#TBRChallenge 2020: Blissful Summer

The Book: Blissful Summer by Cheris Hodges and Lisa Marie Perry

The Particulars: Contemporary romance, Kimani Romance, 2015, Out of Print, Not Available in Digital

Why Was It In Wendy's TBR?: My print copy looks brand new, but it's not autographed and I went almost exclusively digital with Harlequin well before 2015. Best guess is that I snagged it in a conference goody room.  I'm at conference + Harlequin not tied down = of course I grabbed it.

The Review: This month's optional theme is Getaway, and I decided to interpret that as "vacation destination."  Make You Mine Again by Cheris Hodges kicks off this anthology with a reunion romance set in Atlanta, New York, Paris and Jamaica.

Jansen Douglas is an in-demand supermodel who is preparing for the next phase of her career.  She's not getting any younger, and realizing the shelf-life for models, has visions of opening up her own agency.  But first she needs to attend her BFF's wedding in Paris.  The fly in the ointment?  Her BFF's brother, Bradley Stephens, is the one that got away.  Well, more like she showed him the door.  She supported Bradley's dreams and ambitions, but when she told him she wanted to kick-start a career in modelling - well, it didn't go well.  She left him, and neither one has gotten over it.

This story only clocks in at 100 pages, and the couple doesn't actually land on page together until the halfway point.  Which, I know this is a reunion romance, but it's still a problem.  So what's happening in the first 50 pages?  A lot of info-dumping, setting up a Big Misunderstanding and secondary character introductions that felt like series filler to me.  But then I can't find any mention online that this is actually a series?  So that means it felt like a series idea that the author cut back to fit a 100 page novella and it just didn't work for me.  There's too much here for a novella. Also, to be perfectly blunt, I completely understood why Jansen walked away from Bradley all those years ago and I'm wholly unconvinced he's "changed" and seen the light.  Jansen is a fierce heroine and gurl, you could do so much better.  

Grade = C

There's a bit of plot absurdity in Unraveled by Lisa Marie Perry but there are some nice moments in this novella.  Ona Tracy was a scholarship kid at her prestigious Philadelphia performing arts school with Most Likely to Succeed written all over her - but life has not spun out as planned.  She gave up Broadway dreams for a worthless man, then her career in advertising took a hit when she fell for a double-crossing colleague.  She's at a low ebb, but has managed to convince her former high school that she's the event planner who can tackle the Glee Club's 10-year reunion.  She's got big plans to seduce her high school crush who has turned out to be Mr. Successful Stability. She just needs it all to go off without a hitch and survive her Mean Girl Nemesis.  But trouble starts brewing right away when the ship she booked turns out to be an "erotic cruise" to the Bahamas.  But our gal is determined to make lemonade out of lemons, and no sooner does she start exploring the ship than she makes the steamy acquaintance of ex-Marine, Riker Ewan.  Sparks fly immediately with this working class bartender from Boston, but wouldn't you know?  There's more to Riker than meets the eye.

I'm a bit of a sucker for high school reunion stories, and Perry does some interesting things with her cast of secondary characters.  The high school crush who didn't notice Ona back in the day, the propositioning jerk that Ona has to smack down repeatedly, but it's the Mean Girl Nemesis that's really interesting.  She's uppity and prickly to Ona's pure sassy goodness.  The scenes between these two are great, especially at the end when insecurities come pouring out.  The chemistry with Riker is also good, and I'm a sucker for a blue-collar hero paired with a polished heroine like Ona.  Ona's life might not be great at the moment, but she's a never let 'em see you sweat sort - again, extremely attractive in a romance heroine.

The issue is conflict. Ona's conflict, the high school reunion cast, the botched cruise booking - more than enough to power a 100 page novella.  Riker really could have just been a guy going on a cruise after getting stood up by a woman.  But no.  Riker has a Big Secret and he's on the cruise for other half-baked reasons entirely - which of course means family baggage. It's too much. The Riker baggage feels completely unnecessary - Ona's is more than enough to carry the show.  Still, a fun read and frankly a bloody shame that Perry doesn't seem to be writing anymore.  If anyone can tell me otherwise, I'd love to hear it.

Grade = B-

While I wasn't madly in love with this short anthology, it did the trick of kick-starting my flagging reading mojo.  Presumably it's not available anymore because rights have reverted back to the authors.  I'd like to see what Hodges could do with her characters if she spun them out into an entire family series and the Perry story has some fun moments.  Hopefully digital reprints are on the horizon.

Overall Final Grade = C+

Mini-Reviews: A DNF, A What-Might-Have-Been, and Comfort Reading

I was bound and determined to continue my Maisey Yates glom but terrible timing and realizing too late I was full-up on sexually inexperienced heroines led me to DNF'ing Seduce Me, Cowboy at the 30% mark.  The heroine is a good-girl preacher's daughter who has finally realized that being good has gotten her nowhere in life - so she moves out of her parents' house, quits her secretarial job at Daddy's church, and goes to work for our hero, who is a gruff wrong-side-of-the-tracks sort who has built a construction empire.  She's Never-Been-Kissed Rose-Colored-Glasses, and he's Mr. Grumpy Jaded Cynic.  I just couldn't with this child.  In the wake of everything currently going on in the US (posterity for my blog archives: COVID-19, George Floyd's murder, civil unrest) I just...couldn't with this child.  Plus this was the third sexually inexperienced Yates heroine in a row I'd read and y'all...I just couldn't with this child. Certainly I've read and enjoyed plenty of books featuring Sunshine-y Heroines and Grumpy Heroes, but now is not the time. Her Sunshine-y privilege just made me want to smack her into next Tuesday.

Final Grade = DNF

The Ghosts of Eden Park: the Bootleg King, the Women Who Pursued Him, and the Murder That Shocked Jazz-Age America by Karen Abbott was an audiobook listen I picked up at The Day Job because I like Truth Is Stranger Than Fiction nonfiction books and this is another one of those "Trials of the Century" that have largely faded from American consciousness.  George Remus was a morally bankrupt pharmacist-turned-lawyer in Cincinnati, Ohio who turned Prohibition bootlegger.  He dumped his first wife, married Imogene (who worked in his office - because of course) and ultimately caught the attention of Mabel Walker Willebrandt, who was appointed Assistant US Attorney General under the less than squeaky clean Harding administration. Willebrandt, charged with enforcing Prohibition, had a real problem finding field agents who weren't corrupt, and she thought she'd found her man in Franklin Dodge.  Turns out? Not so much.  Dodge and Imogene entered into an affair while Remus was in prison.  When Remus got out of prison? That's when all hell broke loose.

Abbott had access to extensive court documents - which, fine.  The problem is she focuses on the least interesting guy in the room.  Remus is just like every other megalomaniac sociopath criminal gangster that came before him, and since.  Imogene and Dodge are the story here.  How exactly did these two really hook up? Did Imogene set her sights on Remus from the word go in order to take everything out from under him - or was she pushed into it, either by Dodge or with her just being completely fed up with Remus's abuse?  We'll never know.  I get that Abbott is working with the historical record available to her, which means my final impression is that what I really wanted was a historical fiction account of these characters - not so much nonfiction.

Final Grade = C

Back in late summer 2017 I decided to revisit Marcia Muller's Sharon McCone series. I made great progress in 2018, kept going in 2019, but stalled out when it was time to read While Other People Sleep, the 18th book in the series. Frankly, I got distracted by other books, and I recalled being meh about this one when I first read it.  Turns out my memory isn't completely shot.

Sharon, now with her own agency, finds out through her grapevine that a woman was impersonating her at a cocktail party.  What Sharon hopes was a harmless prank turns out to be much more sinister - this woman is handing out her business cards, having one-night-stands, stealing from said one-night-stands, committing credit card fraud, calling her friends and family, and even is audacious enough to break into Sharon's house.  

This book feels like Muller just didn't have enough to oomph-up the main mystery.  There's other threads here - namely efficient office manager Ted is acting completely out of character, and some added bits about various other cases the firm is working (one is a guy hiding financial assets ahead of a divorce, the other a guy who thinks his girlfriend is cheating on him).  Then there's Sharon's relationship drama - Hy is off to South America, not in contact just as Sharon's life is unraveling, and he's likely in danger.  It gives the book a very scattershot feel for the first half.  It's not until the second half, when Sharon loops in all her colleagues about the woman who is ruining her life and the focus lands firmly there that things smooth out.  Then it turns out to be a decent cat-and-mouse style read.

Not a favorite in this series but I desperately needed Competent Female Porn - and smart, female private detectives are my jam. They're 100% comfort reads for me.  Smart woman solves the mystery, saves the day and justice is served - I mean, what's not to love about that?

Final Grade = C+

Library Loot Mini-Reviews: Time to Take a Break from Gothics

I love Gothics, the word alone causing a Pavlovian-like response in me.  I loved them as a teen and the genre kicks off a wave of nostalgia in me.  When I want comfort reading? Nostalgia is usually the first place I turn.  Well, after this latest round of Gothic reading thanks to the Day Job, I'm regretting my life choices.  I'm also left with the feeling that I wish it were morally ethical to clone Simone St. James.

The Animals at Lockwood Manor by Jane Healey is set at the start of World War II and features a heroine desperate to hang on to her job with the Natural History Museum. She's a woman, has already made a fairly big blunder (albeit it was an accident) but the men are all getting shipped off to war and options are limited.  So her bosses let it be known she's on the short leash as she evacuates with the mammal collection to Lockwood Manor to keep the prized collection safe from German bombs.  The Lord of the Manor is a recent widower whose wife was "mad" (of course she was...) and whose daughter, the heroine's age, is "fragile."  Soon exhibits are going missing and the various disasters are mounting up.

The atmosphere is pitch-perfect but glaciers move faster than this story.  It takes forever to go anywhere - even at the 50% mark there wasn't a whole lot happening.  It's a lot of living inside the heroine's head as her paranoia increases and dark secrets come spilling out into the light.  When it finally starts going somewhere (anywhere!) the various secrets take a lurid turn.  On the plus side, it's queer - with the heroine and fragile daughter entering into a relationship.  I didn't know that going into the book and it was a pleasant surprise. But seriously, this was slow and very much meh.  YMMV but seriously....meh.

Final Grade = C

Enjoyment of The Woman in the Mirror by Rebecca James will hinge entirely on if the reader feels that Gothics are genre fiction.  I do. They're an amalgamation of genre (suspense, horror and romance) but Gothics are a genre.  And the whole point of genre fiction is to fulfill a promise to the reader.  The promise that Gothics make is that evil will be vanquished.  Doesn't matter if that evil is human or supernatural - Evil. Will. Be. Vanquished.

In 1947 our heroine with Big Secrets grabs the brass ring of a governess job at Winterbourne on the rocky shores of Cornwall.  Her employer is a scarred, haunted widower with two precocious (and creepy) twins (a boy and a girl).  Their mother died tragically, as did the last governess.  In present day New York, our other heroine, her adoptive parents gone, has just opened an art gallery and is in a superficial relationship with a billionaire playboy-type.  Then she gets a letter that she's inherited Winterbourne.  That biological family she's always yearned to know?  Yeah, they've found her - albeit she's the only one left.  And now she has a giant crumbling Gothic manor on the Cornish coast.

This is standard issue Gothic. The "hero" with dark secrets, a heroine whose mental state is unraveling, a creepy house, two creepy kids, and supernatural shenanigans.  The present day story line anchors it all, gives that heroine a local Cornish love interest, and eventually everything converges as 21st century heroine unravels the supernatural mystery.

So what's the problem?  Well, it all comes to a head, evil is vanquished, things don't end well in 1947 but 21st century heroine is on her way to a happy ending.  But then the author couldn't leave well enough alone.  She tacks on a couple more chapters and basically yells "Gothca!"  That "happy ending" that our 21st century heroine was getting?  Yeah, she's screwed.  In the final couple of chapters.  And not in a good way.  The whole affair ends on a dark, depressing downbeat and now I want to burn everything to the frickin' ground.  In short?  Evil is not vanquished.  Wendy Mad! Wendy Smash!

If you don't think Gothics are genre and you don't think they carry a promise to the reader - then you might like this one.  Me?  I wanted to storm the manor gates with an army carrying torches and pitchforks.

Final Grade = D-

#TBRChallenge 2020: Her Summer Crush

The Book: Her Summer Crush by Linda Hope Lee

The Particulars: Contemporary romance, 2016, Harlequin Heartwarming #134, out of print, available in digital, Book #2 in Return to Willow Beach series

Why Was It In Wendy's TBR?: I had a print copy and it was autographed which means I picked this up at an RWA conference. 

The Review: This is going to be a damning with faint praise review. To be perfectly blunt, it was exactly the right book to read in this moment of my life, with the world on fire and any semblance of work/life balance I normally have getting chucked out a 15th floor window. It bares little resemblance to reality, which was just what I needed even if the story and writing itself are flawed.

Luci Monroe has just graduated college and landed her dream job back in her hometown of Willow Beach (somewhere vaguely Pacific Northwest) doing PR for the Chamber of Commerce.  Tourist-y magazines, brochures, promoting the local businesses - that sort of thing. She's super close to her family so returning to her hometown has always been in the cards.  Not in the cards? Cody Jarvis - the man she's had a crush on since high school.  The man who is now a world-class photographer, travels the world, who doesn't want to settle down in his quiet hometown. Turns out he's in-between gigs and has agreed to take a temporary summer job at the Chamber of Commerce as their go-to photographer. Oh, and Luci is going to be his boss.  Worse yet, her crush is still there, Cody is still as handsome as ever, and still doesn't know she exists other than they're "good friends."

That's basically it.  Luci has an unrequited crush. Cody actually likes her more than as "just a friend" but he's such a GUY it takes him the whole book to realize it.  There's a whole bunch of small town shenanigans - including eleventy billion characters (really, in book 2?!),  Luci navigating her new job/boss, getting saddled with a teenage intern, her family ties fraying at the seams, a wedding, a 4th of July celebration, a sandcastle building contest etc. etc. 

The romance itself is very slow and leisurely, but lacks spark.  It's a low-heat novel, which is fine - but even low-heat novels need something, and this romance is lukewarm to tepid.  (Note: you can still write passion even if you don't have a sex scene and there's nothing like that to speak of here). The first kiss scene is pretty decent and there's some nice dancing scenes but other than that?  Meh. I've read worse, I've read better.

But I kept flipping the pages and once I started reading I didn't come up for air. Even though this book lacks all semblance of reality.  It felt like Mayberry. Like the small town that everybody thinks exists but rarely does in real life.  The clincher for me was a moment in the story when the heroine buys three newspapers (two local-ish, one out of Seattle) to, ready for this?, CHECK THE HELP WANTED ADS!  In a book published in 2016.  In a local small town rag? Sure, maybe (even that strains at the seams of credibility) but SEATTLE?!?!?!?!

So if you want some semblance of reality? Yeah, not this book. If you want an escapist, Hallmark Movie-style setting completely devoid of reality however (and hello, see current events) this is a decent small town romance if you go for that sort of thing.  I found it pleasant, but otherwise meh.

Final Grade = C

Retro Review: Under the Covers

This review of Under the Covers by Rita Herron was first published by The Romance Reader in 2002. Back then I rated it 3-Hearts (C grade) with a sensuality rating of PG-13.

+++++

Dr. Abigail Jensen is the latest media sensation thanks to her new book, Under the Covers. Abby is a marriage counselor who wrote the book to help monogamous couples communicate more effectively. Unfortunately, all the media can harp on is the s-e-x - even calling her the Dear Abby of the bedroom. As if that wasn’t enough to deal with, on the same day that her book is released, she gets a Dear John letter from her husband. Seems Lenny likes men just as much as Abby does.

Mortified, she also learns that her marriage is a sham - they were married by a con man. However, the hits just keep on coming - what if Lenny was in on the scam from the very beginning? With her book poised to be a big success, her publicist wants a media blitz - and everyone wants to meet Dr. Abby’s new husband.

Hunter Stone is a reporter for the Atlanta Journal and Constitution who is eager to climb up the ladder - and Dr. Abby Jensen is his first class ticket. He just knows this woman is hiding something and he’s going to dig up enough dirt to get him that investigative reporting job he’s been gunning for. Not only that, it sure would feel good to get back at the woman he feels is responsible for the break-up of his first marriage.

Abby’s publicist isn’t going to budge, so she figures her only option is to hire an actor to impersonate Lenny. Her younger sister happens to be a budding actress. Not so lucky is that the man Chelsea has hired to play Lenny is none other that Hunter Stone.

Under the Covers works when the focus is solely on Abby - she’s really a likable heroine. Lenny’s deception has sent her self-esteem in a tailspin. How can she be giving advice to couples when she couldn’t figure out the man she thought she married was not only a con artist but also gay? She’s a natural born caregiver, having spent her childhood being more responsible than her parents. She has a grand relationship with her two sisters - Chelsea, the free spirit and Victoria, the no-nonsense lawyer. 

Original Cover

It takes considerably longer to warm up to Hunter - mainly because he’s an idiot. He blames the failure of his first marriage on Abby. Why? Because his wife attended one of her seminars. Uh huh. Thankfully, once he begins to spend time with Abby he starts to reevaluate his preconceived notions. It’s during these moments when Hunter is questioning what he thinks he knows, and what he thinks he feels, that his character begins to polish up as hero material.

Unfortunately, Under the Covers tries too hard in the madcap, zany comedy department and it detracts from the love story. There are all sorts of wacky adventures that only resorted in my groaning, and rolling my eyes - most of which involve Chelsea. Whether she’s dressing up like a banana to land a TV commercial or passing herself off as a stripper - when she’s not spending sisterly time with Victoria and Abby she firmly sits in too-stupid-to-live territory. The final straw was the farting dog.

There’s also the small, very annoying matter of Hunter’s five-year-old daughter, Lizzie. She’s among the insufferable crop of romance novel children who talks in unending baby-talk, dripping enough sugary sweetness on the page to put a diabetic in a coma. I kept hoping someone would smother her in her sleep - maybe along with the farting dog.

Strip away the wackiness, as well as the cutesy kid, and Under the Covers is a fine contemporary read. It may register higher marks for readers looking for screwball comedy. This reviewer was just worn out from wading through wacky land to get to the romance.

+++++

Wendy Looks Back: I know the last several retro reviews I've posted will look like I'm "picking on" cartoon covers - but seriously, is it any wonder I have trust issues?  I know they're the hot thing du jour in 2020 but....I've been down this road before it was bumpy y'all. 

Anyway, not a lot of recall on this one other than I really should have trademarked "wading through wacky land." Also reading in between the lines of this nearly 20-year-old review, something tells me the gay con man ex was not necessarily written with nuance and/or sensitivity. 

Review: Ride the High Lonesome

I love historical westerns, and yes, I'm self-aware enough to recognize that the sub genre is problematic. While westerns, be they contemporary or historical, have celebrated somewhat of a rebirth, riding on the coattails of the small town contemporary boom - I've always preferred the darker and grittier westerns.  Westerns where the main couple tends to be in peril (a lot).  Possibly because even if the author doesn't implicitly spell it out, the reader is confronted with the problematic nature of the sub genre - even if it is only found in between the lines of the text.

Ride the High Lonesome by Rosanne Bittner is the start of a new series set post-Civil War in "outlaw country" where men make their own law and live by a code (be it good or bad - the lines blur an awful lot).  Kate Winters lost her husband in the war and left Indiana to travel to Oregon to live with her brother-in-law's family.  However, the wagon train she is traveling with is attacked in route, and Kate is the only survivor, hiding under the rubble of a destroyed wagon.  She emerges to find her fellow travelers dead, with no supplies, no horse, and no idea where the heck she is.  So she starts walking and happens upon a band of men stringing up another man to hang him.  They're going to steal the guy's cattle, and would have taken his horse - accept the horse fights back, they decide to not dally, and take off with the herd.  Kate still has no idea where she is, where the nearest town is, but she needs that horse and the meager supplies still strapped to it.  That's when she notices the hanging man isn't dead.  Yes, she's desperate - but she's not a monster.  Plus, she has no idea where she is. She weighs the odds and cuts him down.

Luke Bowden is a might cranky. Naturally our boy wants his cattle back, his money back, oh and to put a bullet in every one of the men who tried to murder him by doing a piss-poor job of hanging him.  He doesn't need a woman along for the ride, but he's also indebted to her.  Plus the outlaws are more than likely heading to the nearest town to sell off the herd - so he can deliver her to civilization and get his revenge.

What follows is a road romance with all the trigger warnings you can possibly think of.  Nobody is writing westerns like Bittner anymore (if they are, please leave me suggestions in the comments section!).  Over the course of this story you have Luke almost dying by hanging, Kate nearly getting raped twice (well, multiple times really since the second instance would have been a gang rape...), and more dead bodies than I can keep track of: 5, 6, 7, 8?  I lost count.  It's a western set in a violent time, with the shadow of the Civil War shadowing everything.

I can roll with all of this, even as I recognize that the violence in the plot will be a sticking point for some readers.  No, my issues with this book are entirely based on writing and characterization.  The dialogue is stilted at times and the writing falls into repetition.  Kate is a heroine that's hard to get a bead on.  I started out loving her.  She's vulnerable, but recognizes that shit has to get done - or else she's going to die.  She's a "good woman" but she saves a man from hanging, fights off her would-be rapists, and is pretty brave in the face of getting stranded in outlaw country with her only help being a man she needs to trust, but doesn't know if she quite can.  But then she's also a former Civil War nurse who doesn't do much to doctor up a bullet wound she receives until Luke rides in at the 11th hour to save her.  She also turns clingy and needy which I "get" but found annoying compared to those times when she sucks it up and barrels through a situation because she doesn't have much choice.

Luke is your prototypical Alpha western hero who lives by a code even though he skirts around the edges of the law when it suits him.  He takes no issue with killing a man, but only when he feels said man does something to warrant it.  And he's bound by honor to protect Kate because she saves his life.  But, and wouldn't you know it, he was also done wrong by a woman so he's got trust issues, and at the end he does something for no other reason than to "test" Kate's faithfulness that had me wanting to find the nearest cast iron skillet and beat him over the head until he was bloody and unconscious.  Frankly Kate sticking by his side, saving him from hanging, and practically mooning over him in the final chapters should have given him a clue. No, this thundering jackass has to "test" her some more.

Sigh.

So where does this leave me?  I was sitting at a B- for most of this book.  It was slow in spots, the repetition got repetitious and the dialogue was a bit stilted for my liking - but it was fine and frankly nobody writes westerns like this anymore.  But for as brave as Kate is over the course of events in this story, there's an underlying thread of Rescue Fantasy and adherence to traditional gender roles which were hard to ignore because there's zero subtlety.  Kate Is Woman, Ergo Luke Protects Kate Because He Is Big Bad Man.  Kate Stares Lovingly As He Rides Away and Sits Her Ass On Shelf To Pine.

Luke's "test" and Kate simply resigning herself to a life of lonely waiting while he rides off with vague promises to return put a bullet between the eyes of that B-.  Yes, there's a happy ending and yes, I'll read the next book in the series, because of course I will.  Why?  Because nobody else is writing westerns like this anymore.

Final Grade = C-

#TBRChallenge 2019: Holiday Kisses Anthology

The Book: Holiday Kisses by Jaci Burton, Shannon Stacey, HelenKay Dimon and Alison Kent

The Particulars: Contemporary romance, Carina Press, 2011, three out of four stories part of series (exception: Alison Kent), stories available in anthology edition and sold separately.

Why Was It In Wendy's TBR?: I had a print copy of this, which means I must have picked it up at an RWA conference...but it's not autographed. Maybe I picked it up as part of a Carina/Harlequin spotlight? My personal cataloging notes are sketchy (to put it mildly).

The Review: I've always liked anthologies as a way to "sample" authors without having to expend a lot of time and energy.  I don't read nearly as many of them these days because thanks to digital many shorts are now available separately. I've obviously had this anthology languishing for a while, short works well for me this time of year (even more so than usual) so I landed on it pretty quickly for this month's challenge.

A Rare Gift by Jaci Burton kicked things off and suffered a bit because I personally have issues with the sibling's ex trope.  As someone who has sisters, the idea of boffing one of their exes (not to mention an ex-husband!!!) is an immediate no-go for me.  Calliope Andrews moved back home and started up a daycare center.  She's outgrowing her space though and wants to add an addition.  For that she calls Wyatt Kent, whose family runs a small construction outfit.  Wyatt was married to her sister, Cassandra, and they divorced two years ago.  It was not a happy fun-time divorce (are they ever?), he's still surly over it, and Calliope has had the hots for Wyatt since she was 15 (because, of course).

Cassandra isn't a dead ex (it works better for me when they're dead) and Wyatt, while not pining over his ex, still obviously has not "let it go."  So while I appreciated that Calliope was a heroine who knew what she wanted and went after it - the neatly tied up ending, the rushed "lets get married and start making babies yesterday" in the last chapter - it just didn't work for me.  Gurl, HE HAD A DISASTER MARRIAGE WITH YOUR SISTER!  Holidays are gonna be awkward.  But I'm a big enough person to admit that this is very much a personal preference thing and YMMV.

Final Grade = C

Mistletoe and Margaritas by Shannon Stacey was a novella that damn near ripped my guts out and was my favorite in the anthology.  Justin McCormick has loved Claire Rutledge since he first laid eyes on her.  The problem being that his BFF got there first. Brendan and Claire dated, got married, and had five years together before he died in an accident. Claire has been grieving for 2 years and during that time her and Justin have become inseparable BFFs.  It's getting harder for Justin to hide his feelings and Claire's starting to have very not-just-friend thoughts about Justin.  One holiday party, a couple of cocktails and some mistletoe kicks open the door.  This one features another fast marriage proposal, but works a bit better given the long friendship.  My only quibble in what is an engaging and emotional romance.

Final Grade = B+

The only reasons I didn't DNF It's Not Christmas Without You by HelenKay Dimon is because it's a novella and Dimon is an engaging writer.  Carrie Anders left her small West Virginia hometown for a dream job at a museum in Washington D.C. two hours away.  She broke it off with her on-again-off-again boyfriend, Austin Thomas, who runs a Christmas tree farm with his father and brother.  Austin thought that Carrie would get this crackpot idea of moving to The Big City out of her system and come home...but it's been six months.  So he drops serious cash, persuades his brother, and they rent a lot outside the heroine's apartment building to sell Christmas trees.  He's going to convince her to quit her job, come home, and marry him.

The hero in this story is a thundering jackass, borderline Neanderthal who completely disregards that the heroine has dreams and ambitions of her own separate from his precious man fee-fees.  To make matters worse, the heroine doesn't knee him in the giblets and send him packing. She puts up with his BS and keeps coming around the lot because she can't stay away.  I stuck with this story because I like Dimon's writing and it's short and it's kind of worth it in the end when the light finally dawns for Austin and he realizes he's an ass.  The problem being that I'm not sure I believe that he's reformed.  I mean, what are we talking here: a long distance relationship that consists of a 2 hour commute. This is not insurmountable IMHO and yet he's bound and determined to haul her home by her hair.  He sees the light but he's such a jackass for the majority of the story I'm not convinced they survive the first rough patch that happens after the happy ending.  And knowing Austin?  That rough patch probably happened within the first week.

Final Grade = C-

This Time Next Year by Alison Kent is a well done snowed-in-cabin-romance.  Brenna Keating is driving through the North Carolina mountains on the way to her grandmother's for Christmas when the predicted snow forecast shows up early. She's almost there when she swerves to avoid a deer and lands in a ditch. She's trapped, the snow is falling fast, and she probably would have frozen to death in her car if local doctor, Dillon Craig didn't happen upon her.  He's friends with her grandmother, and knows she's expecting Brenna. He frees her from her car and, the weather still terrible, takes her back to his cabin.  What you think happens next...happens next.

Brenna, a nurse, is spending one last Christmas with her grandmother before heading to Malawi for volunteer work. Her grandmother and her parents have all done similar work - kind of like a family calling.  Yet Brenna knows that her grandmother isn't getting any younger and this could very well be their last Christmas together.  Dillon served in Afghanistan as a medic, haunted by his war experiences and the fact that he was thousands of miles away from home when his father (who left him the cabin) died of a heart attack.

This is a nice, emotional, engaging romance featuring two grown-up characters who talk to each other.  I liked these two kids together and they form a partnership that naturally makes sense in my mind.  I've read several stories by Kent over the years and this is probably my favorite to date.  It's a nice contemporary romance.

Final Grade = B

Whew! Another year and another TBR Challenge complete.  I hope you all had fun participating and/or following along.  We're doing this again in 2020!  Be sure to check out this blog post for more information.

Retro Review: Never Trust a Lady

This review of Never Trust a Lady by Suzanne Robinson was originally posted at The Romance Reader in 2008.  Back then I rated this 3-Hearts (C grade) with an MPAA-style content rating of "G."

++++

Lady Eva Sparrow is a young widow and squeezing all the fun out of life that she can. After an unhappy childhood, and dreadful marriage, Eva has spent the last few years traveling aboard and having various adventures. However, it is while visiting friends in Mississippi, at the dawn of the Civil War, that Eva finds herself called to action. Horrified by slavery, she is determined to help any way she can – and she gets her wish when she learns that her British political connections could aid the Union cause.

Ryder Drake owns a ranch in Texas, but the threat of war has led him to set up a Union spy network to keep tabs on the Confederates. He also wants to make sure that the South fails in rallying support from the British – and to do that he needs an insider who can introduce him to British political figures. He really doesn’t want to enable the help of Lady Eva Sparrow, thinking she’s just another bubble-headed female.

However Ryder soon learns of an assassination attempt that would surely mean Britain declaring war on the Union. He has exhausted all other possibilities and must try to gain favor with Lady Eva – a task that finds him in a perilous situation since he has grossly underestimated her intelligence.

I feel fairly confident in saying that Never Trust A Lady is not a romance. Oh sure, there’s a romance – but it is most definitely a subplot and not wholly satisfying. Lady Eva is normally the sort of heroine I like. She was dissatisfied playing the beautiful, empty-headed hostess to her much older husband and has spent her widowhood traveling, learning and basically having her own opinions. For the bulk of the story I found her rather refreshing – although there are a couple of instances where she comes off like a petulant child because the boys won’t listen to her.

Ryder has mommy issues. Like many romance heroes before him, his mother was a society shrew who only cared for baubles and parties, therefore neglecting her marriage and only son. Sigh. So naturally because Eva is a British Lady and moves in certain desirable circles, she must be a ninny. He eventually realizes that he’s the moron, but this same old song and dance routine was more than a little disappointing.

What does work much better than the romance is Robinson’s skill when it comes to writing history, and her inclusion of real historical figures was an added bonus. Notable secondary characters include Alan Pinkerton, Abraham Lincoln, and Queen Victoria herself. The Victorian London setting is also well done – right down to gaslights, seedy slums, and descriptions of the sewer system.

The mystery of the assassination attempt is middle of the road. The author does toss in an acceptable red herring – but sad to say that I pretty much knew where it was going before I had actually concluded the journey. Readers who pick up mystery novels with any sort of frequency may find themselves in the same boat. That said, I never got bored with the main focus of the story, and easily kept turning the pages.

Enjoyment of Never Trust A Lady hinges on what the reader is looking for. Those wanting a romance will probably find themselves frustrated, while those looking for a historical novel should be more satisfied. The ending also leaves this reviewer pondering if this is the potential birth of a new series – as while there is a happily ever after, it’s not exactly signed, sealed and delivered. It certainly wouldn’t be out of the question – which could make Never Trust A Lady of particular interest to fans of historical mystery series.

+++++

Wendy Note: Another book I have absolutely no recall on but my sleuthing indicates that this book never did spin out into a series.

#TBRChallenge 2019: Losing to Win

The Book: Losing to Win by Michele Grant

The Particulars: Contemporary romance, 2013, Kensington Dafina, still in print (although stock number shaky at time of this posting), available in digital.

Why Was It In Wendy's TBR?:  I impulsively picked it up at the one and only RT convention I went to (in Las Vegas - whatever year that was...).  It was up for grabs, the model on the cover caught my eye, and the back cover blurb intrigued.

The Review: I watch very little reality television, finding the majority of it pretty gross.  But when used for the backdrop of a romance novel?  I'm all in.  It's ready made conflict (in the form of competition) for the hero and heroine and oftentimes it requires them to work as a team.  It also means they're thrown together a lot and if the author plays their cards right?  It can be a great way to start building tension.

Losing to Win is an amalgamation of contemporary romance, chick lit and women's fiction. Let me explain.  Carissa Wayne lives in tiny Belle Haven, Louisiana, an area still reeling from Hurricane Katrina and the Gulf Oil Spill.  Belle Haven is a small town, with limited resources, and frankly just the type of place that was largely forgotten in the wake of the devastation in larger, glitzy, flashier, New Orleans.  It's the last day at the school where she teaches.  She's kind of grungy from cleaning out her classroom when she's called into the gymnasium.  What does she find waiting for her?  A camera crew.  A cheesy TV host.  Her family and friends.  Yeah, they've blindsided her with the "opportunity" to go on a reality TV weight loss show called Losing to Win.  Lose some of those pounds she's packed on over the years and a chance to win a pile of money while doing it.  Carissa is hot though.  Really not happy.  Until she learns the finer details.  The show will film in her home town.  Publicity.  Dollars.  Opportunities for the local businesses (she's friends with many of them) to make some cash.  Literally she can't say no.

But she almost reconsiders when she finds out her ex-fiance', Malachi "Mal" Knight, will be her partner on the show.  Mal was a star athlete that made it all the way to the NFL.  He and Carissa were an item since junior high.  But then he got into professional football and started believing his own hype.  Carissa was expected to wait at home and be the good little woman.  One day, sick of being treated like crap, she left.  Taking Mal's brand new BMW with her.  Her heart broken, his heart broken, both single ever since.  And now here he is - on the show with her.  Along with other folks from her past and present (her BFF, a former friend from college, her high school nemesis etc.).

Written in dueling first person point of view from Carissa's and Mal's perspectives, the tone and vibe of this book reminded me a lot of chick lit from back in the day.  Carissa is funny, sassy, and self-deprecating.  It's also a bit women's fiction - with Carissa still smarting over her failed relationship with Mal, but also being her own woman, knowing her own mind, and having her own dreams.  Carissa wants what she wants and frankly?  Mal treated her badly, taking her for granted, steamrolling and disregarding her dreams in favor of his own.  In other words, he was a selfish ass taking her for granted and she left.

Mal sees the show as his ticket back.  A knee injury sidelined him after Carissa left and those two events led to a downward spiral.  He packed on the pounds and while he's lost some, he's go about 40 more to go to get back into playing shape.  He's not ready to give up on his NFL dream just yet, but he's a 33-year-old wide receiver (ancient in NFL terms).  His agent has gotten him a try-out with a team, but he's got a lot to prove.  And there stands Carissa.  The woman he can't forget and wants back.  But damn, what will happen when she finds out why he's doing the show?  Will she feel railroaded all over again?

I liked the humor, I liked the authorial voice and the tone of the story - but that said?  It's not perfect.  This reads very Small Town Romance most of the time which means there are eleventy billion characters.  No, not just the show's contestants, but also the people working on the show, local townspeople not on the show, various family members etc.  I felt like a lot of this fat could have been trimmed (ha!).  Also, Mal flat-out did Carissa wrong and for a while I wasn't sure I wanted him to win her back.  I mean, girlfriend had a legit beef.  The author does do a good job of showing Mal "growing up" but then a new problem comes in...Carissa.

One of the contestants on the show is a guy Carissa knew in college.  He had a thing for her back then, but she was with Mal.  Well, now Carissa is no longer with Mal and he's divorced.  He's going to make a run at her.  Carissa still has the hots for Mal, but recognizes that Jordy is a nice guy.  They also share a steamy kiss that has her intrigued.  So what does she do?  Strings Jordy along with the ol' "I Need Time" argument and knocks boots with Mal because they can't keep their hands off each other.  She's not fooling around with Jordy (she's monogamous with Mal) but damn - SHE'S STRINGING THIS GUY ALONG!!!!  And for real, he's a NICE guy.  The kind of guy you'd want to take home to meet Mom.

Between this and some minor pacing issues I had (it sags a bit in the middle) - this makes the book a B-.  I get it.  Carissa was badly burned by Mal.  So she doesn't want to close the door on Jordy and she's still running a little scared.  But then The Black Moment comes and by that point I was just so disgusted with her.  Again, I was with her for a while - but over the course of the story Mal was saying all the right things.  He was doing all the supportive things.  And then this chapter happened and ugh!!!!!!  The only saving grace (and I mean ONLY) is that the author doesn't drag out Carissa's boneheaded move.  It's all pretty well resolved before the next chapter ends.  But still.  Girl, get yourself together.

And just like that?  What was a B- read slipped down to a C- read.  There was a lot I liked here, the voice, the plot, even the "small town" vibe plays well if you gravitate towards those types of stories.  But Carissa's running scared move at the end of the book that basically further drags Nice Guy Jordy under the bus AND completely disregards the positive steps Mal has made to repair their relationship?  I wanted to slap her into next Tuesday.  Even more insulting?  She needs her BFF to clue her in to what an idiot she is after said BFF eavesdrops on a conversation.  Not sorry I read it but disappointed it didn't work better for me.

Final Grade = C-

Mini-Review: Her Other Secret

It's time to play everyone's favorite game - Do You Think Like a Romance Heroine!

You live on a remote (and fictional) island off the coast of Washington state.  For the past couple of days you've noticed a yacht, that looks disabled, from the shore.  What do you do?

1) You live on an island! You call the Coast Guard and report what you've seen.

2) Hmmm, that boat looks in trouble.  You call the local cop, he's the only law enforcement on the island.

3) You call the local handyman who is hot as hell, but has the personality of a bear you woke up from hibernation even though you've barely been civil to each other ever since you first met.

If you picked #1 or #2 please go to the back of the line.  You have a problem with thinking logically ergo no way in heck you could possibly be a romance heroine.  At least not the heroine in Her Other Secret by HelenKay Dimon.  The improbable set-up of this romance only gets worse when a mystery man, dressed in a suit, walks out of the water without a backward glance at the hero and heroine standing on the shore.

Tessa Jenkins moved to remote Whitaker Island to outrun a scandal not of her making.  Hansen Rye is the local handyman with a surly personality laying low after his life imploded back east.  Then the man who walks out of the water turns up dead and Hansen starts looking guilty as heck given the man was tied to Hansen's mysterious past.

And there's the rub.  Hansen looks VERY guilty.  I mean, I know he's not guilty because he's the romance hero but...NOBODY ELSE IN THIS STORY KNOWS THAT!  They all immediately jump to his defense even though Hansen has kept everyone at arm's length and has a barely housebroken personality.  They just all immediately KNOW he's innocent.  The word "trust" is thrown around a lot but I'm never convinced on WHY they trust him.  He's tight-lipped and slow to share the truth - I mean, that warrants at least a tinch of suspicion in my opinion.

The further I got away from the improbable set-up, the better the story got.  I got wrapped up in the mystery.  Although with the small population on the island, this reads like a locked room mystery where it really can only be ONE person - you just have to wait to have the motive unraveled.

Dimon does a great job of creating a small town atmosphere with her island world-building, which is also a slight issue since I was often times way more interested in the secondary characters (OMG - Ben the cop!) than the main romantic couple.  To say I'm a little disappointed that the next book in this series is about Hansen's brother (who never appears on the page in this book) is a disappointment.  Jury still out if I'll make the pit stop with him, or just set this series aside until, hopefully, Ben's romance finally appears.

YMMV

Final Grade = C

#TBRChallenge 2019: Three Harlequin Historical Undones

One of the few "rules" I give myself for the TBR Challenge is to read from my print TBR.  However the book I ended up selecting was a pretty quick DNF and with familial obligations this week, I opted instead to burn through three short stories languishing on my Kindle from the defunct Harlequin Historical Undone line.  To keep things cohesive, I went with three written by the same author, Marguerite Kaye.

Spellbound & Seduced opens in 1622 with a witch, betrayed by her own daughter, being burned at the stake.  Before she dies she, naturally, puts a curse on her daughter, stating that her husband will die on their one-year anniversary and that every woman in their line will lose their husbands until a "one true love" can break the curse.  Fast forward to 1822, and that witch's descendant, Jura Mcnair, is living in a remote cottage, determined to die alone, the curse along with her.  Lawrence Connaught, who turns out to be the new laird, arrives on her doorstep, injured, just as a snowstorm is blowing in.  He's captivated, she's lonely, they're snowed in - oh, whatever shall they do?

Jura is a witch and herbalist, talked about in hushed whispers, but respected by villagers for her willingness to help and heal them of various ailments.  Still, wanting to break the curse, she has resigned herself to a life of loneliness.  The paranormal aspects are written with a light touch but given that a "one true love" is the only way to break a 200-year-old curse...well, a short story didn't provide me with enough of a word count to convince me.  Pleasant and OK.

Final Grade = C

Behind the Courtesan's Mask is a perfect example of a story that works better in a short format.  Had this been a full-length Harlequin Historical I'm pretty sure the hero would have gotten on my last hot nerve.

Constance had no idea she had an identical twin sister until she shows up on her doorstep, near death from consumption.  Her sister now passed, Constance has returned to her sister's townhouse to pack up her things, and given that her sister was a courtesan known as "La Perla" - well, the townhouse is eye-opening indeed.  To Constance, widowed when her upstanding, staid, completely devoid of passion, vicar husband dies - her sister's life is a compelling mystery.  So when Troy Templeton, Earl of Ettrick shows up at the door, thinking that Constance is her sister, well...she doesn't correct him.

Troy is a diplomat and there to warn the infamous La Perla away from his boss's son.  Instead sparks, tension, and flirtation means he ends up ravishing Constance - who is a willing participant.  Troy, naturally, thinks the worst of her since he was duped as a young man by a courtesan/fortune hunter.  There's some mild, read in between the lines slut-shaming, but Kaye counteracts this with Constance's pragmatic views on sex work - especially since she got to properly know her long-long sister before her passing.  In a full length novel I think I'd want to smack Troy into next Tuesday, but the shorter format means his moments of jackassery are blessedly brief.  It didn't light my world on fire, but I liked this one.

Final Grade = B

Finally, I read Lost in Pleasure, a perfect example of one-clicking based on author name and not reading the back cover blurb carefully.  This, very brief, story that clocks in at 40 pages is a time travel romance.  Richard, Earl of Kilcreggan is wealthy, captivated by all things scientific, and has a fabulous library.  However, he's got a bit of ennui and wishes for something to "happen" - which comes in the form of Errin McGill, an American antiques dealer from the 21st century magically appearing in his library.  Errin got there after she sat in a Regency-style wingback chair (which turned out to be once owned by Richard) in a dusty London antique shop.

What follows is sex, dress shopping, traveling back and forth in time, more sex, and finally the two realizing they're in love and need to be together.  One reason I have a hard time with time travel romance is I find all the "time travel stuff" rather tedious.  "Oh golly, I traveled back in time! You sure do talk funny! You sure do wear funny clothes!" etc. etc. etc.  A positive on the short page count is there's less of this.  The downside is that I don't believe in the longevity of the romance.  Where are these two going to live? How will they live?  How will Richard adapt to the 21st century or how will modern, independent, Errin adapt to life as a woman living in the early 19th century?  They have great sex, she gets to wear pretty dresses, they go to balls, the theater and what-not...but it's not enough to make me believe.

And yes, I'm aware that me dissecting a time travel romance, the height of fantasy, is patently ludicrous, but there you have it.

Final Grade = D

A bit of a mixed bag for me for this month's challenge, but given my limited attention span, going with short stories was the right course of action.  Also, it reminded me of how much I appreciated the defunct Harlequin Historical Undone and Spice Briefs lines for offering readers different.  I read three stories, all by the same author, and got a witch, a historical, and a time travel.  Oh sure, it wasn't all a raging success for me, but I think it's another reason why Carina's Dirty Bits line has failed to ignite much interest in me, a reader who LIKES to read short.  It's all contemporary, all the time and when it comes to shenanigans? Viva la variety!

Review: A Baby to Bind His Bride

I'm at the stage in my life where I'm past the point of apologizing for what I like to read. I'm a grown-up. I understand that I like some problematic stuff. I recognize it's problematic and move on.  Such is the case with Presents.  Presents tend to trigger the "pure fantasy" part of my brain. I don't read them as being "real world." They operate in a fantasy, fairy tale world (at least for me - I can't speak for other readers of the line).  But, to be honest, Presents is a minefield kind of line. There are some that are really awesome and some that are regressive to the point where I feel dirty afterward...and not in a good way.  A Baby to Bind His Bride by Caitlin Crews is a rarer bird though. This is a book that wants you to think it's progressive...but, it's really not.

Susannah married billionaire Leonidas Betancur when she was a sheltered and naive 19-year-old.  Theirs was a marriage arranged by their families. Leonidas, being a jackass Presents hero, hops on his private jet, ON HIS WEDDING NIGHT, to broker a business deal, leaving his wife behind.  OF COURSE before the consummation of the marriage because, sheltered and naive 19-year-old = virgin bride.  Anyway, his plane goes down in the Rocky Mountains in a fiery crash, and while his body is never recovered, it's presumed he's dead.

Fast forward five years and Susannah has morphed herself into "the Widow Betancur."  Leonidas' family is a nest of vipers, and in name of protection, she reinvented herself into the consummate widow.  She lives in black. She evokes the memory of her dear departed husband, never mind she was married to him for less than 24 hours.  She's no man's pawn and since Leonidas' "died" she's been running the family dynasty.  But she's tired and desperate for freedom.  And to be free she needs to finally get answers - because she's not convinced Leonidas is dead.  That's how our story opens.  She finds her husband living in a religious compound in the mountains of Idaho with a host of acolytes who think he's a god.  If that isn't the perfect metaphor for every Presents hero EVER, I'm not sure what is.  Anyway, Leonidas has amnesia (because OF COURSE) but once he sees Susannah, and hastily divests her of her virginity (because OF COURSE), the light dawns and most of his memory comes back.  But what will happen when he finds out his wife only found him in order to divorce him?

This is a Presents, so yeah, the plot is preposterous.  But that's kind of their thing.  Why Susannah felt like only a divorce would "free her" is never explained to my satisfaction but I loved this idea of a girl who everyone gives zero credit morphing herself into this ball-busting widow.  Unfortunately, we never really see that in action.  Oh sure, the author tells us about how she thwarted Leonidas' very randy cousins and kept his Evil Mother at bay - but Leonidas is in the picture from Chapter 1 which means he's the one protecting her throughout this story.  No seeing Susannah busting heads in the boardroom.  No seeing Susannah stand up to her parents at a society function.  No seeing Susannah have a darn backbone.  No, instead what readers get is Leonidas' kidnapping Susannah once he finds out she's pregnant because there's no way in Hell he's going to give her a divorce now.

"The marriage, the Betancur name, all of that is noise. The only prison you need worry about is me, Susannah. And I will hold you forever."

Yeah, no.  Then, to add insult to injury, eventually Leonidas lets Susannah leave the isolated Greek island, she jets off to Australia but comes back to give some big ol' speech about how she's always loved him (why, exactly?!) and he does next to nil in the groveling department.  But hey, it's OK because at the end of the story the author tells the reader that they're now running the empire together (oh, I'm supposed to think that's progressive!) but Susannah, naturally, squirts out a baby boy.

BECAUSE OF COURSE SHE DOES!!!!

Look - have I liked problematic as f*ck Presents in my day?  Yes. Yes, I have.  But don't spin me a story that has the window dressing of "progressive" and "feminist" and then fall back on regressive Presents stereotypes.

You know, I finished this book a few days ago.  And back then I slapped it with a middling C grade.  The author knows her way around the format and line, plus it's a well executed story from a craft standpoint.  But the longer I spent away from this book the more annoyed I got.  Look, does romance have a problem with reinforcing traditional gender roles?  Yes, of course it does.  But don't wrap a story in the trappings of progressive and "different" and then...revert back to this nonsense.  Just stick with the nonsense right out of the gate.  I actually prefer that.

Final Grade = D+

Spoiler-y Review: Claim Me, Cowboy

My Kindle is chock full of Maisey Yates. Having enjoyed many of her Harlequin Presents, when she made the move to single title and Harlequin Desire I kept buying.  But she's prolific and I'm a slow reader and here we are.  So I decided it was high time to try one of the Desires and randomly landed on Claim Me, Cowboy because 1) I've had an ARC languishing forever and 2) it just finaled for a RITA, so why not this one? It's smack dab in the middle of the Copper Ridge series, but it stands alone very well and Yates keeps the series-itis to the bare minimum.

The plot is patently absurd, but it tweaks the nose of patently absurd category romance plots that have come before, so I bought it hook, line and sinker. Joshua Grayson is a successful PR guy with a loving family and a big fancy house in Copper Ridge, Oregon.  What he doesn't have is a wife and his father thinks that's just no good - so the old man puts an ad in the newspaper.  Yes, an ad. To find his son a wife.  Joshua is highly annoyed with his old man so places another ad, this one looking for a woman who will play the role of highly unsuitable potential wife and just maybe his father will get the message to butt out.  Who Joshua gets is Danielle Kelly and a baby.

Danielle is all of 22, Joshua assumes the baby is hers, and she doesn't correct him.  Life hasn't been easy for Danielle, raised by a single mother (who had her at 14) who was always looking for love in all the wrong places. Finally away from Mom, working as a grocery store cashier in Portland, life is pretty OK - until the day Mom shows up pregnant.  Danielle takes her in, baby Riley is born, and while Mom says she's going to change her ways...she naturally does not.  Danielle ends up losing her job thanks to unreliable child care, and social services expects her to have a steady life and income if she's to keep custody.  She's desperate. So desperate she answers Joshua's ad and we're off to the races.

I've been reading romance a long time, meddling parents are pretty much a staple, and frankly Joshua's father is one of those guys who thinks the little woman should make a happy home, and squeeze out a passel of kids while the man of the house brings home the bacon.  So if Joshua thinks he can tweak the old man by bringing home a much younger fiance with a baby - more power to him I say.  Frankly the old guy has it coming to him.

No, what doesn't really work with this story is the romance.  I just never believed in it because I never felt like Joshua grew as a person.  He starts off the story as a jerk. The kind of jerk who uses woman but that's OK because they know the score:

He was happy enough now to be alone. And when he didn't want to be alone, he called a woman, had her come spend a few hours in his bed - or in the back of his truck, he wasn't particular. Love was not on the agenda.

My. Hero.

Not.

And then there's the matter that, while they're overstepping, his family ultimately cares about him.  Deceiving them sticks in Danielle's craw for a good chunk of this story, but our girl is desperate - a desperation that Joshua is ultimately counting on:

She was prickly and difficult, but at least she had an excuse. Her family was the worst. As far as she could tell, his family was guilty of caring too much. And she just couldn't feel that sorry for a rich dude whose parents loved him and were involved in his life more than he wanted them to be.

And there's the rub.  To counteract this, Yates gives Joshua a tragic backstory - a former fiance, a late miscarriage, and a spiral into drug addiction, which I think was supposed to make him sympathetic to the reader, but instead he comes off as even more self-absorbed and narcissistic. He doesn't seem to care all that much what became of the former fiance (he assumes she's living on the streets now) - he's more concerned that "he failed her."  Um.  Well, what did you do to, oh I don't know - get her some help?  Look, people who turn to drugs ultimately have to help themselves break the cycle - but from what I could tell Joshua pretty much leaves her to wallow in her depression and drug addiction until she cheats on him with one of his coworkers - and then he walks away to live in seclusion back in his home town and wallow in "his failure."

Which leads us through to the end of the book with Joshua and Danielle ultimately deciding to get married for real.  He proposes out of a sense of guilt.  She accepts because it means financial security for her and Riley.  Naturally Danielle falls in love with him, but knowing his baggage we get The Black Moment:

He didn't love her.  He wanted to fix her. And somehow, through fixing her, he believed he would fix himself.

I never felt convinced that Joshua moves past this. That he's only with Danielle out of a sense of guilt and atonement.  I never felt like he loved her for her.  He loved her because he could provide for her and "save" her.  As for Danielle?  Well, naturally, she's a virgin.  So is she falling head over heels for the rich dude because he can make her life easier and he gives her incredible orgasms?  Look, marriages have been built on less, but I spent a good chunk of this story feeling like she deserved better - especially since her sassy, spunky smart mouth is kind of what saves this story for me.

There's an audience for this story, no doubt.  The joy I've found in Yates' work with Presents is that she can flat-out write The Fairy Tale.  But, to be honest, Cinderella is one of the harder fairy tales for me to swallow in the modern romance genre.  Too much Rescue Fantasy for me.  But there's an appeal there for a lot of readers.  The idea that the handsome rich dude will swoop in, fix everything, and give the woman a damn break for a change.  Look, I get it.  It's appealing. Just not to me.  And Joshua never really grows as a character enough to convince me that he's past his need to assuage his guilt.  Plus, he's kind of a jackass.

Final Grade = C-

#TBRChallenge 2019: Going Full Spoiler on Texas Daddy

The Book: Texas Daddy by Jolene Navarro

The Particulars: Inspirational contemporary romance, Love Inspired #1085, 2017, First book in trilogy, Spin-off from previous series, Out of print, Available in digital

Why Was It In Wendy's TBR?: I heard the author speak on a panel about cowboys at RWA.  There were several authors on this panel but Navarro lives in Texas and touched on Mexican cowboy culture (and Mexican rodeos) and that was enough to intrigue me and pick up this book.

The Review: For this month's Something Different theme I decided to go with a New-To-Me Author and a category romance line I had never read before.  I've read Love Inspired Historicals and Love Inspired Suspense, but have never read anything from the contemporary line.  This reminded me a lot of the Special Edition line...just with more God Stuff.

This is one of those books that left me feeling disoriented and out of sorts.  There's stuff I really liked in this book and then there was stuff that enraged me to the point where my head almost exploded.  So, this should be a fun review.  Anyway, there's no way for me to talk about the problematic crap without giving spoilers so you've been warned.

Adrian De La Cruz is a single father to his 10-year-old daughter.  He got his girlfriend pregnant in high school, gave up his dreams to travel the rodeo circuit (he was pretty good) and with the help of his family got down to the business of raising Mia and starting a construction business with his twin bother.  Mia's mother, being young, sinking into addiction, and with a crappy home life, willingly gave up custody to Adrian and took off for parts unknown almost immediately after giving birth.

Nikki Bergmann is back home in Clear Water, Texas not because she wants to be, but because an accident has jacked up her knee.  Nikki is a travel guide, one of those outdoor adventure types who takes folks on tours in the Grand Canyon. Past ready to leave Texas in the dust, she decides to take her busted up knee off-road biking on her late mother's ranch, gets in an accident, jacks up her bike and knee (again) oh...and a storm has blown in.  Adrian was checking a downed fence line on the border of the property and rescues her.  He had a terrible crush on her in high school, but she was three years older (translation: out of his league) and blew out of town before he had the guts to approach her.  He hadn't heard she was back in Clear Water, which is pretty amazing since it's a small town where everybody is up in all y'alls business.

This story starts off in a very uninspirational way.  For one thing Nikki has got to be the most prickly, standoffish heroine I've read in a dog's age.  Adrian is Mr. Nice Guy who tends to let his mouth run away from him - one of those that can't seem to let a silence just linger.  So she's on her guard and he's trying to stop himself from sounding like a blithering idiot.

The small town world-building is great, the characters are well drawn, and the relationship between Nikki, her younger twin sisters, and youngest half-sister is dynamite.  Mia is just enough kid and "wise beyond her years" without being a plot moppet.  She is also recovering from a knee injury, the result of a rodeo accident that has turned up all of Adrian's over-protective instincts - so she and Nikki take to each other right away - despite Nikki's wariness and Big Secret.

And that's where this book went to Hell.  Nikki's Big Secret is that she fell for the wrong boy when she was 17 and got pregnant.  He was using her and two-timing on his girlfriend (a woman he later married and knocked around before she dumped him).  When she tells him she's pregnant he's like "get rid of it" and "if you tell anybody I'll deny it's mine and everybody will know you're a lying slut."  Things aren't great at home for Nikki at that time thanks to her stepmother so she hides the pregnancy from her Dad, her sisters and goes to live with her Mom's aunt who gets her through the pregnancy and has the baby boy adopted by distant relatives who want children but are unable to conceive.  Nikki stays away from home and builds a life in Arizona - only to have an accident and another disastrous relationship send her back to Texas to recover.

So yeah. We all know where this is going right?  Nikki knows she has to tell her family the truth of why she left home and why she hasn't been back in, like, 12 years.  Adrian does not think highly of his Baby Mama for "abandoning" Mia to his care and she, naturally, blows back into town - now sober for 3 years - and hoping to meet her daughter.  Adrian freaks his shit out, which Nikki witnesses.  So when Adrian finds out about Nikki having a baby, and giving that baby over to another family to adopt?  He freaks his shit out.

And...that's the rub.  The author may want me to think that Adrian is this dynamite, sacrificing single father but he is so blindingly insensitive that I started screaming at my Kindle screen.  He's completely incapable of looking at anything outside of his own perspective.  He doesn't "get" that his Baby Mama was scared, young, not ready to be a Mom, and had NO family support.  He thinks, "Well, she had me and my family and she left anyway so she sucks."  He doesn't think that Nikki was young, scared, her life at home was strained and the boy she thought loved her used and abandoned her.  No, Nikki just threw away her baby without so much as a by-your-leave.

By this point in the story Nikki goes from prickly to a bit too downtrodden for my tastes, but at least once the light dawns for douchecanoe Adrian and he goes running off to beg her forgiveness, she gets a few choice words in.  Not nearly as forceful as I would have liked, but frankly I felt like Adrian should have suffered mightily, crawling over broken glass through colonies of fire ants.  Mores the pity.

Since this is an inspirational, let's talk God Stuff.  On a scale of 1-10 this is probably hovering around a 6.5.  The characters believe that God has a plan for their lives.  They attend church.  They socialize with people they attend church with.  They pray.  The God Stuff is fairly light in the beginning but gets heavier starting around the halfway point.

All in all I'm left with conflicting feelings.  Navarro is a good category-length writer, hitting her beats, building an interesting world, writing interesting characters, and throwing in some good smooching scenes to build romantic tension.  But OMG, Adrian's reaction and judgmental attitude towards his Baby Mama and once Nikki's Big Secret comes to light ENRAGED me.  I have no idea how to assign one grade to encapsulate my yo-yo emotions so I'm assigning this a catch-all C grade and calling it done.

Final Grade = C

#TBRChallenge 2019: Wayward Widow

The Book: Wayward Widow by Nicola Cornick

The Particulars: Historical romance, Harlequin Historical #700, 2004, third book in trilogy, out of print, available in digital.

Why Was It In Wendy's TBR?: Several years back I discovered Cornick and proceeded to hunt down her entire backlist.

The Review: I'm a sucker for romance heroines with dubious reputations (whether they be earned or not).  Lady Juliana Myfleet has the intriguing distinction of falling into both categories.  Good Ton think she is the wickedest sort, with her dubious friends, gambling habit, and outrageous behavior.  Having met before as teenagers, the hero makes her reacquaintance at a house-party-slash-bachelor-party where Juliana, quite literally, is presented on a silver platter, naked as the day she was born, with strategically placed fruits and icing sugar.  Juliana loves to shock, but is she truly the "bad girl" that she seems?

Martin Davencourt had been living abroad when he's summoned home after his father and stepmother die in an accident.  He's now the guardian to his 7 younger half-siblings, which is turning into a bit of a trial since the two oldest girls are fighting their chaperone every step of the way and the oldest boy has up and quit Cambridge with no explanation whatsoever.  Honestly, he's got enough on his plate without being distracted by Juliana Myfleet, but distracted (of course) he is.

This is a fairly low-key Regency in that not a lot happens in terms of plot.  The crux of it is that Juliana has spent her whole life making herself wholly unsuitable and Martin borders on sanctimonious prig.  I mean, honestly?  The entire fun of this story is these two bantering back and forth, and Juliana completely calling Martin out on his bullshit.  To add to his undoing?  Once his younger siblings meet Juliana they're completely entranced with her, even though she's about as far away from Mary Poppins as you can get.  There's a forthrightness to Juliana, her willingness to call a spade a spade, that makes her an exceedingly delightful heroine.  This is a bad girl who makes dreadful choices but she also doesn't take flack from anybody.  I'll be frank: she's not terribly "likeable" and that's what makes her pretty great.

Ah, but you hear the "but" in that don't you?  So where did it slide sideways for me?  Juliana's past is dealt with in a very perfunctory manner.  Husband #1 was a love match and she was devastated by his death.  And yet we hear very little about him beyond, "She loved him so."  Husband #2 was the exact opposite, a liar and wastrel who abandoned her in Italy and died in debtor's prison.  Given that she ran off with Totally Unsuitable Hubby #2 - this is where the bulk of her reputation was earned.  Then she returned to London and was unwilling to cow-tow and act repentant sinner. That sealed her fate.  This is all dealt with in a very bare bones manner. Basically what I just described in this paragraph?  That's basically what you get in the book.  There's no expounding...at all.

There's also the matter of her relationship with her father.  Yes, as refreshing as Juliana is as a heroine, she's one of those who wasn't loved enough by Daddy hence her dubious life choices.  Also, I'll admit that while Juliana does do "some bad things" - a lot of what people think about her is simply untrue.  An illusion she cultivates because she abhors hypocrisy, she's lonely, and Daddy didn't love her enough.  Oh well...can't win 'em all.

But this makes a book a B-.  What makes a book a C?  When it's all carrying on just fine and then it's like someone told the author, "Love, you ain't made your word count yet," and the last two chapters take a bizarre turn and we get hastily added external conflict.  For the last 20% of the book.  It feels weird, rushed, and frankly relies on an amazing coincidence.  It does tie everything up and the author does bring things full circle, but it strains the seams considerably.

So it ends up being a mixed bag for me.  Cornick can write her face off and the dialogue in this story is A+ top-notch.  Also, even though it's the last book in a trilogy, I never felt like I was trying to keep my head above the waters of Series-itis Ocean.  There's memorable elements at work here, but oof those last couple of chapters are a doozy.

Final Grade = C

Review: Texas Legacy

I started "seriously" reading romance in 1999.  That's 20 years, a lot of books, and Lord knows I can't tell you what I ate for breakfast this morning but I can tell you EXACTLY when and where I was when I read the Texas trilogy by Lorraine Heath.  It was 2001, I was a wee baby Super Librarian working in Michigan, and my employer sent me to San Francisco to attend the 2001 ALA conference to check out new ILS systems (for you non-librarian types - basically a new catalog system).  This was before ebooks and I took all three books in the trilogy, in print, with me and read them back-to-back-to-back.  I was punch drunk by the time I returned home and deeply in love.

Fans of the trilogy have been, quite literally, waiting for Texas Legacy for 20 years.  It's Rawley Cooper's romance.  Rawley, the abused boy that Dallas Leigh adopted in Texas Glory.  Rawley, who had the world's worst childhood and ultimately was destined to hook up with Dallas' biological daughter, Faith.  I had mixed feelings when Avon made the announcement that this romance, this book, was finally happening.  1) OMG LORRAINE HEATH IS WRITING A WESTERN AND IT'S RAWLEY'S STORY AND OMG SQUEEEEE!  2) Wait a minute, Avon Impulse. Shit, it's a novella and 3) It's been 20 years since I've read the trilogy, will I have time to do a reread?

Ultimately I ditched the idea of a reread.  Look, fans have been waiting for 20 years and a lot people haven't read the original trilogy - frankly this novella needs to sink or swim on it's own merits.  I didn't do a reread even though my recollections of Rawley as a character had largely faded from my memory (seriously, do you know how many books I've read in the last 20 years?).

Did this sink or swim?  Well....it mostly floats.  It's definitely a novella for fans and I think readers who recently read the original trilogy will get more out of it but...

Meh.  I rewrote this story in my head the entire time I was reading it.  Which...not the greatest sign.

It's been six years since Rawley took off for parts unknown to "find himself" - but a letter from the woman he considers his mother has him coming home.  Dallas Leigh has a had a bit of a medical scare.  Meeting him at the train station is Faith Leigh, Dallas and Cordelia's biological daughter, the woman that Rawley has always loved but has felt is way too good for the likes of him.  And who should happen to meet him at the train station?  Yeah, you guessed it.  And her welcome home present is to sock him right in the jaw.

Rawley left six years ago without so much as a by-your-leave, so yeah - Faith is a tinch hurt and upset.  They grew up together.  She idolized him.  For him to just take off, without a word?  But Rawley's about to find out a lot has changed since he left the Leigh ranch.  Namely, Faith is not the innocent, young girl she once was...

So where did this go wrong?  Namely, in the fact that this is a novella.  And I say this as someone who LIKES novellas.  Heath writes a handful of chapters in flashback to detail why Rawley left six years ago, with the rest of the story taking place when he comes home.  You know what would have been great?  A full-length novel opening up with several chapters before Rawley left, a few chapters covering the period right after Rawley left, and then the final half of the book detailing Rawley coming home, reuniting with Faith, dealing with their respective baggage and living happily ever after.  Instead, as a novella, we get a climactic finish that strains credulity (really, the bad guy has been gone for SIX YEARS and suddenly just decides to show up right at the moment when Rawley decides to come home?) and a rushed romance that relies heavily on the fan's nostalgic feelings for the original trilogy.

Is this "bad?" No, it's not bad. It just could have been so much better. A historical western set in the early 20th century as civilization began altering the landscape even more (motion pictures, motor cars, oil men carving up Texas etc.).  It could have been so much bigger, more sweeping, and instead it's like a nice little novella love note instead.  Hey, nothing wrong with that necessarily, but it feels like Heath has wrapped up her saga with a postcard, as opposed to a letter. 

It's fine.  It's nice.  But....meh.

Final Grade = C