Midsummer’s Eve Giveaway Hop

Posted on June 21, 2014June 19, 2014 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | Blog Hops> Giveaways> Midsummer's Eve Giveaway Hop

Welcome to the 2014 Midsummer’s Eve Giveaway Hop, hosted by I Am a Reader, Not a Writer.

In the Northern hemisphere, this is the longest day of the year. If you check out the Google Doodles, you’ll see that they have different Doodles for today, depending on whether you are entering summer or entering winter (shiver). Unless they are still doing World Cup Doodles, of course.

When it is hot and steamy out, curling up with a good book someplace cool and air conditioned can be a real treat. (Or while laying out by the pool and baking out the chill of the previous winter!)

Meanwhile, one lucky winner can look forward to a $10 gift card to either Amazon or Barnes & Noble. All you have to do is fill out the rafflecopter below. And for more marvelous midsummer celebrations, check out the other blogs participating in this Midsummer’s Eve Giveaway Hop.

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Review: Take Me Home by Inez Kelley

Posted on June 20, 2014June 19, 2014 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | B Reviews> book reviews

Format read: ebook provided by NetGalley
Formats available: ebook, audiobook
Genre: Contemporary romance
Series: Country Roads, #1
Length: 165 pages
Publisher: Carina Press
Date Released: November 25, 2013
Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Publisher’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo

Logging manager Matt Shaw is wary when Kayla Edwards, the owner of Mountain Specialty Spices, hires his firm to harvest timber on her Appalachian property. It’s a place he knows better than the back of his calloused hand—it’s his family’s old homestead, lost years ago in a painful foreclosure. He’s hauled himself up from dirt-floor poor since then, and resolves to stay professional…but Kayla’s vivacious beauty makes it hard to focus on his job.

Home. That’s how army-brat-turned-foodie Kayla feels about her new mountain hideaway. What’s more, the hottest lumberjack ever to swing an axe has agreed to manage her timber crop and get the old maple syrup operations back on tap. Matt’s ruggedly sexy ways and passion for the land have her falling hard.

The heat between them grows wild…until Kayla discovers that Matt hasn’t been up front with her. She feels devastated and, worst of all, used. How can Matt prove it’s her he wants and not her land?

My Review:

The title of the book is “Take Me Home”, the series is “Country Roads” and it takes place in West Virginia.

I dare you not to think of the song. I double-dog dare you.

The story is all about figuring out what is meant by that marvellously evocative word, “home”. They say that “home is where the heart is”, but this story asks the question about how the heart determines exactly where home is.

Is it the place where your spirit finds itself at home? Is it the place where you grew up and where your memories are? Or is it where the person you love is, no matter what?

Both the conflict and the romance in this story is between Kayla and Matt. After a lifetime as an Army brat, growing up in bases all over the world, Kayla has purchased acreage in the Appalachian mountains of West Virginia, because it’s the place that calls to her spirit.

She purchases the land that Matt grew up on, and that his family lost to misfortune. Also the land that Matt was trying to buy. Kayla outbid him. It stings.

It stings even more when Kayla hires the timber company that Matt works for to thin out the trees on her land. She needs the money for the business she’s starting. He needs to be anywhere else but touring the land he used to call home.

Because the loss of the land that had been in his family for generations was so traumatic, followed so quickly by his father’s death in a car accident, Matt doesn’t want the job. Unfortunately, because he hasn’t told anyone about his past, he has to either confess what feels like a ton of old humiliation, or get the job done.

He decides to keep his secrets and do the job. What he doesn’t count on is falling for Kayla. As they become more deeply involved, Matt’s secret turns into a bomb waiting to explode in his face.

When Kayla finds out, she can’t let herself be certain whether its herself that Matt really loves, or if she is just his means to get his home back. Matt says that she has everything he wants. What Kayla needs to know is what part of that “everything” Matt is truly after.

Escape Rating B: Inez Kelley’s Turn It Up is one of my favorite contemporary romances of the last few years. I adored the wit and banter in that story, and found both characters not just sympathetic, but also tremendous fun. I wanted Take Me Home to sparkle just as much.

Take Me Home isn’t a sparkly kind of story. In Kayla and Matt we have two people who are both hurting, and whose wounds unfortunately make them vulnerable to exactly the kind of pain that the other inflicts.

Kayla has spent a lifetime wondering if her friends liked her for her, or for access to her high-ranking father. When she finally finds out Matt’s secret, his lie of omission creates a gaping wound. She isn’t certain of his motives for getting into a serious relationship with her, and it is hard to blame her.

When Matt finally tells his full story, it’s still a bit difficult to understand why he kept the secret for so long. Not that it doesn’t hurt in the telling, not that he hasn’t kept it to himself for years, but whether or not one thinks that he should have put things in perspective by now, the fact is that it’s a small town and too many people remember him and his family. The whole thing was bound to backfire sooner or later, with catastrophic results.

I enjoyed the slow-building of their relationship, the way they started with sex and it changed into love. But everyone can see the blow-up coming, and I would have liked the story more if they’d gotten there a bit sooner. (The Grand Misunderstandammit is not my favorite trope)

Which doesn’t mean that I didn’t like the town or the people, because I did. I even liked the explanations of how the timber industry and maple sugaring work. I’m looking forward to reading the next chapter in the series, The Place I Belong.

***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 or borrowed from a public library 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: Love and Treasure by Ayelet Waldman + Giveaway

Posted on June 19, 2014June 18, 2014 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | B Reviews> blog tours> book reviews> Giveaways

Format read: ebook provided by NetGalley
Formats available: ebook, hardcover, paperback, audiobook
Genre: Historical fiction
Length: 449 pages
Publisher: Knopf
Date Released: April 1, 2014
Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Publisher’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Book Depository

In 1945 on the outskirts of Salzburg, victorious American soldiers capture a train filled with unspeakable riches: piles of fine gold watches; mountains of fur coats; crates filled with wedding rings, silver picture frames, family heirlooms, and Shabbat candlesticks passed down through generations. Jack Wiseman, a tough, smart New York Jew, is the lieutenant charged with guarding this treasure—a responsibility that grows more complicated when he meets Ilona, a fierce, beautiful Hungarian who has lost everything in the ravages of the Holocaust. Seventy years later, amid the shadowy world of art dealers who profit off the sins of previous generations, Jack gives a necklace to his granddaughter, Natalie Stein, and charges her with searching for an unknown woman—a woman whose portrait and fate come to haunt Natalie, a woman whose secret may help Natalie to understand the guilt her grandfather will take to his grave and to find a way out of the mess she has made of her own life.

My Review:

I loved the first two sections of Love & Treasure, which pretty much embody the two words in the title. Part 1 is Treasure, Part 2 is Love.

However, there was a part 3, and it felt like it broke the narrative flow of the story. Not that it wasn’t good on it’s own, but that the entire book could have ended with part 2, and I’d have been content.

Not making sense? Let’s try it this way.

Part 1 of Love & Treasure is about the finding of the treasure. It’s a story bound up with World War II, the confiscated property of Jews who were deported, and one American Jewish soldier stationed in Salzburg at the end of the war, watching the looting of the artifacts of an entire community.

The Hungarian Gold Train really existed. Hungary was captured by the Nazis in 1944. The Jewish population was shipped off to concentration camps by the colluding Hungarian government. When it looked like Hungary was going to be liberated by the Allied forces in 1945, all that confiscated loot was put on a train bound for Germany.

The train was captured by U.S. troops, and that’s where the story begins. Captain Jack Wiseman is put in charge of inventorying the collection, and he finds himself forced to watch as his superior officers systematically loot the property in order to furnish their occupation headquarters all over Europe.

In history, none of the property was ever returned to its owners or their descendants. In the story, Jack takes one small piece as a memento; a peacock necklace. On his deathbed, he asks his granddaughter to find someone to whom that necklace rightfully belongs (or at least more rightfully than himself). He wants to give her a quest, and to assuage some of his own guilt. But it’s mostly about taking care of her, one last time.

The second part of the story is Natalie’s quest to find a person who is connected with the necklace. Her journey puts her in the path of the slightly shady art dealer, Amitai Sasho. Amitai usually finds people who are heirs to concentration camp victims, and locates treasure owned by their dead ancestor. Then he brokers a deal where the art gets sold, and everyone involved gets a piece of the pie, especially his firm. There’s nothing illegal about the operation, but it is just a bit grey.

That peacock necklace features prominently in a painting by an relatively unknown Hungarian artist. Amitai is obsessed with finding, not the necklace, but the lost painting. Natalie is driven to fulfill her promise to her grandfather.

Tracking down the provenance of the necklace brings Amitai and Natalie close enough to discover that what they have really both been searching for is each other. Finding the painting is just a bonus. Admittedly a very big bonus.

Escape Rating B+: There turn out to be three stories here; the original provenance of the peacock necklace, Jack’s service in Salzburg and conditions among the general population and particularly the DPs (Displaced Persons) and finally his granddaughter Natalie’s search for someone connected with that original provenance.

While it was interesting seeing the story of the necklace before it ended up on the train, and finding out how the original owners used it as a present back and forth, that story was told at the end, and it lost dramatic tension. It felt like it should have been at the beginning, but it wasn’t nearly as dynamic a story as Jack’s or Natalie’s. YMMV.

Jack’s story has the most meat to it. He’s conflicted at watching the assets of the train get bureaucratically looted, and he feels torn between his identity as a Jew and his service as a soldier. He knows what’s happening isn’t right, but he’s powerless to stop it. The problems that he can at least contribute to solving are the continued deprivations of and depredations on the Jewish DPs stuck in Salzburg. By doing the right thing, he becomes involved with a Hungarian DP, Ilona. He’s never sure what their relationship is, and whether she is using him or really cares. Through his involvement with her, we also see the political machinations of Zionists who will use any means necessary to force the British to open up Palestine. (Historically, we know where this ended up).

Natalie’s story provides closure, but it occurs in the middle. Jack is the past, and Natalie is the future. Her willingness to search everywhere and do anything to settle his ghosts gets the story involved with Amitai’s mercenary repatriation efforts. And with Amitai, who is a slightly shady character that finds a way out into the light.

This post is part of a TLC book tour. Click on the logo for more reviews.

GIVEAWAY

Ayelet is giving away a print copy of Love & Treasure to one lucky U.S. winner.
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***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 or borrowed from a public library 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: Last Year’s Bride by Anne McAllister

Posted on June 18, 2014June 17, 2014 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | B Reviews> book reviews

Format read: ebook provided by the publisher
Formats available: ebook
Genre: Western romance
Series: Great Wedding Giveaway #8
Length: 156 pages
Publisher: Tule Publishing Group
Date Released: June 9, 2014
Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Publisher’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon

It’s for the ranch. It’s your duty. A man does his duty, always. His father Sam’s words were carved into Cole McCullough’s brain. His responsibilities lay with Rafter M Arrow, which had been in their family for over a hundred years. Even though they were fighting a losing battle to keep the place going.

The ranch always came first, over personal comfort, sometimes reason and definitely women. Sam had seen both his wives walk away, dismissing them as hot-house city girls who couldn’t survive the wilds of rural Montana. So how had Cole ended up making a spur-of-the-moment marriage last year in Reno to TV director Nell, who was as city as they came? Nell was prepared to give it all up to be with Cole. But he knew how it would end: as it had always ended before. It was time to stop living a pipe dream and sue for divorce.

But then Nell came back to Marietta with The Compatibility Game, a reality program, in which couples discovered what they were willing to do for love by living and working at Rafter M, and Cole found himself taking part too…

My Review:

Last Year’s Bride is a story that almost makes reality TV palatable for me. The story is fun, the romance is sweet, and the main characters are all likeable, which is more than I can say for reality TV usually.

We have a mix of themes in Last Year’s Bride, and the blend makes for a short and lovely read.

Part of the fun is that this is a story where the happily ever after should have already happened! But it didn’t. We start the story with Nell and Cole already 10 months married, but living apart. Her career is in Los Angeles, and his life is his family’s ranch in Marietta Montana.

There isn’t much scope for directing and producing hit TV shows in Marietta. Which is where the problems between Cole and Nell begin.

They met while Nell was filming the rodeo, and had an absolutely whirlwind romance, with just enough breaks in between for them to figure out that they really loved each other, and that their romance wasn’t just a passing fancy.

After their spur-of-the-moment Reno wedding, they should have figured out their future. But they didn’t. Instead, Cole encouraged Nell to go back to LA to finish her degree, and he returned to Marietta to stew in his own juices.

Not quite. But when Cole returned to Marietta, he started telling himself all the reasons why Nell couldn’t and shouldn’t come to Marietta and make a life with him at the ranch. That she would eventually leave him, just the way his stepmother left his dad.

Notice I’m not saying that Cole ever asked Nell what she thought. He decided for her, and sent divorce papers. She not only didn’t sign them, but she brought the reality TV show that she was producing to Marietta to find out what went wrong. Only to discover that there was nothing wrong except for Cole’s fear of repeating his dad’s mistakes.

They love each other, but it takes all of Nell’s storytelling persuasion to get Cole to admit that the future is what they make together, and never something that he can decide for her.

With a little bit of help from the Radio City Rockettes.

Escape Rating B: While I adore the second chance at love aspects of this story, I think I may be burned out on the whole “he THINKS he knows best what’s good for her” self-sacrificing angle. It always adds up to a huge misunderstandammit that could have been avoided. I also can’t help wondering about how wonderful can the guy be if he even remotely thinks that he needs to do her thinking for her, or that she doesn’t know her own mind. In historicals, there’s a possibility that the attitude fits the times, but in a contemporary it gives my willing suspension of disbelief serious twinges.

Nell’s boss also needs a hit in the short and curlies for pulling the exact same attitude. While it grates just as much, he’s her boss and not her husband, so she’s not planning on a happily ever after with the dude.

However, the background story of Nell dragging the entire cast and crew of a reality TV show to Montana just so she can get Cole to either admit they have a future or get closure was terrific. Not just because Cole got a chance to show off in front of the camera, but because we also see Nell’s extreme competence and watch Cole’s family interact with each other and the reality show participants.

The occupation of the ranch by Hollywood turns out to be a revelation for everyone involved, especially some of the participants.

I liked Nell. She came to Montana to find out what went wrong (or not) instead of making assumptions. I also liked the way she stood up to Cole’s attitude, and finally walked away, making him decide what he wanted for himself, and not what anyone else expected.

But my favorite character is Cole’s grandmother Emily. She managed to pretty much call bullshit on both Cole and his father, and all without saying a word. She was absolutely awesome.

***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 or borrowed from a public library 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: The Late Scholar by Jill Paton Walsh

Posted on June 17, 2014June 15, 2014 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | A Reviews> book reviews

Format read: ebook provided by NetGalley
Formats available: ebook, hardcover, paperback
Genre: Mystery
Series: Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane, #4
Length: 369 pages
Publisher: Minotaur Books
Date Released: June 17, 2014
Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Publisher’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Book Depository

When a dispute among the Fellows of St. Severin’s College, Oxford University, reaches a stalemate, Lord Peter Wimsey discovers that as the Duke of Denver he is “the Visitor”—charged with the task of resolving the issue. It is time for Lord Peter and his detective novelist wife, Harriet, to revisit their beloved Oxford, where their long and literate courtship finally culminated in their engagement and marriage.

At first, the dispute seems a simple difference of opinion about a valuable manuscript that some of the Fellows regard as nothing but an insurance liability, which should be sold to finance a speculative purchase of land. The voting is evenly balanced. The Warden would normally cast the deciding vote, but he has disappeared. And when several of the Fellows unexpectedly die as well, Lord Peter and Harriet set off on an investigation to uncover what is really going on at St. Severin’s.

My Review:

The Lord Peter Wimsey series always makes me think of the 1920s, even though the later novels have continued the story well past that era. The early stories are steeped in that between the wars period, and the relationships that continue in this new series all carry some reminders of their beginnings.

And yes, I’ve read the entire series, including the late additions by Jill Paton Walsh. The original stories still sparkle, especially the series-within-a-series of Lord Peter’s meeting, defense and courtship of the mystery novelist Harriet Vane. (Start with Strong Poison)

But this story, The Late Scholar, takes place after World War II. Peter’s situation has changed from the early stories, where he was the second son of the Duke of Denver, and was permitted to spend his time and energy solving mysteries as a private detective. He wasn’t expected to inherit the estate, so it didn’t matter so much how he occupied himself.

And he was an excellent detective.

The war and it’s aftermath changed things. Both his brother and his nephew are dead. Peter is now the Duke, and has inherited both the privileges and the responsibilities that come with the position. And that’s where this story begins.

The Duke of Denver, whoever might hold the title, is also the official ‘visitor’ for one of the Oxford colleges. The duties of the Visitor are to install new Wardens for the college and settle contentious disputes as a last resort.

St. Severin’s is embroiled in a conflict that threatens to split the college. They have a valuable manuscript that some of the college Fellows want to sell, in order to buy land with the money. The college is in fairly dire financial straits, so purchasing land that is in the path of development could solve their difficulties.

However, the manuscript is not just precious, but possibly one of a kind. It should be part of the research of the college. And the land deal seems rather shady. Also, the Warden is missing, and someone seems to be trying to rig the vote by scaring off or downright murdering the possible voters until he gets the desired result.

The college thinks that Peter will just come down to Oxford and make their decision, for or against the sale. They don’t know him at all. He comes down to investigate the circumstances that have led them to this sorry pass, especially the missing Warden. And the increasingly high pile of bodies.

As he delves into the origins of the dispute, he finds that the closed community of the college has nursed long-standing grievances on all sides, and that there may be more than one murderer on the loose.

Escape Rating A-: In the first Lord Peter and Harriet Vane story, Harriet tells Peter that he has a great talent for “talking piffle”, which he still does, and charmingly so. But he no longer presents himself as a lightweight, even though he does try to conceal his past as a private detective as long as possible.

This story does have the element of a “visit with old friends”, and I would love it just for that. It is marvelous to see how Peter and Harriet (and Bunter) are getting on, 20 years after we first met them. They are parents (Bunter too) their sons are growing up, and the world that they knew in the 1920s (including Bunter’s idea of service) have changed. Those changes are reflected in the way that their children are friends without the same class distinctions that Bunter still feels so strongly.

The case is an absolute hoot. Not only are there the plots and counter-plots among the faculty (I kept thinking of Kissinger’s comment that “academic politics are so vicious because the stakes are so small”) but there are glimpses of real Oxford luminaries, including J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis and their set.

The murders all seem to be modeled on cases in Harriet’s novels, many of which were fictionalized versions of Peter’s actual cases. It gives the author a chance to both highlight and poke a little fun at the convolutions of some of the earlier stories.

Even though some of the evildoers are fairly obvious, the reasons behind the whole mess take quite a while to unravel. And it’s an utterly lovely journey.

***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 or borrowed from a public library 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: Here’s Looking at You by Mhairi McFarlane

Posted on June 16, 2014June 22, 2014 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | B Reviews> blog tours> book reviews

Format read: ebook provided by Edelweiss
Formats available: ebook, paperback, audiobook
Genre: Women’s fiction
Length: 400 pages
Publisher: Avon
Date Released: June 3, 2014
Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Publisher’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Book Depository

Anna Alessi – history expert, possessor of a lot of hair and an occasionally filthy mouth – seeks nice man for intelligent conversation and Harlequin romance moments.

Despite the oddballs that keep turning up on her dates, Anna couldn’t be happier. As a 30-something with a job she loves, life has turned out better than she dared dream. However, things weren’t always this way, and her years spent as the butt of schoolyard jokes are ones she’d rather forget.

So when James Fraser – the architect of Anna’s final humiliation at school – walks back into her life, her world is turned upside down. But James seems a changed man. Polite. Mature. Funny, even. People can change, right? So why does Anna feel like she’s a fool to trust him?

My Review:

Here’s Looking at You is a combination of ugly duckling story mixed with “handsome is as handsome does”. There’s also a bit of “beauty may be skin deep, but ugly goes clean through to the bone.”

And none of us are who we were in high school, and thank goodness for that.

Anna was the school “fat freak” (I’m quoting the story here, and some of what is said is MUCH worse). The bullying she suffered was beyond awful, to the point where it reminded me of the bullying scenes in Carrie. Anna was tormented by every student who was considered to be above her in the social pecking order, and that meant by every single student. The final humiliation that she suffered was utterly heartbreaking in its cruelty.

Even 16 years later, Anna’s self-esteem is still scarred by her experiences. And so would most of us be. Even though she has lost the weight that set her apart, and is now a beautiful woman, she can’t see it. (I’m also glad that Anna seems to be a normal size, and not a stick-figure 0 or 2.)

She also puts her passion into her work as a curator at the British Museum. She’s intelligent and successful. She also has a slightly obsessive interest in the Empress Theodosia, an interest that is about to become a major exhibit under her direction. (Theodosia and her husband Justinian are definitely fascinating historical characters. There are tons of books about them.)

Anna’s 16th reunion nearly derails her. She doesn’t want to face the people who tormented her. Her best friends think that its time she found some closure for the pain in her past.

The person she’s really afraid to meet is James Fraser, her high school crush and the cause of her bitterest humiliation. But when she finally screws up her courage and attends the reunion, James doesn’t even recognize her–and neither does anybody else.

She thinks its all behind her, when James and his PR firm are assigned to work on her museum exhibit. He doesn’t have a clue who she is and why she gives him so much snarkitude, but she can’t forget the part he played in her life.

There’s just this one problem with continuing her verbal sniping at James; he’s actually pretty sweet, and they are very sympatico. While she’s watching his every gesture to determine whether or not he recognizes her, they are well on their way to becoming friends.

For me that was the story. James and Anna develop a terrific friendship, one that may have some sexual chemistry underneath, but is mostly about how much fun they have together, and how easy they can both be their real selves.

The more time that James spends with the intelligent and witty Anna, the more he realizes that he hasn’t left the shallowness of high school, but that it is high time that he did. He doesn’t need more emptiness in his life; he just needs Anna.

Escape Rating B+: A lot of people are going to describe this story as chick-lit, but Anna, for all of her angst, is much too smart and self-aware for that. There’s an element of Bridget Jones’ Diary all grown up, but maybe only if James is Bridget.

Anna has some terrible anguish in her past that she needs to work through, but James just plain needs to grow up. He’s actually very sweet and thoughtful in a lot of ways, but he’s drifting through his life, and he’s better than that.

Anna is surrounded in the story by a terrific group of friends and family. Her friends and her sister are supportive of her no matter what she does or doesn’t, and she is there for them. The background events of her sister’s bridezilla wedding showcase how much love there is in her family, and the amount of tolerance for each other’s quirks. At the same time, sister Aggy comes through for Anna when it really counts.

James is the one who discovers that he’s making a mess of his life. His oldest friend is a self-serving dickwad, and his soon to be ex-wife is a manipulative user. It takes him most of the book, and a lot of true friendship with Anna, to figure out that he wants real friendship, real love, and less peer pressure and possessions. It’s a hard lesson.

I think my favorite character may be Luther the constipated cat. He provides love, extreme grumpiness and comic relief where needed.

This post is part of a TLC book tour. Click on the logo for more reviews.

***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 or borrowed from a public library 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 6-15-14

Posted on June 15, 2014June 15, 2014 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | Giveaways> The Sunday Post> Virtual Nightstand> Winner announcement

Today is Father’s Day, so best wishes of the day to all the Dads out there!

For those Dads, and anyone else who is a supporting or attending member of the World Science Fiction Convention in London this year, the Hugo voters packet has arrived. Even though the nominated novels from Orbit Publishing are not included in the electronic packet, it still has TONS of other goodies.

On a completely other note, I was incredibly happy (downright squeeing) to see that Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries has finally been greenlighted for a third season. They are wonderfully yummy, and I desperately want to discover where the intense flirting between Phryne and Jack is going. Or if it’s going. Or how long it’s going to take them to get there.

Current Giveaways:

The Marriage Pact by Linda Lael Miller (paperback, US)
$50 Amazon Gift Card, 2 $10 Amazon Gift Cards and author swag pack from Susannah Sandlin

Winner Announcements:

The winner of the $10 Amazon Gift Card in the Covergasm Blog Hop is Sophia R.

Blog Recap:

B Review: Winter’s Heat by Zoë Archer
B+ Review: The Marriage Pact by Linda Lael Miller
Q&A with Author Linda Lael Miller + Giveaway
A Review: Dangerous Seduction by Zoë Archer
B Review: Stone Song by D.L. McDermott
B Review: Allegiance by Susannah Sandlin
Guest Post by Author Susannah Sandlin on the evolution of a series character + Giveaway
Stacking the Shelves (93)

Coming Next Week:

Here’s Looking at You by Mhairi McFarlane (blog tour review)
The Late Scholar by Jill Paton Walsh (review)
Last Year’s Bride by Anne McAllister (review)
Love and Treasure by Ayelet Waldman (blog tour review + giveaway)
Take Me Home by Inez Kelley (review)

Stacking the Shelves (93)

Posted on June 14, 2014June 14, 2014 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | Stacking the Shelves

This is the first time in a while that I’ve had books in every category. I want to read the new Charlaine Harris, but after the way that Sookie went downhill, I decided that borrowing it from the library was sufficient. If I really like it, I can always buy it. Whispers in the Sand by Barbara Erskine was on sale for Kindle. I loved her Lady of Hay, many moons ago, and thought that $2.99 made it worth trying her again.

I also have the annual treat: the new book in Michelle Sagara’s Elantra Chronicles popped up on NetGalley this week. I can’t wait to sink my eyeballs into that one!

black stiletto endings and beginnings by raymond benson

shouldve been home yesterday by inez kelley

For Review:
The Black Stiletto: Endings & Beginnings by Raymond Benson
The Book of Life (All Souls Trilogy #3) by Deborah Harkness
Broken Souls (Eric Carter #2) by Stephen Blackmoore
Cast in Flame (Chronicles of Elantra #10) by Michelle Sagara
Harbor Island (Sharpe & Donovan #4) by Carla Neggers
The Heart’s Game (Kelly Brothers #4) by Crista McHugh
Inamorata by Megan Chance
Last Year’s Bride (Great Wedding Giveaway #8) by Anne McAllister
Should’ve Been Home Yesterday (Country Roads #3) by Inez Kelley
The Way You Look Tonight (Sullivans #9) by Bella Andre

Purchased from Amazon:
Whispers in the Sand by Barbara Erskine

Borrowed from the Library:
Midnight Crossroad (Midnight Texas #1) by Charlaine Harris

Guest Post by Author Susannah Sandlin on the evolution of a series character + Giveaway

Posted on June 13, 2014June 12, 2014 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | blog tours> Giveaways> Guest Posts

Today I’d like to welcome Susannah Sandlin, who recently published Allegiance (reviewed here), the latest book in the awesome Penton Legacy series. (Penton is like vampire toffee, once you sink your teeth into the story, you can’t let go) She’s here to talk about…

Evolution of a series character
by Susannah Sandlin

One of the most interesting challenges about writing a series is how to keep the characters changing and growing, especially in a paranormal romance series where a different couple takes center-stage for each book while there’s an ongoing story line running in the background from book to book.

Also, we want to keep readers up to date on their favorites from previous books without having them steal the show.

Here’s a (spoiler-free) look at how the heroes and heroines of the individual books have carried over into the fourth book in the Penton Legacy series, out this week:

Aidan Murphy and Krys Harris. The first book in the series, Redemption, belonged to Aidan and Krys, and they’ve continued to be a force of stability in Penton through the ravages of the subsequent books. Aidan remains a “keep calm and carry on” type of leader for the town, while Krys is his confidante and a steadying presence in her own right. In Allegiance, we get to see Aidan and Krys as they try to transition the town of Penton into rebuilding mode. Aidan’s also up for a seat on the Vampire Tribunal, where he’ll have a chance to change things from the inside. Does that work out for him? Oops, that’s veering into spoiler territory!

Mirren Kincaid and Glory Cummings. The hero and heroine of Absolution also provide a stable force in the rebuilding of Penton. The former Scottish gallowglass warrior, Mirren is his usual taciturn, grumpy self, while Glory runs interference. It’s always fun to poke the bear, though, so readers will have plenty of chances for Mirren to react in his own gruffly hilarious way to things like trash-talking shapeshifters and Cage Reynolds’ love life. Since so much of Penton has been destroyed, Glory has opened a place called the Chow House where Penton’s humans can grab breakfast and lunch—but not dinner. She needs to be there when her vampire rises from daysleep, of course.

Will Ludlam and Randa Thomas. The first couple of book three, Omega, are still dealing with the aftermath of what happened to Will in the third book and something personal that happens in Randa’s life in the early pages of Allegiance. So we’re missing Will’s banter for swaths of this book. Don’t worry, though, Will fans. He is back for the last third of the book!

Melissa Calvert and Mark Calvert. Melissa and Mark, the stable human familiars of Aidan Murphy in Redemption and Glory’s confidantes in Absolution, had a bit of a setback (okay, yeah, that’s an understatement) in their relationship at the end of Absolution, with ramifications that carried on through Omega. The issues finally get resolved in Allegiance, but not quickly and not easily. A sabotage aimed at Mark doesn’t help matters.

Cage Reynolds. Cage is back in Penton as the hero of Allegiance, and this is definitely his book. But is his heroine the woman he was flirting with at the end of Omega? Or is he falling for someone new to the series? Stay tuned; our favorite British vampire has his own baggage to overcome, secrets to reveal, and love conflicts to sort out.

Matthias Ludlam. The Big Bad Evil Meanie of the series is up to his dirty tricks again after being released from prison on the eve of his execution. But by whom? And is Matthias calling the shots, or is somebody playing Matthias this time? Only time will tell….

Of course we have new Pentonites this time around—an Irish acquaintance of Cage’s from his human life; two women, both vampires, who met Aidan in Atlanta and have joined the crew, and two cast members from my Penton spinoff novel, Storm Force: golden eagle shape-shifter Robin Ashton and psychic Army Ranger Nikolas Dimitrou. Welcome to Penton, Robin and Nik!

Those of you who are fans of paranormal romance series….Do you like keeping up with past series characters as the series progresses, or do you want all the focus to be on the main couple?

About Susannah Sandlin

Susannah Sandlin writes paranormal romance and romantic thrillers from Auburn, Alabama, on top of a career in educational publishing that has thus far spanned five states and six universities—including both Alabama and Auburn, which makes her bilingual. She grew up in Winfield, Alabama, but was also a longtime resident of New Orleans, so she has a highly refined sense of the absurd and an ingrained love of SEC football, cheap Mardi Gras trinkets, and fried gator on a stick.She’s the author of the award-winning Penton Legacy paranormal romance series, a spinoff novel, Storm Force, a standalone novelette, Chenoire, and a new romantic thriller series, The Collectors, beginning with Lovely, Dark, and Deep. Writing as Suzanne Johnson, she also is the author of the Sentinels of New Orleans urban fantasy series. Her Penton novel, Omega, was nominated for a 2013 Reviewer’s Choice Award in Paranormal Romance from RT Book Reviews magazine. Absolution was the winner of the 2013 Holt Medallion in Paranormal Romance.

To learn more about Suzanne, visit her website or follow her on Twitter and Facebook.

TOURWIDE GIVEAWAY

Susannah is giving away several prizes on this blog tour:

1 $50 Amazon gift card
2 $10 Amazon gift cards
2 Author swag packs (books, swag)

For a chance to win, use the Rafflecopter below:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Review: Allegiance by Susannah Sandlin

Posted on June 13, 2014June 12, 2014 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | B Reviews> blog tours> book reviews

Format read: ebook provided by the author
Formats available: ebook, paperback, audiobook
Genre: Paranormal romance
Series: Penton Legacy, #4
Length: 345 pages
Publisher: Montlake Romance
Date Released: June 10, 2014
Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Publisher’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Book Depository

British vampire psychiatrist and former mercenary Cage Reynolds returns to Penton, Alabama, looking for a permanent home. The town has been ravaged by the ongoing vampire war and the shortage of untainted human blood, and now the vampires and humans that make up the Omega Force are trying to rebuild. Cage hopes to help the cause, put down roots in Penton, and resolve his relationship with Melissa Calvert. The last thing he expects is to find himself drawn to Robin Ashton, a trash-talking eagle shape-shifter and new Omega recruit.

Meanwhile, as a dangerous saboteur wreaks havoc in Penton, the ruthless Vampire Tribunal leader Matthias Ludlam has been freed on the eve of his scheduled execution. But by whom? And to what end? As war and chaos rage on, love isn’t something Cage is looking for, but will his attraction to Robin distract him from the danger living among them?

My Review:

Allegiance wasn’t anything like I expected, but it delivered the two HEAs I most hoped for at the end of Omega (see review) and Storm Force (and this one).

Allegiance also feels a bit like middle-book syndrome, but if it is, it’s the middle of a blended Penton/Omega Force story that started with Storm Force.

Allegiance finishes with one hell of a spine-chilling bang, and the story can’t possibly be over.

I feel like starting my review with “when last we left our heroes…” because Allegiance picks up exactly where both Omega and Storm Force leave off.

Matthias Ludlam, the sadistic asshat enemy in the first three books, is due to be executed for his crimes in the morning. Aidan Murphy, the alpha of the entire Penton vampire community, is due to become the North American representative on the Vampire Tribunal in two weeks. The special non-vaccinated blood banks are supposed to come online any day, providing vampires in North America with safe, clean blood and with no need to enslave or kill any humans. The donors are all volunteers.

Of course, it all gets blown apart. Spectacularly, and with maximum collateral damage.

The Penton community finds itself under attack, and at first no one is sure where the attacks are coming from. Only that they are deadly both to people and to morale.

As events unfold, the community learns that their enemy on the Vampire Tribunal, has freed Latham and is keeping him under wraps for some future evil.

Of more immediate concern, a saboteur is operating in the now tiny community, setting fires and destroying new buildings as they are constructed. Everyone assumes that the perpetrator must be human, because so many of the attacks and subversions occur during daylight hours.

Not only are they wrong, but the truth is more perverse than anyone imagines.

Into the midst of all this chaos, Cage Reynolds returns to Penton from London, and two more-than-human members of the Omega Force arrive to help with the defense. Robin Ashton, the snark-ass eagle shifter, and Nik Dmitriou, the touch psychometrist.

Without going into spoiler central, it’s difficult to talk about the rest of the story. Suffice it to say that everything that can go wrong, does go wrong, and goes on a short trip to hell in a handcart. The folks at Penton are in receipt of every kind of bad luck and horrible happenstance imaginable.

Then they discover that they not only have a traitor in their midst, but that their enemies know all their weaknesses and don’t care how many people they kill in order to keep Aidan Murphy out of power.

While things do get darkest just before they turn completely black, in the midst of this seeming defeat the story does end with the light of hope and vengeance at the end of the long dark tunnel.

And Cage Reynolds figures out that what he came to Penton for wasn’t love, it was family. Which doesn’t mean he doesn’t finally figure out that the love he wants is just like hope, a tiny thing with feathers. And a non-existent brain-to-mouth filter. Not what he was expecting AT ALL.

Escape Rating B: The evil in this book is really, truly evil. Their version of “by any means necessary” takes the concept to some lows that haven’t been seen since the Nazis went out of business.

I’m not saying that the Pentonites have clean hands, but there are some things so despicable that they can’t even imagine them until they start setting the place on fire. Allegiance is a much darker story than any of the previous entries in either the Penton or the Omega Force series.

Allegiance also does not have a happy ending. I’m not saying that the romantic couple doesn’t end up in at least a happy-for-now, as does a welcome added romantic reunion, but the story as a whole, the Penton vs. the world story, ends the book in a relatively bad and slightly uncertain place.

Cage and Robin provide a lot of the lighter moments in the story. Their unlikely romance is fun to watch, especially since Robin doesn’t seem to censor anything she says or does. But it felt like an HFN ending at the most because the overall situation seems so bleak. It’s not that they aren’t capable of an HEA, it’s that “ever after” at this point in the story could be unfortunately short.

I’ve been hooked on this series from the very first book (Redemption, reviewed here) and it’s driving me crazy to see everything seem so desperate. I can’t wait for the next book. It’s time for the good guys to take the fight to Tribunal and kick (or stake) some evil vampire ass.

***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 or borrowed from a public library 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.

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Evolution of a series character by Susannah Sandlin

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Evolution of a series character
by Susannah Sandlin

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