Tag: William Morrow

Review: The Sweet Spot by Stephanie Evanovich

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | B Reviews> book reviews
sweet spot by stephanie evanovichFormat read: ebook provided by Edelweiss
Formats available: ebook, hardcover, audiobook
Genre: Contemporary romance; women’s fiction
Length: 272 pages
Publisher: William Morrow
Date Released: July 8, 2014
Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Publisher’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Book Depository

The amazing Stephanie Evanovich returns with The Sweet Spot, the sizzling story of everyone’s favorite couple from her New York Times bestseller Big Girl Panties: hunky professional baseball player Chase Walker and his sassy wife Amanda

When pro baseball player Chase Walker first meets Amanda at her restaurant, it’s love at first sight. While Amanda can’t help noticing the superstar with the Greek-god-build, he doesn’t have a chance of getting to first—or any other—base with her. A successful entrepreneur who’s built her business from scratch, Amanda doesn’t need a Prince Charming to sweep her off her feet. And a curvy girl who likes to cook and eat isn’t interested in being around the catty, stick-thin herd of females chasing Chase and his teammates.

But Chase isn’t about to strike out. A man who isn’t interested in playing the field, he’s a monogamist who wants an independent woman like Amanda. His hopes rally when she discovers that squeaky-clean Chase has a few sexy and very secret pre-game rituals that turn the smart, headstrong businesswoman on—and into his number one fan.

Then a tabloid discovers the truth and turns their spanking good fun into a late- night punch-line. Is Amanda ready to let loose and swing for the fences? Or will the pressure of Chase’s stardom force them to call it quits?

My Review:

Big Girl Panties by Stephanie EvanovichThe Sweet Spot is a prequel to last year’s Big Girl Panties. Big Girl Panties drove me absolutely nuts (see review) but the secondary couple in that story is the primary couple in The Sweet Spot.

By the time that Big Girl Panties takes place, all the events in The Sweet Spot have already happened. A significant chunk of the story is revealed as background for the other story, more than enough to make me want to see what happened first. This is it.

Chase and Amanda start out as strangers in the beginning of this story, but they are at much better places in their lives than either Holly or frankly Logan in the other book. So while The Sweet Spot has its own particular brand of crazysauce, the characters are stronger and it makes the early part of the story seem to be on a much higher note.

Chase is a major league baseball player at the absolute top of his game. He’s not just big, gorgeous and generally a decent guy, he’s one of those model players that raises the level of the game he’s in. (His incredible influence reminded me a bit of Michael Jordan during his glory years in the Chicago Bulls.) Everyone loves Chase, and Chase genuinely enjoys his fans, and absolutely loves playing his game.

There’s just one little (!?!?!?) thing wrong with his life. Chase likes to spank his girlfriends, and generally be just a bit dominant when it comes to sex, but not quite to the level of BDSM. (It’s a bit hard to characterize). However, his wholesome image will be shot to hell if information about his bit of kink gets out.

Chase is a genuinely nice guy with more than a bit of a romantic streak. It’s just that there’s a wider kinky streak to go with it.

He walks into Amanda’s trendy restaurant, The Cold Creek, and falls instantly in love with the way that she sasses him and refuses to fawn over him. Amanda normally treats her customers better than that, but Chase’s agent set up the reservation with a level of assholishness that put her back up, and with good reason.

So Chase gently but inexorably goes after Amanda. The problem is that as hard as he falls for her, he sees her as a lady who can’t possibly be into any kink. He’s sure he’s fallen for a vanilla, and it makes him crazy. It also causes a slump in his baseball game.

Chase tries (and fails) to figure out how he can keep Amanda and deal with the wilder parts of his nature, while Amanda falls for the sweet romantic who sweeps her off her feet.

Taking their relationship to where they both need it to be is hot and sweet. But Amanda has gone through her whole life believing that she can never have what she wants. That she’s absolutely destined to settle for second place. As happy as she is, she can’t help but look for the crash that she knows is coming.

When scandal threatens to snatch away everything they have built, Amanda runs away. And Chase makes the terrible mistake of letting her, and the best thing in his life, go.

Escape Rating B: I wish that The Sweet Spot had come out first. Not just because all the big events in Chase and Amanda’s story are spoiled in Big Girl Panties, but because they start out from much stronger places and it makes for a more fun story, especially at the beginning.

Amanda had a good life before she met Chase, and would have continued to be successful if they had never met. They complete each other emotionally, but she doesn’t start the story “so far down that bottom looks like up”, the way that Holly did in Big Girl Panties.

Amanda also has a lot of very reasonable sounding doubts about how the spanking thing is working for her. She is liberated and independent, and she has a difficult emotional journey getting to a place where she accepts that she enjoys Chase’s style of domination to the point where she deliberately provokes it. She keeps her agency, it just takes her a while to figure that out.

I will say that Chase’s reactions the first time he lets his kinky side out bothered me a bit. There was a definite element of him being smug about knowing what was best for her. And while she did enjoy it, he doesn’t explain what is going to happen, and he was a bit condescending about the emotional storm that results. It was one of the few times when I really didn’t like him much.

On the other hand, when the scandal breaks, Amanda’s actions were pretty childish. While I could understand and sympathize, she doesn’t stand up for herself and for their relationship, and leaves Chase holding the bag and dealing with the resulting mess. So they each definitely have big moments that could have been relationship-breakers.

But that drum circle where she finally finds herself and her courage was awesome.

***FTC Disclaimer: Most books reviewed on this site have been provided free of charge by the publisher, author or publicist. Some books we have purchased with our own money or borrowed from a public library and will be noted as such. Any links to places to purchase books are provided as a convenience, and do not serve as an endorsement by this blog. All reviews are the true and honest opinion of the blogger reviewing the book. The method of acquiring the book does not have a bearing on the content of the review.

Review: Deceiving Lies by Molly McAdams

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | blog tours> book reviews> C Reviews
deceiving lies by molly mcadamsFormat read: ebook provided by Edelweiss
Formats available: ebook, paperback, audiobook
Genre: Contemporary romance, New Adult romance
Series: Forgiving Lies #2
Length: 336 pages
Publisher: William Morrow
Date Released: March 4, 2014
Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Publisher’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Book Depository

Rachel is supposed to be planning her wedding to Kash, the love of her life. After the crazy year they’ve had, she’s ready to settle down and live a completely normal life. Well, as normal as it can be. But there’s something else waiting—something threatening to tear them apart.

Kash is ready for it all with Rach. Especially if all includes having a football team of babies with his future wife. With his line of work, he knows how short life can be, and doesn’t want to waste another minute of theirs. But now his past as an undercover narcotics agent has come back to haunt him … and it’s the girl he loves who’s caught in the middle.

Trent Cruz’s orders are clear: take the girl. But there’s something about this girl that has him changing the rules and playing a dangerous game to keep her safe. When his time as Rachel’s protector runs out, he will turn his back on the only life he’s known, and risk everything, if it means getting her out alive.

My Review:

If you haven’t read Forgiving Lies, the story in Deceiving Lies won’t make sense. If you have read Forgiving Lies, then there is the possibility that Deceiving Lies will drive you crazy.

Forgiving Lies by Molly McAdamsForgiving Lies ends with a horrible cliffhanger. After Rachel and Kash have finally worked through most of their issues, and are getting ready for their wedding, Rachel is kidnapped by members of the gang that Kash and Mason broke apart before the beginning of Forgiving Lies. Fear of revenge by the gang members still on the outside is the reason that the two undercover cops where in Texas in the first place. They were laying low until the case back in Florida was wrapped up.

So Forgiving Lies ends with Rachel kidnapped and Kash immediately going out of his mind at her loss.

But Deceiving Lies does not start with the kidnapping. It starts a few weeks before the kidnapping, so we can see the happy preparations again. While it was good stage setting, I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop, because that upcoming abduction was looming in the back of my mind like a dark cloud.

At 16% into the book (thank you kindle app) we finally get that fall off the cliff we’ve been waiting for. Rachel is taken and Kash, predictably, starts going bonkers.

Most of the story is told from Kash’ and Rachel’s alternating points of view. So we switch from Rachel’s imprisonment, and her feelings about those events, to Kash trying to find her.

Rachel is held captive for well over a month. More than long enough for her to develop a weird relationship with the man who both kidnapped her and is protecting her from the other members of his gang. While she doesn’t fall in love with Trent, she comes to rely on him and see him as her protector and refuge against the rest of the gang. While it may not have exactly been Stockholm Syndrome, it felt at least partway there.

Meanwhile Kash and the police are receiving faked video that Rachel is being tortured. As the search goes on, and nothing breaks, Kash goes seriously bad cop. He takes on his undercover hardass persona. even though he’s not undercover. He disintegrates into someone that Rachel might not recognize when she is finally rescued.

Neither of them is the same person they were when Rachel was taken. The question is whether they can find their way back; to being someone who is still capable of loving and being loved by the other person. Can they navigate toward a new future, because they can’t go back to the way things were.

Escape Rating C+: After a fluffy beginning, this is a very dark book. It also doesn’t quite feel like it had a happy ending. It has a resolution on the way to happiness, but it didn’t feel quite happy to me.

There is so much angst in this story while Kash and Rachel are separated, and that takes up a huge part of the book. It may have been necessary for the story, but it was hard to read through. If I hadn’t wanted to find out how things got resolved in the end, I might have stopped, just to get out of the darkness.

The is it/isn’t it/what is it debate about whether or not Rachel was suffering from Stockholm Syndrome, and exactly what her feelings were for her captor/protector Trent, went into the crazysauce. Rachel did not have to fall in love with Trent in order to be exhibiting Stockholm Syndrome. Having Stockholm Syndrome just means that she felt empathy and sympathy toward her captor and had positive feelings for him. Which she did, because he protected her from the really bad guys.

A part of me wishes that Rachel and Kash had gotten their happy ending at the end of Forgiving Lies. Rachel had already been through quite enough for one lifetime. But after the cliffhanger ending, I’m glad I read Deceiving Lies so that I could see them finally have their chance at happiness.

If there is a next book in this series, I hope that it features Kash’ partner Mason. Or even Trent. I just don’t want to see Rachel suffer any more.

TLC
This post is part of a TLC book tour. Click on the logo for more reviews.
***FTC Disclaimer: Most books reviewed on this site have been provided free of charge by the publisher, author or publicist. Some books we have purchased with our own money or borrowed from a public library and will be noted as such. Any links to places to purchase books are provided as a convenience, and do not serve as an endorsement by this blog. All reviews are the true and honest opinion of the blogger reviewing the book. The method of acquiring the book does not have a bearing on the content of the review.

Review: After I’m Gone by Laura Lippman

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | A Reviews> blog tours> book reviews
after i'm gone by laura lippmanFormat read: ebook provided by Edelweiss
Formats available: Hardcover, Paperback, ebook, audiobook
Genre: Mystery, Thriller
Length: 352 pages
Publisher: William Morrow
Date Released: February 11, 2014
Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Publisher’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Book Depository

When Felix Brewer meets nineteen-year-old Bernadette “Bambi” Gottschalk at a Valentine’s Dance in 1959, he charms her with wild promises, some of which he actually keeps. Thanks to his lucrative-if not all legal-businesses, she and their three little girls live in luxury. But on the Fourth of July, 1976, Bambi’s comfortable world implodes when Felix, newly convicted and facing prison, mysteriously vanishes.

Though Bambi has no idea where her husband-or all of his money-might be, she suspects one woman does: his devoted young mistress, Julie. When Julie disappears ten years to the day that Felix went on the lam, everyone assumes she’s left to join her old lover-until her remains are eventually found in a secluded wooded park.

Now, twenty-six years after Julie went missing, Roberto “Sandy” Sanchez, a retired Baltimore detective working cold cases for some extra cash, is investigating her murder. What he discovers is a tangled web of bitterness, jealously, resentment, greed, and longing stretching over three decades that connects five intriguing women: a faithful wife, a dead mistress, and three very different daughters. And at the center is the man who, though long gone, has never been forgotten by the five women who loved him: the enigmatic Felix Brewer.

Somewhere between the secrets and lies connecting past and present, Sandy will find the truth. And when he does, no one will ever be the same.

My Review:

I haven’t read any of Laura Lippman’s previous books, because I didn’t want to start a series seven books in. But lots of people have recommended her Tess Monaghan series, and if it’s anywhere near as good as After I’m Gone, now I know why.

After I’m Gone is both a mystery and a character study. It really starts with a cold case, and then flashes back to the circumstances that set the whole chain of events off, and back to the murder being investigated.

This one has lots of interesting layers, and that’s what kept me glued to the book.

In 1976, Felix Brewer disappears, leaving behind a wife and three daughters. And a mistress. Although Felix has never been found, his disappearance isn’t the cold case–it just sets up the events.

Everybody knows that Felix disappeared so that he wouldn’t end up in jail on a federal gambling charge. He was guilty as sin.

But by 2012, Felix’ whereabouts have become secondary. Either he’s very old or he’s very dead, wherever he is.

However, his mistress, Julie Saxony, was murdered in 1986, and there is no statute of limitations on murder. Her murder is the cold case, because one retired cop turned consultant is haunted by her face.

In the present, the point of view is Roberto “Sandy” Sanchez, an ex-cop who helps the Baltimore Police Department close old cases. (He reminds me a lot of the cold case squad in the British police mystery series, New Tricks, except that Sandy is one-man band, not a squad.)

Sandy knows that everything in Julie’s murder has to hinge on Felix Brewer’s long-ago disappearance. Even though Julie had a successful restaurant, the most important thing in her life was that she was Felix’ girl.

So who wanted her dead? And why? In his investigation, Sandy goes back over the old ground, and interviews everyone left alive who knew Felix or Julie. His questions revolve around whether Julie was in touch with Felix, and whether any of the other women abandoned by Felix, his wife, his daughters, still wanted to see her dead for the old betrayal.

Sandy’s mantra in every cold case is that “the name is in the file”. There are 800 pages of names in this particular file, but he’s right that one of them is the culprit. Figuring out who, and more importantly why, tears apart the world of every single person that Felix left behind.

Escape Rating A-: Even though After I’m Gone is definitely a mystery, the story is all about diving into the motives and the history of the various personalities. Even though the “whodunnit” is important, it’s figuring out the why that’s so fascinating.

Because it’s all tied up in the people.

Even though Felix’ disappearance is what links all the characters, the story is all about his wife and daughters; who they became, how they survived, the way that Felix’ disappearance and the subsequent collapse of the family finances, ruled their lives. They are all still Felix’ girls, even though Felix is long gone.

No one really moves on from the catastrophe; not his friends, and certainly not his family. Blaming his mistress for everything that goes wrong is all part of the family coping mechanism. But with the discovery of her death, they are forced to change some of that story. Julie clearly didn’t join Felix wherever he is; she’s been dead almost as long as he’s been gone.

So what happened? All the women in Felix’ life had motives for killing the mistress, but the more Sandy delves into events, the less sense that seems to make. Sandy’s dogged determination to discover the truth upsets a lot of applecarts.

And Sandy’s own story is worth following as well. He’s every bit as interesting to the reader as all the characters in Felix’ drama. Sandy’s own story is revealed through the course of the investigation, and the reader can’t help but feel for him, in the same way that he feels for the women he’s investigating.

I wouldn’t mind seeing Sandy as the investigator again.

One quibble about the book; it uses a lot of flashbacks, from 1959 to 1976 to 1986 to 2012 and back again, over and over as the layers of the case are revealed. It was occasionally a bit confusing trying to figure out which part of the timeline the narrative was in, but it all came together beautifully in the end.

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This post is part of a TLC book tour. Click on the logo for more reviews.
***FTC Disclaimer: Most books reviewed on this site have been provided free of charge by the publisher, author or publicist. Some books we have purchased with our own money or borrowed from a public library and will be noted as such. Any links to places to purchase books are provided as a convenience, and do not serve as an endorsement by this blog. All reviews are the true and honest opinion of the blogger reviewing the book. The method of acquiring the book does not have a bearing on the content of the review.

Review: Hunting Shadows by Charles Todd + Excerpt + Giveaway

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | A Reviews> book reviews> Giveaways
hunting shadows by charles toddFormat read: ebook provided by Edelweiss
Formats available: Hardcover, paperback, ebook, audiobook
Genre: mystery, historical mystery
Series: Inspector Ian Rutledge #16
Length: 336 pages
Publisher: William Morrow
Date Released: January 21, 2014
Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Publisher’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Book Depository

A dangerous case with ties leading back to the battlefields of World War I dredges up dark memories for Scotland Yard Inspector Ian Rutledge in Hunting Shadows, a gripping and atmospheric historical mystery set in 1920s England, from acclaimed New York Times bestselling author Charles Todd.

A society wedding at Ely Cathedral in Cambridgeshire becomes a crime scene when a man is murdered. After another body is found, the baffled local constabulary turns to Scotland Yard. Though the second crime had a witness, her description of the killer is so strange its unbelievable.

Despite his experience, Inspector Ian Rutledge has few answers of his own. The victims are so different that there is no rhyme or reason to their deaths. Nothing logically seems to connect them—except the killer. As the investigation widens, a clear suspect emerges. But for Rutledge, the facts still don’t add up, leaving him to question his own judgment.

In going over the details of the case, Rutledge is reminded of a dark episode he witnessed in the war. While the memory could lead him to the truth, it also raises a prickly dilemma. To stop a murderer, will the ethical detective choose to follow the letter—or the spirit—of the law?

My Review:

Hunting Shadows is a fascinating mystery that combines a search for “whodunnit” along with a surprisingly twisty trail leading to “why did they do it”. The struggle in this story is to make sense out of two crimes that seemingly don’t, until they suddenly, and chillingly, do.

This story starts out as a seemingly traditional mystery; we see the crime, but don’t know who the perpetrator is. It looks like the mystery will be the hunt for the killer. But it’s not that simple. He strikes again, and the second victim seems to have no relationship to the first. Except in the mind of whoever shot them both, using the tools and the training of a military sniper.

The combined crimes stump the local constabulary, and Inspector Ian Rutledge is called from Scotland Yard to Cambridgeshire. He arrives and promptly gets lost in both a meteorological and a metaphorical fog.

There are plenty of reasons why someone might want the first victim dead. Captain Hutchinson was a man who did his best to ingratiate himself with the most important people in any room. His problem was that he was just a touch obvious and his charm wore thin on close acquaintance.

It’s even possible to find a motive for the murder of Herbert Smith, the local Tory candidate for Parliament. But there doesn’t seem to be anyone who reasonably, or even unreasonably, wanted them both dead.

Especially not someone with sniper training. That points to a motive left over from the war, and that particular dish of revenge has gone very cold by the time this story takes place in 1920.

Investigation determines that Smith and Hutchinson did not serve together, and they don’t even seem to have known anyone who served with both of them.

But the war and its aftermath are still all too present. Every household lost too many of its young men. Even for those who survived, like Rutledge, the war altered their lives irrevocably. Rutledge manages to successfully investigate murder, sometimes in spite of and sometimes because of the PTSD that he still endures.

In this case, he is under pressure to find the killer quickly. His superiors want a fast result for the murder of a candidate for MP. But when Rutledge finally has a suspect who fits the crimes, he can’t make himself believe that the (relatively) easy solution is the correct one.

His slightly unorthodox methods, combined with intelligence and utterly dogged persistence, finally reach the guilty party.

Escape Rating A-: This series is a marvelous addition to the growing amount of historical fiction and mysteries that cover the World War I and post-war period. For anyone who has fallen in love with this era because of Downton Abbey, the Rutledge series provides a fresh perspective into the post-war life of a much bigger cross-section of people.

Rutledge survived his war, but his shell-shock makes the war an experience that he will carry with him forever. Through him we can see the changes that the war made on the people who served, and through his investigations, the impact on those left behind.

This is a mystery for those who want to see the details of the investigation, but also how the investigator uses his intuition and knowledge to determine the truth. There are no forensic miracles in Rutledge’s 1920, he solves his case with brains and a LOT of legwork.

We follow, and we see everything he sees, both about the case and about life in the Fen country at a time when the old customs were breaking down, but had not yet broken.

Even though Hunting Shadows is the 16th book in this series, it is also a great place to start following Inspector Rutledge’s cases. This is a mystery to savor, and I’m glad there are lots more to read.

~~~~~~GIVEAWAY~~~~~~

The publisher has generously offered 3 hardcover copies of Hunting Shadows in this giveaway! This giveaway is open to the US and Canada. To enter just fill out the Rafflecopter.
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To read an excerpt from the first chapter, check below the fold.

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Review: Somewhere in France by Jennifer Robson

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | A Reviews> blog tours> book reviews
somewhere in france by jennifer robsonFormat read: ebook provided by Edelweiss
Formats available: paperback, ebook
Genre: historical fiction, historical romance
Length: 400 pages
Publisher: William Morrow
Date Released: December 31, 2013
Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Publisher’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Book Depository

Lady Elizabeth Neville-Ashford wants to travel the world, pursue a career, and marry for love. But in 1914, the stifling restrictions of aristocratic British society and her mother’s rigid expectations forbid Lily from following her heart. When war breaks out, the spirited young woman seizes her chance for independence. Defying her parents, she moves to London and eventually becomes an ambulance driver in the newly formed Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps—an exciting and treacherous job that takes her close to the Western Front.

Assigned to a field hospital in France, Lily is reunited with Robert Fraser, her dear brother Edward’s best friend. The handsome Scottish surgeon has always encouraged Lily’s dreams. She doesn’t care that Robbie grew up in poverty—she yearns for their friendly affection to become something more. Lily is the most beautiful—and forbidden—woman Robbie has ever known. Fearful for her life, he’s determined to keep her safe, even if it means breaking her heart.

In a world divided by class, filled with uncertainty and death, can their hope for love survive. . . or will it become another casualty of this tragic war?

My Review:

great war and modern memory by paul fussellThe quote that opens this book, “The lamps are going out all over Europe, we shall not see them lit again in our life-time” is one that is often used in reference to the Great War, as World War I was referred to. It’s a quote that has haunted me since the first time I read it in The Great War and Modern Memory by Paul Fussell, a literary exploration about how WWI changed public consciousness in the mind of a generation.

And that’s fitting, because the WWI era has become very popular in the 21st century. The WWI era is also the Downton Abbey era, and we think we know it well because of the popularity of Downton.

But the lamps really did go out, as is shown quite clearly in Somewhere in France. We live in the world created by the shuttering of those gentle lights. The universe lit by our much harsher electricity is a much different place.

Lady Elizabeth Neville-Ashford is a woman that we would recognize. She wants to be whatever she can be. She’s bright and intelligent and wants to stretch her mind and her horizons.

But the class-ridden society that she was born into has placed her upon a pedestal, one that her station does not allow her to step off of without dire consequences. On the one hand, she has wealth and privilege; on the other, she is not permitted the education or training that would fit her to make her own way in the world. And, as she discovers, if anyone assists her in gaining that knowledge, the punishments are severe.

An old family retainer teaches her to drive. Her parents take away his retirement cottage and his pension. This is legal, there is no safety net. It is not right, but they have that privilege. It is also the last in a series of venal punishments that Lilly can no longer bear. She wants to help in the war effort, but her mother in particular feels that the aid organizations are no place for an earl’s daughter.

Lilly leaves with a carpetbag and goes out to earn her own place in the world, armed only with determination and those driving and mechanical skills that cost so dear. She sells her jewels to pay for her parents’ cruelty to the man who taught her.

A young woman set on a course to do her duty to her country, she intends to help with the skills that she has. The Army recruits women ambulance drivers, and she serves in France under horrific conditions. But there she is reunited with the two men who have been steadfast in their belief that she can be whatever she wants to be if she just keeps trying; her brother Edward, and Edward’s best friend, Robbie Fraser.

When she was Lady Elizabeth, Robbie was considered unsuitable for her. He’s a Scot who made it into university on scholarship and is supporting himself as a surgeon. As a professional man, her family considers him barely more than a tradesman. But for Lilly the independent woman, Robbie is the only man who knows who she really is and loves her for herself.

If he can just get over who she used to be, and what the war has done to them both.

Escape Rating A: This is a fantastic book to start the year with. Absolutely stunning.

Lilly starts the story as a bird in a gilded cage. You can feel her beating her wings against the bars; she wants out, but she’s letting herself be made smaller and smaller every day. Then the war (and an opportune visit from Robbie) kicks her into realizing that she can make a difference if she’s willing to step outside the box that her parents are determined to put her in.

Once she decides to start taking what to 21st century readers seem like reasonable risks (learning to drive, writing letters to friends) Lilly really starts to blossom. She doesn’t whine, she gets down to work.

We see the war from Lilly’s perspective as an ambulance driver. Think of MASH only with less developed surgical techniques and 30 years fewer medical advances. In other words, more death. Lilly drove the wounded through a nightmarish “No Man’s Land” day after torturous day, yet still kept on, because it was the best way she could contribute.

That a romance flourishes at all under these circumstances is both amazing and not surprising at all. The urge to find a spark of life amidst all that death seems natural, but Lilly finds Robbie at an Aid station, and they move haltingly beyond friendship. Robbie has an impossible time believing that they have any future, and there is often heartbreak.

The portrayal of the woman rising beyond everything her society believed possible of her is a terrific read. If you enjoy Downton Abbey, you will fall in love Somewhere in France.

And if you get caught up in Lilly’s wartime escapades, you may also enjoy Bess Crawford. Bess is a nurse in France in this war. Her first story is A Duty to the Dead.

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

 

***FTC Disclaimer: Most books reviewed on this site have been provided free of charge by the publisher, author or publicist. Some books we have purchased with our own money or borrowed from a public library and will be noted as such. Any links to places to purchase books are provided as a convenience, and do not serve as an endorsement by this blog. All reviews are the true and honest opinion of the blogger reviewing the book. The method of acquiring the book does not have a bearing on the content of the review.

Review: Forgiving Lies by Molly McAdams

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | B Reviews> blog tours> book reviews
Forgiving Lies by Molly McAdamsFormat read: ebook provided by Edelweiss
Formats available: ebook, paperback
Genre: Romantic Suspense; New Adult Romance
Series: Forgiving Lies, #1
Length: 371 pages
Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks
Date Released: October 29, 2013
Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Publisher’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Book Depository

A matter of secrets …

Undercover cop Logan “Kash” Ryan can’t afford a distraction like his new neighbor Rachel Masters, even if she’s the most beautiful woman he’s ever seen. To catch a serial killer, he needs to stay focused, yet all he can think about is the feisty, long-legged coed whose guarded nature intrigues him.

A matter of lies …

Deceived and hurt before, Rachel would rather be a single, crazy cat lady than trust another guy, especially a gorgeous, tattooed bad boy with a Harley, like Kash. But when his liquid-steel eyes meet hers, it takes all of Rachel’s willpower to stop herself from exploring his hot body with her own.

A matter of love …

As much as they try to keep it platonic, the friction between them sparks an irresistible heat that soon consumes them. Can Kash keep Rachel’s heart and her life safe even as he risks his own? Will she be able to forgive his lies … or will she run when she discovers the dangerous truth?

My Review:

I didn’t know that “New Adult Romantic Suspense” was actually a thing. Apparently it is now, because Forgiving Lies definitely is one. Is it EVER!

It’s entirely possible this book should come with a trigger warning. The stuff that happens to Rachel was seriously creepy. For a book that is being marketed as New Adult, very bad shit happens to Rachel, and not just in the past that she is getting over, but within the story itself.

And readers should definitely be warned that this story is not complete. We think we’ve reached a happy ending, and then the rug gets totally pulled out from under us. Forgiving Lies does not end, but stops on a horrifying cliffhanger of the awful suspense type.

Lest anyone think I’m revealing the ending, I don’t feel I am because I don’t feel like I got an ending. I feel like I got left in mid-air, dangling. The next book in the series, Deceiving Lies, won’t be published until March 2014, and I’m biting my nails here.

If you hate hanging off cliffs, wait until the next book. It IS worth the wait.

But about those Forgiving Lies…

There are certainly more than enough of those to go around in this story, and not all of them are actually forgivable.

Kash and Mason are undercover cops in Tampa Bay Florida. When their cover gets blown, they need to lay low and out of town for a while, until the kingpin who has put a price on their heads goes to jail. Their captain sends them to Austin, Texas to work undercover as part of team hunting for a serial killer.

Fortunately, or unfortunately, the women living in the apartment across the hall from them in Austin are Rachel and Candice. This is where everything goes both right and wrong. Candice seems to be a typical bubble-headed, self-centered cheerleader, and Rachel is a woman with too much pain and too many secrets.

Candice and Mason spend the summer as friends-with-benefits, although Mason turns out to be just one of Candice’s many summer playtoys.

But Kash spends the summer not just befriending Rachel, but getting closer to her, even though he knows that he shouldn’t become involved with anyone while he’s undercover.

Rachel’s mixture of pain, vulnerability, bravery and beauty is more than he can resist. When he finally discovers the nature of the ordeal that she’s been through, he vows to protect her in any way that she’ll let him.

He can’t stop himself from falling in love with her, even though he knows there’s a risk that she’ll run when he reveals that he’s been deceiving her the whole summer.

The real surprise is that Kash and Logan’s case has been about Rachel all along.

Escape Rating B: There are some terrific things about this story that made it well worth reading for me. And then there were other factors that drove me insane.

The love story between Kash and Rachel is both heart-warming and sexy. It’s not the typical good girl takes a walk on the wild side, or bad boy is reformed by sweet girl, in spite of what the book summary might lead you to believe. Kash is a cop who enjoys working undercover. He may look like a bad boy, but he is definitely a hero.

Rachel is a strong young woman who is hiding an intense amount of damage. Her parents were killed in an accident and she has never dealt with the grief. Then she was nearly raped by someone she knew and no one believes her. Even worse, her supposed best friend thinks she’s lying and believes her attacker. In fact, she set up the attack, and continues to enable Rachel’s attacker.

Rachel is being stalked by her attacker, and she is certain that no one will believe her. That’s where Kash enters her life.

Even though he doesn’t reveal that he’s a cop, he does reveal himself. And he finally convinces Rachel to do most of the same.

She hides the name of her stalker/attacker, because she doesn’t want Kash to kill him. Kash hides that he’s an undercover cop. They’re pretty even on secrets, and those secrets nearly get Rachel and everyone she loves killed.

The problem character in this story is Rachel’s roommate and supposed best friend, Candice. While I can understand that Candice might believe the best of her cousin, and he’s the man who attacks Rachel in the beginning of the book, what I can’t understand is either her self-centered attitude or Rachel’s willingness to tolerate it. Candice repeatedly locks Rachel out of their entire apartment for the entire night whenever she has a hookup. The entire night! Candice demonstrates a constant disregard for Rachel’s feelings and well-being except when it’s convenient for Candice. Candice’s behavior and attitude result in Rachel’s original attack and assists with the stalking. According to the story, they have BFFs since grade school, but it seems to only go one way.

Kash and Rachel’s love story is wonderful. Kash’s cop buddy Mason is a terrific friend to both of them (and I hope he gets his own story!) But there’s that cliffhanger that steals the ending of the story. There should have been a huge warning label for that.

TLC
This post is part of a TLC book tour. Click on the logo for more reviews.
***FTC Disclaimer: Most books reviewed on this site have been provided free of charge by the publisher, author or publicist. Some books we have purchased with our own money or borrowed from a public library and will be noted as such. Any links to places to purchase books are provided as a convenience, and do not serve as an endorsement by this blog. All reviews are the true and honest opinion of the blogger reviewing the book. The method of acquiring the book does not have a bearing on the content of the review.

Review: Foreplay by Sophie Jordan

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | B Reviews> blog tours> book reviews
foreplay by sophie jordanFormat read: ebook provided by Edelweiss
Formats available: Paperback, ebook, audiobook
Genre: Contemporary Romance, New Adult Romance
Series: Ivy Chronicles #1
Length: 305 pages
Publisher: William Morrow
Date Released: November 5, 2013
Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Publisher’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Book Depository

Pepper has been hopelessly in love with her best friend’s brother, Hunter, for like ever. He’s the key to everything she’s always craved: security, stability, family. But she needs Hunter to notice her as more than just a friend. Even though she’s kissed exactly one guy, she has just the plan to go from novice to rock star in the bedroom—take a few pointers from someone who knows what he’s doing.

Her college roommates have the perfect teacher in mind. But bartender Reece is nothing like the player Pepper expects. Yes, he’s beyond gorgeous, but he’s also dangerous, deep—with a troubled past. Soon what started as lessons in attraction are turning both their worlds around, and showing just what can happen when you go past foreplay and get to what’s real…

My Review:

The “lessons in love” trope is a classic for good reason. Exploring the depths of passion, particularly for the first time, makes it all to easy for someone to be swept away by emotion. And teaching someone to find their passion makes for a very powerful bond. Or more simply, it is difficult to make love without feeling at least a little love.

In Sophie Jordan’s Foreplay, the two people learning that lesson are Pepper and Reece. Although this is a New Adult romance, the situation is a bit unusual because while Pepper is 19 and in college, Reece is 23 and managing his family’s bar.

Part of the “new adult” romance flavor is that the protagonists, while older than in young adult books, are at the point in their lives where they are making the kind of decisions that will affect their whole lives.

Also that they’re on their own and having sex. But we’ll get to that in a minute.

Reece is almost outside the trope. He’s been forced to take on the full set of adult responsibilities at a very young age. His mother died when he was young, his father was abusive and then became handicapped as the result of an auto accident, and Reece raised his younger brother. Now he manages the bar full-time. His ability to make mistakes and do things over is pretty limited. He’s already supporting his family.

The one thing he does that puts him in the frame for this story is agree to help Pepper learn how to snare the young man she thinks she’s always loved. Reece agrees to be the experienced man who will give her lessons in how to flirt and participate in romantic foreplay, because she’s totally clueless.

He already wants her for himself, and can’t figure out how any guy could have overlooked her for as many years as she says the guy she is pining for has. But he decides to take what he can get, even if actual sex isn’t part of the picture.

Part of what Pepper is eventually planning to give the guy of her dreams is her virginity.

About those dreams of Pepper’s. Well, she and Reece are a pair, because her childhood had even less security in it than his did, and that’s what this is all about. Her dream of marrying Hunter Montgomery isn’t about the guy so much as it is about the package deal. She wants to be part of a secure family, because she never had one of her own.

Her addict mother dropped her off at her grandmother senior apartment facility when she was 11 because mom couldn’t protect her from the low-life scum she used in order to buy her next fix any longer.

Hunter, his sister Lila and their parents lived next door. They seemed like the perfect family. Pepper fell for that and she’s been dreaming about it ever since. When Hunter breaks up with his girlfriend, Pepper sees her chance, but doesn’t know how to go about it. That’s where Reece comes in.

So to speak.

But the sweetness in their relationship is that as soon as Pepper and Reece start dancing around each other, it is a real relationship. Even though Pepper is upfront that it’s practice for someone else, and Reece says he accepts that, she can’t resist the pull of a man who really sees her and is there for her, just as she is.

She’s pretty but also shy and serious and bookish. She’s gotten a ton of student loans in order to go to college, and she works at least two jobs. She’s careful and worries about a lot of things, and she has nightmares about the past. She’s afraid of being abandoned because it happened. Reece sees the real Pepper.

And once Hunter sees that another guy is interested in Pepper, Hunter sees her too. Now Reece has to figure out what, and who, she really wants.

Escape Rating B+: I adore the “lessons in love” type story, and it was particularly well done in Foreplay. Pepper’s social awkwardness makes sense for her character, and I could understand why she felt the way she did about wanting to be smoother and more practiced with guys.

It was obvious from the story that Pepper wasn’t really in love with Hunter. It took her an incredible amount of time to figure it out for herself, but it was pretty clear from the beginning. She fell for Reece a bit quickly, but she wasn’t really ever in love with Hunter. She wanted the security he represented, and that made complete sense.

The love scenes between Pepper and Reece were more than hot. They also did a fantastic job of conveying how she got swept away by what she was feeling, and that it was the first time she felt those incredible sensations. It was all too easy for the reader to get swept right along with her!

Pepper’s roommates were terrific friends and wingwomen! I hope that we get their stories in later books in The Ivy Chronicles.

TLC
This post is part of a TLC book tour. Click on the logo for more reviews.
***FTC Disclaimer: Most books reviewed on this site have been provided free of charge by the publisher, author or publicist. Some books we have purchased with our own money or borrowed from a public library and will be noted as such. Any links to places to purchase books are provided as a convenience, and do not serve as an endorsement by this blog. All reviews are the true and honest opinion of the blogger reviewing the book. The method of acquiring the book does not have a bearing on the content of the review.

Review: Finding It by Cora Carmack

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | blog tours> book reviews
finding it by cora carmackFormat read: ebook provided by Edelweiss
Formats available: ebook, paperback, audiobook
Genre: New Adult romance, Contemporary romance
Series: Losing It #3
Length: 323 pages
Publisher: William Morrow & Company
Date Released: October 15, 2013
Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Publisher’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Book Depository

Sometimes you have to lose yourself to find where you truly belong…

Most girls would kill to spend months traveling around Europe after college graduation with no responsibility, no parents, and no-limit credit cards. Kelsey Summers is no exception. She’s having the time of her life . . . or that’s what she keeps telling herself.

It’s a lonely business trying to find out who you are, especially when you’re afraid you won’t like what you discover. No amount of drinking or dancing can chase away Kelsey’s loneliness, but maybe Jackson Hunt can. After a few chance meetings, he convinces her to take a journey of adventure instead of alcohol. With each new city and experience, Kelsey’s mind becomes a little clearer and her heart a little less hers. Jackson helps her unravel her own dreams and desires. But the more she learns about herself, the more Kelsey realizes how little she knows about Jackson.

My Review:

losing it by cora carmackFinding It felt a bit loosely connected to the first two books in this series, Losing It and Faking It (reviewed here and here).

That seems kind of right, because at the beginning of the story, Kelsey Summers is only loosely connected to pretty much everything; reality, sobriety, safety, her own sense of identity and self-worth.

The ruin bar in Budapest where the story really begins is a metaphor for Kelsey’s life. She feels ruined and she’s working hard towards making the outside match the inside, even if that isn’t what she thinks she’s doing.

She thinks she’s collecting adventures by spending her way across Europe using her Daddy’s platinum American Express card. What she’s really doing is anesthetizing herself so that she doesn’t feel any pain.

Until Jackson Hunt swoops in and helps her stumble away from the Euro-trash flavor-of-the-night, but doesn’t take her anywhere except back to the hostel where she’s deliberately slumming it.

His departure, after taking care of her but not taking care of what they obviously both want, leaves her unsettled enough to want to see him again. Both fortunately and unfortunately for Kelsey, Jackson turns up just when she needs another rescue.

But this time he decides to stick around, since she seems to be making a habit of requiring his services. Except he’s not providing the services she definitely wants, the kind that make her forgot herself in a stranger’s arms and body for a night at a time.

Kelsey feels broken, and Jackson tries to help her pull herself together, without adding the sexual relationship they both want into the mix. It’s better if Kelsey finds a piece of herself before she tries to give any more of herself away to anyone else.

Even the man who might come to love her.

Because Jackson Hunt has already been where Kelsey is, even if he doesn’t know exactly what brought her there. He knows exactly what he’s protecting her from.

Particularly since her father paid him to be her bodyguard. Becoming her lover has totally screwed everything up. Especially Kelsey.

Escape Rating B+: On the one hand, the love story between Jackson and Kelsey is both very moving and very hot. You not only follow their adventure across Europe, you follow the push-pull of their intense attraction and his resistance and you want them to figure out a way to make things work.

On that other hand, Jackson’s secret in particular is screamingly obvious. While it becomes apparent through the story that Kelsey’s parents’ reasons for hiring a bodyguard may not have been totally pure, there’s no question in the reader’s mind that she needed some kind of safety net. She had totally stopped even minimally minding her own safety. She’d stopped caring about her future, any future. Jackson stepped in not just to keep her from drinking herself to death, but to keep her from getting beaten, raped, drugged or a whole lot of other bad things.

Kelsey was deliberately looking for friends in the lowest places she could find.

At first, it does seem like Kelsey is a whiny and bitchy little rich girl, pissing and moaning about the safe country-club lifestyle she doesn’t want to go back to, but also refusing to let go of daddy’s Amex. It’s only as Kelsey starts to reveal herself to Jackson that we figure out just what is going on. Or went on.

It’s not difficult to guess what Kelsey’s trauma is. The only questions are who the perpetrator was and what happened afterwards. Kelsey’s pain resides much more in the aftermath than the original event. And that totally makes sense.

faking it by cora carmackKelsey, like Bliss in Losing It and Cade in Faking It, trained as an actor. She uses her training to cover up whatever she really feels, to the point where the mask has become the only face she shows the world. Jackson forces her to really feel her own emotions, and then she discovers that everything they had was a lie.

But Kelsey has finally found either her courage, or her true self.

Jackson doesn’t save Kelsey after all. But he helped her build enough tools that she was able to save herself.

TLC
This post is part of a TLC book tour. Click on the logo for more reviews.
***FTC Disclaimer: Most books reviewed on this site have been provided free of charge by the publisher, author or publicist. Some books we have purchased with our own money or borrowed from a public library and will be noted as such. Any links to places to purchase books are provided as a convenience, and do not serve as an endorsement by this blog. All reviews are the true and honest opinion of the blogger reviewing the book. The method of acquiring the book does not have a bearing on the content of the review.

Review: Faking It by Cora Carmack

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | A Reviews> book reviews
faking it by cora carmackFormat read: print book provided by the publisher
Formats available: Paperback, ebook, audiobooks
Genre: New Adult Romance
Series: Losing It #2
Length: 304 pages
Publisher: William Morrow & Company
Date Released: June 4, 2013
Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Publisher’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Book Depository

Mackenzie “Max” Miller has a problem. Her parents have arrived in town for a surprise visit, and if they see her dyed hair, tattoos, and piercings, they just might disown her. Even worse, they’re expecting to meet a nice, wholesome boyfriend, not a guy named Mace who has a neck tattoo and plays in a band. All her lies are about to come crashing down around her, but then she meets Cade.

Cade moved to Philadelphia to act and to leave his problems behind in Texas. So far though, he’s kept the problems and had very little opportunity to take the stage. When Max approaches him in a coffee shop with a crazy request to pretend to be her boyfriend, he agrees to play the part. But when Cade plays the role a little too well, they’re forced to keep the ruse going. And the more they fake the relationship, the more real it begins to feel.

My Review:

This is a marvelous story about how being oh so wrong can turn into being oh so right.

What makes both Cade and Max interesting is that they are both faking it in the beginning of the story. Max is totally faking who she is, and Cade is faking what he feels. so even though they don’t look like they fit, they actually do fit, in a weird way. Because they both really need to learn to stop. Sort of.

Cade Winston is an actor, so he needs to at least learn when he’s faking. After all, faking is his job. He has to be good at it. But he has to stop pretending to himself. All that’s doing is making him depressed.

losing it by cora carmackHe has to get past losing Bliss. And is there ever a metaphor in there. Because the Bliss that Cade lost was a person and not a state of being and absolutely not his to lose. (That story is in Losing It, reviewed here) Bliss Edwards has moved on, and Cade has to, too.

Max Miller keeps pretending to her parents that she isn’t a musician in New York City. When she visits home, she covers up her tattoos and her piercings and acts like the pretentious upper-crust society woman they think they know, instead of the musician and songwriter she really is. They think that marriage and membership in the country club is the only proper future. That is the opposite of Max, but they don’t see it.

They can’t see that Max believes that she should have been the one who died in the accident that killed her sister Alex. That Max feels unworthy and that every time they belittle or disregard her choices, they make her feel less worthy.

Only her music makes her feel alive. Until she needs a fake boyfriend who does not look or act like the tattooed drummer currently sponging off her that passes for her real boyfriend.

Cade has just said goodbye to Bliss and her boyfriend, the man who will ask Bliss to marry him. Cade’s dreams are over. Max, finding herself in the middle of a surprise visit by her parents, sucks him into her need for a fake boyfriend, and he acts the part. Cade’s an actor, he does it well.

Her parents love him. And he feels like Max is the sparkliest thing in his universe. For a few minutes, he totally forgets Bliss.

Max has herself a fake boyfriend for as long as she needs one to convince her parents that she has not sold herself to Satan. Because she hasn’t. She isn’t doing anything wrong except choosing music over convention.

Cade needs Max to knock his overly conventional universe off its axis for a while. And Max needs Cade not just to look conventional, but to provide her with just the tiniest bit of stability in her otherwise chaotic life.

And to be her fake boyfriend. Until neither of them is faking anything.

Escape Rating A-: Faking It has more depth than Losing It, and it felt like a more involving story. I also found the characters more believable than in the first story. Unlike Garrett in Losing It, Cade does not have the patience of a saint and gets angry at Max when he should. He also loses heart when things go against him. Garrett was too good to ring true. Cade may look too perfect but thankfully he doesn’t act that way.

It’s the story of Max putting on her “big girl panties” and dealing with a whole lot of awfully bad stuff. She doesn’t want to hurt or disappoint her parents, but at the same time, she’s past the point where she can live with herself if she lets them decide her life for her. It takes a lot of courage to chose an unexpected path.

There are no villains here. Max’s parents aren’t bad parents. They are just scared. They lost one daughter to tragedy, so they try to protect the other by keeping to paths they believe are safe. Their choices are misguided but not evil.

On the other hand, sister-in-law Bethany may just be the spawn of Satan that Max says she is.

***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 Question of Honor by Charles Todd

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | A Reviews> book reviews
A Question of Honor by Bess CrawfordFormat read: ebook provided by Edelweiss
Formats available: ebook, hardcover, large print paperback, audiobook
Genre: Historical mystery
Series: Bess Crawford, #5
Length: 322 pages
Publisher: William Morrow
Date Released: August 27, 2013
Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Publisher’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Book Depository

In the latest mystery from New York Times bestselling author Charles Todd, World War I nurse and amateur sleuth Bess Crawford investigates an old murder that occurred during her childhood in India, a search for the truth that will transform her and leave her pondering a troubling question: How can facts lie?

Bess Crawford enjoyed a wondrous childhood in India, where her father, a colonel in the British Army, was stationed on the Northwest Frontier. But an unforgettable incident darkened that happy time. In 1908, Colonel Crawford’s regiment discovered that it had a murderer in its ranks, an officer who killed five people in India and England yet was never brought to trial. In the eyes of many of these soldiers, men defined by honor and duty, the crime was a stain on the regiment’s reputation and on the good name of Bess’s father, the Colonel Sahib, who had trained the killer.

A decade later, tending to the wounded on the battlefields of France during World War I, Bess learns from a dying Indian sergeant that the supposed murderer, Lieutenant Wade, is alive—and serving at the Front. Bess cannot believe the shocking news. According to reliable reports, Wade’s body had been seen deep in the Khyber Pass, where he had died trying to reach Afghanistan. Soon, though, her mind is racing. How had he escaped from India? What had driven a good man to murder in cold blood?

Wanting answers, she uses her leave to investigate. In the village where the first three killings took place, she discovers that the locals are certain that the British soldier was innocent. Yet the present owner of the house where the crime was committed believes otherwise, and is convinced that Bess’s father helped Wade flee. To settle the matter once and for all, Bess sets out to find Wade and let the courts decide.

But when she stumbles on the horrific truth, something that even the famous writer Rudyard Kipling had kept secret all his life, she is shaken to her very core. The facts will damn Wade even as they reveal a brutal reality, a reality that could have been her own fate.

My Review:

The “honor” that is questioned in this story is the honor of the regiment that Bess Crawford’s father, Colonel Richard Crawford, commanded in India in 1908, even though that is now 10 years in the past and England is fighting the Great War in Europe instead of defending the Raj in India. The events of 1908 still cast a pall over the Crawfords and Simon Brandon, the Colonel’s loyal Regimental Sergeant-Major and right-hand man.

In 1908, Lieutenant Thomas Wade was accused of murdering 3 people in England while on leave, then murdering his own parents after returning to India. He was never convicted because he ran away from the military police before he could be bound over for court martial. His body was never recovered, but was reported found over the Afghan border.

It was a disgrace for the Regiment. It was also bewildering in the extreme. Neither the “Colonel Sahib” nor Sergeant-Major Brandon could remember anything about the man they had trained and trusted that marked him as a murderer. But Wade was convicted by his own actions. And there it ended. The British Army did not believe it worth risking lives going into the “no man’s land” to retrieve the corpse of a presumed killer.

Until 1918, when an Indian soldier found Nurse Bess Crawford at an aid station in France and told her that he’d seen Lieutenant Wade serving in the British Army. Then the Indian soldier died, having raked the ashes of the dead past into life again.

Bess, being Bess (if you haven’t read her previous adventures, start with A Duty to the Dead) can’t let it go. But she doesn’t want to worry her parents with it unless it can be proved to actually be something, so she starts with Brandon, as usual. And she uses her home leaves to start investigating the original crime back home.

What Bess discovers is that absolutely nothing is as she originally thought it was. At the heart of this case is an unspeakable crime, and that there, but for the grace of God, went she. And lastly, that the so-called “correct” thing to do and the honorable thing to do may not be the same thing, after all.

Escape Rating A-: Bess is interesting because she does things rather than sitting around and waiting for things to happen to her; she is particularly compelling to watch because she chose a life of doing things at a time when many women of her class did not so choose; she is a trained nurse at a time when most upper middle class women went to parties and waited to get married.

Although it may seem that her mother is a professional spouse, it becomes obvious over the course of the series that there is a whole lot of profession in that spousing. Mrs. Crawford “followed the drum” and went where her husband was posted. She didn’t sit idly about either, she seems to have kept the English colony running on an even keel wherever they went, and she continues to keep track of the families of all the men who served in the Regiment.

There is a mystery, but this story (and the series) isn’t about the mystery. It’s about the experience. Bess’ perspective as a battlefield nurse in World War I is absolutely fascinating, and the descriptions of conditions in the hospitals both in France and the rehabilitation hospitals back home are intensely detailed. You are there to the point of stomach-churning. War is hell.

It’s ironic that the mystery isn’t about the war, it’s about the peace before the war. Lots of people took advantage of Lieutenant Wade, and no one did a proper investigation. Cui bono? Who benefits? Who benefitted then, and who benefits in 1918?

The answers are a surprise. What makes the story so compelling is that Bess always learns something about herself when she looks into things for someone else. And even when she doesn’t like the answers, she keeps right on looking, no matter what she finds or what trouble she turns 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 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.