Review: Have Yourself a Curvy Little Christmas by Sugar Jamison

Posted on September 30, 2014September 28, 2014 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | B Reviews> book reviews

Format read: ebook provided by NetGalley
Formats available: ebook, paperback (included in On the Naughty List)
Genre: contemporary romance
Series: Perfect Fit, #1.5
Length: 111 pages
Publisher: St. Martin’s Paperbacks
Date Released: October 1, 2013
Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Publisher’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo

On the first day of Christmas, former wild child Dina Gregory returns home to New York on a mission: To find the father of her young son. Making him take responsibility for the child he helped create is the only thing on Dina’s wish list. Instead, she finds herself in an awkward run-in with his stuffy older brother, Ben.

Ben has never liked Dina. But he can’t help but admire her tenacity—and her bold beauty. Being trapped together during a holiday blizzard offers him a glimpse into what it would be like to have a family, and to fall truly in love. Could it be that Dina has reignited his Christmas spirit? The only thing Ben knows for sure is that her heart is a gift to behold…and he will never let go.

My Review:

It may be slightly early to start reviewing Christmas books, but this novella is such a treat that I couldn’t resist.

This is a combination of second chance at love with the old (but often good) trope about two people being snowbound together and finding out that they love each other after all.

Throw in a little of Dickens’ Christmas Carol and you’ve probably got the picture. And it’s a lovely one.

Ben Rowe has given up on Christmas, and pretty much given up on everything other than work, for the nine years since his wife died. Yes, he loved her, but there is a heck of a lot of guilt mixed into that love, and it seems like he’s punishing himself by becoming kind of a hermit.

A very hot and sexy hermit, but a hermit just the same. At least until Dina Gregory and her little boy Dash break into his isolation.

Because Dina’s little boy is also Ben’s nephew, one that he didn’t know existed. Not that his late brother Virgil didn’t get around enough to leave a whole string of children, but Virgil never mentioned Dash before he died, living fast as usual, in an accident.

He knew Virgil left behind a half million dollars in debts, but not a child. Ben’s picking up Virgil’s pieces just as he always has, but this is one piece that he didn’t know was there. But it’s one he really wants to pick up.

Dash looks just like Ben. Suddenly he feels as if he has a son. Or that he could. But the Dash package comes with Dina, a woman who thinks he never liked her. In fact, he liked her just a bit too much.

She blows into his life with her son, and the more they become involved, the more he realizes that he can’t go back to the empty existence that he used to have.

What he doesn’t count on is falling in love with this woman who is brash and outspoken and doesn’t take any crap from anyone. Dina might be willing to marry him to give Dash a father and a future, but only if her heart is not engaged.

Once it is, she realizes that she can’t settle for less than love. But Ben can’t seem to let go of his first wife, or his guilt.

Escape Rating B+: Have Yourself a Curvy Little Christmas is short and sweet, and full of hilarious banter between Dina and Ben. It’s not just that she knows what she wants, but she knows who she is and isn’t planning to change.

There is a lot of heartwarming in the story. We’ve met Dina before, in the first book in the series, Dangerous Curves Ahead (reviewed here) and she is much more the selfish villainess than a potential heroine. Having Dash changes Dina for the better, makes her much (MUCH) less selfish and self-absorbed.

But the events in Dangerous Curves Ahead have left her estranged from her family. Ben does something really terrific to mend that rift, but Dina has already made herself worthy of the mending.

Ben is the character who has a lot to get past in the story. The stick that seems to be stuck up his ass in the beginning has a lot of grief and a lot of guilt wrapped around it. Dash and Dina bring him back to life in a way that was sweet and sassy and kick starts him back to living again.

The series continues in Thrown for a Curve (reviewed at The Book Pushers) and today’s review book over at The Book Pushers, Gentlemen Prefer Curves. While Have Yourself a Curvy Little Christmas does not feature the absolutely marvelous Perfect Fit clothing store, it was fun to see Dina reform and get her own happy ending.

***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: Dangerous Seduction by Zoë Archer

Posted on June 11, 2014June 15, 2014 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | A Reviews> book reviews

Format read: ebook provided by Edelweiss
Formats available: ebook, paperback, mass market paperback
Genre: historical romance
Series: Nemesis, Unlimited, #2
Length: 385 pages
Publisher: St. Martin’s Paperbacks
Date Released: November 26, 2013
Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Publisher’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Book Depository

Alyce Carr has no time for the strange man in her little Cornwall village, no matter how breathtakingly handsome he is. Life in Trewyn doesn’t allow for much fun—the managers of the copper mine barely provide the miners and their families with enough food. Outsiders are suspect and flirts are unimaginable, but Simon Sharpe is as keen as his name…and Alyce can’t ignore him for long.

As the founder of Nemesis, Unlimited, Simon Addison-Shawe is well accustomed to disguise and deceit. Yet he’s not prepared for Alyce’s dogged defense of her people and the injustices the copper mine has dealt them. With Alyce’s help he can change the fate of an entire town, and convincing her to join him is only part of the thrill. Together, they ignite a desire in each other much too powerful to deny. But at what cost?

My Review:

I want more Alyce. Probably Simon agrees with me, but the heroine of Dangerous Seduction, Alyce Carr, was awesome on so many levels I don’t know where to begin.

Not that the hero was bad, either, but Simon is merely terrific, where Alyce is practically a superheroine.

Someone in the remote Cornish mining village of Trewyn has written an anonymous letter to Nemesis, Unlimited outlining all of the many and varied abuses visited on the community by the owners of the Wheal Prosperity mine. Yes, the name comes across as supremely ironic, because the mineworkers are anything but prosperous.

Working for Wheal Prosperity has become the closest equivalent to chattel slavery available in the U.K. The company pays only in scrip, which is only usable at the company store. Which of course inflates its prices and sells spoiled goods. The owners borrowed the whole concept from the American West, and it was just as horrible there, too.

The scrip is not transferable into cash. No one can ever save up any money to get away, because there is no real money. And Trewyn is 10 miles from the nearest town, so there’s nowhere to go, and no one to notice.

Until Nemesis brings Simon to their door. Simon Addison-Shawe may be an aristocrat, but that’s not what this job needs. So Simon fakes his way in as a machinist. The mine needs engineers to keep the pumps working, and Simon gets the job. On his very first day, he meets Alyce Carr, a woman from as different a background as possible from the drawing rooms his family inhabits.

Bal maidens in traditional protective clothing, 1890

Alyce is a bal-maiden. She’s one of the women who swing a heavy hammer to break up the chunks of ore into small enough pieces to be usable. She’s physically strong, and mentally self-reliant. Also completely defiant, when Simon meets her, she’s arguing with the managers about the rancid butter in the store.

Alyce hasn’t been cowed or bowed by conditions at the mine since the new ownership took over ten years ago. She’s an unacknowledged leader of the community, but she doesn’t know it. Only Simon sees how people look to her to settle their disputes and answer their concerns.

He needs an ally who knows the community. He’s fascinated by this woman who doesn’t hide her strength of mind or body, unlike all the useless twits he meets in society.

Alyce doesn’t trust this stranger who starts out defying the corrupt constabulary, and invites himself home to dinner with her and her brother and sister-in-law. When Simon reveals what he’s really up to, she’s more distrustful, and more intrigued by the possibility of finally righting the village’s wrongs.

Alyce is all in with Simon’s plans to outfox the mine owners, to the point of risking her life, but she’s less certain of risking her heart to a man who can’t stay in the place she feels bound. And Simon loves Alyce, but he’s been taught that duty, in his case his duty with Nemesis, comes before everything he might want.

Escape Rating A: The beginning is just a tiny bit slow, because absolutely everything in Trewyn is so grim that it weighs the story down. Once Simon and Alyce start taking the fight to the managers (the butter run is marvelous) the story becomes an absolute page-turner.

Simon finds himself by becoming a mining machinist. Not because Trewyn is a great place to live (it isn’t) but because he doesn’t just immerse himself in his role, but he expands himself into it. Everyone in Trewyn is living their life as best as they can, and in spite of the hardships, there is a tremendous amount of love and friendship. Simon the machinist is able to be closer to his true self, playing a part, than he is in the drawing rooms and sporting clubs that are supposed to be his natural habitat.

Alyce finds herself, too. Not just because she has found a man strong enough in himself to love her as she is, and not need her to pretend to be less, but also because Simon makes her stretch to reach new ideas and new goals. He needs a true partner, and she’s always needed someone who wanted everything she had to give. Nemesis needs everything and more, if she’s to help defraud the owners and defend the town.

Their love story absolutely glows. Both of them have always put duty and responsibility before anything else, and they believe that what they have found together is something that they can’t keep, but can’t resist while it lasts, no matter how much it’s going to hurt.

They work hard for their HEA, and it’s awesome.

I have enjoyed the entire Nemesis, Unlimited series (Sweet Revenge, reviewed here and Winter’s Heat, here) but I adored Dangerous Seduction so much, that I couldn’t wait to dive into the next book in the series, Wicked Temptation. I hope I can tempt you to take a look at my joint review with E_Bookpushers today over at The Book Pushers.

***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: Winter’s Heat by Zoe Archer

Posted on June 9, 2014June 15, 2014 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | B Reviews> book reviews

Format read: ebook provided by NetGalley
Formats available: ebook
Genre: Historical romance
Series: Nemesis, Unlimited, #1.5
Length: 100 pages
Publisher: St. Martin’s Paperbacks
Date Released: October 22, 2013
Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Publisher’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo

An auxiliary Nemesis agent and a former client go undercover as servants at a country estate during the Christmas season to expose corruption among London society’s powerful elite. Michael and Ada never thought they would again be working side by side in the pursuit of justice. Now that they’re on a case together, the attraction they had once shared flares to life, making a dangerous assignment even more unpredictable. Can they take the heat?

My Review:

Yes, I know this is supposed to be a Christmas book. Think of it as icy-hot. The descriptions of the weather in England in December should make you feel a little bit cooler as the weather outside moves to summer.

And the romance is more than enough to make any reader think very warm thoughts!

Winter’s Heat is a bit of a second-chance-at-love story, mixed with shades of both Downton Abbey and Leverage.

The explanation of what Nemesis Unlimited does is contained in book 1 in this series, Sweet Revenge (reviewed here). They provide justice for people who can’t otherwise get it from the courts. A lot of their clientele comes from the “service grapevine”. In Winter’s Heat, the case is to find a way to make a nasty pair of aristocrats pay for the way they turned an orphanage into a children’s workhouse, and then managed to slither out of any criminal charges with all the profits.

To provide them with their just desserts, Nemesis sends out two agents with experience in service in a country house (shades of Downton) to infiltrate the upper crust family Christmas. Everyone is certain that there is a way to make them pay, but it will need investigation and courage to find it.

The agents don’t just have experience in service, they have experience with each other. Six months previous, Ada was the servant who sent in an anonymous request to Nemesis in return for justice for a friend. And Michael was the agent sent to help her. They weren’t supposed to fall for each other. And when they did, Michael wasn’t supposed to disappear without a trace for six months.

She thinks that he was just using her as a dalliance. He knows he was stuck on a mission where revealing his whereabouts might have meant his life. But that doesn’t erase Ada’s feelings of abandonment.

She does not fall into his arms when he shows up as the agent in charge of her new assignment. Not even after he manages to tell her where he’s been. Michael has a lot of fences to mend.

And they have a case to crack. Ada is working for Nemesis on just this one case, to pay them back for the help they gave her friend. But the more involved she gets with the investigation, the more she realizes that righting wrongs and ferreting out evil is exactly what she was meant to do–with or without Michael’s assistance.

But working together on the case, and sneaking around just to communicate, adds yet another layer to their working partnership, and their desire for each other.

Escape Rating B: Winter’s Heat is a short and sweet addition to the Nemesis, Unlimited series. The story is focused on Michael and Ada’s investigation, rather than on the workings of Nemesis in general. The two of them are undercover at a large country house, and do all the investigating together. They’re pretty cut off from any of the resources of the agency.

Complicating matters are both their prior relationship and that they are operating undercover as part of a group of temporary hires in service. The work rules don’t allow them to be caught fraternizing, so even a simple private conversation is fraught with tension. Their prior relationship only makes things more difficult; Ada wants to help with the case, but she isn’t sure that she can trust Michael, no matter how much she still might be attracted to him.

One of the great things about the way that their relationship evolves is that Michael lets Ada discover just how capable she is; he makes some vague attempts at protecting her, but gives those up relatively quickly. He needs her as a full-fledged partner, and lets her grow into her role. Even at the beginning, he explains that he is the agent in charge because he is more experienced, not because she isn’t capable. As she definitely proves herself to be.

Their relationship is one of significant romantic and sexual tension, strung out until they snap. They can’t be caught, and yet they can’t stop. It’s delicious.

***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: Sweet Revenge by Zoë Archer

Posted on June 5, 2014June 2, 2014 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | B Reviews> book reviews

Format read: ebook provided by Edelweiss
Formats available: ebook, paperback, mass market paperback, audiobook
Genre: Historical romance
Series: Nemesis, Unlimited, #1
Length: 384 pages
Publisher: St. Martin’s Paperbacks
Date Released: June 4, 2014
Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Publisher’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Book Depository

When Jack Dalton escapes from Dunmoor Prison, he has only one thing in mind—finding the nobleman who murdered his sister and making him pay. But when he reaches the inn where the Lord Rockley is rumored to be staying, three well-dressed strangers are there to meet him instead. And the pretty blonde is aiming a pistol right at his head …

Joining Nemesis, Unlimited has made Eva Warrick much more than the well-mannered lady she appears to be—one who can shoot, fight, and outsmart any man in the quest to right the injustices so often suffered by the innocent. She’s not afraid of the burly escaped convict, but she is startled by their shared attraction. She and her partners need Jack’s help to get to Rockley, but Eva finds she wants Jack for scandalous reasons all her own…

My Review:

I love Zoë Archer, but I had this on my ereader and lost track of the entire series. Then I volunteered to be part of a joint review of the third book in the series at The Book Pushers, thinking that I would be inspired to read books 1 and 2. (Also book 1.5)

Sweet Revenge is the first book in Archer’s Nemesis, Unlimited series, and it showcases her trademark storytelling of a strong woman and a desperate man dealing with adventurous and dangerous times.

One of the things I enjoy about her historical romances is that she gets close enough to our time that all the roles are recognizable, and that there is some technology for making things reasonable, and that her female characters have plenty of fight in them to make sure that they are recognized as being every bit as capable as their male colleagues, even though that equality wasn’t common in society.

But then, her heroines usually aren’t operating in “polite” society, and that is certainly the case with Eva Warrick and Nemesis, Unlimited.

First, think of Nemesis, Unlimited as a Victorian-era Leverage. Just like the crew in the late TV show, Nemesis, Unlimited exists to provide justice for average people against the rich, privileged and titled who think they are (and sometimes really are) above the rule of law.

So this first story has to both introduce the concept, and provide an avenue for the romance of the main characters, while obtaining a certain kind of justice for a class of people who otherwise have no recourse.

Lord Rockley is the epitome of the evil aristocracy who can buy, threaten or cajole their way out of any trouble, even murder, as long as he doesn’t prey on his own class. Rockley’s speciality is sadistic sex with women who will lose their reputation if they complain about his treatment of them.

Jack Dalton used to be one of Rockley’s bodyguards, until Rockley killed Dalton’s sister. To add the proverbial insult to the all-too-real injury, Rockley framed Dalton for theft and murder to get him out of the way. Dalton has only one goal, revenge on Rockley.

Nemesis, Unlimited also wants Rockley’s head for his threats and abuse against their current client. So when Dalton escapes from prison, with a little help from Nemesis, the two join forces. Dalton knows enough about Rockley to help Nemesis ensnare him in a little plot of their own. They just have to convince Dalton that setting Rockley up for a treason conviction is better than murdering him with his bare hands.

It’s Eva Warrick who is finally able to convince Dalton that revenge is a dish best served cold by believing that he is more than just a dumb bruiser. Meanwhile Dalton convinces Eva that she can be as hot as she wants with him, and still be the Nemesis agent that she needs to be.

It’s amazing how sexy a lot of mutual respect can lead to.

Escape Rating B: The plot against Rockley was a bit convoluted, but the introduction of this band of vengeance minded operatives was absolutely tons of fun. And it’s a great idea for a series, because there was so much of a chasm between conditions for the rich and treatment for the rest. Ordinary people need Nemesis to step in for them.

Both Eva and Dalton are interesting characters because they are capable of so much more than they believe themselves to be. Jack has always seen himself as a stupid thug, and Eva has cut off any possibility of a personal life because she believes she can’t tell anyone about her secret life in Nemesis.

Eva believes correctly that Jack is actually a smart man, and she values him for his brains as well as his brawn (also his body, but that’s not how she wins him). She respects his intelligence, and he finally comes to respect himself for it. Likewise, Jack not only already knows Eva’s secret life, but proves over and over again that he can both be trusted with it and that he understands her need to continue with Nemesis.

It’s too bad that they have to nearly give up on each other before they figure out that what they feel is really love, on both sides. But if you enjoyed Archer’s Blades of the Rose series, you’ll love Nemesis.

***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 Forever Watch by David Ramirez

Posted on April 21, 2014April 20, 2014 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | A Reviews> book reviews

Format read: ebook provided by Edelweiss
Formats available: hardcover, ebook, audiobook
Genre: science fiction
Length: 336 pages
Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books (St. Martin’s/Macmillan)
Date Released: April 22, 2014
Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Publisher’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Book Depository

All that is left of humanity is on a thousand-year journey to a new planet aboard one ship, The Noah, which is also carrying a dangerous serial killer…

As a City Planner on the Noah, Hana Dempsey is a gifted psychic, economist, hacker and bureaucrat and is considered “mission critical.” She is non-replaceable, important, essential, but after serving her mandatory Breeding Duty, the impregnation and birthing that all women are obligated to undergo, her life loses purpose as she privately mourns the child she will never be permitted to know.

When Policeman Leonard Barrens enlists her and her hacking skills in the unofficial investigation of his mentor’s violent death, Dempsey finds herself increasingly captivated by both the case and Barrens himself. According to Information Security, the missing man has simply “Retired,” nothing unusual. Together they follow the trail left by the mutilated remains. Their investigation takes them through lost dataspaces and deep into the uninhabited regions of the ship, where they discover that the answer may not be as simple as a serial killer after all.
What they do with that answer will determine the fate of all humanity in this thrilling page turner.

My Review:

If you threw Gorky Park, Blade Runner, one of Robin Cook’s medical thrillers and Anne McCaffrey’s The Ship Who Sang into a blender, you might come up with something like The Forever Watch–but it probably wouldn’t be half as good.

Not even if you added in elements of The Matrix and Madeline Ashby’s Suited. It’s not just that all of those elements are in The Forever Watch, but that they are melded into a single story that left me gasping in marvel at the end.

I’m having a hard time letting this one go. I’m having an even harder time figuring out how to encapsulate the experience.

The story starts with familiar concepts. Hana Dempsey is a City Planning engineer on the generational ship Noah. Her job, her entire department’s job, is to make the city more energy efficient, while still being livable, so that the ship will have enough resources to reach Canaan. In other words, the promised land.

The mission is to save the human race. The ship is over two centuries out from a destroyed Earth, and has eight centuries yet to travel. That’s a long time for hundreds of thousands of human beings to be trapped inside a flying tin can — no matter how big or well designed the can might be.

Perpetuating the human species is not even left to chance. Every woman is assigned Breeding Duty, where she spends the entire pregnancy in a medically induced coma. She is supposed to remember nothing of the process. The child might not even be hers. She’ll certainly never see him or her.

Hana Dempsey comes back from her Breeding Duty with a sense that her life is as empty as she is. Duty is no longer enough.

Her friend, Leonard Barrens, tries to help her fill that void with helping him on a personal quest. Barrens is a cop, and he’s been quietly looking into a series of gruesome and inexplicable murders that no one seems to be investigating. Instead of being looked into, or even merely filed away, all trace of these murders is being systematically wiped from the system.

Barrens needs Hana’s skills to help him hack the vast computer system, the Nth Web, in order to find whatever traces are left. His mentor was one of the victims of what appears to be a serial killer named “Mincemeat” for the way he leaves his victims, and Barrens feels compelled to discover why the evidence keeps disappearing.

Hana gets involved because she needs something to absorb her. And because she has always cared for Barrens more than she is willing to admit. In the testing enforced caste system on the Noah, the differences between a cop and a manager in the City infrastructure are huge.

Hana and Barrens only know each other because Barrens rescued her after an assault. He makes her feel safe. She makes him feel cared for. But she’s used to Barrens being there in her darkest moments, and she’s in one now. His quest gives her something to do, something to be take her out of her empty self.

And finally a way for them to reach out from beyond their society and self-imposed barriers for each other.

Until the secrets that they uncover tear not just them, but their entire world, asunder.

Escape Rating A+: I loved this book so much that I immediately started inflicting it on other people–my husband read it in one sitting (it’s 500 pages!) and now a friend has started to devour it.

The Forever Watch exemplifies some of the best of science fiction, in that as soon as you read you start thinking about the society and what might have brought the race to this sorry pass, and it drives you crazy because the way things have worked out make you uncomfortable. Yet it’s impossible to stop reading, because that same discomfort makes you desperate to figure out why this is the way that society went.

It doesn’t seem logical, and yet it all hangs together perfectly. Even more amazing, every single bit of where it seems that things make no sense within that society, are all resolved at the end, and in a way that upholds the willing suspension of disbelief.

What lengths would we go to in order to save the human race? How far do the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few? What secrets are so horrible that suppressing them is better for society than full knowledge, and who has the right to decide? How much can be justified by the cold equations of survival?

You will end up with more questions than answers, but you will not be able to get this book out of your head.

***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: Dangerous Curves Ahead by Sugar Jamison

Posted on September 20, 2013September 7, 2013 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | B Reviews> book reviews

Format read: ebook provided by Edelweiss
Formats available: ebook, mass market paperback
Genre: Contemporary romance
Series: Perfect Fit, #1
Length: 368 pages
Publisher: St. Martin’s Paperbacks
Date Released: August 27, 2013
Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Book Depository

Ellis Garrett is dumping her critical boyfriend, opening a plus-size clothing store, and starting a blog—all to spread the word that fashion shouldn’t require a size-two body, and happiness should allow for the occasional cupcake. Or two. But is indulging fantasies about her sister’s long-ago ex, the still-hunky Michael Edwards, biting off more than she can chew?

Mike must be losing his detective’s touch. He doesn’t recognize Ellis when he bumps into her at Size Me Up, and he certainly doesn’t remember his ex-girlfriend’s outspoken sister being so irresistible. Her curves are indeed dangerous—and so is her wit. Could it be that Ellis is his Perfect Fit? One thing’s for sure: Mike will make it his sworn duty to find out…

My Review:

Once upon a time, this would have been an “ugly duckling” type of story, and the way that Ellis would have achieved her HEA would have been to become a “beautiful swan” by losing weight.

I hate that message and I’m beyond ecstatic that the author didn’t go there. We’re not all size 2. We’re also not all 5’6”. Dangerous Curves Ahead is about a woman finding her bliss in the work sense and her HEA in the romantic sense by being true to herself.

After she’s kicked a dirty rotten demeaning arsehole to the curb.

Ellis Garrett’s clothing store has the best name in the universe, “Perfect Fit”, because that’s what she does. It’s not just that she sells plus-size clothes, it’s that she tailors the clothes to fit women who do not exactly fit into whatever size falls off the rack, big or small. (Women’s clothing sizing generally sucks.)

But starting a small business in today’s economy is a pretty iffy proposition, even on a good day. Ellis isn’t exactly making ends meet, sometimes they barely wave at each other. But she loves her store way more than she ever loved being a lawyer.

Suddenly, after the world’s longest dating dry spell, two men are vying for her attention; and neither of them look like good bets.

Well, they both look good, but neither of them probably is good. Her ex shows up and wants her back. Oh hells no.

And the hunk her sister dated in college is back in town. Ellis had a huge crush on Michael Edwards when they were all in school, and he’s hotter than he was back then. It’s too bad he doesn’t even remember her.

Especially since he wants to get to know this mystery woman a whole lot better. As intimately as possible.

Escape Rating B: Dangerous Curves Ahead is a fun romance starring an absolutely snarktastic heroine with a light dusting of suspense to liven things up.

The suspense involved someone breaking into Ellis’ store and, well, breaking things. It was pretty obvious who was behind the crime, but it does give Mike a chance to get overprotective and to play handyman.

Another major issue in the story were the opposing family dynamics. Mike’s family is pretty functional, but Mike has serious commitment issues. On that other hand, Ellis’ family is almost totally dysfunctional, but it mostly works, except for stuff between Ellis and her sister, Dina. That part is seriously messed up.

Mike and Ellis take a while to reach each other, and there is one big misunderstandammit, involving, of course, previously mentioned sister Dina, along the way.

The best thing about this story is that Ellis’ weight issues are only issues to her, not to Mike. He sees a beautiful, sexy woman who might need to get her baggage together about how she feels about herself, her family, her trust issues, and her arsehole ex.

I enjoyed the way they moved forward (after that misunderstandammit) in a direction that was slightly different from what either of them originally thought. They built a new future together. Lovely.

Reviewer’s note: I want a store like Ellis’ in my neighborhood, definitely including her marvelous crew.

***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 Ashford Affair by Lauren Willig

Posted on August 12, 2013August 4, 2013 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | A Reviews> book reviews

Format read: hardcover borrowed from the Library
Formats available: ebook, hardcover, paperback, audiobook
Genre: Historical fiction, Women’s fiction
Length: 367 pages
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Date Released: April 9, 2013
Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Publisher’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Book Depository

As a lawyer in a large Manhattan firm, just shy of making partner, Clementine Evans has finally achieved almost everything she’s been working towards—but now she’s not sure it’s enough. Her long hours have led to a broken engagement and, suddenly single at thirty-four, she feels her messy life crumbling around her. But when the family gathers for her grandmother Addie’s ninety-ninth birthday, a relative lets slip hints about a long-buried family secret, leading Clemmie on a journey into the past that could change everything. . . .

Growing up at Ashford Park in the early twentieth century, Addie has never quite belonged. When her parents passed away, she was taken into the grand English house by her aristocratic aunt and uncle, and raised side-by-side with her beautiful and outgoing cousin, Bea. Though they are as different as night and day, Addie and Bea are closer than sisters, through relationships and challenges, and a war that changes the face of Europe irrevocably. But what happens when something finally comes along that can’t be shared? When the love of sisterhood is tested by a bond that’s even stronger?

From the inner circles of British society to the skyscrapers of Manhattan and the red-dirt hills of Kenya, the never-told secrets of a woman and a family unfurl.

My Review:

Two women in one family, across two generations, are both manipulated by people who love them “for their own good”. Because the other person believes that they “know best”. And their lives operate in parallel courses, although Clemmie at the end of the 20th century does not know the ways that her beloved Grandma Addie manipulated her life…or the secrets that she took with her to the grave.

At the beginning of the century, we see six-year-old Addie Gillecotte being taken under the wing of her eight-year-old cousin Bea in Ashford Park, after Addie’s parents’ sudden death in a auto accident. Bea is the spoiled and willful daughter of the Earl of Ashford, and Addie spends her girlhood never quite measuring up to her cousin’s shine or her baleful aunt’s expectations. Addie lives in the shadow cast by Bea’s glow, while Bea counts on having Addie to love her best.

But the First World War intervenes. Bea was taught to be an ornament. Addie was expected to be useful. Addie’s training makes her competent, where Bea discovers that she is ill-prepared for the world after the war, especially a world where so many of the men came back shell-shocked or part of the famous “Lost Generation.” One reason the 1920’s roared may have been because that was the only sound some of them could still hear.

Bea has always gotten everything she ever wanted. She was the daughter of the house, and it was expected. Addie finally found one thing that she wanted for herself. Bea stole that from her to fill up the empty spaces in her own life, and deceived herself into believing that what she did was best for Addie.

Then Bea ran away to Kenya to escape the scandal. Five years later, she invited Addie to visit her, and to gloat. But that’s not what happened.

Clemmie knows none of the history of her family. She doesn’t even know that her Grandma Addie lived in Ashford Park. Or about Bea. All she knows is that her own life is a shambles. She’s sacrificed seven years of her life to become a partner at a prestigious law firm, because her grandmother and her mother both emphasized how important it was for her to be independent.

The price of that independence has been to lose touch with everyone around her. She misses her last chances to say goodbye to the woman who was the main support in her life. Then the secrets unravel and she discovers that nothing was as she thought it was.
Who was her Grandma Addie? Really? And does it matter after all?

Escape Rating A-: The comparisons are not merely inevitable, but most are lampshaded during the course of the book; Brideshead Revisited, Out of Africa, and the multigenerational family sagas of Barbara Taylor Bradford. But also the works of Belva Plain who wrote stories very similar to Bradford with the exception that many of her heroines were Jewish, and last, but definitely not least, Downton Abbey.

The two points of view, Addie’s and Clemmie’s, are easy to track between the two time periods. Addie and Clemmie have very distinct voices within the story. One thing that fascinated me, I wish we saw Addie’s perspective as she manipulated Clemmie’s life in pretty much the same way that her life had been manipulated, but that happens by hearsay, the story is told from Jonathan’s perspective and not Addie’s. But the irony was delicious.

Still, this is a double second-chance-at-love story, which you do figure out. What doesn’t come easy is the method. I was expecting things to be more sinister on the one hand, and more complicated on the other. The actual story worked much better.

The 1920s have more life in the story than the 1999-2000 period that acts as the frame. The modern story is about the discovery of the family mystery, which was cool. The mystery also serves as Clemmie’s search for a real identity of her own, instead of the drudgery of pursuing a partnership that she couldn’t get except by pretending to be an asshat or a fool, and she was neither.

By finding Grandma Addie’s history, Clemmie discovered her authentic self. And true love.

***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: Immortally Embraced by Angie Fox

Posted on July 24, 2013July 21, 2013 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | B Reviews> book reviews

Format read: print book borrowed from the Library
Formats available: ebook, mass market paperback
Genre: Fantasy romance, Paranormal romance
Series: Monster M*A*S*H, #2
Length: 305 pages
Publisher: St. Martin’s Paperbacks
Date Released: February 26, 2013
Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Publisher’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Book Depository

Even during a truce, Dr. Petra Robichaud has her hands full as the M*A*S*H surgeon to an army of warring gods—especially when Medusa herself turns up pregnant. Petra has no idea what to expect when a gorgon’s expecting, but she won’t let it turn her to stone. As the healer-hero of an ancient prophesy, it’s Petra’s job to keep the peace. But as the lover to a warrior demi-god, she knows how impossible some jobs can be…

Commander Galen is sexy, strong, and sworn to lead his team to hell and back. But when he announces to Petra that he can no longer risk her life for his love, the doctor is on her own…Until a mysterious new entity—in the form of a hot-blooded male—enters the picture. Can he be trusted? Can he be resisted? Meanwhile, an oracle delivers another prophesy that places Petra back on the frontlines with the man she may be bound to for eternity—in love, or in war…

My Review:

The over-the-top snarky humor is every bit as much in evidence in this second installment of Angie Fox’s Monster M*A*S*H series as it was in the first book, Immortally Yours (reviewed here). But Immortally Embraced is definitely the second book in a trilogy, and as such, is a whole lot darker than book one, in spite of starting during a truce in the centuries-long war between the new gods and the old gods.

Starting out with a pregnant Medusa was screamingly funny. Petra’s deadpan humor at the situation was terrific, particularly in the face of the Medusa’s petulant, but all-too-normal reaction to the news.

Back to our heroine. Petra should be having a great time. There’s a truce on. But the first thing that happens is that her lover, the guy that the ENTIRE FIRST BOOK spends getting her together with, breaks up with her. For no good reason. He gets assigned a secret mission, goes all noble on her, and breaks up with her so that she won’t wonder what happened to him. Bye-bye. (Probably not, there is a book 3 –Immortally Ever After – coming up.)

Just as she starts to wallow in depression (who wouldn’t, the guy was awesome), her first ex comes back from the dead with a secret mission of his own that just so happens to fit in with the brand new prophecy that the oracles have just spewed out.

When I say “comes back from the dead” I don’t mean he’s a zombie, either. I mean he let Petra think he was dead. For ten whole years! Her angst about getting involved with Galen in book one was all about her grief over this guy, Marc. Except he wasn’t dead. That’s right, he pulled the nobility card so she would move on. Except she nearly didn’t.

Now he’s back. And in spite of his denials, he hasn’t gotten over Petra, either. Of course not.

There is a secret mission, behind enemy lines. It has to be behind enemy lines because the idiot got captured and has been practicing the same kind of meatball surgery as Petra on the other side of the war these ten years.

But he needs Petra to do the other thing that she does, her hidden talent. Marc needs her to talk to a dead guy. Their old teacher is a ghost with a really big secret. One that could either extend the peace, or make the previous centuries of war look like a Sunday afternoon picnic.

As long as Petra and Marc don’t get caught on the wrong side of each other’s lines while they figure it out.

Escape Rating B: I have a lot of mixed feelings about this book. I pretty much inhaled it in less than a day. But…

The first book set up, not just the relationship between Galen and Petra, but how devastated she was by Marc’s death and how long it took her to open herself up and let anyone in. In the end, Galen gave up his immortality for her. That was huge. Then he runs off on a secret mission and Marc shows up and she seems to have nearly forgotten about Galen. Even with their history, it seemed too sudden. Not the sex, but the emotions. If/when Galen returns, there’s going to be hell to pay.

The story seemed a bit “filler-ish”. It was fun, but it was dependent on a deus ex-machina ending. Not that there aren’t a lot of gods around to fill the role, but in this case it was particularly chaotic. (Bad pun, no cookie).

A lot of the fun in the first book centered on Petra and her MASH unit dealing with the stress of the surgery and pulling together as a team. Kind of the way the humor worked in the MASH TV series. That teamwork was missing in Immortally Embraced and I really wanted to see more of those guys.

I hope book 3, Immortally Ever After, picks the M*A*S*H and prophecy action back up!

***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.

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