Library Loot Review: Danger Next Door

CW: murdered child 

Having enjoyed several books by Donna Alward in the past (she's written some great Harlequin Romance and Harlequin American Romance titles...) I was curious to try her first Love Inspired Suspense novel. For her first romantic suspense title, she certainly didn't take the easy way out. It's not exactly cheery holiday reading (hey, my library hold came in - whatcha gonna do?) and I suspect the dark plot of Danger Next Door is going to give more than a few romance readers pause.

Seven years ago Andi Wallace's 3-year-old daughter, Chelsea, was taken from their Cadence Creek home and was found dead in the woods.  Andi was suffering from a cold, and fell asleep after taking cold medicine. Consumed by guilt and grief, her marriage to Jim eventually disintegrated and now Andi lives alone.  Every year on the anniversary of her child's murder she goes to the woods where they found her body to leave a bouquet of daisies and mourn. However this year something is waiting for her. Chelsea's stuffed bunny rabbit. The toy she never let out of her sight. The toy she took with her everywhere is nailed to the tree where they found Chelsea's body.  The stuffed rabbit that hasn't been seen for seven years.

Andi is, understandably, upset. She knows she needs to call the cops. But how she was treated 7 years ago (as a suspect) and the fact that her daughter's murder was never solved, makes her distrustful.  So she calls Ryan Davenport. He's her BFF's brother and he's a cop.  He knows her. Their families go way back. He's a safe alternative and will likely believe her (also he won't think she's nuts if the stuffed toy nailed to the tree turns out to be a grief-induced hallucination - although, of course, it isn't).

Ryan was a rookie RCMP when Chelsea was murdered and it's a case that's always haunted him.  Now, with the case cold, the killer has resurfaced to toy with Andi. Incidents start happening.  Vandalism, gaslighting, and it looks like someone has broken into her house on more than one occasion. As he turns up the heat to solve this case, he and Andi get closer - further complicating an already extremely complicated situation.

Right up front I want to disclose that this book isn't graphic (Love Inspired books aren't graphic) but it doesn't have to be to be "dark." I mean, a murdered toddler is Dark AF. It's the kind of plot you'd expect in a grim suspense novel with doom closing in from all angles.  Alward doesn't write dark, the Love Inspired lines aren't dark, so the tone of this story isn't dark.  It's a weird juxtaposition - to have such a grim plot thread but the tone of the story isn't swaddled under a cloak of depression and angst.  I suspect the author realized this, and having the story set seven years after the crime, I think, helps add a certain perspective.  But still, murdered toddlers are Dark AF.

For her first time out of the gate, the author does a good job building suspense.  After the appearance of the stuffed toy, she slowly ramps up the incidents targeting Andi. Who is toying with her? What will happen next?  Andi is, naturally, scared and I loved the turning point when she goes from scared to seriously pissed off.  Someone murdered her child. Someone is screwing with her. She wants answers and justice. There's a couple of possibilities and even though I thought I had it all figured out, I was only partially right - so the story did keep me guessing.

The romance here is a slow-burner and of the just kisses variety but it moves along at an expected pace for a plot of this nature.  It could have ended on a happy for now, but the author chose to put an epilogue in (fast-forwarding a year later) which I thought worked things out nicely.  Given this is a Love Inspired, there's going to be some God Stuff - and I'd call it slightly more than middle of the road. Andi has lost her faith (like, duh), characters go to church, they pray, there's a Bible verse thrown in at one point, but I never felt like I was trying to be converted. It was more of a "characters struggling leaning on faith/God" variety of inspirational.

I have a complicated relationship with romantic suspense and while I wasn't in love with this one, and the Dark AF plot is a lot, it didn't annoy me or make me want to rip my hair out - which is more than I can say for a lot of romantic suspense.  Andi and Ryan are nice people, the bad guy gets caught and Chelsea gets justice. It delivered what I wanted and kept me reading. A solid first suspense offering from a veteran author.

Final Grade = B-

Review: Summer Escape with the Tycoon

There's a kismet that can happen in reading - when the right book finds you at exactly the right time.  After finishing a dumpster fire of a book that had more annoying over-the-top drama to fuel a nightmare soap opera for a decade, Summer Escape with the Tycoon by Donna Alward was just what the doctor ordered.  It's a quiet romance, between two people suffering from their own identity crisis, and realistic baggage that supplies conflict.  Some readers would probably label that boring.  I am not "some readers."

Molly Quinn has always done what is expected of her.  Her older brother was tragically killed by a drunk driver and from that day forward every hope and dream that their parents had for Jack transferred to Molly.   She was the smartest girl in school.  Graduated from Harvard Law.  Specialized in family law (yes, a divorce lawyer), joined her father's firm, and became partner.  But it's starting to get to her.  The grind of the job of dissolving marriages.  Of dividing up lives. Over seeing couples, no longer in love, squabbling over everything from the wedding china to the family pet to their own children.  She's attending a charity function when something in her finally snaps.  She bids in the silent auction on an outdoor adventure-style vacation package.  Snorkeling, kayaking, zip-lining, that kind of thing.  And she wins it.

The trip gets off to a rocky start thanks to a hotel room mix-up, and that's how she meets Eric Chambault - a business tycoon from Montreal who specializes in corporate takeovers.  Basically he buys up struggling companies, trims the fat, sometimes dismantles whole sections, and makes a bunch of money doing it.  He's also just gone through a messy divorce with his wife's lawyer squeezing $30 million out of him.  So finding out Molly, who he thinks is in his room by mistake (it's vice versa), is a divorce lawyer means best first impressions are not made.

Now anyone who has read more than one romance novel in their day would assume that this would be the start of an adversarial relationship where the two characters would spend the next 200+ pages bickering at each other.  And that's where you'd be wrong.  Because despite bad first impressions, despite sometimes putting a foot in their mouth, these are two adult characters who apologize, say "hey, let's start over" and they miraculously do.  They open up about their fears, their pasts, and the complicated relationships they have with their respective families.  In short, you get to read about two people getting to know each other, finding out who they really are, and falling in love.

Alas, it's a "vacation fling" though - so when an external bit of conflict arrives in the final third both Molly and Eric fall back into bad habits (as you do) and have to find their way back to each other.  What's refreshing here?  Is that they recognize that they're BOTH at fault for the blow-up.  She realizes she could have done better and he realizes that he completely over-reacted.

Look, I love over-the-top angst as much as the next reader.  I like plenty of books with outrageous sounding plots and conflict that strains the seams of credulity.  But when all that goes horribly awry and I find myself word vomiting my feelings all over my blog in Ranty McRanty Pants fashion?  To have a book like this come along that shows me the exact opposite?  It restores my faith in the genre a bit.  Sure, Eric is a tycoon and Molly isn't exactly hurting for money either - but we all got problems. And generally speaking?  Most of our baggage is pretty basic.  Strained relationships with family members.  Dissatisfaction with life choices.  And it's nice to read a romance about two people with normal baggage finding each other and falling in love.  Because isn't that what we hope for our ourselves?

Final Grade = B

Mini-Review Round-Up: Hurricane Hottie, Mostly Sunny, Weddings and Scrooge

Sometimes I feel like I have a lot to say about the books I read, and other times?  I just can't be arsed.  I've been on stretch of the latter lately, coupled with blogging ennui - which makes for a particularly deadly cocktail.  Plus, I just sort of feel like I've been very meh about everything I'm reading lately, but a girl's gotta prop up the flagging mojo, so it's time for a round of patented Wendy mini-reviews.

The Bridesmaid and the Hurricane by Kelly Maher - First the disclaimer that the author is a friend, we've presented together at conferences, and I beta read 2 (?) early versions of this book.  The hero is one of those impossibly good-looking men that women lose their minds over, but he's genuinely a very nice guy who only has eyes for the heroine.  The problem?  They had a one-night stand months ago and now they're working together.  She's been burned before by an office romance so is not keen to mix business with pleasure again.  Another added complication is that the heroine's boss is an evil piece-of-work.

The conflict of the heroine's Evil (and naturally, female) Boss is one I'm not a big fan of, but Maher chooses a wise course of action by creating a large cast of sympathetic and interesting secondary players living in the hero's and heroine's orbits.  In other words, while there are two women who put aggressive moves on the hero in this story, they're outnumbered by female characters who do not.  Also, it was just so nice to read about a hero who wasn't a massive Alpha jerk with a whole bunch of Mommy Didn't Love Me baggage.  Bonus points for a well-drawn Washington D.C. setting that doesn't rely on political shenanigans (because, Lord - I just can't right now).  Hard for me to grade given my relationship with the author - but taking that out of the equation?  Probably somewhere around a B-.

Mostly Sunny by Jamie Pope ended up being a DNF around the 40% mark.  It starts out great.  Abandoned by her mentally ill mother, Sunny was raised in the New York City foster care system.  She's now a social worker working on the official adoption of a young girl when the birth mother makes contact with the foster family.  She's afraid the mother will throw a wrench in the works, and goes to the hero who is a lawyer.  He doesn't have experience in the type of law she needs, but she won't take no (or excellent referrals) for an answer so...yeah.

The connection between the heroine and the young girl relies on an amazing coincidence that, I'm sorry, I ain't buying when the book is set in NEW YORK CITY!  The heroine propositioning the hero to try and get her way struck me as wildly out of character and the hero is a jerk.  He doesn't believe in love, proposes to his older, savvy businesswomen girlfriend like it's a business proposition, and she turns him down flat.  Naturally this makes the girlfriend "the problem" while the heroine is then painted with a "not like other girls" brush.  Yeah, I didn't like her, the plot strains, and I wanted him to burn in a pit of fire.  Life's too short and my TBR is too mammoth.

Best Man for the Wedding Planner by Donna Alward features my second least favorite bit of conflict after Fated Mates.  The heroine breaks up with her college sweetheart after she gets cancer that renders her infertile - and he's from this Big Family, naturally everyone is always talking about babies, and instead of talking to him she cuts him off so he won't stand by her only to end up resenting her.  They reunite some years later when she's the wedding planner for a wedding where he's the best man.

I have issues with "I can't give him his OWN children" plot lines for various and sundry reasons, but this is how much of a pro Alward is - I inhaled this book in one sitting.  Yes, it features all the crap about this conflict that I hate, but the heroine's Big Secret is out of the bag before the 50% mark, and the emotional fall-out of the second half gutted me in parts.  Also, I liked that the author actually addresses issues that so many authors ignore with conflict like this - namely that you don't need to squeeze a kid out of your birth canal to be maternal, that family is what you make it, and that just because you lack the lady parts doesn't make you less of a woman.  This is Alward's return to Harlequin Romance and it's like she took no time away at all.  It's very much not my thing, but I recognize that there's very good elements at work here.  My personal grade is probably somewhere in the C range - but readers who dig this sort of conflict will likely grade higher.  Also, something to note: there is definitely NO Miracle Baby Epilogue here.  The heroine no longer has a uterus - so, yeah.

Death of a Neighborhood Scrooge by Laura Levine is the 16th book in the Jaine Austen cozy mystery series.  I used to devour these books, but much like Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series, the repetition of the various gags have become stale and I found the last book so offensive that I toyed with the idea of quitting cold turkey.  But, a series you've been invested in for 15 books is not a habit that's easy to break, and I got an ARC for this one so...

This time out Jaine and Lance are Christmas house-sitting in fabulous Bel Air, next door to a sour, cheap-skate former child star who turns up dead.  There's no lack of suspects, but the cops seem to be zeroing in on Jaine.  While the gags have grown stale, Levine returns to form with this book crafting a good mystery with plenty of suspects to choose from.  There's a backhanded slap to the romance genre here (because, of course there is - what the actual hell?!) that annoyed me and the ending is pretty abrupt, but it didn't make me frothing at the mouth angry like the last book, so win?  I guess?  Also, the final chapter is extremely intriguing but my gut tells me Levine will self-destruct the development off page when the next book comes out.  Which, mores the pity.  If she sees it through it may spice up the next entry past the usual, quickly growing tired, gags.  For fans only.  I'm waffling between a C+ and B-.

Mini-Reviews: Nice and Naughty Novellas

I spent most of December trying to catch up on the backlog of holiday reads I had on my Kindle.  The quickest way to separate Wendy from her money?  Put the word "Christmas" in the title.  The irony being that most of the "Christmas" books I read prior to the holiday were pretty light on the "holiday stuff."  Figures I'd read Christmas at Evergreen Inn by Donna Alward immediately post-Christmas and it would turn out to the holiday-iest holiday read I read this year.  My timing, as usual, is terrible.

This is a short novella (just under 100 pages) and is part of Alward's small town Jewell Cove series set in Maine.  There is some series baggage in play, but I'm behind in the series and had no problem keeping up.

Lainey Price is a hometown girl who runs the local B&B.  A nor'easter blows into town, filling up all her available rooms, spare cots and sofas.  Local cop Todd Ricker brings a stranded motorist to Lainey's inn, only to get a call from dispatch.  Where ever you are Todd, stay there for the night.  With the inn full up, that means Todd is bunking on Lainey's sofa in her cottage behind the inn.  And since these two have a long-standing crush?  Sparks fly.  Conflict enters in the way of Lainey's broken heart (her fiance dumped her two years ago right before their Christmas wedding) and Todd's reputation as "a player."

This was a completely nice, cozy read.  It's pleasant.  It's cozy.  Did I say it was cozy?  It's the sort of book I wish I had read by my lit Christmas tree on Christmas Eve after the kids (um, I don't have kids - minor detail that) were nestled all snug in their beds with visions of sugar plums dancing in their heads.  There was a "jumping to conclusions" moment at the end that I found a little jarring, but otherwise this was a perfectly, pleasant and cozy read (did I say that already?).  If you're a fan of the series you'll definitely want to add this one to the pile.

Final Grade = B-

Let's get this out of the way up front.  Warlord's Captive by Lisa Cach is the fourth installment in her 1001 Erotic Nights serial - which means that it does not stand alone.  You really need to be familiar with the previous installments.  I've read them, but it's been a while, so luckily Cach dropped enough breadcrumbs during this novella for my memory to get suitably jogged.

Former sex slave, Nimia, and her BFF, Terix have fled Gaul for Britannia.  Nimia is hoping to uncover her past and to do that she needs to find a druid named Merlin (yes, that Merlin).  Of course, as happens wherever Nimia seems to go, complications ensue.  They get lost, get captured by a warlord named Mordred, and eventually hook up with Merlin and his half-brother Arthur (yes, that Arthur).

This series has been described as Fifty Shades meets Game of Thrones.  The best way I can describe it is Old School Erotic Romance.  It reminds me of the kind of thing Kensington Brava would have published back in the day.  That's either going to work for you...or it won't.  I'll admit it - it works for me.  I love this kind of thing.  I just do.  It also helps that Cach has a way with sly humor, and trashy sexual shenanigans liberally sprinkled with paranormal elements.

Wine, a prison cell, and an angry, lusting warlord.  What woman wouldn't be swooning with delight?

I'll be honest - you pretty much read this installment for the end when Nimia goes all badass Domme on Mordred.  That alone was worth the price of admission for me.  But alas, once again, just as Nimia takes a step forward in agency and power - she ends up falling prey to a scheming man she should have been more wary of.  But hell, who am I kidding?  This series is ticking off all my nostalgia boxes.  I'm not sure how widely read this series has been, but if you go for that sudsy, soapy, old school erotic vibe (surely I'm not the only one?) - start at the beginning.  There's at least two more installments after this one, and I've kind of lost track of the number of sexual partners Nimia's had.  At some point I'm thinking Cach will end this serialization with a "oh, that's the guy she ends up with" revelation - but we're not quite at that point yet.  Like I said - Old School.

Final Grade = B-

Mini-Reviews: You Don't Have To Be Lonely...

I know a number of readers don't care for them, but I happen to love novellas.  When they're done well, they're tasty bite-size morsels of satisfaction.  I also happen to be a sucker for continuity series.  Those multi-author series that sometimes (but not always) feature an overarching story arc.  NotMy1stRodeo.com is a continuity novella series from Samhain about an online dating site that caters to country folk who have already been around the block (they're widowed, divorced etc.)  There are currently three novellas in the series (no idea if there will be more?), and I zipped through two of them over the weekend.  As far as I could tell, the only thing holding them together as a series is the dating site concept.  No reoccurring characters or plot elements that I picked up on.

Nothing Like a Cowboy by Donna Alward starts out just fine, but once the conflict kicks into high gear it slid south for me.  Um, to the point where I was shaking my Kindle and calling the heroine not-so-nice names.  Out loud.  In other news, My Man now officially thinks I'm insane.

Brett Harrison was married to a woman who thought being a rancher's wife would be more glamorous than the reality turned out to be.  Baggage he has it.  His twin sister is sick of seeing him mope around, so she signs him up for a dating site and sets a coffee date with Melissa "Melly" Walker, also a divorcee.  Melly was dazzled by her ex, who turned out to be a liar - so baggage, she has it.  Brett agrees to keep the date, mostly because his sister's deception isn't Melly's fault and he comes clean the moment they meet at the coffee shop.  They like each other, they share a smoldering kiss.  A future date leads to them hitting the sheets and that's when all hell breaks loose.  Conflict turns up in the form of an Amazing Coincidence.  The problem being that Melly doesn't think it's an Amazing Coincidence so much as a Big Secret.  Given that she has trust issues already?  Yeah, she freaks out.

This starts out as a very nice read.  It's kind of fun to read about an awkward first date (essentially a blind date) in a romance novel where we're often subject to suave heroes who ooze charm and charisma.  What didn't work for me had everything do with the conflict in the second half of the story.  I get that Melly is upset.  I get that she has baggage.  But her reaction and her subsequent treatment of Brett struck me as extreme.  As in, pull yourself together you stupid, selfish b*tch extreme.  Yes, the groundwork of her trust issues is laid well before, but ugh - I intensely began disliking her and no amount of Her Ex Done Her Wrong could wash the bad taste out of my mouth.  Frankly I could not for the life of me understand why Brett was so patient with her.  I'm sorry, no sex is that good, no matter how long of a drought you've had.  Alward has written better and if you're curious to try her work, I recommend following this tag for recommendations.

Final Grade = D

Disclaimer: Anderson and I presented a workshop together at RWA 2014.

 Something About a Cowboy by Sarah M. Anderson is a surprisingly tender and OMG HOTT! story.  If I wasn't sitting in front of a fan, I was wiping away tears.  It's a real winner.

Six years ago Mack Turner's wife died of cancer.  They were high school sweethearts, got married young, had babies young, and now his three sons are grown and worried about Dad.  He's 46 and alone on his ranch.  Winters get mighty lonely.  It's his youngest son who sets him up with a profile on the dating web site and gives Karen Thompson his Dad's number.  They talk and agree to meet in Billings (a three hour drive for Mack) for dinner and possibly more.

Karen is divorced and her self-esteem is in the toilet.  Her ex was totally incapable of being faithful and Karen just wants to feel desired by a man again.  She's not looking for love.  She's not looking for marriage.  Which is good because neither is Mack.  What she wants is for a man to look at her with passion in his eyes - and when Mack gets a load of her in a slinky red dress?  Yeah, wish granted!

The complaint I think some readers may have about this story is that it's very steamy and that it's short.  It's borderline erotic romance as far as content goes.  There's some "getting to know you" stuff to the romance, but honestly that's not why these two characters hook up initially.  They're there to get back, figuratively, into the saddle.  Naturally when the cold light of morning dawns, Mack finds himself confronted with his past, and needless to say he doesn't handle it well.  It's the resolution to his baggage, the emotional heft of it, that made this short novella such a winner for me.  A picture perfect afternoon read.

Final Grade = A

On a final note, I think it's worth mentioning how well I thought both authors handled the happy endings in these stories.  Again, they're short novellas and I loved that neither one tried to do too much with them.  They're basically happy-for-now, but the reader is left with the solid impression that both couples are together, in a relationship, and will, probably, down the road, make the whole thing official.  Praise the saints that neither of them crammed in a marriage proposal or pregnant with twins epilogue.

Note: The third book in the continuity series is Anything for a Cowboy by Jenna Bayley Burke (sorry haven't read, no review).  You can purchase the stories separately, or in a 3-for-1 edition.

Digital Review: Christmas at Seashell Cottage

Christmas at Seashell Cottage by Donna Alward is a long novella that sits in the middle of the small town Jewell Cove Maine series.  It features likable characters, plenty of Christmas flavor, and the requisite small town atmosphere.  That said, I'm about to critique a story where I felt like a novella was too long. Yep, you read that right.

Charlie Yang is an only child of brilliant parents who has always carried the yoke of responsibility.  Charlie is so responsible it hurts.  So yes, she goes to medical school.  But in a tiny show of rebellion she decides to practice medicine in a small town in Maine.  Hardly the lofty ambitions her parents had for her.  Being a newcomer in a close-knit community isn't easy and Charlie is having a hard time meeting people outside of her exam room.  So she volunteers to decorate the town church for the holidays.  Which is how she meets Dave Ricker, a dreamboat who works on the docks.  Charlie has been watching him afar for months and now here's her dream man in the flesh!  Watching her wrestling with a Nativity scene and talking to herself.  Nice.

What follows is the dance.  Dave is an ex-SEAL (because, of course he is), new to town and has been having trouble meeting people just as Charlie has.  Then one night, after leaving a holiday gathering, they find a real, live baby boy has taken baby Jesus' place in the church's Nativity scene.

This story clocks in at just under 200 pages.  Honestly?  It could have been half that and I think this story would have been better served.  There's just not a lot of oomph to the conflict.  This is actually my beef with 90% of small town contemporaries.  Not enough conflict.  And it shows here.  The abandoned baby almost feels like an afterthought, and the social work is handled on the same level as it tends to be in most romance novels (in other words, it strained for me).  No, most of the story is about Dave and Charlie making googly-eyes at each other and spending time together.  No fire, no angst, it's pretty vanilla.

But then something funny happens.  The author flips the ol' Alward-Angst Switch.  Finally, at that moment when Charlie realizes she has real feelings for Dave and Dave is too scared and unsure to return those feelings openly we get The Scene.  The Heartbreaking, Angsty, Emotional, Gut-Punching Scene.  That's the Donna Alward I know and love.  That scene saves the book for me.  It takes it from a Ho-Hum, I'm Kinda Bored Here story to an OMG Where Were You For The Previous 130-Some Pages story.

So where does this leave me?  Well it leaves me not knowing what grade to assign this book.  C is too low.  B- feels a little too high.  So we'll split the difference.  It's a perfectly serviceable holiday read with a knife-twisting moment.  I just wanted more knife.

Final Grade = C+

The House On Blackberry Hill

A couple years ago Donna Alward e-mailed me about reviewing one of her Harlequin Romance titles.  I get a lot of review requests and being a one-woman blog I cannot possibly accept all of them. However, loving category romance like I do, and finding new-to-me authors within that universe is always something that flips my switch.  What happened after me saying "sure, I'll try it" has developed into me reading many of her books.  Many, many, many of her books.  While still in the Harlequin stable (although now with the American line), she's signed on with St. Martin's for her first single title series.  The House on Blackberry Hill is a small town romance (because, of course it is) and the first in a trilogy (because, of course it is).

Abby Foster finds herself in Jewell Cove, Maine looking for answers.  Her mother a "free spirit," her father dead, Abby was raised by her grandmother (also, now dead).  She always believed it was just her and Gran.  Then she inherits a crumbling mansion in Jewell Cove from a great-aunt she didn't know existed.  Her plan is to show up in the small town, sell the albatross as fast as humanly possible, and get on with her life.

Tom Arseneault is a local contractor and his dream has been to restore the Foster mansion to it's former glory.  A tall order since nobody has lived in the house for close to a decade.  Now the Foster heir is in town and he sees his chance to sell his services.  What he didn't expect was Abby Foster to be so pretty and so stubborn.  She's not exactly falling to her knees and thanking her lucky stars.

We all know where this is going, right?  Abby resists, but ultimately has to hire Tom for the job because 1) the place won't sell until it's in decent shape and 2) there's nobody else who can take on the job at that moment.  Given the mystery surrounding Abby's estranged family, plus a mansion in disrepair, there are also light (very light) Gothic tones to the story.  Plus, naturally Tom has his own baggage - all of it revolving around his estrangement from his cousin (oh, he might have been in love with the man's now-dead wife - minor detail that).

I'm a sucker for house stories, more than likely the result of reading too many Barbara Michaels and Victoria Holt books as a teen.  I also really liked the sub plot of Abby finding out the history of the family she didn't realize she had.  What I was less enthralled with was the ghost angle.  Yep, Abby finds her answers thanks to ghostly spirits.  I have never been a fan of ghosts (and believe me finding Gothics as a kid with no woo-woo in them was a TALL order!).  They always feel like short-cuts to me, and that's definitely how it comes off in this story.  Instead of having Abby do the snooping on her own, of getting her hands dirty ripping the house apart to solve the "mystery" - poof!  There's a friendly ghost to point her in the right direction.  Blah.  Chalk this one up to Wendy inhaling suspense novels in her pre-romance days.  I like mysteries where the "real people" have to do all the work.

This is a small town romance, so naturally we have a lot of secondary characters and cutesy atmosphere as the back-drop.  Most of this was pretty standard fare that will make small town fans happy, but probably won't sway the curmudgeons.  Tom's baggage is well done, and while being in love with his cousin's wife should have him coming off looking like a douche, Alward avoids that landmine by putting some thought into the love triangle.

What I was left with was a pleasant story.  I wasn't madly in love with it, but it was readable and kept me entertained during some recent traveling I did.  I'm not sitting on the edge of my seat dying to get the next book in the series, but I know I'll read it all the same.  There was enough on the page here to keep me happily chugging along.  If you adore small town romances this is a good one to try.

Final Grade = C+

Her Rancher Rescuer

Her Rancher Rescuer by Donna Alward marks the author's debut with Harlequin American.  It is a move to a new line within the category universe that makes a lot of sense.  Alward's playground of choice for category are ranchers and cowboys, and this transition also marks the sixth, and final book, in her Cadence Creek Cowboys series, which up until this point lived over at Harlequin Romance.  Alward has written many books I've enjoyed, and even a few books I haven't liked all that much, but Her Rancher Rescuer is a new high.  I loved this book.  It's a I Read It In One Sitting book.  It's a I Stayed Up Late To Finish It Because I Couldn't Put It Down book.  It's a When I Woke Up In The Morning I Wanted To Read It All Over Again book. 

The theme of this book is don't make assumptions because you'll just look like an ass.  Our heroine is Amy Wilson, the resident Good Time Girl in tiny Cadence Creek.  Amy is a girl who keeps looking for love in all the wrong places.  She's dated a lot of guys, most of them frogs, and when you live in a small town?  Yeah, gossip.  It's poor Amy, can't find a man.  Poor Amy, just like her Mama who is still smarting over the fact that her husband left to get a quart of milk and never came back. 

Given that it's a small town, and she works for a local florist, Amy's at a wedding for a former Alward couple.  That's when a former hero opens his big fat mouth, says something rather hurtful, and Amy overhears.  Amy doesn't have feelings for this guy (in fact she was trying to play matchmaker for him and his heroine!), but when someone says you're the last person on Earth they'd want to be with?  It's humiliating.  Riding to her rescue is Jack Shepard.  These opening moments, of Amy hiding in the ladies' room and Jack coming in after her are brilliant.  He's essentially, at first, a Harlequin Presents hero.  He's sexy as sin, smart, funny, charming, filthy rich and genuinely likes Amy as a person.  They spend some time together (not like that!), Amy is charmed, but quickly returns back to her normal life.  Hey, Jack lives in Montana, Amy lives in Canada.  He may have family in Cadence Creek, but this is a guy that isn't sticking around.

That is until he finds himself in a jam.  He comes back to town for the holidays and shares with Amy that his place in Montana is a working ranch, but also a corporate retreat.  His right hand woman?  The one who basically runs the office there?  Just broke her pelvis and is down for the count, just in time for a new group of arrivals to show up.  Amy then has a light bulb moment.  She has realized that if she wants a life she needs to get the hell out of Dodge.  She's thinking she wants to go to college and study hospitality, but she'd love to test the waters first.  Plus she helps out a lot with the "business stuff" at the flower shop.  She thinks she can handle it.  Jack, even though he is powerfully attracted to her and naturally isn't a relationship kind of guy, says yes.  So Amy is off to Montana for a few weeks and Jack has to figure out a way to keep things strictly professional between them.

What makes this story so fantastic is the gut-wrenching, sucker-punch heft to the emotional baggage.  Jack is, like I mentioned, on the surface a Harlequin Presents-like hero.  He was a former championship caliber skier until a knee injury shattered his Olympic dreams.  He channeled that energy into starting his own sporting goods company, which has proven to be wildly successful.  Now moving on to a new challenge he buys a failing ranch in Montana and decides to host corporate retreats.  You know, those trips where CEOs can take their underlings and they all work on "team building" exercises together.  Jack is a man who cannot sit still, flitting from one challenge to the next.  And why do you think that is?  Ding, ding, ding!  Yep, a woman.  A woman he couldn't save because it turns out - she didn't want to be saved.  Jack is a fixer with a White Knight Complex. 

Amy is a woman ready to grow up.  She's tired of being stuck, and that's what has happened to her in Cadence Creek.  She knows if she ever wants to be happy that she needs to grab the bull by the horns, take the initiative.  The problem is that she's attracted to Jack and he's not making things easy on her - yep, he's pursuing her.  The fly in the ointment, he may be attracted and he may be pursuing, but that doesn't mean he is emotionally ready.  Because once our couple hits the sheets?  Jack realizes that what he has with Amy, what he feels with Amy, demands permanence, and it scares the shit out of him.

For her part, Amy knows how she feels about Jack - but an adult lifetime looking for love in all those wrong places, of being "poor Amy" from Cadence Creek?  This is a girl who isn't going to settle for crumbs.  Yes, Jack is scared - but you know what?  That doesn't mean she should have to settle and she's not going to.  Amy is tired of trying to fit square pegs into round holes.  She loves Jack, but if he's too scared and unwilling to change?  That's not her problem.  She can't make him do anything, he has to want to do it.  And if he loves her?  He'll do it in a hot minute.  So Amy does what all great romance heroines should always do - she doesn't settle.  She says goodbye.

However, this is a romance novel, so we know these two will eventually find their way together because they need to be together.  It's the emotionally charged moments, the dialogue that rips your guts out, that make this story so great.  I've been a lucky reader of late and read some pretty good stories, but this one was pure magic for me from start to finish.  I loved every moment of it.

Final Grade = A

Review: The Rebel Rancher

I tend to be the sort of reader that picks apart plots and characters.  "I was liking the hero until he did that and now the shine is off," or "Why did the author include that plot device about the drug smugglers?  It was totally unnecessary and detracted from the romance."  Then there are books where everything is perfect, for that particular story.  Where even if the author makes a choice that might annoy you, personally - you recognize that it's the "right thing to do" for that book.  That's how The Rebel Rancher by Donna Alward was for me.  The second book in a connected duet about cowboy cousins raised as brothers is really breathtaking in a lot of ways.  It's honest.  It's heart-felt.  And even if the author does make a choice during the latter half that normally drives me bonkers, it totally works.

Tyson "Ty" Diamond was adopted by his aunt and uncle after his junkie mother abandoned him on their doorstep.  Even though they raised him like their son, loved him, Ty and Uncle Virgil had a tendency to butt heads.  So Ty took off for the rodeo circuit and the estrangement has been hanging over the family ranch, Diamondback, ever since.  Ty doesn't know how to bridge the gap, and then his cousin (see The Last Real Cowboy) calls him home after Virgil has a stroke.

Clara Ferguson is Virgil's home nurse, and also the first resident of Butterfly House (again, see The Last Real Cowboy), a home that helps women leaving abusive relationships to get back on their feet.  Jackson did a real number on her, and two years later Clara is still picking up the pieces.  She's making strides, and then in waltzes Ty - who scares the hell out of her.  He's sexy.  He's charming.  He's the consummate flirt.  In other words, he's Trouble with a capital T.  But she can't seem to stay away from him, and in turn, Ty cannot stay away from her. 

What I loved about this book was the honesty of it.  Ty is an actor.  A guy hiding behind a playboy facade because it's easier than showing anyone, or dealing with, his pain.  Clara is still gun-shy, for good reason, and is working towards a life where she isn't afraid all the time.  While she knows she should stay away from Ty, she can't - and in turn he's drawn to Clara because she sees everything.  She takes one look at him and knows, deep down, he's not the man that he wants everyone to think he is.  He's kind, gentle, and in a lot of ways he's still that scared little boy whose mother dumped him off on her brother.  These two are so perfect for each other it's hard to think of one without the other.

Every choice the author makes in this story is just right.  There's sweetness mixed with sadness.  There's grief mixed with the joy.  Even a plot device that shows up during the later chapters, one that normally annoys the heck out of me (start spoiler/ One Night Of Passion And Whoopsie!  I'm Preggers! /end spoiler) totally works here.  Yes, it's there to get the characters to finally admit their feelings - but without it?  These two would have left things unsaid.  That's just the type of people they are.  Not stubborn so much as wounded and wanting to do what they think is the right thing.

Those final moments of the story where the characters have to admit to each other how they truly feel could have been a bit more drawn out for me, but that's most likely just me being selfish.  This was a really great story, emotionally charged with just the right amount of angst without being overblown.  It's a romance about two scared people who become less scared after finding each other.  It's a romance about a couple that fits, perfectly.  It's not possible to think of one of them without the other.  For that reason, I'm glad they found each other, and I'm glad they both stopped being scared.

Final Grade = A-

Review: The Last Real Cowboy

I've been on a Donna Alward reading tear the last year or so and I've come to appreciate two things about her Harlequin Romances: 1) she's a wonderfully consistent writer and 2) she likes cowboys.

Yes, I really am this shallow.  Are you new here?

The Last Real Cowboy is the first book in the Cadence Creek Cowboys duet, featuring cowboy cousins.  Sam Diamond is an only child who has grown up in a loving, privileged household.  The family's ranch, Diamondback, means just about everything to him and he's determined to see the ranch into the 21st century with a project to make them more "green" (as in environmentally sound).  Unfortunately, his father isn't wild about the idea and now that the man has suffered a stroke, he's dug his heels in even more.  On top of that, his mother has asked him to temporarily take over her seat with The Butterfly Foundation while she nurses his father back to health.  He cannot say no to his mother, although the idea of working with foundation head Angela Beck sounds about as much fun as hopping into bed with a horde of rattlesnakes.

Angela Beck quit her job in social work to start The Butterfly Foundation and set up The Butterfly House, a home to help women leaving abusive relationships to get back on their feet.  The Diamond family has really been instrumental, with matriarch Molly securing the land, the house, and even helping Angela get the project off the ground.  But now Molly is out taking care of her ailing husband and in waltzes son Sam, a guy Angela has already had one run-in with, and a man she doesn't think too much of.  She knows his type all to well.  He's smooth and charming, but also conceited and selfish.  How such a man sprang from Molly's gene pool is a total mystery to her.  They're oil and water right from the get-go, and now they have to work together?  Yikes.

Stubborn characters with baggage and plenty of angst are cornerstones in many of Alward's romances, and this story is no different.  Neither Sam nor Angela make terribly good first impressions with each other, or the reader.  They jump to conclusions about each other, take everything the other person says entirely the wrong way, and are generally dismissive.  Characters of this ilk can get tiresome to read about, so it's a good thing that the author gives us Sam, a guy who really is a "good guy" even though the heroine doesn't think he is.  He realizes that he has to make this work, because his mother expects him to step up and he's loathe to disappoint her.  So he swallows his pride, and shows up hat in hand determined to make it work.

Angela ends up coming to her senses mostly out of desperation.  In order to get The Butterfly House off the ground, she needs Sam.  She doesn't want to need him, but she's only one person - and she was really counting on Molly.  With no Molly, that means more is falling in her lap.  Also, she has to admit to herself that she might have been just a teensy bit wrong about Sam.  Sure his teasing irritates her and her attraction to him scares the hell out of her - but he's not an ogre.

Once the author sets up the adversarial tendencies of the romantic couple, she then slowly begins to reveal their motivations and back-story.  Sam is a good guy, but he has issues.  Likewise, Angela's past has come to define her - it's what led her into social work and ultimately into starting The Butterfly Foundation.  It's the baggage of both characters that make them so prickly around each other, and it's that baggage they need to work through to get their happy ending.  The final chapters are really the meat and potatoes, with all the emotional turmoil coming to a head.  These final heart-wrenching moments, with dialogue that just about made my heart beat out of my chest, really seal the happy ending.  It won't be easy, and their pasts won't get swept under the rug overnight, but Sam and Angela are just the kind of romantic couple you want to see make it work.  And I think they will.

Final Grade = B

You Mean It's Not All About Me?

The glue that seems to hold the Harlequin Romance line together is the whole "light on sensuality" thing.  It's either "just kisses" or "behind closed doors."  Other than that?  The rest of it is up for grabs.  Points-of-view, modern, traditional, fluffy, flirty, sassy etc. etc. etc. 

What I've noticed about Donna Alward's books is that she seems to go for angst.  I happen to like angst, but what I've really appreciated about the small sampling of her books I've read thus far?  It's all highly believable angst.  This stuff could happen in real life.  Case in point, the baggage both hero and heroine are lugging around in A Family For The Rugged Rancher (I know, I know - dippy title.)

Luke Evans needs help.  His two younger sisters have gone off, married, started families of their own - which means he's the one running the family ranch by himself.  Harvest is coming up, and he's overwhelmed.  What he needs is a housekeeper.  Someone to cook, clean, do his laundry, since he's working sun-up to sun-down out in the fields.  Since one of his sister's is nagging the hardest, he leaves it up to her.  She hires an agency to do the looking, and they choose Emily Northcott.  The fly in the ointment?  He didn't know she was coming, and that she'd have 5-year-old son, Sam, in tow.

Emily's now a single mother thanks to her husband deciding one day that a wife and kid were holding him back.  The savings account is shrinking and she needs this job.  It was a mutual decision by her and Scum Bag Ex that she'd stay home with Sam.  Well now it's 5 years later, he's gone, and she's finding it difficult to find work with a 5-year gap in her job history.  Being a housekeeper wasn't exactly her life's ambition, but she's taking the boat that's most sea-worthy. 

Luke has closed himself off emotionally - so much so that his reaction to Sam makes Emily suspect that he just doesn't like kids.  He raised his younger sisters, he took on the responsibility of the family farm, all because he had to.  And it's the reason that he had to that haunts him.  He doesn't want anyone he loves to be faced with the kind of choices he's had to make, to witness what he's had to witness.

This is, in some ways, a hard book for me to grade.  First, there are some stumbling blocks here that may annoy some readers.  Emily did take her Scum Bag Ex to court, but he's still not coughing up the child support, and she's...not doing anything about it.  I will say the author gives a slightly more credible reason for this than most, but this tends to be a hot button for a lot of readers, regardless of the reasoning.  I was able to roll with it, mostly because I know jack about the Canadian courts (this story takes place in the Alberta province).

Also, Emily is a very traditional heroine.  She liked being a staying home Mom.  She has no regrets.  But she does spend a good chunk of this story cooking and cleaning.  But hey, that's her job.  And frankly, I admired her for taking this job because she needed one, and it made the most sense considering her work history (or lack thereof).  Her ex made her feel worthless, like what she did had no value, so she's determined to right the ship and gain some self-worth.  She also has her son to think of.

Luke is all gruff exterior, but is really a scared, lonely man.  His "logic" behind why he's shunning any romantic entanglements is slightly cracked however.  I could almost understand it if he were an only child, but he has two sisters who have married, had kids etc.  So what's working for them, can't work for him?  Now this being said?  The author writes all this conflict well enough that I could see where both Emily and Luke were coming from.  To a certain extent, I think we can say I understood them.  If I were their "real life" friend?  I'd tell them both they were being stupid - but I could "see" why they felt the way they did about certain things.  Look, this is a major gray area when talking books.  Either you buy into it, or you don't.  And I bought in.  Take that for what it's worth.

At the end of the day, I appreciated that that author gave me an angsty read without being over-the-top.  The themes in this story are pretty universal.  Shouldering responsibilities, taking care of your family, feelings of self-worth - these are all things readers can understand and get behind.  It's the matter of how well we connect with the characters that can determine how successful the story is for us.  And with this one?  I connected.  Certainly, there are things I would have done differently had this all been happening to me, personally.  There is advice I would have given to these characters.  But you know what?  I wasn't a character in the story, and it wasn't about me.  It was about them.

Final Grade = B-

Don't Cry For Me Argentina

Honeymoon With The Rancher, the latest release from Donna Alward, features character-types that haven't worked for me in the past.  On the surface you've got the pampered, spoiled princess and the grouchy Alpha male determined to knock her down a few pegs.  The difference with this story is that the author takes us well beyond those first initial, and extremely superficial, impressions.  Even as both characters jump to conclusions about each other on their first meeting, you can also see the light behind their eyes.  The "Ahhh, there's more here than meets the eye" kind of light.

Sophia Hollingsworth is perfectly coiffed, manicured and polished, and was all set to marry Mr. Upwardly Mobile when she catches him in bed with his mistress.  The worst of it is that Mr. Not-So-Right didn't see anything wrong with this.  Sophia was a means to an end.  A young, vibrant, stylish bit of arm candy to hang on the arm of Mr. Upwardly Mobile.  This splash of cold water leads Sophia to do something impulsive.  Namely go on their planned honeymoon in Argentina alone.  But when she arrives, she gets more than she bargained for.  Namely a working ranch with one sexy cowboy in residence!

Tomas Mendoza takes one look at Sophia's stilettos and thinks he's knows exactly what sort of woman he's dealing with.  He tries to explain to her that there has been a fire at the ranch, and that her reservation was canceled, but the stubborn piece of fluff won't budge.  At an impasse, and with his business partners who normally deal with the guests away on vacation, he agrees to let her stay on until they get back to sort out the mess.  But he warns her it's not going to be Club Med, thinking maybe that will get her out of his hair.  Little does he know.

This story is very heavy on internal conflict.  In fact, it's all internal conflict.  Sophia has spent her whole life being told what to do, what to wear, and what sort of life she should aspire to.  She's almost like a packaged product, right down to the fake smile she plasters on her face when she arrives on Tomas' doorstep.  Taking her honeymoon trip was completely impulsive, a childish way to get back at her traitorous fiance', but when she's honest with herself, she knows she's taking this trip to find herself.  She doesn't know who she is.  Being at the ranch makes her feel one part useless and two parts silly, but in a way it allows her to confront herself.  Who is she and what does she want?

Tomas became a partner at the ranch because it was a place to hide and lick his wounds.  He's still hiding away from the world, abandoning the life of privilege that he grew up in, but the ranch does bring him peace.  It's the one place that truly feels like home to him.  That said, he's got a mountain of baggage and self-blame that he's been lugging around with him.  Hiding out in the middle of nowhere allows him to not deal with any of it, until Sophia shows up with her smile, her innocent determination, and dang if he's not attracted to her.

Given the nature of the internal conflict (namely Tomas') I suspect some readers will wish this was a longer story - in order to be "convinced" that he's really moved on and is ready for Sophia.  Also, there is a fairly short time frame in this story (about a week), that might have some readers balking.  It all worked well for me though.  If this story were much longer, I think all the internal angst would just be way too exhausting, and even with all the baggage, I really do think that Tomas and Sophia will find happiness together.  I also appreciated how Sophia's inexperience in some matters (wink, wink, nudge, nudge) was handled.  It didn't feel like a forced trope here.  More a part of who she was, a by-product of what her life had been like and the uncertainty she felt about herself before coming to Argentina.

This is really a lovely story with a wonderful sense of place.  I loved the exotic feel of the Argentina country-side, and the angst-fueled internal conflict kept the tension running high between the romantic couple.  An enjoyable, one-sitting read.

Final Grade = B

Note to Harlequin's Art Department: I really do like the idea behind this cover, but honestly?  If that guy is Hispanic I'm the bloomin' Queen of England.  Just sayin'.

The Rancher, The Baby And The Girl Next Door

Let me be honest here - as much as I love category romance, I tend to avoid books with babies on the cover.  Chalk it up to preconceived notions and not finding babies all that romantic.  Cute, yes.  Sweet, yes.  Adorable, certainly.  But the potential to suck all the sexy-times out of a room?  Monumental.  So yes, I avoid books with babies on the cover.  That all being said, Donna Alward is an author I've been meaning to try for a while now - and hello?  We have a rancher here.  A hunky Canadian rancher with mountains of emotional baggage.  Hell, I'm a mere mortal woman people.  I can't possibly be expected to resist that.  Baby on the cover or not.

Proud Rancher, Precious Bundle gives readers the ol' Found A Baby On My Doorstep trope.  And while this trope does have a high probability for silliness, Alward takes it, infuses it with a nice dose of reality, and runs with it.

After years working on spreads owned by others, Wyatt Black has bought his own piece of land complete with a fixer-upper ranch house.  He's working day and night, but decides to head back to the house one afternoon for a quick lunch break.  And that's when he finds baby Darcy sitting on his front porch.  Darcy is his half-sister's kid.  They both share the same useless father.  The difference being that Wyatt was acknowledged by the sperm donor, and Barbara wasn't.  In turn, Wyatt had enough of is own problems (see: Useless Father) that he never had any sort of relationship with her.  Now her baby is on his doorstep, Barbara is MIA, and Wyatt has a mountain of guilt.  Oh, and there's the small matter that Wyatt don't know nothing about no babies.

Completely out of his element, and frankly more than a little desperate, he shows up on his next door neighbor's doorstep with crying baby in tow.  Elli Marchuk is housesitting, and has already had one run-in with Wyatt.  But now the man is on her doorstep with an infant (!).  She simply cannot turn him away.  Even if the baby scares her so much that she can't breathe.

What we have here is what I like to call a "traditional" romance.  I happen to like these types of stories on occasion, and what makes this one work so well is that the author gives it some modern sensibilities.  If this book had been written 40 years ago, Elli would have swooped in like Mary Poppins, charmed the baby, bagged the man, and ridden off into the sunset with a passel of beautific children running behind her singing Kumbaya.  In this story, while Elli is what I call a "traditional" gal, her life is at a crossroads.  Her marriage didn't have the firmest of foundations, and when tragedy struck, it crumbled.  Then she lost her job.  So she's housesitting for friends, taking accounting classes online, and trying to piece her life back to together.  Then Wyatt shows up thinking that because she's a woman, well certainly she'll know what to do with a baby!  Never mind the fact that while she does know more than he does, it's not like she's drowning in real life experience.

Wyatt is one of my favorite types of heroes.  The guy who has no clue what the hell he's doing, but so desperately wants to do the right thing.  It's hard not to be charmed by this man, or to have my girlie heart go all mushy at the thought of him protecting this defenseless child.  He's strong, he's capable, and he's scared out of his mind.  I wanted to take this guy home to meet my Mom.

The author makes this story work by giving her characters plenty of believable baggage and including a dollop of reality.  A baby gets left on a doorstep, and when Barbara reappears that means Wyatt has to deal with social services (I don't know much about social services, but this seemed more believably handled here than it is in a lot of romances....which I admit isn't sayin' a whole lot).  Elli is still grieving for a past tragedy and has dealt with it by not dealing with it.  Wyatt is still stung by a screwed up childhood and his guilt over Barbara's situation.  All of this works really well as conflict.

Now that being said, it all works so well that I wished this were a longer story.  I tend to strongly dislike category romance reviews that say, "the book was too short blah blah blah" - but in this case, this one was.  There were moments in this story that took place "off page" that I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall for. Also there were more than a few moments when I felt the budding romance took a back-seat to the conflict.  Between the baby and their baggage, it's not like the couple didn't have more than enough to worry about!  That all being said, the author makes up for it by giving the reader emotionally-charged final chapters with ::happy sigh::, equally emotionally-charged dialogue.  Still, I'd be lying if I didn't say I wished this had been published by Silhouette Special Edition or Harlequin SuperRomance.

I've always felt that traditional romance needs to have a place at the table when we're discussing the genre as a whole, and this latest for Alward is a fine example of a traditional story that didn't feel hopelessly "old-fashioned" or "outdated."  Yes we have a baby on the doorstep, but dang if the author didn't make me believe every blessed word of this fictional tale.  Wyatt and Elli both had their issues, but I loved that their pasts didn't keep them from finding their own happiness together.

Final Grade = B