Month: August 2012

Stacking the Shelves (15)

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | Stacking the Shelves

There’s a terrible old joke about being on a seafood diet. You know the one, “I see food and I eat it”. The kitty in the picture may be the only one who can get away with it–or the only one who looks cute while saying it, anyway.

I think there should be the biblioholic’s version of that joke. “I see books and I want to read them!” It doesn’t make nearly as good of a pun, but it probably explains the tiny meeping I hear from my iPad as it complains about all those books I stuff into it.

Maybe I’m just hearing things.

What’s stacking your shelves this week?

For Review: (As always, everything is an ebook unless specifically stated otherwise.)

Wolfishly Yours (Westfield Wolves #6) by Lydia Dare
The Map of the Sky (Trilogía Victoriana #2) by Felix J. Palma
Dark Soul: The Complete Collection by Aleksandr Voinov
The Reluctant Amazon (Alliance of the Amazons #1)   by Sandy James
Broken Promises (Seasons of Invention) by J.K. Coi
Blue Nebula (Blue Universe #2) by Diane Dooley
Making Sense (Sensual Healing #2) by Serenity Woods
Haunted Sanctuary (Green Pines #1) by Moira Rogers
King of the Damned (League of Guardians #2) by Juliana Stone
A Lack of Temperance by Anna Loan-Wilsey
The Buzzard Table (Deborah Knott #18) by Margaret Maron
Stranded by Anne Bishop, Anthony Francis and James Alan Gardner
Forbidden (The World of the Nightwalkers #1) by Jacquelyn Frank
This Case is Gonna Kill Me by Phillipa Bornikova
The Moonstone and Miss Jones (Phaeton Black, Paranormal Investigator #2) by Jillian Stone

Purchased:

Lucifer’s Daughter (Princess of Hell #1) by Eve Langlais
Once Bitten, Forever Burned by Eve Langlais and Stacey Kennedy (free!)
A Map of Time (Trilogía Victoriana #1) by Felix J. Palma (print)

 

Review: Of Thieves and Elves:A Supernovella by A.P. Stephens

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | 2 1/2 Stars> book reviews> Originally published at Book Lovers, Inc.> The Rocket Lover

Format Read: ebook provided by the author
Number of Pages: 252 pages
Release Date: April 8, 2012
Publisher: Fanda Books
Genre: Epic Fantasy
Formats Available: Hardcover, ebook
Purchasing Info: Amazon | B&N | Kobo | Book Depository US | Book Depository (UK) | Goodreads | Author’s Website 

Book Blurb:

A monumental tragedy has befallen the Clan of Ionor, an ancient brotherhood of elven warriors. Concerned when their Master does not reach his secretive business in a distant kingdom, the Elders learn that Tryn, their beloved leader, has been captured by a cutthroat gang of bandits known as the Steel Claw. Yet this is not the darkest of their tidings. The relic under the clan’s safekeeping, a weapon of terrible power that was forged by the gods themselves, is also missing. The Ionor dispatch Eonen, a headstrong Elder, and a young and talented apprentice, Tride, to rescue the Master and the relic by infiltrating the bandits’ stronghold-the formidable Fortress of Toppledom. As the two determined elves hasten into the unknown beyond their borders to restore balance and honor to their clan, they encounter the true darkness behind the matter-the very origin of the world’s evil. Allegiances will be twisted. The fates of many will be set into motion. And the destiny of one will be realized.

My Thoughts:

This was originally posted at Book Lovers Inc.

I had to check the definition of a novella. It’s the librarian in me. Because this is a fantasy, the definition that the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America use should suffice. SFWA defines a novella as having a word count between 17,500 and 40,000 words. At 252 pages, believe me, Of Thieves and Elves is a novel. A pretty decent one, but a novel.

About that novel…if there is one basic plot (as opposed to 7 or 10) that plot is “Who am I?” Of Thieves and Elves is a “Who am I?” story. It’s the hero’s journey. In this case, the hero just happens to be an elf.

Tride is a young man, well, young elf, and he’s a bit different from everyone else in his clan. That’s what makes it his story. Tride is an orphan, a foundling. He’s also visibly different, but nothing drastic. He’s just dark when everyone else is fair. He’s also always a bit disheveled, because he’s always being shoved, kicked or beaten by his fellow students, and never draws attention to it. No one cares.

Except Eonen. His family fostered Tride. And when Eonen needs a young warrior to assist him on a secret mission, it is Tride whom he unhesitatingly chooses as his companion. But it’s a secret mission, and Tride is too young to keep informed. Elders always know best. Yeah, right.

Even in buddy stories there are misunderstandammits.  When the buddies are warriors, those misunderstandings usually get people killed.

When the story is the hero’s journey, the person who gets killed is always the mentor. Eonen follows in a long and storied tradition.

So what do we have in Of Thieves and Elves? A quest, a stolen relic, a missing high council member, a daring rescue attempt, and, of course, it all goes horribly wrong or there wouldn’t be a story. They run into betrayal, terrible magic, and a fortress full of evil bandits.

The story is generally good fun in the classic high fantasy tradition. The bandits are really evil, and their leader is so crazy he’s stupid with crazy. In the process of rescuing the people that the bandits have enslaved, Tride starts becoming the hero he was meant to be.

There’s a definite sense that this is going to be a trilogy. The story certainly didn’t wrap up at the end. And it left way more questions than answers about Tride’s origins and the motives of the big, bad evil dude. The reader should want answers.

But I took some time to think. This is a buddy story. Eonen teaches his apprentice Tride the things he’ll need to know to become a hero, even if that’s not what Tride thinks is going to happen. Big brother and little brother. Looking back, I realized that there are not just no women with agency anywhere in this story, but there are no women except the downtrodden slaves that Tride rescues and the victims that the bandits are raping.

The Learners that Tride trains with in the Elvish stronghold are all male. The Elder Council that Eonen is part of are all male. We see no females with any authority anywhere. There were no female bandit captains. While I don’t actually want to see a woman portrayed as that evil, some female would have had big enough brass ones.

Tolkien could get away with this, and he’s no longer around to argue with. Besides, even Celeborn answered to Galadriel. In contemporary-written fantasy, if a society has no females of agency, there needs to be a reason. Or they need to be dwarves, where both genders have beards and outsiders aren’t meant to know.

I give Of Thieves and Elves 2.5 stars for telling a pretty good story but shooting a whole quarrel of arrows through the Bechdel Test.

***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.

Guest Post: Author Jacqueline M. Battisti on True Names + Giveaway

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | blog tours> Book Giveaway> ebook giveaway> Giveaways> Guest Posts

Today is special! I get to host Jacqueline Battisti for her very first guest post ever. I’ll confess that I jumped at the chance to be part of the tour for The Guardian of Bastet, Ms. Battisti’s debut novel, because even from the blurb it looked like an a scrumptious combination of the paranormal and urban fantasy. And I was not disappointed. (See my review for details)

Without further ado, take it away, Jacqueline…

Hello. This is my first guest blog post and I am so excited to be doing this. My name is Jacqueline M. Battisti and I am the author of The Guardian of Bastet. I am a stay-at-home mother with young children who also writes when time and the children allow. I have always loved romance, fantasy and paranormal books, devouring them as soon as I could find them at the book store. I even collect a few authors that are my absolute favorites and reread their books when I’m stuck and need a break from my own musings. They inspire me to keep going.

The Guardian of Bastet has evolved over time with many incarnations. My main character, Trinity Morrigan-Caine was originally named Misty. But after a few chapters, the image she projected in my head said, snarky stripper. It took me a while to discover my character’s true name. Trinity. Like the trinity of Mother, Maid and Crone of womanhood. She is a cat shifter, a witch and then the Guardian of Bastet. Three roles she must grow into and accept just like her name.

The Guardian of Bastet is the beginning of Trinity’s story. Here is the official blurb:

Cat-shifter Trinity Morrigan-Caine has discovered a demon is killing supernaturals. Magically challenged, she has every intention of letting handsome Alpha werewolf Gordon Barnes handle it. But after a dying vampire gifts Trinity a mystical amulet, she is drawn into the fray as the legendary Guardian of Bastet, a warrior born when the need arises.

Though Trinity initially rejects the role, she warms to the idea when Gordon agrees to train her—and their passion for each other grows as he teaches her to embrace her animal instincts.

As she begins to accept her destiny and believe in her growing powers, Trinity realizes the danger is even closer to home than she ever imagined—and she and Gordon are going to have to face the demon in a fight to the death…

I am currently working on the sequel to The Guardian of Bastet. It was the reason I left a couple of loose ends in this one. I’m just as excited to see where Trinity’s escapades lead. I hope you are too after reading The Guardian of Bastet.

This reader is overjoyed to know that there will be a sequel to Guardian. I want to see more of Trinity’s world, and find out Trinity’s circle adjusts to her being the Guardian instead of the family magical dud. Her new life is certainly going to be interesting. “May you live in interesting times” kind of interesting, that is. It should make for more terrific reading.

**~~~~~**TOURWIDE GIVEAWAY**~~~~~**

In celebration of the release of her new book, Jacqueline is giving away 5 copies of The Guardian of Bastet (EPUB or PDF)

-and-

3 Pewter Egyptian Bastet Cat Pendants (The Goddess Bastet has a very important role in The Guardian of Bastet

(Contest open to North American shipping addresses only)

Please fill out the Rafflecopter to win!
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Review: The Guardian of Bastet by Jacqueline M. Battisti

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | A Reviews> blog tours> book reviews

Jacqueline M. Battisti’s new urban fantasy/paranormal debut, The Guardian of Bastet, had me from the very first word in the blurb. Her main character is a cat-shifter. Not a jaguar or a puma, oh no. At the full-moon, Trinity Morrigan-Caine shifts into a house-cat. The book might as well have jumped up and said “Here reader, reader, reader…”

The story made me purr with delight.

Trinity Morrigan-Caine is a half-breed. Her mother is a powerful witch of the Morrigan line. (Yes, that Morrigan. Morgaine. You know the one. She had a little something to do with a fellow named Arthur. Way, way back.) But Trinity isn’t a powerful witch like her mom. Because Olivia Morrigan went and fell in love with a werepuma, and that just isn’t done. So Olivia Morrigan got disowned and disavowed, and went to live with her husband, Ben Caine, in the Genesee Valley of upstate New York.

Which turned out to be kind of like Sunnydale in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Complete with demons and Hellmouth. Olivia Morrigan found herself the head witch of the Genesee Valley Society of Others (GVSO) because witches are just so much better than everyone else.

The only problem is that Olivia and Ben’s daughter, Trinity, isn’t quite what Olivia had in mind. Trinity isn’t much of a witch, and she doesn’t shift into anything fierce. Dad’s an alpha werepuma. When it’s Trinity’s time of the month, Trinity turns into good old Felis catus, otherwise known as an ordinary house cat. She even (ugh!) hunts mice. Very well according to her cousin and housemate.

Tracy’s other power? Well, since she turns into an animal, she can also understand them. Which makes her a fantastic vet. Her patients just adore her. And she does work miracles with the animals.

The other problem with being a were-kitty is that Trinity has all the morals of, well, a cat. She likes men. Frequently and often. And isn’t horribly particular. Which comes to bite her, and pretty much everyone around her, in the butt when Trinity brings a demon home on the worst booty call ever.

But at least Trinity didn’t summon the demon. She just didn’t pay attention when he started mesmerizing her. There’s a hotter place in hell for the ones who summoned him. Figuring that out and growing up and into her powers enough to take that bad boy out, is what makes this story sing.

This is Trinity’s story. She starts out as a damn good veterinarian, but a dud in everything else. Only one person believes in her, and unfortunately for Trinity, it isn’t one or both of her parents. (Dad did better than mom, but still…) The only one to believe in Trinity was the GVSO’s one and only resident vampire, Vincent. His last act is to gift Trinity with an ancient amulet, a powerful talisman that he has been keeping for centuries, waiting for the one person capable of meeting its potential.

That person is Trinity, the forbidden child of a witch and a shifter. Only she can be the true Guardian of Bastet. But only if she can accept herself and her own powers, powers that everyone has told her she does not have. She’s always believed she’s just a dud.

But only a true Guardian can send the demon back to the nether-realm he came from. And to do that, Trinity will have to accept that she is powerful and capable, and worthy of being the true avatar of Bastet.

Bastet was a warrior-goddess, the woman with the head of a lion. Her Guardian must also embrace the warrior within.

Trinity will need to be a warrior, and a shifter, and a witch. And powerful in all ways. Because that warrior within her will need to fight against a traitor who is way too close.

Escape Rating A-: The mother/daughter dynamics (and grandmother/mother/daughter dynamics) remind me a bit of Brave, and that’s a good reminder. A lot of what drives this story is the mother/daughter issue. Not just that Olivia makes no secret of her disappointment in Trinity, but also Gwendolyn Morrigan’s rejection of her daughter Olivia for marrying a shifter. And most of all, Trinity’s cousin Lily, and her feelings of rejection by her witch mother for also being an under-powered half-breed.

Trinity comes off as a bit self-absorbed at the beginning of the story (her mental dialog about turning into a cat once a month and playing with her cat-familiar as a cat is hilarious), but she definitely has reasons for where she starts out. And she certainly redeems herself.

Interview with Author Gwyn Cready on Playing with Time

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | Author Interviews> Author Q&A

Gwyn Cready is my guest today at Reading Reality. Of course, Gwyn’s not really here to talk about reality, she’s here to talk about time-travel in romance. I’ll confess that the heroine of her latest time-bending romance, Timeless Desire, has an extra-special place in my heart, because Panna is not just a heroine, she’s a librarian! What could be more awesome? (The story is terrific, too. Check out my review and see for yourself)

Now let’s hear Gwyn talk about time-travel and Pee-Wee Herman…but not, thank goodness, at the same time.

Marlene: Introduce yourself to us. Tell us a little bit about Gwyn Cready, and what she does when she’s not writing.

Gwyn: I love movies. My husband and I pop out to films all the time. One of our favorite theaters is a single-screen theater in Dormont, Pennsylvania, called the Hollywood. They pop their own popcorn, and they even have a balcony. You just don’t see that a lot anymore. We just saw the third Indiana Jones movie there. Next up: PeeWee’s Big Adventure!

Marlene: You’ve written several time-travel romances. What draws you to time-travel romances in particular?

Gwyn: I love the idea of playing with time. It opens up so many possibilities for characters. In a romance—at least a properly written one—you know the story is going to end with the characters in a happy ever after. But a time travel romance adds a whole other layer of tension for the reader by making you wonder which time period will win out for the couple and how. Moreover, you want your hero and heroine to clash. What could be more clash-inducing than coming from different eras?

Marlene: And what inspired you to choose the Scots border in the early 1700s for Timeless Desire?

Gwyn: A lot of my books have characters from or action that takes place in the borderlands of England and Scotland. The dawn of the 1700s was a very interesting time. Scotland is teetering on the edge of losing its independence. The Age of Enlightenment is pushing the men who live and die by their swords into a world where thinking and science are revered. The clans are at their peak. And, of course, the kilts.

Marlene: Libraries are gateways to magical worlds, but was there a specific library (or librarian!) that you were thinking of when you set the modern-day parts of the story in a public library?

Gwyn: To be fair, I’ve been helped by so many librarians over the years. This was a little shout-out to all of them. I know a lot of people, including me, who think librarians are among the luckiest people on earth, since they spend all their time around books. My cousin, Donna, is a librarian, and she always seems aglow when she’s at work. Another close friend, Manuel, is a music librarian at UC Berkeley. He’s my go-to person for special research needs—and not just ones involving music. Many an article that resulted in an interesting plot twist or essential character attribute have come winging their way into my in-box from him.

Marlene: What do you think about the inevitable comparisons between Timeless Desire and Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander?

Gwyn: Outlander is the book that inspired me to become a romance novelist. No writer will ever come close to creating the world and hero that Gabaldon did. That won’t stop us from trying.

 

Marlene: Who first introduced you to the love of reading?

Gwyn: My mom loved to read. Her two great joys in life were reading and playing bridge. I think I failed her on the bridge front, though. I do not have the brain for bridge. My husband, a casual player, will be watching me struggle to figure out which card to play. He’ll finally say, “For goodness sake, please play the jack. Everyone knows you have it.”

Marlene: Who influenced your decision to become a writer?

Gwyn: My younger sister, Claire. It was her unexpected death at age 31 that make me want to become a writer.  She was the artsy one in the family—a poet and photographer. I was the upright businesswoman. I wanted to do something to honor her memory. I started writing the month after she died. Eleven years later, my first book was published. It’s dedicated to her.

Marlene: What book would you recommend that everyone should read, and why?

Gwyn: Outlander, of course. Jamie Fraser is the most romantic, honorable and well-crafted romance hero ever written. The entire Patrick O’Brian Master and Commander series. The New York Times called it “the best historical fiction ever written.” I agree. I’ve read or listened to each of the twenty books at least three times.  And I’d throw The Time Traveler’s Wife on the list as well.

Marlene: Speaking of good books, there’s something in Timeless Desire that made me wonder about this. Have you read Dorothy Dunnett’s Lymond series?

Gwyn: I have not. And now I’m very curious as to what made you wonder that.

Marlene: Can you tell us a little bit about your next project? What is next on your schedule?

Gwyn: I have two next projects (ah, a writer’s life, eh?) One is a memoir about losing my sister and finding her again through her friends. The other is a time travel romance trilogy about three extraordinary women on—where else?—the borderlands of England and Scotland.

Marlene: Now can you tell us 3 reasons why people should read your books?

Gwyn: Location, location, location? Kidding. First, the heroes are always smart, wry and totally dedicated to the heroine’s happiness. Second, the heroines are real-world, kick-ass women, very much like the women who read my books (and me, might I add.) Third, there’s always that hint of Colin Firth in the air.

Marlene: Coffee or Tea?

Gwyn: Oh, coffee. Perfect cup for me: an ancho chile mocha latte. Ooh, I can almost feel my tongue tingling.

While I never did quite get Colin Firth, I’m totally behind The New York Times on Patrick O’Brian’s series, also known as the Aubrey-Maturin series. 

All I’ll say about Lymond is that Dorothy Dunnett’s Lymond Chronicles are also set in the Scots border country, and at a period a bit earlier than Timeless Desire. But the endings have something in common. And I’ll leave it at that. 

Thanks so much for answering all of my questions. Being a librarian myself, I just had to know every pesky detail!

Review: The Memory of Roses by Blair McDowell

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | A Reviews> blog tours> book reviews

The Memory of Roses by Blair McDowell is simply an incredibly lovely story. It’s also a love story, and a story about finding yourself, and about closure. The theme running through the book is “all’s well that ends well.” The story goes very well from beginning to end. The life that it tells, that definitely has some rough patches. But it ends very, very well.

Death and discovery. It could be a metaphor for the life of Ian McQuaid. He was, after all, an archaeologist. He was also the father of Britomartis McQuaid, and it’s his death that begins Brit’s journey. Because with her father’s death, Brit discovers that much of what she knew about her father was a lie.

Brit thought her parents’ marriage was a reasonably happy and faithful one. Her mother died of cancer when Brit was eight, and her father never remarried; Brit’s memories are those of a child. Her father’s will leaves her a house on the Greek island of Corfu, one Brit never knew he owned, and a package to deliver to his long-ago lover, a woman he met, loved and left on that island, one long ago summer before Brit was born. The summer just before Brit was born.

His last letter tells her to “Go to Corfu. I hope you will find there the peace, the beauty, the sheer joy in being alive that I found.” 

Brit goes in search of the mystery of her father’s life–the secret of what happened during that missing summer. She has time, and she has the burning need to know the truth. The things Brit doesn’t have are that peace, that joy that her father found on Corfu. She’s never had them, and she doesn’t expect to find them. She doesn’t believe they even exist, at least not for her. All the people she’s ever loved have left or rejected her, and she doesn’t even know why.

But on Corfu, she finds friendship, and in bringing the villa back to life, she finds peace and purpose. Brit starts to write, and finally finds joy in her work, real joy.

Love comes looking for her. And when it finds her, she begins to understand the reasons that her father made the decisions that he did, so long ago.

But there is one secret from that summer still left to be revealed. As Brit finally finds her joy, she discovers she has the power to totally destroy someone else. Or she can keep her father’s last secret.

Escape Rating A: I really loved this story. There were so many circles within circles, and they all came to the absolute perfect conclusions. There’s the mystery about what happened to Ian and Maria in the past, and you absolutely have to find out how their tragic love story ended so badly. Then there’s Brit’s unhappiness. You both want her to have a happy ending, and you want her to deal with her ghosts. Extra points for a particular person getting his just desserts near the end.

This is a story about resolutions. Not New Year’s resolutions, but about things getting resolved appropriately. Brit has to be ready for love before she can even get within shouting distance of happy, and Andreas is not just handsome, but also patient enough to be a friend first and wait for the moment to be right.

One other thing…this was just so good that I was able to forget the absolutely HUGE watermark that Rebel Ink Press puts on every single page of their eARCs. I was so completely immersed in the story and my eyes stopped seeing it.

 

Interview with Author Jenna Jaxon on Sword-Swinging Tomboys

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | Author Interviews> Author Q&A> blog tours

Today’s special guest at Reading Reality is Jenna Jaxon, the author of Only Scandal Will Do. Jenna’s latest book is a Regency/Georgian romance about a Marquess trying to live down a family scandal and a sword-swinging heroine who is tailor-made to cause one, or several. It’s also a scandalously fun read (see review).

I had the opportunity to ask Jenna some questions about the inspiration for Kat (that lady with the sword) and the scandalous auction that starts the story, as well as a few other tantalizing things. So let’s hear from Jenna…

Marlene: Please tell us a little bit about yourself. Who is Jenna Jaxon when she isn’t writing?

Jenna: When I’m not writing–which isn’t often–I’m usually working in the theatre.  I teach theatre at a private university and have been directing plays for…quite a while now. 🙂  I love everything having to do with theatre and the fact my youngest daughter wants to go into musical theatre tickles me to no end.  I also read avidly when I get the chance.  I’ve got so many books in my TBR pile that I’ve started reading the shorter works first so I can cover more ground. LOL  I also love to travel–I’ve been to England, Scotland, Wales.  I’ve studied for two summers in Ireland *sigh* and visited a friend in France each year I was in Europe.  I also got to go to Egypt for ten days, which was like a dream come true.

Marlene: Only a Scandal Will Do is your first full-length historical romance. What drew you to historical romance?

Jenna: I have always been a history buff.  It was my first major in college and I’ve always loved reading about people in other time periods. I’m fascinated at how they lived without our modern conveniences and how they did things.  I read my first historical romance (Kathleen Woodiwiss’ The Wolf and the Dove) as a teenager and then moved on to other genres (romantic suspense, historical fiction, horror).  But my love of history has always been there and I was very happy to come back to it.  I now rarely read anything else!

Marlene: Katarina is the ultimate tomboy! A sword-wielding heroine in an era when women were expected to be something completely feminine and fragile. Was she inspired by someone or something in particular?

Jenna: Having read a lot of historical romances by the time I came to write her, I had an idea of the kind of heroine I wanted to write.  I wanted her to be strong, and luckily the 18th century was a period that allowed a few more freedoms to women than later periods.  But I wanted her to be able to have fighting skills (I fenced in high school and really wanted my heroine to be able to do that), so I gave her the background of growing up without a mother, in the shadow of her father’s regiment and with her brother for her closest companion.  Add the “wild” colony of Virginia as her original home, and you have a very different sensibility for a heroine.  Katarina’s not based on anyone in particular, but she does remind me in spirit of Diana, Countess of Arradale in Jo Beverley’s novel Devilish.

Marlene: Kat and Duncan did anything but “meet cute”. Not many romances start with a sale in a whorehouse. Can you tell us a little bit about how you came up with that particular scene?

Jenna: Once I started writing historical romance I started reading historical romances non-stop.  And one thing I noticed was the tropes used in the genre.  The arranged marriage, the feisty heroine, the rake turned to good man, and, in several novels, the auctioning off of women.  These scenes were riveting, because the reader felt so badly for the woman (who usually did this of her own volition to pay a debt for her family).  So I began playing with the idea of an auction where the woman was not a willing participant.  How could that be accomplished and why?  And so I came up with the kidnapping scene that led to the “fantasy tableau” auction.  My theatrical background kicked in for that one–I wanted an auction that was more than just an auction and an opportunity to hide Katarina’s identity from the public so the threat of scandal would become a major motivation for both her and Duncan.  So the auction became a series of male fantasies–a highwayman, a sultan, a pirate, and a Roman with a slave.

Marlene: And would you like to share your favorite scene from the book with us?

Jenna: I have several favorite scenes in this book and one of them is the “tableau auction.”  Madame Vestry is auctioning off four tableaux or “scenes” depicting women being abducted, owned or possessed by men.  The man who successfully bids on the scene gets to take over the part of the highwayman, sultan, pirate or Roman senator and continue the scene in private.  Sort of a role-playing game with fringe benefits.  Duncan’s trying to be good, trying to leave the auction, until Katarina appears.  Then all bets are off.  He can’t even see her face (she’s masked), but her auburn hair and feisty attitude on the stage mesmerize him and he has to bid on her.  I had a huge amount of fun thinking up and describing the various tableaux.  I usually don’t like writing description, but I did enjoy it this time.

Marlene: Who first introduced you to the love of reading?

Jenna: My mother.  She read a ton of books to me before I went to school and once I could read for myself I never wanted to stop. 🙂  When teachers would send the papers home from Scholastic to see if you wanted to buy any books, I always had the biggest order.  And I still have a lot of those books in my library.  My children read them and perhaps, eventually, my grandchildren will too.

Marlene: Who influenced your decision to become a writer?

Jenna: That’s really a tough one because I’ve always been a writer.  I started writing stories in 3rd grade and have always loved writing assignments I had in school.  I took several creative writing classes and thought several times I should write something for publication.  I suppose Kathleen Woodiwiss was the greatest influence in my decision to become a romance writer.  I read her final book, Everlasting, and loved it.  It was set in my favorite period, the middle ages, and I was so enamored of it that I actually said aloud, “I can write a book like that.”  And sat down and wrote.

 

Marlene: What book do you recommend everyone should read and why?

Jenna: That’s probably the toughest question I’ve been asked to date. My first thought is The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, but that’s drama. I think it might be Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry.  I absolutely loved this book and I believe it’s a wonderful representation of real life in the old west, a great character study, and a damn fine story.  It’s just stunning.

 

Marlene: What project do you have planned for the future? What’s coming up next?

Jenna: Next is actually another erotic contemporary novella, 7 Days of Seduction, the story of a girl who wakes up from a Friday night party to find out she’s slept with a gorgeous guy she doesn’t know.  When he shows up again, he proposes a week’s worth of adventures that’s meant to push her out of her sexual comfort zone.  Then I’m planning to self-publish my medieval novel that was inspired by Everlasting.  It’s called Time Enough to Love and is broken down into three novellas:  Betrothal, Betrayal, and Beleaguered.  And of course I’m working to revise the second book in the Scandal series, Only Marriage Will Do, which is the story of Duncan’s sister, Lady Juliet Ferrers.

Marlene: Morning person or night owl?

Jenna: Night owl.  I’d love to be able to write all night.  How else am I going to keep up with my writing schedule? LOL

I also have some very fond memories of those Scholastic books. Andre Norton’s Steel Magic was one of the first Arthurian fantasies I ever bought with my own money. Probably warped me for life, but in such a good way.

Thanks so much, Jenna, for answering all my questions! It’s good to know there’s more scandal in the future. 😉

Review: Only Scandal Will Do by Jenna Jaxon

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

Only Scandal Will Do by Jenna Jaxon is, for the most part, an absolutely delightful Regency romp with just a touch of romantic suspense to add the right amount of spice to its story of a marquess in pursuit of a scandal-free marriage and a sword-wielding heroine who promises to give him anything but.

Kat Fitzwilliam and Duncan Ferrars do anything but “meet cute”. She’s been kidnapped on her way to a ton masquerade ball, dressed as Athena, Goddess of War, unfortunately without the weaponry. He’s visiting his ex-mistress’ whorehouse for one last fling before attending that same ball. And there he sees a masked red-headed beauty in the midst of a Greco-Roman tableaux, and Duncan buys her services for the night. Of course he thinks she’s a lady of the house.

By the time he starts thinking with the brain above his shoulders, he’s already compromised her virtue; not in fact, but enough to cause a scandal. And it would be a scandal; Kat Fitzwilliam is Lady Katarina Fitzwilliam, the sister of the Earl of Manning, and Duncan is the Marquess of Dalbury. To save Kat’s reputation, Duncan must marry her, if he can find her. She scratched his face, clonked him over the head soundly with a pitcher, and escaped the brothel.

There’s no scandal if no one knows there’s a scandal.

But too many people do know. Kat knows that she nearly gave in to the sensual stranger with the practiced seduction techniques. It was only when she realized that he was only pretending to believe her story that she found the will to fend him off. His techniques were very, very good. But she never saw his face, he remained masked.

The doctor who treated her bruises knows, and thinks she was raped. And the Bow Street Runner in charge of the case, Reginald Matthews, has entirely too many good guesses about what happened for Kat’s peace of mind.

Her brother Jack mostly believes the story she fabricated about unlocked doors and lucky escapes, but then Jack was knocked unconscious and left behind by her kidnappers. He wasn’t the prey they were after.

Kat plans to return to their Virginia home to escape any possibility of meeting her tormentor again. She hopes that if she marries a friend in Virginia, she’ll eventually forget the taste of passion she found. Friendship she trusts; what happened in that locked room was tinged with lies and deceit.

But Duncan finds her first, partly by accident, but also through determination. He’s been hunting every ton function in the hopes of finding the elusive woman who haunts his dreams. He wants to do the right thing, but he also just wants Kat.

But he’ll have to fight for her. And only one person can defend Kat’s honor. Kat herself. She won’t let Duncan and her brother kill each other for her, she won’t let them guilt her into a marriage she doesn’t think is right. If there’s going to be a duel, she’ll fight it herself.

Kat can wield a sword as well as any man, and better than most.

Too bad that’s not the last battle they’ll need to fight to win their chance at happiness.

Escape Rating B: The auction scene in the brothel, and its aftermath, is a terrific setup for the story. The reader gets to see inside both of the main characters, and gets to see how they tick. Kat is not just feisty, but very unconventional, and you see how and why she got that way. Her attitudes make sense; she’s not a typical Regency debutante for very good reasons. Duncan’s thoughts and actions are logical from his perspective; although you want him to believe Kat right away, unfortunately he probably wouldn’t in that situation.

However, while I understand the necessity of avoiding the scandal, I found Kat’s willingness to fall in love with the man who caused it a bit too quick. After she spent so much time agonizing over his demonstrated lack of respect for her, she fell too easily. Leaving for Virginia was an option, because her brother would have been fine afterwards. Scandals never affect the man as much as the woman. It’s not fair, but it’s true.

On the other hand, back to the suspense angle, it took me a while to figure out who the real villain in the piece was, and just how far and how deep his villainy ran. Very nice job on the dastardly suspense business.

Ebook Review Central, Hexapub, June 2012

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

This is the Creepy Crawly edition of Ebook Review Central.

Why Creepy Crawly? Six publishers, six legs. Spider-post. (Yes, we saw Spider-Man last week. Not bad, not bad at all.)

But we’re talking publishers, and not necessarily superheroes, although there might be a superhero book in the bunch. You’ll have to check the database. Take a look at the Amber Quill Press, Astraea Press, Curiosity Quills, Liquid Silver Books, Red Sage Publishing, and Riptide Publishing lists for June 2012. Maybe somebody published a superhero book this month.

Even if they didn’t, you’ll have fun seeing what they did publish, and what reviewers had to say about it.

What usually strikes me about the multi-publisher issue of ERC is that there are generally a lot of titles, but not a lot of reviews. There’s been a lot of discussion recently about the “epidemic of niceness” in online reviewing. If you haven’t seen the original article, it was  posted in Slate.

Unlike the New York Times Book Review, bloggers are not paid to write reviews. So, as a group, we may only spend our time writing reviews of books we like. Also, as Barbara Hoffert pointed out in an essay at Library Journal titled F. Scott Fitzgerald, Best-Selling Ebooks, and the Problem with Online Book Talk, bloggers are “out there” in terms of protection from legal repercussions if an author doesn’t like what we say. Library Journal has over a century of history behind it. It has a business structure. Most importantly, it has lawyers to defend its employees.

So, some of that epidemic of niceness may be a case of the old adage, “if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all”. In which case, a ton of good reviews probably means that a book is at least a decent read (Think of how Rotten Tomatoes crowdsources movie ratings). But if no one is reviewing a book, it means something else. It might mean that the book hasn’t found its audience.

And it might mean that no one has anything good to say, so everyone is keeping their keyboards disengaged.

But there were books this week that generated plenty of reviews. Let’s talk about the featured titles for this week.

Clanking into third place this week is The Blacksmith’s Lover by Heather Massey. This is the second book in her Clockpunk Trilogy, after The Watchmaker’s Lady. It’s a short, intense, erotic story of Sarah, a young woman who escapes abuse at the hands of her employer to find refuge with a rather unusual blacksmith outside West Boylston, Massachusetts in 1840. Viktor doesn’t just make horseshoes. In his hidden workshop, he makes clockwork animals, steam-powered clockwork animals, and all manner of fascinating devices. Keeping the secret of his special crafting out of the wrong hands is the reason Viktor fled his native Russia. But once Sarah and Viktor start an affair, he uses his mechanical skills to defend her, even against a rival clockworker employed by her insane former employer. This steampunk story is hotter than the blacksmith’s forge!

Number two for this week wafts in on a puff of pipe smoke. Kissing Sherlock Holmes by T.D. McKinney and Terry Wylis is a new Sherlock Holmes case with one difference. Instead of Holmes being indifferent to his emotions, Holmes both gets engaged to a headstrong young woman AND embarks on a passionate affair with his friend Dr. John Watson. Oh yes, there’s a mystery to be solved, a tiny little thing about a sadistic blackmailer threatening to undermine the government. The idea that Holmes and Watson are in a relationship has been around forever. BBC’s Sherlock lampshades it at every opportunity. Most of the reviewers say that Kissing Sherlock Holmes does a reasonable job treating the relationship as a real possibility, with a couple of minor quibbles. Everyone seems to have solved the mystery too quickly. For a very funny, and snarky, opposing view of the book, read Julie’s review at Word Weary, it’s a scream.

It seems like it’s inevitable. The number one book this week is from Riptide Publishing. This week’s selection is Awakening by Cat Grant and Rachel Haimowitz, the latest entry in their Power Play series. This one is definitely not for the faint of heart. The Power Play series makes no apologies about playing with all four letters of BDSM; the two characters of this series, Jonathan and Brandon are in a consensual Dom/sub relationship, and in this second book of the series, Brandon has entered into a new phase of his relationship with Jonathan for a $3 million payout. It was the only way he could get Jonathan back. But to do it, he has to prove that he’s every bit the masochist that dominant and sadist Jonathan wants and needs. Because Brandon loves him that much. But it takes them both a lot of pain to get there. And not all of that pain, not by any stretch of the imagination, is physical.

Now it’s time for the spider to climb back to the center of her web until the next hexapost. Ebook Review Central will be back next week, when we’ll turn our gaze to the Carina Press July titles. I’ve found a Monster in My Closet, but no superheroes so far. Guess I’ll just have to keep looking.

The Sunday Post AKA What’s On My (Mostly Virtual) Nightstand? 8-19-12

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | The Sunday Post> Virtual Nightstand

It’s so hard to believe that we’re sliding down towards the end of summer, isn’t it? But we really are.

High temperatures in Atlanta seemed to have finally dropped out of the 90s. Only down into the high 80s, mind you, but out of the 90s. It’s some kind of progress. Less beastly. I love winters in the South, but the summers are probably a foretaste of Hell. (I reviewed one of Eve Langlais‘ Hell books this week, I loved it, but her Hell sounds like the U.S. Deep South for climate)

It’s good to be home. The cats missed us. They’ve mostly forgiven us for leaving them. (If you are owned by cats, you know exactly what I mean!)

 

So what’s happening at Reading Reality this week? Let’s get out the old calendar (actually Google calendar) and take a look…

 

After Monday’s Ebook Review Central feature, which is the June multi-publisher post, this week we have…drumroll please…

Tuesday I’ll be reviewing Only Scandal Will Do by Jenna Jaxon as part of a tour from Sizzling PR. Only Scandal Will Do is a terrific historical romance romp which starts with the absolutely opposite of a “meet cute”. The heroine gets sold to the hero at an auction in a whorehouse! This shouldn’t end well, and it doesn’t in the beginning, but of course it does in the end!

 

Wednesday is for The Memory of Roses. That’s not a commemorative, it’s a book by Blaire McDowell. Ms. McDowell also wrote Delighting In Your Company, a ghost/historical romance that I found, well, absolutely delightful when I reviewed it in June. So I couldn’t resist The Memory of Roses when it popped up on this Bewitching Books Tour.

 

Thursday I’ll be interviewing Gwyn Cready, the author of Timeless Desire. Since I’ve already reviewed Timeless Desire, I’ll be very interested to see what she has to say. The book was very good, a kind of Outlander-lite. And that feels right to me, after all, the subtitle is “An Outlander Love Story”.

 

Speaking of cats (well, we were a few paragraphs ago)…on Friday, I’ll have a guest post from Jacqueline M. Battisti, the author of The Guardian of Bastet as part of a tour from Bewitching. I’ll also be reviewing the book. I couldn’t resist. Bastet is the cat goddess.

And that all makes for one busy week!

But looking ahead to the next week, there’s one big event already on the calendar. Susan Wiggs’ will be here for an interview on Thursday, August 30 to celebrate her new book, Return to Willow Lake. And I’ll be doing a review. Naturally.

And then, and then, and then…it will be Labor Day. And Dragon*Con. Where did the summer go again?