Cold-Hearted Rake by Lisa Kleypas

Cold-Hearted Rake by Lisa Kleypas is her first historical romance in five years and the anticipation among romance fans has been palpable.  I was lucky enough to score an ARC at a library conference (I know, right?!) and I spent last Friday decadently reading it from cover to cover.  My thoughts?  Well, if you're looking for a squee'ing fangirl review, you should probably turn back now.  This story was a real mixed bag for me.  What I liked, I really liked, and what I found problematic?  Well, read on McDuff.

Devon Ravenel has just inherited an earldom thanks to his hot-headed cousin getting thrown from a horse and breaking his neck.  This is the late Victorian era, and Devon is a rake.  So inheriting the earldom not only puts a crimp in his style, but thanks to the exploding Industrial Revolution in England, the peers have found their coffers considerably depleted.  There just ain't no money in land and farming anymore and Devon's inherited estates reflect that.  They're practically falling down around his ears and with no money to make necessary improvements?  He's hoping to sell the lot and be done with it.  The fly in the ointment?  His cousin's widow, Kathleen Ravenel.

Kathleen was married for three days before she found herself in widow's weeds and here's the new earl, with his drunkard of a brother, talking of selling her new home out from under her.  She's concerned for herself, of course, but more so her three sisters-in-law - the impetuous, rambunctious twins, Cassandra and Pandora, and quiet, reserved Helen.  None of whom have a dowry.  This rake in their midst is planning on throwing them all out on their ear.  Well, not if Kathleen can help it!

What follows is a feisty war of words, a battle of the minds.  Devon truly is a rake.  He beds women, he carouses, he says some hurtful things when Kathleen gets his temper up.  "Feisty" is now a dirty word among some romance fans, but that's what Kathleen is in the best sense of the word.  She's not immune to Devon's barbs, but she gives as good as she gets and there are some moments during their exchanges where I laughed out loud.

This book started out as a strong B+ for me, but as it goes on for 380+ pages it began to slide south.  Kleypas spends a lot of time on setting up her series and the secondary characters.  There is a stretch in the middle of the book where Devon heads back to London and frankly Kathleen is spending so much more time with his brother, West, that I began to wish that he were the hero of the story.  The sisters all get their various moments in the sun, along with some of the servants, which means less page time devoted to the romance.  I liked all these secondary characters, and they were great.  What wasn't so great is that by the end of it I wanted way more of them and a lot less of the main romance, which I had begun to grow weary of.  Kathleen and Devon continue battling to the bitter end and after 380 pages I was kind of over it.

The love scenes didn't really help this state of affairs since I found them problematic.  To call them "forced seduction" is overstating it (I think).  But they're very much of the no-yes-no-yes-no-yes variety.  Kleypas writes Devon a bit rough around the edges.  This seems an odd thing to be hung up on, since actual criminals seem to be romance hero fodder these days, but he's definitely Alpha with a capital A.  I'm not going to lie, while I didn't feel it was "forced seduction" - I did still find the love scenes a pinch uncomfortable.  And then there's a the Big Secret that Kathleen is hiding.  I won't reveal it because it's a Huge Honkin' Spoiler - but let's just say it's going to be a hot button for some readers (it was more eye-rolling for me).

The relationship between Kathleen and Devon is very much push-pull-push-pull.  Couple this with the fact that Kleypas sets the groundwork for Helen's romance in her next historical - I found myself weary of the battling between Kathleen and Devon and wanted a lot more of Helen's romance.  In fact, I'm really looking forward to her book (Marrying Mr. Winterborne - May 2016) - even though her hero (a department store owner!!!!!!), is another rough-around-the-edges sort.  In fact, he does something towards the end of this book that I think might be beyond the pale for some readers (I'm, admittedly, hesitant myself but man, I really liked Helen a lot).

A final word: we currently live in a time when the genre is exploding and authors feel a lot of pressure to publish a new book every other week.  Some authors can do this and quality doesn't slip.  Some authors cannot, and readers sometimes find themselves wading through slapdash product.  That's the exact opposite of what we get here.  This reads like a story that the author took care and time in writing and her publisher took care and time with editing it, packaging it and delivering it to readers.  It's sad that the current state of the genre now makes me point out things like this - but here we are.  Obviously I had issues with this book, and I wasn't madly in love with it - but damn if I didn't inhale it in one sitting.

Kleypas has set the stage to continue this series for a while, and this will likely be a series where I won't read every single book.  I'm dying for Helen's story, and I think West will make a dynamite hero if he (hopefully) gets his own book.  I'm less enthralled by the twins.  They're fine as secondary characters, but their impetuous, rambunctious nature makes me think my eyes would bleed reading their romances - unless something happens to alter their personalities somewhat.

If you're a Squee'ing Kleypas Fangirl, nothing in this review is going to deter you from this book (in fact, you're likely not reading this review - because hello? Why would you?).  But if you're not a fangirl (like me) and just looking for a quality historical romance?  This one left me conflicted.  I'm glad Kleypas is back with a new historical series, and even if I didn't love this?  I did like parts of it, and I appreciated a great deal of it.  It will be interesting to read the subsequent reviews that will likely flood GoodReads and Romancelandia.  As it stands for Wendy...

Final Grade = C+

#TBRChallenge 2016: Suggestions Welcome!

October is almost over, which means November is around the corner, ergo - Wendy needs to start thinking about the TBR Challenge for next year.  Even as busy as my Real Life seems to be these days, yes - I'll host a TBR Challenge in 2016.  It's the only way I know to force myself to dig around in my giant pile of books and I love reading everyone's commentary on their own TBR reads every month.

I'll once again do themes.  Some of you really seem to like them, and those of you who don't happily go "off-theme" and that's fine too.  Over the years of my hosting, I've kept a lot of the same themes year-to-year, but also changed up a few.  I've also tried to keep the themes fairly broad to give participants some wiggle room.

Thinking ahead to 2016 means I'm open for suggestions on potential themes.  Do you have one that you think would be a great idea?  A theme I used to do that I dropped that you really miss?  Themes you're less than wild about? (I suspect I'm the only who like the RITA theme - but hey, that one was a suggestion one year!).  Hit me up with your suggestion(s) either in the comments section, on Twitter, or hey - you can always e-mail me.

#TBRChallenge 2015: Everything and the Kitchen Sink

The Book: Impulse by JoAnn Ross

The Particulars: Romantic suspense, Pocket, 2006, In print

Why Was It In Wendy's TBR?: I honestly have no idea.  This isn't an autographed copy, so I don't think I picked it up at a conference, and the condition of the book is spectacular.  So I must have bought it new in a bookstore because the back cover blurb intrigued?  Your guess is as good as mine.

The Review: This book was a hot mess.  A readable hot mess, but a hot mess all the same.  As far as I can determine it's a stand-alone book, not connected in any way to any other books in the author's backlist.  And yet?  It's drowning in a sea of backstory and the author takes us out to dinner at The Trope Smorgasbord.

Once upon a time Will Bridger was working undercover vice in Savannah, Georgia.  Then he gets shot in a bust gone bad and loses his nerve.  It doesn't help that as he's lying in a hospital bed recovering from his gunshot wound he finds out his ex has died, leaving his teenage son motherless.  Oh, and he didn't know he had a teenage son.  Knowing he needs to make a change and knowing that he has an angry kid to now take care of, he moves back to his hometown of Hazard, Wyoming and is hired as the new Sheriff.

Faith Prescott has the late night radio show at the local station, and knew Will back in Savannah.  They had an affair while he was working a case that she was, unwittingly, wrapped up in.  Will makes his bust and their relationship hits the skids (because, like, duh).  She moves to Las Vegas, more stuff happens, she runs away to Hazard (Will said he was from there but he lied about everything else and it sounds like just the place to hide - so there you go) under an assumed identity.  Unfortunately her past seems to have found her in the form of a Las Vegas bounty hunter, and a pretty local teenager is found with her throat slashed out on a frozen lake.

So yeah, the backstory.  Good Lord there's a ton of it.  Faith's background alone is enough to make your head spin (sexually exploited child, teenage prostitute, unwittingly works for criminal, has affair with undercover cop, attracts stalker in Vegas, life falls apart in Vegas once stalker caught, goes to extreme lengths by running away, ends up in small town where serial killer sets up shop yada yada yada).  Then there's Will, the whole Savannah thing gone wrong, having his son dumped in his lap, his post-traumatic stress, his wild teenage years, his time in the military - and a partridge in a pear tree ::sing-song::.  Between all this baggage, none of which can possibly be explored with any depth in a 350 page novel, along with the suspense thread, and the fact that the author introduces us to several secondary characters - yeah, the "romance" here is totally Insta-Love.  Normally it would help that the characters have a shared history, but all of the backstory is "told" to the reader and I never got a good handle on who these characters were supposed to be.  They never felt real to me. 

Oh, and did I mention this entire story takes place in like 48 hours?  Yeah.

It's a lot of little things, like mini-bombs going off on the page.  Like the fact that Faith and Will's son Josh are supposedly "close."  But they spend zero time together on page until the end - so really, how "close" can they possibly be?  Also that Faith admits that while she knew the dead girl, and they talked, they never delved deeply into personal matters.  Then Faith sells Will on the fact that he needs her help looking for the killer because she knew things about the dead girl.  Really, like what?  You just said a few chapters ago that you didn't bear your souls to each other!

Then there's the writing.  It's lumpy.  There are moments when the author crams in current-at-the-time references that just felt jarring (the Torino Olympics, Janet Jackson's boob-snafu during the Super Bowl etc.) and asides that were just odd.  For instance, this is good:

Salvatore Sasone hated three things: Democrats, spaghetti sauce from a jar and cold weather.

 And this, is awful:

Given that his great-grandfather had immigrated to America from Sicily, obviously an appreciation of spaghetti (which had, by the way, been invented in his ancestral city of Catania) had been woven into his DNA with his black hair and dark eyes.

Oh for the love of Jeebus.  How was I expected to not laugh while reading that?

And there's things like that throughout the whole book, right down to an ending that puts the Capital R in Rushed.  Stuff starts flying out of left field in, what I'm guessing, was supposed to feel like a big, dramatic, and climactic ending.  Instead it was ::eyeroll:: seriously?

So why didn't I DNF this?  That's the million dollar question.  It was readable for me, despite it's numerous faults, it has short chapters, and having the print book meant it was super easy for me to skim (especially towards the end when any goodwill I had started to vanish).  Plus, I've pulled worse out of the depths of the TBR.  This isn't the worst thing I've ever read (not by a long shot), but there's also nothing here for me to recommend.  Although....I did keep reading it.  So I guess that's something.

Final Grade = D+

Little Miss Crabby Pants Gets Smutty

I'm officially old.  It's the only way to explain my crankiness about certain phenomena in the romance community.  I get it, times they are a-changing, and yet?  I can't ignore the baggage that has been left on the tarmac.  So I pick up the bags, load them on a cart, and start trailing after the rest of Romancelandia begging them to "Just look at the bags!  Maybe these belong to you!"

Reading romance novels was once something done in secret.  Furtively.  Women walked into drugstores, grocery stores, bookstores, lurked over in the area where "those books" were, and then somehow found the guts to go to the cash register to pay for their purchases hoping like hell some snotty (usually male) clerk didn't provide backhanded commentary.  However, like most things, the Internet has changed that.  Romance readers have found each other, formed communities, and been able to slither out into the light.  Couple that with online retailers and digital reading - we've taken back the night, so to speak.  Case in point?  The use of the word "smut" to now, presumably, positively describe what we love to read.

This truly is because I'm old.  I get it.  Romance readers are embracing what they like to read.  They're "taking back the S word."  They want to stand tall and be unapologetic about what they read.  "Yes, this book has hot sex scenes and I love every minute of it!!!!"  And yet, here is Wendy storming off her front porch with her shotgun.  Sigh.  I'm so predictable.

I can't get past the history behind the word as it relates to being dismissive of the genre.  That romance novels are "porn for women."  That it fuels unrealistic expectations in women.  That we "escape" inside a romance novel because we're simple females whose poor feeble brains can't deal with "the real world."  Now git back in the kitchen woman and make me a sammich.

Then there are the writers who proudly proclaim they write smut.  I get it.  They're taking back the word much like readers are.  And yet?  I feel these writers are selling themselves short.  Hell, anyone can write smut.  I'm a god-awful writer and I guarantee you I could sit down at my computer and bang (ha!) out a completely smutty story in about 15 minutes.  It wouldn't be very good - but it would be smutty.  Writers who write quality erotic romance?  Yeah, it's a lot more than a bunch of smutty fetishes strung together.  There has to be that emotional component to make it work.  Otherwise you are just writing porn. 

What critics of the genre have never understood is that, when it's done right, it's not simply "smut" or "porn."  For the record, I'm not against either.  Smut and porn has it's place.  You'll never see me at an anti-pornography rally for example (that's probably TMI - but whatever....).  But if a romance writer is doing their job properly, they're not writing smut or porn.  Smut and porn, broadly speaking, aren't overly concerned with emotion.  They're interested in the sex act.  They're interested in the "feeling good" component of it.  And romance authors?  Emotion is pretty much the whole point of the thing.  If you're not writing emotion?  You're doing it wrong.  Which is why my favorite erotic writers (and even non-erotic writers) tend to concentrate on themes of "awakening."  Of "personal growth" of the characters.  The goal of the story?  Hero and heroine in better emotional spot at the end of the story than they were in the beginning.  Full stop.

The S word, the P word, these were (and still are) accusations hurled at readers to shame them.  To put us in our place.  So while it's admirable that some readers and writers want to take away the power of those words?  The use of them merely reinforces the negative connotations.  I find the S word, the P word dismissive.  They're belittling words, and words are powerful.  They have the power to harm, the power to heal, the power to change lives.  And the S word?  The P word?  While "taking them back" can be viewed as admirable - there's too much history standing in the way for it to work for me.

But then, I'm old.

Reminder: #TBRChallenge for October

For those of you participating in the 2015 TBR Challenge, this is a reminder that your commentary is "due" on Wednesday, October 21.  This month's theme is Paranormal or Romantic Suspense.  Or as I like to call it the October Equals Halloween And Wendy Lacks Imagination theme.  But what if you don't care for paranormal or romantic suspense?  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.

Note: This month's challenge falls on a crazy, busy hectic day for me (yes, again). I'll get my own commentary scheduled to post in advance, but I suspect I'll largely be "off-line" that day. 

For more information, or just to follow along with all the participants - check out the 2015 TBR Challenge Information Page.

Everything I Left Unsaid

I'm over at Heroes & Heartbreakers today with a First Look of Molly O'Keefe's Everything I Left Unsaid.  First Looks aren't really designed to be traditional "reviews" - and my writings at H&H tend to be a bit more "professional" than my writing here on my own personal blog.  So for the sake of full disclosure, here's some nitty-gritty details about my reaction to the book that didn't make the cut over at H&H.

1) This did make the cut on the H&H piece - but it bears repeating....

THERE IS A CLIFFHANGER!

The second book, The Truth About Him is due out in November though, so the wait shouldn't kill you.

2) This is a departure for O'Keefe.  The sex scenes are on par with erotic romance, but I'd label them Hot Vanilla.  Some kink (hey, there's a voyeurism scene in a strip club), but nothing overtly shocking if you've been around the E/R block a time or two.  Also, it's not a non-stop boink fest.  The sex is hot, but it's not on every other page.  This is part romance, part women's fiction and part suspense.  I've seen some references to "New Adult" - but the heroine is 24, and the hero is 29 so.....yeah, I'm having a hard time with the NA label.  Unless we're now labeling everything angsty as New Adult - in which case shoot me now and get it over with.

3) The heroine grew up on a farm, in the middle of nowhere Oklahoma and her mother had "issues."  Hence the heroine was VERY sheltered growing up.  Then she married her husband who is an abusive asshole.  So she's inexperienced, naive and a little innocent.  The hero is turned on by her innocence - which smacked of fetishizing (is that a word?) to me.  This is a LOOOOOOONG standing pet peeve of mine (Issues. I Haz Them.) but I can recognize that other readers may not read it the same way, or have the same reaction that I did.  So take this for what you will.

4) Motorcycle Club Ahoy!  Sigh.  But to be fair to O'Keefe, at least her MC guys aren't criminals masquerading as heroes.  No, they're just criminals.

5) The writing style is....well it takes some getting used to.  The heroine portions of the story are told in first person.  The hero portions are told in third person.  So you get this deep point-of-view for the heroine, but not the hero.  It was....odd at times.  That said, given the cliffhanger ending, I've already started my ARC of The Truth About Him and it flips.  Hero = first person POV.  Heroine = third person POV.  So there you go.

6) I have no idea how to grade this.  I'm pretty sure it's not an A, as I don't think I'll ever reread it.  But it's really good - even with my quibbles.  So probably a B+.

Head on over to H&H to read my entire First Look.

The book comes out on Tuesday, October 13.

Digital Review: Hillbilly Heaven

Truly, I do understand why the historical romance sub genre is littered with Dukes.  It's the exact same reason why billionaires are currently overrunning contemporary romance.  Call it escapism. Call it the quickest and shortest route to Fairy Tale Land.  Whatever.  Romance readers love Dukes and I don't see this ever changing.  Ever.  And hey, I've been known to like a Duke or two in my day.

But what I really like?  Are historical romance characters that could have possibly fallen out of my family tree.  To put it nicely?  Salt-of-the-Earth, working class sorts.  To put it another way?  Hillbillies and Rednecks.  Scarred Hearts by Bonnie Dee takes place in the Kentucky hills just after World War I, right before Prohibition kicks in.  It's a book not without some issues (and red flags for some readers), but was a breath of fresh air for me all the same.

Samuel "Shadow" Robeson is the baby brother in a clan of disreputable characters.  To give you a small taste of how disreputable, one of Shadow's brothers is "slow" because Daddy got violently drunk and threw him down the stairs when he was little.  He's got another brother who likes to torture small animals and harass women.  Shadow's chance of getting away from this band of miscreants came with World War I.  Unfortunately, he got sucked back into the family when he returned from France with a bum leg and a missing eye.  His brothers are looking to take over the family's moonshine operation, and against Daddy's wishes - expand the operation.  They see Prohibition looming and want to position themselves.  Shadow is the only one in the family that can make a moonshine that won't pickle your insides, so he's the one in charge of the still.  He keeps his head down, talks as little as humanly possible, and dreams of the day when he can get the hell away from them.  Then he goes and does a fool thing like falling in love with Lettie Calloway.

Since her Mama died, Lettie has been on her own and trying to live down her reputation.  Mama was essentially the town slut and when Lettie was younger (way young) - she got her head turned by a married man. 

But all those things she'd done were in the past now.  She'd stopped dallying with boys when she realized those few minutes of feeling good weren't worth the whole lot of feeling bad that came later.

Even though Lettie's legs have firmly been closed for a good long while, nobody in town lets her forget - and it doesn't help that she works at the local watering hole slinging whiskey.  She spends just as much time dodging grabby hands as she does serving up biscuits and gravy.  And she tries as much as possible to go unnoticed by the Robeson clan - a hard bit of business to do given that they're moonshiners and she works in a bar.  The one bright light?  Shadow.  He's quiet.  He's circumspect.  And he's nothing like his vile brothers.  She likes him and he seems to like spending time with her - to the point where he actually starts talking.  It doesn't take long before the spark ignites and they start making plans to get the hell out of the hollow.  But can they get away before his family gets wind?

I have a soft spot for heroines like Lettie.  Women who made bad choices, are trying to right the ship, but can't seem to get past their reputations - whether they were earned or not.  Lettie's reputation was mostly earned, but it was a path she started down when she was young, naive, and was fool enough to believe the sweet words that an older man whispered in her ear.  Shadow is the perfect foil for her.  Sweet, tender, quiet, and not the sort who would hold her past against her.

The story, the dialogue, the setting - there's, to put it bluntly, a strong hillbilly vibe going on, which I suspect will not work for some readers.  The biggest pitfall I think will be the fact that Lettie is 19.  Which means that married man she hooked up with?  The other men that came after?  Do the math.  Lettie was pretty darn young.  We are talking 1919 Kentucky.  In hill country.  14-year-olds getting married and having babies wouldn't exactly have been uncommon.  That said, I can recognize that Lettie's past and her age are going to be stumbling blocks for some readers.

There's also the matter of Shadow's brothers, who are vile.  They do make very credible villains.  From the oldest boy who wants to use the family's moonshine business to drag the clan into respectability (he has aspirations to run for political office), to brother Tommy - the torturer of small animals and women.  It's Tommy who serves as the biggest threat to the couples' happiness, and brings about the second bit of problematic elements in the story that could be a bit much for some readers (Spoiler Alert: He shows up at Lettie's cabin, snaps her cat's neck, and almost rapes her.  Meanwhile, another brother, seeking revenge, carves his mark into Lettie's skin using a switchblade. /End Spoiler)

Which probably makes you wonder how I could possibly like this story.  Well the romance is actually really sweet, and sprinkled throughout are some pretty steamy sexual encounters.  Lettie isn't stupid and realizes that getting pregnant is the last thing she wants to do.  I liked that this was a conscious thought for both characters.  Even Shadow, who isn't experienced, recognizes that pregnancy would be....not a very good idea.  I love historical romance, but even I give the side-eye to heroines who hop into bed without nary a thought of consequences - especially when back in those days an out-of-wedlock pregnancy basically ruined a woman's life.  So Lettie and Shadow find other ways to have some fun (Yay! Reindeer Games!), before they succumb to temptation and Lettie begins employing mountain herbal remedies and vinegar douches to get the job done (Sorry if this offends folks - but we're talking social history so....OK, I'm not sorry).

It won't be a book for everybody, certainly.  Hillbillies. The villains. It's very backwoods country.  But I enjoyed it all the same, and am glad I stumbled across this particular unusual historical.  Worth a look the next time you find yourself burnt out on taffeta and ballrooms.

Final Grade = B