Category: Originally published at Book Lovers, Inc.

Review: The Reluctant Amazon by Sandy James

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

Format Read:ebook provided by NetGalley
Number of Pages:258 pages
Release Date: September 3, 2012
Publisher: Carina Press
Series: Alliance of the Amazons #1
Genre: Contemporary fantasy romance, paranormal romance
Formats Available: ebook, audiobook
Purchasing Info: Amazon | B&N | Kobo | Book Depository US | Book Depository (UK) | Author’s Website | Publisher’s Website | Goodreads

Book Blurb:

The last thing Rebecca Massee expects on her wedding day is to go from jilted kindergarten teacher to Amazonian Earth warrior. But when she causes an earthquake after her groom says I don’t, she discovers that not only does she possess incredible powers, she is one of four lost chosen sisters who must fight to keep humanity safe from rogue gods and demons. Luckily she has help: ruggedly handsome Scottish warrior Artair MacKay, her protector and teacher.

An immortal, Artair has trained countless warriors for more than four hundred years. He understands Rebecca’s confusion at the new world she’s been thrust into and worries she is too emotionally vulnerable, but that doesn’t stop his growing feelings for the beautiful and fearless woman.

When an evil force threatens to destroy the Amazons, Rebecca must claim her full powers–but they come at a cost. Can she sacrifice the man she loves if it means saving the world?

My Thoughts:

This was originally posted at Book Lovers Inc.

If my groom said “I can’t do this” at the altar, in front of the officiant, I wouldn’t just punch him in the nose, I hope I’d take another shot at him…and aim considerably lower and with more force. Assuming the jerk has anything down there to hit, considering that he called off the wedding to go back to mommy. His actual mommy. No joke. (Except possibly on Rebecca for thinking she might want to marry him in the first place!)

Calling up the earthquake was definitely a bonus. Artair showing up, looking utterly delicious and wearing a kilt, offering Rebecca a way to walk out of her own called-off wedding with her head held very high, seemed like manna from heaven.

Until she saw the beaten up van he was driving, and the gorgeous redhead he was traveling with. Then her inner wise-woman told her that Artair was too much bad boy for her. Not to mention, threesomes were definitely out of her league. Then the zombies showed up, and all hell really broke loose.

As kick-ass beginnings go, this was a doozy. It’s too bad the rest of the story doesn’t live up to it.

After that wild and crazy beginning (the closest thing to it I’ve seen is the beginning of the movie Monsters vs. Aliens, and that was a blast!) The Reluctant Amazon settles down to a fairly traditional contemporary fantasy romance story.

It turns out that Rebecca is one of four Amazons, each of whom is the avatar for a particular element, Earth, Air, Fire or Water. Those are the traditional elements, too. Rebecca is Earth. When the world faces a particularly terrible evil, the Amazons are called. Think World War II.

Rebecca is called because the previous Earth Amazon is missing, and the Amazons need to be at full-strength. Someone is now targeting them. That other woman in Artair’s rust-bucket van is the previous generation’s Fire Amazon. Her task is to teach the new generation what only Amazons know. Artair is the immortal (of course he’s immortal, it’s part of the trope) Sentinel. He’s their weapons trainer. Think of him as their drill sergeant, only much better looking.

When he dropped out of mortal life 400 years ago, he was entitled to wear that kilt. It figures, doesn’t it? But he’s seen generation after generation of Amazons train, fight, and die on his watch. He may not look old, but he’s seen too many deaths. He wants his humanity back. He wants to live a normal life, find a woman, have a family. And grow old and die when that time comes. He’s had enough.

Of course, Rebecca is the woman that he wants. And he can’t have it both ways. If he gives up being the Sentinel, he’ll be made to forget the Amazons. The regular world can’t know about the otherworldly evils. There would be widespread panic.

And the Amazons are not immortal. They are longer lived than normals, but they do die. Even if they aren’t killed in the line of duty, as all too often happens. And Amazons can’t bear children. Not just because it would be a distraction, but because the process of gaining their powers makes it impossible.

Rebecca is a normal woman who does not believe she is, effectively, a superhero. She fights the belief that she can, literally, move mountains. She always believes that she is less than the women who are now her sisters, because her powers are less flashy. It’s only when they are threatened that she begins to see that she has great, and sometimes terrible power of her own.

Verdict: The Reluctant Amazon has an absolutely fantastic beginning. The sound of her ex-fiance’s nose crunching has a wonderful echo. In an earthquake. How cool is that? But then we head straight for the insta-love romance between Rebecca and Artair, with a side-plot of jealous patron goddess, which is very not-cool.

Likewise, the concept that all the different manifestations of the cultural pantheons are all simultaneously valid and still active, was actually both cool and worked, especially when Rebecca’s head almost exploded as she tried to wrap her mind around it. Mine would too. I love mythology, but suddenly finding it had any basis in even supernatural reality would leave me shaking in my boots, too.

Other hand again, the Amazons as a force for good, fantastic. Having female superheroes, double-fantastic. Making part of the plot hinge on your heroine being a literal unknown goddess-daughter, that went too far into the trip to cliché-city.

Did I have fun reading this? Oh yes! The mish-mash of myth, tech, love and sisterhood is incredibly appealing. I want to see what happens in the rest of the series. There are three more Amazons whose stories have yet to be told, and the big evil got away. I just want the rest of the series to live up to the promise of that first chapter.

I give The Reluctant Amazon 3 stars, one for each remaining Amazon. This universe has serious potential.

***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: Sacred Treason by James Forrester

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | 4 Stars> book reviews> Originally published at Book Lovers, Inc.> The Rocket Lover

Format Read:ebook provided by NetGalley
Number of Pages: 480 pages
Release Date: October 1, 2012
Publisher: Sourcebooks Landmark
Genre: Historical Fiction
Formats Available: Trade Paperback, ebook
Purchasing Info: Amazon | B&N | Kobo | Book Depository US | Book Depository (UK) | Author’s Website | Publisher’s Website | Goodreads

Book Blurb:

London, December 1563. England is a troubled nation. Catholic plots against the young Queen Elizabeth spring up all over the country. At his house in the parish of St Bride, the herald William Harvey – known to everyone as Clarenceux – receives a book from his friend and fellow Catholic, Henry Machyn. But Machyn is in fear of his life, claiming that the book is deadly… What secret can it hold? And then Clarenceux is visited by the State in the form of Francis Walsingham and his ruthless enforcers, who will stop at nothing to gain possession of it. If Clarenceux and his family are to survive the terror of Walsingham, and to plead with the queen’s Secretary of State Sir William Cecil for their lives, Clarenceux must solve the clues contained in the book to unlock its dangerous secrets before it’s too late. And when he does, he realises that it’s not only his life and the lives of those most dear to him that are at stake…

My Thoughts:

This was originally posted at Book Lovers Inc.

Reading Sacred Treason was like being completely immersed in the world of 16th Century England (without the smells). It was bracing and marvelous and compelling from beginning to end.

It wasn’t so much the characters that drew me in as it was the evocation of the time and place. Clarenceaux finds himself in the grip of events, and for most of the book, the events he thinks he’s being gripped by aren’t the ones that are actually happening.

That’s because no one has a handle on the conspiracy that he is supposed to be ringleading. And Clarenceaux isn’t the ringleader of a conspiracy. But just as it is difficult, if not impossible, to prove a negative, it nearly proves impossible to prove that he isn’t. Especially as he begins to act guilty. Because he IS being hounded by the law.

And he is guilty of something. He is a Catholic at a time when that was, if not illegal again, certainly on its way to becoming so. The deadliness of the religious persecutions of the Elizabethan Era are not what we remember best about the same period that also gave rise to Shakespeare’s plays, but they are part of that same time and place.

Believers on both sides were burned at the stake for their faith, and which side was the wrong side had changed all too frequently in Clarenceaux’s lifetime.

Elizabeth was not yet secure on her throne in 1563, when Sacred Treason begins. Her ministers feared threats to her reign from every quarter, and with good reason. Her nearest heir was the Catholic Mary Queen of Scots, and a rising in Mary’s favor was not impossible.

It’s this backdrop, and more, that leads to the fear and plotting behind Sacred Treason.

The story of Sacred Treason is tied up in the history of the era. And the politics. And the plotting. And the ministers of government, particularly Wiliam Cecil and Francis Walsingham, making sure that Elizabeth stayed on the throne, because the thought of anything else was unthinkable.

Could they have been this paranoid? Why not? Politicians are now. Why not then?

Verdict:

I was riveted, to the point of staying up half the night to finish (this is almost a 500 page book!) The key difference between Sacred Treason and Before Versailles (reviewed here), a different but equally complex historical fiction epic that revolves around political plotting, is that Sacred Treason made sure to explain who the historic figures were and why they, and their actions, mattered to the non-aficionado reader.  Although the plot is key, because Clarenceaux doesn’t know what the supposed conspiracy is, everything gets explained to the reader as he figures out what is going on.

The author’s profession as a historian shows in his ability to make the era live again. The amount of detail, builds up a totally immersive experience. Clarenceaux’s world came to life as I read.

However, Clarenceaux himself sometimes didn’t. His relationships, particularly the relationship he almost has with the widow Rebecca Machyn, seemed somewhat forced. Clarenceaux is a more realistic character when he shows us what he sees and does than when the author tries to tell us what he feels.

The conspiracy and the plotting carry this story along fabulously. I give Sacred Treason four rather bloody stars. (When you read the book, you’ll understand)

***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: Lady X’s Cowboy by Zoe Archer

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | 5 Stars> book reviews> Originally published at Book Lovers, Inc.> The Rocket Lover

Format Read: ebook provided by the author
Number of Pages: 322 pages
Release Date: September 7, 2012
Publisher: Zoe Archer
Genre: Historical Romance
Formats Available: ebook
Purchasing Info: Amazon | B&N | Kobo | Book Depository US | Book Depository (UK) | Author’s Website | Goodreads

Book Blurb:

The Lady Olivia Xavier, the cowboy who came to her rescue out of the foggy London dusk could have stepped straight from one of her favorite dime novels. But when she was thrown into his arms, his solid chest and strong embrace assured her he was very real indeed. She needed a helping hand to save her late husband’s brewery from an ambitions rival, and even though she couldn’t understand half of the American’s curious expressions, something in his gentle touch told Olivia she could trust this stranger from the untamed west.

My Thoughts:

This was originally posted at Book Lovers Inc.

Lady X’s Cowboy begins with the lady in question reading a dime novel about the wild American west. Those novels are Olivia Xavier’s means of escape, not so much from the running of her late husband’s brewery, but from the supposedly high-minded, and certainly high-handed, opinions of the so-called right-thinking people who are just certain that they know what’s best for her.

After all, women aren’t intended to be managing businesses in 19th century London. Her late husband may have left her the business, but she’s supposed to have found someone else to run it for her, or sold it. Olivia should not be running it herself. Ladies don’t run businesses. Not even ladies whose husband’s titles are only a couple of generations old.

But Olivia not only runs Greywell’s, she’s damned good at it. And she enjoys the responsibility. She can’t go back to being just an ornament at society parties, or just a do-gooder at charities. She knows those things are empty.

So when George Pryce starts threatening her business, she tries to get the law to help her. But George’s family is old money, and no one will help her.

Until one night she steps out of Greywell’s, and into one of her dime novels. There, on the London streets, the hard men who threaten her get beaten down by a real, honest-to-goodness, Western cowboy. Complete with Stetson.

Will Coffin, born and raised in the West, simply couldn’t let a bunch of scoundrels rough up a woman. Any woman. Let alone a lady. And Olivia Xavier is a lady to Will, whether she has a title or not.

They need each other. Olivia needs Will, not just to keep Pryce’s men at bay, but to organize her own workers against the men of privilege. Will needs Olivia to help him on his quest. He came to London in search of his roots, and she can help him find them.

But the more time they spend together, the more they realize that they just need each other, as partners. As someone who sees them as they really are, and not as what society preconceives them to be.

But when Will finds out who his parents came from, it seems that society’s dictates just might rule the day after all.

Verdict: What made Lady X’s Cowboy so much fun was that the story worked on two levels. First, it is a terrific historic romance. Olivia and Will make a great couple, partly because they are so unexpected. They shouldn’t work, even before Will finds out where his parents’ came from. But they do. They grow towards a partnership. Some of that is because Olivia is unconventional; her widowhood allows her to break free of many of the strictures usually placed around women. And Will expects a woman to be more than London society allows because of his background. There are no parlors on the frontier. Everyone has to pull their own weight.

But their relationship develops gradually, out of their friendship and business partnership. It’s fun to watch and based on mutual respect and admiration and very, very hot.

The other aspect was that every assumption that everyone has about everything turns out to be wrong. From the very beginning, Olivia thinks certain things about Will because of the dime-novels she reads, and they’re all wrong. Society thinks certain things about her that are all wrong. Everyone’s expectations of everybody get stood on their head, over and over.

I am very happy to give Lady X’s Cowboy 5 bright shiny 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: Wife for Hire by Christine Bell

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | 4 1/2 Stars> book reviews> Originally published at Book Lovers, Inc.> The Rocket Lover

Format Read: ebook provided by the publisher
Number of Pages: 118 pages
Release Date: August 18, 2012
Publisher: Entangled Publishing
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Formats Available: ebook
Purchasing Info: Amazon | B&N | Kobo | Book Depository US | Book Depository (UK) | Author’s Website | Publisher’s Website | Goodreads

Book Blurb:

He needs a wife for three weeks…

Owen Phipps is out for revenge. His mission? To expose the man who stole his sister’s money and dignity. All he needs is a “wife” who can play along. Too bad his last best hope is an actress who tries to mace him with perfume when he offers her the role of a lifetime.

Lindy Knight is a real sap. She loves too hard, feels too deep, and often finds herself saying yes when she should be saying “Let me think about it.” She can’t believe her good fortune when Owen offers her more than enough money to hold off foreclosure until she can find a job. Three weeks at a resort, money she desperately needs, and she gets to help bring a criminal to justice? Score.

It seems easy enough until the first time a couples bonding game turns intimate, and they realize how dangerous their mutual attraction could be. Can they keep their hands to themselves long enough to find the evidence Owen needs? Or are the close quarters more temptation than they can handle?

My Thoughts:

This was originally posted at Book Lovers Inc.

There’s a reason the “pretending to be married” trope is a tried and true. Done right, it can be oh so much fun. The trick, in a contemporary romance, is to find a good enough reason to set up the scenario, and an equally good reason why the two principals can’t just jump into bed to cut the sexual tension.

Christine Bell definitely latched onto a winning formula in Wife for Hire. The pretense is reasonable enough, Owen is getting revenge against the swindler who took his younger half-sister for $750,000. Yes, you read that right three-quarters of a million dollars. The problem is that the con artist has set up an expensive “couples marriage saving” retreat. Which means Owen needs a wife, and he hasn’t got one.

Oh yeah, and his sister does not want him to do this. She’d much rather lick her wounds in private, thank you very much. So this entire thing is all very much on the QT. Owen needs someone outside his family circle, and away from his business.

Enter Lindy. She’s very much an amateur actress. Very much an amateur everything. She needs the money for the job, because she gives everything of herself to everyone she meets. She takes in stray dogs and stray widows. She mentors stray kids. She wears her heart on her sleeve.  Bleeding.

The one thing that Lindy is, is totally genuine, about everything. While she needs the money she’ll earn by helping Owen settle the score, she takes the job because she can tell that he needs the help. He needs to fix things for his sister.

And because he’s the sexiest man she’s ever seen in her kitchen. Or anywhere. They are only pretending to be married when other people can see them. Not in private.

Because Lindy believes in love. And Owen doesn’t. Which doesn’t stop him from wanting, not just Lindy’s body, but also the warmth she brings to every room, and the way her smile lights up the heart he’s always sworn he doesn’t have.

Verdict: Wife for Hire is just plain fun. If you’re looking for a sweet, sexy story that will make you smile and laugh, and sigh over the happy ending, this is a terrific one. Owen and Lindy seem like opposites on the surface, the hard-nosed business tycoon and the bleeding heart, but underneath they are both lonely people who have found different methods to keep that loneliness at bay.

The reason that Owen initially hires Lindy involves some suspense that wraps very nicely around the romance, and gets resolved quite satisfactorily as well.

I give Wife for Hire 4 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: Before Versailles by Karleen Koen

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

Format Read: print ARC provided by the publisher
Number of Pages: 400 pages
Release Date: September 1, 2012
Publisher: Sourcebooks Landmark
Genre: Historical Fiction
Formats Available: Hardcover, Trade Paperback, ebook, audiobook
Purchasing Info: Amazon | B&N | Kobo | Book Depository US | Book Depository (UK) | Author’s Website | Publisher’s Website | Goodreads

Book Blurb:

After the death of his prime minister, Cardinal Mazarin, twenty-two-year-old Louis steps into governing France. He’s still a young man, but one who, as king, willfully takes everything he can get—including his brother’s wife. As the love affair between Louis and Princess Henriette burns, it sets the kingdom on the road toward unmistakable scandal and conflict with the Vatican. Every woman wants him. He must face what he is willing to sacrifice for love.

But there are other problems lurking outside the chateau of Fontainebleau: a boy in an iron mask has been seen in the woods, and the king’s finance minister, Nicolas Fouquet, has proven to be more powerful than Louis ever thought—a man who could make a great ally or become a dangerous foe . . .

Meticulously researched and vividly brought to life by the gorgeous prose of Karleen Koen, Before Versailles dares to explore the forces that shaped an iconic king and determined the fate of an empire.

My Thoughts:

This was originally posted at Book Lovers Inc.

There are two types of historical fiction.  The first is the type where the main characters are nearly all fictional, but the story takes place in a historic setting. Before Versailles is the other kind. Nearly all of the characters are historic figures, but the author is using fiction in an attempt to explain events that set the stage for major forces in history. She is trying to breathe life into people we know only as royal portraits, or autocratic archetypes.

She’s also trying to make the motives that she ascribes to her royal characters fit with recorded history. But we’ll never know. All we know is what came after.

Louis XIV of France is remembered as “The Sun King”. The historical quip attached to his name is the autocratic dictum “L’État, c’est moi” (“I am the state”) although there’s no proof he actually said it. But he did establish an absolute monarchy in France, one that was only brought down by the French Revolution.

But Karleen Koen’s Louis, in 1661, has not yet started down the road of absolutism. He is 22, and he is king. But far from being an absolute ruler, he is himself bound by the ministers who really run his country. The greatest of whom, Cardinal Jules Mazarin, has just died. Leaving Louis a window in which he might seize power. And does.

The mix of history and fiction often catches the reader by surprise. The lieutenant in charge of Louis’ Musketeers (and yes, there really were Musketeers) is Charles D’Artagnan. The fictional hero of Dumas’ tales is based on the factual man who led Louis XIV’s personal guard detail.

While the novel takes place over a mere six month span, it attempts two sweeping arcs. One is a personal story, as Louis, married to a Spanish princess entirely too much like his mother, falls hopelessly in love first with his sparkling sister-in-law, and then with one of her ladies-in-waiting.

The second story is more complex, and much more intriguing. It is an attempt to describe the maneuvering that might have taken place to bring the complete reins of power into Louis’ hands.

And in the middle of the personal intrigues and the financial and ministerial machinations, the author introduced the story of the boy in the iron mask.

Verdict:  The best way to describe this book is that the story is dense. There is so much going on, and the author tried very hard, perhaps too hard, to make everything fit into the historic events, instead of just telling a story.

As a consequence, it felt as if I got bogged down in the names and details, because there seemed to be a need to fit everyone in, and not every single one of the characters was necessary for telling the story. They were there in history, but they didn’t forward the plot of the novel.

Before Versailles might have worked better if it had focused on just the love story, or just the political potboiler, instead of trying to fit everything into a single book.

I give Before Versailles 2 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: The Devil’s Match by Victoria Vane

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | 5 Stars> book reviews> Originally published at Book Lovers, Inc.> The Rocket Lover

Format read: e-ARC provided by publisher
Release Date: 24 August 2012
Series: Book #4 in the Devil DeVere series
Number of pages: 132 pages
Publisher: Entangled Publishing
Formats available: ebook
Purchasing Info: Goodreads, Author’s Website, Amazon

Blurb:

Once burned twice shy… but when old flames come together…passion reignites…

When burned once… Arriving in London as her goddaughter’s chaperone, Baroness Diana Palmerston-Wriothesley wants to avoid her erstwhile lover at all costs. Once nearly consumed by passion, four years has reduced the former inferno to bitterness and ashes.

By an old flame… A world-weary master of seduction, Ludovic “The Devil” DeVere is bored with his chosen life of debauchery. When Diana’s charge disappears, she is forced to seek help from the devil’s lair, and their mutual desire reignites with undeniable ferocity.

Fire is best fought with fire… While DeVere is hell-bent to have her back for keeps, Diana is equally determined to bring him to his knees…by acquiring some sensual secrets of her own.

My Thoughts: Everything has been leading up to this. Which might be both good and bad. It’s possible to read A Wild Night’s Bride, The Virgin Huntress and The Devil You Know on their own and enjoy them as much as I did Bride and Devil, or didn’t in the case of Huntress, but The Devil’s Match is the culmination of the story begun in the other three books. You need to have read at least The Devil You Know (or, one could say you need to already know how Diana knows the Devil) in order for The Devil’s Match to have the resonance it should.

The “match” in the title of The Devil’s Match could just as easily mean a matchstick for lighting fires as a mate. And, come to think of it, one brand of matches in the early 1800’s was known as “lucifers”, yet another name for the devil. Entirely too appropriate, because the unfinished business between DeVere and Diana makes them set each other off like, well, tinder and matches.

The Devil’s Match picks up right where The Devil You Know ends. Diana stalks into DeVere’s house in the middle of a orgy, Really, an orgy! Full of righteous indignation because DeVere’s brother Hew has kidnapped her goddaughter Vesta (see The Virgin Huntress). There are half-naked women everywhere, and DeVere himself is in the middle of getting serviced while this conversation is taking place! Diana’s speech, and her maintenance of outward composure, is astonishing.

It’s too bad for Diana that DeVere has all too clear an idea of what’s going through her head, and that’s she wrong about who kidnapped whom between Hew and Vesta, admittedly with DeVere’s connivance.

But just like Diana’s assumptions about Vesta’s supposed kidnapping, very little about that scene is exactly what it appears to be. And that’s what made the resolution of this four book long story so interesting (not that the erotic scenes weren’t steamy!) DeVere starts out as merely a sybarite and a rake. A consummate puppet-master out for his own amusement. As the layers peel back, DeVere turns out to be the prisoner of his own fears, too worried about making the same mistakes his parents did to trust his own heart. Or even to trust that he has one.

Verdict: I dove straight from The Devil You Know to The Devil’s Match. I had to find out exactly how the Devil got his due! Once I finally found out how DeVere and Diana end up in the positions (hah!) they are in at the beginning of the series, I couldn’t wait to find out how they got out of the mess.

The Devil’s Match isn’t as frothy as A Wild Night’s Bride, but it’s even more delightful in some ways. Watching the rake not only admit that love just might be possible, but actually reform, is a far better ending for him than anything the reader might have expected when he first sauntered onto the pages of A Wild Night’s Bride. Bravo!

I gladly give The Devil’s Match 5 fiery 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.

Celebrate the Freedom to Read!

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | Bookish Rant or Raves> Originally published at Book Lovers, Inc.> The Rocket Lover

Have you ever read a Banned Book? I bet you have. You might have even read a banned book to your child! Because it’s not all about sex. Violence gets challenged. Speaking truth to power gets challenged. And so do historical truths that make people uncomfortable.

And yes, sex makes a lot of people very uncomfortable!

This week, September 30-October 6, is Banned Books Week in the U.S. It celebrates the Freedom to Read what we want, when we want, and, I think, however we want, whether that’s print, audiobook, or ebook. Something that’s going to become increasingly important in the future.

It’s fitting that one of the most frequently challenged books of all time is 1984 by George Orwell. Lest we forget, 1984 is the book that brought us the very concept of “Big Brother”.

It’s easy to talk about the books that get banned or challenged. And I heartily recommend that you take a look at those lists over at the official Banned Books Week site and at the American Library Association site. The range of titles and subjects will astonish you.

Everything bothers somebody.

The whole point of Banned Books Week, and its clarion call to Celebrate the Freedom to Read, is that if I don’t want to read something, that shouldn’t stop you from being able to read it, and if you don’t want to read something, you  shouldn’t be able to stop me from reading it.

Comic books and manga are particularly challenged.  That’s why the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund is one of the supporters of Banned Books Week. Heck, that’s why there IS a Comic Book Legal Defense Fund in the first place!

The other supporters are the American Booksellers Association, the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression, the American Library Association, the American Society of Journalists and Authors, the Association of American Publishers, the Freedom to Read Foundation, the National Association of College Stores, the National Coalition Against Censorship, the National Council of Teachers of English, the PEN American Center and Project Censored.

What can you do to celebrate the Freedom to Read? See if there’s a Banned Books Week event going on in your community this week. Many bookstores and libraries are sponsoring “Read Outs” – continuous readings of banned books. If you’re a blogger, write a blog post about Banned Books Week. Everyone can participate in the Banned Books Week Virtual Read-Out on YouTube.

If you’re still wondering which banned book you might have read to your child, or had read to you as a child, it’s Maurice Sendak’s marvelous Where the Wild Things Are. And it is truly wild to think that someone might deprive a child the joy of that book through censorship.

Celebrate the Freedom to Read, read a banned book.

Review: The Mine by John A. Heldt

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | 5 Stars> book reviews> Originally published at Book Lovers, Inc.> The Rocket Lover

Format Read: ebook provided by the author
Number of Pages: 290 pages
Release Date: February 12, 2012
Genre: Time-travel romance
Formats Available: ebook
Purchasing Info:Amazon | B&N | Kobo | Book Depository US | Book Depository (UK) | Author’s Website | Goodreads

Book Blurb:

In 2000, Joel Smith is a cocky, adventurous young man who sees the world as his playground. But when the college senior, days from graduation, enters an abandoned Montana mine, he discovers the price of reckless curiosity. He emerges in May 1941 with a cell phone he can’t use, money he can’t spend, and little but his wits to guide his way. Stuck in the age of Whirlaway, swing dancing, and a peacetime draft, Joel begins a new life as the nation drifts toward war. With the help of his 21-year-old trailblazing grandmother and her friends, he finds his place in a world he knew only from movies and books. But when an opportunity comes to return to the present, Joel must decide whether to leave his new love in the past or choose a course that will alter their lives forever. THE MINE follows a humbled man through a critical time in history as he adjusts to new surroundings and wrestles with the knowledge of things to come

My Thoughts:

This was originally posted at Book Lovers Inc.

The description does not do this one justice. When I finished (at 2 in the morning!) I lay there and stared at the ceiling for a long, long time. The Mine is one of those stories that will stick with you. It was just about perfect.

Time travel stories are supposed to be messy, as a recent column by Charlie Jane Anders in io9 put it, and the messiness of the time-travel is the crux of the dilemma for Joel Stein. Not the mechanism, that’s as improbable as time-travel usually is (a six planet alignment and a cave in an abandoned mine–think of the Stargate SG-1 episode “1969″ for a not-dissimilar concept). The way the time-travel occurs is not the point. It’s what time-traveler Joel Stein does afterwards that lodges deep in the reader’s heart.

Because he doesn’t go back that far. From Memorial Day in the year 2000, Joel goes back a mere 59 years. But those years are crucial. He arrives at the beginning of the United States’ last summer of innocence, The summer before December 7, 1941, before Pearl Harbor. And he is the only one who knows the future.

One last golden summer before the war that is already raging in Europe and Asia engulfs the U.S.

There are no cell phones, no credit cards, no computers. Joel is broke. He has skills, but no identification. The Great Depression has not lost its hold on the country. He has no home, no job, no friends.

His family is in Seattle. The grandmother that he remembers is a young woman in 1941. Seattle is still home. He does what other down on their luck young men did during the Depression. He hopped a freight train from that abandoned mine in Montana to the west coast.

Trying to get a night’s sleep on a bench outside a bar in Seattle, dead tired, looking and feeling like a bum, he saves a guy from getting beaten up over a gambling debt. That guy turns out to be his grandmother’s first fiance–the one that Joel knows, absolutely knows, will be killed in the war that is to come.

But Tom Carter doesn’t know a thing. All he knows is that this down on his luck guy rescued him from three bruisers. He takes Joel home with him, gives him a place to stay. His dad gives him a job. Joel makes a life. Becomes part of Tom’s circle of friends. Lives life to the fullest in that last golden summer.

And falls irrevocably, irretrievably in love with a woman, even though she’s engaged to someone else. Even though he can’t tell her the truth about himself. And manages to win her heart.

The summer turns to Fall. October turns to November. Just before Thanksgiving, He worries about what he’s going to do on December 8th. Every able-bodied man is going to volunteer for the Armed Services, and he’s not registered for the draft. What if he takes a bullet meant for someone else? What if he saves someone who shouldn’t be saved? How much of the future has he already changed?

Then he sees an article in the paper that the same alignment of planets that brought him to the past is going to happen again. On December 8, 1941. He has to try to go back. He’s afraid he’ll change too much if he marches off to war.

But he’s leaving his heart behind.

Verdict: This is beautiful, simply beautiful. The story is absolutely heartbreaking in Joel’s immersion into life in 1941, because he (and the reader) know how fragile it all is, and how soon everything is going to go smash. He feels the poignancy of it and conveys it so well. He’s happy and is aware of how precious and fleeting it is. At the same time he’s selfish enough to pursue Grace Vandenburg just because he wants her, and not thinking about the consequences (he is only 22 after all!).

When Joel comes back, he has changed, and the world hasn’t, and he feels something a lot like survivor’s guilt. Was it real or did he dream it? His loss and his loneliness, his need for validation were so well-done, I wanted to cry.  And the ending, well, that was just the one I hoped for.

I gladly give The Mine 5 brightly shining stars properly aligned for time-travel.

***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.

Dual Review: West of Want by Laura Kaye

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

Format read: e-ARC provided by publisher
Release Date: 10 July 2012
Series: Book #2 in the Hearts of the Anemoi series
Number of pages: 222 pages
Publisher: Entangled Publishing
Formats available: ebook
Purchasing Info: Goodreads, Author’s Website, Amazon, Kindle, Barnes and Noble, Read an excerpt

Blurb:

Betrayal is all he’s ever known, but in her, he’ll find a love strong enough to be trusted…

When Marcella Raines’ twin brother dies, she honors his request to be buried at sea, never expecting the violent storm that swamps her boat. Though she’s gravely injured–and still emotionally damaged from her recent divorce–Ella fights to survive.

Zephyros Martius is the Supreme God of the West Wind and Spring, but being the strongest Anemoi hasn’t protected him from betrayal and loss. Worse, he’s sure his brother Eurus is behind it. When Zeph’s heartbreak whips up a storm that shipwrecks a human, his guilt forces him to save her.

Ella is drawn to the vulnerability Zeph hides beneath his otherworldly masculinity and ancient blue eyes. And her honesty, empathy, and unique, calming influence leave Zeph wanting…everything. When Eurus threatens Ella, she and Zeph struggle to let go of the past, defend their future, and embrace what they most want–a love that can be trusted.

Our Thoughts:

Marlene: North of Need was one of those utterly marvelous stories that comes along once in a “blue moon”, a story that was absolutely magical. When West of Want came out, I was hoping for another fantastic experience, but unfortunately the lightning wasn’t captured in the bottle the second time around. West of Want is pretty good, but it just isn’t up to the high bar set by North of Need.

Stella: *sighs* Yes, I pretty much agree Marlene. For the past couple of years I haven’t been a big PNR fan as I find it way too clichéd nowadays, but North of Need was such a breath of fresh air, I loved how unique Owen was, his innocent discovery of the world (and ice creams!), I just loved their story! So naturally I started West of Want with high expectations: I wanted the same original and entertaining story with memorable and unique characters I got used to in North of Need, but West of Want fell short on both accounts.

Marlene: One of the issues that I had with the story from the very beginning was “what the hell was wrong with Zeph?” We never do get complete clarity on why he caused the storm that starts off the story. I often found myself floundering in the backstory of this book. All of Zeph’s and Ella’s problems with trusting each other have to do with their past bad relationships, but we don’t get a whole lot of info on what happened. Ella’s backstory is fairly clear, but Zeph, not so much. And his family feud with Eurus, OMG. There’s a whole other novel’s worth of stuff in what’s wrong with Eurus.

Stella: Yes, sadly I felt that the plot of West of Want was all over the place. While I enjoy mythological references (hello, history/mythology junkie here!), I felt that there was too much crammed into West of Want. We got the whole run down on Zeph’s every paramour, family dysfunctions among many other things, one of them namely the main storyline…

While I was fairly engrossed in Zeph and Ella’s story they weren’t the memorable and unique characters that made me wonder and ponder things long after I have turned the page. I had problems understanding (and accepting) their insta-love connection (especially on Zeph’s side, he is a god after all, has been around for millenia and I didn’t get a clear answer to why this woman, what does he see in her?).

Marlene: The ending of the story, and the convenient explanation for Zeph’s and Ella’s insta-love at the beginning, smacked way too much of deus ex machina. Although Stella, my Latin scholar friend will probably correct that to dei, since there are multiple gods involved in cleaning up the mess that Eurus causes, and more gods than just the Anemoi. Was it truly necessary to bring both the Greek and Roman pantheons in on this? Really? Either/or would have been reasonable, since the Anemoi are the Greek wind gods after all. But both? Mars and Ares?

Stella: Lol Marlene, thanks first for including a bit of Latin, it’s really a pity we don’t use this language more 😉 And second of all thanks for mentioning the combination of BOTH mythological worlds. Ares is the Greek counterpart of Mars, they are one and the same god just either perceived by the Greeks (Ares) or the Romans (Mars), so I was stumped why a Roman god (Mars) was introduced in a story which featured Greek gods (the Anemoi). I thought it was a shallow, typo-kind of mistake that an editor should have corrected. I get that they needed the names to rhyme (Mars – Marcella – March), but it still screwed with the rules of the world-building.

Marlene: That was an “off the rails” moment for me. Zeph actually refers to “Mars and his brother Ares” late in the story as sharing a “legendary masculine aggression”, but while Ares directs his towards literal war-making, Mars focuses on peace-making. However you slice and dice this, both pantheons seem to co-exist simultanously. That’s just too many gods at one time. The only author who can successfully put this many gods in one story is Neil Gaiman, and that’s not the kind of story we’re talking about here.

Stella: I’m all for re-interpreting legends and stuff, but messing with the main characteristics of gods this way is just not something I can take in stride. Mars as the peacemaker, oh yeah… *snorts*

Marlene: I’ll see your snort and raise you an eyebrow.

Stella: You’re on 😉 So anyway I found the ending, the resolution of everything way too easy and convenient, too neatly tied off.

Marlene: Exactly! Deus (or dei) ex machina. Except in this case there’s no machina, just lots and lots of dei.

Stella: Lol, perfectly said! 😀

Verdict:

Marlene: The insta-connection and insta-love was highly improbable, but I really liked Ella as a character. She may have accepted Zeph a bit (a lot) too easily, but who wouldn’t accept someone that gorgeous who could heal that much damage?

Eurus came across as much too “Bwahaha” evil, and there wasn’t enough backstory to explain why Zeph was so incredibly down on himself. He was, after all, a god. Even though the author’s writing made the story entertaining enough to carry me along, it was still a disappointment after the astonishment and wonder of North of Need.

I give West of Want 3.5 stars.

Stella: After having North of Need give back my love and hope for PNR I was very excited and looking forward to West of Want, which sadly didn’t live up to the first story 🙁 I found it too clichéd, too generic, the typical paranormal romance. Don’t misunderstand me, West of Want wasn’t bad, but it was just ‘nice’, which after the wonder and great surprise that North of Need was, felt like a let down. Laura Kaye’s writing is still amazingly captivating, but the characters felt flat and cardboard-like. If you are a fan of paranormal romances and/or Laura Kaye you’ll enjoy West of Want, but if you are looking for something a bit different and more original (and fun) than the “six of one, half a dozen of the other” PNR stories, try North of Need instead.

I give West of Want 3.5 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.

Bookish Rant: How Much Does an Ebook Cost?

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | Bookish Rant or Raves> Originally published at Book Lovers, Inc.> The Rocket Lover

When you go to your bookseller of choice and buy an ebook, it costs whatever the dealer says it costs. Anything from free to $14.99 or the equivalent per country.

The real caveat isn’t the different currency, the “trick” is in that three-letter-word “buy”. Because as we all know but conveniently forget, we don’t buy our ebooks, or any electronic media, including software. We license it from the supplier. Which means that they can set the terms of the license.

Back to the question of the cost of an ebook. The price to an individual, meaning you and me, is what the seller (Amazon, B&N, Book Depository, etc.) says it is. Because that’s the arrangement that those suppliers have made with the publishers. You remember the publishers, and that little anti-trust lawsuit problem they have with the U.S. Government about, you guessed it, the price of ebooks? (If not, see this Bookish Rant)

About that cost of ebooks … have you ever checked an ebook out of your public library? Did you know that libraries have ebooks for you to check out?  They very definitely do, but there are a couple of issues, and they boil down to that cost of ebooks problem.

If you’ve ever tried to check an ebook out at your local public library, you might have discovered that there are a number of ebooks that just plain aren’t available at the library, but that you know perfectly well are available from Amazon and B&N. There’s a reason for that and it’s not pretty.

Those “Big 6” publishers in the price-fixing anti-trust lawsuit? (Only five are in the price-fixing suit, but the “Big 6” publishers are: Hachette Book Group, Harper Collins, Macmillan, Penguin Group, Random House and Simon & Schuster). Only Harper Collins and Random House currently license frontlist ebooks to libraries in the U.S. Hachette licenses backlist titles only. Penguin,  Macmillan and S&S just say no, although Penguin and Macmillan are “experimenting with some models of access”.  Scholastic Books, the publishers of The Hunger Games, also just says “no”.

This means that more than half the big publishers have said they don’t want libraries’ money, not at any price. Why? Because they are afraid, and yes, I do mean afraid, as in scared out of their socks (and wits), that people might borrow ebooks instead of buying them. This is in spite of increasing evidence that people who borrow books actually buy more books.

So if you’re wondering why you can’t borrow an ebook of Sylvia Day’s Bared to You from your public library, it’s because she’s published by Berkley Books, a division of Penguin. J.K. Rowling’s The Casual Vacancy is being published by Little, Brown, and guess what? Little, Brown is a division of Hachette.

But some publishers do want libraries’ money. They just want LOTS of it. If you want to buy a copy of Fifty Shades of Grey, it costs $9.99 as an ebook. If a library wants it, they can buy it alright, but it costs $47.85. Think about that for a minute and gasp. It’s still one copy. It can only be out to one person at a time, just like the print book. What makes the publisher think it’s worth five times as much? (If you want the entire gruesome picture, take a look at this price comparison from the Douglas County Libraries in Colorado.)

Libraries have very finite, and often shrinking budgets. If they spend a lot in one area to keep patrons happy, that money has to be taken from somewhere else. If a very, very popular ebook like Fifty Shades costs five times as much as it should, or if Gone Girl costs $25 instead of the $12.99 that it should, something else doesn’t get bought. Like more debut authors, or more genre fiction (like romance) or simply having more titles to choose from all the way around.

When the library purchases fewer titles to satisfy the clamor for high-demand titles on the best-seller list, mid-list and debut authors lose sales. They get lower advances for their next books, or publishers don’t buy their books at all. What happens then? It’s a vicious cycle. Or a circle towards the drain. (Insert your metaphor here)

Some of you are thinking that this won’t matter to you, that you either don’t use your local library, or that you only borrow print books. Or even that you only read print books. There’s a couple of other thoughts I’d like to leave you with before I get down off my soapbox.

Ebooks are now the dominant form of distribution for adult fiction in the U.S. More adult fiction is purchased in ebook format than any other format. More than hardcover, more than trade paperback, more than mass market paperback. Not more than all of them combined, but more than any one of them individually. And don’t think the day won’t come when ebooks do pass all of them combined for categories like adult fiction. This snowball is already rolling down that hill and picking up speed. And debris.

Publishers make more profit on hardcovers than they do on ebooks, so hardcovers aren’t going away. But authors I heard speak at Dragon*Con were saying that this is the beginning of the end for mass market paperbacks. Ebooks are more profitable for the publishers to produce than mass market paperbacks, and consumers are voting with their dollars for ebooks over mass market paperbacks.

I love the convenience of ebooks. I buy them in bed at midnight and they are right there, right then. But I want every book I buy to be available for my local library to purchase too, so everyone can enjoy them. (Libraries are fantastic for “try before you buy” for new-to-me authors)  What happens, not if, but when publishers only publish first-time authors in ebook, and libraries can’t buy those books?