Month: February 2012

Miss Hillary Schools a Scoundrel

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | book reviews> C Reviews

Miss Hillary Schools a Scoundrel by Samantha Grace is a Regency romance with one of the tried-and-true plots: the story of the redemption of a rake. Except that in this story, the rake is almost ready to be redeemed, and the lady isn’t quite ready to trust his redemption. Although this story had all the right elements, including a likeable hero and heroine, a matchmaking mama and a pair of dastardly evildoers for spice, the whole thing didn’t quite jell by the finish.

Lana Hillary meets Drew Forest by falling into his arms. From a tree. While escaping from one of the many men her matchmaking mama believes would be a perfect husband for her. Or at least a better bet than Lana officially declared “on the shelf” after two London Seasons and no offers. Well, none after that first lying scoundrel who broke Lana’s heart and left her.

The problem with the men her mama finds is not that they are so terribly respectable, although they are. It’s that they are so terribly boring. And so terribly obviously fortune hunters. Lana would rather be a spinster than be leg-shackled to a man who only wants her for her marriage portion. Especially since he will have control over it, and her, once she marries.

Being caught in a compromising position with one of the bores would require marriage. Escape by tree climbing is infinitely better.

But being witnessed by Drew Forest is not. Being stuck in the bushes listening while Drew breaks off his relationship with Lady Amelia is even worse. Drew is a handsome, charming scoundrel. And Lana’s brother Jake is in love with the widowed Lady Amelia.

Andrew Forest found the spirited creature he rescued from the tree to be the most fascinating woman he had ever met. The fact that her brother Jake warned him off in no uncertain terms made the challenge that much more interesting. rven if Drew normally never pursued supposedly marriage-minded misses like Lana, the lure was simply too great for him to ignore

And even though Lana knew that Drew was the exact opposite of the type of man she should be interested in, she couldn’t resist his charm.

So began a cat-and-mouse game, from ton ballroom to country house party, except that it was difficult to tell who was the cat, and who was the mouse. Their mutual attraction proved stronger than anyone’s plots and plans to throw them together or keep them apart, and there was plenty of mischief in both directions.

Meanwhile, there was a villain in their midst with an evil plot of his very own that could ruin not just Lana’s happiness, but her very life!

Escape Rating C: The opening scenes were some of the best I’ve read in quite a while. The set up was excellent, the slightly unconventional heroine, the rake who’s getting a little bored, the matchmaking mama who’s not looking carefully at the husband candidates, and some very witty dialogue.

For this reader, the story went on a bit too long. There were enough roadblocks without the dastardly plot, or there needed to be a few less roadblocks before the plot. Lana and Drew fought and argued and railed at each other just plain too much after they fell into bed (or coach as the case might be). For two people who had such fun talking with each other the first half of the book they made a right mess of it the second half.

When books are very short, I have a tendency to want them to be a bit longer. In this case, I think I would have enjoyed the story more if there had been a bit less of it in the middle.

Dangerous Race

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | B Reviews> book reviews

When I think of “Formula racing,” images of the Grand Prix flash through my mind; fast cars, European cities, and “the beautiful people”. Dee J. Adams’ first book, Dangerous Race, is certainly about Formula racing, and there are definitely fast cars, but the location is in the U.S. The people in this terrific romantic suspense story may be beautiful on the outside, but the race to the finish line has left them with some pretty terrible scars, not all of them visible.

Dangerous Race is Tracey Bradshaw’s story. Four years before our story opens, she was the hottest thing to hit the circuit, then she nearly lost her life in a crash caused by a crazed attacker who threw oil on the track during her practice run. The perpetrator was never found.

That accident cost Trace nearly four years of her life, put a metal rod in her leg where her femur should be, forced her through years of rehab, and broke her engagement.

Now Trace is back at the same track, to prove to everyone that she still has what it takes to race, and win.

When the the chief mechanic of her racing team dies, at first it seems like Joe died of the heart attack that he had been courting for years. Trace and the rest of her team are bereft but ready to soldier on. But the autopsy tells a different tale–Joe’s medication was switched: he was poisoned by pills that were meant for Trace. Her attacker is back. Someone doesn’t want Trace to race again.

But Trace’s team still needs a chief mechanic. Ed Grayling, the owner of her race car, calls in a favor from a friend. Mac Reynolds, one of Grayling’s former drivers, flies in from London to lead the pit crew so Trace can continue to race.

Mac and Trace argue from the very first moment they meet. Trace thinks Mac is trying to control her every move. Mac thinks she’s reckless beyond belief. They throw sparks off of each other to the point of combustion.

But Trace thinks that her scars make her unlovable. And Mac stopped driving for a reason that he refuses to reveal. The killer may not give them long enough to figure out what they really feel.

Escape Rating B+: This was just a terrific story. I raced through it because I wanted to see how it ended. Mac and Trace were made for each other. They are both so messed up at the beginning of the story, you really want them to find a happy ending. And you want them to find it with each other.

There is a secondary story line involving Trace’s long-lost twin sister who has been hunting for Trace and a member of Trace’s crew. While the romance was fun and was also resolved very nicely, there was a dangling plot line about why Trace’s mother put Trace up for adoption but kept Chelsea. Inquiring minds really want to know, because this issue isn’t resolved in Danger Zone (book 2 of Adams’ series Adrenaline Highs)

Hot Buttons Popping : RWI, RWA, RRW and LGBTQ writing contest discrimination

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | book reviews> Ebook Review Central> romance publishing

In many romance novels there’s a scene where one party rips open the other party’s shirt, and there are buttons popping all over the place. The last few days have been just like that in the Romance Publishing world, but so far, no one is heading towards the usual steamy sex scene.

But there is so much steam that even Publishers Weekly noticed. LGBTQ authors were steamed to discover that after several years of doing quite well in the “More Than Magic” contest sponsored each year by Romance Writers Ink (RWI), the Oklahoma Chapter of Romance Writers of America (RWA), same sex romances were specifically disqualified from competing in the 2012 contest. The reason given was that “some members of the chapter felt ‘uncomfortable’ with the same-sex entries.”

The information about this discomfort was revealed in an impassioned message that Heidi Cullinan, the President of the Rainbow Romance Writers (RRW), posted on her personal blog. The Rainbow Romance Writers are a Special Interest Chapter of the RWA.

The Rainbow Romance Writers specialize in LGBT romance. It says so right there on their home page. Romance Writers Ink states their own purpose, quoted from their website, as:

The purpose of RWI is to promote excellence in romantic fiction, to advance the professional interests of career-focused romance writers through networking and advocacy, to provide a general basis of mentorship to any writer who is actively, and seriously striving to become published and thus establish a career in the romance genre, as well as to provide a camaraderie for writers within the romance publishing industry.

Disqualifying an entire group of career-focused romance writers because they write same-sex romance seems to run counter to this charter.

Probably as a result of the attention brought to bear on this issue, RWI has cancelled the 2012 contest. This is a loss for everyone involved. Contests like this are one of the ways that genre authors (any genre), gain recognition. Being able to say that their book won a contest represents a terrific sales boost. There had to have been a better way.

Speaking of contests and sales boosts, what about the Romance Writers of America? Because the RWA contains special interest chapters like Rainbow Romance Writers and the Chick Lit Writers of the World, the RWA does not police the guidelines for any contests its chapters might choose to have. After all, the Chick Lit chapter does only admit Chick Lit, and asking them to allow anything else would just be, well, weird. On the other hand, expecting a general chapter like Romance Writers Ink, which is not a special interest group, to accept all forms of romance seems reasonable to most readers.

Which comes back the Romance Writers of America. There are no categories in the RITAs (their annual awards) for same-sex romances. There is a category for Young Adult romances, and there is one for Inspirational Romances. Why Inspirational gets its own category but same-sex doesn’t is a head-shaker to me.

I’m not a member of any of the organizations involved, not RWA or RWI or RRW. So why do I care?

First. I publish Ebook Review Central. I cover several LGBTQ publishers. I cover those publishers because their books are popular. ERC is not about my personal taste, and it never has been. It’s always been about promoting ebooks, about what is getting read, what is interesting to readers, and also what my fellow librarians have a difficult time finding reviews for.

Second. Awards and Contests matter. It’s difficult to get started as an author, and incredibly hard to keep going. The kind of recognition represented by winning a contest means increased sales every time a reader sees the list of award winners, and every time an agent or a publisher sees an author’s list of credits. Being automatically disqualified because of the genre one chooses to write in is just plain wrong.

Third. Romance is already stigmatized. We have enough problems without creating internal ghettos. Let’s stop poking sticks at each other.

Fourth and most important. Prejudice hurts everyone. Always.

Syndicated on BlogHer.com

 

Ebook Review Central, Amber Quill, Astraea Press, Liquid Silver Books, Riptide Publishing, December 2011

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | Ebook Review Central> ebooks

This edition of Ebook Review Central is the last time ERC will look back at December 2011. Or look at 2011 at all. But one last time to complete the year. This is the time for ERC to see what Amber Quill, Astraea Press, Liquid Silver Books and Riptide Publishing had to say at the close of 2011.

First, Amber Quill did have output across all three of their publishing lines for the first time in Ebook Review Central’s coverage. Until now, it’s been all Amber Allure, their Gay/Lesbian Romance imprint. This month, Amber Heat, their Het erotica line, published two titles (Truth or Dare and The First Noel) and Amber Quill, their general imprint, published one title (Never Moon a Werewolf).

Second, Astraea Press has hired a reviews coordinator, and it shows. Every one of their December titles has at least one review. And this in a month where a lot of people in general were just plain busy with other things. I also noticed that some of the backlist titles picked up reviews. This is really, really great to see. Keep up the good work!

And now, the part you’ve all been waiting for…this week’s featured titles!

The number one pick was definitely Counterpoint by Rachel Haimowitz, published by Riptide Publishing. Counterpoint is the first book in Ms. Haimowitz’s Song of the Fallen series, and is a dark fantasy that takes place at the twilight of the human race. This male/male romance tackles issues of slavery, politics and interspecies prejudice as well as the age-old questions about which love is the highest and greatest: love of family, love of one’s own people or country, or the love of one’s heart.

Dreamer by Ann Mayburn is the ERC second feature for this week. Liquid Silver Books published this story of good versus evil that takes place in an alternate Washington, D.C. Reviewers say that this romance is filled with fantasy and action, and that the characters, especially the heroine, are incredibly sarcastic and funny. This story doesn’t just have evil stalking the children of Washington, D.C., it has Celtic Gods and Goddesses, Temple Warriors and their chosen mates, and more than a little BDSM. This romance is not for those who like their erotic on the vanilla side.

On the other hand, the third featured book is perfect for those looking for a sweet romance with a Happily Ever After and some romantic suspense. From Now Until Forever by Sherry Gloag is about the prince of a pocket European country and the female security chief his parents have entrusted with his safety. When they fall in love and marry, while still keeping their identities secret from each other, their life is idyllic until the prince becomes the target of an assassination attempt and their secrets come between them. The characters are extremely likeable, and the plot works surprisingly well.

2011 has officially ended at Ebook Review Central. We’ll return next week with the Carina Press titles from January 2012. Happy New Year!

 

What’s on my (mostly virtual) nightstand? 2-5-12

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | Virtual Nightstand

Is it really February? In Atlanta it’s 65 and sunny. I know we’re still in the South, but I did think this place was supposed to have something like seasons. So far, it’s been pretty much shirt-sleeve weather all year.

It’s not that I miss winter, and definitely not that I miss snow, but it just “feels” wrong for February.

I got a new book added to my nightstand late last week. Actually two new books. Library Journal asked me to review Danger Zone by Dee J. Adams, and those reviews always have a very short window, so my review is due on Friday, February 10. And it’s a sequel. So there I was downloading Dangerous Race from Carina Press. I got lucky, there was a sale! And even better, they are really, really good romantic suspense. I’ve already finished Dangerous Race, and I’m halfway through Danger Zone. Very neat stories about Formula One racing and the Hollywood filming thereof.

I also picked The Woman Who Loved Jesse James by Cindi Myers from NetGalley. It was published on January 23, but it’s still available. The description sounded a lot like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, if it were told from Etta Place’s point of view. I’ll find out.

And for next Tuesday I have the new Robin Hood re-telling, Scarlet, by A.C. Gaughen. This is supposed to be YA version, but that’s not the reason I requested it on NetGalley. In this version of the Robin Hood story, “Will” Scarlet is a female passing as male. The Robin Hood legend is one of the truly great stories, I can’t wait to see what changes this twist makes!

In spite of the addition of the racing books, I did make some progress from last week’s list. Besides finishing and reviewing The Night is Mine by M.L. Buchman, I also finished Miss Hillary Schools a Scoundrel by Samantha Grace. So that review will be published early this week.

My review for The Devil of Jedburgh by Claire Robyns will also be published this week, after my thoughts on the book first appear at Book Lovers Inc. Reviewing for BLI is fun and different from what I do here.

I need to hike myself back to Theft of Swords. I keep thinking of those 500+ pages and going “eek”, but I enjoyed the part I read. I just keep getting distracted by other books.

And on Thursday, February 9, I will be conducting another webinar for the Maryland Library Association. This time the topic will be ebooks in libraries. For interested parties, the signup link is here.

Speaking of ebooks, tomorrow is Monday. That means it’ll be time for another edition of Ebook Review Central. ERC will finally say “Goodbye” to December with Amber Quill, Astraea, Liquid Silver, and Riptide. Tomorrow!

Stainless

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | book reviews> C Reviews

Stainless by Todd Grimson has the subtitle “A Modern Romance.” I’m not sure I’d call it a romance. I would definitely call it a tale of obsessions. Both obsessive love and obsessive hate played a role in this story. And compulsion. I certainly felt compelled to finish once I’d started.

Human beings have found a surprising number of addictive substances to cure their addictions. Morphine was once thought to cure alcoholism. It was a case where the cure was just as bad as the original disease, since it replaced one addiction for another.

Stainless opens with Keith, a former junkie, describing how he was cured of his heroin addiction. A vampire bit him. Justine needed a human to take care of her house during the day, to drive her around looking for people to bite at night. In other words, Justine needed a Renfield. She picked Keith because he clearly had nothing to lose. Vampire bites are addictive, but it’s a much more functional addiction than heroin, at least if the vampire chooses it to be. It can also, of course, also be fatal.

Keith used to be lead guitar player for a hot rock bank, SMX. But just because the named sounds like “smacks” doesn’t mean he actually used to do smack. The drugs came later, after his girlfriend killed herself and her other boyfriend decided it was Keith’s fault. So he sent his goons over to break Keith’s hands. Without his music, Keith finally did descend into the drugs that everyone thought he’d been doing all along. And that’s where Justine found him. Doped up, strung out, and on the edge of suicide.

She saved him because she needed a pretty “Renfield” who wouldn’t give any more of a damn about life or death than she did. After 400 years as a vampire, Justine was nearly as strung out as Keith. But her survival instinct was a bit stronger. Being an apex predator will do that. And Justine has managed to forget a whole lot more than she remembers of her 400 years of “living.” It makes things easier.

But because Keith doesn’t care whether he lives or dies, he doesn’t pass judgements on Justine’s behavior. Slowly, these two extremely wounded creatures build a shaky bridge towards each other, based on mutual need. They need each other to have a reason to go on living. People have found love in stranger places.

Love makes everyone vulnerable. Even vampires.

And there’s a new vampire in town. Someone from Justine’s past. Who is so, so very good at exploiting vulnerabilities. Human vulnerabilities and vampire vulnerabilities. And he’s been waiting years to strike back at the vamp who made him. His time has come.

Escape Rating C+: I got sucked into this book. Pun both intended and not. The story started out slow, but once it picked up steam, I couldn’t let it go, or it didn’t let me go. The ending was inevitable, but it was the right, true and correct ending. Some stories are like that, there’s just no other way for them to go.

Stainless had to be set in LA, because the Hollywood movie myths played a part in the story. The evil vamp’s history in the shady background of Hollywood was definitely integral to the plot. But I also kept thinking that the whole “live fast, die young, leave a beautiful corpse” concept served as a kind of meta-background in my head as I read.

As interesting as all the obsessions were, there were just a few too many points of view. Not just the action, but the actual point of view kept switching from Keith to Justine to David (the bad vampire) to different members of his minions, to the doctor who wants to use Justine’s “blood” as a healing agent, and around and around. It was too easy to get lost among the shifting POVs.

And speaking of David…the bad vamp was not just born during the Hollywood of the 1920s, he was over-the-top melodramatic like a Hollywood set from the 1920s. Or at least he was to my tastes. Yours may vary.

For more of my thoughts on Stainless, head on over to Book Lovers Inc.

 

Covers, Stories, Teasers, Stars, Grades

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | blogging> book reviews> Ebook Review Central

What makes a book appealing to you? For that matter, what makes a book appealing to anyone? For her February 3 TGIF feature, GReads asked the question “When you’re browsing Goodreads, the library, or a blogger’s reviews, what grabs your attention to make you want to read it?”

For this blog, that’s a two-part question.

  1. What makes a book appealing to me?
  2. What makes a book ‘feature-worthy’ for the weekly Ebook Review Central?

If books were food, I would be making the old joke about being on the “seafood diet”. The joke was that I “see food and I eat it”. In the case of books, I see books and I want to read them. Not all books, but too awfully darn many.

We all judge books by their covers, but I use it to judge what category the book might be. I see gears and I think “steampunk, cool”, and that goes into the “maybe, yes” column. I see a man in a kilt and think “Highland Scots romance, probably not”.  I have, I will again, but unless they are either paranormal or time travel or something otherwise supernatural, except for Diana Gabaldon, I may be done there for a while.

Spaceships or computer chips means cyberpunk, space opera or science fiction romance; again, count me in. But cover art only suggests, it doesn’t guarantee.

I also go for authors I know or whose series I have started. I don’t read a lot of mysteries per se, but I read a lot of mystery series where I’m neck deep in the series, and I’m invested. Or is that committed?

I also like stories where the author has tried something new, so if the reviewer says they didn’t just love the story, but also that there is something new and interesting going on, I might try the book. Particularly if I trust the reviewer. There are some reviewers whose “mehs” mean more than other reviewers’ 5 star ratings. Everyone has their own style.

But when it comes to Ebook Review Central, I use an entirely different criteria for determining which books get featured. Every Monday ERC features up to three books from the publishing output for the publisher(s) and the month in question. On January 30, the publisher of the week was Samhain Publishing, the month was December 2011. On February 3, the last December 2011 issue will feature Amber Quill, Astraea Press, Liquid Silver Books and Riptide Publishing.

I do look for books where there were a lot of reviews. If a title gets 15 or more reviews, that’s one I’ll definitely feature. At that point, they don’t even all have to be good reviews, although it helps. If something is worth talking about that much, then it’s a title that other readers might want to take a look at. In romance, after all, love and hate are often opposite sides of the same coin.

I also look for the tone of the reviews. When the reviewers are doing more than just giving a story five stars and A+ ratings, when the collective reviewing landscaping is searching for words beyond “everyone must read this NOW!” that’s a sign the book is worth showcasing.

When it comes to the Ebook Review Central, it really doesn’t have anything to do with my reading tastes. I might have read some of the books listed for the week, and I might not. And even if I did, I might not have agreed with the other reviewers. The books that get featured depend on the collective blogosphere.

Of course, sometimes I’ll see how much other reviewers loved a certain book, and I’ll be intrigued. There are also times when I’ll see that no one is reviewing a particular author’s books, and I’ll wonder why no one cared enough about the book to post a review on Goodreads or Amazon.

Which leads back to that question again.  What makes a book appealing to you?

ARC Review: Stainless: A Modern Romance by Todd Grimson

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | 3 Stars> Marlene> Originally published at Book Lovers, Inc.

Format read: Uncorrected print proof provided by the publisher
Release Date: January 18, 2012
Number of Pages: 225 pages
Publisher: Schaffner Press
Formats Available: paperback
Purchasing Info: Goodreads, Author’s Website, Amazon, Schaffner Press, Barnes & Noble, Independent Publishers Group

Blurb:

Resurrecting a horrifying and romantic narrative that broke fresh ground for its genre, this soon to be re-released novel sets a vampire story in contemporary Los Angeles—the pleasure dome of late 1990s sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll culture. Unlike the vampires that came before her, Justine does not shun crosses, she watches horror movies on television, and she sets upon her prey in an almost apologetic way, never killing her victims but leaving them unconscious instead. She soon finds herself entwined in a very human sexual relationship with Keith, a down-on-his-luck rock guitarist whose hands have recently been mangled by a gang of drug dealers. Justine nurtures Keith out of his depression and drug addiction as he in turn becomes her lover and accomplice in her nocturnal predations. The relationship between the undead and the living is realistically and tragically portrayed as Keith acts both as Justine’s enabler and unwitting nemesis and, in this classic role reversal, ends up having to destroy the one he loves in order to save her.

My Thoughts:

This was originally posted at Book Lovers Inc.

Although this story was subtitled “a modern romance” I didn’t see it that way. I read it as a story about co-dependency and obsessions. Which definitely made the “modern” part of the subtitle truer than true, but kind of nixed the romantic aspects. Not that a whole lot of romantic relationships don’t have their co-dependent aspects.

But it’s the obsessions that drove the story for me. And I kind of got compelled to finish it. So maybe I got sucked into the obsessions a little bit, too.

Keith starts out as a washed up guitar player, and a heroin addict. The vampire Justine picks him up off the streets and gets him addicted to her, instead. They start out as two people who basically don’t care if they live or die.

But Keith’s problems are human problems. His ex-girlfriend committed suicide, and her other boyfriend (yes, it’s complicated) blamed him. Said other boyfriend sent his goon squad to break Keith’s hands and plant drugs in his hotel room. The broken hands ended Keith’s career as lead guitar player for a major rock band. Ending his music ended the only life he cared about.

But by making Keith an addict to whatever her vampire serum was instead of smack made Keith a functional addict. It gave him time to heal the emotional damage. Time really does heal all wounds. As Keith heals, he comes out of his comatose state of depression and starts to connect to the world again. But he’s alone most of the time with a very beautiful woman and a very dangerous secret.

As Keith connects to the world, he comes to life. Not just physical life, but emotional life. He’s young, handsome, and he needs her. Justine falls in love with her “Renfield”. Love gives her world the life and color and meaning it hasn’t had for centuries. Justine and Keith become obsessed with each other, as new lovers often do. It makes them vulnerable.

But Justine has been a vampire for 400 years. She’s survived by forgetting a lot of the things she has done. One of the things she has forgotten is that she made another vampire in LA. One that she shouldn’t. Not because it’s forbidden or because there are any rules or because vampires are even organized, but because this guy was a monster when he was human, back in the 1920s at the dawn of Hollywood.

Becoming a vampire didn’t make him much more of a monster, just a more powerful one. His obsession is Justine, the vampire who made him. He wants, no he needs to be the most powerful vampire in LA. And he wants to be sure that no one can contradict all the stories he tells. The only way that can happen is if he takes Justine out of the picture.

So when a young doctor discovers Justine’s secret, Justine is open to the idea of finding a cure for Keith’s damaged hands. And it sets the scene for her old enemy to use that vulnerability to rain destruction on them all.

Although I felt compelled to finish Stainless, there were a few things that didn’t quite work for me. The changes of point of view between Justine and Keith, the doctor Tamara and her fiancée Patrick, and the second vampire, David, and his minions, can be confusing. And there are a lot of points-of-view to follow. It’s easy to get lost. The melodramatic aspects of David’s evil did reach “over the top” proportions for me, although that’s a matter of personal taste. I might have liked the story better if David had been less of a stereotype, because one of things that made Justine interesting was that she wasn’t a stereotypical vampire.

The ending is the only ending possible. It’s inevitable and it’s exactly right.

I give Stainless three stars.

***FTC Disclaimer: Most books reviewed on this site have been provided free of charge by the publisher, author or publicist. Some books we have purchased with our own money and will be noted as such. Any links to places to purchase books are provided as a convenience, and do not serve as an endorsement by this blog. All reviews are the true and honest opinion of the blogger reviewing the book. The method of acquiring the book does not have a bearing on the content of the review.

Wrapping up NetGalley January

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | NetGalley> NetGalley Month

NetGalley January is a wrap. Well, the thing is, January is over, and since the little snowman in the picture says it was NetGalley January, there you are. That’s it for the month.

Those of us signed up for the 2012 NetGalley Reading Challenge are just going to have to soldier on, chortling with glee at all the lovely egalleys NetGalley will be sending us through the rest of the year. Every month can be NetGalley Month.

But back to the wrap. And I must use plastic wrap, since everyone needs to be able to see what I read.

Two books came out of my NetGalley TBR pile from September and October:

 

 

 

 

 

In addition to The Black Stiletto, which was fascinating, I also read the start of a very neat new mystery series, The Dharma Detective. I can’t wait for The Second Rule of Ten.

 

 

I also read a couple of Regency Romances from relatively new authors that were both a little different from the usual. It’s always interesting to see authors take the standard tropes and stretch the boundaries just a little bit. Or in the case of A Lady Awakened a “lotta” bit.

I read one YA/Cyberpunk that received a lot of buzz, and from the other posted wrap-ups, it looks like I’m not the only one who read Cinder. This title was highly anticipated. (I was turned down the first time I requested it, so I replied directly to the publisher outlining my specific review qualifications and was okayed on the second go-around).

Banshee Charmer is the start of a great new urban fantasy/paranormal series from a brand-new author. The author is doing a blog tour and the book is getting a lot of very nice attention.

 

 

I liked the first book in the Dark Dynasties series, Dark Awakening,  quite a bit, so when the second book, Midnight Reckoning listed on NetGalley, I grabbed it. Definitely fun for paranormal romance fans.

 

 

And, as always, I rounded out my reading month with titles from Carina Press. The icing on my reading cake: more urban fantasy and paranormal romance, and my science fiction romance fix for the month.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I posted thirteen reviews this month on NetGalley. I did finish a fourteenth book from NetGalley, The Devil of Jedburgh by Claire Robyns. But because I reviewed it for Book Lovers Inc., I can’t post the review on my site until after the review on BLI goes live, and that’s scheduled for February 9. I also finished The Night is Mine by M.L. Buchman sometime the night of January 31, but I can’t swear whether it was before or after midnight. I know that night was his, I just didn’t keep track of how much of it! So there you have it. My tally for this NetGalley Month. It’s all good for the 2012 NetGalley Reading Challenge. And it was all good reading!

The Night is Mine

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | B Reviews> book reviews

The Night is Mine by M. L. Buchman has got to be the lightest-weight military-oriented romantic suspense story I’ve ever read, in spite of the number of times the heroine gets injured. What I’m saying is that I found the story to be a tremendous amount of fun, and I absolutely got sucked way into it the first night, but that I totally checked my reality-meter at the door. And I had a wilder ride than any of the chopper pilots in the story!

Let’s start with our heroine. Emily Beale is a Captain in the U.S. Army. This is totally believable. And she is a helicopter pilot. Again, totally believable. She is also a member of the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (Airborne) generally referred to as SOAR, the elite unit that transports Navy SEALs and Delta Force teams in and out of covert missions. In other words, she flies in forward combat operations. I want to believe this is possible, but I don’t think we’re there yet.

Emily is the first and so far only woman in SOAR. And as the story opens, she and her unit are watching a profile of her that is being played on CNN. In spite of the secrecy that surrounds SOAR, this profile was okayed by “Command”. Because Emily is not just an ace-pilot. Her father is a career FBI agent and is now the head of that agency. And when Emily was growing up in the suburbs of DC, the “boy next door” that she had her girlhood crush on, well he’s now the President of the U.S. The youngest president ever. And no, he’s not Clinton. And Mrs. President sure ain’t Hillary.

That CNN profile showed nothing of Emily’s piloting skills and everything about how good she looks in her flightsuit and how well she’s figured out how to cook in the desert with minimal supplies. Someone back at CNN turned it into a girlie “puff piece”. Emily is so pissed she shoots the laptop her unit used to watched the profile. The crew buries the laptop with full military honors and gives Emily the tiny flag.

After the profile runs, Emily gets mysterious orders to report to an aircraft carrier in the Pacific Ocean, which is not where she wants to be. After two months, she’s finally earned her place in SOAR as just another pilot, albeit a damn fine one, and that’s how she wants it. All she wants is to fly helicopters. All she wants is to fly. The DC political social whirl is not for her, even if it is the air her mother breathes and the water she swims in like a shark in an aquarium tank. Emily’s sure her mother is behind all the machinations as a move to get Emily back to DC and out of the military. Somehow, someway.

But Emily’s commanding officer, Major Mark Henderson, sees Emily’s mysterious orders and becomes even colder to her than she thought possible. Emily’s never quite been able to live up to the Major’s expectations of her, as a pilot or as an officer. She’s worked all the harder for it. Little does she know that the problem is completely different. Mark Henderson has been bending over backwards to treat her just like any other officer, because he can’t see her as anything except the one woman he wants more than any other. So he’s just a tiny bit colder and more distant than he needs to be, to keep himself under control–because he barely has any. And one misstep will cost them both their careers.

But Emily’s orders are not her mother’s doing. The former “boy next door” is now Emily’s Commander-in-Chief. He’s calling on his best friend to come back to DC and protect the First Lady from repeated, but so far unsuccessful, attempts on her life. Emily is the only one the President trusts.

So Emily goes back to Washington, to the world she left behind, to help her best friend. But President Peter Matthews, back when he was just a Senator, broke her heart when he married another woman, even if he didn’t know it. And he’s breaking her heart again by taking her away from the life she loves, to save the life of a woman she really doesn’t like very much.

And just before she gets on the flight that whisks her away, her commanding officer kisses her goodbye. For real. And Emily nearly breaks his hand and walks away.

So he follows her to Washington, and fakes his way into her secret mission. Then the real fun begins!

Escape Rating B: I started reading this one night at about 11:30, and 150 pages later I was telling myself that I really, really needed to get some sleep. I didn’t want to shut my iPad off; but this is a 400 page book, and finishing wasn’t realistic. I’ll admit I thought about it.

As a character, Emily is a little too good to be true. She’s not just an ace pilot, but all her commanders say that she’s the best they’ve ever seen. Her dad being head of the FBI and her childhood friend being President are both integral to the plot, but it stretches belief. DC may be a company town, but that level of connectedness smacks of a Tom Clancy novel. I will say that Clancy’s aren’t quite this much fun.

What The Night is Mine reminded me of most is Stargate SG-1 fanfiction of the Jack and Sam persuasion. It has the same flavor and the same problem to solve. This is not a criticism, I like Jack/Sam SG-1 fanfic. The issue is that both are in the military, they are in a commander/subordinate relationship and they have to deal with the military frat regs. Jack and Sam are even both pilots, they just happen to be Air Force instead of Army. Faking a relationship for a covert operation that turns real is one of the tropes.

A fun story is a fun story. The Night is Mine is the first book of the author’s The Night Stalkers series. Book 2, I Own the Dawn, will be out in August, 2012.  A couple of my nights were M. L. Buchman’s thanks to The Night is Mine. Looks like a couple of nights in August are pre-booked.