Review: The Rana Look

The Sandra Brown tear continues, this time with a book recommended by friend of the blog, and TBR Challenge participant, Eurohackie. The Rana Look is another of Brown's category romances, published as Loveswept #136 in 1986. Even with a preposterous plot I was surprised how well this one held up, but let's not get ahead of ourselves. It's still a forty-year-old category romance. While in some ways this was a step forward, there were still plenty of steps taken backwards.

Rana Ramsey is a successful model who chucked aside the glitz and glamor of the lifestyle thanks to a stage mother from hell. When the straw breaks the camel's back, she heads south to Galveston, Texas where she's renting an apartment from an elderly landlady and supporting herself as a textile artist. However thanks to her unique look, to stay truly hidden and away from the prying eyes of the public, she takes to disguising herself with frumpy, oversized clothes, tinted glasses, no make-up, and she's started eating like a normal person, so she's put on about twenty pounds. Life is going well for Rana until her landlady's nephew arrives to upset the apple cart. 

Trent Gamblin (no, I am not making that up...) is an NFL quarterback who has a few weeks until spring training and his injured shoulder just isn't healing properly.  The problem is his lifestyle. Trent is Mr. Good Time, partying and playing it up in Houston, women falling at his feet, the world being his oyster. Now on the wrong side of thirty, he knows his playing days are numbered and he wants to go out on his own terms. Which means getting out of Houston, away from temptation, and nursing that shoulder. His aunt has a vacant apartment in Galveston, that seems like a solid plan - until he meets Rana who he knows as "Miss Ramsey" and then "Ana."

Rana hits the ground running in the prickly department. Frankly she starts out as bit of a over-sensitive bitch, and then you realize why she's like that. She takes one look at Trent and just KNOWS the type of guy he is. The ego on this guy is amazing. He's used to women falling all over themselves and here's dowdy spinster Miss Ramsey who looks like she stepped in something smelly every time she's around him. So, naturally, because he's a jerk and bored he thinks he'll get his jollies by seducing the spinster - that is until Rana calls him out on ALL his bullshit and seriously just read this book if only for that scene (Chapter 3, you're welcome).

Original Cover

After this dressing down our couple settles into a friendship, even though Trent freely admits he has no clue how to be friends with a woman. To that end, our guy is still far from perfect, he throws out the requisite "prude" and "frigid" insults when Rana doesn't fall right into bed with him, but at least he has the good sense to apologize (a couple of times actually) over the course of this book realizing what a jerk he's been. Also there's a fantastic scene at the end where one of his teammates dresses him down for using Rana to prop up his own male ego. The word "fragile" is actually thrown back in Trent's face which was so very delicious.

Of course these two have more in common then they first realize because Rana is hiding her true identity. She's never had any genuine affection in her life, no one being capable of seeing past her looks to get to know the real person. Trent's worth is wrapped up entirely in his ability to throw a football, what happens when he's put out to pasture before he even hits 40?  

Brown says some interesting things about youth and beauty culture in this book that feel downright progressive for 1986, but that doesn't mean there's still not plenty of grossness.  Rana's 5'9" and at the height of her career she was 110 lbs. Then when she starts eating more than just lettuce and water, she puts on 20 lbs. Folks, maybe it's because I'm 5'9" that I spent this entire book wondering how Rana was able to stand upright and be conscious.  At my skinniest I weighed in at about 125 lbs, had the figure of a No. 2 pencil, and was passing out from iron deficiency anemia. I mean, no two bodies are the same and modeling is, well, modeling but c'mon. Also, I'm not gonna lie, I felt some kind of way when a waitress at a Mexican restaurant Trent and Rana go to is described as "fat." 

Trent truly does seem to fall for Rana in her dowdy Ana disguise, but naturally when the truth comes out he gets all up in his man fee-fees, which just leads credence to the idea that it's all about stroking his ego and having a woman at his side who may just possibly outshine him gets him all butt-hurt. 

So, yes, this is very interesting but it was still 1986. However to liven up some of that grossness we are regaled with some fantastic fashion descriptions, right down to Trent wearing cut-off jean shorts and midriff baring T-shirts while working out 😂.

As much as I loved the completely over-the-top bananapants of A Treasure Worth Seeking, I feel like this one works slightly better because while the supermodel living as a spinster trope is equally as absurd, there's not a piling on of the bananapants.  Sometimes less is indeed more.

Final Grade = B 

The Heat Is On: Unusual Historicals for August 2024

As if the August heat wasn't reason enough to stay hydrated, running the marathon that is this month's crop of Unusual Historicals would be another. Folks, we have 15 (count 'em 15!) titles this month. Is it any wonder I'm a little later than usual getting this post up? I had to pace myself! Now for your browsing pleasure, here we go...

 

How the Wallflower Wins a Duke by Lucy Morris

Marina Fletcher’s Rules:

Rule 1: Spend life composing music in peace. Do not worry about finding a husband.

Rule 2: If must worry about finding a husband, marry for love only or commit to becoming a spinster.

Rule 3: Resist urge to spend time with the sinfully sexy Duke of Framlingham, who clearly does not believe in love.

Rule 4: Never ever say yes to said duke’s wicked plan for us to silence society’s expectations with a fake engagement…

But what happens when this wallflower breaks every single rule?

Morris takes a break from the Vikings she's known for for a new Regency era stand-alone featuring a wallflower music composer heroine who finds herself saddled with a fake engagement - as you do. I've enjoyed several of Morris's Viking romances so I'm intrigued by this one.

The Housekeeper's Secret by Iona Grey

Duty, desire, and deception reside under one roof.

Standing in the remote windswept moors of Northern England, Coldwell Hall is the perfect place to hide. For the past five years, Kate Furniss has maintained her professional mask so carefully that she almost believes she is the character she has created: Coldwell’s respectable housekeeper.

It is the summer of 1911 that brings new faces above and below the stairs of Coldwell Hall—including the handsome and mysterious new footman, Jem Arden. Just as the house’s shuttered rooms open, so does Kate’s guarded heart to a love affair that is as intense as it is forbidden. But Kate can feel her control slipping as Jem harbors secrets of his own.

Told in alternating timelines from the last sun-drenched summer of the Edwardian Age to the mud-filled trenches of WWI, The Housekeeper's Secret opens its door to a world of romance, the truths we hold onto, and the past we must let go.

A below-stairs romance set in the early 20th century featuring a heroine and hero both with secrets and a heaping dose of Gothic vibes. Yes please.

How to Fall for a Scoundrel by Kate Bateman

As a founding member of King & Co., London’s most successful private investigation firm, studious Eleanor Law delights in secretly proving that women can solve crimes just as well as men. When a charming con man pretends to be her fictional boss, "Charles King," Ellie knows he’s lying, but accepting the scoundrel’s offer of help might just be the key to cracking her new case and recovering a priceless manuscript.

“Henri Bonheur”—or “Harry” as he asks to be called—claims his criminal past is behind him, but a man who steals and seduces with such consummate ease can never be trusted. As the investigation draws them deeper into danger and desire, Ellie’s infuriated to realize she’s developed feelings for her law-breaking accomplice. How can she love the scoundrel when she doesn’t even know his real name? And what will happen when Harry’s past finally catches up with him?

A heroine who runs a private investigation firm meets her "boss," and despite knowing he's lying through his teeth partners with him to solve her latest case. She just forgot the first rule: do not fall in love with a con man.

Untamed by Lisa Rayne

Proper eastern lady Mary Catherine Templeton is on the verge of being destitute when she inherits a saloon out west. She’s determined to take her bachelor’s degree and make a success of the struggling liquor joint, even after her innocent sensibilities are shocked to discover its other sinful commodity.

All burnt-out bounty hunter Blaaze Lassiter wants is to retire in a quiet, uneventful town, catch up on his reading, and try a little whittling. He thought he'd found the perfect place to abandon his live-by-the-gun ways. But ever since that she-devil changed the rules for the amenities in her establishment, the townsmen have started a ruckus detrimental to his peaceful existence.

When the backlash against Mary Catherine becomes life-threatening, Blaaze feels duty-bound to strap on his guns again to protect the woman who’s got his blood riled in more ways than one. And once he puts down this insurrection, he’s gonna take up a new leisure activity—one that involves giving the prissy college graduate a whole different kind of education.

I'm not going to lie, Blaaze spelled with two a's makes my eyes roll, but IT'S A WESTERN!  In references readers of a certain age will probably only get, the author is tagging this one as The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas meets Shane and honestly this could be a lot of fun.

Uncovering the Governess's Secrets by Marguerite Kaye

She’s running from the past…

Am I the key to her future?

As a private investigator to the rich, it’s my job to be impartial, but returning to moody Edinburgh—the city where I made my name—to locate Marianne Crawford unsettles me. And when I meet the beguiling governess in question, I’m inexplicably drawn to her…

Marianne Crawford is a survivor. She’s lived through experiences designed to destroy her. But I’m here to reveal her true identity, not to fall under her spell. I’ve never been afraid of secrets, but once I uncover this one, I’m afraid I won’t be able to walk away…

Kaye is back with a stand-alone Gothic set in Edinburgh and I am here for it! Our heroine has escaped an asylum and is hiding in plain sight as a governess. Our hero is a former policeman turned private investigator. 

The Berlin Apartment by Bryn Turnbull

Berlin 1961: When Uli Neumann proposes to Lise Bauer, she has every reason to accept. He offers her love, respect, and a life beyond the strict bounds of the East German society in which she was raised — which she longs to leave more than anything. But only two short days after their engagement, Lise and Uli are torn violently apart when barbed wire is rolled across Berlin, splitting the city into two hostile halves: capitalist West Berlin, an island of western influence isolated far beyond the iron curtain; and the socialist East, a country determined to control its citizens by any means necessary. 

Soon, Uli and his friends in West Berlin hatch a plan to get Lise and her unborn child out of East Germany, but as distance and suspicion bleed into their lives and as weeks turn to months, how long can true love survive in the divided city?

How's this for high stakes conflict? You fall in love, you get engaged and two days later the Soviets are rolling barbed wire across Berlin separating you from your fiancé. After a dearth of World War II era historical fiction with romantic elements, this sounds positively fresh.

A Scandal at Stonecliffe by Candace Camp

After the scandal of his broken engagement, Nathan Dunbridge accepted his fate as a bachelor—so of course that’s when the most ineligible woman of all turns up in disguise at a society event: Verity Cole, former spy and Stonecliffe’s resident troublemaker… a woman Nathan finds equal parts alluring and irritating.

Living in London under an assumed name, Verity runs an investigation agency. So when a stranger shows up claiming to be the rightful Dunbridge heir, Nathan turns to Verity to help him uncover the truth. Verity agrees, always eager to unravel a mystery—especially when it involves the handsome Nathan Dunbridge.

As Nathan’s family secrets threaten everything he’s known, he finds Verity is the only person he wants to confide in. But Verity has secrets too—secrets that make it impossible to be with a proper gentleman like Nathan. And when an enemy from her past appears, will Nathan and Verity be able to hold on to their impossible love, or will they be torn apart?

The final book in Camp's Stonecliffe trilogy features a former spy heroine now running an investigative agency, a hero contending with a man claiming to be his family's rightful heir, and a heaping helping of secrets coming from both sides. Oh, and our heroine and hero share a past, because what's a romance novel without some complications?

Unexpectedly Wed to the Heir by Lydia San Andres

His vow?

To protect her!

After dressmaker Aura Soriana’s father passes away, her home and livelihood are left on the line. With only herself to count on, she’s cautious when she meets handsome Eduardo Martinez, heir to a shipping empire, and has no time for his easygoing attitude and showy gestures!

When Eduardo discovers Aura’s home has been broken into, and the dangerous men pursuing her are linked to his family, the only way to keep her safe is to claim she’s his fiancée! Yet if independent Aura’s to meet him at the altar, Eduardo must face his past and show her she can rely on him…

San Andres' fourth book in her Caribbean Courtships series is set in 1910 Dominican Republic and features a dressmaker heroine in uncertain waters after her father's death, a shipping heir hero and a fake engagement.

 

Good Duke Gone Wild by Bethany Bennett

Dorian Whitaker, Duke of Holland, needs an heir after his so-called “fairytale marriage” ended in disaster. When the intriguing bookseller he’s hired to liquidate his late wife’s library finds love letters revealing an affair, he is drawn into a mystery alongside a lady whose sharp intellect dazzles him and dares him to imagine a new adventure outside the gilded cage of the Ton.

If anyone found out Caroline Danvers writes erotic novels under a pen name, she’d face utter ruin. Except her latest hero inspiration is none other than the Duke of Holland—a man with the power to destroy her family’s bookshop. And yet the real man proves to be so much more than the character she created. Even as they expose the dark secrets of his past, she knows he can never discover her own. But the more time they spend together, the more tempting it is to rewrite their ending and turn fantasy into reality.

Yes, the first book in the Bluestocking Booksellers series does feature a Duke hero but a BLUSTOCKING BOOKSELLER! Ahem. To complicate matters the heroine is the secret writer of erotic novels and oopsie doodle, the hero was her latest "inspiration." 

A Scandalous Match for the Marquess by Christine Merrill

From one scandal

Straight into the arms of another!

Felicity Morgan has written a lurid gothic novel and all of London is clamoring for the sequel! But her mortified family have sent her to the countryside in disgrace! Felicity is relieved to be free of her parents’ relentless matchmaking—until she learns her host has a marquess in mind for her…

Reclusive widower Martin Howell, Marquess of Woodley, has no interest in entertaining rebellious Felicity, but she is bringing lightness to his gloomy estate…and his brooding heart. They bond over their determination to remain unwed…until a kiss brings them to the brink of another scandal!

Another heroine who has secretly written a gothic novel except, well, she gets found out and naturally her family is less than thrilled. Hustled off to the country to lay low, she's more than happy to escape any more attempts at matchmaking. She just didn't exactly plan on meeting our hero, a widower determined to remain unwed.

The Duke and the Darkness by Anna Harrington 

When Their Deepest Secrets Come to Light…

Devlin Raines, Duke of Dartmoor, has worked hard to put his father’s sins and his life as a former mercenary into the past. He’s saved the family’s reputation, kept his mother and sisters safe, and is on the verge of a respectable—if loveless—marriage. His future seems on track—until a mysterious, beautiful woman inverts his world…a woman who can only be a ghost.

Only the Darkness Can Save Them

Peyton Chandler is dead to the world. When assassins attacked her family’s carriage ten years ago, killing her parents and attacking her, she faked her own death to stay alive. But now she’s returned to London to seek revenge against the man she believes was responsible…Devlin Raines. Only the more time she spends with him, the more everything she thought was true falls apart. And before she knows it, her only safe path to finding answers depends upon her ability to trust the one man she swore to destroy.

A Duke who just so happens to be a former mercenary (because, of course) is ready to settle into a dull life of respectability when a woman, returned from the dead, shows up seeking revenge. I mean, if it's not one thing it's another AMIRITE?!

The Forest Bride by Susan King

He broke her heart years ago. Now she desperately needs his help...

When her escort party is ambushed, Lady Margaret Keith is desperate to rescue her young charge, the Scottish king’s daughter, and find a stolen seeing-stone. An archery contest offers the opportunity she needs. Dressed as a lad, she accidentally wounds a lord, escapes into the forest, and is caught by the local justiciar—the man who left her heartbroken years ago.

After years in English custody, Sir Duncan Campbell is now a Scottish judge. Recognizing Margaret despite her disguise, aware she knows he unlawfully hides the English king’s gyrfalcon, he spirits her away to his Highland castle. There she reveals an unbelievable tale of a missing princess and a faery stone and begs his help. Even as passion rekindles between them, forgiveness is elusive.

Yet when danger erupts, they must trust each other—and gamble that love will mend past hurts and save the future…

This is the second book in King's Highland Secrets series and, from what I can tell, a new release and not a reprint. The heroine's quest for a stolen seeing-stone lands her in hot water and into the arms of our hero, now a Scottish judge with sticky ties to the English.

Rescuing the Runaway Heiress by Sadie King

Will a double masquerade…

Reveal their one true love?

Running away from a forced betrothal, daring actress Hope Sloane is lost and injured when she’s rescued by dashing gentleman Samuel Liddell. As she’s given the best guest chamber at Hayton Hall, it’s clear the baronet thinks she’s a society lady! To avoid being found out, she employs all her acting skills to become a grand heiress…

Only, second son Samuel is not a baronet, either! But to make Hope feel safe, he goes along with her assumption. Hidden away together, the affection between them deepens, until unexpected guests arrive, and his lie threatens to backfire spectacularly!

A runaway actress has to pretend to be a society lady to ensure her safety only to be rescued by a second son pretending to be a baronet. This appears to be, at least, a duet - the first book also taking place at Hayton Hall and featuring a hero who actually IS the baronet.

Passion at the Palais Royal by Delphine Roy

Passion thrives in the midst of vengeance.

The perilous streets of the Palais Royal have hardened Nicolas Lefevre. Orphaned during the Revolution, scarred by years spent in a violent gang, he is now determined to strike his own path training others in savate, the hand-to-hand combat that allowed him to survive. But to open a legitimate gymnasium, he must avoid the escalating conflicts of Paris’s criminal underworld. A beautiful thief who turns to him for help threatens to plunge him back into the life he vowed to leave behind.

The family fortunes squandered by her wastrel brother, Violet de la Roque resorts to picking pockets for the city’s most notorious crime lord. At least until her employer decides she would make him more profit on her back, a fate she is desperate to avoid. She believes Nicolas might give her a fighting chance, but secret savate lessons soon turn into a deeper connection.

The third book in the author's Bleu Blanc Rouge trilogy features a hero who teaches savate (!) a pickpocket heroine under the thumb of a notorious crime lord who the hero only narrowly escaped himself. AztecLady gave this one a qualified recommendation and I really need to dig into this entire trilogy.

Knight of Havoc by Sherry Ewing

Long ago, Reynard Norwood loved deeply, but the lady died, and he vowed never to love again. On a mission for the Empress Matilda, he finds a lady worthy of love. She is barely surviving. How can he leave her? But how can he break his vow to the dead? Torn between loyalty to a ghost and following his heart, he must still make certain that the living lady is safe and secure.

The life of Lady Elysande Thorburn of Blackmore has been in turmoil since King Stephen and his men laid siege to her home. With few resources, she must care for an ailing grandfather and meet her responsibilities to those loyal to the household. Her options for survival are running out. One of Empress Matilda’s knights arrives at her weakest moment. He’s determined she must leave with him, but she’s just as determined to stay.

Ewing wraps up her Knights of Anarchy trilogy with this final book, featuring a "I'll never love again!" hero who does, indeed, fall in love again with our heroine barely surveying after a siege on her home. 

Whew! Another bounty of possibilities this month just in case you feel like you're not buried enough under your TBR. What Unusual Historicals are you looking forward to? 

#TBRChallenge 2024: A Rendezvous to Remember

The Book: A Rendezvous to Remember by Geri Krotow

Particulars: Contemporary romance, Harlequin Everlasting #20, 2007, Out of print, Available digitally

Why Was It In Wendy's TBR?: My print copy is brand new and unsigned but I'm fairly certain I must have picked this up in either a conference goodie room or a local RWA chapter event. That means it was a freebie and a category romance so of course it was in my TBR.

The Review: Everlasting originally started out as a mini-series within the sadly departed and still deeply mourned Harlequin SuperRomance line. Eventually Harlequin spun it off into it's own short-lived (about a year?) line where the marketing was "Every great love has a story to tell." That translated to non-traditional "historical" settings (mid-20th century in some cases) and present-day settings featuring older couples and plots that leaned in on second chance, marriage in trouble etc. I collected a few of these but it was never a line I was actively drawn to or mourned after Harlequin pulled the plug.

Melinda Thompson is a speech writer for a senator, now living in D.C., after her husband, Nick, is deployed for a second tour in Afghanistan, their marriage in the final death throes. She's upset he hasn't left the Army Reserves yet and that they've been unable to get pregnant. He's upset that she wants to chuck her teaching job to move to D.C. and write speeches for the senator. They haven't been speaking, Nick being overseas and Melinda dealing with a demanding job and the recent death of her beloved grandmother, who essentially raised her. Well now Melinda is back home in Buffalo, New York - the senator grudgingly allowing her two weeks off so she can look in on Grandpa Jack. What Melinda didn't expect was to walk into her own house, the one she used to share with Nick, to discover he too is back in town.

When Melinda goes to check on Grandpa Jack he gives her two journals, one belonging to him and one belonging to her grandmother - both written during and immediately after World War II.  Jack implores Melinda to read them right away, it was her grandmother's wish - which Melinda, of course, does. Melinda always knew her grandparents met during the war - what she didn't know was that her beloved grandmother was a member of the Belgian Resistance, that her grandfather worked for British Intelligence, and Jack was not Grammy's first husband....

The story is told in dual timelines, present day Buffalo and through the journal entries of Jack's and Grammy Esmèe's journals. There's a good, compelling story here with what should be high stakes conflict. Unfortunately it's wasted on a present day couple who were generally terrible and the poor execution of the World War II storyline told through journal entries.

Here's the problem with the journal entries: It's tell, tell, tell. A more elegant way to put this is to steal from Miss Bates who recently wrote in a review for a completely different book, that that writer "recounts without telling at the reader." Folks, what we have in A Rendezvous to Remember is the opposite. It's all tell, no show. And because it's all tell and no show I have less than zero investment in either couple or their conflict. I should have been on the edge of my seat reading about Esmèe's work with the Belgian Resistance, her first marriage to a vilely abusive husband, of Jack's dangerous work behind enemy lines and his eventual time served in a horrid POW camp.  I've been more riveted reading dry-as-dust nonfiction treatises.

The present day storyline doesn't help matters. Nick has lost the lower half of his left leg to an IED explosion but is hiding that (somehow?!) from Melinda because he doesn't want her to come back to him out of pity. I realize that there have been amazing advancements in prosthetics but really?! He had served her with divorce papers but she still didn't find out about his injury? Either from his family or the Army? There's not a dashed off mention in the story that she was removed as his next of kin notification so how?!  Granted, I don't know much about prosthetics but this one strained for me. I mean, maybe it's possible but I wasn't buying it - which still makes it a problem. I wasn't convinced that she just wouldn't notice something like that.

Original cover

Before you think Melinda is the bad guy here, not supporting Nick's    military service and just running off to D.C. - Nick is no prize either. He doesn't understand why she'd want to take that job for the senator anyway when she could stay in Buffalo and keep being a teacher, no matter she obviously isn't feeling challenged or fulfilled by this career path.  Then he implies that she's only taking this job because her biological clock is ticking and they haven't been able to get pregnant. The vibe I got from him was that a wife with any ambition that doesn't involve staying where he wants to stay, doing what he wants to do, is an issue for him.

Great, I hate both of them. She's selfish and whiny and he's an ass.

Of course in the end it's all right as rain. Melinda gets through the journals. Her and Nick find their way back to each other and we get an epilogue where she squirts out a kid at age 41.  There's no confirmation (!!!) but presumably she's given up her high-pressured demanding job for the senator and is back in Buffalo playing happy homemaker.  Or maybe she went back to teaching. Whatever. There's several mentions in the book that she wanted "more," wanted to "escape" Buffalo, and it's a big factor on why their marriage hit the skids in the first place but in the final chapter nothing is confirmed. I'm assuming she quit the senator and moved back to Nick and Buffalo because Nick mentions he wants to leave behind accounting and open his own landscaping / garden center business. 

Besides hating both Melinda and Nick (which I guess means they maybe deserve each other? Hey, maybe this book does work?) the World War II storyline isn't half-bad but there's absolutely no juice behind it. It's like a cake you take out of the oven too soon. The edges are close to done but you still have raw batter in the center.  It's a quick read and I got a kick out of the Buffalo setting (having lived there in my late teens / early 20s) but that's really about it. Oh well, one more off the pile.

Final Grade = D+

Review: A Treasure Worth Seeking

I've been on a bit of a Sandra Brown tear lately and, as I'm wont to do with an author who got their start writing category romances, I asked for recommendations.  Steve Ammidown from Romance Fiction Has a History recommended A Treasure Worth Seeking, which was originally published in 1982 as Candlight Ecstasy #59 (Brown's first editor was THE Vivian Stephens!) under her first pen name, Rachel Ryan. If anything, Steve undersold this one. Not only is it a ride featuring all the bananapants you could possibly hope for in a 1982 category romance, it's a really interesting book in a "history of the genre" sort of way.

Spoilers Ahoy! Look, you've had since 1982....

Erin O'Shea is in San Francisco because she has finally found her long lost brother. Erin and her brother were adopted, separately, as children, Ken being a toddler, Erin only an infant. The man who greets her at the door is strikingly handsome and sure he doesn't resemble her all that much, but she's just so excited to finally meet Ken! That is until "Ken" lays the mother of all smoldering kisses on her.

Ken is, of course, not Ken. He's Lance Barrett, Treasury Agent. Millions of dollars were embezzled from the bank where Ken works (his father-in-law is the bank president, talk about awkward!) and Ken, naturally, has vanished. The Treasury Department has set up camp in his home and the conveniently vacant home across the street hoping Ken will be in contact with his wife. Frankly Erin's story stinks to high heaven. A gorgeous, young thing with a preposterous story.  Lance, in true 1982 Romance Hero Fashion, behaves accordingly from the punishing kiss, to patting her down, to telling her she can't leave until they verify her "story."

Erin's story is verified in short order, but she's not about to leave her sweet, frankly naïve, sister-in-law to the sharks, especially since her parents are simply vile. She's about as happy to spend more time in Lance's company as he is hers, and we're soon off to the races with a - not an Enemy to Lovers trope necessarily, more like a Instant Dislike Yet I Still Want to Climb You Like a Jungle Gym trope.

Let's get this out of the way up front - 1982. When you're reading a romance of this age you just need to be prepared for some problematic crap.  Lance has swings of wild jealousy, mostly related to Erin being sort of engaged (it's complicated).  She slaps him. He manhandles her. He doesn't rape her but in the heat of a physical argument she can't help but start swooning 🙄.  Yes, it's problematic. Is it the most egregious example of this kind of nonsense I've read in other romances with a much younger pedigree? Not even close. 

Original Cover

Where it's really interesting, besides the completely bananapants set-up, is with the risks Brown takes with the story.  There's a few scenes told from Lance's point of view, which was BEYOND rare for romances published during this period. It just wasn't done.  It's just a couple of scenes, but baby steps y'all.  Also, per the author's note, this is the first book where Brown slipped in a sort of suspense thread. It isn't a suspense thread in the traditional sense, we never really find out why Ken did what he did and the resolution to that aspect of the story, while a little surprising (in a good way!), isn't much of a brain teaser. 

Finally, abortion is actually mentioned. In case you didn't think the plot set-up was bananapants enough, Erin is, naturally, a virgin widow and after riding Lance like a stallion she ends up pregnant. Of course abortion is dismissed as quickly as it's brought up.  Erin is Catholic and immediately dismisses it as something she just "couldn't do" but there's also not any judgement towards "sluts" who may choose otherwise. Heck, just abortion being mentioned on page was kind of jaw-dropping, not gonna lie.

Would I recommend this book like I would recommend a book with a more current publication date? No - at least not without a list of caveats. That said, if you're interested in the trajectory of Brown's career or just the overall history of the romance genre, this was a really interesting book. Better still? It had enough of the bananapants to be a quick, entertaining read.

Grade = B

Reminder: #TBRChallenge Day is August 21

Somehow it's August (seriously, how?!) and our next #TBRChallenge Day is Wednesday, August 21.  This month's optional theme is Everyday Heroes.

This is another suggestion that came out of my Annual Theme Poll and it's a chance to dig out a book featuring a hero who isn't a Duke or a billionaire.  The hero without a silver spoon, just a regular, every day guy who wakes up one morning the hero of his own romance novel.

However, remember that the themes are totally optional. Maybe you're in the mood for a fabulously wealthy hero or a swoony Regency-era Duke. Hey, you do you! The goal of the challenge has been, and always will be, to read something (anything!) that's been languishing in your mountain range of unread books. 

It is certainly not too late to join the Challenge (to be honest it's never too late).  You can get more details and get links to the current list of participants on the #TBRChallenge 2024 Information Page. 

Review: Blind Tiger

Sandra Brown has been published for over forty years, and that kind of longevity, plus it being the early 1980s, it stands to reason she did publish some historical romance back in the day. But it wasn't many, and it wasn't until her 2009 release, Rainwater, that I took notice of her ability to write historical settings. My enjoyment of that book (I'll be blunt, it's a tearjerker that wrecked me) and the premise of Blind Tiger, led me to downloading the ARC, where it's been languishing on my Kindle since 2021. Y'all, I could just kick myself in the teeth for not reading it sooner. I have some minor quibbles (hello, me) but this book was a 500+ page ride I did not want to get off of.

Content Warnings: Infant death due to illness, suicide, on-page (and brutal) sexual assault of secondary character.

Laurel Plummer grew up in a house with a disapproving father and too many mouths to feed, so when she saw her chance to escape, she took it by marrying Derby Plummer, a charming young man her parents immediately disapproved of. They married, her parents disowned her, and shortly thereafter Derby was drafted to fight in World War I. The war is now over and Derby is home, but a changed man. Never mind that Prohibition has made alcohol illegal, Derby is drunk more often than not and can't hold down a job, leaving Laurel and their baby, Pearl, in a very precarious situation. But things might be looking up. Derby says his father has gotten him a job back in his hometown of Foley, Texas, they just need to get their ramshackle Model T the 150 miles there. They do eventually make it, only for Laurel to realize that Irv has no clue that 1) his son was coming 2) that he had wife and 3) that he was a grandfather. They're not at Irv's shack very long before Derby decides to put a gun to his head and commit suicide.

With no place to go, and Irv being a decent sort, she and Pearl settle in to life in the shack outside of Foley. Then, one day, a stranger shows up. Thatcher Hutton hopped in a railcar looking to get back to the ranch he was working at in the Panhandle before he was sent off to war. He didn't plan of running afoul of the hobos he fleeced (fair and square!) in a poker game. He fights his way out of that scrape by throwing some punches and jumping from the moving train. He comes across Laurel as he's hoofing it into town, which is where his real trouble begins.

Foley is a small town, and even with oil fields sprouting up all over the countryside, strangers are immediately cast with a suspicious eye. So when the town doctor's wife vanishes without a trace, Thatcher is immediately suspected. A nosy neighbor saw the woman feeding him shortbread earlier that day and nobody buys his story that he was there because he saw an advertisement for a room for rent. The local sheriff eventually realizes that he's got nothing to hold Thatcher on (no matter how much the town mayor and the doctor are blatting) and he takes a shine to him. He reminds him of his son who died in the war. He also recognizes that the cowboy is observant, smart and would make a hell of a lawman. There's a storm brewing in Foley in the form of rival moonshiners and the sheriff, with crooks all around can use all the help he can get. 

Eventually what happens is that Thatcher finds himself with no place to go, so he stays in Foley until something better comes along.  Laurel recognizes that she can't raise a baby in a rickety shack, and convinces Irv they move to town and discovers that her father-in-law has a tidy, yet small, moonshine business on the side. When baby Pearl succumbs to pneumonia, our heroine is officially all out of f*cks. If Irv is going to support them illegally, he might as well make some real money. Laurel is soon the brains of the operation, but her business soon gathers attention from all the wrong sorts of people.

The best way to describe this book is historical fiction with romantic elements and a slow burn suspense plot. The romance here is obviously Thatcher and Laurel but it's never the engine driving the story and honestly one of the weaker aspects.  It's a mix of Insta-Lust with some adversarial mistrust thrown in on the side. Laurel is up to her pretty little eyeballs in the mess, Thatcher knows this, it's just piecing the whole thing together. 

This book clocks in at over 500 pages and it takes a while for the suspense to cook.  The missing doctor's wife comes into play fairly quickly, but the moonshine business simmers a bit longer.  Brown uses this time on world-building and it's all dynamite. I could feel the Texas heat and smell the dust before long. There's a wide cast of secondary characters but I had no problem keeping track of who was who because they all serve their purpose, and serve it well. This slow burn also builds up the tension as greed bubbles over into violence.

The older I get the more I've come to realize that what I want in my fiction reading is to get lost in a book. I want to be transported. Escapism is maybe part of that, but mostly I just want to be in the hands of a good storyteller and y'all, this story hooked me but good. It's not a story that will work for some readers, Pearl's death, while not violent, is very sad. There's a particularly brutal sexual assault of a secondary character once the suspense heats up, and Laurel is a very prickly sort of heroine. Justifiably prickly in my opinion but I can see some readers dinging this because they "don't like her." Well, she's not always likable. 

However, I wasn't necessarily reading this for the romance. Once the world-building sunk it's claws into me Brown could have taken this story in any multitude of directions and I would have been happy to be led around on a leash.  Am I happy that Laurel and Thatcher get their happy ending? Well, of course, I'm not a monster. But it was the historical fiction wrapped up with a saga-like bow featuring a compelling suspense plot where Prohibition has even normally law-abiding citizens happily and willingly breaking the law that hooked me. Here's hoping Brown keeps cooking up more historical fiction.

Final Grade = A-

Review: Out Of Nowhere

As an avid reader there are times that a book might not be firing on all cylinders for me that I can see a few cracks or have a few quibbles. I can recognize the book isn't perfect and yet? I don't really care. Something about it sucks me in, quibbles and all. My flippant response to the phenomenon is usually, "I knew I was in the hands of a pro."  That's how I felt while I was inhaling Out of Nowhere by Sandra Brown.  Is this book perfect? No. Did I still lose an entire Saturday reading it? Yes.

Content Warnings: Mass shooting, murdered toddler

It's a rare night out of the house for single mom and children's book author, Elle Portman. She and her two-year-old son, Charlie, are at the county fair.  Her BFF, Glenda, has just peeled off to catch the concert of a local up-and-coming country singer, and Elle is trying to maneuver Charlie's bulky stroller through the exit gates and battling the crowds coming in for the festivities that evening. 

Calder Hudson is a consultant who has just finished a job and has a big fat paycheck in his pocket to prove it. He's all set to celebrate with his TV news reporter girlfriend, Shauna - except he forgot she's at the county fair to interview a country singer and she's now put out that he's not rushing over there to support her. He, quite frankly, doesn't want to go - but he also wants to get laid. Shauna's petulant nose getting out of joint won't get him laid and Calder wants to celebrate his success.  He's making his way through the gates of the county fair when he bumps into a woman wrestling with a ridiculous stroller. He's knocking his way past her when he hears it. The pop, pop, pop of gunfire. Calder knows guns and he knows what gunfire sounds like.

It's mass confusion. A melee. The kindly old man next to Elle is the first to drop. Charlie's stroller is knocked away, Elle frantic to reach him, and that's when the man in the well-tailored suit steps in to grab at Charlie's stroller.  Then...the world goes black.

Calder wakes up in the hospital with a gunshot wound in his shoulder and the mother of all headaches thanks to a concussion.  He's being hailed a hero. His instinctive reactions once the shooting started saved some lives - just not Charlie Portman's. The precious two-year-old boy is dead.

Elle is physically fine. She knocked the hell out of her elbow, but did no permanent damage. But her son, her beautiful baby boy, the love of her life, is gone. 

This is a story of how two very different people, who would likely have never had reason to cross paths in their normal everyday lives, are brought together by a horrible tragedy. Elle is protected from the jump by her pitbull of a friend Glenda. Calder's support system is limited to Shauna, whose ambitions hit hyperdrive since she was on the scene when the shooting started. She's very much of the If It Bleeds It Leads school and she's a real piece of work. For that matter, so is Calder. To call this guy a son of a bitch prior to the shooting is underselling it. This is not a good guy. But then the shooting happens and the tragedy connects him to Elle - a woman he is gobsmacked by. 

It all gets very complicated when the cops realize that the guy they think did it, the guy they thought was a suicide - turns out to be another casualty.  They're caught with their pants down. The shooter is still at large and the scene is a logistical nightmare. As the story unfolds Calder and Elle get sucked further into danger. 

Right out of the gate let's start with the very tough subject matter. Charlie's death is on page, but not described with too much horrific detail. Although honestly, how much detail do you need for a two-year-old's murder to be horrifying? The author keeps the story in third person and does head hop, primarily between Elle and Calder, which helps with character development and understanding how each of them is processing their grief and trauma. The romance doesn't play off quite so well however. Even with a two month jump ahead in the timeline, it still feels a little fast - especially where Calder is concerned. He's drawn to Elle immediately and the whole thing comes off very Insta-Love. For her part, Elle is much more reticent when it comes to her attraction to Calder, but I also fully understood her falling into a bout of frenzied sex with him when she did. Take comfort where you can find it girl and there's Calder standing right there looking all hot and smoldering. 

Ultimately though, at the end of the final chapter, I'm not sure what is holding these two people together outside of their shared trauma. Not just the shooting, but the events that unfold after the shooting before the killer is brought to justice. The romance is further complicated by Calder's pre-shooting life and the fact that he's not a good guy. The trauma he's experienced from the shooting changes him, humanizes him, but there's ugly bits lurking under rocks that will eventually show up to complicate matters (as if they weren't complicated enough already).

As for suspense angle, the stops and starts of the police investigation, I thought, were handled well. The couple of instances of being inside the killer's mind I frankly could have done without, as well as our bad guy tipping the scales towards unhinged at the end.

Is it perfect? No. Did I care? Not in the least. Y'all I forgot how great stand-alone romantic suspense novels could be. I haven't been reading lately. Not much has been holding my attention or capturing my interest. This book did. I lost a Saturday reading it. I lolly-gagged in bed, inhaled every word, and barely came up for air.  No, it's not perfect, but I'm marking it as one for the win column.

Final Grade = B

Mini-Reviews: Hollywood Sleaze And Mermaids

Hey y'all, I realize this blog has been pretty much a Dead Zone, but I have not been reading. Stress, no spoons, and oh look the Olympics are on! The good news is that I'm working an upcoming author event for a former employer and I have homework reading to do, so hopefully that will kick my butt in gear. In the meantime, here's two recent mystery/suspense reads that I got through on audiobook.  One a success and one that I was glad to be done with.

L.A. Burning by D.C. Taylor was an impulse download back in 2022 and this one started out like a house on fire. There is nothing that will hook me faster in a suspense novel quite like Los Angeles sleaze, and this book ups the ante by giving me a dynamite heroine.

Cody Bonner is the daughter of a celebrated actress, turned LA street kid, turned addict, turned bank robber. It's those last two that land her in prison at the tender age of twenty. At the start of our story she's leaving prison with one thing on her mind, find the scum responsible for her twin sister's murder. A year ago Julie's body was found on a Malibu beach and to find her killer Cody has to go back into her mother's world of Hollywood glitz, power brokers, high priced hookers misogynistic men with violent tendencies, and old high school friends swimming with the sharks. 

The world-building is great and the heroine even better (an excon bank robber!).  When the author works this as a amateur sleuth story featuring a street savvy heroine, I was hooked.  But then he chooses to morph it into a thriller, with Cody planning to murder the man she feels is responsible for Julie's death - and it kind of took the shine off a bit more me. On top of that, while the ending is action packed and very exciting, the resolution to the mystery is a bit of a no brainer.  The minute all the players were introduced I immediately pegged who was swimming up to their eyeballs in muck. 

That said, even though the mystery wasn't a brain-teaser, and I wasn't in love with the thriller aspects, this still was an enjoyable read for me.  L.A. sleaze as a setting for suspense novels is catnip for me and this delivered.  I also think this would make a dynamite series, but alas, so far this is a one off. 

Grade = B

Back in 2020 I read the first book in the Enchanted Bay cozy mystery series by Esme Addison and surprisingly liked it. Yes, even with the paranormal elements. So when the second book, A Hex for Danger came out, I proceeded to add it to my TBR pile, where it's been sitting for the past three years. 

Picking up where the last book left off, Alexsandra Daniels has decided to stay in Bellamy Bay to be close to the family she's just recently reconnected with - her Aunt Lidia who runs the local apothecary, and her two cousins, Minka and Kamila. Alex is helping to run the family business and continuing to get used to the idea of her magical heritage, being a descendant of the Mermaid of Warsaw. Alex has not only just learned of her own magical abilities but that the world is full of magicals hiding in plain sight, even right there in small town Bellamy Bay.

The town is gearing up for their annual Mermaid Festival and a local artist breezes into town to paint a mural.  This artist seems to know Alex's secret but before she can figure out how to approach that problem the artist ends up murdered. Alex's boyfriend, the local police chief, zeroes in on one of her distant cousins who has a ton of motive and opportunity. But Alex just KNOWS that Celeste is innocent! Why is Jack always arresting her family members!  There's nothing for it, she's going to prove Celeste is innocent and find the real murderer.

Is Jack a patronizing know-it-all?  Yes. But does that make Celeste look any less guilty? No. And Alex's argument is basically "She couldn't have committed the murder, she's my cousin!"  Girl, every killer is someone's son, daughter, cousin, brother, sister, mother or father. Sit down and let the grown-ups do their job. The paranormal elements, while unique and interesting in the first book, come off like twee short-cuts to mystery solving here and the plot soon gets convoluted with corporate espionage, bad guys on the hunt for lost magical weaponry, and magicals descended from dragons 🙄

But the worst of it is what I feared would happen after finishing the first book. Yep, the author tries to shoehorn in a love triangle. Never mind the other guy, a magical, has a Shady AF family, is Shady AF himself, and used black magic that very well could have killed Alex in the first book.  Look, Jack is annoying but this other guy manages to be worse.  He's the rich guy who fancies himself the altruistic do-gooder but he's actually clueless with evil tendencies. 

This was published in 2021 and a Book 3 has yet to materialize, so that doesn't instill much hope. No matter, this is where I get off regardless.

Final Grade = D