The 4th Annual Tigers Meet Harlequin Extravaganza!

Yes, it's that time of year again.  A most wondrous, magical time of year.  When spring has sprung, baseball fans everywhere have hope, and Wendy once again decides "Hey, I haven't been sued yet - let's throw caution to the wind!"  It's time, once again, for Wendy to take players from her beloved Detroit Tigers baseball roster, make up a whole bunch of nonsense, and mold them into perfect Harlequin romance hero material.  Besides, we all need something to read before the regular season kicks off on April 3.  I'm doing a community service here!

What's on tap for this year?  Besides my fervent prayer that my team doesn't finish in the basement of the division again (sigh) - I've two new Tigers Meet Harlequin All-Stars, a returning All-Star with a brand new story and a hunky surprise in store.

All new stories will launch tomorrow, but in the meantime here's your chance to catch up with the stories featured the past three years:

2015 Tigers Meet Harlequin Roster:
J.D Martinez, outfield - Someone to Come Home to
Ian Kinsler, second base - The Texan's Redemption
Yoenis Cespedes, outfield (NY Mets) - The Woman He Couldn't Forget
David Price, starting pitcher (Boston Red Sox) - Reunited with the Pitcher's Sweetheart

2014 Tigers Meet Harlequin Roster:
Rick Porcello, starting pitcher (Boston Red Sox) - Angling Towards Danger
Alex Avila, catcher (Chicago White Sox) - Collision at Home
Jose Iglesias, shortstop - The Shortstop's Secret Baby
Max Scherzer, starting pitcher (Washington Nationals) - His Brother's Keeper

2013 Tigers Meet Harlequin Roster:
Victor Martinez, designated hitter - The Single Dad's Homerun
Austin Jackson, outfield (Chicago White Sox) - Action Jackson
Phil Coke, relief pitcher (Atlanta Braves) - Good Time Phil
Prince Field, first base (Texas Rangers) - Daddy Doesn't Love Me
Justin Verlander, starting pitcher - Bring the Heat
Miguel Cabrera, third base (now first base) - The Venezuelan's Sexy Bodyguard

#TBRChallenge 2016: The Way Home

Pretty cover, but doesn't fit story

The Book: The Way Home by Megan Chance

The Particulars: Historical western romance, Harper, 1997, Out of print, Available digitally (self-published)

Why Was It In Wendy's TBR?:  It's a western and the beta hero is a virgin.  So yes, of course it's in Wendy's TBR (how could it not be?!), where it has been for more years than I care to admit.  Also, for the purposes of this month's Challenge theme (Recommended Read) - it's a KristieJ favorite.

The Review: OMG, this book! It's no secret that I've been in a reading slump that's dated back to last year.  This slump has mostly been related to my general lack of focus and attention when it comes to reading.  Good books have been slog to get through.  But this book, which clocks in at 447 pages?  I didn't read it so much as devour it.  Which goes to show that when Wendy finds the right book and her reading mood aligns (I really wanted to read a western when I picked this up!), she laughs in the face of The Slump!

Eliza Beaudry is desperate to get the heck out of Richmond, Texas.  Away from people who look down on her because her Daddy is a poor sharecropper and her Mama is half-Comanche.  And how exactly do pretty young girls get out of Dodge in 1876?  Yep, a man.  Eliza has already been pretty free with her kisses, but when Cole Wallace, a smooth-talkin' gambler strolls into town she just knows he's the one who will make all her dreams of leaving Richmond behind come true.

We know where this is going right?  Eliza ends up pregnant.  Cole, naturally, shows his true colors and Eliza's in a real sorry state now.  Poor, penniless, with not even a sliver of decent reputation left - she takes the only thing Cole does offer her.  She can marry his younger brother, Aaron.

Aaron is nothing like Cole.  He's working the family farm, taking care of their disagreeable invalid father (bedridden from a stroke), and he's painfully, awkwardly shy.  Eliza is so pretty she makes his eyes hurt, he's half in love with her before he can even stutter out a hello and she scares him so much he can barely spit.  She's also pregnant with his brother's baby and Aaron knows he cannot compete - but he marries her all the same.

You can tell this book was published 20 years ago because there isn't an editor alive who would publish it as is today.  First, it's 447 pages long.  Second, it opens with Eliza meeting Cole.  Third, we get a sex scene between Eliza and Cole (who is NOT the hero), and finally?  Eliza and Aaron (remember, the hero) don't even meet until after page 150.  We also get to spend more time with Cole after he leaves Eliza on Aaron's doorstep.  There are several reasons Cole dumps Eliza off on his brother, the biggest one being that Cole has bigger fish to fry.

The writing flows and the characters are so richly drawn.  Eliza is the kind of heroine you want to smack early (and often) because she's so young and so naive in the beginning.  You see disaster looming the moment she's introduced.  However it's how she grows as a character after she marries Aaron that's most intriguing.  Other reviews I've since read have expressed dissatisfaction over her lack of denying feelings for Cole - but by the end of this story I was convinced without the author resorting to Eliza's grandstanding or denouncing Cole in some Big Ol' Grand Gesture.  How she falls in love with Aaron is done gradually, over time and I believed every moment of it.

Original cover (much better!)

Misunderstandings and lack of communication do abound here.  Aaron is so painfully shy, belittled by his father (for Reasons), dismissed by Cole (because, well, Cole is kind of a jackass), and shunned in town (again, for Reasons).  Eliza is really hung up on the fact that she's Poor White Trash and not "a lady."  She thinks that's a big deal for Aaron (which, it's not) and Aaron thinks that she's in love with Cole and he's a bumbling idiot that she could never be attracted to.

If this book had been published today it would be 200 pages shorter and we'd start the story with Cole dumping Eliza into his brother's lap.  And the story would be much the poorer for it.  As it's written, Chance has done something remarkable.  None of these are bad people.  Cole, Daddy Wallace, these aren't cookie cutter villains.  There are times they are not nice men, but they're not caricatures - and it adds a richness to the story's conflict.

This started out as a strong B+ for me and got pushed into A territory when I had to fight back tears while reading the final chapters on my lunch break at work (only slightly embarrassing).  When Eliza realizes she loves Aaron and that he's not ashamed of her and she goes to him?  O.M.G.  I'm a mess just thinking about it.  It's wonderful.  It's amazing.  Read it now.

Final Grade = A

The Saints of the Lost and Found

I was all in on The Saints of the Lost and Found by T.M. Causey the minute I heard the words Southern and Gothic.  Yes, the back cover blurb pretty much clued me in that I was going to have to wade through paranormal woo-woo but seriously...SOUTHERN and GOTHIC!!!!!  I would have resorted to walking over hot coals to read this book.  Luckily it didn't come to that.

Avery Marie Broussard can see "lost things."  These lost things roll off people that enter into Avery's orbit.  She can tell you innocuous things like where you left car keys, where you misplaced your wedding ring, where your toddler left his pacifier - or, you know, where the bloody knife is you used to murder your unfaithful husband.  She's had this ability since childhood, which came in handy for her con artist parents.  However, for the last several years, Avery has been running.  Running away from her family, running away from the only man she ever loved, and running away after she fails to help the FBI in tracking down the notorious Little Princess Killer, a man who had been kidnapping and killing little blonde girls.

Her parents moved her around a lot, but Louisiana is the closest thing she's got to a home.  Normally she wouldn't set foot across the state line, but her father calls and tells her Latham, her beloved older brother, is in danger.  Daddy can see when and how people will die and apparently Latham is not long for this world.  But being back home also means being back near Jack.  Jack, the only boy she ever loved and the same boy who Daddy says will one day kill her.

What we've got here is classic Gothic.  A heroine torn between her gift and reality, a hero who may or may not be a "nice guy," a serial killer running amok and a boat-load of family secrets that could sink the Titanic.  Avery's "gift" (more like curse) is literally tearing her apart.  She agrees to help the FBI because she can't stand idly by doing nothing - but her gift isn't always detailed or precise.  It's when they're literally a couple hours late from saving the last victim that she snaps.  She can't go into police stations or hospitals because the "losses" pile up in her head.  All those victims, all those lost opportunities, she short-circuits and her in the throes of an epic seizure becomes a YouTube sensation.  So she lies.  She tells them the last epic seizure broke her - that she can no longer find "lost things."  And she heads home to help her brother and does her best to avoid Jack.

The book starts and finishes strong.  Where the cracks begin to show is in the middle when the reader suddenly realizes that the entire conflict hinges on characters who don't talk to each other.  It hit me like a ton of bricks when we're introduced to Jack's Bitter (with a Capital B) ex-wife, Marguerite.  Oh make no mistake, the woman is a bitch in heels - but half the reason she's that way is because Jack and Avery can't get their crap together and TALK TO EACH OTHER and she keeps running and he keeps feeling guilty and blah, blah, blah.  And it's not just Marguerite.  Because Jack and Avery can't get their crap together their Drama Llama sucks in every single secondary character.  Latham, their BFF's Sam and Nate, Jack's and Marguerite's son Brody...

Because Avery won't talk to Jack and Jack won't talk to Avery pretty much the whole blessed town is held hostage by their drama.  And naturally it's the Evil Other Woman that makes Wendy see the light (seriously this is a trope that needs to die a thousand deaths already).  I got so annoyed and so disgusted that what started out as a strong B+ read slid all the way down to a C.  Seriously.  TALK TO EACH OTHER AND STOP HIDING BEHIND MYSTERIOUS WOO-WOO CRAP!!!!

Whew.  There.  I think I feel better.  Anywoodle....

All, however, is not lost. Once the author stops with all the internal angst and shifts her conflict back to the external, namely, the Little Princess Killer and Avery's family drama, the story ends as it started - on a very strong note.  A serial killer running around kidnapping and murdering young girls has a way of diverting your attention away from a romantic couple that JUST NEEDS TO TALK ALREADY, WHY WON'T YOU TALK TO EACH OTHER ALREADY?!?!?!

Oh, wait.  Sorry about that.  Anywoodle....

All the secrets come tumbling out, Jack and Avery actually talk to each other (Praise Jeebus!), we get our final showdown and Wendy's mood starts to improve.  I didn't love it to bits and while I spent the middle chunk of the story wanting to slap Avery and Jack (and Latham to a certain extent) into next week - the Gothic "stuff" is very well done and the ending saves the day.

Final Grade = B-

Note: I struggled with how to classify this one and ultimately settled on Southern Gothic with Romantic Elements.  The romance is actually pretty strong, but you've got a serial killer, bad things happening to kids, and things don't end terribly sunny for a couple of secondary characters so....yeah.

Reminder: #TBRChallenge for March

For those of you participating in the 2016 TBR Challenge, this is a reminder that your commentary is "due" on Wednesday, March 16.  This month's theme is Recommended Read!  A book that has been languishing in your TBR even though it was recommended to you by a friend, trusted blogger, GoodReads acquaintance...whomever!  But what if you pick your books in a vacuum and never listen to recommendations? Hey, no problem!  Remember - the themes are totally optional and are not required.  It's not about the themes but reading something (anything!) out of your TBR.

Also, it's not too late to sign-up for the 2016 TBR Challenge!  You can find more information about the challenge (and see the list of participants) on the Information Page.  If you'd like to sign-up, please leave a comment on this post and let me know where you will be posting your commentary.

Forever Your Earl

I have a complicated relationship with "light historical romance."  I want to like them but finding one that doesn't make my brain bleed is getting to be an increasingly tall order.  The problem, as I see it, is sometimes authors confuse "light in tone" with "light in substance."  Yes, I will happily gorge at the Cotton Candy Trough, but you've got to toss in a bran flake or almond every now and then to give me something to actually chew on.

By now I think it's pretty well known that Eva Leigh is a new pseudonym for Zoe Archer.  When I first heard this news I thought, "But why?!  Zoe Archer writes historicals, Eva Leigh writes historicals, what gives?"  Now that I've read Forever Your Earl the first book in Leigh's Wicked Quills of London series it makes more sense.  Archer historicals tend to be a bit action and adventure while Forever Your Earl is straight-up frothy Regency historical.  The thing that keeps it buoyant is Leigh's sparkling knack for dialogue and a feminist core that somehow doesn't feel totally overblown modern.

Eleanor Hawke owns and edits a scandal rag, The Hawk's Eye.  She's worked her way up from nothing, brought her paper into profitably, and her readers love every juicy morsel she tosses their way - especially when she's writing about Daniel Balfour, Earl of Ashford.  Lord A-d is a rake of the highest order, so he rarely disappoints when it comes to providing publishable material.  Well, that is until he shows up at her office demanding to see "Mr. E. Hawke."  Imagine his surprise when he finds out the editor of the scandal rag that's obsessed with his every move is a woman.

Daniel would normally not give a flying fig, but Eleanor's keen eye dogging his every move could blow apart a bigger scandal he has no intention of making known.  A good friend, a Duke's younger son, has gone missing.  The Duke's heir dying unexpectedly leaves Jonathan next in line, but ever since he returned from the war he hasn't been quite right.  Daniel will do anything to find and help his friend, but having Miss Hawke sniffing around is too dangerous by half.  So he figures, why not keep your enemy close?  He promises to take her out on the town, show her what a rake's life is really like, and she gets plenty of material that will keep her diverted from Daniel's true mission.  It all seems perfect, until of course he finds himself falling in love with her.

What Leigh has done is give readers a heroine who is "ahead of her time" but somehow keeps this story from completely jumping overboard into the absurd.  There are some readers who will say that all "ahead of their time" heroines are anachronistic - a theory I've never subscribed to.  I mean, if there never were, truly, any "ahead of their time" heroines in the world - well, the lives of women would have remained totally unchanged since the dawn of time.  I think where Leigh succeeds is by not completely throwing the baby out with the bath water.  Eleanor is unconventional, but she still has to play by some rules.  Every time she's around "polite society" in this story it's hanging out with rakes after hours, in disguise, and digging up dirt.  We don't see her in glittering ballrooms having conversations with people who, in actuality, would treat her like something unpleasant they need to scrap off their shoe.

What's remarkable about this book is that it almost reads like a love letter to romance readers and writers. 

Why was she so bloody angry?  It wasn't as though Ashford hadn't expressed opinions she had never heard before.  People called her work, and The Hawk's Eye, trash.  Or they damned it, and her, with faint praise.  You're too talented to waste yourself on ephemera.  Why don't you try writing something real?  Something with actual substance?

It's like deja vu all over again.

And that's the tip of the iceberg.  Eleanor's first night out with Daniel involves her having to disguise herself as a young man.  As Daniel teaches her how to "act the part," she, in turn, basically tells him the unvarnished truth about how unpleasant it can be to be a woman in a man's world - right down to the Regency equivalent of "man spreading."

Still, sometimes the parts don't always add up to a whole.  I found this book a slog to get through at times and it took a while to put my finger on why - it's the pacing.  Here's a perfect example - it takes us 100 pages for Daniel to show up at Eleanor's office, proposition her, for her to go to her friend's theater for a disguise (Sequel Bait!) and for them to get through their first night out together.  100 long pages.  Do I read too much category romance?  Is it the seemingly constant lack of focus miring me in my current reading slump?  Is it because this story is "light" and there's not a bucket-full of Angst-O-Rama-Jama?  Perhaps. Pacing is in the eye of the beholder.  But I could have done with 50-75 fewer pages.

Which leaves me with This Was Good.  I didn't love it to bits like some of Leigh/Archer's other work (check out her Blades of the Rose quartet or Lady X's Cowboy), but this is the strongest "light historical" I've read in a dog's age.  Plenty of banter, interesting characters who rub each other in just the right way, and a feminist core that never devolved the story into absurdity...the book's title notwithstanding.

Final Grade = B-

Retro Review: The Virgin and the Vengeful Groom

This review of The Virgin and the Vengeful Groom by Dixie Browning was first posted at The Romance Reader in 2000.  I rated it 3-Hearts (C Grade) with a sensuality content rating of PG-13.

+++++

Semi-retired Navy SEAL, Curt Powers, was happily minding his own business when fate steps in to foul things up. After surviving a dangerous mission that has left him physically and emotionally aching, he discovers that his father has recently passed away. This is big news to him, since his mother told him years ago that his father was already dead. Dear old dad left him a cabin by the ocean, Power’s Point, along with six boxes of old family papers. A rolling stone for most of his life, he had finally decided to take a look through the old boxes, when a gray-eyed vixen steals them right out from under him!

Romantic suspense writer, Lily O’Malley, was on her way to drop off some of her books in a storage unit when she happened on an auction. On the block were six sealed boxes, and her curiosity getting the better of her, she puts in the highest bid. What she discovers turns out to be a gold mine of inspiration - so, when Curt shows up at one of her book signings demanding his property back, she’s hesitant to relinquish it. After all, she’s the one who bought the boxes all nice and legal after he missed three payments on the storage unit.

Since Lily is unwilling to back down, Curt offers a compromise - why not return to Power’s Point with him where they can sort through the boxes together? While Lily is a little hesitant to run off with a strange man, she’s not all that anxious to stay in town. Lily’s success as a writer has come with her own stalker. Not only has this man left dirty messages on her machine, but he’s also broken into her house to leave her “gifts.” While going away with Curt isn’t exactly appealing, the idea of getting out of town is.

After groaning upon seeing the title (why do categories always have the dopiest titles?), I found myself pleasantly surprised after the first few chapters. For one thing, Curt and Lily have oodles of sexual chemistry, and the tension is thick right from the very start. Browning has crafted two fine characters that play very well off each other. Curt is an alpha hero with a wounded past, and sexy as hell. The author had me scrapping my chin off the floor by the close of the first chapter, and completely envious of the heroine by the time they are sharing living space.

As the title implies, this story has a virgin and (big shock here) it’s Lily. The great thing about her is that she’s not the standard “shrinking-violet-must-have-man-to-protect-me” type of romance virgin. She grew up in a very tough environment and learned to take care of herself at a very young age. She may be a successful writer now, but she never takes it for granted, and still has a tendency to worry about where her next meal will come from. In her own words, her body grew up but her brain barely made it past puberty.  

The main problem with this story is that it needs to be twice as long. There was too much going on that needed to be explored in depth, and the length of the Desire line just doesn’t provide the author with the opportunity. For one thing, the stalker issue is wrapped up a little too neatly in the very last chapter. It practically screamed “plot device,” and it often detracted from the sheer enjoyment of reading about the romantic couple.  

Also, Curt’s ancestors play a prominent role in the form of the historical information that both of the characters want to keep their hands on. While these ancestors are briefly explored, it only served to wet my appetite and left me with lots of questions by the close of the story.  

Most unsettling were the unanswered questions about Curt. Why did his mother leave his father and tell Curt he was dead? Exactly what happened on that fateful secret mission that left him scarred and almost broken? Since this title appears to be a part of the “Passionate Powers” series, I can only assume that some of the information I crave is locked away in early books.

While an enjoyable story with excellent sexual tension, I can’t help but wonder what might have been if this story was twice as long. With an expanded suspense thread (or omitting it altogether) and more information about Curt’s past, The Virgin And The Vengeful Groom could have been a real blockbuster. Browning has a real knack for characterization, and I’d love to see what she could do with a full-length single title.

Fractured Fairy Tales and a Turning Point of a Genre

Between preparing for a number of romance-related presentations, various Twitter conversations, and the continued realization that I'm old, I've found myself musing on the state of the romance genre of late.  As usually happens when I start musing on something, it takes me a while to put together my thoughts.  What typically ends up spurring me to some sort of epiphany?  A brouhaha.  A kerfuffle.  Drama llamas.

Sinner's Creed by Kim Jones is the first in a new MC series and published by Berkley.  MCs are really a romance genre "thing" right now, there are endorsement quotes by Joanna Wylde (this book) and Katy Evans (upcoming second book) and, you know, just look at that cover.  If it looks, acts and walks like a duck, you'd think - hey, a duck romance.    Well....no.  For gory (literally) details - Mandi from Smexy Books has a spoiler tagged review over at GoodReads. (ETA: Mandi has now posted a longer review over at her blog.)

I'll wait.

OK, now you're back.  Here, have a cookie, a blankie and a puppy dog.  Feel better?

The spin (because, of course, there's always spin) is that it's a "non-traditional HEA."  Now I've been guilty of using this phrase more than once in my life.  Back in the Stone Ages I would use this term to describe some Black Lace novels (which were marketed as erotica) that featured "happy endings."  Just not in the traditional Let's Get Married And Now The Heroine Is Pregnant With Quadruplets happy endings.  It was my way of calling out "Happy For Now" books back in the day when we really didn't know what that term was yet.

This book though?  I'm sorry, it's not a "non-traditional HEA," it's just not happy.  "Non-traditional HEA" still implies that YOU'LL GET SOME DARN HAPPY!  So not only does it not have a HEA, it's completely hijacked the concept of a "non-traditional HEA." Naturally some romance readers are displeased.  And by "some" I mean anyone who identifies the genre strongly with the HEA.

I can here you thinking, "WHA?!?!?!  Are you INSANE Wendy?!?!?!?  ROMANCE = HEA!!!!!  ALL READERS SHOULD KNOW THIS?!?!??!  IT'S LIKE THE ONLY RULE OF THE GENRE!!!!"

And I'm hear to tell you - all readers don't.  At least, I don't think they do.  And this is the theory I've been musing about for the last several months.

Unless you've been living under a rock you'll have noticed that self-publishing has changed the publishing industry - but nowhere so much as within the romance genre.  As far back as the early days of this blog (2003), I would state quite emphatically that the number of romance readers online is actually quite small.  GoodReads has changed that somewhat, but the truth of the matter is that there are plenty of "shadow readers" out there.  Folks who buy their books at WalMart, check them out from the library, read said books, and then don't talk to anyone about them.  They read in a vacuum.

Ebooks and self-publishing have just exacerbated this phenomenon.  These Vacuum Readers now troll around Amazon, snap up 99 cent or free books because they look interesting or they're cheap, but not necessarily because they are romance.  Or else they hopped on the Fifty Shades bandwagon, having never read a romance, or having not read one since Sweet Savage Love, and discovered they liked it.  But here's the corker - they don't necessarily identify themselves as "romance readers."  They aren't waving a Romance Freak Flag high in the air.  Self-publishing has led to more fluidity in the genre which has led to more fluidity among readers.  What was verboten ten years ago is now fair game and for some readers this isn't a big deal because they aren't lugging around the Genre Baggage.  They aren't lugging around The History.  In fact, if they've stumbled across this blog post they're now Googling "Sweet Savage Love."  In short, they're not weighed down by the trappings of the genre (the HEA) that other readers expect and demand.

These readers may read romance (sometimes occasionally, sometimes more often) but don't necessarily "identify" themselves as romance readers.  They're reading the book because it sounded good or was cheap or was free or they were bored or it's a Wednesday or whatever - but not necessarily because it's a romance novel.

The knock against self-publishing has always been that it lacks "gatekeepers."  Without editors and publishers telling readers what they deem is worthy it will be anarchy!  And to a certain extent?  It kind of is.  Because the simple truth is that anything goes in self-publishing.  There's nobody telling you that you can't write something.  That readers won't accept it.  Readers might not accept it - but you'll find that out from the readers, directly - not from an agent or editor acting as gatekeeper.  So to a certain extent?  Readers are the new gatekeepers.

Which is why, I think, we're now here.  Readers who don't necessarily define themselves as "romance readers" who wade on the fringes of the genre are open to more to this sort of fluidity.  Don't believe me?  There are plenty of early four and five star reviews for Sinner's Creed over on GoodReads to suggest otherwise.  This is exciting or terrifying depending on what school of thought you belong to.  Which is how we've arrived, I think, to this moment in time where a major romance player like Berkley would publish a book like Sinner's Creed and wrap it in all the trappings and signal cues of romance.  Because for the all the readers who will want to drive a stake into the center of this book?  There will be just as many readers who want to sleep with a copy of it under their pillow.

I have my own baggage when it comes to self-publishing (remember, I'm a librarian), and over the years my opinion on the subject has changed dramatically.  Yes, I now think self-publishing is a great thing and I would not want to turn back that clock.  The benefits, for me, outweigh, any of the negatives.  And right now I think the biggest negative is that the genre is starting to splinter into various factions.  It wasn't that long ago that the HFN (Happy For Now) was given the major side-eye by some readers.  I don't think we'll ever get away from the genre defining itself by the HEA, but I do think we're going to see more authors and publishers playing around in the minefield that borders Happy Ever After Territory and cloaking those stories in romance cues to snag more and more romance dollars.  And for readers who demand the happy ending?  Who want the happy ending?  It's interesting times ahead.

I've never been an end-reader, but I'm wondering if I need to rethink that policy.