Review: A Time Of Change

There are times when I'd almost rather read a book I'm loathing than a book I'm indifferent on.  At least with the book I hated, I can have the cathartic experience of venting my spleen on my blog.  Books that I'm indifferent about?  Books that should be better than they are?  Those just leave me bored, depressed, and ultimately resentful.  Such is the case with A Time Of Change by Aimee and David Thurlo.  I wanted to like this book, I really did.  Instead I was bored with it and counting down the pages until I was finally done with it.

Josephine Buck is a young Navajo woman living in New Mexico.  She's got a very busy life, which includes working at The Outpost (a local store that sells everything from food-stuffs to crafts by local artisans) and an apprenticeship with a local medicine man.  She's single, her parents are both gone, but she has a good life.  That is until she walks into work one day and finds her boss, Tom, dead.  It looks like a suicide, but turns out he was tortured to death.

Coming home on leave from the Army to deal with his dad's violent end is Ben Stuart.  He and the old man were somewhat estranged, but were working their way back into a relationship.  The cops say his old man chose to eat a bullet and Ben know that's total crap.  No way would his Dad commit suicide.  Now he's home to look into the matter, and runs smack dab into Jo - the girl he loved and lost in high school.  As if that weren't complicated enough?  Turns out his old man left Jo a decent sized chunk of what should have Ben's inheritance.  Awkward!

There were a few things I really liked about this story.  The Thurlos do a nice job with the New Mexican setting, and if you're a reader who goes for that southwest flava in suspense stories - this aspect was well done.  I also liked Jo's character quite a bit.  She's very much a Traditionalist, adhering to the "old ways" of the Navajo, and really desires to become a Singer (medicine woman).  She's an interesting young woman, and I liked her.

Sadly, that was pretty much about it for me.  The rest of this story was rather thin, especially when we're talking about the characters.  Even though Jo was interesting, I never felt like the authors delved inside her head enough.  They skate the surface, especially when it comes to her father's alcoholism and how that effected her.  Ben, on the other hand, is never interesting and just annoying.  Bipolar Hero, thy name is Ben.  One minute he's flirting and making eyes at Jo, the next he's arguing with her about how she "abandoned" him in high school when he needed her most, the next he's kissing her, and then he's accusing her of sleeping her way into her inheritance from his Dad.  Seriously, I didn't know whether to smack him, punch him, or kick him in the giblets.

The tonal style of this story is also all over the place.  On one hand it should have been a gritty suspense novel.  Ben's dad was essentially tortured to death, baddies keep threatening Jo and The Outpost, heck at one point Jo discovers a decapitated body near her home.  On the other hand?  It's like the authors were shooting for cutesy-wootsy small-town contemporary.  There are secondary characters with plenty of baggage and various locals swinging by the story.  Jo and Ben obviously want to discover what got Tom killed, but amazingly (and unbelievably) enough they seem to shut out the violence around them, banter with locals, and flirt with each other.  It just.....didn't work for me.  At all.

The authors introduce enough secondary players, and certainly set up the area well enough, that I suspect this could be the first book in a series.  Sadly, I think this is where I get off.  Digging a bit deeper with the characters, and keeping the story "dark" (like maybe Southern Gothic, except set in the Southwest) would have gone a long way in ramping up my enjoyment.  As it stands, I was mostly bored by it, and had I not requested an advanced copy of this I would have DNF'ed it about halfway through.  Final verdict is very much "meh."

Final Grade = C-

Libraries, What Are They Good For?

When I was 16-years-old, I spent a semester working in the high school library for class credit.  This is how old I am now - public schools actually had libraries and librarians back in those days!  The librarian (who was educated in France, and I'm convinced working at my high school as penance for something she did in a past life) actually taught me stuff.  I learned to use the reference collection.  I also learned to tackle the computer, back in the days when databases were on those new-fangled things called CD-ROMs.  I really loved it, and heck - I loved to read - so yeah, librarian was it for me.  Little did I know at the time, and what my high school librarian failed to tell me, was that I was going to choose a career that was going to require me to justify my right to exist.  My existence is one I often need to explain to your average layperson, countless politicians, people who think it's my one true mission in life to expose children to Internet porn, and now, apparently authors.

I never thought I'd see the day where authors (not all of you - just the idiot ones) would see libraries as The Problem.  This is what digital has done to us folks.  It has turned authors (not all of you - just the idiot ones) stupid.  Case in point, Scott Turow's op-ed piece in the New York Times, which as far as I can tell was his chance to vent without offering up any solutions, even theoretical ones.

This is something else my high school librarian failed to inform me of - as a public librarian I cannot stop buying authors for public consumption just because they're asshats.  So yeah, I'm still buying Mr. Turow's books "on the job" - all the while sticking pins in my little-suspense-writer-voodoo-doll that I now keep at my desk.  Bother.

Maureen Sullivan, current president of the American Library Association, responded to Turow's screed in a succinct, eloquent manner which further illustrates why Wendy will never be president of anything.  You should read her whole response, but the take-away from it really is this:

"Libraries want to buy your work at a reasonable price so that we may continue to grow readers — and writers — in the digital age"

In one sentence Ms. Sullivan tells everybody what libraries do.  We "grow readers."  A functioning, and hopefully informed, society is a literate one.  With no libraries, what do you think happens to literacy?  We're already seeing some of this with children.  Kids who go to school every day with no librarian in their public school.  Information literacy?  Who needs that?  Teaching our children to reason, deduce, investigate, research?  Who needs that?  And now we have authors like Mr. Turow taking aim at public libraries when the sad fact is he should be embracing us.

I'm not sure if everyone got the memo - but Borders went out of business.  Barnes & Noble is sailing towards an iceberg (and giving up floor space to games and toys!).  Walmart will display what it damn well pleases, and heaven knows their sole business is not books.  Independent booksellers?  OK, yeah - they're still around.  But how many of them are displaying genre fiction?  Science fiction, romance, mystery, fantasy?  Oh sure, there are a few specialized independents out there that cater to genre readers, but will you find one in Podunk Middle Of Nowhere?  Hell, in many cases, in a decent-sized city?  Not necessarily.  But you know what you will find?

Yeah, a library.

Guess what - we have shelves.  We have actual display spaces.  We talk to people, all kinds of people!  We engage, we program, we hand-sell.  We are not only breeding readers, we are sustaining them.  We are not only keeping your audience alive, we are creating whole new audiences.  Sure, that 16-year-old kid who is using the library to feed their reading habit isn't likely going to hit the bookstore every week to stock up on books.  But you know what?  What happens when that 16-year-old kid grows up?  Gets a job?  Gets a career?  Gets some disposable income?  Betcha they buy some books!

Libraries aren't the problem.  We've never been the problem.  We love authors.  We love books.  We love reading.  Everything we do on this job (from "game days" to "computer classes") is geared towards growing readers.  To promoting literacy.  Because you know what?  We're whores.  We'll do just about anything to get people in the door, where they can walk into the library and see your books on our shelves.  We want them to find your books, read your books, fall in love with your books, and maybe ::gasp:: start buying your books.

In the aftermath of all of this brain-bleed-inducing nonsense I've been struck by two things.  One is the full-page ad that James Patterson recently took out in the New York Times Book Review.  Like Turow, Patterson doesn't offer any answers - but he also doesn't do a lot of half-assed finger-pointing either.  He asks a lot of questions.  And he's smart enough to not look at libraries and see us as The Problem.  (Probably because we aren't - but whatever).  Mr. Patterson, I salute you!  I promise not to make anymore jokes about Writing Sweat Shops for at least....a couple of days (seriously, I'm only human).

I was also reminded of something Kerrelyn Sparks said when she was the luncheon speaker at Librarians Day at RWA in Anaheim last year.  Sparks was giving the librarians in attendance a little of her life story, which in a nutshell is Crappy Childhood followed by Crappy Marriage.  Sparks also spent a decent chunk of this previous life (oh, like all of it) being strapped financially.  She loved to read, and needed to read, in order to escape the crappiness of her daily life during those years.  I'm paraphrasing wildly here, but in a nutshell?

"The people who need books the most are the ones who cannot afford them."

And that, ladies and gents, is the truth.  It's always been the truth.  Whether it's just escaping into a "happy place" away from their troubles, or it's because those books will allow them to learn a new skill, better themselves, and strive towards a better existence.  Books should be, and always have been for me, about lifting people up.  Libraries were put on the face of this Earth (OK, at least in the US) for that most American of reasons:

To level the playing field.

That's what libraries do.  Librarians do not snatch food out of the mouths of authors and their children.  Librarians do not look for ways to circumvent copyright, tear down authors, and send them careening into the nearest gutter.  Librarians are here as partners.  We're partners to readers, old and new alike, and to authors.  We want to help you.  We want you to succeed.  It would be nice if the idiot authors wanted the same thing for us.

Sincerely,
Wendy, Queen Librarian Of The Universe

Digital Review: She's Come Undone

She was thirty years old, all but unemployed, holed up in a falling-down house she couldn't step out of, and the best thing she'd done with her life in years was to give the general contractor an unusually good blowjob.

As a general rule I don't read a lot of self-published work, but when I do it tends to be by authors who also have a backlist either with traditional print publishers or respected e-publishers.  To a certain extent, yes - I totally buy into the "gatekeeper" argument.  Even if I haven't read them before, the author is a "known commodity" and has enough experience with writing and publishing that I'm more confident that I'm not going to get total crap.

I'm sure some people like to wade through half garbled manifestos, but heck - if I wanted that I'd spend all my time reading my own blog.

Which is how I came to read Hurricane Lily by Rebecca Rogers Maher.  I liked the plot description of the novella, and the author included the tidbit of information that the story was edited.  By an actual real-life editor with like credentials and everything!  Sold!

The simplistic way to describe Lily Sawyer is that she's a neurotic poor little rich girl.  She's got anxiety issues, which has led her to hole up in her late mother's ramshackle cottage on Cape Cod.  She's convinced her father that the place needs fixing up, and given that he's the sort to throw money around to "fix" problems, and honestly if Lily is on the Cape she's out his hair, he writes the check.  She's got enough canned preserves and emergency supplies to survive a hurricane, now all she needs to do is get the house up to snuff.  And for that she hires Cliff Buckley.

Cliff is a poor little working class boy who went to Vassar on scholarship, so basically that means he feels it's his right to be angry all the time, play Working Class Hero, and sneer at rich people.  Never mind that he makes his living as a general contractor fixing houses on the Cape for, you guessed it, rich people.  He takes one look at Lily and immediately jumps to all sorts of conclusions.  She takes one look at him and wants to hide under her bed for the next ten years.

I really liked this story.  I probably shouldn't have because honestly the characters start out on a very rocky road.  Cliff is a sneering hypocrite and Lily is just.....not well mentally.  I mean, really - she's not well.  Heroines like this don't need romances - they need shrinks.  Several of them.  In Lily's case, probably a venerable army of them.  But a funny thing happens on the road to epilogue - the author shows and creates her characters, warts and all, and then actually has them transform before the reader's eyes.  Cliff eventually realizes he's being an ass.  Lily eventually realizes that she can't hide away from the world, refusing to leave a falling down house on Cape Cod.  And the best part is?  Neither of these characters are instantly cured by the Magic Penis or Mythical Hoo-Ha.  Yes, they're better people together, but they don't suddenly morph into Perfect Pod People at the finish line.  They're better.  They're working on a relationship together, and working on their respective baggage.

I really liked the style, voice, and tone of this story and I appreciated that the author gives readers complicated characters as opposed to "types."  Yes, it certainly would have been easy to have Lily be a cookie-cutter Poor Little Rich Girl With Daddy Issues - but she's more than that.  And yes, it would have been easy to have Cliff be the Studly Handyman With The Blue Collar Chip On His Shoulder - but he's more than that.  It's a good example of one of my favorite types of romances - the nontraditional kind.  Interesting, different characters with interesting different baggage.

Final Grade = B

TBR Challenge 2013: Seducing The Duchess

The Book: Seducing The Duchess by Ashley March (Author is now apparently writing under the name Elise Rome)

The Particulars: Historical Romance, Signet, 2010, In Print

Why Was It In Wendy's TBR?: According to my records, I picked up this debut novel at RWA 2011 (New York City, AKA Wendy's Librarian Of The Year year).  I also seem to recall meeting this author at that conference.  Possibly hanging out in the hotel bar one night?

The Review:  I have been in a reading slump, partly because I've read some books I haven't enjoyed and partly because I've read books that have bored me.  Neither bad or good, but flat.  Lifeless.  Which honestly?  Those books are worse for me than ones I dislike.  At least dislike is an emotion.  Indifference is just....depressing.  So when picking up a book for this month's TBR Challenge, I wanted something with some fire in it.  So yeah, I went with a book that promised to give me two characters in an adversarial relationship.  Make no mistake, this book has it's issues - but do I care?  No.  No, I do not.  This book actually got a reaction out of me.  Several in fact.  Good, bad, gasping, swooning from the angst, and it damn near ripped my heart out in parts.

The slump is dead!  Long live the slump!

Philip Burgess, Duke of Rutherford, has just kidnapped his wife out of a notorious gambling den.  Their marriage has been a disaster since the morning after their wedding night - which was when Philip told his wife that he only married her to get revenge against her traitorous brother.  This news was a major blow for Charlotte.  Philip wooed her, romanced her, claimed his love for her, and in turn she fell in love with him.  To have him tell her that it was all a lie?  Immediately abandon her for his mistress?  And to essentially ignore her when they are living in the same house for three, long years?  Yeah, Charlotte gets pissed and grows a spine.  She may love Philip, but she hates him more, and she'll do anything to get her freedom.  Even though divorce means scandal, there is nothing more than cold fish, unemotional Philip loathes more than a scandal.  So she puts on the full court press to horrify him as much as humanly possible - which essentially means acting the faithless whore.

The joke is on them both though.  Because while Philip may have wed her for revenge?  He's fallen in love with her.  And while Charlotte may want nothing more than to be free of her husband?  She can't stop loving him that easily.

What I liked about this story, I really liked.  I liked that in other plots of this ilk, the heroine would run off to the country, live in seclusion, and become a martyr who fills her days with charity work.  Not Charlotte.  Philip's betrayal so deeply wounded her that where other women would shrink back?  She fights, and she fights dirty.  She may have been an innocent country mouse when Philip married her, but at twenty-two she plays the game as well as he does.  Never let them see you sweat, and choose your words carefully to inflict maximum damage.  It's those words, the dialogue, the back-and-forth, that made this book so compulsively readable for me.  I couldn't get enough:

"If you do no release me at once, I vow that at the first opportunity I shall incapacitate you, and any hope you have of ever reproducing will be lost."  

Philip carefully set her away from him.  "I had forgotten how charming and pleasant you can be." 

"Only with you, dear husband.  Only with you."  She thrust out her arms.  "You may untie my wrists as well." 

"I don't suppose you would say please." 

"I don't suppose you really care that much for a son."

It's blissful to read exchanges like this, all the while realizing that Philip's sole reason for kidnapping his wife is because he loves her and wants to be with her.

Which isn't to say this book is perfect.  It's a story with a legion of issues.  For one thing, both of these characters are manipulative as hell.  They're not nice people, and frankly I'm not sure I should care that they get a happy ending.  The nicest thing I can say about them?  That they deserve each other.

Also, the time period of this book is rather hazy.  It's 19th century England, uh in some year.  Clues are short in coming, but my guess would be early-to-mid Victorian.  Also, I could have used some more background when it came to the romance.  It's easy to understand how Charlotte would fall in love with Philip, a charming Duke putting on the full-court-press with a young woman in her late teens.  But Philip falling in love with Charlotte?  That I'm not so sure about.  Why?  How?  How does he go from marrying her for revenge, living in the same house with her for three years, basically ignoring her, to realizing it's love?  And speaking of that revenge thing?  That needed help.  Mostly because Ethan betrays Philip by attempting to elope with the woman Philip was supposed to marry.  Yet the elopement never happens, the woman marries someone else, and Ethan is disowned.  None of this is delved into in any depth, and dagnabit, it's a major tease!  I wanted more!  More angst!  More anguish!  More, more, more!  Given that this book only clocks in at 300 pages?  Yeah, why not give readers 50 more pages and delve into some of this back-story a bit?  It certainly would have made for a more well-rounded story.

And yet?  I still loved this book.  All these issues keep me from giving it an A, but dang, the angst!  The anguish!  It damn near ripped my heart out in places (I defy anyone to read Chapter 10 and not get choked up.  Seriously).  Was it perfect?  No.  Was it the best romance novel I've ever read?  No.  But it found me at the right time.  It reminded me of why I like to read this genre.  It made me feel.  It triggered an actual, viable emotional response in me.  Thank you sweet baby Jesus, I wasn't bored!  No, it's not perfect and yes, I can totally see how other readers would strongly dislike this book and think I've finally gone off my nut.  But again, ask me if I care.  The answer?  Yeah, I don't.

Final Grade = B+

Book Squee!: Rebecca Hagan Lee

Nothing depresses me more than when an author doesn't leave a footprint.  And by that I mean, they haven't published anything in a long while and don't provide fans with any sort of update.  They fade off into the shadows, only leaving a trace with the aid of their backlists and readers scratching their heads wondering what has become of them.

One of those for me was Rebecca Hagan Lee, who wrote a few westerns, then shifted across the pond to England (because that's what too many western writers had to do in the early and mid-aughts - it was either that or don't publish).  She hasn't had a book out since 2005, and it was while I was updating my Upcoming Historical Romances wiki that I came across a new title by her, with a very western-like title.  Could it be?  Dare Wendy hope? 

I do, I do!  Feast your eyes people!

A Wanted Man by Rebecca Hagan Lee
ISBN 978-0425267295
August 6, 2013 ; Berkley ; $7.99

Description:

A thoroughly English girl raised in Hong Kong, Julie Jane Parham has spent her entire life walking the line between two worlds. When her closest friend, Su Mi, becomes the victim of an arranged marriage gone horribly wrong, Julie travels to San Francisco in order to buy back her freedom and soon finds herself in over her head.

On a rescue mission of his own, Will Keegan uses his saloon, The Silken Angel, as a front to whisk Chinese prostitutes away from the city’s ruthless brothel owners to a life of freedom, risking his own hide in the process.

Sparring with a spirited British lady is the last thing Will Keegan needs, but he isn’t about to let lovely Julie throw herself headfirst into danger. And as the urge to protect her turns into something more, Will knows he must get Julie to trust him, or chance losing her forever…

 Dear heavens, is it August yet?

The Month That Was March 2013

Lemon Drop: You can smile all you want Cinderella, it doesn't change the fact that I'm leaving here with those shoes.

Cinderella: Do you have any idea what I did to get these shoes?  A wicked stepmother, two wicked stepsisters, and dear Lord I had to be friends with mice.  Mice!

Lemon Drop:  Pfft, dress-making mice.

Cinderella: They're still mice.  The shoes are mine cupcake.

Me: Ahem, while you two are living out some weird shoe fetish - might I remind you that nobody has it worse than I do.  In the middle of a reading slump, I only managed to read four books last month.  Four!

Title links will take you to full reviews.

Must Like Kids by Jackie Braun - Contemporary romance, Harlequin Kiss, 2013, Grade = B-

• Liked seeing a single mother heroine in a non-traditional role, and an enjoyable hero who has more depth than first meets the eye.  The story lost a little footing for me towards the end, but still an enjoyable read.

A Marriage-Minded Man by Karen Templeton - Contemporary romance, Silhouette Special Edition, 2009, Grade = B

• Reunited lovers story from the typically consistent (for me) Templeton.  Heroine with trust issues reunites with the hero who broke her heart many years before.  She's now a divorced single Mom with two little kidlets, and he's a local contractor who's not all that sure he's ready for an instant family.

Sins of a Ruthless Rogue by Anna Randol - Historical romance, Avon, 2013, Grade = C+

• I really enjoyed the first book in this trilogy, but this follow-up was a letdown.  Thin romance, superficial characters, saved somewhat by an interesting locale (a large chunk of the story takes place in Russia).

A Rake To Ruin Her by Julia Justiss - Historical romance, Harlequin Historical, 2013, Grade = C-

• Liked the banter between the couple, but was pretty much bored by the rest of the story.  A heroine who doesn't want to marry, so decides to ruin herself.  I didn't buy into her complete lack of all things society, and her desire to hold out for a childhood BFF to return from India in case she has to marry grated on my nerves.  Toss in her belief in a "curse" (women in her family tend to die in childbirth - which I know is a legitimate fear but has been so overdone in historicals that now I just roll my eyes....) and yeah, I'm out.  Did like that the hero was a disgraced diplomat though.  

Lemon Drop: Auntie Wendy is right Cinderella.  It's silly to fight over a pair of shoes.

Cinderella: I agree.  If there is one lesson you should take away from all of this?  Don't wait around for a fairy godmother to give you a cool pair of shoes and bag a prince.  Go to college.  Conquer the world.  Make your own pair of shoes.

Lemon Drop:  That's a great idea.  Lemon Drop's Fairy Tale Footwear.  Sparkly sneakers that light up for all ages.  Can those mice make shoes?

Cinderella: Oh no.  You're not hiring away the mice!  Now that I'm a princess, I need all the gowns I can get!

Me: Oh boy, here we go again.....

Reminder: TBR Challenge For April

For those of you participating in the 2013 TBR Challenge, this is a reminder that your "commentary" is due on Wednesday, April 17.

The theme this month is New-To-You Author.  Picking a book out of your TBR pile by an author you've never read before.  However remember, the themes are totally and completely optional.  If you find yourself needing a little comfort, and want to go with reading an author you've read countless times before?  That's totally cool!  The themes aren't important - it's the act of reading something, anything!, that has been lying neglected in your TBR pile.

And hey, look at that - it's only April!  And it's certainly never too late to sign up for the challenge.  Details and more information can be found here.  You'll also find a list of the current participants, should you wish to follow along.

Call Me Anytime

Note: If anything good came out of the nightmare that was That Trilogy That Shall Not Be Named hype - it was that the Black Lace imprint relaunched.  Sadly though, it appears that relaunch has not quite extended to US distribution yet.  I'm not finding this book for sale (new in print or in digital) in the US, which will likely annoy some blog followers.  To which I say, Americans aren't the only ones using the Internet, and Lord knows over the years the Europeans have been screwed by book distribution much more than US readers have.  So, um, yeah.....

I've blathered enough about it all over the Internet that I'm pretty sure even small children in Africa know that I am "over" BDSM.  Which would beg the question on why I'm reading The Accidental Call Girl by Portia Da Costa.  The reasons?  I like Da Costa.  Even when her books don't work for me (the grade spread ranges everywhere from DNF to A), I still like Da Costa.  Why?  Because while she certainly has her pet themes and tropes (more on those in a minute), she's one of the few erotic writers who consistently gives readers characters that feel like they could exist in real life.  Even the enigmatic billionaire types.  They feel like guys you could see walking down the street.

Lizzie has skipped out on a party and finds herself at the bar of the Waverley Grange Hotel.  Across the bar she spies an impossibly beautiful man, looks are exchanged, he sends over a drink, and before you know it - he's coming over to talk with her.  What follows is Lizzie realizing that he thinks she's an escort.  With her Bettie-Page-like haircut, her stylish, innocent-yet-somehow-naughty clothing, and the silent exchange they just shared - she knows she should be insulted, but she understands how the presumption occurred.  Instead of correcting him though, she plays along.  She's "Bettie," and he's unimaginatively, "John Smith."  Before you can say Erotica As Fantasy, these two are burning up the sheets - although it's certainly not a one-time-deal.  John's in town on business, and the sex is so off the charts (for both of them), that staying away from each other isn't in the cards.

This book is the first in a trilogy following the couple and will undoubtedly draw a lot of comparisons to That Other Trilogy That Wendy Doesn't Want To Talk About.  You have an older hero (40-ish) who is a mysterious billionaire tycoon type, a younger heroine (20-ish), and naturally he introduces her to BDSM.  Uh, sort of.  The big difference?  Lizzie.  What I tend to love about Da Costa's heroines, besides that they always strike me as the perfect best gal-pal a girl could have, is that while they may be innocent in some sexual matters (in this case, being submissive), they're adventurous girls.  Lizzie doesn't cry or cower in a corner or simper and whimper.  In turn, John isn't an abusive asshole.  Yes he's mysterious, yes he's enigmatic, but deep down you know this is a good guy.  He won't hurt Lizzie, well outside of possibly breaking her heart, but our girl isn't going to end up in the ER because he's a dick.

This is familiar territory for Da Costa, who has been doing the Mysterious Hero Thing about as well as anybody for a number of years.  For fans I would classify this one as somewhere in the ballpark of Entertaining Mr. Stone (2006) meets Kiss It Better (2010).  And certainly Da Costa has loosely connected a number of her stories around the Waverley Grange.  The new thing is this trilogy idea, which plays well for these characters.  The vast majority of this story is told from Lizzie's point-of-view, although we do get a few teasing, tantalizing glimpses from John.  The author reveals just enough about him to hook readers, but leaves more than enough dangling to fill up two more volumes.  This is hardly a new idea, but an effective one - and the kicker?  John isn't a jackass so the prospect of two more books featuring him as a hero is certainly no hardship.

Like pretty much all of Da Costa's contemporary work, this one has a decidedly British feel to it - complete with slang.  Americans turned off by this sort of thing will likely be annoyed, but I tend to like it.  I don't know - characters talking dirty to each other just sounds sexier in an accent.  Maybe that's just me though.  Also, having explored BDSM themes before in previous books, Da Costa stays fairly true to form and continues with what I call BDSM-lite.  There's some light bondage, some spanking etc. - but again, John isn't hauling off and beating the crap out of the Lizzie.  Which, you know, thank God.

So where does that leave me, The Girl Who Is Over BDSM?  Well, I'm still over it.  But reading this book didn't make me want to drive my fist through a wall, didn't have me wishing I had more hard liquor in the Bat Cave, and heaven help us all - I'm totally on board for reading the next book in the series.  If you can roll with the British-ness and aren't over BDSM?  Your grade could very well be higher than mine.  As it is, it's a bloody miracle around these parts that I'm slapping a BDSM book with a B.  Cue the brass band!

Final Grade = B-

Living Up To The Hype

I tend to dislike reviews where the reader spends a lot of time comparing the current read to some past book.  Even though every author has their "tells" - each book, for me, should stand on its own.  It should live or die on its own merits.  But dang, that's really hard at times - especially when you're talking about series, or connected books.  Earlier this year I read and really enjoyed the first book in Anna Randol's Sinners Trio trilogy, Sins Of A Virgin.  It was one of my favorite kind of books - one where just about everything works for me despite a back cover blurb that made my eyes roll back in my head and uninspired cover art.  So needless to say, I was really anticipating reading the second book in the series, Sins of a Ruthless Rogue.  Unfortunately, while there is nothing terribly terrible about it, I found it to be a flat read.

Clayton Campbell was a clerk in a paper mill when he fell hard and fast for the boss's daughter.  Olivia Swift, being an only child, the apple of her Daddy's eye, is your typical pampered new money heiress.  Which is to say she's beautiful, charming, but more than a touch selfish and self-absorbed.  The mill has a contract with the Bank of England to print money, and when Clayton discovers that more bills were printed than were authorized in the contract, he goes to Olivia.  Her father oversees everything, so.....yeah.  Naturally, Olivia, being a bubble-headed ninny teenage twit runs to Daddy.  Clayton finds himself arrested, convicted, and with a date for the gallows, when England comes calling.  Become a spy for us and we'll pardon you.  Which he does.  Now discharged from service, he's ready to settle an old score - to show up on Olivia's doorstep and destroy the mill.

Olivia's father told her Clayton was dead, and she mourned him.  She realized, too late, exactly the type of man her father was.  Through circumstance, she's now running the mill and trying to atone for past mistakes.  To this end, she has thrown herself into charity work and is working to revive the mill, which has fallen on hard times.  If it dies, the town dies.  Clayton showing up on her doorstep, very much alive, is a major shock.  But his arrival also signals the arrival of Russian villains - villains who think Olivia is one of Clayton's spy compatriots.  As she is whisked off to Russia, Clayton follows.  Can they thwart an international conspiracy to overthrow a government, compromise on the issue of the mill, and fall back in love, despite the fact that neither of them are the people they used to be?

The best way for me to describe this romance is thin.  As the reader, I never felt like the author dug deep enough with these characters.  They felt very surface to me.  They're marginally interesting people, on the surface, but their angst is never fully delved into.  There are zero scenes between Olivia and her father after she discovers his betrayal.  Clayton's relationship baggage surrounding his own parents is also skimmed over - including the fact that his mother was a faithless whore and his father's circumstances took a nose dive after Clayton's arrest.  These are just the immediate examples that come to mind, but there are others, and it really gives this story a superficial feel.  This is totally one of those books where I find everything readable, but that I find instantly forgettable (in fact, writing this review is kind of a challenge since I'm working on it two days after finishing the book!).

However, it is readable and it did get smoother the further along in the story I got.  Things start to pick up a bit once the couple lands in Russia, and the author includes some interesting secondary characters that I hope may show up in future books down the road.  This being said, all of this introduced intrigue does make for an abrupt ending.  There's a lot of past history between Olivia and Clayton and I think I just needed more.  Yes they're different people now than when they were younger, but they're at cross-purposes, especially about the mill, for so much of the story, that to have the various changes-of-heart happen as they do?  It just didn't work for me.

So yeah, it's not terrible - but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't more than a little disappointed.  Chalk this one up to the author giving readers such a memorable heroine in the first book - that to see things fall into predictable patterns in this one was kind of a downer. 

Final Grade = C+

Recap, Lemon Drop, And More On The Dreaded Slump

Today is April 1 - which normally means enduring a day of endless practical jokes and inane tomfoolery, but this year it means something different, at least around the Bat Cave.  Yes folks, it's here.  After leading up to it all last week, Opening Day for the Major League Baseball season is here.  Which means some of you will start reading my blog more, and some of you will start reading it less - depending on what side of the fence you fall on.

All last week I celebrated the coming of Opening Day by writing a series of Detroit Tigers Meets Harlequin Category Romance posts.  Wherein, I took five unsuspecting members of the current Tigers roster, and threw them into various category romance lines.  To relive the horror, blasphemy fun times, just follow the tag link of Tigers Meet Harlequin to read all the posts.

+++++

April 1 also marks Lemon Drop's birthday.  She is a wise and sage three-years-old today, is no doubt basking in the glow of Opening Day baseball (OK, maybe not) and plotting her next strategy towards world domination.  She'll be showing up here sometime soon to discuss my dismal reading last month, but for now let us commemorate her happy birthday with some cuteness.  Here she is with Aunt Wendy on the teacups at Disneyland.  Her mother cannot ride the teacups (spinnie rides + Lil' Sis = Not Happy Times), so it was up to "Brave Aunt Wendy."  I spent the whole time yelling like a dippity-do and she spent the whole time suffering from a severe case of the giggles.

+++++

Speaking of dismal reading, I am mired in the middle of a slump that just won't quit.  I hit a stretch of not-very-good books in February, and when that happens?  Yeah, I just stop reading.  Which would be why I got through a grand total of four books during the month of March.  However none of this has stopped me from hording books, requesting books over at Netgalley, what have you.  Which means I need to get off the pot and get reading.

Which should be a neat trick since, you know, Opening Day!!!!!