Review: Sheriff's Honor

I put Sheriff's Honor by Jill Sorenson on my Goodreads "currently reading" shelf two weeks ago but hadn't actually started reading it. Why? Because my continued slump of just not reading much of anything continues to hold me in a vice grip that is getting exceedingly hard to shake. But with a lazy Sunday ahead of me, with no commitments or chores standing in my way, I was bound and determined to try to read something. The half-finished celebrity memoir I'm trying to decide if I want to finish held little appeal - so what the hell, I'll start the Sorenson. Gentle reader, I didn't read this book so much as inhale it. Like a woman who has been wandering the desert and just stumbled across a refreshing oasis. Lord almighty, I love being in the hands of a professional. 

This is the second book in the His to Protect trilogy and while it stands alone okay, I do think the reading experience is richer when you have the background of the first book under your belt. The reason for that is because our hero is Wade Hendricks, former sheriff's deputy of Last Chance, Texas who fancied himself in love with the heroine of the first book - which obviously didn't work out in his favor. His father was the sheriff, and not to put too fine a point on it, a real son of a bitch. So Wade accepts a job offer in Lost Lake, Texas, but it's not a completely fresh start. He's trading in Dear Old Dad for his alcoholic, pill-popping mother.

He arrives on his mother's family ranch only to get greeted by the wrong end of a shotgun. Meredith Rose (going by the assumed name of Mary Meadows) is a stray Wynona picked up and hired as a caretaker. Mary feeds the animals and takes care of the property. She had no idea that Wynona had a son, so a strange man drinking a can of soda in the kitchen, coupled with her past - of course she fired a warning shot. But these two don't have much time to dwell on their "meet cute" because just as they're sorting all that out? Tornado sirens start blaring. 

It hits the ground running from there. Wade has a new job to settle into and enough familial baggage to keep a team of psychiatrists busy for years. "Mary" is pretty as a picture but skittish as hell, and most definitely running from something. On top of this you have the aftermath of the tornado, including skeletal remains found near the lake. Think of a messy small town contemporary romance with a light suspense thread featuring Messy AF characters and more angsty drama than you can shake a stick at - well, is it any wonder I tore through this in a day?

However, much like the first book, it's not perfect. I read it in a day, so I'm not really sure how much I care that it's not perfect? But let's just say there are some sticking points here. To be honest, the author takes the easy way out with Meredith's Big Secret. I mean, she kind of has to I think or else this book would need about 200 more pages to resolve it. Also, the resolution to the skeletal remains raised both my eyebrows. Why? Two words. Or maybe it's one hyphenated word? Cover-up. Is justice served? Ummm. Was what happened justified? Ummm. To be honest I'm not even sure how I feel about this ending, but Wade being a sheriff's deputy, plus given how the first book ended, let's just say nothing here is black and white. As much as I enjoyed this book start to finish, even I'm conflicted as I sit down to write this half-assed cryptic review. Bad people get what's coming to them, so there is that -  but in true Sorenson fashion, it's messy.

But there's no denying that Sorenson excels at world-building, melding contemporary romance with suspense, and creating Messy AF characters. I was swept away in this story from the first sentence and I was gripped to the final page. I'm so glad Sorenson is back after a hiatus - because good heavens, I've missed her.

Final Grade = B+

Review: Cowboy's Last Stand by Jill Sorenson

After a hiatus, Jill Sorenson returns to contemporary romance with the first book in what is projected to be a series, Cowboy's Last Stand - and y'all, I had forgotten how great contemporary romance could be. This book reminded me so much of what Sorenson excels at - which is writing about messy characters with messy, complex problems. This one hooked me from the first chapter and didn't let go.

Jason Reed is a U.S. Marine with a job waiting for him in San Diego, he's just not sure it's a job he wants. He's not sure he's qualified to teach a bunch of Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) recruits when the reason he's stateside is a job that went horribly wrong in Afghanistan. His recovery was long and he's still dealing with the after effects, namely he can't sleep indoors, so he hits the road and is hiking the Continental Divide Trail from his father's ranch in Montana. He ends up veering off to take a detour to Last Chance in West Texas to see Natalie Luna. He has unfinished business with her, never mind that she doesn't know him from Adam.

Natalie is a young widow with a young son, Marcus, and working two part-time jobs to make ends meet. Jason finds her at her second job, waitressing at a local bar called The Night Owl. Of course he takes one look at her and backs off telling her who he is and why he's there to see her.  Instead he steps in with his best White Knight Impression to handle Billy Hendricks, local bad guy who just so happens to be the local sheriff's kid.  This altercation leaves Jason banged up, and seeing that Natalie needs the help (handyman stuff around her house) he stays on.  Still, of course, not telling her who he is and his connection to her late husband, Mike. 

Natalie loved Mike and his death gutted her. The only thing that kept her moving forward was Marcus, but it hasn't been easy. She's also young and attractive, so she's been fending off "interest" from lowlifes like Billy Hendricks and his more honorable brother (and Mike's BFF), Wade Hendricks. However romance is the last thing she's been interested in until Jason shows up, sending her hormones into a tizzy. These two start sparking together right away but they both have a mountain of baggage, never mind the massive Big Secret Jason is keeping from her. 

These are messy people. Romance readers are used to the suave, put-together on the outside heroes who are hiding vulnerabilities, but that's not Jason. This guy is messy both outside and inside. He's not dealing with what happened in Afghanistan, he's got a complicated relationship with his father, and for reasons he's not being completely upfront with Natalie - which we all know is going to backfire spectacularly for him.

Natalie is the kind of hardworking, vulnerable heroine who doesn't need the Rescue Fantasy, but Lord knows she deserves one. She can take care of herself and her son, although without Jason blowing into town she'd probably live out her days emotionally hollowed out, sitting herself on the shelf out of respect for Mike's memory but also for the fact that pickings in town are pretty slim. She hasn't left Last Chance because of family - Mike's and also the grandmother who raised her, now in a care facility. 

There's a lot of passion in this story with sexual tension zinging between Jason and Natalie from the start.  How good is it? Even their fights are passionate. Seriously, I loved reading these two disagreeing and fighting with each other. Which I realize makes me sound sick, but it's been such a long time since I've read this kind of passion in a contemporary romance, frankly I think I'm forgiven. 

Of course Jason's Big Secret comes exploding out in the end (blessedly not via a third party) and of course Natalie reacts the way you expect her to. This is where I'm not entirely convinced with this story - I'm not sure she should forgive him nor ride off into the sunset with him. What Jason tells her completely upends everything she thought she knew and while Sorenson does give this development some room to breathe, I'm not entirely sure it was enough for me.

That said, I did really enjoy this story quite a bit and Sorenson sets up Last Chance with enough interesting secondary characters that I'm dying to see where she takes this series next. One of those rare series books where I want to end up reading books about damn near everybody. 

Final Grade = B+

Guest Post: Pulp Romance

We don't do a ton of Guest Posts here at the Bat Cave but when author Jill Sorenson reached out to me recently I couldn't say yes fast enough, especially when I learned her proposed subject matter. 

Welcome Jill!

According to dictionary.com, pulp fiction refers to books or magazines “dealing with lurid or sensational subjects, often printed on rough, low-quality paper.” Romance readers don’t use the term “pulp,” but other words like “trashy” and “smut” are common. As mass market paperbacks lose ground to other formats, pulp fiction has become a relic of the past.

Pulp romance perfectly describes what I read as a teenager, however. 

My first historical romance was a Zebra Hologram title called Bandit’s Embrace. I’d read shorter romances from Harlequin, but I’d never tried a full-length, full-tilt cowboy romance before. Bandit had me shook. I couldn’t believe what I was reading. I couldn’t even understand what I was reading. I had no reference for the lurid activities the characters engaged in.

The love scenes were so explicit, and bewildering, that I had to take the book to school to show my friends. You can read more about it at My First Smut. Better yet, you can submit your own story! 

I don’t remember how I ended up with Bandit’s Embrace. YA titles were scarce when I was young, so I read adult books. I was an independent reader with free rein, allowed to scare myself shitless with Stephen King and Dean Koontz. 

As a Gen X kid, I also had free roaming privileges. One summer I discovered pulp romance at my local used bookstore. I liked the public library, but I loved the used bookstore. It was the Wild West for book nerds: dusty, disorganized, disreputable. I browsed through a carousel rack of clinch covers. Silhouette Intimate Moments looked promising. At 20 for $1, I got two bags full. 

After I read all of those and came back for more, the owner of the shop gave me a side-eye. She asked if my mom knew what I was reading. I said yes, although my mom had no idea where I was, let alone what I was reading. This was the 80s! I rode my bike barefoot without a helmet and bought cigarettes from a vending machine. Naughty books were the least of my parents’ worries.

Bandit’s Embrace might have been one of the treasures I found in that dusty little shop in Nowhere, Kansas, but my love for pulp romance didn’t begin with Bandit, or even with those steamy Silhouettes. It started earlier, with Sweet Valley High and Sweet Dreams. 

My middle school library had shelves upon shelves of teen romance, and you’d better believe I ate them up. I read P.S. I Love You, which launched the Sweet Dreams series but is ironically not a romance. I burned through all the books in the catalogue. These stories bridged the gap toward Adult Fiction. 

Did Sweet Dreams train me to be a romance reader? Most certainly. The covers for teen romances looked uncannily similar to adult romances. The style was typical for the era, but it was also by design. Publishing companies wanted teen romance readers to transition into adult romance readers. 

Sweet Dreams…a gateway drug. 

Bantam, the company that published Sweet Dreams, also had an adult romance imprint called Loveswept. If I hadn’t read P.S. I Love You, would I have picked up Sandra Brown’s category romances, become her biggest fan, and decided to write books like her? Who knows! 

Loveswept…the bestselling author’s training ground.

I have mad love for pulp romance, from Sweet Dreams and Zebra Hologram to Silhouette and Harlequin. I love the pulp cover style, which is making a cool comeback. I love the tawdry, dog-eared, back-aisle vibe. Most of all, I love the memories of the used bookstore—the crowded shelves, the smell of paperbacks, the thrill of discovery—where I lost and found myself. 

Tell me what you think about pulp romance. Do you prefer a different term? What’s your favorite series or title from back in the day?

Thanks so much for stopping by the Bat Cave today Jill! Historical romances with lush and lusty clinch covers and old school category romance. It's like you totally get me! 

Jill's latest book, Cowboy's Last Stand, just dropped on September 3 and it's the first in a new series.

Website: jillsorenson.wordpress.com

Bluesky: jillsorenson.bsky.social

Mini-Reviews: Suspense, Billionaires and Fluff

I love it when other bloggers post mini-reviews or reading recaps, but I'm such a slow reader (also having spent most of 2015 thus far in a slump) that I don't capitalize on the format all that often.  However between books I just never got around to reviewing, audiobooks and books I wrote about at other places, I've finally got enough backlog to deliver some minis!

I tend to really like Jill Sorenson's suspense novels and Backwoods is part of her very loosely connected Aftershock series.  I find that Sorenson excels at writing complicated relationships, and that's certainly on display here - with the hero's ex-wife and the heroine's ex-husband having had an affair with each other and eventually marrying.  The heroine suffers from panic attacks and anxiety thanks to the earthquake that rocked San Diego.  The hero is a former baseball player who had a very public fall from grace thanks to his alcoholism.  They're now spending time together thanks to their college-aged kids and a family vacation hiking in the woods that their exes bailed on.  The suspense here is lighter than in previous books in this series, with the romance and relationships taking more of center stage.  I liked that both hero and heroine had "real" problems, and felt that the author handled the relationship between the 19-year-old step-siblings extremely well.  Honestly, that could have been a disaster.  I missed the stronger suspense thread that I've come to enjoy in the author's previous books in this series though - so it ended up being a B- for me. 

The only reason I would ever read a book with a title like How to Seduce a Billionaire is because of the author name attached to it - which in this case is Portia Da Costa.  Obviously I'm fine with billionaires, per se.  I mean, I do love category romance after all.  But the "new" breed of billionaire who digs BDSM because Mommy didn't love him enough and stalks the heroine in his spare time isn't really in my wheelhouse.  However I figured if anyone was going to make me tolerate the idea of a billionaire hero and a 29-year-old virgin heroine, it would be Da Costa.  I wrote about this for Heroes & Heartbreakers and on the Wendy scale this ended up being the very definition of a C read.  It was nice.  It was pleasant.  But I didn't love it, I didn't hate it and it didn't change my life.  If the idea of this story makes you break out into hives, there's probably not a lot within the pages of this book to make you change your mind.  Likewise, if you like the Alphahole billionaire and the virgin heroine who is so clueless that she doesn't have an e-mail address - there's probably not a lot here you're going to like.  Da Costa doesn't write clueless virgins and while the hero is selfish and a dreaded I'll Never Love Again Now That My Sainted First Wife Is Dead - she pretty much stays away from the tropes that made EL James a butt-ton of money for reasons that largely escape me - but hey, just because that's my yuck doesn't mean it can't be your yum.

The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins has been compared a lot to Gone Girl - mostly because people lack imagination and feel like they need to compare this with that in order to sell books.  It's similar in respect that it features completely unlikable characters - some of whom are women.  It's different from Gone Girl in the respect that egads, the beginning is slow as mud and the ending is much more traditional suspense (take a wild guess which ending Wendy prefers?).  Heroine who is raging alcoholic prone to blackouts rides train everyday and makes up stories in her head about couple who lives in a house near tracks.  Wife goes missing.  Husband suspected.  And they just so happen to live down the street from the heroine's ex, who cheated on her with a Hot Young Thang and naturally knocked her up.  If I had read this I probably would  have DNF'ed it because of the slow beginning and characters I generally loathed - but like Gone Girl, it's very good on audio.  I did see the ending coming, but I liked it.  A solid B for the audio version.

Royal Wedding by Meg Cabot is releasing on June 2 and I just submitted my First Look of it for Heroes & Heartbreakers.  This is the first adult novel in Cabot's wildly successful Princess Diaries series, with Mia and her friends now being in their mid-twenties.  The last book in the YA incarnation, Forever Princess, in 2009 was, I felt, a very excellent way to wrap up the series - so while I was insanely excited to read this book, I was also a little leery.  Was Cabot going to muck up all my fond memories by giving rebirth to Mia as a grown-up?  Turns out I had nothing to fear.  I really enjoyed this for what it was - pure fluff in almost a chick lit vein.  I have no idea if it will hold up for readers not familiar with the YA series, but if you're already a fan?  You'll want to read this.  As a fan I would say my grade is probably somewhere around a B+.

Digital Review: Island Peril

I know just as many readers who dislike novellas as who claim to like them.  I'm in the "like them" camp, but even I have a certain set of mile markers I like to see an author hit.  Just because the author is writing short, I still want a fully realized, fully contained story.  In other words, don't try to sell me a prologue.  However I also don't want the author to bite off more than a novella can chew on.  Don't take a 300-page idea and try to cram it into 100 pages or less.

What little commentary I've read about Island Peril by Jill Sorenson seems to fall into two camps: 1) it's "too short" and/or 2) it short-changes what Sorenson does best - which is oodles of interesting character back story and baggage.  These are valid concerns, but I think it dismisses what Sorenson has done "right" with this novella.  Honestly? Just about everything.

Ella Hammond is on a kayaking holiday with her sister, Abby and niece, Brooke.  They're having a great time so far, and it doesn't hurt that their guide, Paul, is a major hottie.  Abby notices he's making eyes at Ella, but she immediately dismisses it.  She's just gotten out of a relationship, and honestly why would Paul be looking at her when, in her opinion, the better looking Abby is around?  Anyway, they set off in their kayaks when Abby has a panic attack.  She and Brooke turn back to camp, with Paul and Ella carrying on.  They get to their island destination only to find themselves stumbling across drug smugglers and running for their lives (gah, don't you hate it when that happens?).

This is a quick read with just the right amount of believable action and enough steamy sexy times to feed into the chemistry between Paul and Ella.  What I loved here is that Sorenson doesn't try to do too much.  She keeps the suspense very action-oriented and straight-forward.  In other words, she doesn't try to cram in an island serial killer into the mix.  She also keeps the romance extremely believable.  The attraction between Paul and Ella burns hot and fast, but they're not declaring their undying love in the final chapter or planning a wedding.  Ella muses she's happy, she likes Paul, and maybe they are moving fast but what the heck?  Why not go for it?  It's happy-for-now all the way, but Ella and Paul fit together so nicely that it's easy to imagine a full-blown happily-ever-after in the future.

Island Peril also serves to give readers a brief introduction to Abby and Brooke, who are main players in the full-length novel, Backwoods.  If you've never read Sorenson before, this novella serves as a nice taste in regards to her writing style as well as her brand of suspense.  It's not a bad way to test the waters if you've been curious but unwilling to invest yourself in a full-length read.

Final Grade = B

Note: At the time of this review posting, this novella is free through most, if not all, digital retailers.

Writing Her Name In The Sky

Words cannot express how much I loved Aftershock, the first book in Jill Sorenson's trilogy about survivors of a massive earthquake in San Diego.  So to say I was more than a little eager to get my hands on the second book, Freefall, that features Sam Rutherford, a man who spent the vast majority of the first book lying in a coma?  Yeah, understatement of the century.  Sadly, while I thought the main romance had oodles of potential, and the suspense was compelling - the secondary elements in this story were less than thrilling.

Every year, Sierra Nevada park ranger Hope Banning and her sister, Faith, take a vacation together.  Faith's idea of a vacation is lounging by a pool at a fancy hotel.  Sadly, for her, Hope plans their trip this year, which means whitewater rafting at the national park where she works.  Just as they're nearing the site to meet their rafting group, Hope gets a call on her radio.  Yeah, she's technically supposed to be "off duty" - but emergencies are a different ball of wax.  A climber spotted a small engine airplane crash in a remote area.  Hope goes to talk to the witness, only to realize it's Sam Rutherford. Ok, sure - the sex was off-the-chain, but that's the best thing she can say about the doomed one-night-stand they shared some months prior.

Sam survived the San Diego earthquake with his body intact, just not his memory.  His amnesia  only really pertains to the events in his life before the earthquake - when his fiancee died in a climbing accident.  They were climbing together, and Sam feels guilt over the incident even though he can't actually recall said incident.  So yeah, our boy is screwed up.  The one-night-stand with Hope was his way of running from his problems - but instead he ran straight into a whole new set of them.  He likes Hope.  He really, really likes her.  And that just will not do.  He finds himself taking her to the crash site, only to be further thrown into her company when it turns out the plane crash is really a murder scene.

I'll be honest, before I even started this story it felt like placeholder until I get the book I really want (Penny & Owen!  January 2014!  Squee!!1!1!!!).  But you know what?  Sorenson does some interesting things with this romance.  I suspect some readers will find it lacking given the depth of Sam's grief over The Dead Fiancee - but I liked that both Sam and Hope are damaged in their own ways.  They both have serious baggage.  And I like the fact that they both recognize that the other is "different" and holy crap keeping their emotional distance from each other is going to be a challenge.

What didn't work as well for me?  Hope's sister, Faith - who naturally falls into trouble once Hope runs off to investigate the plane crash.  Naturally a guy linked with that crash stumbles across the rafting group, and naturally decides to infiltrate them as his "cover," and naturally Bimbo Faith falls for him hook, line and sinker.  Now Sorenson does do a good job of laying out Faith's character.  She's not really a bimbo.  It's more like being a bimbo is a defense mechanism.  And OK, so she has hot, sweaty sex with a member of a drug cartel but hey!  It's OK since he's really not a Bad Man, and he's trying to extricate himself from said cartel, I mean, so what?  So he brings danger right at Faith's doorstep and the girl is dragged through the ringer for the entire book.  That's no big deal, right?  Ugh.  It just didn't work for me, at all.   Which I know sounds hypocritical since the "challenging characters" in Aftershock worked just dandy for me.  But here?  Yeah, not so much.  The Faith storyline pretty well annoyed me for 3/4 of the book and the ending of said plot line kinda pushed me over the edge.

Honestly, I strongly feel the reader's enjoyment of Freefall will be in direct correlation to how much they enjoyed Aftershock.  I loved Aftershock.  So yeah, I was pretty well juiced in to liking Freefall - even with all my quibbles.  I wanted to be back in the world that Sorenson created, and I wanted to be back with these characters (plus we get more Owen in this book!  Squeee!!1!!1!!!).  But if I had read this book without having read Aftershock first?  I can honestly say I wouldn't have enjoyed it as much, or been as forgiving.  I mean, the whole Faith thing really annoyed me for a big chunk of the book.  I kept hoping she would....fall off a cliff or something.  Except, you know, that would have made Hope more screwed up and that just wouldn't have worked.  Final verdict?  Mileage is going to vary considerably.  But for me?

Final Grade = B-

Work Marches On

I've been off work for an entire, glorious week thanks to the annual visit from the Super Librarian Parental Units.  However that has not kept me from checking on my work e-mail sporadically - because I am obviously insane.  One nice thing that rolled in?  Our programs coordinator e-mailed me the poster for the romance panel (which yes, I am moderating....again) that will be used during our annual literary event.  We have a local art institute design all of the artwork for us, and this is what they came up with for romance.  I'd have to go back and look at my older posters, but I think this is the first time ever that the romance panel has featured artwork with a couple on it.  No, really.  Heart themed artwork has been the most prevalent, although to date my favorite poster featured ribbon-lettering, an open book and a rose.

This one feels nicely modern to me.  The couple looks young-ish and the colors pop.  Honestly it kind looks like one of those "New Adult Lit" books that are currently all the rage.

This year our panel features Jill Sorenson, Jillian Stone and Anna Randol.  I'm really excited about this panel, and really looking forward to talking to all of these women about their work.  It should be fascinating and loads of fun.

If you're in the southern California area, Literary Orange will be held at the Irvine Marriott on Saturday, April 6.  It's an all-day event that features various author panels, along with keynote speakers and there will be a bookseller on site.  This year our keynotes are general fiction author, Tatjana Soli and mystery/suspense bestselling mainstay, J.A. Jance.  The cost for the day is $60, and includes continental breakfast and lunch.  Registration is capped at 500 attendees.  You can register for the event, or just learn more about it on our website.

I Feel The Earth Move Under My Feet

On the surface, Aftershock by Jill Sorenson is what I would call a romantic thriller.  It's not really romantic suspense, since there's not exactly any mystery to unravel.  It's much more in the thriller vein - you know all the players, you know the immediate danger, it's essentially an action movie in book format.  But when I dig deeper, I am struck by how forward-thinking, gutsy and daring this story is.  I think back to when I first started reading romance, almost 15 years ago, and I think about what naysayers of the genre always claim: that romance is predictable, never-changing, and a rehash of the same story over and over again.  To which I say, read this book.  There is no way in holy hell this story would have been touched by any major publisher 15 years ago - let alone Harlequin, who is often (wrongly in my opinion) maligned as a stale, shriveled-up, aging spinster.

To anybody who has ever given me crap for what I like to read, THIS is a romance novel.  No really, it is.  No lyin' and no foolin'.

Lauren Boyer is a paramedic in San Diego, California.  She was engaged to be married, until she found out her hospital resident fiance had a thing for pretty young nurses.  She's now riding shotgun in an ambulance, with her partner, working on the weekend when she was supposed to be having her bachelorette party in Las Vegas.  She doesn't have a lot of time to deal on her pity party though, as while they're not-cruising down a gridlocked freeway (girlfriend, I know just how you feel), an 8.5 earthquake hits, effectively collapsing the freeway, various overpasses and what-not, killing hundreds, and leaving wounded survivors.  Lauren is one of those survivors, and as the only medical personnel trapped in rubble with seriously wounded patients, she's got her work cut out for her.

Among the survivors are a grandfather, his young granddaughter, a pretty massively pregnant teenager, two critically wounded patients, and the hero - Garrett Wright.  An Iraqi war veteran, Garrett's life after his discharge from the Army has been anything but smooth.  He's  wounded man, a haunted man, a man who has made mistakes that he deeply regrets.  Now he has somehow managed to survive a massive earthquake, and he's trapped with survivors who need his protection.  Now, more than ever really, since it turns out there are more survivors.  Um, yeah - there was a prison transport bus not-cruising down the same freeway as well.

I really want to sing the praises of this story and the author's bravery and willingness to think outside the box, but it's hard to do that while remaining spoiler free.  It's just....really gutsy the choices she makes.  It's not Lauren so much, rather everybody else around her - including the hero.  It's the very fabric of who he is, the various secrets he is hiding, that add up to some very interesting risks.  I also liked how the author literally blends various genres, this story essentially being a mix of dystopian fiction, grisly thriller and romance novel.  It's a mix that will certainly not work for all readers (massive earthquake + freeway collapse + trapped under mountain of rubble + violent convicts now somewhat "free" = lots of decomposing dead bodies, serious injuries, various bodily fluids, limited food and water supply, danger and violence), but I found it very intriguing.  I also liked that in the single title format the author has the freedom to create an interesting blend of secondary characters to operate in this "new" universe that Laura and Garrett find themselves in.

The best thing I can say about this book is that it's like an action movie.  The worst thing I can say about this book is that it's like an action movie.  Look, action movies are fun.  A lot of us really like them.  But when we go into watch one, we know that there are certain things we're likely not going to get.  Oh, like deep, introspective character angst and development.  By the end of the story I felt like I did "know" both Lauren and Garrett, but it takes the whole book to get to that point.  Also, there's the question of whether or not readers will buy-in to the love story.  I did - but you can certainly make the argument that being in a critical situation, like they were, could muddle things up.

At the end of the day I found this an exciting, engrossing read - even the gory bits.  I loved the risks the author took with her characters and plots.  I loved the way it ended even though I was really sad to let these characters go.  To have them walk out of my life.  Which is honestly one of the higher compliments I can give any book.  There's a second book in the works featuring one of the secondary characters, and here's hoping that there will be a third as well (this one is begging to be a trilogy!).  One of the more exciting stories I've read in a long time.  It misses my highest mark because I'm unlikely to reread it, but really - this is a great way to start off 2013.

Final Grade = B+

TBR Challenge 2012: No Temas A La Muerte

The Book: The Edge of Night by Jill Sorenson

The Particulars: Romantic suspense, Bantam Dell, 2011, In Print

Why Was It In Wendy's TBR?:  While Jill Sorenson is a relatively local author for me, the initial reason why I picked up this book is because the back cover blurb intrigued me.

The Review:  I tend to be very critical of romantic suspense.  Chalk it up to cutting my teeth on mysteries as a teenager.  I'm fine when the romance gets a bit of the short-shift, but the suspense?  Yeah, I tend to get cranky.  Which is actually my biggest gripe with this sub genre.  Too often it tends to operate in a world I don't recognize.  While I can swallow some fantasy elements in contemporaries and historicals - I tend to like my suspense gritty.  And happy day, the author gives me gritty.  She gives me more than enough of it in fact - so much that I think not all romance readers will be as enthralled with this story as I was (mores the pity).

April Ortiz is a young single mother barely scrapping by in Chula Vista, California.  Jenny's daddy (whom she never married - thank the good Lord) is in prison and she does not mourn his absence.  She's working nights in a sleazy nightclub where her uniform is beyond skimpy, and taking college classes to get her degree in social work.  She's stretched beyond thin already, and now it appears she's going to finally have to cut off her mother, whose growing drug problem is getting to be....well....a problem.  This is not a woman who needs more on her plate - but that's what she gets when one of her coworkers is found murdered - raped and strangled - in known gang territory.

Noah Young is a clean cut kid from northern California, raised in a conservative religious family.  The fact that he's now a cop and living in Chula Vista (of all places) is a bit of a shock to his parents - but he wants to make a difference and feels working on the gang unit in this hard area is where he can do the most good.  It's his instincts and observational skills that lead him to the body of a murdered young woman.  Ambitious, and with an eye on moving his way into the homicide unit, he's enthusiastic when the lead detective asks him and his partner to do some follow-up work on the victim.  Which leads him to the nightclub where the victim worked, and April Ortiz. 

Besides the growing attraction between April and Noah, coupled with the conflict that they are really, really from two different worlds - the author also tosses in a secondary romance (of sorts) when Noah's 19-year-old sister drops out of her Christian college and shows up at his front door.  Naturally she falls for an entirely unsuitable young man, who has extremely close ties (platonic, naturally) with April. 

Once I sat down to start this book I practically inhaled it.  The author does a very nice job setting her stage, giving readers wonderful descriptions of the neighborhood - complete with gangs, drugs, and graffiti.  It's easy to understand, growing up as she did, why April wouldn't fall all over her attraction for Noah.  In fact she's extremely guarded and closed off.  Noah is open, earnest, ambitious, and completely gob-smacked by April.  So much so that he can barely keep his eyes off of her when he first arrives at the club.  The secondary romance is also nicely well drawn, adding more conflict to the story because it almost has that "forbidden" quality to it.  Noah's sister is young, sheltered, a touch naive - and not only lands herself in some trouble, but learns that her knight in shining armor is a well-known gang member - April's sort-of brother-in-law, Eric.

The whole time I was reading this book I found myself more than excited by the possibility that it would be fantastic for Lil' Sis' high school English classroom.  It's a neighborhood her students would recognize, with a young twenty-something single mother heroine whose baby daddy is in prison.  And then I got to the sex scenes.  Whoa doggie!  Totally not PG-rated, that's for dang sure.  Although it might be good for the girls to learn that it's OK to expect your man to not be a selfish lover (if ya know what I mean).  Plus, dude - I'm really glad April has more than one screaming orgasm because girlfriend sure deserved them all.

So we have a well-fleshed out suspense thread, interesting characters, operating within a world that isn't Pollyanna white-wash.  And that's kind of where the author gets stuck.  It's not a Pollyanna world she has created, and therefore you have a bit of a bittersweet ending.  The bad guy does get caught, Noah and April do live happily-ever-after - but not everything about this ending is puppy dogs, gum drops and rainbows.  It's just....not.  And that may be an issue for some readers.  I actually appreciated it, because the author "keeps it real."  But if you're a reader who needs everything to be sunny, happy, and tied up in a pretty pink bow at the end?  Yeah, don't say I didn't warn you.

In the end, I really enjoyed this story.  It does have some issues that all romantic suspense novels seem to have (the monologing villain, not enough red herrings for my liking) - but it's exciting, it's highly readable, and has a lot of the elements I like to see in this sub genre but don't always get.   It's also the kind of book I would love to see a sequel for - so go out and buy lots of copies so the author gets a contract to do so.

Final Grade = B

Note: Yes, I live in SoCal and yes, my Spanish is truly terrible.  If the title of this blog post is broken-Spanish Spanish, it's all my fault.  Well, and Google's.