Mini-Reviews: Scorched Earth and Terrible Teens

 *tap, tap* Is this thing on?  Between lingering vacation brain, work, RWA imploding yet again (so many thoughts, so many feelings) and me not doing ANY reading at the moment, this blog has been a vast desert wasteland.  So let's do a round up of a few books I got through in July, including two vacation reads.

Lady Derring Takes a Lover by Julie Anne Long is the first book in her Palace of Rogues series and was a book club read with the SoCal Bloggers. Delilah Swanpoole, the Countess of Derring learns after her husband's unexpected death that he was flat broke. His fortune, their lifestyle, was all smoke and mirrors.  And, naturally, now that Dear Dull Derring is dead, the creditors have come calling. The only thing she has left is a rundown house near the docks.  But that's not the worst of it. Oh no. While sitting in her husband's solicitor's office in barges Angelique Breedlove, her late husband's mistress. The two women, both tired of being at the mercy of men, decide to pawn what few valuables they have left and turn the dock property into a boardinghouse.  They're not open for business long when Captain Tristin Hardy comes sniffing around.  He's the King's man tracking down smugglers, and the late Earl of Derring was up to his eyeballs in it.  Which leads him to the Countess's door.  How much does she know? And is she part of the operation?

The premise here is dynamite and I'm a sucker for boardinghouse settings in historical romance, which is what carried me through for a long while.  The secondary characters, the women, the various shenanigans - I liked all that.  The romance?  Meh. Honestly it fell fairly flat for me. This was the quintessential meh, it's OK, C read for me until the Black Moment.  When Delilah finds out Tristan's Big Secret, who he really is, and she feels used and hurt.  When that happens? Scorched. Earth. It's simply devastating.  She fires both barrels at him and the author ripped my poor wee reader's heart clean out of my chest.  What was a C read bumps up a notch with the ending and, to be honest, I am HERE for Angelique's book - just as soon as I find some reading mojo again. Final Grade = B-

Corner Office Secrets by Shannon McKenna is the second book in her Men of Maddox Hill series.  I'll be honest, I plowed through this on an airplane and it's the kind of book that I should have reviewed right away because now the details are fuzzy. That pretty much is the definition of a C read for me, although I do think this one worked a bit better than the first book in the series.

Sophie Valente takes a job at Maddox Hill to track down her long lost father. Instead she finds herself distracted by her boss, Vann Acosta.  Just as Sophie starts sniffing around, Vann gets wind of a security breach at the firm. An oily secondary character thinks Sophie is involved which Vann thinks is preposterous, but he's got to check it out.  

This was a quick read that was made in the final third of the book during the Black Moment. Yep, Sophie finds out that Vann was checking her out in more ways than one, and on top of that her long lost father is a jackass.  Sophie, bless her heart - Wendy gets another book where the heroine leaves behind Scorched. Earth.  Which leads to the hero chasing after her and, you guessed it, a grovel.  This didn't change my life but it kept me entertained on an airplane and I love a grovel. Yes, I'm shallow.  Final Grade = C+

Where the heck were all these teen thrillers when I was a kid? The Mary Shelley Club by Goldy Modavsky is a horror/suspense/teen hybrid about Rachel Chavez, your typical teen girl who survives a home invasion while she's home alone. Fast forward a year and she's the new girl at an elite prep school in New York City that her Mom teaches at. Having turned to horror movies to deal with her trauma, she soon uncovers a secret club among a disparate groups of kids at her new school - the gay teen, the Goth girl, the film geek, and the popular jock. By day they completely ignore each other. By night they're The Mary Shelley Club, devotees to fear and horror films. Part of the club is The Fear Test, a competition that plays out popular horror tropes on unwitting targets. The goal is to get your victim to scream.  Naturally the club has secrets and naturally things start to go horribly wrong when one target is seriously hurt and another ends up dead.

This is a slow burn thriller, part high school teen drama, part horror, part suspense.  There's not a lot of fast-paced action until the second half, and once things start to go wrong is when this books really begins to cook.  I'll be honest, I've been reading books of this ilk for a long time and I did have some of it figured out early on.  That said, the author still managed to pull a rabbit out of her hat and surprise me with her reveal.  Also, man - teenagers can be the worst! Seriously.  This book kind of reminds you of that little nugget.  I liked this one quite a bit and dagnabit why didn't this book exist when I was teen?  Final Grade = B

Review: His Perfect Fake Engagement

When I found out Shannon McKenna had written a category romance there was no way I wasn't going to read it.  Back in the early days of erotic romance, McKenna made a name for herself writing for Kensington Brava. Romantic Suspense stories featuring barely housebroken heroes.  Readers loved them.  I liked some of them, and loathed others - such is the fate of heroes I want to smack on the nose with a rolled up newspaper.

His Perfect Engagement is the first book in the Men of Maddox Hill series, about a group of guys (former Marines) who work for a ritzy architecture firm. Drew Maddox is company CEO and hanging on by his fingertips. He was photographed at a notorious playboy / drug dealer's party in bed surrounded by a bunch of prostitutes.  Despite Drew's protests that he was "set up" - his own bad boy reputation proceeds him.  Needless to say the company CEO in bed with a bunch of hookers isn't the image his uncle wants projected on the family business.  Stepping in to save Drew's bacon is his sister, Ava, who is a PR wizard.  Think of her like a political spin doctor. She knows just what to do - Drew will fake an engagement with her college BFF, Jenna Sommers. Jenna is so clean she squeaks - plus she's smart and cute.  She's a scientist working on neural implants, prosthetic limbs, and her fiancé (who she met at work) has just dumped her to marry his intern (because, of course).  Ava's been working with her in a PR capacity and thinks this is a win-win.  Drew can show his family and the world he's settling down, that he's ready to turn over a new leaf, be responsible, and Jenna can raise the profile of her research and work.  

Jenna thinks it's a terrible idea, given that she's had a thing for Drew since she spilled a pitcher of sangria on him when she was in college.  No one is going to believe that gorgeous walking sex god Drew Maddox would be with her, a nerdy scientist.  But Ava convinces her and they manage to sell it to the paparazzi hanging outside the office of Maddox Hill. Soon these two are running from one PR "event" to another and attraction, inevitably, builds.

Here's the thing about Harlequins - they always seem to think that paparazzi are hounding people with "normal" jobs - like architects.  So just roll with that. What works here is that you have two people who don't think they're near good enough for each other but for entirely different reasons.  He might be CEO, he might be an insanely gifted architect, but Drew is coming to realize that thanks to his personal life people see him as "not very serious" or a joke.  Jenna has your typical smart-not-pretty girl baggage that women seem to lug around with them, even though by all accounts she is very pretty. She's a romance heroine - of course she's pretty even though she's "unconventional" and wears hipster glasses.

There's also very intriguing plot points that unfortunately aren't explored given the Desire length.  For one thing, Drew is drugged at that party leading to the photographic set-up.  A hero, drugged and unconscious.  Rape isn't mentioned, but it's definitely implied that everything after the drugging was against his will.   

He hadn’t told anyone about the drugged perfume or the blackout. The words stopped in his mouth before they could come out. Humiliation, maybe. Or macho embarrassment. Who knew, but he just couldn’t talk about it. Not to anyone.

Whew! There's a lot to unpack there and none of it ever is.

Instead we get a mustache-twirling villain, an over-the-top ending complete with marriage proposal and a lot of not-so-thinly veiled Not Like Other Girls nonsense.  Drew's ex-girlfriends, the situation at the party - well none of those women are "good" like Jenna. It's about as subtle as a chainsaw.

It was OK, but not great.  If you're familiar with McKenna's backlist I will say that while Drew is Team Alpha he's Alan Alda (old lady reference at 12 o' clock) compared to some of her Brava heroes.  I didn't want to smack him with a rolled up newspaper - not even once!  Also, the Ava character is so dynamite that I'm hoping she's a future heroine and I pray to all the gods that McKenna doesn't neuter her.  This girl is a pitbull.  A PR spin doctor, steamrolling her way over the romantic couple.  Not prickly per se, but a real ball-buster.  She's not the heroine in the second book, here's hoping for Book #3.

Some intriguing moments but mostly "just OK."

Final Grade = B- 

Retro Review: Hot Night

The review for Hot Night by Shannon McKenna was first published at The Romance Reader in 2006. Back then I rated it 2-Hearts (D grade) with a sensuality rating equivalent of NC-17.  This currently appears to be out of print, with no available digital edition.

+++++

Readers can always count on Shannon McKenna to deliver a hot Alpha hero who lacks a little something in the manners department. Unfortunately, she tends to pair up these hot hunks of beefcake with heroines who have as much spine and personality as your garden-variety jellyfish. 

Abby Maitland slaves away at a museum job for a Devil Wears Prada-like boss. She has just landed a major coup for the museum, a gala event to show off their latest exhibit, a cache of sunken treasure recently recovered that they’re calling The Pirate’s Horde. She’s also decided now is the time to get serious about her love life. No more dating bad boy losers who deplete her checking account and wreck her cars. Nope, Abby now has a “list” and any guy who wants to get serious with her has to meet the criteria. So her fabulous gay friend, Dovey (that’s right, Dovey), has been setting her up on disastrous blind dates with men who fit Abby’s list. You think the girl would get a clue here, but amazingly enough she never does. 

It’s on her latest disaster that she meets Zan Duncan (that’s right, Zan). A locksmith and part-time computer guru of some sort (honestly, the author spends zero time on this other than it makes the hero conveniently rich), he answers Abby’s late night phone call after she locks herself out of her apartment. He arrives, rescues her from her latest blind date from hell, unlocks her door and the conversation laden with double entendres begins. 

But Zan doesn’t fit her “list” criteria, so Abby isn’t interested. Plus, things get really complicated when the evil bad guy shows up on the scene. He wants to steal The Pirate’s Horde and he isn’t going to let anybody or anything stand in his way. 

The plot is over-the-top (seriously, pirate’s treasure?!), but it could have been campy fun if the characters weren’t so annoying. Zan actually starts out very intriguing. He’s sexy, charming and I was thinking about running away with him at first. Unfortunately he’s attracted to Abby, which immediately knocks him down several pegs. She runs so hot and cold over the course of the story, I swear I got whiplash. One minute she’s pushing Zan away because he doesn’t fit her “list,” the next she’s throwing herself at him and putting her mouth on body parts that would send mixed signals to any man. 

Zan really has no chance at all. He cajoles her, tries to persuade her to give him a chance – but she flatly refuses. However, just as he’s about to throw in the towel, here comes Abby playing all hot to trot. Naturally, by about the halfway point the guy is truly confused and the bickering ensues. These two seem to have the same fight over the course of the entire story, and I never could get a handle on it since they talk in circles. But never fear gentle reader, they wait to do their arguing after they have the hot, acrobatic sex. 

Misunderstandings naturally ensue, with Zan leaping to conclusions and behaving like a Neanderthal. Not that I could truly blame him since Abby sends out so many mixed signals I would have gleefully strangled her myself if I were in his shoes. Not only is this all highly annoying to read about, it also sabotages the romance. These two cannot agree on anything, and several important conversations have to be halted because they cannot get along. Seriously, they’re going to have to spend their entire married life naked with duct tape over their mouths for this relationship to have any prayer at all. 

The suspense plot isn’t too bad, but it is overblown given the villain is one-dimensionally evil. Also, Abby somehow manages to become shriller after a dead body turns up. While it’s nice to see an author keeping the legacy of the unapologetic Alpha hero alive and well, coupling these guys with grating heroines is not the way to go. My advice is to keep the aspirin handy, and a bottle of tequila wouldn’t hurt either.

+++++

Wendy Looks Back: McKenna was a fan favorite at the height of the Kensington Brava line known for barely housebroken heroes and steamy sex. While a good many of my reading friends loved her work, I never could quite get there. Her heroes too Neanderthal-y, her heroine's too annoying.  And then her work started to blend in more and more paranormal elements and I was completely out.

Here's the thing though, McKenna's work was always compelling even when I wanted to strangle her characters.  She's self-published some stuff since her Brava days (eh, again with the paranormal elements) but she's got a new series launching this month with Harlequin Desire.  Besides always being here for category romance, McKenna's brand of Alpha hero should be right at home in the Desire line.  I'm intrigued....

Wow, Really? Hard cover? Really?

I was digging through some journals here at work, looking at upcoming releases for this summer, when I ran across a mention of Fade To Midnight by Shannon McKenna. For those of you who have never read McKenna, let me give you the rundown. Her heroes tend to be very Alpha and her heroines get rescued a lot. I've enjoyed two of her books as pure guilty pleasures (Behind Closed Doors and Standing In The Shadows) while two other books (Return To Me and Hot Night) made me want to put my fist through a wall.

Fade To Midnight is the conclusion (uh, I think) of her McCloud (a name that should be banned from Romance Novel Land) Brothers series and it's the book that McKenna fangirls have been squee-ing for. Yep, it's Kev's book.

Well here I am to rain on your parade. Brace yourself ladies.

Fade To Midnight is going to be published in....

Hard cover.

Yes, hard cover. Retail price is $20.95 (cheap for hc), and Amazon currently has it available for pre-order at $14.25. Hey, which is technically cheaper than what her trade paperback releases sold for at retail.

This is....

Well, it's interesting.

McKenna is so not an author I saw making any kind of leap to hard cover. For one thing, I have only heard readers describe her books in one of two ways:

• It made my eyes bleed. Seriously. Bleed. Pouring out of my eyes. Blood everywhere.
  

• OMG, what a great guilty pleasure!
  

Kensington Brava must be banking on people being so desperate for their guilty pleasure fix that they'll be willing to go hard cover. And hey, they may not be wrong. I mean, people are buying J.R. Ward in hard cover. (Yeah, I went there. I'm bad.)

And while the discount is healthy enough that those readers willing to pay trade prices for McKenna, probably won't care - I have to wonder about all those romance readers who vehemently, as in frothing at the mouth, despise hard cover. I mean, they really dislike it as a format. Hmmmm....

Interesting all the way around. Really? McKenna in hard cover? Really?

So, who is going to buy it? Or have you turned green and are now storming around your home office Hulk-like angry? Reader mad! Reader smash!

Oh, and yeah - I'm ordering it for the library. Cuz that's how I roll. Not sure if I'll read it right away though, since I'm like three books behind on this series already.

Laydown date is May 25, 2010

I've been remiss in posting lately - my deepest, sincerest apologies for those of you who can't get enough of my blog. This is of course assuming that anybody is actually reading it other than my older sister. I'm always more than happy to hear from cyberlurkers - just follow the link on the right to Wendy's Bookworm Corner and you'll find an e-mail form right there on my home page.

The only interesting tidbit going on at the moment is a discussion that has popped up among TRR's review staff. One of our faithful has decided to write a piece on the sexiest moments in romantic fiction - and she naturally needs examples. Who are we to refuse?

I provided my vote with a book I recently reviewed - Standing In The Shadows by Shannon McKenna. I'll pretty much read any book thrown in front of me (occupational hazard) - which means I can read a "just kisses" romance right after reading one that would give my father a stroke. McKenna falls into the stroke category, as she is published under the Kensington Brava banner.

I read a lot of Brava books - mainly because I love a good barn-burner - so I feel fairly confident is saying that McKenna is their rising star. Her sex scenes are never silly, tend to be emotionally messy, and the best part is - there's tap dancing. By tap dancing I mean the build-up leading to that first sexual encounter - sometimes taking several chapters. Foreplay if you will.

Which made me realize that the foreplay is often the sexiest moment for me in a romance novel. Go figure.

My other vote went to a wonderful early Pamela Morsi novel, Courting Miss Hattie. Anyone who has ever read Morsi knows she does not write sexually explicit books. In fact - they tend to fall somewhere in between my PG/PG-13 radar. While this is true for Courting Miss Hattie - it is the way the author writes those love scenes that had me practically melting into my favorite reading chair. It also helps considerably that her couple goes from best friends to lovers - giving them just the right amount of awkwardness when exploring their true feelings for one another.

Sometimes the journey can be more fun than actually arriving at your destintation - and I think that is what appeals to me in a well-written romance novel. One theory anyway....