Two New Posts At H&H

So the blog has been a bit of a Dead Zone this week (thank you job for sucking out my brains....), but I've had two posts go live over at Heroes & Heartbreakers!

First up is a "Delicious Despair" post featuring The Sword Dancer by Jeannie Lin.  "Delicious Despair" is that phenomenon in romance novels where the author literally rips your guts out on the way to making her characters bleed towards their happy ending. 

Head on over and read all about Lin's not-remotely-innocent heroine.

I also have a First Look that went live today of the latest book in Sarah M. Anderson's Bolton Brothers series, Expecting A Bolton Baby.  Yes, it's one of those We Bumped Uglies One Night And Now I'm Carrying Your Demon Spawn plots.  And yes, it's also a book featuring a "motorcycle guy."  And yet somehow, despite all that, I liked the story. 

Head on over and check it out.

Digital Review: Now Or Never

I have three categories for erotica: 1) This Made My Eyes Bleed Erotica 2) Total Escapist Fun Erotica and 3) Give Me Some Truth Erotica.  Now, obviously, I loathe the first one.  Nobody ever wants the first one.  However I like the latter two fairly equally.  I can enjoy erotica that is almost completely devoid of reality (hello, Wendy likes boss/secretary stories).  I don't want to read a steady diet of it - but I like the fun factor.  However, it's the Give Me Some Truth erotica, the Rip My Heart Out And Watch It Bleed erotica that really flips my switch.  Logan Belle, up until this point, had given me (me, as a reader) Fun Erotica.  With Now Or Never, the first installment in a series?  She gave me something more.  This story?  This story is breathtaking.

Claire is in her forties and finally ready to get a life.  She married young, got pregnant young, and when her ex decided to split?  She became a single mother young.  She falls into a trap a lot of women do.  She puts herself on hold to raise her son.  She doesn't date.  She doesn't get laid.  She doesn't have a life outside of 1) her job and 2) her kid.  Now that kid is off to college and Claire is ready to find herself.  Except now when she's finally ready to do that living?  She's diagnosed with breast cancer.  Just when she's getting ready to rediscover her body?  Her body betrays her.

Her well-meaning friends insist she start attending a cancer support group at the local Y.  Except Claire accidentally wanders into the wrong room and discovers an Erotic Reading/Writing Salon.  Needless to say, after being sex-less for close to 20 years?  Claire gets an earful.  It's while taking a coffee break afterward that she meets Justin.  Younger-than-her, handsome-as-sin Justin - who just so happens to troll AA meetings to pick up women. 

What follows is Justin inviting Claire for a drink.  For reasons she cannot explain, Claire says yes - and it doesn't take long for her sad tale of woe to come spilling out over cocktails.  So, on a lark, Justin helps Claire write a list.  The "Now Or Never List."  A list of sexual shenanigans (everything from going to a strip club to a one-night-stand) that Claire should now accomplish to make up for lost time.  And Justin?  Yeah, Justin will be her wingman.

What Belle has done is create a truly interesting, remarkable and totally relatable heroine.  Me, personally?  I don't "relate" to Claire in the strictest since of the word (I'm not a single, don't have any kids and don't have breast cancer).  But I felt like I knew this woman.  And I think for some readers?  Claire is going to be like looking in a mirror.  Is it sad that Claire hasn't had much of a life for the last 18 years?  Yes, it's really sad.  But, especially as a fellow woman, you understand how she fell into the trap that she did.  A lot of women have been here.  A lot. 

Justin is, to put it mildly, kind of a jerk.  But he's a relatable jerk.  He actually says stuff that I've heard other, as-in-real, guys say (The whole bit about how easy it is for a woman to get laid?  Yeah, I've heard that.  Actually spoken out of a real guy's mouth).  He's Mr. Anti-Commitment all the way.  It's why he hits up AA meetings looking for tail.  Those woman?  Yeah, need to concentrate on recovery.  They know they have no business looking for love - so they don't.  Looking for sex?  That's another kettle of fish entirely.  Is Justin a nice guy?  Not really.  But I liked him in spite of it and Belle does a wonderful job of slowly working his own personal baggage into the story.

There were several moments in this story that were like a punch in the gut.  Things Claire says, things Justin says, things Claire feels.  And the ending?  The ending just killed me.  It literally sucked all the oxygen out of the room.  It's that moment in any great story where the author, in ethereal form, shows up in your living room, reaches into your chest, rips your heart out and says, "Oh, look what I found!"  It's that good, that heartbreaking, that sublimely wonderful.  I'm also willing to admit that I also may now hate the author a little bit for making me wait until January to get the next installment. 

It's erotica that makes you think, feel, and bleed.  It's erotica that turns a strong, focused eye on the heroine.  In other words?  It's my favorite sort of read.  Don't miss this novella - it's wonderful.

Final Grade = A

First Look Over At H&H

I'm over at Heroes & Heartbreakers today giving a First Look to Donna Alward's soon-to-be-released A Cadence Creek Christmas. 

Why not head on over and check it out?

Top 3: Contest Judging OCCRWA's Book Buyer's Best

A couple of weeks ago I attended OCCRWA's (Orange County, California) annual Birthday Bash celebration to announce the Top Pick winner for their annual Book Buyer's Best contest.  This is a published authors contest (self-published entries were included this year).  My job was to read the highest scoring books in each category (nine all together) and pick "the best one."  While a lot of reading?  I didn't have to write out a bunch of score cards.  It was see books, read books, pick a book.

I thought about talking about all the books I read, but in the end I've decided to focus on "the best ones."  These were the Top 3, and let's talk about them from third place on down to the final winner:

A Taste For Scandal by Erin Knightley won the historical category.  The second book in a series, it stands alone very well (obviously, since I'd never read her before).  This is one of those Duke's Son Falls In Love With A Nobody books - which is to say you read it for the fairy tale.  There is some angst, but this is a romance - so naturally everything turns out rosy in the end, when in "real life, back in those days" the couple would undoubtedly have faced continual blow-back for their unconventional marriage.

What I really liked, besides the fairy tale?  The heroine is a baker.  Certainly baking heroines have been running amok in contemporary small town romances, but not so in historicals.  So the historical tidbits of what it was like to bake during Regency times?  Really interesting.  Also, the hero behaves like one would expect him to behave as the eldest son of a still-living Duke.  He parties.  He's got a reputation.  He's a nice guy underneath, but he's not exactly a paragon of responsibility when this story starts.  If I was grading this book?  Probably a B-.  I'd read more Knightley.

Such a Rush by Jennifer Echols won the YA category and made me want to punch every teenager I see at work in the throat.  These whipper-snappers?  They have NO clue how good they have it.  Where were books like this when I was a teen?!

Heroine is pure white trash, moving from trailer park to trailer park with her largely absent (naturally, this is a YA novel) mother.  Their latest home is next to a small airstrip, and the heroine, with ambition to not be her mother - hops the fence and gets a job as office girl/gopher.  She's 14 when she forges her mother's signature on a permission form and starts taking flying lessons with a man who owns a business pulling advertising banners.  Fast forward four years, her mentor is dead, and his twin 18-year-old sons inherit the business.  The heroine has plans, which do not involve hitching her wagon to silver-spoon twin brothers who will probably run the business into the ground.  One of them has other ideas though, and essential blackmails her into sticking around.

Reading the back cover copy, it sounds like a love triangle story - but, trust me, it's not.  I loved this heroine.  I know this heroine.  I'm pretty damn sure I went to high school with her.  I also found it incredibly telling that this was the contest read that handled "the sex stuff" the best.  It was responsible, sexy and believably.  This book came very, very close to being my "top pick."  So much so that I had to take Labor Day weekend to really mull it over.  If I were grading this, it would be a B+.  In the end though?  It lost out to....

Sea Change by Karen White which won the Romantic Elements category and ended up being my Top Pick.

This is a book that has something for everybody, literally.  Which sounds like a hot mess, but it's not.  I'd classify it as Southern Gothic.  It's a dual narrative story, alternating from present day to the early 1800s.  The present day story involves the heroine, a midwife, who after a whirlwind courtship marries the man of her dreams.  Except it turns out the man of her dreams was married before and Wife #1 died in an "accident."  The historical story also tells the story of a midwife, her life with her husband, unmarried sister, and the effect the War of 1812 has on them.  With this dual narrative, both involving midwives, naturally some light paranormal elements come into play to connect to the two stories.

It's beautifully written, with an evocative sense of place.  White does everything with this book (historical, contemporary, paranormal, Gothic, romance, mystery) and does it all well.  None of the elements in this story annoyed me, which is especially telling with the paranormal aspect as it's typically something that would annoy me no end.  But it didn't here, because this author swept me up and took me away to this world she created.  Also, as a librarian, it's the sort of book I can damn near recommend to anybody.  What ultimately tipped me over the edge?  Besides how wonderful the writing was?  That she was able to pull off all those elements in the same story and not screw any of them up.  I don't have a burning desire to reread it, but it's better than a B+.  My final grade would probably be an A-.

So there you have it - the best of the contest reads for 2013.  If you'd like to see all the finalists, you can check out OCCRWA's BBB contest page.  It was a lot of work, getting through nine books, but it ended up being a nice experience.  I told them to consider me again for next year - even if I'm not the Top Pick judge.  I'd happily serve as a first-round judge again (which I've done in the past).

Unusual Historicals For October

My latest shopping list of "Unusual" Historicals went live over at Heroes & Heartbreakers today.

October is a great month of variety!  There's a little something of everything, including Edwardian, Georgian, colonial America (!), westerns and.....wait for it....Victorian-era mountain climbers in the French Alps!

No, I'm not making that up.

Head on over and start filling out your own shopping list.

TBR Challenge 2013: Those Crazy Kids

The Book: The Suicide Club by Gayle Wilson

The Particulars: Romantic Suspense, Mira, 2007, Out of print but available as an ebook.

Why Was It In Wendy's TBR?:  I have an autographed copy, which means I picked this up at an RWA conference.  Which one is the question.  Given the publication year best guesses are either 2007 Dallas or 2008 San Francisco.

Review:  I was a mystery and suspense reader long before I discovered the romance genre.  So it's probably not all that surprising that when it comes to romantic suspense, my enjoyment of the story really tends to revolve around the suspense end of things.  Normally I'm more than happy to let a weaker romantic storyline slide if the suspense is up to snuff.  In the case of this book?  Let's just say the suspense starts out on the weak side and by the time it picks up steam I found the "romance stuff" jarring.

Lindsey Sloan is in charge of the "gifted and talented" program at Randolph-Lowen High School in close-knit, everybody-up-in-your-damn-business, small town Arkansas.  Still she's shocked when Former Big City Detective, Jace Nolan visits the school and suggests that one (or more) of her students might have been behind a rash of arsons that targeted black churches in the immediate area.  Lindsey tells him he's full of crap, and essentially throws him out on his ear.  But Jace isn't one to give up easily, and proceeds to make a nuisance of himself.  Which proves to be a problem - since whoever is behind the crimes has noticed a cop sniffing around Lindsey.  Ergo?  Lindsey is now in danger.

This book never really got off the ground for me thanks to the set-up, which I couldn't buy into.  Jace is going with his gut thinking it's a high school kid.  He's backing up his gut with a profile the FBI worked up - which essentially says they were "thrill crimes" so most likely young, white, male with a few brain cells.  Which leads to Jace meeting with Lindsey in the principal's office.

OK, you have arsonists targeting black churches, in the South (!!!) - and yet I'm supposed to believe FBI and/or ATF aren't crawling all over this backwater town?  Really?  I mean, really?!?! And given the flimsy "evidence" (which is to say, none - other than the FBI profile) that Jace has to work with, I'm supposed to believe that a High School Principal not only doesn't throw him out on his ass while citing various right-to-privacy concerns, but that he would take the time to pull a teacher into a meeting of this nature?  I mean - right out of the gate?  More likely the principal would tell cops to come back when they have, oooooooh, ANY evidence at all (you know, something that isn't just a half-baked hunch), then call a faculty staff meeting.

But hey, that's just me.  I mean, I'm crazy enough to think the FBI and/or ATF should be there, so what do I know?

Lindsey is one of those Pollyannas who thinks there is good in everybody and all her students are perfect little angels that poop rainbows.  You know who is more believable and less annoying?  The guidance counselor - who enjoys helping kids and working with the students but also admits that some of them?  Yeah, are shitheads.  Why Shannon wasn't the romance heroine is anyone's guess.  Her, I liked.  Even if she does have suspicions about the bad guy and didn't cough them up immediately.  At least with her you understand WHY she was holding back (she felt her "gut" wasn't enough to try and convict anyone without, you know, any proof whatsoever.  Come to think of it, maybe she could grown a penis and been the cop hero instead?).

Anyhoodle, I kept reading along mostly because I had to see how the suspense thread turned out - and it does pick up some once the arsonists become bored and have to get their kicks some other way.  However by this point?  The romance gets to be a real problem.  I'm not sure how else to explain it other than it's jarring.  I was uncomfortable reading about mushy "love stuff" and romantic sex scenes given the content of the suspense thread.  And in the end?  After the whole thing comes to a full boil?  To have Jace and Lindsey blissfully fall into each other's arms, declare their love, and then joke about having children together?  When the climactic and devastating finish directly involves teenagers?

Yeah, too soon.  Just.....way too soon.

So where does that leave me?  Well, it had it's moments.  Although the execution needed some help, the concept of the suspense thread worked for me and I wanted to see how it turned out.  I just wasn't particularly moved by either of the main characters, therefore I wasn't particularly moved by the romance.  But while it didn't inspire love in me, it also didn't inspire outright hate either.  I didn't love it, but it also didn't make me Hulk-Rage-Angry.  In other words, I'd read this author again but not necessarily rush out to recommend this particular book to a friend.

Final Grade = C-

The Sword Dancer

What I enjoy about Jeannie Lin's historicals is how accessible she makes the history - Tang Dynasty China - to ignorant westerners like myself.  What I know about Chinese history couldn't fill a thimble, but while I'm reading her stories I never feel lost, bored, confused or indifferent to the surroundings the characters live in.  The Sword Dancer continues with this tradition, and gives readers a more action-packed story compared to last year's more quietly restrained My Fair Concubine.

Li Feng is a sword dancer, traveling with various troupes, and making her living performing.  Well, sort of.  She's also fallen in with a rough crowd and was part of a jade and gold heist.  It was a sizable enough fortune, on its way to a powerful man, that she's now caught the interest of one of the most feared thief-catchers in the area - Zheng Hao Han.  This guy is so good at his job, so well-known for bringing in notorious bandits, tall-tales of his exploits abound.  I mean, everybody knows this guy.  Now it seems he's dead-set on bringing Li Feng in.  Too bad she's not willing.  Looking for answers, hoping to unravel the mystery of her past, she's got no time to indulge a thief-catcher - no matter how handsome he is.

Lin has written stories in both urban and frontier settings, which has brought to mind how similar her Tang Dynasty playground is to the historical American west.  Nowhere is that more evident than in this story.  You have a thief-catcher (bounty hunter, Texas Ranger, sheriff etc.) going after a bandit (outlaw, criminal, cattle rustler etc.), with themes of redemption (for both Han and Li Feng) and revenge (Li Feng's unknown past) playing heavily into the plot.

For most of this story the characters are drawn together just as they are working at cross-purposes.  Han has a strict moral code and a very defined definition of right vs. wrong and justice.  The irony is that thief-catchers, while a necessity to law and order of the land, are not highly thought of.  It was a blow to Han's father (a magistrate) when his eldest son chucked his scholarly studies aside to chase after wanted criminals.  So while Han may be somewhat of a legend to many, he's still a shadowy figure.  The way he lives, the way he makes his way in the world?  It's not exactly revered.

Li Feng wants answers, having lost her parents at such a young age that she's struggling to find out what happened to them.  All she has is a piece of jade her mother left her.  She doesn't know her true name, she doesn't know anything about her family, and given that she was only a toddler at the time, has very vague memories of anything prior to her life before meeting her shifu.  Naturally she's not happy to have Han chasing after her, but soon they find themselves not only working together, but drawn to each other.  Never mind that the attraction could be nothing but disastrous for both of them.

I enjoyed this story a lot.  There's plenty of action packed in the pages to keep the story chugging forward, and the forbidden nature of the romance makes for some delicious moments of angst.  Lin has always done well placing strong emotional moments in her stories, moments where you really bleed for the characters and know exactly what they're feeling, going through, and tormented by.  Li Feng and Han may start out as doomed lovers, destined to never find their way to their happy ending, but Lin makes it work, gives us our happy ending, and in such a way that it's completely plausible.

Final Grade = B

Reminder: TBR Challenge For October

For those of you participating in the 2013 TBR Challenge, this is a reminder that your "commentary" is due on Wednesday, October 16.

The theme this month is Paranormal or Romantic Suspense.   October means Halloween, and Halloween is the time for spooky, otherworldly, and villainous.  However remember, the themes are totally and completely optional.  Maybe you're "over" paranormal and not wild about suspense mucking up your romance. Hey, 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.

Details about the challenge and a list of participants can be found here.

The Month That Was September 2013

Lemon Drop: Ta da!

Me:  Now where did I leave that chocolate?  And I only have, what?  That many bottles of wine left?  Not nearly enough.  Maybe this romance novel will help....

Lemon Drop:  Ahem!  I understand you had a bad week Auntie Wendy, but snap out of it!  Cuteness!  Right here in front of your face!

Me: Just promise me you won't grow up and be a bitch to anyone who works in the service industries.

Lemon Drop:  Um, do they teach that in preschool?

Me: I'm beginning to feel that way.....

Lemon Drop:  There, there Auntie Wendy.  Don't be such a mopey sad sack.  Tell me about the books you read last month.  Aren't you always telling me that books make everything all better?

Title links take you to full reviews

Louder Than Love by Jessica Topper - Contemporary romance with heavy women's fiction overtones, Berkley, 2013, Grade = C-

• Librarian heroine still grieving for dead husband meets and falls for a former heavy metal rock god.  What was a good idea on paper gets bogged down with wispy conflict and too much internal monologue'ing.  But the parts that are good, are really good (the music "stuff" especially).

Highlanders by Brenda Joyce, Terri Brisbin & Michelle Willingham - Historical romance anthology, Harlequin, 2013, Grade = B-

• Typical anthology, which is to say I found it to be a mixed back.  Read it for the Willingham story, which was the best in the bunch (although the Brisbin fell into my "OK" range).

The Bridge by Rebecca Maher Rogers - Contemporary romance novella, Self-Published, 2013, Grade = B+

• The read of the month.  Hero and heroine meet on the Brooklyn Bridge - where they've both come to commit suicide.  Just trust me on this one.  Click on the title link and read my review.

Spin by Bella Love - Contemporary romance novella, Self-Published, 2013, Grade = B-

• Heroine determined to leave her white trash past behind gets all spun up by the hero, a Small Town Bad Boy. 

Eyes of Silver, Eyes of Gold by Ellen O'Connell - Historical romance, Self-Published, 2010, Grade = B-

• Compelling historical western, but the more I think about the writing the more ticked off I get.  Oh, and Rosie?  You still haven't blogged.

Wish Me Tomorrow by Karen Rock - Contemporary romance, Harlequin Heartwarming, 2013, Grade = B-

• Single father with bone cancer falls for nurse/grief counselor.  A debut with some uneven moments, but a solid emotional core.

The Sweetheart Bargain by Shirley Jump - Contemporary romance, Berkley, 2013, Grade = B

• Heroine looking for answers about her past falls for the injured Coast Guard pilot who lives next door.  The first in a small town contemporary series, cute with an undercurrent of angst.

Lemon Drop:  See?  Don't you feel better already?  And look at all the B reads!

Me: Yeah, I guess I do.  Although having a Harlequin Presents Greek tycoon sweep me off my feet would probably make everything really, really all better.

Lemon Drop:  Ahem, Uncle My Man.  Remember him?

Me:  He's no tycoon.  And he's Irish.  If Harlequin has taught me anything it's that all tycoons are either Greek, Italian or Sicilian. 

Lemon Drop:  You need help Auntie Wendy.  You should go read another romance novel.  And maybe down another glass of fermented grapes while you're at it.....

Me: Don't mind if I do!

The Sweetheart Bargain

I figure Romancelandia needs another small town contemporary series like the proverbial hole-in-the-head.  While I'll admit to gorging myself on my fair share of small towns in category romance, the single title trend of endless series set in cutesy-wootsy small towns where every meddlesome busy-body is all up in your business has largely eluded me.  Too many words, too many pages, too much filler about said small town shenanigans and not enough focus on why I'm reading romance in the first place.  Uh, that would be for the romance.

But books like The Sweetheart Bargain by Shirley Jump may just get me to change my mind.  Certainly it helps that this is the first in a series.  It also helps tremendously that, while the author infuses this story with plenty of elements to make small-town-contemporary fans happy, she also includes some darker issues.  Think of it as Angst, With A Candy-Coated Shell.

Olivia Linscott's life is going nowhere in Boston, what with her dead-end job and fresh off the heels of a divorce.  So when she finds out she's inherited a cute little bungalow in Rescue Bay, Florida?  She goes looking for a fresh start, and some answers.  Having always known she was adopted, Olivia is left the house by her birth mother.  However, it's a bit of a rude welcome when she gets there.  The house looks nothing like the picture the lawyer showed her, which is to say it's one step away from falling down around her.  Then there's her surly next-door-neighbor.  Sure the man puts the hunk in hunky, but he's also a bit of an ogre.

Luke Winslow was a Coast Guard pilot until a blown mission, a dead BFF, and an eye injury grounded him permanently.  He's not fit for human companionship, haunted by his friend's death and reeling from the fact that his life, as he knows it, is over.  He'll never fly again, and flying is all Luke knows.  Now there's this pretty slip of a woman moving in next door, asking him to help her find a stray dog that is injured, and mucking up his big plans for endless mopey solitude.  If that weren't enough?  His grandmother seems determined to fix them up.

This story has all the ingredients one would expect from a small town contemporary.  Rescue Bay is quaint, filled with gossiping locals, and conveniently on the beach.  There's Luke's grandmother, and her pack of retirement home friends, that provide comic relief and a couple other main secondary characters like the town veterinarian and a Coast Guard buddy of Luke's that round out the action.

Underneath all that sweetness and light however are some darker issues.  Olivia wants answers from a dead woman who left her a falling down house and no letter explaining why.  Luke's eye injury is devastating, both professional and personally.  Not only is his friend dead, but Luke's career is over.  He's like a babe in the woods, and pricklier than a wounded grizzly bear.  And while Jump does employ the Old Folks As Comic Relief trope, she doesn't fall into the trap of making them One-Dimensionally Wacky.  Greta's advice to her grandson, her love for him, shine through.  She's not just a meddling busy-body, she's made of sterner stuff than that.

The author walks the tightrope between serious and cotton-candy well, keeping the story humming along and never falling too far over the edge to one side.  Luke behaves like a jackass, Olivia stands her ground, but also needs to work through her own issues as well.  If I had any one quibble in this story it would be the almost total absence of Olivia's adoptive parents.  Yes, she talks to her Mom on the phone (a couple of times) over the course of the story - but I guess I expected Olivia's mission to bother her a bit more.  But then, the author needs to keep the story focused and moving along, and wasn't I just the one complaining about "filler" in the first paragraph of this review?  Oh yeah, I was.

It's light, it's fun, but it's got a nice core of angst to keep things from descending into saccharine territory.  The Sweetheart Bargain didn't change my life, but I inhaled it in two sittings; no small feat these days thanks to work slowly sucking away my will to live.  If you dig small town contemporaries, this is a good one.  And even if you don't?  Yeah, this is still a good one.

Final Grade = B