Tag: Avon Impulse

Review: Skies of Gold by Zoe Archer

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

Skies of Gold by Zoe ArcherFormat read: ebook provided by Edelweiss
Series: The Ether Chronicles, #5
Genre: Steampunk Romance
Release Date: August 6, 2013
Number of pages: 352 pages
Publisher: Avon Impulse
Formats available: ebook, mass market paperback
Purchasing Info: Author’s Website | Goodreads | Amazon | B&N | Kobo | Book Depository US | Book Depository (UK)

Two Lonely Hearts . . .

Kalindi MacNeil survived the devastating enemy airship attack that obliterated Liverpool, but even her engineering skills can’t seem to repair her broken heart. Seeking to put her life back together, Kali retreats to a desolate, deserted island—only to discover she’s not alone. Captain Fletcher Adams, an elite man/machine hybrid, a Man O’ War, crashed his battle-damaged airship into the island after the destruction of Liverpool, never expecting to survive the wreck. But survive he did.

One Desire . . .

Believing he is nothing but a living weapon, Fletcher is wary of his newfound companion—a pretty, damaged, but determined young woman. Together they are stranded on the island, and it is only a matter of time until desire gets the best of them both. Soon Kali and Fletcher each find that they may be just what the other needed. But a danger from beyond the island puts them to the test. Will it rip them apart or bond their hearts forever?

My Thoughts:

I just discovered that this is the last book in Archer and Rossi’s Ether Chronicles and I am completely bummed. Call me a very sad panda.

skies of fire by zoe archerEven though this is the final book in the Ether Chronicles, a reader could start with this one, and then decide that they loved the worldbuilding so much that they wanted to start at the very beginning, Skies of Fire (reviewed at Reading Reality). Yes, I know, I’m fangirling a bit now. Sue me. (Please, don’t.)

The series is alternate history steampunk world war, with Britain and the U.S. fighting against the Hapsburgs and the Russians in a Victorian era with aether-powered airships. What makes the series fascinating is that they really do show the world-spanning scope of the war, so the books are not just set in England, but also in America and even North Africa.

And, the discovery of a metal called telumium (yes, I know, it’s this world’s version of unobtanium, but it makes things fun) has created a fantastic steampunk version of the bionic man; Man-O-Wars. They are a combination of airship captain and airship centaur, without the body-blending. Well sort/kinda. Read and find out for yourself.

Skies of Gold has a bit of the Tarzan/Jane myth, only if both Tarzan and Jane remember their “civilized” roots and want to escape from them. Also if Jane is a female MacGyver. (I started to say a prettier MacGyver, but that depends on the eye of the beholder, and, well, nevermind.)

In this case, Tarzan and Jane, make that Fletcher and Kali, both have terrible cases of survivor’s guilt, and in a grand case of coincidence, (there are no such things as coincidences, of course) from the same battle. She was severely wounded when the enemy bombed Liverpool, and his ship crashed after routing the enemy from their bombing of Liverpool.

They’ve also both survived heartbreak when their former lovers couldn’t see past the changes that war had made in their outward appearance. Beauty really is in the eye of the beholder. They find themselves, and each other, on a remote Scottish island where they each planned to be alone.

When they are discovered by an enemy, they have to return to the world they both left behind in order to save an unsuspecting friend from a trap. They’ve already saved each other.

Verdict: This series is a treat for those of us who love steampunk romance. I’m very glad that if the Ether Chronicles had to end, they finished with a full-length novel, and one as good as Skies of Gold.

Kali and Fletcher are interesting people, and are different types of main characters. Not just because they both have survivor’s guilt, but also because neither of them quite fits their stereotypes. Fletcher isn’t completely alpha, and Kali is both disabled and a minority in addition to being a professional woman. She’s on the island to be independent, and he’s there to be dead. They both have PTSD and they pull each other out of it.

The relationship they develop builds slowly and carefully, and that’s the way it should be. There’s nothing instantaneous here except wariness.

The villain arrives as a bit of demon ex machina at the end, but I was having way too much fun to care. He served his purpose as a means of bringing the story to its (and his) ending.

I’m just damned sorry the ride is over.

4-one-half-stars

I give  Skies of Gold by Zoë Archer 4 ½ aether-powered 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 Right Bride by Jennifer Ryan

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | book reviews> D Reviews
The Right Bride by Jennifer RyanFormat read: ebook provided by Edelweiss
Formats available: ebook, mass market paperback
Genre: Contemporary romance
Series: The Hunted, #3
Length: 416 pages
Publisher: Avon Impulse
Date Released: April 30, 2013
Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Publisher’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Book Depository

High-powered businessman Cameron Shaw doesn’t believe in love—until he falls head over heels for beautiful, passionate, and intensely private Martina. She’s perfect in so many ways, immediately bonding with his little girl. Martina could be his future bride and a delightful stepmother … if only Cameron weren’t blinded by his belief that Shelly, the gold-digging woman he’s promised to marry, is pregnant with his child.

No matter how much his friends protest his upcoming marriage to Shelly, Cameron knows he has a duty to his children, so he’s determined to see it through.

Will he find out in time that Shelly’s lying and Marti’s the one who’s actually carrying his child? It’ll come down to the day of his wedding. After choosing Shelly over Marti at every turn, will he convince Marti she’s his world and the only woman he wants?

My Review:

An idiot, a gold digger and a doormat walk into a bar…

That should be the start of a really bad joke. It’s also the plot of this train-wreck of a book, The Right Bride by Jennifer Ryan. I say train-wreck also in the classic definition of train-wreck, you know something awful is happening, but you still participate in the “gazer-block”. I couldn’t put the damn thing down, in spite of how much I kept talking back to the characters in my head.

Usually with expletives.

Cameron Shaw is supposed to be a hot-shot business executive. He’s considered to be a smart guy. Really. Having a fling with lying, manipulative gold-digging Shelly because she looks a teensy bit like his dead wife is one thing, but taking it half a second past fling is beyond stupid.

Believing for a nanosecond that she might be pregnant is sheer idiocy, especially when she keeps knocking back martinis. And Cosmopolitans. And tequila.

Martina Fairchild is the perfect woman for Cam, except that he meets her after Shelly makes her baby announcement. Marti really does like all the things that Shelly pretends to like. Even more important, Marti is the one who is genuinely like Cam’s first wife the way it counts, on the inside.

And the real kicker: Cam’s daughter Emma loves Marti, but she’s downright afraid of Shelly, and with good reason. But does Cameron get a clue? No.

Even worse, Marti lays herself down, literally as well as figuratively for the idiot. While Shelly snags Cam in an engagement with her pretend pregnancy, Marti goes and gets herself really knocked up by the man after they bond over taking care of Emma.

Emma is innocent in this whole arrangement, but the grown-ups, not so much. The angst factor was beyond belief. Along with the melodrama. Marti and Cam also share a dying friend who is trying to beat Cam with a clue-by-four before his end.

Bring on the tissues. Cue the violins. Cam and Marti are both supposed to have been smarter than this. Five-year-old Emma must be the business brains in the Shaw family after all.

Escape Rating D+: I never thought there would be a use for a D+ grade, but this book is it. I wanted to scream at these people, page after page after page. But I kept on reading, at least partially because I couldn’t believe that these supposedly intelligent people got themselves into this mess. I think I wanted Marti to grow a spine and walk away.

All of Cam’s friends told him, over and over, that Shelly was a lying witch out for his money, and he refused to believe them. I’m not sure the adults in this story actually deserved their happy ending, but little Emma sure suffered enough to earn hers.

***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: Lucky Like Us by Jennifer Ryan

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | B Reviews> book reviews
Lucky Like Us by Jennifer RyanFormat read: ebook provided by Edelweiss
Formats available: ebook, mass market paperback
Genre: Romantic suspense
Series: The Hunted, #2
Length: 100 pages
Publisher: Avon Impulse
Date Released: April 9, 2013
Purchasing Info: Publisher’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Book Depository

The Hunted series continues as Special Agent Sam Turner discovers that protecting the FBI’s star witness is more difficult than he thought!

Bakery owner Elizabeth Hamilton’s quiet life is filled with sweet treats, good friends, and a loving family. But all of that is about to turn sour when an odd sound draws her outside. There’s a man lying unconscious in the street, a car speeding toward him. Without hesitation, she gets the man out of harm’s way before they’re run down.

Unwittingly, Elizabeth has put herself in the path of a serial murderer, and as the only one who can identify the FBI’s Silver Fox Killer, she’s ended up in the hospital with a target on her back.

All that stands between her and death is Special Agent Sam Turner. Against his better judgment, Sam gets emotionally involved, determined to take down the double threat against Elizabeth—an ex desperate to get her back, despite a restraining order, and a psychopath bent on silencing her before she can identify him.

They set a trap to catch the killer—putting Elizabeth in his hands, with Sam desperate to save her. If he’s lucky, he’ll get his man … and the girl.

My Review:

In this second entry in Jennifer Ryan’s Hunted series, her heroine is also being stalked by an ex with creepy motives.

Saved by the Rancher by Jennifer RyanBut there are two key differences between Lucky Like Us and Saved By the Rancher that make Lucky Like Us a much better story.

Elizabeth Hamilton, the heroine of Lucky Like Us, starts out the story by saving the hero, Sam Turner. She saves the FBI Agent’s life from a serial killer who nearly kills them both. It’s a refreshing role-reversal that she saves his life before he saves hers.

Second, and even more important, Elizabeth Hamilton was never abused by her creepazoid ex. He didn’t get a chance to even become her boyfriend, let alone her ex-boyfriend. Her sense of self-preservation kicked in way too early for that, and good on her. She was a bit naive about his stalkerism, but she was spot on when she figured out that the jerk was only interested in her for her wealth and connections, and not for herself.

The Hamiltons are very wealthy, and her father is an influential judge. Everyone in her family can be reckoned among the rich and relatively famous. Elizabeth wants to be loved for herself, and if that isn’t possible, she’ll settle for being surrounded by friends.

Then Sam Turner falls into her life, along with his pursuit of the man the FBI has dubbed “The Silver Fox Killer”. When she rushes into the street to rescue Sam, she tears off the killer’s mask, making herself his prime target. He leaves her beaten, shot and sliced. She has his face etched in her memory and his DNA under her fingernails.

And that’s where the long road to recovery begins. Elizabeth is at death’s door. Sam has been poisoned. The police almost don’t find them in time.

Protecting Elizabeth, saving her, becomes the most important thing that Sam Turner has left to do. He’s been close to burnout for two years. Watching this brave and beautiful woman fight for her life because she protected him is almost more than he can bear, so he dedicates himself to protecting her.

They save each other. They bring each other back from the brink. And hopefully, they’ll catch a killer.

Escape Rating B+: Lucky Like Us worked better for me than Saved By the Rancher because Elizabeth doesn’t start the story in a state of extreme psychological trauma. She is being hunted by someone, multiple someones, but neither of them is her multiple-times abuser. In other words, Elizabeth falling in love with Sam doesn’t make my head explode.

It’s not that her would-be ex wasn’t planning to abuse her, but he hadn’t done it yet. She doesn’t have that damage to heal that made the relatively quick sexual relationship in Saved by the Rancher seem implausible.

There is a certain amount of insta-love in Lucky Like Us. Sam and Elizabeth fall in love during the time while Elizabeth is unconscious most of the time, and Sam is still recovering from burnout. They latch onto each other in a time of shared crisis, when they are both feeling extremely lucky to be alive.

Sam feels responsible for Elizabeth’s injuries, and Elizabeth feels like Sam is interested in her for a reason other than her family’s wealth and influence. He is very protective, at least in part because he feels guilty.

But this story works. They are both hurting, and they come together to heal each other. Well done!

***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: Saved by the Rancher by Jennifer Ryan

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | book reviews> C Reviews
Format read: ebook provided by Edelweiss
Saved by the Rancher by Jennifer RyanFormats available: ebook, mass market paperback
Genre: Romantic suspense
Series: The Hunted, #1
Length: 384 pages
Publisher: Avon Impulse
Date Released: February 26, 2013
Purchasing Info: Publisher’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Book Depository

From the moment rancher Jack Turner rescues Jenna Caldwell Merrick, he is determined to help her. Soon, he is doing more than tend her wounds; he is mending her heart. Jenna is a woman on the run—hunted down by her ex-husband, David Merrick, from the day she left him, taking part of his company with her, to the second she finds herself in the safety of Jack’s ranch. More than just a haven, Jack’s offering the love, family, and home she thought were out of reach.

Jack’s support will give Jenna the strength she needs to reclaim her life. The hunted will become the hunter, while David gets what he deserves, when they have an explosive confrontation in the boardroom of Merrick International. But not before Jack and Jenna enter into a fight … for their lives.

My Review:

Saved by the Rancher is a story of romantic suspense about a strong woman who survives horrific domestic abuse. The detailed descriptions of just how much the main character gets tortured are not for the faint of heart. The number of times and the myriad ways in which the system fails her are almost as stomach-turning.

Jenna Caldwell Merrick has been on the run from her obsessively abusive sadistic ex-husband David Merrick for two years. She runs, she hides, he hires people to hunt and track her, he catches her and beats her nearly to death. Then he leaves her broken body in a pool of her own blood so the cycle can start again.

She has a restraining order against him. It doesn’t do any good. He is rich enough and his family is influential enough that he simply bribes people to provide him with alibis. He coerces hospitals to make her records disappear.

Jenna calls herself “Rabbit” when she contacts her lawyer to make arrangements for her next safe house. Over and over again.

The next safe house her lawyer has arranged is a cabin on his friend Jack Taylor’s ranch in Colorado. Jack is ex-Special Forces. Ben wants Jack to protect Jenna because he’s afraid the next time her ex will kill her. And he’s probably right.

What Ben doesn’t know is that Jack needs saving almost as much as Jenna does. Since he came back, he’s been dead inside. He lost too many men, and he just doesn’t have anything left to give. Until this beaten and brave woman drives into town, and practically collapses in his rented cabin.

Jenna needs him more than anyone else ever has. And what’s left of Jack’s heart wakes up and responds.

Once Jenna starts to heal from her extensive physical damage, she finally begins to feel safe…safe enough to know that any care she feels for Jack and his extended family puts them in danger.

So she finally starts the fight to win her life back. One slow painful step at a time. After two years of running, Jenna has finally decided to make her stand.

Escape Rating C+: This story engendered a tremendous number of mixed feelings. It made for such compelling reading, I finished it in one day. And it does generate a huge amount of anger at the system. Jenna did what she was supposed to do. She got away, she involved the authorities, and the system let her down and protected her abuser.

The frustrating thing about the story is that Jenna’s relationship with Jack happens too fast, considering the abuse that she has suffered. She heals her psychological trauma much, much too quickly to be believable. Their love story was very sweet, and Jack was understanding, but she goes from scared of everyone, especially men, and with very good reason, into a sexual relationship in a matter of weeks. It was just too fast. The book was more than long enough for the build up to be slower. And maybe a mention of some therapy would have made it seem more realistic.

And a quibble. She knew she was being hunted, but she chartered a plane and went on a major shopping expedition to Denver exposing herself and two more women to her hunters? That was just plain foolish and she should have known better.

***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.