Wendy Fails At Fangirl

Keishon's TBR Challenge is coming up next week, and in preparation for it, I thought it would be fun to read one of the few Maggie Osborne novels I still have buried in my TBR. For those of you new around here, I lurve me some Maggie Osborne. I have four books by her in the Bat Cave Keeper Stash, and even two other books that I wasn't wild about (for the record: Shotgun Wedding and A Stranger's Wife) still had enough juice for me to not only read them all the way through, but they also "stuck" with me for a while. Well, the unthinkable happened yesterday. The unimaginable. A sure sign of the apocalypse if ever there was one....

I DNF'ed a Maggie Osborne novel.

The book in question is Silver Lining, and yes, I know this lands me in the minority. Azteclady loved this book. It got a very favorable review over at TRR. AAR gave it a B. Even Mrs. Giggles slapped it with a rating of 76. Out of all of these examples, I find myself agreeing a lot with what Mrs. G and AAR (Blythe handled the reviewing duties here) had to say. But, let me explain for myself....

The story opens with the heroine nursing a mining camp through a raging case of the pox. She's had it before, and has heard you "can't get it twice" - therefore sticks around to play nursemaid. The camp has gone from boom to bust thanks to the epidemic, so when the men recover they're downright grateful to her. They offer her anything her heart desires and in a moment of rashness she blurts out that she wants a baby. Not some poor little orphan child but her own baby.

I've long said that in order to keep from going insane, authors really shouldn't "think" of readers while writing a book. Frankly no book in universally loved, you can't please everybody, and authors should just concentrate on writing the best book that they can. In the romance world, I think all the author really needs to do is deliver the happy ending. Readers are going to bring their own personal baggage into any book they read, and authors have no control over that - so why should they make themselves crazy over it?

The whole "No thank you, I want my own baby" scenario is one that bugs me. I have friends who were adopted. I have friends who have adopted. My own niece is adopted. I have baggage. Loads of it. Does my family love my niece any less because she didn't go swimming around in our gene pool? Absolutely frickin' not! We love her just as much as my nephew (a product of said gene pool). She's smart. She's cute. She loves to read. That kid is the bee's knees. Do my friends with adopted children love them any less? Absolutely frickin' not! I think I can safely say that each and every one of them would lay down and die for their children. Period. They would do anything to protect them. Period. So yeah, baggage.

Moving on, the heroine doesn't want a husband, she just wants the baby. But the preacher can't abide with fornication so the hero, despite being engaged, draws the short straw and is forcibly wed to the heroine. Here's the thing. Heroine doesn't want a husband. Hero doesn't want to marry heroine. Yet they still stand before the preacher and say "I Do." Huh? Is it just me, or does this make no sense? They're adults. Nobody is pointing a gun at them. Why not just say, "I don't" and walk away? Oh yeah, because then we'd have no novel.

Anyway, then of course the hero takes the heroine back to his parents' ranch and the heroine gets a warm reception. Then the chick the hero was supposed to marry shows up and complications ensue. Chick #2 (or maybe she's #1 since she was engaged to the hero after all) assumes The Evil Other Woman role and that's where I completely lose interest. The older I get, the less patience I have for The Evil Other Woman trope. Plus it begs the question, what the heck did the hero see in that chick to begin with if she's so frackin' vile? It doesn't say a whole lot for his intelligence now, does it?

And that, as they say, was that. I skipped ahead to the final few chapters, skimmed those, and called it a day. So....

Final Grade = DNF

A Maggie Osborne book. Sigh. I never thought this day would come. In the meantime, I've yanked another book out my TBR to meet Keishon's challenge. Hopefully I'll have better luck with it.

I Could Never Be Your Woman

I'll be blunt. Nothing frosts my buns more than the fact that many heathen secular publishing imprints have outright abandoned the western romance, yet the setting flourishes in the inspirational/Christian market place. Now, I'm a librarian. I have absolutely nothing against inspirational romance. At all. But it makes absolutely no sense to me that the setting is selling so frickin' well to the Christian reading masses and not to heathen secular readers. I have my theories on where to lay blame, but I need to stop ranting and get on with this review.

When I read inspirational romances, I tend to stick with authors who used to (or still do in some cases) write for the secular market. I figure the odds are better for me not getting preached at. And for the most part, with this first book in her Irish Angel series, Jill Marie Landis does a good job of not beating me over the head with the God stick.

Heart Of Stone tells the story of Laura Foster, a woman desperate to hide the tragedy and scandal of her past. Robbed of her childhood, and separated from her three sisters, Laura has settled in Glory, Texas, where she runs a boardinghouse (women and families only thankyouverymuch) and is passing herself off as a wealthy widow. The problem is that Laura is one fine bit of muslin. Even if single women weren't scarce, she's the sort of gal that garners attention. She's gotten quite a reputation for turning down marriage proposals, but for some reason that doesn't stop Reverend Brand McCormick from calling on her. Laura knows she has to turn him away. For her own sanity and for his own reputation. If her secret ever got out, he would be ruined in town, and the man is not only a reverend, but has two small children to think of.

The central theme of this story is forgiveness. It's a wise move on the author's part, because the concept of forgiveness is not solely a Christian one. I don't care who you are or what you believe, all of us have something in our pasts that we're not proud of. All of us have felt shame at one time or another. Here the author runs with that theme, illustrating that through faith, many people do find the forgiveness and freedom from guilt that they so desperately want and need. Also, it helps tremendously that the author doesn't heave all this on the heroine's shoulders. Brand isn't exactly squeaky clean either. He found God after surviving the Civil War, and has worked hard to change his life, live by Christian principles, and raise his two children after his wife dies. He's a good man. A strong man. And just the sort of man that Laura needs.

The "God Stuff" is actually fairly subtle for most of the book. Brand's a preacher, so obviously there are moments where he is in reflection or prayer - but it's never heavy-handed or overly preachy. I never felt like the author was trying to convert me. That being said, the "God Stuff" does get more pronounced at the end, and also a tinch annoying since the theme of forgiveness is extended to Laura seeking it. Color me crazy, but I felt the woman had nothing to apologize for. Period. What happened to her started when she was but a child, and as she grew to adulthood, she took one of the extremely few options available to her to build a new life for herself. Of course, we're talking 19th century America here. It's not exactly a shock, or historical inaccurate, that women with Laura's past were often wrongly "blamed" for it. Heck, that crap (sadly and all too often) still goes on today.

The writing here is crisp and straight-forward, although on occasion some "telling" creeps in (over "showing") and the author takes a moment to Series-Info-Dump in the second chapter (while the start of a new series, this book is loosely connected to two previous releases). Also, there were moments where I wanted more of Laura's and Brand's past to be explored, but I'm not sure how well such sordid details would play to the inspirational reading crowd. I'm a bit of a tragic angst junkie in romances, and I couldn't help but want the author to dig a little deeper below the surface.

For readers looking for a tender and sweet romance, this is one I can easily recommend. I know countless readers who have turned to inspirationals not because of the Christian message, but because they're looking for "cleaner" reads. If you're such a reader, Heart Of Stone is a book that should scratch that itch. The "God Stuff" isn't too terribly heavy (granted, I realize this is subjective as heck), and the premise of the series (four sisters separated by tragedy) is certainly compelling. I know I'm anxiously awaiting the rest of the series.

Final Grade = B

Contest Alert! I'm giving away a copy of Heart Of Stone! Sorry folks, this one is only open to U.S. and Canadian peeps, and the winner will be chosen randomly from comments left on this blog post. Contest will end on Wednesday, March 17.

Wide Open Spaces

In my desperation to convey to publishers that I want more American-set historicals, I buy everything that is published (and sounds "good") brand spankin' new. Especially when the publisher "takes a chance" on a debut author writing in that setting. When I first heard that Berkley was publishing Pieces Of Sky by Kaki Warner in trade paperback, I wasn't all that happy about it. It's hard enough getting readers to try a western, let's make it doubly hard by making them more expensive! However, after reading this debut novel, the first in a trilogy, I think it was a sound decision. But more on that in a minute.

Jessica Thornton has fled England under the weight of a terrible secret. With no one else to turn to, she makes the journey to America, in hopes of finding her brother, whose last known whereabouts were New Mexico. Life in a sheltered English country village certainly hasn't prepared her for the Southwest. The country is unforgiving, the heat is unbearable, travel is arduous, and everybody is so uncouth. Tops on the uncouth list is cowboy Brady Wilkins. The man is positively insufferable!

Brady ran into some trouble on his way back to his ranch, which is how he meets up with the stagecoach. He immediately takes delight in ruffling Jessica's feathers. Granted they don't see a lot of females out at their spread, but she's so unlike any woman he's ever met before. Then circumstances end up throwing them together, and they find themselves spending a lot more time together. Brady also learns that an old enemy, tied to a blood feud involving his ranch, is once again on the prowl, and this time he is desperate to do what he failed at last time. Namely, protect everything and everyone he holds dear.

I'll be brutally honest. When I'm reading westerns, I like my characters to be well...American. The English society miss in Big Bad America has never been a trope that has worked for me. So color me incredibly shocked that it works for me, and in a big way, here. By far and away the best part of this story is watching Jessica's transformation. The past she is running from is horrific, and while she starts out too-prissy-to-live, how she battles, thrives, and makes her way through the harsh New Mexican landscape is really wonderful reading. I adored this girl.

Brady is a stoic, Alpha western hero. A man tied to his land out of love and loyalty. A man who has essentially given up having his own life in the name of guilt and obligation. Determined to protect his brothers and employees, and still carrying the weight of a blood feud started by his idiot father, this is a man haunted by his past and not really living in the present.

However, it's not perfect.

The problem with this story is that it wants to be Lonesome Dove, and it's never given the chance. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that the author has an earlier manuscript of this story stuffed in a desk drawer somewhere that's at least 200 pages longer. There's quite a bit (most of it involving the ranch feud) that takes place "off page" and at times I thought it undercut the conflict. That being said, I can't think of a single publisher or editor with enough cojones these days to publish a 600+ page romance novel. Sorry, they just don't exist (Diana Gabaldon, in my ever so humble opinion, does not write romance). So for this book to have been as long as it probably should have been, Warner would have to have taken a hacksaw through the happy ending and gone the "historical fiction" route.

Which she didn't. Bless her heart.

I do think this could be a Gateway Western for those historical romance readers who think they hate them. Jessica being English certainly helps. Also, this story has a great saga-like feel to it that hearkens back to the earlier days of the genre. That being said, also like the early days of the genre, this book is, at times, quite brutal. Brady makes choices I suspect many readers will take issue with, although I personally feel the author does a good job of explaining these choices. When a bitter, pointless (aren't they all?) feud encompasses your entire adult life, it's hard to not have that color your judgment. Also, while this is a romance novel, and we do get a happy ending, this is definitely an instance of where "bad things happen to good people." It's not all sunshine and roses for our characters. Period.

The ending is a little problematic, mostly because Brady is a moron - but Jessica saves the day by calling a spade a spade - or in this instance telling Brady he's an idiot. I love it when heroines stand up for themselves and Jessica does so here. Not everything is resolved in a completely satisfactory manner however. Jessica's brother is never really addressed, and something happens to one of the villains at the end that I personally felt was a bit of a letdown.

At the end of the day though, this is a good, solid debut historical, and bully for all of us that it's a western. I think it has massive crossover potential - in large part thanks to the trade paperback format (which plays very well in book club and historical fiction circles), breathtaking cover art, and the saga-like quality to the story. At its heart though, this is a romance novel. Make no mistake.

Final Grade = B-

Contest Alert! I'm giving away one copy of Pieces Of Sky! Contest is open to international (non-U.S.) readers, and will be chosen randomly from comments left on this blog post. Contest ends Sunday, March 14. Many thanks to Nancy Coffey Literary & Media Representation for providing a copy for this giveaway.

The Month That Was February 2010

It's that time again. Time to do some housekeeping and recap what I read the previous month. I actually had a very solid February and finished 10 books. Of course, before I go patting myself on the back, I should probably disclose that 4 of those reads were actually short stories. I'm seriously backlogged on my Harlequin reviews for TGTBTU, so to make it up to Sybil, and to clean out my Sony Reader at a good clip, I zipped through those short stories during the last week of the month. Here's how it all breaks down. Title links will take you to full reviews, although most of the TGTBTU ones are still forthcoming.

Hasta La Vista Lola by Misa Ramierz - Mystery, Chick Lit, Contemporary, 2010, Grade = B-

• This a quick fun read that kept me entertained despite some quibbles. Decent sexual tension, a myriad of secondary characters, but I could have used a much tighter focus on the mystery plot. It didn't light my world on fire, but a solid read.
  

Holding Out For A Hero by HelenKay Dimon - Contemporary Romance, Some Suspense, 2009, Grade = B+

• Almost (keep working down this list) my best read of the month. Great hero (yummers!), and a heroine who grew on me once she stopped being stubborn. Great sexual tension with plenty of sizzle, blended in with a darker suspense sub plot. Have immediate plans to read more books by Dimon. Why oh why did I wait so long?
  

50 Ways To Hex Your Lover by Linda Wisdom - Light Paranormal Romance, 2008, Grade = C

• Funny Ha-Ha paranormal romance is normally not my scene, but this book was fairly entertaining. Saucy witch heroine, sexy vampire hero, and a uber-creepy villain. However, I found the pacing of this book to be extremely problematic. If you're a fan of light paranormals, I'd recommend checking this one out.
  

Wild Oats by Pamela Morsi - Historical Romance, Americana, Early 20th Century, 1993, TBR Challenge, Grade = A-

• Sorry Ms. Dimon, but this was my best read of the month. Pulled out of the depths of my TBR for Keishon's TBR Challenge, our hero is the local, and single, mortician who has an itch to scratch, but doesn't want to get married just yet. So he propositions the heroine, a scandalous divorced woman, and what follows is a tender courtship. A lovely story.
  

Goddess Of The Hunt by Tessa Dare - Historical Romance, Regency England, 2009, Grade = B

• A young (read: immature) heroine who fancies herself in love with one of her brother's best friends and finds herself getting distracted by best friend #2 - our hero. A stoic, aloof, borderline chilly hero, with a soft marshmallow interior and a heroine who is fresh and vibrant once she gets past her puppy love infatuation.
  

What The Librarian Did by Karina Bliss - Contemporary Romance, Harlequin SuperRomance, 2010, Grade = B

• Academic librarian heroine falls in love with retired rock star hero, who has gone back to college after quitting his band and a stint in rehab. He gets off at ruffling her feathers and she's got a Big Secret from her past that's lurking around the corner. An enjoyable read, although at times I felt the heroine's secret past overshadowed the romance. Also, after a while it got a little old that these two kept jumping to conclusions about each other. I didn't lurve it beyond all reason, but dang - a really solid HSR read and Bliss is on the category autobuy list now.
  

Erotique: Carrie by Susan Lyons - Erotic Romance, Short Story, Spice Briefs, ebook, 2010, Grade = B

• Suburban soccer mom heroine gets her kicks by being member of private sex club. Leaving the kiddies with a sitter, she arrives at the club and has an interlude with a sexy stranger who is dressed like Rhett Butler. I'll be honest, I wasn't feeling this story (at all) until the ending. The ending totally makes this one!
  

Erotique: Jillian by Susan Lyons - Erotic Romance, Short Story, Spice Briefs, ebook, 2010, Grade = C

• Second story in trilogy about a private sex club called Erotique. This one didn't really work for me because I couldn't suspend my disbelief. The heroine gets a guest pass to a frickin' sex club from her boss (see heroine from Erotique: Carrie). A boss she has a strictly working relationship with. They are not BFFs. Ohhhhkay then. I like my boss, but if she gave me a guest pass to a private sex club, I'd manage to at least raise an eyebrow. Just sayin'.

Seducing A Stranger by Christine Merrill - Historical Erotic Romance, Regency England, Harlequin Historical Undone, Short Story, ebook, 2009, Grade = B

• I'll be honest - this story would have driven me insane had it been a full-length novel, but as a short story it totally worked. Heroine poses as prostitute in order to get close to the man she thinks is responsible for her husband's death. Hero knows who she is, is half in love with her already, and thinks she's fallen on hard times after her husband's death. She thinks he's a traitor. Big Misunderstanding shenanigans ensue, and it's all neatly wrapped up at the end. Some seriously smokin' hot love scenes spice up the proceedings.
  

An Accidental Seduction by Michelle Willingham - Historical Romance, Victorian England, Harlequin Historical Undone, Short Story, ebook, 2010, Grade = B-

• Heroine's brother has left her destitute at the family country home where she's living in poverty. Hero is her childhood sweetheart who discovers her dreary existence and is determined to protect her. This is a prequel to the author's full-length HH novel, An Accidental Countess (which I hope to read this month), and while it has a "happy ending," it's pretty subdued. As it probably should be, given a full-length novel is on the immediate horizon featuring these two characters. A nice warm-up though.

As reviews get posted, I'll come back and add links. In the meantime, I have high hopes for March. Now let's see if they pan out....

Hot Zombie Lurve

I saw on Twitter yesterday, and also got an e-mail last night, that Half Past Dead, a two-novella anthology featuring stories by Zoe Archer and Bianca D'Arc is currently being offered as a free ebook over at the Sony eBook Store.

Archer's story is a prequel to her upcoming Blades Of The Rose series, which sounds like an intriguing mix of Victorian historical, fantasy/magical elements, and Indiana Jones-style derring-do.

D'Arc's story is also a prequel to her paranormal-zombies-running-amok book, Once Bitten, Twice Dead - which is out now in trade paperback.

I've done a very brief search, and it appears that Half Past Dead is only available as a free ebook at the Sony Store. Also, no idea how long this promotion is going to last, so if you're interested - strike while the iron is hot.

You can download it here.

And neither here nor there - I read a previous Zoe Archer book, Lady X's Cowboy, back in my TRR days and really liked it quite a bit.

Wow, Really? Hard cover? Really?

I was digging through some journals here at work, looking at upcoming releases for this summer, when I ran across a mention of Fade To Midnight by Shannon McKenna. For those of you who have never read McKenna, let me give you the rundown. Her heroes tend to be very Alpha and her heroines get rescued a lot. I've enjoyed two of her books as pure guilty pleasures (Behind Closed Doors and Standing In The Shadows) while two other books (Return To Me and Hot Night) made me want to put my fist through a wall.

Fade To Midnight is the conclusion (uh, I think) of her McCloud (a name that should be banned from Romance Novel Land) Brothers series and it's the book that McKenna fangirls have been squee-ing for. Yep, it's Kev's book.

Well here I am to rain on your parade. Brace yourself ladies.

Fade To Midnight is going to be published in....

Hard cover.

Yes, hard cover. Retail price is $20.95 (cheap for hc), and Amazon currently has it available for pre-order at $14.25. Hey, which is technically cheaper than what her trade paperback releases sold for at retail.

This is....

Well, it's interesting.

McKenna is so not an author I saw making any kind of leap to hard cover. For one thing, I have only heard readers describe her books in one of two ways:

• It made my eyes bleed. Seriously. Bleed. Pouring out of my eyes. Blood everywhere.
  

• OMG, what a great guilty pleasure!
  

Kensington Brava must be banking on people being so desperate for their guilty pleasure fix that they'll be willing to go hard cover. And hey, they may not be wrong. I mean, people are buying J.R. Ward in hard cover. (Yeah, I went there. I'm bad.)

And while the discount is healthy enough that those readers willing to pay trade prices for McKenna, probably won't care - I have to wonder about all those romance readers who vehemently, as in frothing at the mouth, despise hard cover. I mean, they really dislike it as a format. Hmmmm....

Interesting all the way around. Really? McKenna in hard cover? Really?

So, who is going to buy it? Or have you turned green and are now storming around your home office Hulk-like angry? Reader mad! Reader smash!

Oh, and yeah - I'm ordering it for the library. Cuz that's how I roll. Not sure if I'll read it right away though, since I'm like three books behind on this series already.

Laydown date is May 25, 2010

Blathering On At Other Places

Now that Romancing The Blog is on (possibly permanent) hiatus, the fine folks behind Access Romance's Readers Gab blog have asked me to join their ranks. Since I tried my best to make my RtB columns reader oriented, joining the Gabbers seemed like a really good fit, and honestly it's a chance for me to keep my blogging skills fine-tuned.

My first post is up today, and I'm ruminating on the subject of whether or not erotic romance is still it's own separate sub genre.

Also, did you know that every Sunday the peeps behind Access Romance draw a winner from random commenters at Readers Gab? The lucky winner receives a free box of books! And it's open to international folks! So what the heck are you waiting for? Go on over and comment!

+++++

Every quarter the Romance Writers of America put out a promotional booklet called Romance Sells. Basically it's a big ol' booklet of promo, featuring upcoming release information in a variety of romance sub genres. Mostly it gets sent out to booksellers and librarians. I'm a bit of a promo junkie, so I always look forward to getting my copy and flipping through it.

Well, they also publish the occasional article, and the Spring 2010 issue finds one written by yours truly. All A-Twitter is about...well...Twitter, and how librarians, authors, readers, reviewers and publishers are using it. Yes, Twitter is the mother of all time sucks, but believe it or not - I find it a useful tool for my day job. No joke. So for those of you who receive Romance Sells, look for my article on page 3 of the Spring 2010 issue. For the rest of you? I signed away my life (OK, I exaggerate) to have RWA print the article, so I'm not sure I can duplicate it here. But if it ends up getting posted on their web site at a later date, I'll let you now. Because I just know you're all dying to read about collection development and Twitter. Heh.