Review: Wildest Dreams by Robyn Carr + Giveaway

Posted on September 2, 2015September 1, 2015 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | B Reviews> blog tours> book reviews> Giveaways

Format read: ebook provided by the publisher via NetGalley
Formats available: hardcover, paperback, ebook, audiobook
Genre: contemporary romance
Series: Thunder Point #9
Length: 384 pages
Publisher: Harlequin MIRA
Date Released: August 25, 2015
Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Publisher’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Book Depository

Blake Smiley searched the country for just the right place to call home. The professional triathlete has traveled the world, but Thunder Point has what he needs to put down the roots he’s never had. In the quiet coastal town he can focus on his training without distractions. Until he meets his new neighbors and everything changes.

Lin Su Simmons and her teenage son, Charlie, are fixtures at Winnie Banks’ house as Lin Su nurses Winnie through the realities of ALS. A single mother, Lin Su is proud of taking charge and never showing weakness. But she has her hands full coping with a job, debt and Charlie’s health issues. And Charlie is asking questions about his family history—questions she doesn’t want to answer.

When Charlie enlists Blake’s help to escape his overprotective mother, Lin Su resents the interference in her life. But Blake is certain he can break through her barriers and be the man she and Charlie need. When faced with a terrible situation, Blake comes to the rescue, and Lin Su realizes he just might be the man of her dreams. Together, they recognize that family is who you choose it to be.

My Review:

I’ve read the entire Thunder Point series, starting with The Wanderer (reviewed here) over two years ago. This is a town where people like each other and really pull together. It’s the sort of place that most of us would like to live.

Over the course of the series, we’ve gotten to know the people, so whenever there is a new book, it is great to find out how everyone is doing. Updates on everyone we already know are interspersed with each book’s particular love story.

It’s also usually pretty obvious by the end of each book who at least one of the protagonists will be in the next story. However, in Wildest Dreams there are no clues. This feels like the last book in the series, and that we’re saying goodbye to this town and these people.

If it is goodbye, it’s a pretty good one.

There are two stories competing for attention in Wildest Dreams. One underlying thread in the last three books of the series, starting with One Wish (reviewed here) is the story of Grace Dillon Headly’s mother and former coach, Winnie Banks. After a tempestuous relationship that was both mother/daughter and coach/Olympic figure skater, Winnie and Grace have finally made peace. Winnie has been diagnosed with ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease) and wants to have a good relationship with her daughter before it’s too late. Grace brings Winnie to Thunder Point, and the whole town befriends the newer, more approachable, Winnie.

But ALS is a degenerative disease, and one of the threads of the story in Wildest Dreams is the way that Winnie, her daughter, her entourage and the whole town help Winnie cope with the inevitable.

Part of that coping is Winnie’s nurse, Lin Su Simmons and her 14 year old son Charlie. Lin Su is a single mother and an excellent nurse. Those skills have served her well, as Charlie is asthmatic and required a lot of care earlier in his life. But he’s 14 now and ready to grow up and escape his mother’s extremely tight apron-strings. He just needs to learn to manage his condition for himself, instead of by his mother’s constant nagging and worrying.

And into that particular breach steps Blake Smiley, world-class triathlete and Winnie’s new next-door neighbor. Blake is willing to coach Charlie so that he can become stronger, and inculcate the self-discipline to manage his condition and himself. It’s time for Charlie to learn, if not to fly, at least to bike and swim and run like other boys.

But in the process of befriending Charlie, Blake runs right into his beautiful and fierce dragon of a mother, who is too scared to let Charlie manage his own care, and too proud to accept help from anyone. Especially a man who might betray her just the way that Charlie’s father did.

Escape Rating B-: So in this story we have Winnie and her management of her condition, as well as how everyone around her is coping with it. We see the way that Winnie has found happiness by finally letting people into her life, while at the same time she mourns the loss of her independence. There is a lot of bitter mixed in with the sweet. And the other way around.

So many of the women in the previous stories are not just pregnant, but very pregnant as this book continues. Including Grace. They are all hoping that their children will be born together, and will become friends for life. Maybe there is a Thunder Point Next Generation somewhere down the road.

But the interlocking pregnancies give readers a chance to catch up with the other couples. One always wishes them happy.

The other main thread of the story is Charlie, Lin Su and Blake. Charlie is growing up. Lin Su isn’t anywhere near ready to cope. He was very, very sick as a baby and little boy, and she is used to being the authority on all things. But 14 is when we start breaking away from our parents if we haven’t already, and it’s time.

Lin Su has had a rough life. It’s not just that she is a single mother, but the way that it happened, and also the way that she has coped with it. She has concealed her origins from Charlie as much as possible, and refuses to discuss his father, her family or any part of the past that has made her so closed off and bitter.

At 14, Charlie is not merely old enough to challenge those assertions, but he is more than internet savvy enough to look for his own answers.

Then there’s Blake Smiley. If Charlie had been shopping for a role model, Blake would be it. But Blake’s views on what Charlie wants to do run absolutely opposite of the way that Lin Su needs to keep control. The problem is that Blake is right, and Lin Su is angry about it. Angry enough to keep pushing him away, not just his desire to help Charlie, but also his desire for her. And hers for him.

Blake is awesome. He’s a really great guy. And when Lin Su continually rejects him and rejects his help for Charlie, she shows just how angry and bitter and closed off she is. While the reasons for her behavior make sense from her perspective, I cringed every time she held Charlie back. Even with his childhood asthma, she was crippling him from being everything he could. She thought she was holding him closer, but what she was really doing was pushing him away.

Having finished the story, I’m not sure the romance was necessary for this one. And I’ll admit I didn’t feel it. While it was easy to see how Lin Su turned out the way she did, it did not make her an easy character to like. Blake’s training and mentoring of Charlie made for enough of an emotional connection that the emphasis on that part of the equation worked much better than the romance.

However, the non-romantic part of the HEA that the author gave Lin Su and Charlie packed an incredible punch.

GIVEAWAY

I’m giving away a paperback copy of Wildest Dreams to one lucky U.S. commenter.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

***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: Keeper’s Reach by Carla Neggers

Posted on August 31, 2015August 30, 2015 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | B Reviews> book reviews

Format read: ebook provided by the publisher via NetGalley
Formats available: hardcover, ebook, audiobook
Genre: romantic suspense
Series: Sharpe & Donovan #5
Length: 320 pages
Publisher: Harlequin MIRA
Date Released: August 25, 2015
Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Publisher’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Book Depository

Emma Sharpe and Colin Donovan, two of the FBI’s most valuable agents, are preparing for their next big assignment—their wedding—when Colin’s brother Mike alerts them that onetime friends from his military past are on Sharpe and Donovan home turf on the Maine coast. Now private security contractors, they want to meet with Mike. One of them, an FBI agent named Kavanagh, is supposed to be on leave. What is he investigating—or does he have his own agenda?

Mike zeroes in on Naomi MacBride, a freelance civilian intelligence analyst who, aside from a few hot nights, has never brought him anything but trouble. Newly returned from England, Naomi clearly isn’t telling Mike everything about why she’s snooping around his hometown, but he has no choice but to work with her if he wants to uncover what’s really going on.

But the case soon takes a drastic turn—Emma is targeted, and a connection surfaces between Naomi and Kavanagh and a recently solved international art theft case. Not every connection is a conspiracy, but as the tangled web of secrets unravels, Emma and Colin face their greatest danger yet. With everyone they know involved, they must decide who they can trust… or lose everything for good.

My Review:

I got hooked on the Sharpe & Donovan series a few books ago, and at this point I’ve read them all. If you like romantic suspense featuring a couple of smart but opposite FBI Agents, start with Saint’s Gate (reviewed here).

I’m also saying start at the beginning if you’re interested in the new book, because the story relies a lot on past events and relationships. For series fans, it’s a solid entry, but it does not stand alone.

This story takes place in Maine, as much of the series does. Colin and Emma originally hail from two relatively close small towns on the Maine Coast – Rock Point for Colin and Heron’s Cove for Emma. Even though they are relatively close in age, they never met growing up. Rock Point seems to have been mostly blue-collar, and Heron’s Cove is more middle and upper-middle class. Colin’s family owns an inn, and one of his brothers is a lobsterman, while another does wilderness adventure tours on Maine’s Bold Coast.

Emma’s family are world-renowned art detectives. They recover precious art that someone else has stolen. And that’s where a lot of the background of this particular story takes root. For a decade, Emma’s grandfather Wendell has been chasing one particularly challenging thief. In the previous book in the series, Harbor Island (reviewed here) Emma finally tracks the man down, only to discover that her grandfather’s art thief is a wealthy Brit with a dual identity who has covered his tracks way too well.

But now that the jig is up, Oliver Fairbarn/Oliver York has been quietly giving all of his stolen work back to the folks he stole it from. This is mostly a win/win, but Oliver is still rightfully worried that Interpol, or more likely MI5, is going to come knocking on his door.

Instead he gets a freelance intelligence analyst, a secretive FBI agent, and a possible unknown third party who attacks his assistant and takes his insane quest back to the U.S., only to deliver it to Colin Donovan and Emma Sharpe – in a very roundabout fashion.

But that’s what finally gets him caught. Along with thinking that he is much, much cleverer than anyone chasing him.

It almost works.

Escape Rating B-: Keeper’s Reach, as I said at the beginning, is not a good entry point for this series. Everyone in this book knows everyone else, and series readers will be familiar with the background. While the events that happen within the story are well-explained, there is a lot of nuance in the background that newbies will miss.

The story is all about everyone’s past. Colin’s brother Mike is the wilderness tour guide. His self-exile to a remote cabin on the Bold Coast is Mike’s way of finding healing after a lot of shit he went through in the Army. In Afghanistan.

But Mike’s experiences are all coming back to haunt him. The group that he worked with are all coming to Maine to see him, and to see if he can be recruited to do private security work. They are invading his territory, and bringing a lot of shit with them.

The weird thing about the group is that none of them seem to really trust each other. They all worked together, but there’s also the possibility that there was a traitor in their midst even back then. And none of these folks are people to whom trust comes easily.

None of this is helped by Mike’s romantic history with intelligence analyst Naomi MacBride. They had chemistry then, and they have chemistry now, but Naomi has a way of rushing in and putting herself in harm’s way that Mike doesn’t trust.

The story is told in the third person, but the perspective moves from one to another as the scene shifts. This worked well in Harbor Island, but it doesn’t here.

One of the many things that go wrong in this story is that Emma gets kidnapped early on. She rescues herself about halfway through, but her kidnapping takes her out of the main action for too long. I missed her point of view.

With Emma out of the way, a lot of the story is told from Naomi MacBride’s perspective. Naomi may be an intelligence analyst, but she is too emotionally involved in what is going on. She makes an unreliable narrator, in that she doesn’t seem to tell herself everything she’s thinking, and none of the other players in this game trust her (or each other) and everyone is investigating everyone else and keeping important secrets.

The story got much better when Emma got herself out of her prison, but then she shipped herself off to England to investigate that part of the trail. I missed her common sense perspective on events. A lot.

***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: A New Hope by Robyn Carr + Giveaway

Posted on June 30, 2015July 16, 2015 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | B Reviews> blog tours> book reviews> Giveaways

Format read: ebook provided by the publisher via NetGalley
Formats available: paperback, ebook, audiobook
Genre: contemporary romance
Series: Thunder Point #8
Length: 336 pages
Publisher: Harlequin MIRA
Date Released: June 30, 2015
Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Publisher’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Book Depository

After losing her child, Ginger Dysart was lost in grief. But since moving to Thunder Point, a small town on the Oregon coast, and with the help of her cousin Ray Anne, Ginger is finally moving forward. Her job at the flower shop is peaceful and fulfilling, and she’s excited to start her first big assignment, assisting with the Lacoumette wedding.

In spite of her lasting heartache, Ginger finds herself swept up in the pleasure of the occasion. But the beauty of the Lacoumette farm and the joy of the gregarious family are ruined by an unfortunate encounter with the bride’s brother, Matt. Struggling with painful memories of his own recent divorce, Matt makes a drunken spectacle of himself and Ginger when he tries to make a pass at her, forcing Ginger to flee the scene in embarrassment.

But when Matt shows up at the flower shop determined to make amends, what started out as a humiliating first meeting blossoms into something much deeper than either of them expected. Discovering they have a lot in common, they form a solid friendship, though everyone around them worries that Ginger will end up with a broken heart yet again. But if Ginger has the courage to embrace the future, and if Matt can finally learn to let go of the past, there may still be hope for a happy ending.

My Review:

Welcome back to Thunder Point Oregon, where everyone gets a second chance at love, and at finding their own happily ever after. It’s a place where you make your family out of your friends as well as whoever you were born to, and where if you don’t have enough strength on your own to see you through there is always someone willing to pay someone else in town forwards by helping you out.

This is a place that I would love to visit.

A New Hope is kind of a continuation of One Wish (reviewed here). In One Wish, Grace Dillon and Troy Headly find that they are perfect for each other, even if they couldn’t possibly come from different starting places. But at the end of the story, while Grace and Troy are ready to get married, Grace is also dealing with the news that her domineering mother has ALS. And Grace is pregnant.

So a big chunk of the story in A New Hope is the finishing up of that story. Much of the action revolves around Grace and Troy’s wedding, and their need to get a house ready for Grace’s increasingly infirm mother. Everyone in town pitches in to finish the house, get Winnie settled, and get everyone in town for a beach wedding before Grace is too pregnant to fit into her wedding dress.

But the very beginning is at Peyton’s wedding to Scott, after their story in The Promise (reviewed here). It’s a big wedding on Peyton’s family’s farm, and the Lacoumettes invited everyone in their vast extended family, and everyone in Thunder Point, to the celebration.

Two people aren’t really celebrating. Matt Lacoumette, Peyton’s brother, is drunk and belligerent. His failed marriage started in a wedding just like Peyton’s, less than two years ago. He’s divorced and bitter and not sure where to go with his life. He’s angry with his ex, and doesn’t want to fail again.

Ginger Dysart is finally recovering from the end of her own marriage and the death of her infant son to SIDS. It’s been a long road back from gripping depression for Ginger, and she’s only at the wedding to help her boss Grace with the flowers.

Grieving Ginger and Mad Matt collide. Matt is drunk and grabby, and Ginger clocks him one. He hits the deck, and from that very inauspicious beginning, the start of a beautiful friendship is surprisingly born.

They find that they can share anything with each other, because they’ve both been wounded in the same way. Someone they thought they loved failed them, and they failed themselves.

Out of that healing, they find love. But where Ginger has been able to let her selfish ex go, Matt seems to be unable to forgive himself for things that are too painful to reveal. He can’t let himself grieve and move on, because he can’t let himself confess that he has something to grieve for.

Matt and Ginger are more alike than they ever knew. But they can’t build a future together if Matt keeps dragging the past behind them both.

Escape Rating B+: As much as I love this series, I think we’ve reached the point where player needs to meet scorecard. This is a series about a small, tight-knit community, and everyone is involved in everyone else’s business. A lot of the action that isn’t directly part of Matt and Ginger’s romance takes place at Cooper’s beach bar and grill. Cooper’s story started the whole series off in The Wanderer (reviewed here) and that is going back a ways.

Also, the characters in this entry, and the rest of the series, are usually introduced a book (or two, or three) before they get their romance. We get to know them first, and why they deserve to get that second chance at happiness. Everyone is related to everyone else, and everyone helps everyone else out. It makes Thunder Point feel like a wonderful town. But the relationships are getting beautifully dense for those of us who have followed the series from the beginning.

It’s impossible not to like Ginger. Although her ability to forgive her ex seems like it’s a bit too good to be true, once we see the whole picture, it does make sense. And she was in such a deep well of depression when she showed up at Ray Anne’s doorstep in One Wish. She’s had her heartbreak, and with her aunt’s help and a lot of her own pluck she has emerged older, sadder and wiser. Wise enough to let herself fall in love again without letting herself get stuck in her old pattern of waiting on tenterhooks for scraps of affection.

At first, Matt seems like an irredeemable jerk. He gets better. He has also learned from his mistakes, he just hasn’t grieved them yet and gotten them out of his system, so he occasionally gets mad at Ginger for stuff that has nothing to do with her and everything to do with the reasons his first marriage failed. She calls him on his crap and makes him clean it up before she’s willing to make things permanent.

This time, it looks like Ginger and Matt are finally going to marry the right people. They just have to work for it a bit first.

As is usual for this series, while we are enjoying Matt and Ginger’s romance, we are also introduced to the people who will be featured in the next book, Wildest Dreams. I can’t wait to see how this one is going to turn out!

GIVEAWAY

I’m giving away a copy of A New Hope to one lucky U.S. winner!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

***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: A Match for Marcus Cynster by Stephanie Laurens

Posted on May 12, 2015May 16, 2015 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | B Reviews> blog tours> book reviews

Format read: ebook provided by the publisher via NetGalley
Formats available: paperback, ebook, large print audiobook
Genre: historical romance
Series: Cynsters #23
Length: 448 pages
Publisher: Harlequin MIRA
Date Released: May 26, 2015
Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Publisher’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Book Depository

Restless and impatient, Marcus Cynster waits for Fate to come calling. He knows his destiny lies in the lands surrounding his family home, but what will his future be? Equally importantly, with whom will he share it?

Of one fact he feels certain: his fated bride will not be Niniver Carrick. His elusive neighbor attracts him mightily, yet he feels compelled to protect her—even from himself. Fickle Fate, he’s sure, would never be so kind as to decree that Niniver should be his. The best he can do for them both is to avoid her.

Niniver has vowed to return her clan to prosperity. The epitome of fragile femininity, her delicate and ethereal exterior cloaks a stubborn will and an unflinching devotion to the people in her care. She accepts that in order to achieve her goal, she cannot risk marrying and losing her grip on the clan’s reins to an inevitably controlling husband. Unfortunately, many local men see her as their opportunity.

Soon, she’s forced to seek help to get rid of her unwelcome suitors. Powerful and dangerous, Marcus Cynster is perfect for the task. Suppressing her wariness over tangling with a gentleman who so excites her passions, she appeals to him for assistance with her peculiar problem.

Although at first he resists, Marcus discovers that, contrary to his expectations, his fated role is to stand by Niniver’s side and, ultimately, to claim her hand. Yet in order to convince her to be his bride, they must plunge headlong into a journey full of challenges, unforeseen dangers, passion, and yearning, until Niniver grasps the essential truth—that she is indeed a match for Marcus Cynster.

My Review:

I had read most of the early Cynster books a while back – it looks like I stopped at 15, Temptation and Surrender. So I knew enough of the early background without remembering each and every detail.

I remember enjoying the books, so I’m not sure why I stopped. After having read A Match for Marcus Cynster, I’m really, really not sure why I stopped, because I just plain enjoyed the heck out of this one.

On the other hand, I think I’m glad that I haven’t read the most recent previous book The Tempting of Thomas Carrick. Based on the descriptions of past events in Marcus’ book, it’s obvious that very recently a lot of bad things happened to a lot of good people. In Match, we find out just enough, without having to deal with the horrible events as they occurred.

The resolution of those events forms the backdrop for this book. And we learn quite enough to make that backdrop make sense.

Niniver Carrick has become the Lady of Clan Carrick after what can best be described as a series of extremely unfortunate events. While it appeared that her oldest brother Nigel murdered their father, the early events in Match show that next-brother Nolan was the real murderer, and that he murdered Nigel as well, leaving Niniver and her youngest brother Norris as the last members of the leading family of Clan Carrick.

Niniver has also discovered that her two older brothers’ machinations and gambling debts have left the clan in a gigantic financial mess. With time and care, it can be sorted out, but Niniver expects that someone else will have that sorting. While the Carrick family have been the traditional Lairds of Clan Carrick, her remaining brother doesn’t want the leadership, and Niniver assumes that she is ineligible.

The clan decrees otherwise, and votes Niniver in as Lady Carrick.

Leaving Niniver with a personal dilemma. She is not married. Now that she is Lady Carrick she believes that she will never find a man who would be willing to marry her but not attempt to wrest the leadership of the clan out from under her. It’s a realistic fear in her time and place.

The clan will not follow anyone but her. They trust her and no one else. If some putative husband attempts to usurp her power, it will fracture the clan, and she knows it. But the law is otherwise, her husband would expect to take over everything she owns and holds, not understanding that leadership of the clan is given, not inherited, and that that leadership is based on trust and not merely the right of inheritance.

Of course for any casual reader of the Cynster stories, or just by learning about Marcus Cynster from the pages of this book, it is easy to see that the men of the Cynster family have learned better. As a group, they have found, or been forced to realize at dear cost, that a marriage of equals is a much happier and more fulfilling marriage for both parties.

Marcus is perfectly suited to marry Niniver. He knows how to support her from beside or if necessary behind her, because he’s seen the men of his family support their wives the same way. Even better, he has loved Niniver from afar for years. He just has no idea if she feels the same, or if she feels much at all.

Until circumstances force her hand. The younger, unmarried men all seem to be contesting for Niniver’s hand, in spite of her continued refusals and rebuffs. She is caught between a rock and a hard place – many of their fathers are influential in the clan, and she can’t afford to alienate their support. But their sons are not just acting like buffoons, but their continued flouting of her authority is shaking the foundations of her leadership.

Niniver has to admit that she needs a man to run off these young louts in a manner which brooks no argument – with fists if necessary. She calls upon her neighbor, Marcus Cynster, for his assistance in this matter, and tries to ignore her own feelings. She has loved Marcus for years, but has no idea of his feelings for her. She assumes that he is like all the other men of his class, instead of looking at his family for examples. (Her immediate family was never the supportive type, she has no concept of the close-knit nature of his.)

Each of them believes that a few days of Marcus in residence at Carrick House will teach the young men a lesson. Neither of them reckons on an outsider who is stirring up trouble in the hopes of taking his own advantage.

And neither of them counts on the continued danger drawing them so close that they are able to step past all of the own reservations – and irrevocably towards each other.

Escape Rating B+: As I said at the beginning, I enjoyed the heck out of this book. It’s not just that Niniver and Marcus are very likeable, although they definitely are, but that their romance, that neither one of them is willing to admit is a romance, fits the characters and the situation so well.

As a heroine, Niniver is a treat. It is difficult in a historical romance for the heroine to have not merely personal but also professional agency in a way that does not feel anachronistic. Upper class women just didn’t aspire to careers, at least within the pages of historical romance. But Niniver is a leader, and in a way that feels like it is reasonably possible in her time and place. And she recognizes that the leadership is both a privilege and at times a burdensome responsibility.

She reasons, mostly correctly, that she can either be the Lady or be married, but not both. Eventually she, or rather the clan, might be in a financial position where a change in leadership would be survivable, but that time is not now.

I’ll confess to a bit of concern about her affair with Marcus. Not because she decides to have one, but that no one ever considers what will need to occur if she gets pregnant. Not that Marcus wouldn’t be thrilled to marry her under any circumstances, but for a woman who does a great deal of forward planning, this particular blindspot loomed a bit large.

Marcus is a good match for Niniver because he knows what he is getting into from the very beginning. She, or her position, don’t change his essential nature. He knows from the outset that Niniver needs a consort and not a Lord, and he understands and is willing to fulfill that role from the start. He protects her and supports her – it is her right and duty to conduct business for the clan. He usually manages to hit just the right note. And it’s not an act – he’s adopting the role he hopes to have from the beginning of their relationship.

Almost all of Laurens’ heroes and heroines have a difficult time either admitting they love each other or at least managing to say it to each other. This often results in a minor misunderstandammit late in the story, as is the case here.

However, the suspense element in this book nearly makes that misunderstanding fatal. Niniver is rightfully wary of any friends of her older brothers, because the fast crowd they got involved with directly contributed to the financial mismanagement of the clan. One of their crowd keeps hanging around, and it is obvious to the reader from the very beginning that Ramsey McDougal is up to no good. It was so obvious that he was behind all of Niniver’s current troubles that I kept wanting to shake Niniver and Marcus out of their complacency long before they finally figured out what MacDougall was up to.

So, although the villain was a bit bwahaha predictable, the hero and heroine were generally terrific. A Match for Marcus Cynster is a good book to read on a hot day, dreaming of the breeze over the Highlands. (Extra points for the creative use of THE love scene from Star Wars)

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

***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: Never Too Late by Robyn Carr + Giveaway

Posted on March 31, 2015March 30, 2015 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | B Reviews> blog tours> book reviews> Giveaways

Format read: ebook provided by the publisher via NetGalley
Formats available: paperback, ebook
Genre: contemporary romance
Length: 336 pages
Publisher: Harlequin MIRA
Date Released: March 31, 2015
Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Publisher’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Book Depository

Clare Wilson is starting over. She’s had it with her marriage to a charming serial cheater. Even her own son thinks she’s given his father too many chances. With the support of her sisters, Maggie and Sarah, she’s ready to move on. Facing her fortieth birthday, Clare is finally feeling the rush of unadulterated freedom.

But when a near-fatal car accident lands Clare in the hospital, her life takes another detour. While recovering, Clare realizes she has the power to choose her life’s path. The wonderful younger police officer who witnessed her crash is over the moon for her. A man from her past stirs up long-buried feelings. Even her ex is pining for her. With enthusiasm and a little envy, her sisters watch her bloom.

Together, the sisters encourage each other to seek what they need to be happy. Along the way they all learn that it’s never too late to begin again.

My Review:

There’s something about Never Too Late that makes it seem like a precursor for the utterly marvelous Four Friends (reviewed here).

I say precursor because Never Too Late was originally published in 2006, and is being reissued in the wake of Four Friends’ success.

Instead of four friends, Never Too Late features three sisters. Clare, Maggie and Sarah have each come to a crossroads in their lives, and are in different places but possibly the same set of ruts. Then Clare has a life-altering automobile accident and in the stress of re-working her own life, all three sisters find themselves taking a sharp look at their own.

At the time of the accident, Clare and her husband Roger were separated. Again. Roger has a problem keeping his pants zipped, and Clare has left him. Again. She usually takes him back. Eventually. There have been a lot of good times in their marriage, and they have a teen-aged son they both love. Roger isn’t a bad husband, he just isn’t a faithful one, and never has been.

Clare stops by their house, which Roger is still living in, to drop off a birthday card and pick up some of her kitchen stuff. Roger said he was going to be out of town on his birthday. Instead, Clare finds him in their old bedroom boinking some blond. Or being boinked, since the blond is on top.

It’s finally enough to break Clare’s cycle of discovery, separation, reconciliation. In a strange way, Roger isn’t totally wrong this time. They are separated and have been for months at this point. But he lied about being out of town, and he’s doing it with someone else in their bed. It does blow away Clare’s willingness to reconcile – it finally makes her witness that he is never going to change.

She speeds away from the “scene of the crime” only to get stopped by a handsome young cop who clocks her 15 or 20 miles over the speed limit. He’s too smitten to write Clare a ticket, and Clare feels a boost from having a younger man hit on her.

It all goes to crap when she gets T-boned in the next intersection by a distracted driver who totally blows through a red light. Clare wakes up in the hospital in agony, shattered in more places than she ever imagined.

Physical therapy is going to take months, and her entire life is thrown out the window. Her sisters Maggie and Sarah rally round, along with their Dad, as they all pitch in to take care of Clare while she needs it.

But as Clare gets back on her feet, she makes changes in her life that will have far reaching consequences. And that handsome young police officer provides a much needed boost to her ego as well as a friend she can confide in, while Clare recovers and waits to see if there’s anything there beyond friendship and some really hot chemistry that her fractured pelvis won’t let her act on – yet.

At this point, it seems like the story is going to be about Clare moving into a new future with her hot cop, but instead, the story shifts.

In the middle of her divorce from philandering Roger, Clare discovers that she’s not ready to get into a serious relationship with someone new. She’s still getting her life on track. Unfortunately for Sam the cop, he’s fallen in love and wants to start a serious relationship right now.

But Clare’s sister Sarah is totally smitten with Sam, and when Clare moves out of her way, Sarah swoops in.

Meanwhile Maggie finally realizes that her perfect marriage isn’t really perfect. She can’t even remember the last time she had sex with her husband. Is the spark just gone, or is there a medical cause that can be fixed?

As Clare plans on a future without her ex, she looks for a job. She’s been a substitute teacher for years, but now she needs to go back full-time. Where she knows she’ll have to work with a former flame. She’s felt guilty for 19 years about her drunken one-night stand with Pete – because at the time she was engaged to his brother. A brother who later died in an Air Force training exercise. She’s never gotten over her guilt and regret, and Pete’s never gotten over her.

Escape Rating B: I enjoyed Never Too Late quite a bit. It was a good antidote for several excellent but scary, sad or just plain disturbing books that I read recently. You will finish Never Too Late with a smile on your face, and that’s always a good thing.

I’ll admit that I didn’t identify with the characters in the same way that I did Four Friends, so it didn’t quite “sing” for me.

The sisters make for interesting contrasts. Maggie is always organized and on top of things, Clare is always forgiving, and Sarah is always retreating into her own little world. After Clare’s accident, everything changes.

Clare has always been too accommodating. It’s not just that she sees the best in people, but she always tries to take care of everyone. And she’s too self-effacing about it, because she never takes care of herself. That she took Roger back over and over (and over) drove her family crazy. It also made them think less of her.

Her willingness to forgive Roger stems from her own need for forgiveness over her long-ago indiscretion. She feels like if she can’t give it, she can’t be worthy of it herself. What she needs to do is forgive herself, and for that she needs some closure with Pete.

Sarah’s pursuit of Sam comes a bit out of nowhere. As a teen, she was a wild child, and their mother was always after her about it. When their mother died, those issues were unresolved. (There are lots of unresolved issues in this story). In grief, or as penance, Sarah flip-flopped from being a wild child to a complete frump.

When she meets Sam, she falls into insta-lust, if not insta-love. But frumpy Sarah goes unnoticed. She finally steps out into the world, and celebrates herself again, in order to have a chance at sweeping Sam off his unsuspecting feet. The poor guy is on the rebound from Clare and doesn’t stand a chance.

The entire story wraps up a bit suddenly and a bit too easily at the end, but I really enjoyed my visit with Clare, Sarah and Maggie.

GIVEAWAY

Robyn and the tour organizers are giving away a copy of Never Too Late to one lucky U.S. winner.
a Rafflecopter giveaway

***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: One Wish by Robyn Carr + Giveaway

Posted on February 24, 2015February 23, 2015 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | B Reviews> blog tours> book reviews> Giveaways

Format read: ebook provided by the publisher via NetGalley
Formats available: paperback, ebook, hardcover
Genre: contemporary romance
Series: Thunder Point #7
Length: 384 pages
Publisher: Harlequin MIRA
Date Released: February 24, 2015
Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Publisher’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Book Depository

Grace Dillon was a champion figure skater until she moved to Thunder Point to escape the ruthless world of fame and competition. And though she’s proud of the quiet, self-sufficient life she’s created running a successful flower shop, she knows something is missing. Her life could use a little excitement.

In a community where there are few eligible singles, high school teacher Troy Headly appoints himself Grace’s fun coach. When he suggests a little companionship with no strings attached, Grace is eager to take him up on his offer, and the two enjoy…getting to know each other.

But things get complicated when Grace’s past catches up with her, and she knows that’s not what Troy signed up for. Faced with losing her, Troy realizes Grace is more than just a friend with benefits. He’s determined to help her fight for the life she always wished for but never believed she could have—and maybe they can find real love along the way.

My Review:

One of the features of Robyn Carr’s Thunder Point series is the way that she introduces new characters to the town for future romantic possibilities. The hero and heroine in this book have been in town for a while now. Troy Headley is a history teacher at Thunder Point High School. He came to Thunder Point for the extreme sports that are available nearby. Troy is an adrenaline junkee, but he is also a damn good teacher.

His failed romance with Iris McKinley formed some of the backdrop for The Homecoming (reviewed here). Where Troy failed, Seth Sileski returned from Iris’ past for a second chance at love. This leaves Troy at loose ends, there aren’t a lot of single women in the 20-40 age range in tiny Thunder Point. But in the wake of his breakup with Iris, Troy finally discovers Grace Dillon.

Grace has been there all along. She bought her flower shop from Iris after Iris’ mother died. But even though Grace and Iris have become best friends, Grace has mostly kept herself to herself. Because Grace has a big (but not bad) secret. Grace used to be Izzy (Grace Dillon) Banks, a world champion gold medal figure skater, who disappeared after she won everything at the Olympics.

Grace is hiding from her high-pressure past, and her even higher-pressure mother. She doesn’t want anyone to recognize Izzy Banks in Grace Dillon, because she’s happy and completely self-sufficient as Grace, while Izzy flamed out emotionally.

But Troy, in need of a playmate, sees Grace’s “ all work and no play” life as a challenge. He appoints himself her “fun coach” and gets her to take a bit of time off from her “nose to the grindstone” life for a few simple pleasures, like picnicking and watching movies.

They start out as friends, and eventually end up as friends with some very nice benefits. But even as they get more involved, as their relationship shifts from friendship to more – Grace keeps her very big secret to her very scared self.

It all crashes down when her domineering mother reappears in Grace Dillon’s life, through a couple of underhanded tricks designed to force Grace back into Izzy, or at least back to mother. When all is finally revealed, Grace discovers that she has a chance to make one of her very own wishes come true – she has a chance at a real relationship with her mother.

The only problem is that it is her last chance. And that once Troy discovers who Grace really is, he can’t figure out what place he can fill in her overwhelming rich, “old money” lifestyle. His case of testosterone-poisoned inferiority complex almost costs both of them everything they have found.

Escape Rating B+: I think my own personal “one wish” for the Thunder Point series would be that it go on forever. The only problem I can see is that if the town continues adding new people, it will eventually stop being a small town. But it would take a lot of books before that would happen.

I love Thunder Point. As each story unfolds, it becomes more and more a place I would actually want to live, if only to be able to have coffee and gossip with the marvelous people who live there. One of the terrific things about this series is the way that the author weaves in characters from previous books, so that we all know how everyone is doing.

As might have been obvious from my recent posting of a review a week in this series, I got behind and took this opportunity to catch up before One Wish came out. I’ve enjoyed the series a lot, it’s definitely become a comfort read between some of the creepier and spookier books I’ve had recently.

Back to Thunder Point. I will say that the plot of One Wish reminded me a LOT of an earlier book in the series, The Chance (reviewed here). Not just because Troy almost makes the same mistake that Eric did, but particularly because Grace’s relationship with her mother, and the ways that it goes wrong as well as the crisis forcing a final resolution is very, very similar to Laine’s relationship with her father. The dilemmas, and their attendant heartbreak, are all too similar.

Which does mean that I didn’t enjoy the story, because I did. The problems facing both women and their aging parents are all too real, as is the reality that it is usually women who end up dealing with the work and the fallout.

Troy and Grace are a terrific couple, and their friends-into-lovers romance burns slow but bright. I also liked the way that Carr introduced the next heroine, while giving us an update on a previous couple in the series. Ray Ann’s niece Ginger has come to town so that her aunt can help her get back on her feet after a tragedy. I wonder who will come to town to help Ginger reach her own happy ending.

I can’t wait to find out, hopefully in A New Hope, coming in July.

GIVEAWAY

Robyn is giving away a paperback copy of One Wish to one lucky U.S. winner.
a Rafflecopter giveaway

***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 Homecoming by Robyn Carr

Posted on February 16, 2015February 15, 2015 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | A Reviews> book reviews

Format read: ebook provided by the publisher via NetGalley
Formats available: paperback, ebook, audiobook, large print
Genre: contemporary romance
Series: Thunder Point #6
Length: 352 pages
Publisher: Harlequin MIRA
Date Released: August 26, 2014
Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Publisher’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Book Depository

At the age of nineteen, Seth Sileski had everything. A superb athlete and scholar, handsome and popular, he was the pride of Thunder Point. Destined for greatness, he lost it all in a terrible accident that put an end to his professional football career when it had barely begun. The people in his hometown have never forgotten what might have been.

Seth has come to terms with the turns his life has taken. But now he’s been presented with an opportunity to return home and show his father—and the people of Thunder Point—he’s become a better, humbler version of his former self.

Winning over his father isn’t the only challenge. Seth must also find a way to convince his childhood neighbor and best friend, Iris McKinley, to forgive him for breaking her heart. With his homecoming, will Seth be able to convince the town, his family and especially Iris that he’s finally ready to be the man who will make them all proud?

My Review:

I ended up reading this very late one night last week. I had just finished the book for Friday’s review at The Book Pushers and I really wanted something that would be lighter and have a happy ending. (That particular book was compelling but exceedingly dark, grim and twisted, and turned out to be not my cuppa). So I wanted to read about mostly good people who fix something in their world and find their happiness.

Robyn Carr’s Thunder Point series has always delivered, and The Homecoming was no exception – thank goodness!

I have reviewed the entire Thunder Point series so far, and next week I’ll finally be caught up to One Wish. But first, we have The Homecoming.

The one word titles for this series (so far) have always encompassed a facet of the main character and/or the plot. In this case, it is Seth’s Sileski’s homecoming. In high school, Seth was a star football player, and everyone expected him to have a stellar career in the pros. He was even drafted while still in college, and signed with the Seattle Seahawks. Then tragedy struck, in the form of testosterone poisoning and a career- ending car accident. Seth was going 80 in a 50 zone in his new Ferrari and t-boned a middle-aged man who ran a stop sign, driving while asleep from working overtime on a second-shift.

Seth’s career was over. The damage from the accident left him with a shattered leg. Although many surgeries and extensive rehab later, he was able to walk again, football was out of the question. Still, Seth was lucky. Oscar, the driver he hit, was left a quadriplegic, with a wife and children still to support, and no hope of ever working again.

Unbeknownst to everyone, Seth gave the remainder of his signing bonus to Oscar and his family, even though Seth won the civil suit. He was young and in comparatively better shape. He still had options. Oscar didn’t.

Seth took those options and finished his education in law enforcement. Then he had to apply, and apply, and apply for a job in the Sheriff’s Department. While he passed the physical every time, his limp made the Department nervous about his ability to chase down criminals. Eventually, they gave into his persistence, and signed him on as a Deputy. They were never sorry, and Seth found his calling.

A calling which has finally brought him back home to Thunder Point. Sheriff “Mac” McClain has been promoted to Lieutenant and transferred to the central office in Coquille. (Mac and Gina’s story is told in The Newcomer, reviewed here). Thunder Point needs a new Deputy Sheriff to run the substation, and Seth wants to come home. He wants to try to make peace with his father before its too late. And he wants to re-connect with the girl who got away. He just doesn’t know that he threw her away, and she still hasn’t forgiven him.

Iris and Seth were best friends from the age of 4 to the age of 17. There was only one thing wrong with that friendship – Iris fell in love with Seth, and Seth took her for granted and used her as a sounding board whenever he had problems with a girlfriend. Iris thought friendship was all she could get, until one night she dragged an extremely drunk Seth out of a party, and he cried on her shoulder because his girlfriend had cheated on him and they had broken up. In his drunken state, Seth never remembered that he invited Iris to the prom, and that they had taken each other’s mutual virginity.

Iris had had enough. For one weekend, she was over the moon with happiness – then Seth crushed her without a second thought. He blacked out most of the events of that night. Iris never forgot.

This reader is grateful that the author did not go the “secret baby” route. There were no physical consequences to that night, only emotional ones.

Now that Seth is back in town for good, he wants to figure out where his relationship with Iris went so horribly wrong, so that he can get things back on track. But he doesn’t want to be just best friends anymore. Iris is the one woman he has never been able to forget, and this time, he wants a chance at forever.

He just doesn’t know how much crow he’s going to have to eat first.

Escape Rating A-: I just plain loved this one. I recognize that some of that was “right book at right time”, but I still had so much fun that I was up until 3:30 am because I wanted to finish it.

Thunder Point is a place where everyone seems to get a second chance at love. Sometimes its a second chance with a first love, and sometimes its just a second chance they think they don’t deserve (sometimes both), but the good folks all get a chance to find their happily every after, even if they seriously blew it the first time in one way or another.

Iris is a terrific character. She’s a high school guidance counselor because she wants to help kids, and because the guidance counselor when she went to Thunder Point High was a useless waste of space. Iris was not the most popular or beautiful girl in high school (most of us aren’t) and she wants to watch out for the kids and give them the kind of help and advice she didn’t get.

The subplot in this story is about a girl who is being abused, but won’t admit it. Iris is tenacious at figuring out who the abuser is, and handling it properly even though she knows it is going to make a big stink and possibly cause her trouble. I also liked that all the officials involved did the right thing, regardless of the possible consequences to themselves. This is a town where everyone steps up when needed.

There’s also a minor subplot, or at least a thread that keeps floating around, that being at the pinnacle of success in high school is not necessarily a recipe for adult success or happiness. Seth recognizes that while the accident was definitely a blow, he may have come out of it a better person. Iris is certainly better adjusted and more successful than the girl she envied so much in high school.

I liked the way that Iris and Seth finally got together. Seth didn’t remember what had happened, and Iris hadn’t told him. While he needed to eat several helpings of “humble pie”, Iris needed to admit that she was holding him responsible for something that she had an equal share in. They were both 17 and dumb. It happens. She was also afraid to trust him again because he did take her for granted back then. He had to show that he had changed, that he wasn’t still that same boy.

The other heartwarming part of the story involves Seth’s relationship with his dad. Their lack of communication had led to all sorts of assumptions that needed to be straightened out. The scenes where the light finally dawns were warm, sweet and grumpy all at the same marvelous time.

***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 Promise by Robyn Carr

Posted on February 9, 2015February 8, 2015 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | B Reviews> book reviews

Format read: ebook provided by the publisher via NetGalley
Formats available: paperback, ebook, audiobook, large print
Genre: contemporary romance
Series: Thunder Point #5
Length: 363 pages
Publisher: Harlequin MIRA
Date Released: June 24, 2014
Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Publisher’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Book Depository

Scott Grant has a bustling family practice in the small Oregon community of Thunder Point. The town and its people have embraced the widowed doctor and father of two, his children are thriving, and Scott knows it’s time to move on from his loss. But as the town’s only doctor, the dating scene is awkward. That is, until a stunning physician’s assistant applies for a job at his clinic.

Peyton Lacoumette considers herself entirely out of the dating scene. She’s already been burned by a man with kids, and she’s come to Thunder Point determined not to repeat past mistakes. When Scott offers her a job, at a much lower salary than she’s used to, Peyton is surprisingly eager to accept…at least for now. She’s willing to stay for a three-month trial period while she explores other options.

Scott and Peyton know the arrangement is temporary—it isn’t enough time to build a real relationship, never mind anything with lasting commitment. But love can blossom faster than you think when the timing is right, and this short visit just might hold the promise of forever.

My Review:

The Promise in the title of this book is a promise that Peyton Lacoumette makes to Thunder Point’s only doctor, Scott Grant, that she will stay in Thunder Point as his physician’s assistant for three months.

Scott’s growing practice needs Peyton’s skills as a PA very badly, but the small town general practice can’t afford to pay the kind of salary that a top-notch PA with a stellar reputation like Peyton can command in either Portland or Seattle. Or anywhere else that Peyton might want to go.

But Peyton’s large and boisterous family owns a farm not-too-far from Thunder Point, and Peyton has come back to rural Oregon to recover from a relationship that strayed from the professional to the personal, and went horribly wrong.

When your lover is also your boss, when you break up with the former, it’s impossible to stay around the latter. Particularly after you discover that he’s been playing around with one of his nurses while he’s left you to attempt to deal with his spoiled, over-indulged, and even criminal teen-aged children, as well as managing his practice.

Peyton is broken-hearted half as much as she feels deceived, not just by her ex but by her own willingness to ignore all her reservations and sacrifice some of her self-esteem to keep trying to save a relationship that was never what she thought it was.

Peyton let herself be taken advantage of for three years, and she’s mad at herself. Also seriously questioning her own judgment about men, and possibly even about jobs.

Scott’s small-town practice seems like a perfect place to do good work, recover herself a bit and then see where she wants to go and what she wants to do.

What she doesn’t want to do is get involved with her new boss, or find herself taking care of his two young children. So on her first day on the job, Peyton is stuck babysitting little Will and Jenny while Scott rushes to the scene of a church-bus accident.

She expects to feel put-upon, and stuck in the same position she was with her ex, but the situations are nothing alike. Not just because Scott Grant is a widower and doesn’t even have a divorced ex to take care of the children, but because Scott has paid attention to his kids and given them both love and boundaries. Where Ted’s kids were deliberately terrifying, Scott’s kids are well-behaved and openly loving.

Peyton finds herself settling in to the warmth, charm and open-hearted friendliness of Thunder Point, while Scott can’t help but fall head over heels for his intelligent, beautiful and caring assistant. It doesn’t help his slide that his kids adore Peyton to pieces.

But Peyton faces doubts on every side. Or nearly every side. Scott’s kids really are adorable, well-behaved, and they definitely love her. While it may be easier for them to be more adorable at ages 4 and 5 then they will inevitably be as teenagers, Will and Jenny have a much better grounding, and a much better chance of turning out to be decent people, than Ted’s nightmare children.

It may help that Will and Jenny can’t hope for a reconciliation with their parents. With their mother dead, the best that they can hope for is a new mommy to make their dad and them happy.

Peyton also doubts whether the small-town life and small-town pace (along with the small-town salary) is really for her. Although she grew up on a family farm, she has loved her life in the big city. At the same time, Scott offers her the chance to be a real partner in his practice, doing good medicine, and she can’t help but be tempted.

And sweet and loving Scott, along with the welcoming town of Thunder Point, steal her heart.

Escape Rating B+: Unlike some of the earlier entries in the Thunder Point series, the romance in this one is front and center. Peyton and Scott both try to resist their attraction, but as the days turn into weeks, they slowly, inevitably, succumb.

In this love story, the reasons that they might resist are all issues that they can overcome, if they just open their hearts and minds.

Mostly that opening is on Peyton’s part. Scott’s only reservation is that Peyton keeps saying that her stay in Thunder Point is temporary. It’s up to him to convince her that life in this marvelous little town will satisfy her personal and professional goals.

Peyton is rightly gun-shy. When her ex barges onto the scene to demand that she come back, she completely rejects him. He’s a selfish bastard, and she finally sees that in all its glory. But she can’t help but be drawn back in when one of his daughters reaches out to her in an hour of desperate need.

Scott finds himself afraid that Peyton will return to Ted’s cushy practice and high-living lifestyle. He compares his small-town practice and low-key life and feels like he comes up short. He pushes Peyton away just at the point where she’s sure of her priorities.

The push-pull of their relationship feels real. They’ve both been independent for quite a while. They are both afraid to need and to trust. It takes a return to their roots for both of them to figure out that their future is together.

***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 Chance by Robyn Carr

Posted on January 27, 2015January 26, 2015 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | B Reviews> book reviews

Format read: ebook provided by the publisher via NetGalley
Formats available: paperback, ebook, hardcover, audiobook
Genre: contemporary romance
Series: Thunder Point #4
Length: 368 pages
Publisher: Harlequin MIRA
Date Released: February 25, 2014
Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Publisher’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Book Depository

With its breathtaking vistas and down-to-earth people, Thunder Point is the perfect place for FBI agent Laine Carrington to recuperate from a gunshot wound and contemplate her future. The locals embraced Laine as one of their own after she risked her life to save a young girl from a dangerous cult. Knowing her wounds go beyond the physical, Laine hopes she’ll fit in for a while and find her true self in a town that feels safe. She may even learn to open her heart to others, something an undercover agent has little time to indulge.

Eric Gentry is also new to Thunder Point. Although he’s a man with a dark past, he’s determined to put down roots and get to know the daughter he only recently discovered. When Laine and Eric meet, their attraction is obvious to everyone. But while the law enforcement agent and the reformed criminal want to make things work, their differences may run too deep…unless they take a chance on each other and find that deep and mysterious bond that belongs to those who choose love over fear.

My Review:

Now that I’m on my fourth book in Robyn Carr’s Thunder Point series, I have come to a couple of conclusions.

Thunder Point is a really terrific small town, one that I might like to live in. Possibly live in more than visit – it seems like it is not unconscionably far from Portland, or even Seattle, but still has the small-town feel that turns newcomers into friends very easily.

Thunder Point also seems to be the place where second chances finally make it all the way to the finish line, no matter how much has gone wrong in between. Sometimes its a second chance at a first love, and sometimes its a second chance in life. Most of us need one of those sometime in our lives, so that idea has a lot of resonance.

(Bliss County Wyoming, in Linda Lael Miller’s Brides of Bliss County series, seems to be another place of the same lovely type. More on that Thursday)

Back in Thunder Point, Eric and Laine are both people who have come to Thunder Point for a second chance at something. Eric is there for a second chance with the daughter he never knew he had. (The mother of said daughter married the sheriff back in The Newcomer (reviewed here))

Laine was the undercover FBI agent who rescued Devon and her daughter Mercy, and helped shut down the cult in The Hero (reviewed here). Laine is taking some leave from the FBI to recuperate from her gunshot wound and to do some reassessment about what she wants from her life. She’s also on the west coast to get as far away as possible from her father on the east coast. Dad has always disapproved of Laine’s career in the FBI, but on her last visit, he said that she wasn’t saving lives or doing anything important by being an agent, and that he wasn’t interested in watching her get a medal for wasting her life.

If you think there is something wrong with that scenario, you are not alone. Because the other chance that Laine needs is a chance to have a real relationship with her father, before it is too late.

Eric and Laine gravitate towards each other instantly, even though neither of them is looking for a relationship. Eric is working all hours starting a new business in town, and Laine is only planning to be in the area for six months at the most. Fortunately, or perhaps unfortunately, neither of them is the type of person for casual sex. They are both in their 30s, and casual hookups have lost their appeal.

They are the last two people who should ever get together. Laine is an FBI agent, and part of Eric’s past where he never checked up on the possibility that he left his girlfriend pregnant all those years ago included 5 years in prison for a crime committed by his friends. But they had involved parents, and he was wild and on his own. But those 5 years made him examine his life and turn it around before it was too late.

So Eric and Laine walk into this relationship trying not to think about the expiration date until they are both in much too deep to think of walking away. And then a kind of backwards miracle happens.

Laine’s father shows up on her doorstep, with no luggage but an intense desire to straighten out their relationship while he still can. Her father is a doctor, and has been self-medicating for Alzheimer’s for several years. His time to make amends is running out. But as his symptoms increase, Senior not only needs Laine more than ever, but he has finally come to appreciate her.

Laine finally has the relationship with her father that she always wanted, but at a terrible price. He is slipping away, but in order to give him the best care she can, Laine has to go back east and make arrangements that take forever.

Nearly letting her relationship with Eric slip away in her exhaustion and frustration. The rest of her family has to stage an intervention to get her to go back home to see if the man she loves is still waiting for her.

Escape Rating B+: Having read four of the books in this series, it’s starting to feel like one single long and lovely story. Each book flows right into the next, almost seamlessly. And while I think you could pick up the series at almost any point, I can’t imagine why anyone would. Thunder Point is a terrific place and its a joy to spend time there.

That being said, each book does have a defined beginning, middle and end, and the major threads of the single story are pretty much resolved by the end of the book. (The exception to this is the first two books, The Wanderer and The Newcomer. That really is one story.)

In this fourth book, we do get glimpses of people we’ve met in the previous books, especially the ones who helped rescue Liane and Devon’s daughter Mercy at the end of The Hero. They are all important people in Laine’s life, and she feels a lot of gratitude, as well as the experience of shared danger that never goes away.

Because the big problem in this stoy is about Laine’s relationship with her dad, rather than a direct crisis in her relationship with Eric, we see a lot more of Laine than we do Eric, or we spend more time inside her head. She wants her father’s approval, and she feels she has never had it. It’s a gaping wound in her life that she can’t move past. Most of us have difficulty moving past issues with our parents.

Laine didn’t do what was expected, the way that her brother did. So it seemed as if her father gave Pax his conditional approval and benefit of the doubt, where Laine always got an argument. Most parents would be proud of Laine’s job. Most parents would also be scared to death. But with our parents, our logic and theirs tends to go out the window. Dad wanted her safe, and he acted as if the only way to achieve that was to suppress who she was. The way that their relationship gets patched up in the middle of a dreadful crisis was sadly wonderful.

Laine’s dilemma was realistically portrayed. Her father really does need her, and he clings to her. She has the relationship with him that she has always wanted. She is also caught in the mental and emotional trap that the only way to take care of him properly is to do it all herself. Which is unrealistic and exhausting and emotionally draining, but Laine past the point where she couldn’t find a solution through her exhaustion.

This was a bittersweet happy ending that felt emotionally right.

***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: Harbor Island by Carla Neggers + Giveaway

Posted on September 8, 2014September 13, 2014 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | B Reviews> blog tours> book reviews> Giveaways

Format read: ebook provided by NetGalley
Formats available: ebook, hardcover, audiobook
Genre: romantic suspense
Series: Sharpe & Donovan, #4
Length: 352 pages
Publisher: Harlequin MIRA
Date Released: August 26, 2014
Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Publisher’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Book Depository

Emma Sharpe, granddaughter of world-renowned art detective Wendell Sharpe, is a handpicked member of a small Boston-based FBI team. For the past decade Emma and her grandfather have been trailing an elusive serial art thief. The first heist was in Ireland, where an ancient Celtic cross was stolen. Now the Sharpes receive a replica of the cross after every new theft—reminding them of their continued failure to capture their prey.

When Emma receives a message that leads her to the body of a woman on a small island in Boston Harbor, she finds the victim holding a small, cross-inscribed stone—one she recognizes all too well. Emma’s fiancé, FBI deep-cover agent Colin Donovan, is troubled that she’s gone off to the island alone, especially given the deadly turn the thief has taken. But as they dig deeper they are certain there is more to this murder than meets the eye.

As the danger escalates, Emma and Colin must also face do-or-die questions about their relationship. While there’s no doubt they are in love, can they give their hearts and souls to their work and have anything left for each other? There’s one thing Emma and Colin definitely agree on: before they can focus on their future, they must outwit one of the smartest, most ruthless killers they’ve ever encountered.

My Review:

I was introduced to the Sharpe and Donovan series with last year’s Declan’s Cross (reviewed here), the third book in this romantic suspense/mystery series. Being a completist, I went back and read the prequel novella, Rock Point, and the first two books in the series, Saint’s Gate (review) and Heron’s Cove (review), so that I could get up to speed.

All of that catching up certainly came in handy when I got to Harbor Island, because all of the characters who have had important roles in the previous books get major parts (and have major parts of their arcs resolved) in this story. And, the quest that has been driving the entire Sharpe family of art detectives crazy for ten years also acquires some new twists and turns.

That bit is resolved, and it isn’t, both at the same time, which was pretty cool. But I’m not giving it away.

Sharpe and Donovan are two FBI agents who fell in love while investigating a murder. Both Emma Sharpe and Colin Donovan are Mainers, but Emma Sharpe grew up in middle-class Heron’s Cove, while Colin Donovan spent his childhood in the rough and tumble fishing village of Rock Island.

Emma’s family are well-respected and relatively well-to-do art detectives. Colin’s family were fishermen and innkeepers. They came to the FBI from very different roads, and have very different jobs. Emma uses her knowledge of art history to track down art thieves. Colin is an undercover agent.

When one of her art thieves turned out to be his mob boss undercover assignment, they found each other. For the moment, her art thieves have turned up so many murders that Colin has been able to have a relatively regular assignment with the Boston High Impact Team, where Emma is stationed.

Harbor Island is yet another convoluted case where Emma’s art thieves turn to murder and mayhem in both New England and olde Ireland, allowing the chase to involve their friend Sean Murphy, a senior investigator with the Garda.

The Sharpe family of art detectives has been investigating a string of high end art thefts that have been going on for ten years, starting in Sean Murphy’s patch at Declan’s Cross. When a woman starts probing that string of art thefts for a possible movie, someone turns to murder.

But no one who has ever been involved in the case thinks that it’s their thief. So who is targeting Emma, and why?

Escape Rating B+: There has been a large cast of fascinating characters involved in the entire Sharpe and Donovan series, and it seems like every single one of them has a part to play in Harbor Island. As much as I enjoyed Harbor Island, and I did very much, I was extremely glad that I had read the other books first. These people have a lot of intertwined relationships, and the story is better if you know who the players are and what parts they are playing. (Start with Saint’s Gate)

Emma is the primary investigator (and target) in this one. The crime seems to be wrapped up in her family’s long-running search for that mysterious thief. Not only was the first victim following in the Sharpe family footsteps, but she was poking her nose into lots of lives and secrets that no one wanted revealed–even in a fictionalized version.

As the victim’s last movements are traced from Boston to LA to Maine to Ireland and back, it seems as if she stirred up multiple hornet’s nests; accusing relatively innocent parties of being the notorious thief, and alienating her family with her relentless pursuit of her project, intending to use someone else’s money to make it happen.

There’s always a question, did the thief kill her, did she expose something else she shouldn’t have, or did her family finally explode? The answers are a surprise.

And in the background, we have a forbidden love story simmering, and the second chance at a happy ending for an estranged married couple, mixed with a fascinating exploration of art and murder.

TOURWIDE

We’re giving away a copy of Harbor Island to one lucky (U.S.) commenter!

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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.

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