, I felt like my print TBR could no longer be trusted.  So I went to my Kindle and dug up this novella.  Which, like all things in my TBR, I meant to read ages ago.

Ruby Lucas is having a really bad day.  She regains consciousness to discover she's trapped in the trunk of a car.  She's boiling hot, thirsty, and disoriented.  She's a romance heroine, so naturally she gets herself free only to discover she was locked in the trunk of her car and driven out to the middle of the Grand Canyon.  Oh, and whomever tried to kill her took her car keys.  Because, of course.

Ruby's ex-husband has reported her missing.  Since Ruby lives in Las Vegas and she disappeared in the Grand Canyon - the FBI is on the case.  They end up calling in Jase Rivers, a civilian contractor and experienced tracker who knows the area like the back of his hand.  He takes one look at Ruby's photograph and is a goner.  Given the details of the case he firmly believes she's dead and he's being brought in to recover a body and make a case for murder (likely against her ex-husband because that dude just smells wrong).  Imagine his surprise when he finds her alive.  Barely.  But she's alive.

First things first, I was expecting a darker story, but this is pretty much straight-up hot contemporary.  The sex is what I would classify as "what erotic romance read like 10 years ago" which is to say what people are calling "hot contemporary" these days (Cripes, I'm feeling old).  Anyway, I really liked both of these characters.  Ruby is like your best friend, or the woman you don't mind seeing at play dates (she has two young children with her ex).  Jase is your standard loner hero, and with a huge sigh of relief, even though he is part-Native American, there's none of the mystical noble savage mumbo jumbo that has plagued Native romance heroes for too many years to count.  Once they're out of the Grand Canyon the main driving conflict is their difference in lifestyles.  Ruby lives in Las Vegas (and likes it) and Jase is a loner who prefers to live in the middle of nowhere (literally).

Where this story doesn't quite work is when you start squinting in between the lines.  When Jase sets out to find Ruby he's carrying an FBI issued radio.  When he finds Ruby does he use said radio to alert them he's found her?  No, of course not.  Yes, Ruby is near death and he's dealing with that - but a quick "Hey I found her, we're at these coordinates" doesn't seem like it would take that much effort and/or time.  OK, it is raining rather hard when he finds her so maybe the signal is crap.  But we'll never know because our hero doesn't even bother to check.  He doesn't think about the radio in his backpack until, naturally, "something happens" to where he loses said radio and they're stranded with limited supplies and no immediate help on the horizon.

Does it juice some more suspense into the narrative?  Yes.  Does the hero come off looking incompetent when he's supposedly "an experience tracker?"  Yes.

Also, a reminder to those reading this post that I like short reads.  After all, I'm the girl who can't say no to a Harlequin.  But I feel like the author tried to do a little too much with this story in a novella format.  Ruby is abducted, rescued from the Grand Canyon, the Bad Guy is caught, there's a trial, there's some totally reasonable drama with her kids, and oh yeah....THERE'S A ROMANCE!  There's leaps ahead in time, and a healthy amount of Insta-Lust/Insta-Love.  I kind of wonder what this story could have been had the author fleshed it out to single title length.  I think it could have been a really great survival romance with lots of action-packed twists and turns. 

As it is?  I liked this but wasn't wow'ed by it.  It's a good, solid read and it kept me engaged - which after DNF'ing my first three attempts for this Challenge is a minor miracle.  I feel like this is hovering somewhere between a high C+ and a low B- and well, I like to round up.

Final Grade = B-

All Aboard! #TBRChallenge 2018 Sign-Up

Of course I didn't forget.  It's that time again Bat Cave and Romancelandia residents!  Time to look ahead to the new year, when hope will (hopefully) spring eternal and we begin making big plans to finally (ha ha ha!) conquer our To-Be-Read piles mountain ranges.  It's time to sign up for the the 2018 #TBRChallenge!

I've decided to make some changes this year in the hopes that more casual followers of the Challenge will join in on the fun.  There's, technically, no official sign-up this year.  Wha?!?!  That's right.

• If you're on social media all you need to do is use the #TBRChallenge hashtag.  
• You can use this hashtag on any day, at any time - but we're still going to concentrate on the 3rd Wednesday of every month to kick our commentary into high gear.  
• The idea is to have at least one day a month where we can always count on there being book chatter.

Participation can happen across all social media platforms and your participation can vary month to month (hey, life happens).  This all being said, if you're like me and plan to have the bulk of your commentary live on a blog please "officially" sign-up by leaving me a comment and a link to your blog.

Why?  Let's get real for a moment.  Blogs are dying and Wendy loves blogs.  So if you are a dinosaur, like me, and still have a blog, I'd like to promote it even if it's in this small way.  I'll provide a link to your blog on the #TBRChallenge 2018 Information Page and hopefully readers will follow you, like what they see, and become new blog followers.

Sound good?  Of course it does!  So what are the themes for 2018?  So glad you asked!

January 17 - We Love Short Shorts! (shorter reads)
February 21 - Backlist Glom (author with multiple books in your TBR)
March 21 - Sugar or Spice (closed door romance or spicy romance)
April 18 - Kicking It Old School (original publication date older than 10 years)
May 16 - Contemporary
June 20 - Comfort Read
July 18 - Favorite Trope
August 15 - Series (book that's part of a series)
September 19 - Historical
October 17 - Paranormal or Romantic Suspense
November 21 - Cover Girl (a book with a pretty cover - or a horrid one)
December 19 - Holiday (any holiday!)

As always, the themes are optional.  Don't like 'em, don't have to use them.  See how easy this is?  I mean really, how could you not want to join in on the fun?