Month: February 2013

Review: A Good American by Alex George

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | A Reviews> book reviews
good americanFormat read: print book provided by the publisher
Formats available: Hardcover, Paperback, ebook, audiobook
Genre: Historical fiction
Length: 400 pages
Publisher: Putnam
Date Released: February 7, 2012
Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Publisher’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Book Depository

An uplifting novel about the families we create and the places we call home.

It is 1904. When Frederick and Jette must flee her disapproving mother, where better to go than America, the land of the new? Originally set to board a boat to New York, at the last minute, they take one destined for New Orleans instead (“What’s the difference? They’re both new“), and later find themselves, more by chance than by design, in the small town of Beatrice, Missouri. Not speaking a word of English, they embark on their new life together.

Beatrice is populated with unforgettable characters: a jazz trumpeter from the Big Easy who cooks a mean gumbo, a teenage boy trapped in the body of a giant, a pretty schoolteacher who helps the young men in town learn about a lot more than just music, a minister who believes he has witnessed the Second Coming of Christ, and a malevolent, bicycle-riding dwarf.

A Good American is narrated by Frederick and Jette’s grandson, James, who, in telling his ancestors’ story, comes to realize he doesn’t know his own story at all. From bare-knuckle prizefighting and Prohibition to sweet barbershop harmonies, the Kennedy assassination, and beyond, James’s family is caught up in the sweep of history. Each new generation discovers afresh what it means to be an American. And, in the process, Frederick and Jette’s progeny sometimes discover more about themselves than they had bargained for.

Poignant, funny, and heartbreaking, A Good American is a novel about being an outsider-in your country, in your hometown, and sometimes even in your own family. It is a universal story about our search for home.

My Review:

A Good American by Alex George is one of the quintessential, utterly and wondously American stories. It’s the schmaltzy Neil Diamond classic, Coming to America, played loud and proud in Fred’s Diner in Alex George’s Midwestern American town of Beatrice, Missouri.

A Good American is the story of one family, the Meisenheimers from Hanover, Germany who come to the U.S. in 1904. And yet, the cadence of the story is every family’s story.

And that’s what drew me in. James Meisenheimer is telling the story of his grandparents. Not just how they came to America, but why. The hopes and dreams they came with, and the dreams they left behind.

The dramas and the heartbreaks that faced the first generation who came to America, in search of a better life for themselves, or at least for their children, and how well that worked, or how much they had to give up when it didn’t.

How their compromises affected the next generation, and the next. Those “good Americans” they gave birth to in this new country that they found themselves in.

We like to say that America is a nation of immigrants. All of us have stories like these behind us. For some of us, those stories are close. James story felt like, not just the story of his family, or the story of America. It didn’t feel distant, or fictional, or historic.

It felt like my history and my history. Because, in a way, it is.

Escape Rating A: Part of my fascination with A Good American was that I could hear my own voice telling some of these stories. Not the exact same ones, but the same type of stories. Like the fictional James, all four of my grandparents were European immigrants, and they all came to the U.S. in the early 1900s. Unlike James, my family did not come for romance, they came to the U.S. for much more prosaic reasons.

But reading this story brought back memories of my grandparents and their lives, and family secrets that weren’t revealed until I was an adult–one almost as surprising as the one James discovers in the book. Sometimes it seems as if families are made up of their most colorful individuals, and the secrets in the dark.

History, on the other hand, is made up of all of us, living our lives, and all of our families contributing their bits to the tapestry. We don’t know what pieces the ones who come after us will find interesting or amusing.

We all have our parts to sing.

blogher logo***Disclaimer: I was compensated for this BlogHer Book Club review but all opinions expressed are my own.

Interview with Author Nico Rosso + Giveaway

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

Rosso_Portrait_12V2-255x300My guest today is one of my favorite SFR authors. And, he’s also the husband of one of my favorite authors. So I was especially pleased when Entangled Publishing gave me the opportunity to interview Nico Rosso as part of the tour for their superhero romance anthology, Holding Out for a Hero. I did love Nico’s story (see my review for details), but I also adore the concept, so I hope we get lots more.

True confession, Nico and his wife Zoë Archer’s shared steampunk romance series, The Ether Chronicles was one of my 2012 favorites at Library Journal this year. Interviewing him was an absolute treat. So without further ado…

Marlene:  Welcome Nico! Can you please tell us a bit about yourself?

Nico: -I’m a romance writer, married to a romance writer (Zoë Archer), and I’m trying to find some simplicity in life.  I think that’s why the romance genre is so appealing.  No matter what external threats you throw at the characters, or how damaged they’ve been in the past, it always comes down to the two of them finding themselves and each other at just the right time.

Marlene: Describe a typical day of writing? Are you a planner or pantser?

Nico: -I’m definitely a planner, so I like to have my outline in pretty good shape before I start in on pages.  Once the piece is humming, I’ll get up early (maybe around 6:30am) to take advantage of the morning calm.  From there I’ll break for meals.  If I’m lucky, I’ll get my day’s work done before lunch, but there are usually more words that need putting down in the afternoon. 

Marlene: What’s the story behind your switch from Hollywood to romance writer? Would it make a good romance novel? Or maybe a screenplay?

Nico: -It’s not a very dramatic story.  Through years of grinding, trying to make inroads, I discovered that the kinds of movies that inspired me in the first place weren’t being made anymore.  I decided that rather than trying to fight my way into something I no longer really liked, I had to find a place where new voices and ideas were welcome.  Through Zoë, I learned that romance was just that place.

nights of steelMarlene:  What’s it like co-creating a steampunk series with your spouse?

Nico: -It’s fantastic working on the Ether Chronicles with Zoë.  Because there’s such a range in the stories, we can be researching Scottish moors one minute, then figuring out how an ether rifle works the next.  We’re always discussing our projects with each other, anyway, so this was just a natural evolution.

Marlene: And how did you work out the writing territory in The Ether Chronicles? Pins in a dartboard? Knives at 20 paces?

Nico: -We knew early on that I’d be writing the Westerns and she’d handle everywhere else.  It suited our interests and kept things defined so there’d be no thumb wrestling over who got to tell which story.  The only time we take out the rubber knives is when we have to choreograph fight scenes (seriously, we do this).

holding out for a heroMarlene: What can we expect of Ironheart?

Nico: -I really wanted Ironheart to take me back to my early days of reading comic books in the ‘80s, so you’ll find a lot of gritty action and tough talking heroes.  But there’s also a very human story at the core.  Despite all their powers, both Vince “The Anvil” and Kara “SnapDragon” are vulnerable where their hearts are concerned, and it’s a difficult struggle for them to learn to trust again.

Marlene:  Will there be more books in the Heroes Guild?

Nico: -I’d love to explore more stories in the Heroes Guild.  It all depends on demand.  If the reader’s devour Ironheart and still want more (wink), I’ll deliver.

Marlene: All your writing is on the “way out there” side of the romance equation: steampunk, science fiction romance (YES!) and now superheroes. What drew you to that spark of the genre in particular?

Nico: -I think because I didn’t come to romance as a reader first, but as a writer, I found inspiration in other genres from my past, then drew them into the romance writing.

Marlene: Name one book that you’ve bought just because of the cover.

Nico: -I bought a 1957 edition of H. Rider Haggard’s She & King Solomon’s Mines because the cover was so simple and classic for these adventure stories.  A green hardcover cloth binding with a black rectangle telling you the author and titles.  It’s small, so it fits in the hand beautifully.  The kind of book you keep with you for train rides and rainy cafes.

Marlene: What is the one book that you most want to read again for the first time?

Nico: -Because I read them in high school and didn’t bring as much life experience to the works as they deserve, I’d like to rediscover Flannery O’Connor’s short stories.  Her use of overt and subtle imagery is amazing.

Marlene: You mentioned something in your blog about a new project. Have anything you want to share? Or can you tell us something about your not-so-secret upcoming projects?

Nico: -I’d love to share all the details, but unfortunately it’s just too early.  I can say that this new project isn’t like anything I’ve written in romance before.  Expect more of my actual voice in the piece.  It’s still a romance, but it’s definitely raw and raunchy. 

Marlene: Tell me something about yourself that I wouldn’t know to ask.

Nico: -I love to cook, and one of the greatest pleasures is to have time in the kitchen to bake bread.  It’s such a simple process, but not always easy.  Like a meditation, where you have to maintain focus.  And at the end, you have warm food to eat, uncomplicated and made from your own hands.

Marlene: Coffee or Tea?

Nico: -Coffee for when I want to break down walls.  Green tea for when I want to walk through them.

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Review: Holding Out for a Hero

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | A Reviews> blog tours> book reviews
holding out for a heroFormat read: ebook provided by the publisher
Formats available: ebook
Genre: Paranormal romance, Superhero romance
Length: 355 pages
Publisher: Entangled Publishing
Date Released: January 14, 2013
Purchasing Info:Christine Bell’s Website, Ella Dane’s Website, Tamara Morgan’s Website, Nico Rosso’s Website, Adrien-Luc Sander’s Website, Publisher’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble

Scarlett Fever, by Christine Bell and Ella Dane

After five years in training, it’s finally time for Scarlett Fever and her fellow superheroes to leave the United Superhero Academy and test their powers out in the real world. There’s only one problem. She’s been assigned to partner with arrogant, by the book, and irritatingly hot, Blade of Justice.

Blade’s whole life has gone according to plan, and he’s more than ready to move on to the big time, protecting a metropolis of his own. But his perfectly ordered life is derailed when he’s teamed up with the fiery maverick, Scarlett Fever.

Sparks fly the moment they arrive in Plunketville, Oklahoma, as they each set out to force the other to request a transfer. They soon discover there’s more going on in this single stop-sign town than blowing up mailboxes and cow tipping. If Scarlett can get Blade to listen to his gut, and he can teach her to use her head, they just might have a fighting chance.

Ironheart, by Nico Rosso

Vince might be hard as steel, but he’s not invincible. Not when iron touches him, especially in the hands of an evil minion. Not when Kara ran away after a whirlwind affair, just when he thought he might be falling in love. And definitely not when she returns, looking for his help.

The archvillain TechHead is coming for Kara and her superhero teammates, and he’s determined to use their combined power to create the ultimate weapon. But Kara can’t fight him alone. She needs Vince’s brutal skill, though being with him means she risks losing her beloved secret identity, leaving her nowhere else to hide.

When TechHead makes a play to capture Kara, Vince has more to lose than just his heart. But he will do anything for the woman he loves, even if it means putting his heart on the line again.

Playing With Fire, by Tamara Morgan

Fiona Nelson has always been one hot ticket—even before she took the conversion serum that gave her superhu¬man abilities. Fiona’s powers come at a price: lack of human contact, or she won’t be the only thing burning. When she loses control of her emotions, her fire powers run rampant… and she’s hurt enough people already. Including herself.

But when the man behind her conversion returns to black¬mail her into helping him gain power, the only person she can turn to is Ian Jones, the man who broke her teenage heart. The man determined to expose the criminal known as Fireball, whose explosive escapades are just a little too close to Fiona’s M.O.
Ian is convinced Fiona’s dangerous, convinced she’s Fire¬ball, and convinced he’ll damn himself if he doesn’t resist a heat that’s always drawn him to Fiona like a moth to a flame—but Ian has his own secrets.

And he’ll learn far too soon what happens when you play with fire.

From the Ashes, by Adrien-Luc Sanders

Sociopath. Killer. Deviant. Monster, devoid of morals, incapable of human emotion. The villain known as Spark has been called that and more, and as a super-powered aberrant has masterminded countless crimes to build his father’s inhuman empire.

Yet to professor Sean Archer, this fearsome creature is only Tobias Rutherford–antisocial graduate researcher, quiet underachiever, and a fascinating puzzle Sean is determined to solve.

One kiss leads to an entanglement that challenges everything Tobias knows about himself, aberrants, and his own capacity to love. But when his father orders him to assassinate a senator, one misstep unravels a knot of political intrigue that places the fate of humans and aberrants alike in Tobias’s hands. As danger mounts and bodies pile deeper, will Tobias succumb to his dark nature and sacrifice Sean–or will he defy his father and rise from the ashes to become a hero in a world of villains?

My Review:

I still hear the song. Whenever I read that phrase, “holding out for a hero”, I still hear Bonnie Tyler’s version, her slightly raspy delivery, punctuated by drumbeats…or gunfire.

But the words still resonate. In the song, it wasn’t merely a hero. Oh, no, not just a hero.

I need a hero
I’m holding out for a hero ’til the end of the night
He’s gotta be strong
And he’s gotta be fast
And he’s gotta be fresh from the fight

She wanted a “street-wise Hercules”, even a superman to sweep her off her feet. A pretty tall order.

A hell of a song.

Ironheart by Nico Rosso

Nico Rosso’s Ironheart is the love story of two superheroes, Kara the SnapDragon and Vince the Anvil. But that song, “Holding out for a Hero” was tailor-made for Kara. She may be a superhero herself, but Vince is the hero that she’s holding out for.

She ran from Vince when their affair got to be too much for her to handle. Kara wasn’t born a superhero, and she’s still adjusting. She and the three other WildFlowers were chosen by a cosmic sensei to become the WildFlowers. It’s only been a year. And well, her sensei is very zen. He expects the WildFlowers to embrace their sisterhood and one heck of a lot of zen calm. It’s the way of his people. But it’s not the messy human way.

Vince is very messy and very human. He was born different, and he’s embraced what he is. He’s also pretty badass for someone who is a superhero and not a supervillain. His team, Omni Force, tended to blame him for any collateral damage that happened when they took out a bunch of villains.

But since Kara left him, Vince has left Omni Force to take the blame for their own collateral damage. He’s left Omni Force, period, and lost himself.

Kara digs him out in the middle of a fight with a bunch of GearHead punks. Vince thinks she’s finally come back to him. Well, she has, but…she found him because she needs his help. Kara would have come back to him eventually, but her sister WildFlowers have been captured by the archvillain TechHead, and she needs Vince’s help now.

She gets caught up in just plain needing Vince, first. Before she explains why she came to find him. He feels betrayed. Of course he does. Then she gets captured. And he finally gets his head straight about what parts of their encounter really matter. Not to mention that little problem of rescue.

Kara gets her hero. Kara also gets to become the hero she was meant to be. Vince becomes a better hero. And TechHead gets disassembled back into little gearbits.

I love a good superhero stomp! Escape Rating A for the sheer exhiliarating fun of it!

from the ashesFrom the Ashes by Adrien-Luc Sanders

Tobias Rutherford is a graduate student. He seems to have slightly less of a social life than most grad students working on a thesis. And there’s a reason for that–Tobias is leading a double life. Grad student by day, aberrant hitman by night.

What’s an aberrant? In this futuristic world, ever since the advent of genetic modification of human fetuses, some children are born with special powers. They are called aberrants. Tobias can manipulate electric currents. Your computer, your cell phone…your heart.

His father rules and aberrant dictatorship in what used to be Thailand. He plans for Tobias to take his place someday. If Tobias survives his increasingly dangerous apprenticeship. Aberrancy is a cut-throat existance.

Power corrupts, and absolute power still corrupts absolutely. Especially when it operates from the shadows.

If Tobias fails his father, he’ll be killed. But every operation he performs for his father strips away more and more of his soul. Of course, aberrants aren’t supposed to have souls. They aren’t supposed to feel emotions. Only humans feel emotions, and aberrants aren’t human.

Tobias still feels things. It’s only when he puts on his “mask” as Spark, his aberrant alter-ego, that he is able to set aside his emotions and perform the tasks his father sets for him.

Until he is “distracted” by his ethics professor, Sean. Tobias doesn’t even believe in ethics.

This story is told entirely in the first-person, from Tobias/Spark’s point of view. We read his internal struggle with the tasks appointed to him, which are, honestly, murder and destruction. At the same time, we see him fight his growing attraction to Sean, and then fall in love without knowing what is happening, because he has no experience to compare it to.

Tobias isn’t likeable, but he is fascinating. He’s been told one thing about what he should be, but it doesn’t fit, and yet he has nothing else to go by. And he wants to survive.

This story is compelling. I wanted to know more about how the whole society came to be, but of course, Tobias doesn’t know, or care. He’s just trying to get on with his life. This one keeps you thinking about it after the last page.

Escape Rating A-. The great thing about the first-person perspective of this story is that it helps the reader sympathize with Tobias, who would otherwise be a completely unsympathetic villain. The problem with the first-person perspective is that we only know what Tobias says to himself or to someone around him. It cuts off some of the world-building necessary for me to really get into a futuristic story. YMMV.

I didn’t stop with just two heroes. These stories were way too much fun. If want more heroes, go to Book Lovers Inc. on Friday, February 22 for the rest of the story.

 

***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.

Review: Maiden Flight by Bianca D’Arc

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | B Reviews> Book Lovers Inc.> book reviews
maiden flightFormat read: ebook purchased from Amazon
Formats available: ebook
Genre: fantasy romance, erotic romance
Series: Dragon Knights #1
Length: 173 pages
Publisher: Samhain Publishing
Date Released: August 28, 2012 (first edition published February 1, 2006)
Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Publisher’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, All Romance

A chance meeting with a young male dragon seals the fate of one adventurous female poacher. The dragon’s partner, a ruggedly handsome knight named Gareth, takes one look at the shapely woman and decides to do a little poaching of his own.

Sir Gareth both seduces and falls deeply in love with the girl who is not only unafraid of dragons but also possesses a rare gift—she can hear the beasts’ silent speech. He wants her for his mate, but mating with a knight is no simple thing. To accept a knight, a woman must also accept the dragon, the dragon’s mate…and her knight, Lars, too.

She is at first shocked, then intrigued by the lusty life in the Lair. But war is in the making and only the knights and dragons have a chance at ending it before it destroys their land and their lives.

My Review:

dragonriders of pernWhen I read Bianca D’Arc’s Maiden Flight I couldn’t help but compare life in the lair to life in the weyr, as in dragon’s weyr. I don’t know if the author intended the story as a more liberated, or at least kinkier response to Anne McCaffrey’s Dragonriders of Pern, I’d be astonished if some parallel wasn’t meant.

And the sexual aspects of McCaffrey’s Dragonriders world really did need to be addressed, but we’ll get there later.

Meanwhile, about this particular set of dragons, instead of thread and a red star, we have a brewing war, and a young woman poaching game to feed herself and her mother, only to have her kill stolen right out from under her.

Make that stolen from above her, by a dragon. And she starts an argument with the beast! (Clearly she’s never seen the t-shirt “Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons, for thou art crunchy and go well with ketchup”!)

Belora knows the dragon is not a beast. Her mother’s childhood friend was a dragon, so Belora has grown up on stories of Mama Kelzy the dragon. From her mother, Belora has inherited the rare ability to speak to dragons, mind to mind. Kelvan, the dragon who poached from the poacher, is enchanted with the spitfire. So much so that he entices her to fly with him to meet his knight, Gareth.

Belora goes along with Kelvan because she really needs that meat. She hopes that Gareth will hear her out. Kelvan brings her because women who have the dragon-speaking gift are rare, and there are extremely few women in the dragon lair.

Kelvan is being selfish. He can’t claim his mate unless his knight is mated. He hopes (and it turns out that he’s right) that Belora will be Gareth’s destined mate.

But Belora and her mother have lived a relatively isolated life. Belora is not just a virgin, she has less idea than most women of what to expect from lair life. (And yes, we’ve heard this before, on Pern again)

The knights, the dragons, and the lairs that support them have come up with some very creative, not to mention kinky solutions to the scarcity of women in the lairs. Will Belora’s growing love for Gareth help her to overcome her shock at a range of sexual experiences that her life had never prepared her for?

Escape Rating B-: Maiden Flight read a bit like two stories glued together. And maybe it was. This was originally written in 2006 and recently revised and updated.

The scarcity of women in the lair provides a thinly veiled excuse for the menage. On the other hand, why not? All the knights are men (although why that is required is a whole other question that was never answered) and there are very few women who can hear the dragons. And dragon sex is so overwhelming (shades of Anne McCaffrey again) that the dragons can’t mate unless their knights are mated. Dragons, of course, do come in both sexes. Instant menage, every time. (I do wonder if any of the knights are going to be gay in later stories?)

For someone who has never even been in love before, Belora is awfully accepting of everything that happens to her, and everything happens very, very fast. Including at least one lovemaking session where the dragon participates. Just a bit. It’s not quite as “eww” as it sounds, but this is not a dragon-shifter we’re talking about here. It’s an actual dragon. And Belora was totally inexperienced less than a week prior.

It was better than the initial dragon mating in McCaffrey which only escaped being rape because the right dragon won the flight. In D’Arc’s world, the woman has to give consent first to both the men and the entire arrangement before hand. The consent may not be 100% informed, but it is way ahead of force majeur.

That being said, I still loved McCaffrey’s Dragonriders and was almost as swept away by that scene as Lessa was. Maturity is not all it’s cracked up to be sometimes. (For a completely different view, read my friend Draconismoi’s post on The Draconic UnMentionables at Book Lovers Inc.)

In the case of Maiden Flight, I found the teasing hints of a possible relationship between Belora’s mother Adora and General Jaden very teasing indeed. I’m looking forward to their story.

***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.

ARC Review: Double Enchantment by Kathryne Kennedy

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | 3 1/2 Stars> book reviews> Originally published at Book Lovers, Inc.> The Rocket Lover

double enchantmentFormat Read: ebook provided by NetGalley
Number of Pages: 352 pages
Release Date: March 5, 2013 (paperback originally published August 26, 2008)
Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca
Series: Relics of Merlin #2
Genre: Fantasy Romance
Formats Available: ebook, Mass Market Paperback
Purchasing Info: Amazon | B&N | Kobo | Book Depository US | Book Depository (UK) | Author’s Website | Publisher’s Website | Goodreads

Book Blurb:

Too Much of a Very Good Thing…

High society enjoys their power based on their rank, but Lady Jasmina Karlyle’s magic causes nothing but trouble. Her simple spell has gone horribly wrong, and now she has a twin running around the London social scene wreaking havoc on her reputation. When both she and her twin get intimately involved with gorgeous shape-shifting stallion Sir Sterling Thorn, Jasmina finds herself in the impossible position of being jealous of herself…

Still Isn’t Enough…

Sterling is irresistibly drawn to Jasmina. She seems to have two completely different sides to her personality though, and the confusion is driving him mad. Is love just the other side of lust…or is what he has with Jasmina much, much more than that?

My Thoughts:

enchanting the ladyDouble Enchantment is the second book in Kathryne Kennedy’s Relics of Merlin series, after Enchanting the Lady (reviewed at Reading Reality).

Whether because the second outing didn’t mix in quite as many fairy tale tropes, or because we’d already been here once, Double Enchantment definitely was not doubly enchanting. Maybe three-quarters as enchanting.

The Beauty and the Beast story looks like it’s going to persist through the whole series. The barons in this alternate Victorian-Era fantasy are all shapeshifters. They really do turn into beasts. Unfortunately, the rest of the peerage seem to have rather beastly manners around them. If handsome is as handsome does, the non-shapeshifters frankly aren’t very handsome in this regard. But the Crown Prince finds the shapeshifters invaluable, so watching the nobles lump it can be rather amusing.

The relic in this outing does doppelganger magic. Infinite doppelgangers. And they’re real. Royal magic (and shapeshifter magic) can see through illusions, but relic magic creates real things. A doppelganger army bent on rebellion, that’s trouble.

But that’s not where the story starts. The story starts with a girl, Lady Jasmina. Her mother is a kleptomaniac. And Jasmina has devoted her life to putting back the jewelry her mother steals.

Jaz normally leaves an illusion of herself in bed, while she dresses as a chimney sweep and breaks into people’s houses to return her mother’s thefts. But her mother stole the relic, and her illusion is a doppelganger that takes on a life of its own. It goes off, gets married, and ruins her reputation!

It marries a shapeshifter. Sir Sterling wants his wife back, and discovers that he might not have one. And he has a mission to hunt down the relic.

Lady Jasmina has a rapidly deteriorating reputation, and memories of performing certain salacious acts with Sir Sterling that no well-bred young lady could possibly have any memory of. Even worse for her, she’s scandalously certain she’d like to experience them again. For the first time.

And then there are rumors of disappearing shapeshifters. And an army of rebellion. The relic is still missing. Jasmina is under house arrest. And her mother is still stealing!

Jasmina’s world is spinning further and further out of control, and the only solution seems to be to work with Sir Sterling in secret, in the hopes of locating the relic before too much damage is done. Maybe she convince herself that when the relic is found, her life will go back to the way it was before.

She’ll be the dutiful daughter again, carefully managing her family’s reputation and never having a life of her own. Maybe it’s not to late.

Except that the doppelganger she created, the one that is creating a scandal all over London? Those bold actions, those scandalous deeds? Those are all a real part of her. One she’s not sure she’ll be able to put back.

Verdict: I have mixed feelings about this book. I love this alternate Victorian world. The idea that rank would be chosen by magical ability, and that different powers do different things, this is pretty cool, especially with the Victorian love for frou-frou wrapped around it.

enchanting the beastI think the part that made me go a little spare in this story was Jasmina’s relationship with her family. Sterling’s dysfunctional family made sense (It was nasty, but logical). Her dysfunctional family made none.

Jasmina has been covering up for her mother’s kleptomania and incompetence at running the estate since she was old enough to manage. Okay, what happened before Jasmina reached an age of responsibility? And why the hell doesn’t her dad know that his wife is looney-toons? I understand keeping it all in the family, but Jasmina wasn’t putting mommy’s thefts back when she was 4, so who took care of things then? I was half-expecting one of her parents to be part of the evil, just for the nonsensicalness of this behavior.

I’m hope Sourcebooks is planning to re-release book three, Enchanting the Beast, later this year. And there’s supposed to be a brand new book four, Everlasting Enchantment in December.

3-one-half-stars

I give Double Enchantment by Kathryne Kennedy 3 and 1/2 semi-enchanted 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.

Review: Falling For Her Fiance by Cindi Madsen

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | 3 1/2 Stars> book reviews> Originally published at Book Lovers, Inc.> The Rocket Lover

falling for her fianceFormat Read: ebook provided by the publisher
Number of Pages: 153 pages
Release Date: January 14, 2013
Publisher: Entangled Publishing
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Formats Available: ebook
Purchasing Info:  Amazon | B&N | Kobo | Author’s Website | Publisher’s Website | Goodreads

Book Blurb:

Danielle and Wes have been best friends since college, so when Wes needs a date for his sister’s wedding and Dani needs a partner for her company’s retreat, they devise the perfect plan: a fake engagement to get through both events unscathed. Adrenaline-junkie Wes can prove to both his ex and his family that he’s well and truly moved on, and serious-minded Dani can prove to her boss that she’s worthy of the promotion he seems to only want to give to a family-oriented employee.

But amid the fake swoons, fake kisses, and forced proximity, neither expects the very real feelings that develop. There’s nothing more dangerous than falling for your best friend…but what if the landing is worth the fall?

My Thoughts:

It’s often difficult to figure out a plausible reason for a contemporary romance to use a “fake engagement” trope.

Falling for her Fiance double-dips, it combines the “fake engagement” trope with the friends-into-lovers story. Now that one is usually a LOT easier to manage in a contemporary romance, and that’s actually what made it possible for Cindi Madsen to pull the fake engagement along for the ride.

Dani and Wes have been best friends since college. They were both slightly nerdy, combination history majors, basketball players and science fiction geeks. (We’re all weird in our own way). They liked each other, they hung out a lot. They didn’t date each other.

Just once, they tried stepping over that line from BFFs to something more, and the line stomped on them. It was the worst kiss EVER. Wes was so drunk he didn’t remember kissing Dani, and Dani felt no chemistry whatSOever. None. Zip. Zero. Zilch. Nada.

They never went there again and it took their friendship weeks of persistence to recover.

Everyone assumed they were more than friends. Including everyone either of them ever dated. Dani’s last boyfriend convinced her to move from Charlotte to Little Rock in the hopes of dislodging Wes from her life. Made things difficult, but didn’t work.

Wes’ ex-fiance was a general all-purpose bitch about Dani, but that didn’t work either. Hence the ex-fiance.

Still, several years after college, Dani is a workaholic with no social life, and feels like she has no chance at promotion because she doesn’t have a significant other to bring to couples-oriented outings at her family-friendly company.

Wes’ sister has just invited his ex-fiance to be one of her bridesmaids at her wedding. He’s just tired of the drama.

Instant brainstorm! They’ll be each other’s fake fiance for a month, be each other’s backup at each other’s events, and get a fantastic chance to be together. It’ll be great!

And it is great. And nerve-wracking. Wes loves surprises. Like surprising his entire huge family with his “fiance”, who only has her mother and grandmother and has no idea how to react to the giant crowd she’s thrust into.

He’s spontaneous. She’s a planner. His family wants him to be happy. His ex wants him back. His sister is mad because he’s stolen her show. And Wes has suddenly realized that he doesn’t miss his ex after all. As long as Dani is with him, it’s all good, all the time. He just has to find a way to keep her.

The more afraid Dani is of Wes’ spontaneity upsetting her carefully constructed world, the more he helps her to see that it’s the crazy things in life that make it worth living. Including the crazy thing they have between them!

Verdict: This is light and fun. The author did a good job setting the stage, making it clear that there was a reason that this couple hadn’t moved beyond friendship, otherwise the story wouldn’t have worked.

Wes did have a habit of not thinking things through that could have gotten him in real trouble. If the fake engagement hadn’t turned real, his family was going to be very hurt. If they pitied him before, it was going to be worse after this stunt.

However, Dani had been drifting in her life for a long time. Whatever happened with her ex had socked her self-confidence, and that had been pretty low to begin with. She needed the cosmic kick in the pants.

Falling for her Fiance is one of the “New Adult” romances that have started appearing recently. The hero and heroine are older than young adults, but are still faced with the issues of establishing careers and lives post-college. I’m still not sure how that works as a separate genre.

3-one-half-stars

I give Falling for her Fiance by Cindi Madsen 3 and 1/2 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.

Review: Escorted by Clare Kent

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | B Reviews> book reviews
escorted kentFormat read: ebook purchased from Amazon
Formats available: ebook, Paperback
Genre: Contemporary Romance, Erotic Romance
Length: 319 pages
Date Released: December 15, 2012
Purchasing Info: Goodreads, Amazon, Author’s Website

She hired him to take her virginity…but now she wants even more.

Lori might be a popular romance writer, but she’s never been anything but a flop with sex and love in her personal life. Still a virgin at twenty-six and increasingly frustrated by her inexperience, she decides to take matters into her own hands. She hires a talented, sexy male escort to take care of her inconvenient virginity.

She assumes one time with Ander will be enough, but she never dreams how much pleasure he can make her feel. Once isn’t nearly enough. Twice isn’t enough either. Soon, she becomes one of his regular clients.

Lori knows that nothing would be as foolish as falling in love with her paid escort, but she’s never been wise with her heart. And, despite his professionalism, he doesn’t seem entirely immune either.

My Review:

I finally decided to dive into Clare Kent’s Escorted after reading an interview with the author at the fabulous Wonk-o-Mance.

There are reviews everywhere, and I’m about to add mine to the pile. Escorted is one of those cracktastic stories. Once you start, you’re having too damn much fun to stop.

The premise is beyond crack. Twenty-six-year-old virgin romance writer hires high-class male escort to relieve her of pesky virginity. (Someone needs to explain why the woman has to be a virgin in this situation, but when it’s a man, he can merely be rich)

Instead of a single “business transaction”, formerly virgin author Lori decides that she needs more experience, and well, escort Ander is damn good at his job. She makes another appointment.

And another and another and another. Pretty soon, she’s a regular.

Pretty_woman_movieHer friends joke with her about playing a reverse on the movie Pretty Woman. And there are a lot of intentional parallels. From the very beginning, Lori never asks Ander to pretend they’re playing out any romantic fantasies. She wants to learn what to do. It’s not clinical, but it’s not romantic, either.

On the other hand, when he’s not pretending to be anyone other than himself, part of what Lori is inadvertently learning is a bit of who is really is, and how to please him.

Also how damaged he is under the polished and urbane surface.

Escape Rating B: I couldn’t stop reading this. I kept picking up my iPad, and it was not fair. We had company! But I just couldn’t stop.

But on the more critical side… having said the story is crack, what’s so cracktastic about it? This is definitely a reverse Pretty Woman, with several twists, something that is lampshaded multiple times in the story. Successful author Lori choses male escort by referral. Nothing so tacky as Richard Gere picking up a hooker on the street in Pretty Woman.

And Lori keeps her business arrangement with Ander totally separate from her real life, where Gere’s character hires the hooker to be his date for a business conference, and is extremely up front about what she’s there for.

But they are both not just “sex into love” stories, but “paid sex into love” stories, not the biggest sub-trope in the canon.

Ander is hiding just how damaged he is on the inside. His relationship with his father and just how rotten his father is, not just as a father, but as a human being, and how that influenced Ander’s choice to become an escort.

fallen from graceAnder’s backstory reminded me a bit of Laura Leone’s excellent Fallen from Grace.  In that story the male prostitute falls in love with a woman who is not a client and who does not initially know what he does for a living. He tries to get out of the life and violence ensues. (Laura Leone is an early penname for Laura Resnick)

Escorted tries a bit overhard (no pun intended in this case) to live up to being an erotic story. I’ve said this before, but over 300 pages of other people’s sex starts to get repetitive. How they feel about what they’re doing is interesting, even arousing. How tab a fits into slot b, even with a lot of variation, starts to get dull after the first 10 times.

The very last scene, the one where they were both finally able to show the emotion they felt, that one packed a punch.

***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.

The Sunday Post AKA What’s On My (Mostly Virtual) Nightstand? 2-17-13

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | Book Lovers Inc.> The Sunday Post> Virtual Nightstand

This is Presidents Day weekend in the U.S. We are not celebrating the vampire-hunting prowess of Abraham Lincoln. (Officially, it turns out we really are still celebrating George Washington’s birthday, in spite of the date gerrymandering.)

We are celebrating the U.S. Federal government’s desire to provide 3-day weekends to as many people as possible, in the hopes of encouraging tourism. I don’t know how well that’s working out.

Some of us have Monday off to celebrate this slightly strange amalgam of Abraham Lincoln’s birthday (February 12, 1809) and George Washington’s birthday (February 22, 1732). Or as my father used to call the latter, “Birthington’s Washday”.

It’s a long slog until the next holiday, Memorial Day at the end of May. At least that’s one we almost all get.

But let’s celebrate this past week first. What happened last week?

Celebrating Saint Valentine Blog Hop (ends tonight!)
B Review: Lady In Deed by Ann Montclair + Giveaway (ends 2/22)
B Review: Iron Guns, Blazing Hearts by Heather Massey
A Review: A Devil’s Touch by Victoria Vane
A+ Review: The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey
Stacking the Shelves (34)

This week I will be part of the tour for Holding Out for a Hero, the superhero anthology with stories from Christine Bell and Ella Dane, Tamara Morgan, Nico Rosso and Adrien-Luc Sanders. I’ll be reviewing two of the stories here, and two of the stories at Book Lovers Inc. on Friday. I’m also planning to have an interview with Nico Rosso here on Wednesday.

I also had a chance to review The Dragon Healer, one of the Dragon Knights series by Bianca D’Arc for Library Journal. Since I got book 1.5, it gave me an excuse to give longer reviews here at Reading Reality.

There will be other surprises this week, so stay tuned and see what pops up!

Stacking the Shelves (34)

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

This week’s list seems short, in spite of the monthly contribution from Carina Press on NetGalley.

Maybe I’m getting sensible. Or maybe nothing much appealed to me this week. Probably that’s it.

I’m still getting over the strep throat, and haven’t felt quite the thing, as they say.

Still, a few possible gems. The Boleyn King looked really interesting, especially in light of the renewed interested in all things medieval English royalty after the discovery of Richard III’s skeleton. What if Anne Boleyn hadn’t miscarried her son? Alternative history of any kind is always so much fun, if it’s done well.

And a new entry in Cindy Spencer Pape’s Gaslight Chronicles is always cause for celebration!

For Review:
At Drake’s Command by David Wesley Hill
The Boleyn King (Anne Boleyn Trilogy #1) by Laura Anderson
Cards & Caravans (Gaslight Chronicles #5) by Cindy Spencer Pape
A Devil’s Touch (Devil DeVere #4.5) by Victoria Vane (review)
The League of Illusion: Prophecy (League of Illusion #2) by Vivi Anna
The Movement of Stars by Amy Brill
Pooka in My Pantry (Monster Haven #2) by R.L. Naquin
Tin Cat by Misa Buckley

Purchased:
Escorted by Claire Kent

ARC Review: The Geek Girl and the Scandalous Earl by Gina Lamm

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | 3 1/2 Stars> book reviews> Originally published at Book Lovers, Inc.> The Rocket Lover

geek girl and the scandalous earlFormat Read: ebook provided by NetGalley
Number of Pages: 352 pages
Release Date: March 5, 2013
Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca
Genre: Time Travel Romance
Formats Available: Mass Market Paperback, ebook
Purchasing Info: Amazon | B&N | Kobo | Book Depository US | Book Depository (UK) | Author’s Website | Publisher’s Website | Goodreads

Book Blurb:

THE STAKES HAVE NEVER BEEN HIGHER…

An avid gamer, Jamie Marten loves to escape into online adventure. But when she falls through an antique mirror into a lavish bedchamber—200 years in the past!—she realizes she may have escaped a little too far.

Micah Axelby, Earl of Dunnington, has just kicked one mistress out of his bed, and isn’t looking to fill it with another—least of all this sassy, nearly naked girl who claims to be from the future. Yet something about her is undeniably enticing…

Jamie and Micah are worlds apart. He’s a peer of the realm. She can barely make rent. She’s wi-fi. He’s horse-drawn. But soon the pair will do anything to avoid a Game Over.

My Thoughts:

The favorite ways to time travel are 1)standing stone circle and 2) fall through a mirror, followed by 3) witch’s spell, often gone awry.

This one combines methods 2 and 3. (Word to authors, don’t touch method 1 unless you are looking for a comparison to Diana Gabaldon. It’s a really HIGH bar to get over)

The geek girl falls through a mirror cleaning out her uncle’s antiques warehouse. She’s a geek of the “too cool” school, up on all the latest gadgets. Her iPhone comes with her to the 19th century. Lucky for her it’s just been powered up. Unfortunately for her, she’s wearing an outfit that makes everyone mistake her for a trollop.

Jamie misses regular bathing. Not to mention toothpaste. Her descriptions of the clothes, and the lessons in manners, are very 21st century. She’s sure it’s all a mistake.

colin firth as darcy(And why do all 21st century girls think that historic men look like Colin Firth in Pride and Prejudice? Really! Are none of them blond? A little variation, please!)

Moving right along, our geek has been drawn back in time by a witch’s spell, and not by accident. Micah’s housekeeper has determined that Jamie is the perfect woman for him, because she is his equal, and won’t give a damn about the scandal that surrounds him.

About that scandal…Micah’s first mistress seems to have been poisoned. And his second mistress is a poisonous bitch. While these two things should not necessarily be related, it’s pretty obvious to the reader that they probably are.

Angry_Birds_promo_artThe geek has to get the earl to believe she is something out of the ordinary. Which she does by introducing him to her iPhone. And Angry Birds!

She also introduces him to what it is like to be cared for for himself, and not for his money or his title. Which is the greatest gift she can give him. Too bad the way she proves is is by saving his dog…in the 21st century.

Verdict: This is a hoot. True love through Angry Birds. Really. The deportment lessons alone were worth the time it took to read the book.

I will say that the Earl believes her improbable story just a bit too easily, and that the villain was incredibly obvious, but this story was intended as light-hearted fun.

But underneath the trappings of the time-mismatched lovers was the classic story of two people who need to see beneath the surface to find true love.

This story takes that premise to the edge of silliness a few times, but all in good fun.

3-one-half-stars

I give The Geek Girl and the Scandalous Earl 3 1/2 stars flying over the heads of Angry Birds.

***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.